The Story: Desperate for money, a touring punk band takes an ill-considered gig playing a neo-Nazi compound where they accidentally witness a murder that pits them in a struggle to survive against overwhelming odds. Predictably, most of them do not. The Lowdown: A brutal and relentless film, Green Room is a remarkably well-crafted genre effort…

The Story: Elvis Presley’s aides orchestrate a meeting with President Richard M. Nixon when the King decides he wants to become an undercover hippie-busting federal agent (or, if you believe his wife’s account, was convinced that a federal badge would allow him to carry guns and drugs with impunity while traveling). The Lowdown: Based on…

The Story: A south Texas college freshman on a baseball scholarship in the early ’80s navigates the interpersonal dynamics of his new team in the days before classes start. The Lowdown: While the premise and plot may harken back to the trivial sex farces of the ’80s, Everybody is imbued with the heart and humor…

The Story: The CIA implants a murdered agent’s memories into the mind of a brain-damaged convict in the hopes of thwarting a Spanish anarchist’s nebulous scheme to take control of America’s weapons systems. The Lowdown: A cast that should’ve known better is dragged down by a thoroughly terrible script in this criminally stupid potboiler.

The Story: A young boy is raised by wolves in the jungle, only to become a pawn in the power struggles of wilderness politics. The Lowdown: The dark, gritty reboot of the 1967 animated film that nobody wanted or needed, The Jungle Book is interesting to look at but lacks the heart of the original…

The Story: A failed American business consultant facing a midlife crisis tries to sell a new teleconferencing technology to the King of Saudi Arabia. The Lowdown:  A surprisingly heartfelt and restrained exploration of some very weighty topics, A Hologram for the King offers an engaging perspective on American exceptionalism in a global sociological context without…

The Story: A man’s corpse is resurrected and turned into a cyborg super-soldier by his implausibly attractive scientist wife, after which he kills everyone in his path on a quest to rescue her from the telekinetic albino oligarch that abducted her. Seriously, that’s what this is about. The Lowdown: Ninety minutes of nausea-inducing shaky cam…

The Story: A Chicago family comes into money through illicit means and moves to a Beverly Hills McMansion just in time to encounter the premise from a completely different movie. The Lowdown: The Purge-meets-The Beverly Hillbillies-meets incomprehensible inanity; this is a very bad film that’s at least strange enough to keep things interesting in places.

The Story: A young girl with an incurable gastro-intestinal disorder inexplicably recovers after falling into a tree. The Lowdown: You can spare yourself two hours of Jennifer Garner grimacing by watching the trailer, as it covers nearly every significant story beat.

The Story: A playboy is coerced into overcoming his fear of romantic entanglement through the incessant nagging of his family and friends, and with the help of that special someone who seems to be his perfect match: A woman who is just as sociopathic, bland and narcissistic as he is. The Lowdown: The only perfect…

The Story: After American expats living in India lose their son in a tragic accident, the boy’s mother seeks out supernatural aid in order to say goodbye. The Lowdown: What’s on the other side of the bore? More boredom.

The Story: A gang of corrupt cops and ex-military contractors beholden to a Russian mob boss are tasked with a heist that can only be accomplished by luring a rookie police officer to his death. The Lowdown: A passable potboiler, ultimately full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

The Story: A Hungarian Jew awaiting execution in Auschwitz is pressed into service overseeing the gassing and cremation of his fellow prisoners, until the death of a boy who may be his own son sends him on a quest to steal the child’s body and secure a Rabbi to perform a religious burial. The Lowdown:…

The Story: A family of Puritans is banished from its New England enclave over unspecified theological disagreements and strikes out to build a life in an unforgiving wilderness, only to find that the greatest threat they face is far from natural. The Lowdown: One of the creepiest horror movies to surface in years, The Witch…

The Story: The Jane Austen mainstay retold yet again, but this time with zombies…You know, for kids! The Lowdown: A one-note joke stretched far too thin at nearly two hours, Pride + Prejudice + Zombies lacks the heart — and braaaains — of its source material’s source material.