"I'll embarrass myself, Dottie. I'll say something I regret." Most biopics flatten people. They take a life that was messy, contradictory, occasionally ugly, and sand it down until it fits neatly into a two-hour arc you can applaud on the way out. "I Swear" doesn't quite escape that gravitational pull, but it pushes against it in ways that matter, not by reinventing the form, but by paying closer attention to the person at the center of it. That person is John Davidson (Robert Aramayo),...

The first image in "Project Hail Mary" shows a man waking up alone on a spaceship, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. It's not played like a horror scenario, though it easily could be. Instead, Ryan Gosling's Dr. Ryland Grace reacts with baffled curiosity. Based on the novel by Andy Weir, "Project Hail Mary" lands comfortably in the same storytelling universe as "The Martian." If you enjoyed watching a scientist reason his way through impossible problems in that previous film,...

You know when it's obvious that a movie might be the best thing you've seen at a film festival like South by Southwest? It's not always an obvious indicator, given the cheers emanating from the Paramount Theatre in Austin (so many headliners who have premiered at the festival draw rip-roaring applause that it becomes nauseating after a while). No, in fact, it's the understanding that even a 98-minute flick can garner laughter, tears, and a sing-along of sorts from the very same audience....