Life itself slams the viewer against the pavement time and time again almost as if doing so were an Olympic sport.

There’s no way I can come down too harshly on Petrie’s sugar-coated endeavor. While this movie won’t do for Roberts what the director’s Mystic Pizza helped do for her Oscar-winning aunt back in 1988, and while Little Italy won’t prove to be anywhere near as memorable in the long term as that fellow independently produced effort has proven to be, even with an extra large sampling of undercooked melodramatic hooey I find it difficult to find this slice of cheesy romance to be entirely inedible.

While the line between fact and fiction remains hazy, Lizzie is a compelling drama of human desire, oppression, romance and regret I’ll not soon forget.

D’Apolito has made a movie that will introduce the legendary comedy firebrand to a potential new audience of youngsters who will be blown away by her whip-smart brilliance. No joke, Love, Gilda is one of 2018’s best documentaries

Mandy is a bonkers piece of sensationalistic bravado I couldn’t help but adore.

A combination of a fiercely dark comedy, a labyrinthine psychological thriller and marvelously feminine character study analyzing friendship, parenthood, romance, sibling rivalries and heartrending grief in the wake of profound tragedy, A Simple Favor is a pure joy first frame to last.

If not for Thompson’s bravura performance I doubt there’d be a heck of a lot going on here I’d want to spend my time talking about, The Children Act a well-intentioned melodrama whose various bits and pieces are interesting, and far more memorable, than the finished product itself frustratingly proves to be.

All I do know is that The Predator might be one of the more stupefying and frustrating disappointments of 2018, and a big part of me kind of wishes I hadn’t watched it in the first place.

While I can’t say Juliet, Naked will be a motion picture I’ll be talking about all that vociferously come December, I still enjoyed it a fair amount, and for Byrne’s multifaceted effervescence alone I think this musically infectious romantic endeavor is worthy of the purchase of a matinee ticket.