Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two is a masterstroke of bleak, fantasy world-building that continues to translate Frank Herbert’s source material into a rousing epic. A genuine feat of adaptation and engineering that captures the very spirit of the novel’s overwhelmingly strange mythos and whetted knottiness, Dune: Part Two is sci-fi at its finest and most tragic. Minor spoilers ahead…

Don’t Worry Darling, Olivia Wilde’s thoroughly mediocre followup to her 2019 directorial debut Booksmart, is buoyed by its dazzling below-the-line craft and a handful of electric performances. Florence Pugh and Chris Pine shine with arresting magnetism, but their contributions are mostly illusory: This story of a concealed malevolence lurking underneath a patriarchal “paradise” is, unfortunately, only skin deep. Minor spoilers ahead…

Star power and the best street-level action this side of The Winter Soldier do a lot of the heavy lifting for the long-awaited, long-overdue Black Widow. Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh shine in Natasha Romanoff’s solo outing, but in the wake of Avengers: Endgame, it all feels a little inconsequential and oddly timed; what should be a moving swan song and a passing of the baton instead feels like a fleeting adventure straight out of the MCU’s early days. Nevertheless, Black Widow will delight fans of the character while simultaneously paving a bright future for the mantle. Minor spoilers ahead…

Midsommar, a harrowing tale of grief steeped in uncomfortable folk horror, is a confident and gut-wrenching sophomore effort from director Ari Aster. With his second feature-length film, Aster proves that Hereditary was no fluke, and solidifies himself as a new master of squirm-inducing terror. Florence Pugh absolutely owns the role of Dani Ardor with a breathtaking performance, and cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski directs some of the most beautifully disturbing imagery seen in cinema this year. Minor spoilers ahead…