Experimenting with a non-narrative film structure and theoretical subject matter is boldly exciting. But does it have to be so difficult to understand?

A revenge-centered Viking life is inherently brutal, but the fighting and killing is so bloody and embellished that the film becomes a gratuitous orgy of masculine fantasy instead of the darkly psychological epic it tries to be.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a perplexing and stirring tale of one woman's journey of identity.

Recently we've seen a number of new films proudly devoted to boring portrayals of masculinity in their most predictable and stereotypical forms. At least All the Old Knives tries to offer a portrayal of masculinity that's more intelligent and thoughtful.

The Algerian-born designer Yves Saint Laurent once said, "Fashions fade, but style is eternal." And when talking about film, few directors have a style as distinct and as magical as Wes Anderson.

Last Night in Soho is a psychological suspense film centered on young cheerful Eloise, played by an innocent Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit, 2019), who moves from a remote England town to current day London for university. Through her mysterious gift for visions, and her one-bedroom apartment, Eloise is transported every night to the 1960s living the life of an aspiring singer who encounters predatory men and murder. Like a contemporary Alice in Wonderland, being transported to a glamorous nightlife is addictive at first for the sheltered ingenue. But when the nightlife gets dangerous, this other woman's past starts to haunt our heroine's present, blurring the lines dividing reality and fantasy.

Frank Herbert wrote the novel Dune and had it published in 1965. It became a famous science-fiction story and has been adapted for the screen twice; first as a feature film in 1984 and then as a TV miniseries in 2000. This third adaptation of Dune, from French Canadian director Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, 2015), is an adventurous science-fiction spectacle showing fully realized alien worlds that completely transport you. (Geometric spacecrafts float gracefully through the air, and monolithic stone buildings tower above the natural landscape.) But this film is not just about cool visual effects.

Since No Time to Die is the 26th James Bond film released, it's probably not a wise idea expecting this film to reinvent the wheel of this action sub-genre adapted from the characters created in Ian Fleming's novels. Viewers know this wheel and can happily identify the spokes comprising the wheel. Some of the more obvious spokes of the James Bond films are beautifully seductive women, shown here with actress Ana de Armas (Knives Out, 2018), futuristic technology with cars and jets, James Bond visiting exotic locations and an engagingly psychopathic villain.

Oscar-nominated director and writer Paul Schrader (First Reformed, 2017) loves telling stories of misfortune that happen to specifically unglamorous people largely abandoned by the world. (Paul Schrader wrote the enduring and provocative screenplays for both Taxi Driver and The Last Temptation of Christ.) In The Card Counter, a modern-day tragedy of exile and redemption shows viewers that some people cannot avoid revenge forever.