7
Kanato Wolf's Smokin' on the Moon is a bait-and-switch exercise that begins with an anarchist sense of untethered visual chaos and grinds down to a cloying but effective buddy picture.
9
Boots Riley makes a striking directorial debut with his biting, satirical comedy Sorry to Bother You, an absurdist comic gem that starts off playfully odd before pushing you off a cliff with its off-the-wall weirdness.
5
Scythian Lamb is a pointed, but utterly airless, exploration of a topic that Yoshida struggles to mold.
5.5
Attempting to highlight the idea that rumors have real-world consequences for the unlucky ones they concern, The Hungry Lion is a meditation on the effects of schoolyard buzz on one of its victims in a monopolizing, objective manner, which dryly makes its opinions heard through blank, repetitive sermonizing about the ills of the young people.
7.5
In possibly the most dreary film seen in decades, Yue Dong’s The Looming Storm presents an intriguing Chinese noir, set in a town sandwiched between four factories where a man’s obsession brings him to ruin. Bathed in melancholy, Dong crafts a fascinating mystery buttressed by a magnificent performance by Yihong Duan.
6.5
If you can get past the ridiculous CG blood (clearly I can’t), The Age of Blood is an entertaining period piece that proves the time period isn’t just reserved for Japanese and Chinese cinema.
4
Under the Tree just kinda likes to wallow in its unearned misery, and that just bores me. I’d much rather watch Neighbors.
6
Officially formed in 1973 and still doing shows to this day with its original members, The Wynners isn’t a very widely known band outside the members’ native Hong Kong, but there, they will go down in history as one of the most famous and prolific Cantopop groups ever.
5.5
Shot in just eight days, Richard Somes’ Filipino actioner We Will Not Die Tonight evokes a lo-fi version of Walter Hill’s The Warriors, delivering unrelenting violence from the first act that never lets up.
9
The assembled teenage tragedies that populate River's Edge aren't suffering in their nihilistic angst to provide a lesson, however, so much as they are there to exist and envelop you into their dead-end state of mind, living as they do in presumably hazardous proximity to an industrial district that is polluting the rivers that run behind the school from which they frequently skip.
6
The Blood of Wolves is a studied, committed throwback to the blood-soaked, abrasive Yakuza films in the vain of Kinji Fukasaku
6
There exists good intentions behind Harada's want to focus on the plight of Edo women and the disproportionate favoritism of the institution of marriage at the time, but lacking the follow-through and giving into broad populist appeals to entertainment makes these intents inherently shallow.
6
Another Wolfcop benefits from a bigger budget this time around, allowing for more action, more explosions and loads more practical creature effects, including a werecat.
5
The adventure is swallowed up by exhausting attempts at humor that don’t land nearly often enough. In terms of the Marvel films being episodic, Ant-Man and the Wasp is a forgettable mid-season replacement sitcom.
7
Kore-eda remains staunchly pragmatic in laying out this case as to make sure the “correct” lesson is taken away, and that makes the whole exercise falter significantly.
7.5
When it is knee-deep in prowling the ins and outs of the porn industry, the film shines as provocatively as Boogie Nights, but peering past this fun surface confronts you with little to no depth for the avatar doing the prowling.
