Contributor: Paul Asay

There’s a huge difference between difficult topics and difficult—sometimes gratuitous—content.

Caring is a messy business, the movie tells us, sometimes quite literally. Blessed are those who get their hands dirty.

13 Hours is a well-made, violent, profane, difficult movie. The fact that it depicts real, important events makes it no less difficult.

Comedian Kevin Hart’s crude and raunchy motormouth shtick is wearing thin.

But for all its obvious craftsmanship, The Hateful Eight is ruined by its unremitting incivility.

Joy might be reason for, if not joy, then at least a bit of satisfaction.

The Revenant, like the land it depicts, is beautiful, brutal and unforgiving.

It’s not just the Force awakening in Episode VII. It’s the franchise’s charm. And maybe its life lessons, too.

While the surface story is pretty straightforward, there glides underneath (like the white whale itself) a spiritually tinged parable.

The movie’s name really says it all. Sure, it’s a big movie. An important movie, perhaps. But it left me feeling seriously shorted.

Mother Teresa’s story is strong enough to inspire us, no matter how it’s presented. And so The Letters challenges each of us.

A messy experience, any way you want to slice it.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 is no more a nice movie than Katniss is a nice person. But it is a courageous movie, just as Katniss is courageous. And it cares about a cause, just as she does.

When a love story doesn’t know what real love is, how can we trust it with anything else?

America cinema has long raised its glass to the gangster. Maybe it’s time for a different vintage.