Caitlin Cronenberg’s assured directorial debut Humane begins with the planet plagued by ecological disaster. After decades of ignoring the warnings of scientists, society is battling the threat of its own extinction. Erratic weather patterns are commonplace. A scarcity of food and water has led to strict rations. Curfews abound. The …

Before Rudy Mancuso wrote, directed, starred in and composed the music for his stylish debut feature, Música, he made exuberant short-form videos for Vine (R.I.P). In those six-second clips, many of which are compiled on YouTube, the artist experiments with slapstick comedy, an energetic editing style and bouncy compositions that …

Kobi Libii’s debut feature The American Society of Magical Negroes starts on a promising note. Aren, a spindly and awkward artist (an endearing Justice Smith) loiters near a yarn sculpture in a gallery. He seems lost in the sea of roving patrons and bustling waiters. It takes a second for …

AlleyCatz, an unassuming bowling alley in a fictional California town, isn’t compelling to passersby or potential customers from the outside. The venue run by Mozell (Sister Sister’s Jackée Harry) has a drab brick exterior, a monument to the sad architecture of suburban shopping centers. It doesn’t offer much when you …

The Idea of You, the new romantic comedy from Michael Showalter (The Big Sick), begins like many of the best in its genre: a meet-cute so silly it endears.  This one happens in a trailer that Solene (a delightful Anne Hathaway) confuses for a restroom during Coachella. The almost-40-year-old divorcée …

When Ben DeBacker (Corey Fogelmanis), the nonbinary protagonist of Tommy Dorfman’s charming directorial debut I Wish You All the Best, decides to come out to their parents, the results are disastrous. The conversation is rendered in flashes, adding a suspenseful layer to the melancholic moment. We see Ben reviewing notes …

The details of American politics do not concern Alex Garland in Civil War. Despite the controversy it’s already courted about its supposed prescience, the unsettling feature from the British filmmaker doesn’t predict a future based on the country’s current two-party system. Garland is far more interested in the United States’ …

When the police stop the young woman on her way to the convent in the Italian countryside, they wonder why such a person would choose to become a nun. As they rummage through her luggage — a search conducted because she has no return ticket — they ask, in English, if …

The protagonist of David Leitch’s entertaining new action-comedy The Fall Guy doesn’t have many complaints about life as a stuntman. Sure, he does most of the hard work for half the recognition, but Colt Seavers (an ace Ryan Gosling) gets hype about jumping out of helicopters, diving off balconies and …

The fictional underground fight club in Dev Patel’s erratic directorial debut feature Monkey Man looks like many others: a dilapidated space crowded with bodies thrusting fistfuls of cash in the air while hurling insults at their least favorite contender. No amount of harsh overhead lighting can shake the shadowy atmosphere …

There are many rituals in Dawn (Michelle Buteau) and Eden’s (Ilana Glazer) decades-long friendship, but the most important one happens on Thanksgiving morning. The best friends of Pamela Adlon’s charming feature Babes meet on that day every year to watch a movie. It can be any film, at any theater. …

Everyone in Kyle Hausmann-Stokes’ compassionate feature My Dead Friend Zoe has suffered a loss. Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green), a nervous Afghanistan war veteran, is reeling from the death of her closest friend in combat. Dr. Cole (Morgan Freeman), the supervisor of the court-mandated therapy sessions Merit must attend, grieves absences in …