Contributor: Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

Alpha

You might want to think twice before you and your family wolf this one down.

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Mile 22

Mile 22 is dumb, frenetic and oh-so bloody—a feature-length romp through a hurricane of fists and feet and death.

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Slender Man

Slender Man is just a bad movie, and bad in every possible way.

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Christopher Robin

This film wasn’t made just for kids. It was made for us—the adults who fret about our own Very Important Things.

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Blindspotting

While we can’t turn a blind eye to Blindspotting’s excesses, neither can we turn away from its multilayered message.

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The Equalizer 2

The movie’s well-meaning messages are undercut, sometimes literally, at every turn.

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The First Purge

I kinda hope this movie itself is purged from theaters, and quickly.

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Leave No Trace

Leave No Trace tells a powerful and poignant story—one that’s simultaneously unique and universal, tragic and hopeful.

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Incredibles 2

Pixar once again encourages us to think as we laugh and marvel and cringe and smile.

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Hotel Artemis

While the characters have more meat to them than you might expect, their own flesh is all-too-frequently pierced

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Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Mister Rogers is gone now. But his legacy lives on.

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Action Point

Action Point isn’t much of a movie, no matter how you slice its vomit-soaked layers.

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First Reformed

Religion, First Reformed suggests, is easy. It’s faith that’s hard.

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Deadpool 2

Deadpool 2, like its predecessor, doesn’t just wallow in the depths of human depravity: It absolutely frolicks there.

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Breaking In

Breaking In is one of the most frenetic, violent salutes to a mother’s love that you’ll likely ever see.

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