Staging one of the most intimate, character-focused blockbusters of the decade so far, filmmaker Michael Sarnoski earns his studio bona fides in thrilling fashion with A Quiet Place: Day One. A brilliant monster film that understand full well that the beasts are never as compelling as the ones they’re terrorizing, Sarnoski takes a bold, uncompromising approach to showing us what happens when the world went quiet. While it’s got that spine-tingling dread John Krasinski forged with the first two installments, Sarnoski refocuses the story into studying the basic decencies we’re capable of for our neighbors on the fly in the face of grave danger. The Quiet Place movies have an incredibly optimistic streak about how people might handle such an apocalyptic event, and this installment hammers that home more than ever. Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn both deliver in spades as two strangers with very different outlooks on life who reinforce the film’s grand message that even monsters that can kills us with the drop of a pin don’t have to break our spirit and sense of goodwill toward others.

Where to Watch: Theaters

Kevin Costner’s passion project multiple decades in the making arrives as a singular experience. Costner’s deep reverence for the genre and electric eye for Western tensions shine through, even when his multi-narrative approach tends to befuddle itself. If you’ve got the stomach for a three-hour introduction to numerous characters and varying plotlines that all hit with different degrees of success, there is much reward in watching Costner cook on home turf. Even if this grandiose experiment doesn’t always work, the moments of genuine inspiration on such a beautiful canvas as the American West beg this one to be seen in a theater. Even with a miniseries mindset, Costner’s directorial vision is fully cinematic. We’ll see how the second installment plays out next month.

Where to Watch: Theaters

Jeff Nichols has established himself as one of our great filmmakers for stories in heartland America, and his Goodfellas-inspired lament on a gruff Chicago motor cycle gang caught up in the unforgiving headwinds of 1960s counterculture is one of his best movies yet. Nichols finds so much joy in shooting really cool actors like Austin Butler and Tom Hardy on motorcycles and giving them with real mythic edge with their immaculate vibes. That’s why it hits so hard when the story gradually pulls out the rug on their camaraderie once their world leaves them behind. While this film has its occasional lulls, it’s a pretty grand success in the way it eulogizes a way of life while also expertly sizing up its shortcomings. Jodie Comer nearly steals the entire movie as our narrator and moral center. There has yet to be a bad movie where Emory Cohen comes off the bench and aces it, and that’s certainly true here. Also, Hollywood, buy as much stock in Toby Wallace as you can.

Where to Watch: Theaters

Janet Planet is very charming, very wise, very aware of its quirks and how to avoid playing into them to the point of disbelief from how actual people interact with each other. You’re quite taken with the direction and the cast, with the way it lingers on a perfect frame and the way the actors cut through the pratfalls of this specific style of storytelling and really ground themselves in something real and relatable. Baker still has room to grow for translating her experience as a playwright to a screenwriter, but she’s already arrived as a director. It’s a very solid debut, and what a confident fist pump of an ending that was.

Where to Watch: Theaters

The dumbest event of the summer is Under Paris, a movie that somehow makes a horde of hungry sharks invading the Parisian Seine an absolute drag. If Snakes on a Plane spent more than 40 minutes showing the passengers walk through the aisles to get to their seats while the snakes just chilled out of frame, it’d be Under Paris. By the time the tensions are raised, it’s just too late as this film just doesn’t have the juice to deliver on its wackiness. Cribbing this hard on Jaws can work with the right approach, but this shark-stravaganza goes down like warm saltwater and shrimp cocktail juice in a dirty wine glass. It’s cringey, confusing politicking and cheap effects water everything down. Honestly, swimming in the poopy Seine sounds more enjoyable than a rewatch of this dud.

Where to Watch: Netflix

Brats is the most accidentally fascinating movie of the year. I don’t think “Brat Pack” member Andrew McCarthy meant for this to play as it does, but it’s a perfect example of a film escaping its director’s grasp and taking a form of its own. If it had gone as hoped, it would just been nostalgic piddle without much insight. However, because it’s so revealing and unexpected for the guy making the project, you at least get something of intrigue with the way this pop culture phenomena is dissected by some of its central players. It’s not very good, but it’s also hard to resist for how strange a ride it is. Also, this is a wonderful reminder that most of the things you take personally from afar are usually done in the quest for the perfect pun.

Where to Watch: Hulu

Celine Dion will forever be known as one of the great voices in music, an arena-smashing icon who can bring down any house at any given point with her sweeping vocals. Far, far removed from the typical controlled experience of watching a documentary about a celebrity’s life with their creative involvement, I Am: Celine Dion is an unbelievably brave and affecting look at how Dion has struggled through stiff-person syndrome and the toll it’s taken on her life and work. The documentary doesn’t shy away from the ugliest parts of her battle, which sets us up for moments of genuine triumph when she overcomes an obstacle in real time. Wisely avoiding a career-spanning Wikipedia read of her life, we’re instead given powerful access to a deeply humanizing experience. This really is one of the great documentaries of the year, fulfilling goals of empathy and inspiration.

Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video

Jake Johnson’s directorial debut plays perfectly into that itch we all have for more Lonely Island-influenced nonsense comedy. The bizarre premise is given a very casual approach befitting Johnson’s shaggy protagonist, and we’re all the more entertained by how this refuses to wink at us while openly admitting how ridiculous the plot mechanics are. Any film with Biff Wiff doing the Biff Wiff and Andy Samberg playing himself is good with us.

Where to Watch: Hulu

Movie Pass, Movie Crash is a fairly compelling account for what exactly happened to the Trojan Horse that broke through for how we pay for movie tickets (good or bad). It’s a paint-by-the-numbers explainer, but the perspectives and anecdotes are still appreciated in trying to understand how all of this went wrong. It’s not definitive by any measure, but it’s certainly eye-opening.

Where to Watch: Max

The Last Stop in Yuma County is an absolutely breathless standoff in a desolate gas station, borrowing from the great chamber thrillers where anything can pop off at any minute. The ensemble (led by a wonderful Jim Cummings, doing a mix of his Thunder Road cop and his Beta Test protagonist) is the perfect combination of hapless, heroic and harmful, as this indie gem deserves a ton of love for hearkening back to all the great potboilers of yore. You’ll be glued to your T.V. for the entire movie.

Where to Watch: Premium video on demand