Ready Player One

Spielberg’s excessively non-self-referential spectacle races to the starting line then struggles to maintain the virtual velocity of its opening antics. Loaded with loving movie and pop-culture references the shining Oasis is effectively Imaginationland re-animated and vastly more satisfying than the grainy real-world parallels, including mustache-twirling Mendelsohn and Inceptionally illogical finale.

Dark Places

Charlize is the only bright spot amidst an otherwise dismal display.  Unrewarding Hoult leads a painfully inept and overdue investigation that somehow successfully proves that several small coincidences are all actually just… one ridiculously massive coincidence.  Dissatisfying plot resolution and disappointing failure to get as dark as it should.