Avatar: The Way of Water is the most compassionate blockbuster of our time. A dazzling gallery frame around cinematic technology in the hands of one James Cameron, its wild spectacle, unbelievable detail, and technical wizardry will blast the eyeballs out of your sockets, but its honest and sincere undercurrents just might be its secret weapon. Like its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water is an essential theatrical experience. This film was viewed in IMAX 3D with variable frame rates and reviewed accordingly. Minor spoilers ahead…

The superstar team of Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner, and Janusz Kaminski ripping another one out of the park is the least surprising development at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. The entirety of Spielberg’s being splashed upon the big screen, The Fabelmans sidesteps the treacly sentimentality of your typical autobiography to deliver a moving form of self-therapy: the legendary director’s heart and soul, delivered through his masterful craft. The Fabelmans is Spielberg’s most personal film, and one of the year’s best. Minor spoilers ahead…

Ryan Coogler pulls it out of the fire with the overstuffed, gorgeously wrenching Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. A powerful tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman combined with Marvel myth-making at its most thoughtful, the film admirably attempts to fill an irreparable void left by its star’s untimely passing. Wakanda Forever strikes sometimes delicate, sometimes clumsy balance between an all-caps comic book movie and an intimate tour through the stages of grief. Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, and Tenoch Huerta are the most formidable trifecta Marvel has seen in years. Minor spoilers ahead…

The long-gestating Black Adam, whose association with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson long predates the DC Extended Universe itself, is finally here. Exactly what’s described on its tin, the film never really fulfills Johnson’s hyperbolic overpromise of “changing the hierarchy of power of the DC Universe,” but there’s a fleet charm in its unapologetic goofiness and blunt-force alacrity. An uneven rebuttal of black and white superhero morality, Black Adam successfully — and at times sloppily — juggles its brutality and crowd-pleasing action; it’s a classic superhero team-up in a mixed bag. Minor spoilers ahead…

“The closer you look, the harder you fall.” Park Chan-wook cross-pollinates a police procedural with a swooning, femme fatale romance and it’s every bit as good as you think it will be. Swirling around two lost souls navigating a web of murder, deceit, and desire to desperately cling to their perverse affair, Decision to Leave is a sensual puzzle box — and one of the year’s best films. Tang Wei is sensational. Minor spoilers ahead…

Director Todd Field’s first film in over 16 years, Tár follows a polymath maestro as her career implodes by her own hand. A stark, thorny confrontation of the ego and arrogance that come hand-in-hand with genius, the stunning devolution of Lydia Tár is abetted by one of the great director-actor pairings. Minor spoilers ahead…

Director Martin McDonagh reunites with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in The Banshees of Inisherin, a darkly comedic portrait of an imploding friendship amidst mounting pettiness. Men and their decimated kinships unraveled upon the screen, richly textured and frequently uproarious, it’s McDonagh at his best as he explores evaporating bonds, crushing loneliness, and enmity in grotesque escalation. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are unsurprisingly in top form in what will likely be my favorite film of the year. 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…

A knock-down-drag-out battle of wits within the confines of a hotel room, Zachary Wigon’s Sanctuary is a two-handed chamber piece for the ages. Sexy, twisted, and eager to draw blood, the film explores the whirlwind disintegration of a relationship that slowly chips away at the barriers between fantasy and reality, class and control. One of my favorites of the festival. Minor spoilers ahead…

Welcome to my dispatch from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. As usual, I won’t be writing full reviews of everything I see at the festival, but there are plenty of notable films in this year’s slate that deserve attention. Here are the capsule reviews for 2022’s TIFF: Devotion, The Whale, My Policeman, and Sick. Minor spoilers ahead…

Coverage of TIFF’s Midnight Madness begins here! The Golden Age of Hollywood meets the bloody end of a pitchfork, Ti West’s colorful prequel is the perfect companion piece to this year’s X. Expanding Mia Goth’s performance into an unhinged showcase with a jaw-dropping, single-take monologue, Pearl leaves behind the grimy 70s porn slasher for the pastures of a technicolor nightmare. Spoilers for X and minor spoilers for Pearl ahead…

Detective Benoît Blanc is back in another intricate whodunit in Rian Johnson’s sprawling sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. A new location, a new mystery, and a new cabal of suspicious, bumbling elites are at the center of yet another murder, and it’s up to the world-renowned gumshoe to solve the case. Glass Onion is frantic and far from the airtight elegance of its predecessor, but Johnson’s wit and craft remain electrifyingly. Frequently surprising, frequently uproarious, this is one mystery you won’t want revealed ahead of time. Minor spoilers ahead…

The secrets to Zach Cregger’s Barbarian have been closely guarded since its premiere at San Diego Comic-Con in July, and for good reason: There are some nasty tricks hiding in this basement. Gore-hounds and squirm-fiends with appetites for sick thrills will have a great time with the film’s surprisingly funny descent into madness, but Barbarian’s fizzling atmosphere and payoffs make it this year’s not-quite-Malignant. Minor spoilers ahead…

Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey is an absolute corker. The latest installment in a flagging franchise, the film weaponizes its simple formula into a sleek, sci-fi action missile. With powder keg tension, gnarly kills, and a formidable Amber Midthunder as a Comanche huntress facing off against a hi-tech alien foe, Prey is living proof that bigger isn’t always better. Minor spoilers ahead…

Action maestro David Leitch (John Wick, Deadpool, Atomic Blonde) returns with Bullet Train, a mile-a-minute, star-studded bloodbath. It’s a bombastic actioner that coasts by on kinetic fisticuffs and spectacular carnage, but not even Brad Pitt’s charisma nor Leitch’s eye for brutal violence can save it from its hollow Tarantino pastiche and its excruciatingly unfunny attempts at cleverness. Minor spoilers ahead…

A sprawling, sci-fi procedural anchored by weighty performances, white-knuckle set pieces, and thunderous soundscapes, Nope is director Jordan Peele’s most mature and layered work, exploring our primordial obsession with spectacle and our desperate need to capture it. A slowly unfolding puzzle box that is as alluring as it is exhilarating, Peele assembles his formidable image-making around what he knows best: terror and wit. Minor spoilers ahead…

Detonating its staid biopic formula with supernova movie star Austin Butler and lunatic, maximalist filmmaking, Baz Luhrmann — with maniacal glee — paints an irresistible portrait of a tortured artist. You won’t learn anything from Elvis you can’t glean from the skim of a Wikipedia page, but its boilerplate, breakneck procession is upended by hair-raising voltage and an astonishing capture of The King’s mythic charisma. Minor spoilers ahead…

Thor: Love and Thunder — for better or worse — is Ragnarok redux, down to its goofy lark humor and its undercooked A-list star as villain. But even with its superhero comedy dialed up to eleven and struggle with tone, its fleet adventure feels like a tonic, free from multiverses, cameos, and the seemingly requisite MCU buildup to the next “thing.” It’s one of the stronger Phase Four entries. Minor spoilers ahead…