Norm of the North a monumentally insipid misfire that’s proof that agreeing with the filmmakers’ point-of-view doesn’t mean one is going to enjoy the resulting motion picture, and parents taking their kids to watch this one better watch out for social services because buying them a ticket might be akin to a form of child abuse.

I don’t know what to make of 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi other than to say it is as troublesome as it is impressive; and while I respect the director choosing to go out on this particular limb that doesn’t mean I believe he was the right person to undertake the job of doing so.

Cherry Tree is the pits, and there’s little more to say other than that.

If only The Forest wanted to be more than it is, attempted to explore the more interesting interpersonal emotional tangents it continually hints at wanting to look at yet infuriatingly never does, then maybe it could have been something glorious. Instead, the film feels more like an expertly crafted missed opportunity, a suspense opus filled with some solidly intriguing ideas that for some reason it refuses to investigate.

[45 Years] is a tale with no heroes, no villains, just one filled with life, loss, understanding and, most of all, love, Kate and Geoff’s journey towards their anniversary party as universal and as human as any that has ever graced the screen.

As handsomely composed as Concussion (2015) is, there is a rudimentary staleness difficult to get beyond, the film never rising to the same heights as 2015’s other major procedural, Tom McCarthy’s close to brilliant Spotlight.

Daddy’s Home is too inconsequential and slight to matter, the fact it does so little with its primary female character only augmenting my feelings on this front a substantial amount. Ferrell and Wahlberg remain a potent comedy team; I just hope the next time they join forces it’s in a better movie than this one ultimately, and sadly, proves itself to be.

If American Hustle was Russell’s Martin Scorsese meets Sidney Lumet movie, than Joy is where he’s stomping into Billy Wilder meets Preston Sturges meet Robert Altman territory with gleeful conviction. A sprawling cast of characters, over-the-top narrative arcs, larger-than-life bursts of emotional exuberance, a cacophony of voices strung together like a symphonic operetta, the director is reaching for the stars in much the same way as his protagonist is.

Both a celebration of the human spirit as well as an emotional wallop as patriarchal prejudices conspire to deprive five sisters of their seemingly unbreakable familial bond, this is a remarkably prescient story that feels as if it were ripped from the headlines, it’s last moments darn near close to perfect.