Writer/director Karen Lam’s “The Curse of Willow Song” is an interesting character study and effective horror film crafted with an artful eye and the kind of picture modern horror (nay, modern film, in general) needs badly. This is a well-written film that doesn’t trade chills for logic and one that respects its audience by creating adult characters presented with honesty.

Shot in black and white

Inspired by the true story of the “Butcher of Mons” who murdered five women between 1996 and 1997 (and was never caught), the new Belgian thriller “Megalomaniac” is an artful and unrelenting look at madness and murder through the eyes of a psychopath. What sets this film apart from the tonnage of serial killer films in existence, is the fact that writer/director Karim Ouelhaj examines the “sins of the father” rather than going for another procedural.

Stewart Thorndike, the writer and director of the new horror film “Bad Things” loves “The Shining.” Thorndike really loves that picture and doesn’t want his audience to forget it, so he reminds us over and over again.

While many a great film has been crafted out of homages to other works, it helps to have an endgame regarding your screenplay.

These proceedings start out well enough

The creators of the new horror film “Cobweb” and I are simpatico regarding the sad state of the modern horror film. My lack of patience with the unoriginality and lack of craft in most of today’s horror pictures is never-ending. In the twenty-first century it is rare to find a filmmaker who knows how to use mood to right effect. Make no mistake, there are some very talented horror filmmakers working today. Directors such as Jennifer Kent, James Wan

Written by Allison Schroeder and Greg Ruka and directed by Tom Harper, the new Netflix action thriller “Heart of Stone” is the dictionary definition of ludicrous.

Gal Gadot (trying hard to emote but coming off stiff as a board) stars as Rachel Stone, a technician for MI6 whose handler is Parker (Jamie Dornan, truly one of the most dreadfully uninteresting actors working today).

As critics, we must review a film’s cinematic merit first and its politics second. In my film reviews and articles, I always try to do just that.  Alejandro Monteverde’s runaway box office hit “Sound of Freedom” wants the opposite. This is a film that wants viewers to focus on its politics first and any cinematic value second. Or maybe even third. Or maybe it is just interested in its own politics.

The screenplay (co-written by Rod Barr

At DC/DOX last June I saw “Kokomo City,” which details the lives of four Black trans sex workers facing multiple hardships. Director D. Smith, a trans woman and a Grammy nominee, spoke with me via phone during DC/DOX—and with the film now set to play in theaters this weekend, our conversation has been reposted.

How did you decide to make this documentary?

To do something like this, you really have