Apex predator all day

CRAWL

A fun, disciplined trifle, Crawl knows what you want and gives it to you reasonably good and fairly hard.

2019

Directed by Alexandre Aja

Written by Shawn Rasmussen and Michael Rasmussen

Spoiler alert: moderate

Europe after the rain (turns out to be mildly damp)

SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME

Man, do even I have superhero fatigue now?

2019
Directed by Jon Watts
Written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers

Spoiler alert: high

This story has never ended

MIND GAME

Still Yuasa's masterpiece, after all these years.

2004 (Japan)/2018 (seriously?) (USA)

Written and directed by Masaaki Yuasa (based on the comic by Robin Nishi)

Spoiler alert: kind of N/A, really, but I guess let's say moderately highish

Summer dreams ripped at the seams, but oh—those summer nights

MIDSOMMAR

While never managing to become "more," and prompting the question, "why do you need it to be 'more' anyway, Ari?", Midsommar is a hell of a good horror film in The Wicker Man vein, and that's still fresh enough that it doesn't matter too much what else is wrong with it.

2019

Written and directed by Ari Aster

Spoiler alert: moderate, though I just mentioned it's a Wicker Man rip-off, so, you know... there's that

The little mermaid

LU OVER THE WALL

"Oh, boy, it's one of these animes, huh?" is exactly what I said, but as it happens, it is, and it's pretty great anyway.

2017 Japan/2018 USA

Directed by Masaaki Yuasa

Written by Reiko Yoshida and Masaaki Yuasa

Spoiler alert: moderate

That rose-colored campus life

THE NIGHT IS SHORT, WALK ON GIRL

A movie of seemingly boundless energy and possibility, Night doesn't always live up to its own potential—nor always put its money where its mouth is, and there's a good twenty minutes in the middle where it's not doing either one—but that doesn't mean it's not one of the most essential animated films of the last year, or even the last decade.

2017 Japan/2018 USA

Directed by Masaaki Yuasa

Written by Makoto Ueda (based on the novel by Tomihiko Morimi)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Toymetheus unbound

TOY STORY 4

It's a disappointment, of course.  It's a Toy Story that isn't a masterpiece.  It isn't even great.  But as far as Pixar in the Tens has gone, you know, it is probably above average—and that'll do.

2019

Directed by Josh Cooley

Written by many, so very many, but I'm happy leaving it at "screenplay by Andrew Stanton and Stephanie Folsom"

Spoiler alert: moderate