You’ve already seen “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Jurassic World: Dominion,” so while you wait with baited breath for “Bullet Train” and “Avatar: The Way of Water,” you should seek out these four intriguing films, which, unlike the slam-boom-bang of the big-screen summer tentpoles (not that we don’t love them because we do!), might actually give you something to contemplate after the credits roll.

Jordan Peele’s “Nope” is one of the most inventive and entertaining genre films in years. 

In a sluggish cinematic year Peele has directed a film that is clever from scene to scene. There isn’t a moment where you take your eyes off of the screen.

Set in a vast and beautiful valley, Daniel Kaluuya plays OJ, a man doing his best to keep

What an amazing human is the former congresswoman from Arizona, who was shot in the head in 2011 and not only survived but has continued to serve the public. Though Gabby Giffords retired from the House after her near-fatal shooting by an angry and mentally unstable constituent, she somehow still maintains her smile, her poise, her good humor even when it would be more than understandable for her to have lost any of these.

John Michael McDonagh’s “The Forgiven” walks the ever-fine line between artful examination and utter monotony. Adapting Lawrence Osborne’s novel, McDonagh’s film takes place over one weekend in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco and skewers the privilege of the wealthy and white.

David (Ralph Fiennes) and Jo (Jessica Chastain) are traveling to a party taking place in the Moroccan desert. Late, lost

Scott Derrickson’s “The Black Phone” continues 2022’s sad streak of being one of the most uninteresting years on record.

Based on an excellent short story from author Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son), director Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill adapted the creepy tale of a Colorado town plagued by a serial killer of children known as “The Grabber," so named

A star is born in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.” Austin Butler’s performance as the rock'n'roll legend is simply jaw-dropping. In an astonishing turn, the actor melts completely into Elvis, announcing the arrival of one hell of a committed actor. Unfortunately, Butler’s performance (and a couple of scenes towards the film’s end) are the only worthy piece of this near travesty of a motion picture.

The massively over-directed

The debates about the greatest pitcher of all time inevitably bring up names including Sandy Koufax, Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens. The latter two appear in “Facing Nolan” to talk about Nolan Ryan, the man who idolized Koufax–and then shattered all of his records.

Ryan, now 75 and still sporting that understated grin, sits for writer-director Bradley Jackson’s enthralling new documentary