Darren Aronofsky’s latest film mother! has certainly stirred up a storm, and no wonder. It features murder, point-blank executions, incinerations and the killing and devouring of a child.

NEW YORK – Sound fundamental values underlie the spirited sci-fi follow-up "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" (Disney). But thematic elements demanding discernment, together with some less than family-friendly dialogue, make this return to the stars best for grown-ups.

I have long been an ardent fan of Martin Scorsese’s films. Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, Casino, etc. are among the defining movies of the last 40 years. The director’s Catholicism, however mitigated and conflicted, comes through in most of his work.

NEW YORK – Directed and co-written (with Jay Cocks) by Martin Scorsese, Silence (Paramount) is a dramatically powerful but theologically complex work best suited to viewers who come to the multiplex prepared to engage with serious issues.

NEW YORK – With "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," last year's promising reignition of the iconic franchise, "The Force Awakens," gains a worthy – and equally family-friendly – companion.

NEW YORK – Like time travellers from the Golden Age of Hollywood studio films, the characters played by Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard in "Allied" (Paramount) don't allow a little event like World War II to muss their elegant coifs.

NEW YORK – Putting Tom Hanks in the cockpit as everybody's favorite aviator, U.S. Airways Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, and bringing Clint Eastwood on board to direct him certainly sounds like a formula for high-flying success. And so it proves with "Sully" (Warner Bros.), Eastwood's satisfying adaptation of Sullenberger's memoir (co-written with Jeffrey Zaslow) "Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters."

NEW YORK - The year just past saw the release of a number of films whose celebrated cinematic quality was not matched by moral merit.

To paraphrase the title of an earlier movie about the national pastime, hate strikes out in the historical drama 42 (Warner Bros.) Writer-director Brian Helgeland's uplifting — if sometimes heavy-handed — film recounts the 1947 reintegration of professional baseball after decades of segregated play.

Zero Dark Thirty (Columbia) offers moviegoers a challenging account, based on real events, of the decade-long hunt for terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.