OPENING
Annapurna Photo Studio (NR) This Indian romance set in the 1980s stars Chaitanya Rao Madadi, Lavanya Sahukara, Lalith Adithya, Viva Raghava, and Uttara Reddy. (Opens Friday)
Cobweb (R) This horror movie stars Woody Norman as a boy who discovers supernatural beings when he investigates the mysterious noises in his family’s new house. Also with Lizzy Caplan, Antony Starr, and Cleopatra Coleman. (Opens Friday)
Earth Mama (R) Savannah Leaf’s drama stars Tia Nomore as a pregnant teenage girl who decides what to do. Also with Erika Alexander, Keta Price, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Dominic Fike, and Bokeem Woodbine. (Opens Friday)
Fear the Night (NR) This thriller by Neil LaBute stars Maggie Q as an Iraq war veteran dealing with a home invasion. Also with Kat Foster, James Carpinello, Gia Crovatin, Kirstin Leigh, Highdee Kuan, and Travis Hammer. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Hatya (NR) Also called Kolai, this Indian murder mystery stars Vijay Antony, Ritika Singh, Meenakshi Chaudhary, Arjun Chidambaram, John Vijay, Siddharth Shankar, and Murali Sharma. (Opens Friday)
Hidimbha (NR) Ashwin Babu stars in this Indian action-thriller as a cop investigating a string of girls’ disappearances in Hyderabad. Also with Nandita Shwetha, Makrand Deshpande, Pramodini, Rajeev Kanakala, and Vidyullekha Raman. (Opens Friday)
NOW PLAYING
Asteroid City (R) For the first time in a long time, Wes Anderson is too dry and cute for his own good in this movie set during the early 1960s in a small town on the California-Arizona border. A grieving father (Jason Schwartzman) and a fading movie actress (Scarlett Johansson) make a distant connection while their teenage children (Jake Ryan and Grace Edwards) carry on a stronger romance. Then a space alien invades the town and everybody loses their minds, or as close to that as ever happens in an Anderson movie. The story is meant to be a disquisition on grief and loss, but the deadpan style muffles the emotions instead of accentuating them. The entire framing device about a playwright (Edward Norton) writing this as a stage play could have been lost, too. Also with Tom Hanks, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Bryan Cranston, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber, Tony Revolori, Hope Davis, Steve Park, Rupert Friend, Bob Balaban, Jarvis Cocker, Seu Jorge, Maya Hawke, Sophia Lillis, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Matt Dillon, Steve Carell, and Margot Robbie.
Baby (NR) This Indian romantic film is about two young people who fall in love. Starring Anand Deverakonda, Mounika Reddy, Seetha, Vaishnavi Chaitanya, and Nagendra Babu.
Elemental (PG) The latest Pixar movie looks and sounds like other Pixar movies, but is missing that ineffable spark that we recognize. The story is set in a city populated by air, earth, water, and fire elementals, and revolves around a forbidden romance between a water particle (voiced by Mamadou Athie) and a fire particle (voiced by Leah Lewis). The fire elementals are treated as second-class citizens by the others, and the whole conceit was done much more cleverly in Zootopia. The largely unknown voice cast doesn’t provide much distinctiveness, and the entire affair washes over you without leaving much of a mark. The feature is accompanied by Carl’s Date, a short sequel to Up that is unworthy of the movie that spawned it. Additional voices by Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ronnie Del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Mason Wertheimer, and Catherine O’Hara.
The Flash (PG-13) Hollywood’s first-ever blockbuster movie with an openly gender-fluid lead should be a cause for celebration. It isn’t, partly because Ezra Miller has a record of such terrifying off-screen behavior. Beyond that, it’s easily the weakest of the recent movies about multiple universes. The best stuff comes before The Flash creates the multiverse, with some trippy visuals and a witty sequence with our superhero saving a maternity ward full of babies from falling off a hospital. After the first half hour, though, the movie drowns in fanservice without the absurdist glee of the Spider-Verse movies or even Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The different versions of Superman and Batman who pop up will warm some fans’ hearts, but this movie comes late to the latest trend. Also with Michael Keaton, Ben Affleck, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Maribel Verdú, Ron Livingston, Kiersey Clemons, Antje Traue, Ian Loh, Temuera Morrison, Jeremy Irons, and uncredited cameos by Jason Momoa, Gal Gadot, Nicolas Cage, and George Clooney.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (PG-13) This Marvel movie draws out the backstory of Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), which makes it uniquely harrowing and one of Marvel’s best in recent years. A gold-skinned super-alien (Will Poulter) attacks our crew of outlaws and maims Rocket badly, so the others have to save his life by stealing his medical records from the sadistic scientist (Chukwudi Iwuji) who created him. The movie has a ton of animal torture, and even though many of the creatures here don’t belong to any existent species, seeing them tortured may hit you harder than a documentary about actual animals being tortured. The villain and his fascist god complex makes for one of the scariest and most despicable bad guys in the Marvel canon, and Rocket’s story is inspiring like few other ones. Also with Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Sean Gunn, Elizabeth Debicki, Nico Santos, Miriam Shor, Sarah Alami, Nathan Fillion, Daniela Melchior, Michael Rosenbaum, and Sylvester Stallone. Additional voices by Vin Diesel, Maria Bakalova, Judy Greer, Mikaela Hoover, Asim Chaudhry, Seth Green, and Linda Cardellini.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (PG-13) The CGI magic that makes Harrison Ford look like he’s in his late 30s in this film’s extended prologue is as good as it gets, unfortunately. After that, this last installment in the series fails to recapture the magic, with Indy and his British goddaughter (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) trying to prevent some unreconstructed Nazis from obtaining a time-travel device in 1969. James Mangold takes over the director’s chair from Steven Spielberg, and it’s nowhere near the job he did on Logan, another last ride for a movie hero that was far more moving. The picture is full of empty fanservice, saddles Indy with another cute-kid sidekick, and sands away everything that makes Waller-Bridge interesting or funny. The climactic time-travel sequence feels like it was much crazier on the page than it is on the screen, too. Also with Karen Allen, Toby Jones, Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook, Thomas Kretschmann, Ethann Isidore, Nasser Memarzia, Shaunette Reneé Wilson, John Rhys-Davies, and Antonio Banderas.
Insidious: The Red Door (PG-13) Death comes too late for the horror series. Picking up from the movie 10 years ago, it begins with Patrick Wilson’s paranormal researcher and his son undergoing hypnosis to forget the events they just experienced. Funny, I managed to forget those things entirely without any hypnosis. In the present day, the now-teenage boy (Ty Simpkins) goes off to college and starts experiencing visions of his repressed memories. The movie plays like a drama about a kid experiencing growing pains on his own, and the horror elements don’t fit in with that story at all. Wilson also makes his directing debut here, and it’s not a promising one. The final installment of the series fails to bring any sort of closure. Also with Lin Shaye, Sinclair Daniel, Andrew Astor, Steve Coulter, Leigh Whannell, Peter Dager, Joseph Bishara, Hiam Abbass, and Rose Byrne.
Joy Ride (R) For too long, Asian women in movies have been cast as exotic playthings for white men. That stereotype receives a long-overdue explosion in this comedy about four American friends (Ashley Park, Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola, and Sabrina Wu) who have tons of sexual misadventures on a business trip to China. Screenwriter Adele Lim (Crazy Rich Asians) makes an assured debut as a director, even if she does run into trouble near the end as the movie tries to resolve all its complications. Just savor the culturally specific gags and outrageous set pieces like the women attempting to sneak through customs disguised as a K-pop girl group. It shouldn’t have taken almost 20 years after Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle for Asian-American women to get their own raunchy sex comedy, but this fully warrants the comparison to that classic. Also with Ronny Chieng, Timothy Simons, Meredith Hagner, Desmond Chiam, Chris Pang, Baron Davis, David Denman, Annie Mumolo, and Daniel Dae Kim.
The Little Mermaid (PG) Halle Bailey is one of the highlights of this live-action Disney musical remake, so all the racist Ron DeSantis fanboys can suck it. She may not have the phrasing of Jodi Benson from the original 1989 movie, but her voice sports some otherworldly colors that make her credible as a creature of mythology. She’s joined by Melissa McCarthy, turning Ursula into a glorious high-camp villain, and Daveed Diggs, who provides the voice of Sebastian and manages some sly and ingratiating performances of the most familiar songs. If only director Rob Marshall (Chicago, but then again, Mary Poppins Returns) had matched their innovation. The numbers too often lack flair, and the changes to the story don’t amount to a reinvention. The new songs (by original composer Alan Menken and new lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda) don’t make much of an impression, either. See this for the performances. Also with Javier Bardem, Jonah Hauer-King, Noma Dumezweni, Art Malik, Jessica Alexander, and Jodi Benson. Additional voices by Jacob Tremblay and Awkwafina.
Maaveeran (NR) Sivakarthikeyan stars in this Indian thriller as a comic-book artist whose own superhero characters inspire him to take on corrupt politicians. Also with Aditi Shankar, Monisha Blessy, Mysskin, Sunil, Saritha, and Yogi Babu.
The Miracle Club (PG-13) About as exciting as week-old soda bread, this dramedy set in a cozy Irish town in 1967 features three local housewives (Kathy Bates, Maggie Smith, and Agnes O’Casey) winning an all-expense pilgrimage to Lourdes while another woman (Laura Linney) who has spent the last 40 years in exile in America pays her own way to the Catholic shrine. Cue some toothless carping about traveling abroad and some equally defanged drama when their decades-buried grudges come back to the surface. First-time director Thaddeus O’Sullivan moves this along briskly enough, but the writing and acting here doesn’t offer anything distinctive, which is pretty amazing given the caliber of the cast. Also with Mark O’Halloran, Mark McKenna, Niall Buggy, and Stephen Rea.
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One (PG-13) A thrilling burst of relevance hits this series just as it’s winding down. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team try to track down a sentient AI that can corrupt any online data, meaning that neither they nor the people chasing them can trust anything they see or hear on the internet. Hayley Atwell joins the series as a high-class pickpocket who unwittingly works her way into the spy plot, and she’s a great pickup for the franchise, as she gets to play a devious character who’s living high off her ill-gotten gains. The action set pieces remain strong, with an extended chase through the airport in Abu Dhabi and a car chase in Rome that strikes a new and welcome note of farce. The series’ escapism has just enough real-world issues here to become newly bracing. Also with Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Henry Czerny, Shea Whigham, Pom Klementieff, Greg Tarzan Davis, Mark Gatiss, Indira Varma, Rob Delaney, and Cary Elwes.
No Hard Feelings (R) Jennifer Lawrence has never been funnier than in this comedy about a self-destructive woman in Montauk whose desperate financial straits lead her to take a rich couple’s offer to deflower their 19-year-old son (Andrew Barth Feldman). Director/co-writer Gene Stupnitsky (Good Boys) misses his chance to comment on the nature of sex work from the point of view of someone who’s making their first foray into the field. The reason to watch this is Lawrence, whose physicality spills all over the screen whether she’s attempting a clumsy striptease for the kid or trying to navigate everywhere on rollerblades because her car has been repossessed. She’s born to play these highly sexed women whose confusion and pain are hilarious. Don’t miss her full-frontal nudity during a hilarious fight sequence on a beach. Also with Matthew Broderick, Natalie Morales, Scott MacArthur, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Kyle Mooney, Hasan Minhaj, and Laura Benanti.
Psycho-Pass: Providence (R) This Japanese anime film is about a future law-enforcement agent (voiced by Kana Hanazawa) who receives a tip about a terrorist plot unfolding aboard a foreign vessel. Additional voices by Noriko Hidaka, Yûichi Nakamura, Yûki Kaji, Takako Honda, and Shizuka Itô.
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (PG) This watchable and forgettable animated film is about a teenager (voiced by Lana Condor) who discovers that her parents have hidden her ancestry from her, and that she’s descended from a royal family of undersea creatures who protect the world from villainous mermaids. The occasionally cringey jokes are made up for by some clever visual gags, and the voice cast includes Toni Collette as Ruby’s mother and Jane Fonda as her grandmother who breaks the news to Ruby. Only during the last third, when the family has to save the world, does the movie lose its charm. It’s never unpleasant, though. Additional voices by Colman Domingo, Blue Chapman, Jaboukie Young-White, Liza Koshy, Ramona Young, Eduardo Franco, Sam Richardson, Annie Murphy, and Will Forte.
Samajavaragamana (NR) This Indian romantic comedy stars Sree Vishnu, Reba Monica, Naresh, Vennela Kishore, Sudarshan, Raghu Babu, and Rajeev Kanakala.
Sound of Freedom (PG-13) This thriller probably works best for those people who see pedophiles lurking around every corner. For the rest of us, it’s somehow overheated and too slow at the same time. Jim Caviezel plays a heroic Homeland Security agent who quits his job and sets up a full-time operation in Colombia to bust a child sex trafficking operation. He’s flat as usual in the role, and the movie is stolen away by Bill Camp as an American who pretends to be a pedophile so he can buy children from the traffickers and then set them free. He’s the only person who feels like he’s inhabiting a character instead of acting as a mouthpiece for some seriously paranoid filmmakers. Also with Mira Sorvino, Scott Haze, José Zúñiga, Eduardo Verástegui, Gary Basaraba, Manny Perez, and Kurt Fuller.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (PG-13) A treat for the eyes. The sequel to Into the Spider-Verse has three new directors, and has lost none of the innovation that made the first film such a delight. When Gwen Stacy (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) pays an unsanctioned visit to Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore), it sets off a series of dominoes that threaten to unravel the multiverse and/or kill Miles’ dad (voiced by Brian Tyree Henry). This second film ends on a cliffhanger that sets up a third movie, so the story is incomplete. Never mind that, though. The movie gleefully drags Miles through universe after universe each with its different drawing style, and the animation allows for crazier hijinks than the live-action Spider-Man films can have. The inventiveness might be wearying if not for the movie stopping every so often for storylines that forebode tragedy. There’s also an argument between two characters about Jeff Koons’ art. I can’t wait to see what the third chapter brings. Additional voices by Oscar Isaac, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Luna Lauren Velez, Karan Soni, Shea Whigham, Greta Lee, Andy Samberg, Jharrel Jerome, Jack Quaid, Jorma Taccone, Jack Quaid, Rachel Dratch, Ziggy Marley, Donald Glover, Kathryn Hahn, Amandla Stenberg, J.K. Simmons, Mahershala Ali, and Daniel Kaluuya.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (PG) The video game series depended heavily on its gameplay rather than its story for its success, and the animated movie version succeeds by letting the characters be themselves. Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) is sucked into the Mushroom Kingdom, but instead of rescuing Princess Peach (voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy), he has to enlist her help to rescue his brother Luigi (voiced by Charlie Day). The star-studded voice cast rises to the challenge, and the action of the film imitates the gameplay without overexplaining things. Perhaps the characters could use a bit of fleshing out, but the movie doesn’t try to do too much. Additional voices by Jack Black, Seth Rogen, Keegan-Michael Key, Fred Armisen, Khary Payton, Juliet Jelenic, and Sebastian Maniscalco. — Cole Williams
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (PG-13) The franchise returns to its tedious roots with this installment set in 1994. The Autobots and a new race of transforming robots have to save the Earth from being swallowed up by a planet-eater (voiced by Colman Domingo), enlisting the help of an unemployed ex-soldier (Anthony Ramos) and a museum researcher (Dominique Fishback). The script has a few good lines related to the setting, which makes it an improvement on the old Michael Bay movies. It also depicts Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) as a big wet blanket, but it loses the playful spirit of Bumblebee. The story takes forever to get our heroes to recover the magic thingy that the plot revolves around, and everything feels labored. I was expecting so much more. Also with Luna Lauren Velez, Dean Scott Vazquez, and Tobe Nwigwe. Additional voices by Peter Dinklage, Pete Davidson, Ron Perlman, Cristo Fernández, Liza Koshy, MJ Rodriguez, and Michelle Yeoh.
DALLAS EXCLUSIVES
The Channel (NR) This action-thriller is about a group of Marines-turned-bank robbers who flee law enforcement after a job gone wrong. Starring Clayne Crawford, Max Martini, Paul Rae, Michael Thomas, Ava Justin, Todd Jenkins, Juliene Joyner, and Scott Phillips.
The Flood (R) Brandon Slagle’s horror-thriller is about a mass prison break during a hurricane in Louisiana that’s interrupted by a flock of starving alligators. Starring Casper Van Dien, Nicky Whelan, Louis Mandylor, Randy Wayne, Ryan Francis, Devanny Pinn, and Kim DeLonghi.
