—There were never any rules.

Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique... Ok, not really—it's a drier Fight Club—but everything before that still holds true. A fresh and funny black comedy that explores toxic masculinity as the root of violence, social exclusion and sex discrimination, The Art of Self Defense stars Jesse Eisenberg as a karate-obsessed loser. It's the best (and strangely also the most likeable), you've ever seen him, and he's in good company,…

This was painful to watch. It's rare that a film hits me so hard that I just sit there, too horrified to even cry. Patty Jenkins' Monster did that to me (while making similar points about the oppressive structural forces that lead to crime in marginalized communities), but Ava DuVernay’s most recent and most ambitious project is ahead of that one in almost every way. It's the best thing the gifted and daring director has ever done and one of…