OPENING
Afire (NR) This German drama by Christian Petzold (Phoenix) is about a group of friends whose summer vacation is threatened by a forest fire. Starring Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Enno Trebs, Langston Uibel, and Matthias Brandt. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
The Baker (R) Ron Perlman stars in this thriller as an ex-gangster who must protect his estranged family when his son (Joel David Moore) is in debt to the mob. Also with Elias Koteas, Emma Ho, Amber Ashley Smith, Samantha Kaine, and Harvey Keitel. (Opens Friday)
The Beanie Bubble (R) This comedy stars Zach Galifianakis as Ty Warner, the real-life failed businessman behind the Beanie Baby craze of the 1990s. Also with Elizabeth Banks, Geraldine Viswanathan, Callie Johnson, Kurt Yaeger, Tracey Bonner, and Sarah Snook. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Bro (NR) Pawan Kalyan and Sai Dharam Tej star in this Indian comedy about a man given a temporary reprieve from death to set his family affairs in order. Also with Priya Prakash Varrier, Ketika Sharma, Brahmanandam, Subbaraju, Abhimanyu Singh, and Urvashi Rautela. (Opens Friday)
Circus Maximus (NR) Co-directed by Harmony Korine, Gaspar Noé, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Travis Scott, this concert film is a companion piece to Scott’s album Utopia. (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 in Dallas)
The Essential Church (PG-13) This Christian drama is about three pastors trying to keep in-person worship at their church during the Covid lockdown. Starring Scott W. Atlas, Voddie Baucham Jr., Jay Bhattacharya, Gary Brady, and Jenna Ellis. (Opens Friday)
The First Slam Dunk (PG-13) This Japanese anime film is about a 17-year-old boy (voiced by Shugo Nakamura in the Japanese version and Paul Castro Jr. in the English-dubbed version) who tries to honor his deceased older brother by becoming a basketball star. Additional voices by Maaya Sakamoto, Abby Espiritu, Tetsu Inada, Asami Seto, Kelsey Jaffer, Masafumi Kobatake, Luis Bermudez, Kenta Miyake, and Huxley Westermeister. (Opens Friday)
Haunted Mansion (PG-13) Another corporate conglomerate turns over a beloved property to a smart and inventive independent filmmaker, and if this isn’t as good as Barbie, at least it’s better than the 2003 movie from the Disney ride. Rosario Dawson plays a single mother who buys a New Orleans mansion, finds out that it’s haunted, and hires a tour guide (LaKeith Stanfield), a priest (Owen Wilson), a medium (Tiffany Haddish), and a history professor (Danny DeVito) to exorcise her house. The Big Easy setting offers up some promise, and the cast and director Justin Simien are well suited to the comedy elements in this movie. The horror elements, on the other hand, don’t work at all, and the ending is a complete botch job. The tone of this thing is all over the place, and the enticing talent here deserves better than this mess. Also with Jamie Lee Curtis, Jared Leto, Chase W. Dillon, J.R. Adduci, Charity Jordan, Hasan Minhaj, Dan Levy, and an uncredited Winona Ryder. (Opens Friday)
Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (NR) This Indian romantic comedy stars Ranveer Singh as a brash Punjabi man who falls for a Bengali intellectual (Alia Bhatt). Also with Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Tota Roy Chowdhury, Janhvi Kapoor, and Varun Dhawan. (Opens Friday)
Sympathy for the Devil (NR) Joel Kinnaman stars in this supernatural thriller as a rideshare driver whose mysterious passenger (Nicolas Cage) takes him hostage. Also with Nancy Good, Burns Burns, Kaiwi Lyman, Rich Hopkins, and Oliver McCallum. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Theater Camp (PG-13) Molly Gordon and Ben Platt star in this mockumentary comedy as two teachers running a musical-theater summer camp for kids in upstate New York. Also with Noah Galvin, Jimmy Tatro, Ayo Edebiri, Nathan Lee Graham, Owen Thiele, Patti Harrison, Kyndra Sanchez, Donovan Colan, Bailee Bonick, Alexander Bello, Caroline Aaron, David Rasche, and Amy Sedaris. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
NOW PLAYING
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.
Barbie (PG-13) This philosophical statement about being a woman in present-day society is likely the strangest Hollywood blockbuster you’ll see all year, and much more than the crass corporate product it could have been. A perfectly pitched Margot Robbie plays a Barbie doll who has to travel from Barbie Land to our reality to discover why she’s having random thoughts about death. When Ken (Ryan Gosling) follows her into our reality, he likes the sight of men running everything and tries to turn Barbie Land into another patriarchy. All this takes place against a backdrop that’s wholly committed to Barbie-ness, with streets lined with life-size Barbie Dream Houses and more pink than you’ve ever seen in your life. If the storytelling loses a bit in its last third, the loose ends fit a story about the messiness of being a woman (or a man). This girly film is also thoughtful, complex, and funny, and will ensure that you never look at a Barbie doll the same way again. Also with America Ferrera, Arianna Greenblatt, Emma Mackey, Issa Rae, Beanie Feldstein, Simu Liu, Michael Cera, Will Ferrell, Kate McKinnon, Alexandra Shipp, Hari Nef, Sharon Rooney, Ritu Arya, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ncuti Gatwa, Nicola Coughlan, Emerald Fennell, Scott Evans, Scott Evans, Sharon Rooney, Ana Cruz Kayne, Rhea Perlman, and John Cena. Narrated by Helen Mirren.
Cobweb (R) A promising setup gives way to a botched ending in this horror film. Woody Norman portrays a kid who starts to hear a girl’s voice issuing from the walls in his house. She wants to be his friend, and he could use one, since his dad (Antony Starr) is abusing both him and his mom (Lizzy Caplan). The acting by the grown-ups makes this dysfunctional household come to uncanny life, with Starr injecting his angry rants with dad jokes and Caplan playing hysterical quite well. Oh, and the neighborhood is run-down and a little girl disappeared from the house down the street. Alas, the payoff doesn’t tie all these elements together in any satisfying way. Also with Cleopatra Coleman, Luke Busey, and Aleksandra Dragova.
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.
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.
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.
Oppenheimer (R) This three-hour biographical epic aims to evoke a single mood of guilt-wracked despair, and darned if Christopher Nolan doesn’t almost pull it off. Around the story of how J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) takes charge of the Manhattan project and builds the atomic bomb that ends the war, there are two interlocking framing stories about him trying to renew his security clearance while his former boss Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.) tries to be confirmed as the U.S. Commerce Secretary. Nolan gives us precious little time to catch our breath from the start as he toggles between timelines while the supporting characters around Oppenheimer largely get lost. Still, the framing stories snap together in a marvelous way, and the successful atomic bomb test is a splendid set piece. Inside this movie is a better, smaller film that’s trying to get out. Also with Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Matt Damon, Alden Ehrenreich, Josh Hartnett, Jason Clarke, Tony Goldwyn, Benny Safdie, James D’Arcy, Harry Groener, Tom Conti, David Krumholtz, Matthias Schweighöfer, Alex Wolff, Michael Angarano, David Dastmalchian, Dane DeHaan, Josh Peck, Jack Quaid, Gustaf Skarsgård, James Remar, Olivia Thirlby, Matthew Modine, Kenneth Branagh, Casey Affleck, and Gary Oldman.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The White Storm 3: Heaven or Hell (NR) This Hong Kong cop thriller is about an attempt to take down a Thai drug cartel. Starring Louis Koo, Alex Fong, Aaron Kwok, Gallen Lo, and Suet Lam.
