Zhao is an inherently intimate filmmaker, although Nomadland approaches that intimacy in different ways. The film is at its most effective when it is exploring the nomads surrounding Fern: as arresting as McDormand is, there is a greater power to the non-actors who populate the rest of her world, as it more firmly places us in her shoes as she meets new people and takes in new surroundings. Fern’s own story is intimate, but the recognizability of McDormand and Strathairn…

Without knowing the specific provenance of this project, it feels like an old script dusted off to be hastily updated to reflect a more intersectional era of feminism, without doing the work necessary to make that track. There’s a clear effort to cast diversely outside of the lead, but none of those characters are given actual story arcs to go along with the fleeting moments of articulation the script affords them, and the movie manages to be 15 minutes too…

Happiest Season is a handsomely-made film, featuring a collection of performances that I mostly liked and a number of moments that resonate.

It is also, narratively speaking, a collection of unforced errors from which it never recovers.

My reaction—and the reaction of my remote viewing party—to the film’s story is a common one, based on the discourse I’ve seen: I wanted better for Abby (Kristen Stewart) than a girlfriend (MacKenzie Davis’ Harper) who traps her in a terrible situation, and…

Tomorrowland is designed to pull you in. Not unlike the "commercial" for the place that gives Casey a glimpse of a future of endless possibilities, it has a propulsive energy that wants us to come along for the ride. Athena offers a clear spark (Raffey Cassidy is sharp as hell in this role), Clooney gives Frank Walker a nice balance of surface-level cynicism burying lost purpose, and Britt Robertson makes the script's sometimes overbearing thesis about hope and optimism into…