This movie’s vision of the near future is narrow yet realistic, with intrusive AI being intertwined with everyday life and the functions of the pregnancy pod being controlled through an app. A lot of movies that have near-future settings take place in New York, which is the easiest example of a modern city that is detached from nature and has a populace that is easily fooled into following trends. The drawback is that it’s hard to tell what life is like for those in the rest of the country.

In failing to reach agreements with the striking guilds, Hollywood executives are essentially forced to promote movies without their A-list cast. The first signs of danger may present themselves this month – August -- with the Venice International Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival beginning at the end of this month. In the meantime, film festivals such as the Cinequest Film and Creativity Festival offer a glimpse of what this upcoming season has in store for Hollywood, both professionally and creatively.

All that being said, this movie does have a saving grace and it’s the fight choreography. Roughly half of the scenes in the movie are all back-to-back fights. Aside from Walid, it’s hard to tell who the characters in combat are or why they’re even fighting, other than a general “good guys vs. bad guys” thing, but the choreography makes it entertaining.

Charlie Day plays a man recently released from a mental institution who has no ability to communicate with people and is largely unaware of the things going on around him. Making the character mute could have been done well, but when that character is also incapable of communicating, it makes it difficult to find him compelling. Even though his body language can be funny, it’s mostly up to the rest of the cast to deliver jokes -- which has mixed results.

The documentary starts by showing how the rich heiresses of New York became celebrities and chased by paparazzi as though they were deities. When blogging exploded on the internet, many were dedicated to forming narratives out of the celebrities’ escapades and would slant reality into a salacious tabloid. I was constantly asking myself “Who would choose to get caught up in this world?”

The amount of pinball history and insight into the game is also interesting. This film is upfront about not telling a completely honest story and it adds to the charm of the presentation. It gets enough of the details right to tell a story that feels authentic and captivating. Everything from the acting, writing, editing and pacing works well, so it’s easy to recommend this movie as one of the highlight films of the year.

The trailer set to Also Sprach Zarathustra pays direct homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey, highlighting the tongue-in-cheek humor Gerwig brings to the property. Accompanied by lavish costuming, impressive set designs, and dance montages, Barbie looks to achieve something wholly unique. Hopefully, the film shares more in common with The Lego: Movie rather than G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra.

The entire movie is also a commentary on the practice of street casting, which is the exact thing that the fictional director in the movie and the actual director of “The Worse Ones” does: taking people who aren’t professionals and having them portray alternate versions of themselves. The criticism of reinforcing negative stereotypes is brought up and characters say that the film risks showing that the neighborhood is worse off than it really is.