Toward the end of A Star Is Born, one character says to another, “Music is essentially 12 notes between any octave - 12 notes and the octave repeat. It's the same story told over and over, forever. All any artist can offer this world is how they see those 12 notes. That's it.” It’s a line of dialogue from the third remake of the film (fourth if you count 1932’s What Price Hollywood?). This particular remake has been in the works for a few years now, initially with Clint Eastwood attached to direct and with Beyoncé to star at various points. Every couple of decades, this film seems to get taken down off the shelf and repackaged for a new generation and an artist offers the world how they see that same story told over and over.

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Mandy exists in a world that doesn’t make any sense, and yet it totally works. It’s the kind of film that midnight showings were made for. It’s firmly grounded in the grindhouse exploitation tradition of movie-making. I’ve never done drugs, but I imagine movies like this give a pretty fair approximation of what a bad experience is like. Nicholas Cage, so often a target of criticism and ridicule as a celebrity, has found a movie that matches his craziness and puts it to good use and, frankly, he’s rarely been better. It’s not A Quiet Place or Hereditary in terms of the kind of horror film it is, it has its own unique blend of horror and entertainment going for it. This is an instant cult classic.

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I had hoped that Shane Black would bring an interesting reinvention or sharp new angle to the Predator series of movies. Instead, what we’re treated to is a muddled mess. It’s hard to tell if there was too much studio meddling or if Black is just trying to put too much into this one movie. Either way, The Predator is just the latest example of how not everything should be a franchise.

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Crazy Rich Asians doesn’t seek to reinvent the wheel or tell us a new story. Romance, drama, comedy, horror, these stories have a universal language that transcend language and geographical barriers. What Crazy Rich Asians does is freshen up the formula with new faces at the center and expose us to a culture and way of life that is not typically seen in mainstream Hollywood films except in fish out of water stories.

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For most kids, being a teenager is rough. It’s full of uncomfortable and embarrassing moments, situations, and events. Puberty hits everyone at different stages and there’s the difficult task of starting to figure out how to start being more like an adult with your own distinct identity and everything that entails. Plus, other kids can be unsparingly cruel. The coming of age tale is a well-worn trope in movies, and it seems like every year there is at least one or two that stand out. Few, though, capture the painful awkwardness of this better than Eighth Grade, a terrific indie film from comedian Bo Burnham.

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Sorry To Bother You first popped up on my radar when it was one of the most talked about movies coming out of Sundance. Created by musician and first-time director Boots Riley, I was mainly intrigued by the cast that featured Lakeith Stanfield and Tessa Thompson, two young and promising actors that have emerged over the last few years. The premise of the film also interested me too. It came out locally while I was still away at the Maine International Film Festival, so couldn’t see it until I got back; it was the very first movie I went to post-MIFF and fulfilled and exceeded my expectations for it.

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Everyone talks about how the Fast & Furious franchise remade itself, found its footing after a couple of mediocre sequels, and became a serious box office attraction, but the Mission: Impossible franchise has actually had a similar trajectory. The first film was a successful remake of the classic TV series. The second one faltered a bit. The third one was a step in the right direction and a decent return to form. Ever since, the franchise has excelled. It’s rare that franchises get better as they put our more sequels, but here we are with Mission: Impossible – Fallout, the sixth entry in this Tom Cruise-starring vehicle, is among the best of the series (I’ve got Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation neck and neck).

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For many, many years, Mister Rogers was a staple of PBS and children’s lives in America. I remember watching him as a child growing up in the 80s. He was far from my favorite show as a kid, but there is no denying that he was a distinct part of my childhood. All these years later, even if I can’t remember all the words to the song to “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” I can at least remember the tune, Mister Rogers coming in through the door, changing into his sweater and changing his shoes, the trolley to the neighborhood of make-believe, and then the closing song “It’s Such a Good Feeling.” My experience with Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was limited to my own individual childhood viewing for a few years, and so it was great to get to see Won’t You Be My Neighbor? to gain a greater appreciation for who Fred Rogers was and how radical his show truly was.

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It seems like it gets lost in the shuffle in comparison to all of the other Marvel Cinematic Universe properties, but 2015’s Ant-Man is an easily enjoyable movie. Despite some initial questions about Paul Rudd being tapped to join the MCU, Ant-Man has slid right in alongside all the others in the MCU rather smoothly. In addition to being a superhero flick, it was also a good genre heist movie as well. This time around, it’s more of a straightforward action movie, though still tempered with plenty of comedy.

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I’m a huge sports fan. Growing up in New England, I have gotten to experience more than my fair share of championship teams this century. There is a lot of turnover in sports now, with players switching teams regularly. Every once in a while, a team has an exceptional season and wins a title, but loses some key players through free agency or retirement, and the next year they aren’t terrible, but they just aren’t the same as the year before because they were unable to replace those key players. Some of the elements are there, but there is just too much missing of what made the team great.

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Can God forgive us?

This is half of a question raised in the film First Reformed, words that linger over everything that transpires in this unique concoction from writer/director Paul Schrader. Schrader is most known for being the screenwriter of some of Martin Scorsese’s biggest films: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ. These are provocative films, and First Reformed is also a film that intends to provoke and move the viewer.

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We have a special fascination with dinosaurs. Maybe because their skeletons remained preserved for us to discover them and learn about them. Maybe it is because they were at the top of the food chain on this planet before we were around and we now reside in the spot they once occupied. Maybe because dinosaurs are just cool when you first learn about them as a kid. Whatever the reason, a bestselling book named Jurassic Park was became a blockbuster movie in the 90s. It spawned two sequels that were decidedly less impressive than the original. Three years ago, this franchise, once thought to be extinct, was brought back to life in a hugely successful blockbuster, Jurassic World. Given how Hollywood works, there was no way there wouldn’t be a sequel. And given how, apparently, this franchise works, there was no way that this sequel would not come close to matching the success of its predecessor. And so now we must deal with the dino dropping that is Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

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There are fewer bankable guarantees in film than Pixar productions. Their track record speaks for itself, the Cars franchise notwithstanding (Hey, nobody bats 1.000). It’s hard to believe that it’s been 14 years since The Incredibles came out in 2004. With all of the Pixar films I have enjoyed, The Incredibles remains firmly in my Top 5 for Pixar (In order: Wall-E, Inside Out, Monsters Inc, The Incredibles, and Up.). The Incredibles 2 is the 20th feature film release from Pixar and it more than measures up to the stature of the original.

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If the D+ Cinemascore is any indication, people need to prepare one of two ways for seeing Hereditary. General mainstream audiences tend to have certain expectations of a movie in the horror genre. If a movie is marketed as the best horror movie of the year, that also tends to put certain expectations in people’s minds. And when a horror movie refuses to conform to the generally agreed upon ideas of what a horror movie is supposed to be, audiences tend to reject them. Hereditary is not a mainstream horror movie. In a lot of ways it is a throwback but also its own unique thing. If that is of interest to you, then you need to prepare for an unnerving viewing experience. I thought I was prepared, and I was wrong.

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