​Tom Cruise continues his quest to demonstrate that Scientology prevents physical deterioration in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, and he somehow keeps succeeding.  Beginning with a dangle from an ascending plane and only escalating from there, Rogue Nation continues the franchise's preference for insane practical stunts, often powered by Cruise's near-freakish determination.  He remains a credible action star four years after the previous, equally excellent Ghost Protocol, and shows no signs of slowing down, though the franchise has surely found his eventual replacement in Rebecca Ferguson.  With Christopher McQuarrie at the helm and dynamic new characters added to the franchise, Mission: Impossible is taking a page from its lead and defying the laws of entropy, the rare series of films in which the fifth one is also the best.

​Compliance would be offensive and exploitative if it weren't based on a true story.  The premise is so outlandish that it risks outright viewer rejection, except that the event happened essentially as depicted.  Craig Zobel's stranger-than-fiction film is one of the more discomfiting cinematic experiences I've endured.  It produces a visceral reaction, a hot sensation on the back of one's neck like some kind of mixture of rage at the events onscreen and a shared humiliation for the victim.  If one of the goals of art is to engender a reaction in the consumer, Zobel succeeds tremendously, even if that reaction is not one that's eager to be recreated.

Captain America: Civil War is going to be a divisive movie.  Even though it feels like another Avengers movie, there’s something decidedly different about it, both structurally and tonally.  It feels like the first step to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) really growing up.  Civil War is both reflective and forward-looking, which comes a bit at the expense of the movie itself.  While there’s a great story here with one of the most inventive villains in recent MCU memory, what ultimately weighs it down most is what also props it up – connecting more threads to the conclusion of The Avengers as we know them.

​As an introduction to the films of Todd Haynes, Carol checks off everything I expected from him.  Repressive 50's society plus the impeccable costuming that goes with it, and characters that say the opposite of what they feel are all featured heavily, but that's not to say emotions don't run intensely through the film.  Haynes' romance between two women, based off a Patricia Highsmith novel, simmers with deeply-felt emotion, though out of necessity, the lid mostly stays on the pot.