It’s true what they say about not being able to judge a book by its cover – or a movie by its trailer or description. Such is the case with writer-director Agustín Godoy’s debut feature, a trainwreck of a film that makes virtually no sense from start to finish.

If I had to come up with one word to describe writer-director Woody Allen’s latest film, it would have to be “inconsequential.” This flat, uninspired slog about the trophy wife (Lou de Laâge) of an overly possessive well-to-do Parisian businessman (Melvil Poupaud) who has an affair after a chance meeting with one of her old classmates (Niels Schneider) is close to a career low point for the famed auteur.

Those familiar with my writing know that I’m not much of a fan of horror films, though I have been somewhat encouraged by the emergence of “smart horror” releases in recent years – scary movies that seek to do more than just try to see how high they can get the body count by film’s end. So I was naturally intrigued by this debut feature by writer-director Michael Kovich Jr.

When right-wing Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was ousted from office in 1990, five of his henchmen (fanatical military officers charged with doing the autocrat’s dirty work) were sentenced to incarceration for terms totaling hundreds of years at a special “prison” at the base of the Andes Mountains. The facility was far more comfortable than a typical penitentiary, where the now-aged egomaniacal inmates enjoyed comparatively more freedom and privileges than what typical prisoners experienced and where the guards were more like domestic servants than corrections officers.

Cautionary tales often have some of the most significant impact when brought to life on the big screen, and that’s certainly the case with the latest offering from writer-director Alex Garland. The filmmaker’s gripping tale of a quartet of journalists (Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Cailee Spaeny) covering a civil war in a dystopian version of America of the near future follows the reporters as they make their way from New York to Washington.

Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (Regina King), the first African-American woman elected to the House of Representatives, was an inspiring, trailblazing politician, particularly in the areas of race and gender politics. After winning her seat in Congress in 1968, she later went on to run for the Democratic Party nomination for President in 1972. And that impressive background, one would think, should provide the basis for an engaging, uplifting film biography. Unfortunately, writer-director John Ridley’s take on this groundbreaking, often-unappreciated pioneer misses the mark in a number of ways.

Just about everyone loves a good mystery, but, in the case of director Thea Sharrock’s latest, viewers are treated to one that’s both intriguing and utterly hilarious. Based on a true story, this delightfully offbeat offering tells the head-scratching tale of a small seaside community in 1920s England in which residents begin receiving anonymously sent letters filled with graphic profanity of a highly colorful and creative nature.

It’s one thing to question authority and official explanations of highly public events; it’s something else entirely to portray them in a wholly falsified light, especially when done so in a ridiculing manner that causes tremendous personal pain. Such is what happened when conspiracy theorist broadcaster Alex Jones fanatically contended that the December 2012 mass shooting at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School was a staged false flag event.

Finding meaning and purpose in life can be a long and solitary journey, especially if one doesn’t know how or where to look. So it is for a single, lonely thirtysomething seeker (Le Phong Vu) living in Saigon after moving there from his rural mountain village after most of his family emigrates to America. He feels empty and lost as he looks for a suitable path to follow, but nothing turns up, leaving him increasingly adrift and unfulfilled.

Providing care, comfort and compassion to the world’s downtrodden is undoubtedly a noble, if exhausting and often-frustrating, cause, especially when pleas for help go ignored or fall on deaf ears. Yet, every so often, someone comes along who tirelessly keeps on fighting for those less fortunate, as was the case with Italian immigrant Mother Francesca Cabrini (Cristiana Dell’Anna).