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

I never understood the frequency, uh-uh

UNDER THE SILVER LAKE

Almost compelling, almost good.  If only its strangeness weren't lifeless and off-putting, Under the Silver Lake might've been something.

2019

Written and directed by David Robert Mitchell

Spoiler alert: maybe very slightly more than moderate, but a movie that doesn't resolve itself like this one can hardly be spoiled at a particularly high level

This boy's too young to be singing the blues

ROCKETMAN

It absolutely surpasses Egerton and John's last collaboration, but then, "being better than Kingsman: The Golden Circle" isn't much of an accomplishment.  So, happily, let's say that Rocketman is still good—even if, unlike the subject of its story, it whiffs it hard on the actual greatness.

2019

Directed by Dexter Fletcher

Written by Lee Hall 

Spoiler alert: he's still standing

In other Godzilla news, this weird crap

GODZILLA: CITY ON THE EDGE OF BATTLE and

GODZILLA: THE PLANET EATER

Possibly the wrongest Godzilla has ever been, at the very least Gen Urobuchi's trilogy has proven itself admirably crazy—and outright insanity in pursuit of heavy-handed allegory is no vice. I think that's how the saying goes, right?

2018 and 2019, respectively

Directed by Kobun Shizuno and Hiroyuki Seshita

Written by Gen Urobuchi

Spoiler alert: moderate

Nerrrrrrrrrrds

BOOKSMART

An extraordinary two-hander (that occasionally fails to be an ensemble), Booksmart is the kind of fun, likeable comedy they ought to make more of, at least if they want me to bother going to theaters to see a comedy in the first place.

2019

Directed by Olivia Wilde

Written by Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, and Katie Silberman

Spoiler alert: mild

Let them fight?

GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS

Absurdly good monsters keep getting interfered with by mostly-mediocre humans, but damned if "absurdly good monsters" ain't good enough.

2019

Directed by Michael Dougherty

Written by Zach Shields and Michael Dougherty

Spoiler alert: not that this movie can in any way be meaningfully spoiled, but "moderate," for the sticklers