Steve Jobs (2015) is an exhilarating spellbinder, moving at a fervent pace as it attempts to show genius and all that comes with it – the good, the bad and the decidedly in-between – as intimately as it can. In the end the orchestra being conducted are the audience’s own emotions, Boyle and Sorkin the clever maestros making beautiful music out of them for everyone to enjoy.

The movie is a trick, of that there is no doubt, Schipper’s storytelling precision coupled with cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen’s detailed handheld camerawork beyond impressive. But if it were only this trick, only a visual device utilized to get curious cinemagoers inside the theatre, then the movie would be good, maybe a bit better than that, but not extraordinary, and that is exactly what Victoria (2015) is.

While not perfect, even with an ending that’s far too preordained and contrived than it needs to be, [99 Homes] is still an authentically realized stunner that packs a mean wallop, analyzing the financial crisis and the housing collapse in ways that feel intimately genuine. There is a purity to Nash’s journey that, as difficult and as catastrophic as it might be, is innately universal, and considering we’re in the early stages of a new Presidential contest this unquestionably is a story everyone, everywhere owes it to themselves to hear.

The Final Girls isn’t the first film to utilize a movie-within-a-movie scenario where the main characters discover themselves on the other side of the celluloid screen, but that doesn’t make it any less inventive. Working as both an irreverent, giggly eccentric homage to the ‘80s slasher movie craze as well as a solid little scare flick in its own right, it’s the somewhat surprising poignant maturity and warmth at the center of this lunacy that makes this anarchic hybrid memorable.

Incredibly well made, freakishly evocative and unsettling, this terrifying psychological drama left me so shaken when it was over I was close to aghast as to what it was I had just witnessed. While [Goodnight Mommy] is remarkable, I found I didn’t want to talk about it with anyone let alone write down my thoughts on paper, writer/directors Severin Fialaa and Veronika Franz doing such a grand job scaring my psyche all I really wanted to do was go home, climb into bed in a fetal position and hope I didn’t have nightmares.

Wright has reimagined Barrie’s world, given it a special imprint only he could have manufactured. None of which makes the resulting misfire good, let alone worthwhile, but it does make it fascinating, Pan (2015) the type of fearless failure only a director of consummate skill and vision par excellence could have delivered with such a resounding thud.

Giving a tour de force performance unlike just ab out any other in his career, Gere is the chief reason writer/director Oren Moverman’s (Rampart) latest Time Out of Mind is worthy of a look. A totally immersive descent into invisibility, George is the definition of a lost soul who refuses to admit he’s vanished off of society’s radar.

One cannot watch Deathgasm without thinking that writer/director Jason Lei Howden isn’t just a big time lover of old school, 1980s-style heavy metal, but also a passionate devotee of filmmakers like Tobe Hooper, Sam Raimi, Stuart Gordon, Peter Jackson and Edgar Wright. Not only is his debut a deft, dare I say joyous homage to the music he undoubtedly adores, but it’s a deliciously energetic and gory romp through monster, zombie and demon tropes so rambunctious it’s as if the whole thing was engineered from the start to be a rollicking love letter to the entire genre.

Filled with stellar visuals courtesy of cinematographer Dariusz Wolski (The Walk), production designer Arthur Max (The Counselor) and a passel of exceedingly talented special effects technicians, centered around a funny, personable and altogether human performance from Damon ranking as one of his all-time best, [The Martian’s] 141 minutes breeze by in the blink of an eye, building to a confidently rousing finale that’s simply out of this world.