Reclaiming Friendship Park (2015)

This coming-of-age Mexican movie is about a group of school children who fulfill their dreams.

Even now, the well-established Snyder has yet to learn this as he continues to allow misguided decisions to convince him that his projects hold the same kind of intelligent and emotional weight. Army of the Dead is a tonal mess, one that never decides what it’s trying to be, and, for all we know, doesn’t want to decide.

What seems like such a simple story of survival is so much more than that—it’s a story of family, and of war, and of destruction. It’s painful to watch, but not in a bad way. It makes its audience reflect on their own actions, and in how they are complicit in the sufferings of others as the adults in this film are. Grave of the Fireflies does not hold back from being heartbreaking, and it shouldn’t. It tells a message that needs to be heard decades after the war, and a story that cannot be forgotten by history.

SPOILERS AHEAD. Premature is a story about the pain of love and realities. Transitioning from youth to our perspective of adulthood, how do we grapple with loss?

Vivarium is an uncomfortable and startling look at how easily progress devolves in the face of overwhelming stress.

The Lego Movie achieves great humor and story with a combination of childish comedy, adult references, irony, and by subverting popular movie tropes.