OPENING
All of Us Strangers (R) Based on Taichi Yamada’s novel, Andrew Haigh’s science-fiction romance is about a gay Englishman (Andrew Scott) who mysteriously meets his parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy), who died when he was a child. Also with Paul Mescal. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
The Beekeeper (R) As Jason Statham-shooting-people movies go, this one’s considerably less fun than some of the others. He plays a retired U.S. government hit man-turned-beekeeper who comes out of retirement after his employer (Phylicia Rashad) is scammed out of her life savings and kills herself. The best Statham is the one who’s allowed to flash his sense of humor, and director David Ayer (Suicide Squad) is entirely the wrong filmmaker to bring that out. Our hero kills a ton of bystanders without a thought for the collateral damage, and the film doesn’t have the wit to consider what that means. Weirdly, the only energy comes from Josh Hutcherson as the bratty tech CEO behind it all who radiates scorn for all the tougher and more powerful people around him. Also with Emmy Raver-Lampman, Bobby Naderi, David Witts, Taylor James, Don Gilet, Enzo Cilenti, Jemma Redgrave, Minnie Driver, and Jeremy Irons. (Opens Friday)
The Book of Clarence (PG-13) Jeymes Samuel (The Harder They Fall) writes and directs this religious satire about an Israelite (LaKeith Stanfield) in Roman times who decides to follow in Jesus’ footsteps by proclaiming himself the Messiah. Also with RJ Cyler, David Oyelowo, Omar Sy, Teyana Taylor, Michael Ward, Nicholas Pinnock, James McAvoy, and Benedict Cumberbatch. (Opens Friday)
Freud’s Last Session (PG-13) Anthony Hopkins stars in this biographical drama as the Austrian psychoanalyst who meets with author C.S. Lewis (Matthew Goode) to debate God’s existence. Also with Orla Brady, Jodi Balfour, Liv Lisa Fries, Pádraic Delaney, Tarek Bishara, Rhys Mannion, and Stephen Campbell Moore. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
I Did It My Way (NR) This Hong Kong thriller stars Lam Ka-Tung as an undercover cop who gets in too deep with a drug lord. Also with Andy Lau, Eddie Peng, Simon Yam, Liu Yase, Philip Keung, Kent Cheng, Hedwig Tam, and Suet Lam. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
LAX 2 Paris (NR) Carl Jackson writes, directs, and stars in his drama as a man whose marriage comes under strain during a flight to L.A. Also with Andrea McClew and Crystal Santos. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Memory (R) Michel Franco generally makes austere thrillers set in his native Mexico, so it’s a surprise to see him do this shaggy, intentionally ambiguous drama set in New York. Jessica Chastain plays a social worker who meets a man (Peter Sarsgaard) suffering early-onset dementia, and who just happens to have raped her when she was 12. Or so it seems to her, because the garden-variety unreliability of everyone’s memory casts everything into doubt. There’s a great performance by Chastain as a paranoid mother who overprotects her teenage daughter (Brooke TImber) and who sinks to the ground in despair when she realizes that her own mother still doesn’t believe her rape story after 30-plus years. Also with Merritt Wever, Elsie Fisher, Blake Baumgartner, Josh Charles, and Jessica Harper. (Opens Friday)
Soul (PG) Pixar’s Oscar-winning 2020 film is weakest when it tries to play to the kids and wonderful when it addresses grown-up issues. Jamie Foxx provides the voice of a middle-aged music teacher who temporarily dies and tries to come back to life to show the world his unrecognized talent as a jazz pianist. Unfortunately, he has to seek the help of an unborn soul (voiced by Tina Fey), and the comic partnership between the two never finds its footing. The film’s depiction of the afterlife lacks visual flair, too, but Jon Batiste’s music convinces us that our hero is a talented musician who hasn’t had his shot yet. The film’s view of why we are on this Earth is little less than sublime. Additional voices by Phylicia Rashad, Daveed Diggs, Wes Studi, Rachel House, Graham Norton, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Donnell Rawlings, Questlove, Fortune Feimster, June Squibb, Sakina Jaffrey, Zenobia Shroff, and an uncredited John Ratzenberger. (Opens Friday)
NOW PLAYING
Anyone But You (R) Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney are nimble comic actors in this romantic comedy that doesn’t merit their performances. They portray a couple who have a short-lived, acrimonious relationship in Boston, so when they reunite for a wedding in Australia, their friends try to get them together just so their bickering won’t ruin the ceremony. Eventually our main characters decide to feign a relationship, because this is a weak re-telling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Some of the set pieces do work, like when the guy strips naked after finding a giant spider in his pants, but even scenes like that and the appeal of the leads can’t make this into anything but a formulaic and overly glossy exercise. Also with Alexandra Shipp, Hadley Robinson, GaTa, Charlee Fraser, Joe Davidson, Bryan Brown, Michelle Hurd, Darren Barnett, Rachel Griffiths, and Dermot Mulroney.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (PG-13) The sequel tries to work in comedy interludes to take advantage of Jason Momoa’s ability to be funny, and these sometimes work, but director James Wan has never been one to integrate laughs into what he’s doing. Aquaman takes over double duties as king of the undersea realm and father to a baby and feels like he’s failing at both. When Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) discovers a lost undersea kingdom that can give him power to destroy the world, Aquaman has to break his brother (Patrick Wilson) out of prison to fight him. Wan retains his skill with action, and the climactic fight is quite well done, but the movie still feels like parts of two different movies stitched awkwardly together. Also with Amber Heard, Randall Park, Temuera Morrison, Martin Short, Indya Moore, Pilou Asbæk, Vincent Regan, Jani Zhao, Dolph Lundgren, and Nicole Kidman.
The Boy and the Heron (PG-13) If this is the last anime film by Hayao Miyazaki, the master’s hallucinatory powers are undiminished. Set during World War II, the story is about a boy (voiced by Soma Santoki in the Japanese-language version and Luca Padovan in the English-dubbed one) who wants to reunite with his dead mother and instead discovers a fantastical world through a talking gray heron (voiced by Masaki Suda and Robert Pattinson). Miyazaki gives us villainous clans of pelicans and parakeets for the boy hero to negotiate, and the voice cast for the English dub might just be the starriest that any Miyazaki film has received on our shores. The story does resolve itself rather too quickly, but the psychedelic visuals and world-building of Miyazaki is always glorious on the big screen. Additional voices by Aimyon, Karen Fukuhara, Yoshino Kimura, Gemma Chan, Shōhei Hino, Mark Hamill, Ko Shibasaki, Florence Pugh, Kaoru Kobayashi, Willem Dafoe, Jun Kunimura, Dave Bautista, Takuya Kimura, and Christian Bale.
The Boys in the Boat (PG-13) George Clooney’s sports drama is awfully plain, especially since he’s taking on a sport that doesn’t get much play in movies. Callum Turner stars as a homeless University of Washington student in the 1930s who joins the school’s rowing team, learns from a curmudgeonly coach (Joel Edgerton), and eventually competes in the 1936 Summer Olympics for Team USA. The cast full of unknowns fails to inject much personality into this, and this follows the template of sports movies so neatly that it’s rowing in lockstep. Even if you are a rowing fanatic, this won’t hold much for you. Also with James Wolk, Hadley Robinson, Sam Strike, Thomas Elms, Jack Mulhern, Luke Slattery, Bruce Herbelin-Earle, Chris DIamantopoulos, Peter Guinness, and Ian McElhinney.
The Color Purple (PG-13) A Hollywood studio hands a big-ticket item to an African director, and Blitz Bazawule does well enough with it to make you wonder why Tinseltown never tried it before. The film is based on the Broadway musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel, with Fantasia Barrino starring as a woman who spends more than 40 years waiting to hear from the sister she’s separated from. Neither the songs from the stage show nor the new ones written for the film are that impressive, so it’s fortunate that Bazawule finds such dramatic backdrops for the musical numbers. His cast is even better, with memorable singing and dancing performances coming from nine or ten actors, and Danielle Brooks is particularly grand as the heroine’s sister-in-law. If this movie misses the complexities in the novel, it makes up for that with exuberance and skill. Also with Taraji P. Henson, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., David Alan Grier, Deon Cole, Jon Batiste, Phylicia Pearl Mpasi, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Halle Bailey, Louis Gossett Jr., and an uncredited Whoopi Goldberg.
Ferrari (R) Michael Mann’s sports biography is as visually scrupulous and well-edited as his other movies, but something’s missing. Adam Driver portrays Enzo Ferrari as he tries to engineer a win for his racing team at the 1957 Mille Miglia while negotiating between his angry, childless wife (Penélope Cruz) and the mistress (Shailene Woodley) with whom he has a son. The racing sequences are done well, especially during the catastrophic sequences, but both Driver and Cruz have been better elsewhere, and the depiction of their adultery-ridden marriage never quite strikes a spark. As much effort as has been taken to capture Italy in the 1950s, the film feels curiously underwhelming. Also with Gabriel Leone, Sarah Gadon, Giuseppe Festinese, Derek Hill, Michele Savoia, Giuseppe Bonifati, Valentina Belle, Ben Collins, Jack O’Connell, and Patrick Dempsey.
Godzilla Minus One (PG-13) The latest film reboots the series from its origins, as the giant lizard appears off the coast of Japan a couple of years after World War II ends. A failed kamikaze pilot (Ryunosuke Kamiki) has to spearhead the fight to save Tokyo. Anime director Takashi Yamazaki makes a worthy live-action debut here, even if some of the emotional beats droop when Godzilla isn’t on the screen. It’s all worth seeing for the scenes of Godzilla on the rampage, and it’s done without the bombast of the Hollywood versions of this story. Also with Minami Hamabe, Sakura Ando, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, and Michael Arias.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (PG-13) In some ways better than the original set of films, this prequel stars Rachel Zegler as the heroine from District 12 and Tom Blyth as the future dictator of Panem who’s randomly assigned to mentor her. The film looks better than its predecessors, as holdover director Francis Lawrence seems more comfortable with the 1930s fascist-style decor. Amid a distinguished cast, Zegler proves worthy of her star turn, playing to the cameras, cracking jokes, evading attempts on her life, and singing bluegrass. The thing is lacking on the conceptual end, the conclusion is too drawn out, and the material with the ethically compromised hero’s family doesn’t amount to much more than an Easter egg. It’s still the most sustained piece of filmmaking in the series. Also with Viola Davis, Jason Schwartzman, Hunter Schafer, Fionnula Flanagan, Josh Andrés Rivera, Athena Strates, Ashley Liao, Mackenzie Lansing, Nick Benson, Isobel Jesper Jones, Dakota Shapiro, George Somner, Burn Gorman, and Peter Dinklage.
The Iron Claw (R) Zac Efron shows a newfound maturity in this movie dramatizing the curse of the Von Erich clan, the North Texas pro wrestling family hit by multiple tragedies in the 1980s. The real story is even more crushing than the film, which reduces the number of Von Erich brothers to streamline the story, and the movie still almost buckles from all the deaths in the family. It doesn’t partly because of the visual skill of director Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) and because of the acting, especially from Harris Dickinson as the most naturally talented Von Erich brother and Holt McCallany as the father whose rigid parenting style contributes to the tragedy. Efron’s eyes go numb as loss upon loss hits him. The film is a moving testament to the bonds of brotherhood that persist even after death. Also with Lily James, Jeremy Allen White, Stanley Simons, Michael J. Harney, Kevin Anton, Cazzey Louis Cereghino, Aaron Dean Eisenberg, and Maura Tierney.
Migration (PG) This rather perfunctory animated film is about a family of mallards that migrate south to Jamaica after the overprotective father (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani) has prevented his ducklings from leaving the pond. Truly nothing works here, not the scenes where the ducks finally take flight, not the detour when they hit a big city, and not the run-in with an evil chef who wants to serve them up with orange sauce. The amount of voice talent in the cast makes this disappointment all the sharper. The film is from Illumination Entertainment, and this film is even less memorable than some of the Despicable Me sequels. The feature comes packaged with a short film that spins off from Despicable Me, which only reminds us that the studio is capable of better. Additional voices by Elizabeth Banks, Tresi Gazal, Caspar Jennings, Awkwafina, Keegan-Michael Key, Carol Kane, Isabela Merced, and Danny DeVito.
Napoleon (R) Big, loud, dull, and mostly empty. Ridley Scott’s historical epic stars Joaquin Phoenix as the French gunnery sergeant who winds up conquering most of Europe in the early 1800s. The movie speeds through the highlights of his military career without bothering to take much deeper lessons from either the individual episodes of the larger arc of his life. Scott manages two good combat sequences during the battles of Toulon and Austerlitz, and Rupert Everett is cast well against type as the Duke of Wellington. Yet one of the key figures of 19th century history emerges as a charmless lump. The story’s emotional weight is supposed to rest on his romance with Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby), and the relationship is as passionless as the sex they have attempting to produce an heir. The story of an outsider who brought Europe’s monarchies to their knees has something to tell us, but this movie doesn’t find it. Also with Tahar Rahim, Paul Rhys, Mark Bonnar, Ben Miles, Riana Duce, Edouard Philipponat, Miles Jupp, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Ludivine Sagnier, and Catherine Walker.
Night Swim (PG-13) This horror film has the germ of an interesting idea but falls apart long before the end. A family moves into a suburban house that has a swimming pool that kills people. The interesting part is that the father (Wyatt Russell) is a baseball star who’s been struck down by multiple sclerosis, and he doesn’t want to leave because the water in the pool miraculously heals him. Bryce McGuire adapts this from his own short film, and though the aforementioned subplot is a nice stroke, the film isn’t near well-thought-out enough to transcend its clunky gimmick. Also with Amélie Hoeferle, Gavin Warren, Nancy Lenehan, Ben Sinclair, Jodi Long, Eddie Martinez, and Kerry Condon.
Noryang: Deadly Sea (NR) The last film in Kim Han-min’s trilogy of historical epics stars Kim Yoon-seok as Korean admiral Yi Sun-shin as he fights his last naval battle against the Japanese. Also with Jeong Jae-yeong, Yeo Jin-goo, Huh Joon-ho, Baek Yoon-seok, and Ahn Seong-bong.
Poor Things (R) This zany feminist take on the Frankenstein story has Emma Stone delivering the line, “I will keep my new life and my lovely old clitoris, thank you.” She plays a Victorian Englishwoman who is brought back to life after committing suicide, with her unborn baby’s brain transplanted into her body. Stone reunites with The Favourite director Yorgos Lanthimos, and this has the weirdness of some of his earlier Greek films. Stone gives her strangest and possibly greatest performance here, initially walking without control of her limbs and then doing a bizarre dance number in a Lisbon nightclub, and her performance makes this sex-positive story of a woman who fucks her way to wisdom and enlightenment into something credible. This lurid fantasia of sexual liberation packs some high comedy. Also with Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Yousseff, Jerrod Carmichael, Suzy Bemba, Kathryn Hunter, Vicki Pepperdine, Hanna Schygulla, Christopher Abbott, and Margaret Qualley.
Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé (NR) The pop music star directs this film of her own concert tour from this past summer. The performances are cut together, so sometimes the dancers wear different outfits while performing the same number. The film doesn’t have a thunderbolt that reveals what Beyoncé’s music is all about, and the star’s thoughts about balancing career and motherhood are nothing that you haven’t heard before. The movie’s main value lies in capturing the pop star in glorious voice (whether making beautiful sounds in “Flaws and All” or powering her way through “Drunk in Love”) and dancing imperiously despite her recent knee surgery. It’s all proof that your friends who saw the show and came back raving about it were not overselling it. Among the guest performances, 11-year-old Blue Ivy Carter steals the show, doing the dance moves with something of her mother’s stage presence. Also with Diana Ross, Kendrick Lamar, and Megan Thee Stallion.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (PG-13) You’ll likely be watching this in a packed theater with little girls running around and singing along with Taylor, but this movie is strong enough to hold up even if you see it on your smartphone by yourself six months from now. Sam Wrench’s concert documentary takes in Swift’s last performance from the first leg of her current concert tour, where she plays selections from all her previous albums. If you didn’t have the coin to pay your way in to her stadium show, this film showcases her deep understanding of stagecraft, her indefatigable energy, and her unforced chemistry with her fans. Maybe the moss-covered piano she plays on “Champagne Problems” is a bit much, but the show is full of wow moments like the mystical backdrop for “Willow” and the giant snake coiling around the stage to introduce the Reputation part of the program. Swift’s sturdy sense of songcraft underscores all of this. What more could you wish from a concert movie?
Trolls Band Together (PG) At this point, reuniting with *NSYNC is the best career move possible for Justin Timberlake. In this most watchable of the Trolls movies, his Branch is discovered to have four long-lost brothers (voiced by Eric André, Troye Sivan, Daveed Diggs, and Kid Cudi) with whom he used to be in a boy band. His attempt to save one of them leads Poppy (voiced by Anna Kendrick) to discover her own separated-at-birth sister (voiced by Camila Cabello), and Tiny Diamond (voiced by Kenan Thompson) asks, “Am I the only one without a long-lost sibling?” The movie doesn’t belabor any of its points too heavily and gives us an enjoyable batch of cover songs plus the first original *NSYNC song (“Better Place”) in more than 20 years. Nostalgia has given us worse than this. Additional voices by Amy Schumer, Andrew Rannells, Zooey Deschanel, Patti Harrison, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kunal Nayyar, Zosia Mamet, RuPaul, Ron Funches, Jungkook, Anderson .Paak, Lance Bass, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone, and Chris Kirkpatrick.
Wish (PG) Disney marks its centennial with this oh-so-forgettable animated musical about a girl (voiced by Ariana DeBose) in an enchanted kingdom who discovers that the benevolent king (voiced by Chris Pine) is convincing the citizens to give up their dearest wishes in exchange for the kingdom’s continued security and prosperity. The script lacks any wit or creative story developments, the songs by Benjamin Rice and Julia Michaels are too plain by half, and even the voice cast seems to be phoning it in. The montage of great characters from Disney’s past only serves to make this movie look worse. Additional voices by Alan Tudyk, Angelique Cabral, Natasha Rothwell, Jennifer Kumiyama, Ramy Youssef, Niko Vargas, Evan Peters, Harvey Guillén, and Victor Garber.
Wonka (PG) Timothée Chalamet’s performance as a younger version of Roald Dahl’s candymaker is more than good enough to carry this prequel through its wobblier patches. He arrives in the big city ready to make chocolate but instead is turned into an indentured servant by a shady landlady (Olivia Colman) and kept out of business by a cartel of evil chocolatiers (Paterson Joseph, Mathew Baynton, and Matt Lucas). Director/co-writer Paul King (from the Paddington movies) brings a much-welcomed light touch to the material, and the Oompa-Loompa (Hugh Grant) is handled about as dexterously as modern audiences could hope for. When Willy Wonka finally opens his chocolate shop and welcomes in his customers by singing “A World of Your Own,” that’s when the film truly takes on a magical quality. Also with Calah Lane, Tom Davis, Keegan-Michael Key, Jim Carter, Natasha Rothwell, Rich Fulcher, Rakhee Thakrar, Freya Parker, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Simon Farnaby, Rowan Atkinson, and Sally Hawkins.
DALLAS EXCLUSIVES
The Bastard Sons (NR) Kevin Interdonato writes, directs, and stars in this thriller about a group of small-time mobsters who try to avenge their boss’ death. Also with Charles Malik Whitfield, Frankie Edgar, Al Sapienza, Joseph Sernio, and Anastasia Ganias.
The Bricklayer (R) Aaron Eckhart stars in this thriller as a retired CIA agent who’s reactivated after an extortionist blackmails the agency. Also with Nina Dobrev, Tim Blake Nelson, Ilfenesh Hadera, Oliver Trevena, Ori Pfeffer, Akis Sakellariou, and Clifton Collins Jr.
He Went That Way (NR) Jeffrey Darling’s thriller is about an encounter between an animal trainer (Zachary Quinto) and a teenage serial killer (Jacob Elordi). Also with Patrick J. Adams, Alexandra Doke, John Lee Ames, Roman Arabia, Josh Archer, and Troy Evans.
Race for Glory: Audi vs. Lancia (R) This auto racing drama is based on the real-life rivalry between German and Italian racing teams at the 1983 Rally World Championships. Starring Daniel Brühl, Riccardo Scamarcio, Katie Clarkson-Hill, Volker Bruch, Carlotta Verny, Giulio Brizzi, and Esther Garrel.
Weak Layers (NR) Katie Burrell writes, directs, and stars in this comedy as one of a group of friends who try to win a skiing competition. Also with Jadyn Wong, Chelsea Conwright, Evan Jongkeit, Neal Bledsoe, and Charlie Manoukian.
