Songbird pushes buttons that feel ugly and inappropriate, all of which makes giving the film any sort of fair assessment difficult to do.

The Stand In moves through the motions with a plodding laboriousness that grows increasingly irritating, and almost all of the supporting players are never around long enough to make anything more than a passing impression.

Mank is nothing more than a metaphorical celluloid sled of failed dreams and misguided ambition burning to ash in a fiery furnace fueled by frustratingly combustible emptiness.

There is a breathless sonic majesty to Darius Marder’s superb Sound of Metal that left me a discombobulated mess long after the drama had ended.

Happiest Season is a comfortingly romantic present almost guaranteed to bring its recipient joy, and all things considered in a year overflowing with humbug this small gift of holiday cheer is more than enough to satisfy.

Thanks to the talented cast a lot of the humor worked for me, and as relentlessly energetic as The Croods: A New Age can be, I still spent the majority of my time watching it with a gigantic grin plastered on my face.

While harmless and not altogether without its minor pleasures, Vanguard is instantly forgettable, and if one wants to see Chan at the height of his creative powers I suggest re-watching the original Police Story trilogy instead of this.

2067 is aggressively underwhelming, and even though writer/director Seth Larney makes the most of his limited budget, this is one science fiction adventure I’d rather have avoided going on.

V for Vendetta plays a little differently in 2020 than it did in 2006, that’s for certain.