Stylized in a manner that calls to mind better movies, but without ever staking out a claim for itself, “Kate” too often reads as an homage by a beginner whose tastes still exceed his talents.

David Lowery’s experimental vision of a 700-year-old story is an extravagant reflection on masculinity, on mythmaking, and on honor all at once, but “The Green Knight” is blissfully untethered to any one reading.

The mix of plainspoken sentiment and off-kilter philosophizing makes “Pig” a constant puzzle, too mundane to be surreal but too absurd to be taken at face value.

Megan Fox, with her usual flat expressions and flat line deliveries and flat presence on screen, here meets a role that actually suits her.

“In the Heights” paints the barrio as a carnival of constant dancing and flirting and eating and drinking, as if to suggest that revelry is the only natural reaction to hardship.

What says “countercultural icon” or “shocking villainy” in 2021 like a primer of 50-year-old classic rock staples?

“Georgetown” asks whether it matters for power to be built upon lies. If a con man is so good at the con that he can get a meeting with a sitting senator, then does it matter that he has no actual bona fides?

“Mainstream” wants desperately to have the chilling effect of a soothsayer. Instead of chills, it mostly inspires groans and sighs.

The violence reaches such a fever pitch that you start to wonder if the whole plot might be taking place in Hutch’s head.

Ignoring plot holes, unanswered questions, and dubious inflection points, the movie pushes through to its happy ending with brute force, as if to suggest kids just won’t know any better.