With “The Batman,” Matt Reeves has gifted 2022 with a surprisingly great film. Surprisingly, because it is yet another Batman film that comes too soon on the heels of a Batman film that came too soon on the heels of Batman film.

As Hollywood is constantly oversaturated with comic book movies, it has come down to the sad truth that these are the only types of films that get major push from the studio system.

There is a moment in Paolo Sorrentino’s YOUTH when the aging conductor and composer, played by Michael Caine, stops in a beautiful European meadow to watch the cows. At first we are listening to each dong of a cowbell as a separate sound. Slowly he begins to hear the music hidden inside them. With a bit of imagination, the conductor soon raises a hand to conduct. If the film has a metaphor, this is it. It takes every random "dong" and connects them into a symphony. When not conducting cows, the conductor has retreated to a luxury spa-hotel that might be Purgatory.

We’ve been struck by an invasion of Zoes. Of owl-eyed ingénues with perky, quirky, life-embracing formulas for living. Whose sole purpose is to brighten the lives of pasty young men who could use sunshine in both body and soul. The Zoe in question in "Ruby Sparks" is Zoe Kazan, not only the star, but the writer of the script. In a strange round of metafictional Twister, she has written a story about a writer who writes a novel

Meek’s Cutoff defies easy description but if you can imagine [...]

In There Will Be Blood Paul Thomas Anderson lifts up [...]