Kubo And The Two Strings
Stop motion animation film set in a fictional Japan. The basic premise is there is a kid being chased by two witches, and he has a magic instrument thing that he uses to do various things. Honestly I can't really go into the story too much because it was off its tits and I can't remember enough to describe it coherently. It is without doubt the best stop motion animation that I have ever seen, absolutely stunning.
Hunt For The Wilderpeople
New Zealand comedy about an orphan who is sent to the middle of nowhere to live with his new foster parents. When one of his foster parents dies, he has to go on the run before he is placed under the care of different foster parents, and a nationwide manhunt ensues. Pretty funny but also kind of charming. Low budget but filmed very well.
10 Cloverfield Lane
A woman is in a car accident and wakes up in a guy's doomsday bunker. He claims that the apocalypse is happening and she can't leave, but there is no way to find out if he is telling the truth or not. John Goodman plays the prepper and he is really fucking creepy to the point where I felt physically uncomfortable during a couple of scenes. Worth watching just for his performance.
Weiner
Documentary about the downfall of Anthony Weiner during his run for mayor of New York in 2013. I don't know how this even got filmed. They basically filmed his entire life being ripped to shreds and at no point does he really tell them to stop filming. This is one of those documentaries where it doesn't matter if you're interested in the subject matter at all. I don't care about what happened but I found it fascinating watching him slowly lose his shit over the period of a few months.
Green Room
Slasher film about a punk band who get a gig at a racist skinhead venue. They accidentally witness a murder and then things go awry. Patrick Stewart plays the owner of the venue, and he's great.
Train To Busan
South Korean zombie film. Guy and his daughter try to survive on a train as a zombie outbreak is going on. South Korean cinema is amazing and more people should start watching South Korean shit.
Deadpool
Deadpool.
Don't Breathe
Horror/thriller about some some kids who try to rob a blind veteran. Things go wrong. Jumpscares and bad decisions galore.
La La Land
I wrote a review for this here. It is a recent release so the best quality copy is DVDSCR.
April And The Extraordinary World
French animated film about a girl from an alternate history version of Paris. The animation isn't mindblowing, but I really liked the steampunk A E S T H E T I C.
I can see what you're getting at, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. It's not like there is a ton of originality in episode 4 really. Sure, the sci-fi world is very fleshed out and it was an ambitious film, but it is still basically Mario in terms of the storyline. Rescue the princess.
In fact, I think I like that it is exactly the same, it's sort of interesting within itself. It's like there's something inherently broken within the Star Wars universe that makes it extremely susceptible to some sort of empire taking it over whenever there is a power vacuum.