OPENING
Abigail (R) The latest horror-comedy by Radio Silence (Ready or Not) is about a group of criminals who kidnap a little girl (Alisha Weir) for ransom only to discover that she’s a vampire. Also with Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Kevin Durand, William Catlett, Giancarlo Esposito, and the late Angus Cloud. (Opens Friday)
Alibaba Aani Chalishitale Chor (NR) This Marathi-language comedy is a modern-day update of the story of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. Starring Subodh Bhave, Mukta Barve, Umesh Kamat, Anand Ingale, and Madhura Welankar Satam. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Ameena (NR) Rekha Rana stars in this drama as a girl from Hyderabad who becomes a victim of human trafficking. Also with Anant Mahadevan, Utkarsh Kohli, Kumar Raj, Sharad Sharma, and Kishan Kumar Pawar. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Blood for Dust (R) Scoot McNairy stars in this thriller as a traveling salesman whose chance encounter with an old friend (Kit Harington) results in him becoming a drug courier. Also with Josh Lucas, Ethan Suplee, Nora Zehetner, Chris Mullinax, Amber Rose Mason, and Stephen Dorff. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Bob Marley: One Love (PG-13) This biography only pays lip service to the idea that Bob Marley might have been a complicated human being, and instead reduces him to a saintly messenger of peace and love. Kingsley Ben-Adir plays the reggae music legend during a three-year span of his life that includes his survival of an assassination attempt in Jamaica and his cancer diagnosis. The British actor from One Night in Miami and Barbie, Ben-Adir does more than imitate Marley’s onstage mannerisms and Jamaican accent. While his singing is dubbed by Stephen Marley, he conveys the sense of a musician listening to his colleagues and reacting to them. Sadly, the Marley family’s involvement means that the film glosses over the man’s capacity for physical violence and extramarital affairs. Also with Lashana Lynch, Tosin Cole, Anthony Welsh, James Norton, Umi Myers, Alexx A-Game, Naomi Cowan, Micheal Ward, and Michael Gandolfini. (Re-opens Friday)
Carol Doda Topless at the Condor (R) Marlo McKenzie and Jonathan Parker’s documentary profiles the San Francisco dancer who became a famous topless dancer in the 1960s. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Chicken for Linda! (NR) This French-Italian animated musical is about a mother (voiced by Mélinée Leclerc) who tries to make chicken with peppers for her daughter for the first time. Additional voices by Clotilde Hesme, Laetitia Dosch, Patrick Pineau, Jean-Marie Fonbonne, and Pietro Sermonti. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Do Aur Do Pyaar (NR) This Indian romantic comedy stars Vidya Balan, Pratik Gandhi, Ileana D’Cruz, and Sendhil Ramamurthy. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Hard Miles (PG-13) This sports film is based on the true story of Greg Townsend (Matthew Modine), a social worker who takes a group of teen convicts on a 1,000-mile bike ride. Also with Sean Astin, Jackson Kelly, Leslie David Baker, Jahking Guillory, Cynthia Kaye McWilliams, Emily Kincaid, and Jesus Venegas. (Opens Friday)
Housekeeping for Beginners (R) Goran Stolevski’s Macedonian film stars Anamaria Marinca as a woman forced to raise her lesbian partner’s children after her partner dies. Also with Mia Mustafa, Samson Selim, Džada Selim, Alina Şerban, Sara Klimoska, and Irena Ristić. (Opens Friday)
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (R) Guy Ritchie’s latest thriller is based on the true story of the founding of Britain’s Special Operations Executive during World War II. Starring Henry Cavill, Cary Elwes, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Eiza González, Babs Olusanmokun, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Til Schweiger, James Wilby, Freddie Fox, Danny Sapani, Henrique Zaga, Henry Golding, and Rory Kinnear. (Opens Friday)
Parijatha Parvaam (NR) This Indian comedy is about two rival gangs who conspire to kidnap the same famous person. Starring Sunil, Shraddha Das, Chaitanya Rao Madadi, Malavika Satheesan, Viva Harsha, and Srikanth Aiyyengar. (Opens Friday)
Rajkumar (NR) Shakib Khan stars in this Indian film as a man struggling to reunite with his mother in America in the 1970s. Also with Mahiya Mahi, Courtney Coffey, Marie-Catherine Massie, and Richard Sanchez. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Refuge (NR) This film stars Jason Flemyng as a traumatized war veteran who comes home a danger to his family. Also with Sophie Simnett, Raza Jaffrey, Johanna Harlin, Atanas Srebrev, Shervin Alenabi, and Max Kraus. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Spy x Family Code: White (NR) The latest anime adventure in the series features Anya (voiced by Atsumi Tanizaki and Megan Shipman) trying to win a cooking contest to save her family’s espionage unit. Additional voices by Takuya Eguchi, Alex Organ, Saori Hayami, Natalie van Sistine, Natsumi Fujiwara, Dani Chambers, Emiri Kato, and Noucky Andriansyah. (Opens Friday)
The Three Musketeers — Part II: Milady (NR) The second part of this adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ novel has D’Artagnan (François Civil) teaming up with Milady de Winter (Eva Green) to save the woman he loves (Lyna Khoudri). Also with Vincent Cassel, Pio Marmaï, Romain Duris, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Vicky Krieps, and Louis Garrel. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Villains Incorporated (PG-13) This comedy is about a group of grocery store employees (Mallory Everton, Jason Gray, and Colin Mochrie) who decide to take over the world in honor of their late boss. Also with Billy Mann, Jeff Bryan Davis, Joe Bereta, Gabriel Casdorph, and Stacey Harkey. (Opens Friday)
NOW PLAYING
Aavesham (NR) This Indian action-comedy is about three new students in Bangalore who enlist a mobster (Fahadh Faasil) to help them get back at their bullies. Also with Ashish Vidyarthi, Sajin Gopu, and Mansoor Ali Khan.
Arthur the King (PG-13) Mark Wahlberg stars in this Americanized drama based on the real-life story of a Swedish adventure racer who picked up and adopted a stray dog while trekking with his team over 500 miles of rough terrain in the Dominican Republic. The film has some breathtaking shots of the rainforest and a great sequence where our protagonist and one of his teammates (Nathalie Emmanuel) become stuck on the cable while ziplining over a chasm. This, though, can’t help the story escape the formula of big-time movie star + cute dog. The film’s stretches of watchability don’t compensate for its unbearable moments. Also with Simu Liu, Juliet Rylance, Ali Suliman, Cece Valentina, Oscar Best, Paul Guilfoyle, and Bear Grylls.
Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (NR) Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff star in this thriller as two Indian agents trying to prevent a supervillain (Prithviraj Sukumaran) from using AI to destroy their country. Also with Manushi Chhillar, Alaya F, Ronit Bose Roy, and Manish Chaudhari.
Crew (NR) Tabu, Kareena Kapoor Khan, and Kriti Sanon star in this Indian comedy as three international flight attendants who are frustrated with their job when their boss suddenly dies in mid-flight and they discover gold bars strapped to his body. Rather than steal the gold for themselves, they find out who was supplying him with the gold and take over his job smuggling the stuff out of India. The heist plot is done quite well when the movie can be bothered with it, especially the part with the women melting down the gold into balls, dipping them in chocolate, and disguising them as foil-wrapped truffles. However, there’s too much extraneous musical numbers and dull romance getting in the way. Also with Diljit Dosanjh, Rajesh Sharma, Saswata Chatterjee, Kapil Sharma, and Kulbhushan Kharbanda.
Dune: Part Two (PG-13) Not only a better movie than the first part, this sequel makes the original look better in retrospect. Timothée Chalamet reprises his role as the scion of a fallen family who takes up with revolutionaries to help them overthrow their oppressors, while also wrestling with the widely held belief that he’s the chosen one sent to liberate them. The supporting characters come off as more rounded, and while Chalamet is swallowed up for much of the film, he takes charge unambiguously and disturbingly when he goes full cult leader to rally the natives in their climactic battle. Denis Villeneuve does not disappoint in the movie’s two big set pieces, and the movie says some keen things about the advantages and booby traps of religious faith. The film features great turns by Austin Butler as a shaven-headed psychopathic villain and Zendaya as the love interest who is cruelly betrayed. Also with Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Josh Brolin, Léa Seydoux, Charlotte Rampling, Stellan Skarsgård, Roger Yuan, Babs Olusanmokun, and an uncredited Anya Taylor-Joy.
The First Omen (R) This piece of nunsploitation is a fine horror film on its own, and its weakest points are where it joins up with the 1976 movie that it’s a prequel to. The awesomely named Nell Tiger Free stars as an American nun who comes to Rome to take holy orders and instead becomes impregnated with Satan’s spawn. On her first feature, director/co-writer Arkasha Stevenson shows some tantalizing talent behind the camera, creating striking visuals and drawing creditable performances out of much of her cast. Also with Sonia Braga, Nicole Sorace, Ralph Ineson, Tawfeek Barhom, Maria Caballero, Ishtar Currie-Wilson, Andrea Arcangeli, Charles Dance, and Bill Nighy.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (PG-13) Hate to say it, but it’s the old Ghostbusters (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson) who do the most to drag down this fifth film in the series. The family from the previous film relocates from Oklahoma to New York City and the Ghostbusters’ old firehouse headquarters, and the move does nothing for the story, nor do the characters acclimate to the place in an interesting way. The most interesting plotline has 15-year-old Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) befriending a sullen teenage ghost (Emily Alyn Lind), but there are too many plotlines going on in this scattered film, and the supernatural hijinks don’t sing like they used to. The supporting cast is packed with added talent, but this movie feels like the smallest of the franchise. Also with Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Annie Potts, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Logan Kim, Celeste O’Connor, and William Atherton.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (PG-13) At this point, why bother with the humans at all? Just have the massive beasts act out the drama, and we won’t miss the dialogue. King Kong and Godzilla are awakened by a new threat to life on Earth, which forces our scientists (Rebecca Hall and Brian Tyree Henry) to undertake a journey into uncharted reaches of the hollow Earth. Dan Stevens turns up as a veterinary dentist with an Australian accent, Hawaiian shirt, and blond highlights, and he’s the only one who’s remotely having fun. Everything else is swallowed up by the special effects. It’s all just exquisitely boring. Also with Kaylee Hottle, Fala Chen, Alex Ferns, Rachel House, and Greg Hatton.
Imaginary (PG-13) A bunch of interesting emotional beats don’t add up to anything memorable in this horror film. DeWanda Wise portrays a children’s book author who moves back into her childhood home only to find her imaginary friend still haunting the place and angry that she left. The oldest stepdaughter (Taegen Burns) hates the new place, the younger one (Pyper Braun) may be in danger of being possessed by the playmate via a stuffed teddy bear, and both the girls’ biological mother and the stepmother’s father are in mental institutions. For all this, the movie isn’t scary, and director/co-writer Jeff Wadlow can’t tie up these plot threads into a resonant story. Wise is a bland presence in the lead role, too. Also with Tom Payne, Matthew Sato, Samuel Salary, Alix Angelis, Veronica Falcón, and Betty Buckley.
Immaculate (R) Sydney Sweeney goes from her typical sexy roles to playing a Catholic nun in this horror film, and does enough to prove her chops. Her character is a Detroit native who takes holy orders in Rome, only for everyone to discover that she’s mysteriously pregnant despite being a virgin. Irish filmmaker Michael Mohan imitates the opulence of Black Narcissus rather than the grit of The Exorcist in filming the 17th-century Italian abbey where our heroine lives and works. The plot is riddled with holes, but the conspiracy motivating her caretakers/jailers turns out to be even crazier than The Da Vinci Code. The single-take final scene where she finally gives birth to whatever’s inside her is a bravura piece of acting by the young lead actress. Also with Álvaro Morte, Dora Romano, Simona Tabasco, Benedetta Porcaroli, Giorgio Colangeli, Giampiero Judica, Giuseppe Lo Piccolo, and Giulia Heathfield Di Renzi.
Kung Fu Panda 4 (PG) If this is the last installment of the animated series, it’s ending at the right time. Po (voiced by Jack Black) has to choose a successor for the title of Dragon Warrior while also teaming up with a street criminal of a fox (voiced by Awkwafina) to take down a villainous chameleon (voiced by Viola Davis) who wishes to steal the souls and kung fu skills of every villain Po has ever faced. The martial arts sequences are still well-filmed and capture stunts that couldn’t be done by human performers, but the wit in the script and the humor in the original premise have leaked away over the years. The film still has a few cinematic references to Stephen Chow’s films and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but it’s time for the warrior panda to lay down his weapons and spend his retirement eating all the dumplings he wants. Additional voices by Dustin Hoffman, Bryan Cranston, James Hong, Ian McShane, Lori Tan Chinn, Ronny Chieng, Seth Rogen, Harry Shum Jr., and Ke Huy Quan.
Late Night With the Devil (R) This found-footage horror film made $666,666 at the box office on the Sunday that it opened, and it deserves considerably more. The movie purports to be the lost footage of a 1977 live TV talk show whose desperate host (David Dastmalchian) invites a girl (Ingrid Torelli) on the show who might be demonically possessed. Australian brothers and filmmakers Cameron and Colin Cairnes have their American pop culture references in line, which helps to preserve the illusion that we’re watching a talk show from the period. The black-and-white interludes supposedly showing us the behind-the-scenes footage at the show is too smooth by half, but the fakery involved in creating the show itself is amazing. Often cast as creepy types in Hollywood, Dastmalchian here looks in his element mugging through corny comedy sketches and then becoming a figure of pathos. Also with Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Rhys Auteri, Josh Quong Tart, Steve Mouzakis, and Georgina Haig. Narrated by Michael Ironside.
The Long Game (PG) This film is based on the true story of five Mexican golf caddies who built their own course in South Texas in the 1950s. Starring Jay Hernandez, Dennis Quaid, Gillian Vigman, Brett Cullen, Oscar Nuñez, Julian Works, José Julián, Gregory Diaz IV, and Cheech Marin.
Mahajatra (NR) This Nepalese thriller is about a group of friends who find and hide an illegal cache of money. Starring Hari Bansha Acharya, Bipin Karki, Rabindra Singh Baniya, Rabindra Jha, Barsha Raut, and Divya Dev.
Monkey Man (R) Dev Patel stars in his own directing debut, an ass-kicking action-thriller that’s heavily stylized in a John Wick sort of way, but the more interesting stuff is around the edges. He stars as a wrestling heel in an underground Mumbai fight club who’s taking aim at a conspiracy of sex traffickers, crooked cops, a power-mad Hindu guru (Makarand Deshpande), and a Narendra Modi-like candidate for prime minister. That last bit is probably why the film has yet to be released in India, as Modi’s government would certainly bristle at this movie’s show of poverty in the country and sympathetic depiction of hijras (an accepted third gender in Indian culture). Still, Patel’s long-striding presence dominates the fight sequences, and his combination of Western techniques with Indian subject matter creates something spine-tinglingly new. Also with Sobhita Dhulipala, Sikandar Kher, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, Ashwini Kalsekar, Aditi Kalkunte, Zakir Hussain, and Sharlto Copley.
Someone Like You (PG-13) A snoozefest. Jake Allyn plays a man whose best friend (Sarah Fisher) gets sick and dies, and then discovers that she has a separated-at-birth sister (Fisher again) whom he falls in love with. It should be the platform for some lathery drama, but instead it gives way to predictable story beats and dull acting. Even the Hallmark Channel would reject this as being too white-bread. Also with Lynn Collins, Robyn Lively, Bart Johnson, Scott Reeves, Austin Robert Russell, Mary Marguerite Hall, and Brandon Hirsch.
Sting (R) This Australian entry just manages to inject some freshness into the killer-spider horror movie. Alyla Browne portrays a 12-year-old girl in a snowed-in New York who finds a spider in her grandma’s apartment, takes it in as a pet, and watches it grow to enormous dimensions and start eating the other tenants. Writer-director Kiah Roache-Turner fills the corners of the story with interesting details, but it doesn’t add up to a smart commentary on the conventions of killer spider movies and only allows the heroine’s stepfather (Ryan Corr) to prove his worth to the family. It perhaps doesn’t make a trip to the theater worthwhile, but if you should happen to find it crawling across your living room floor, you’ll find it an interesting specimen. Also with Jermaine Fowler, Penelope Mitchell, Noni Hazlehurst, Danny Kim, Silvia Colloca, and Robyn Nevin.
Varshangalkku Shesham (NR) This comedy stars Pranav Mohanlal and Dhyan Sreenivasan as two young men in the 1970s who leave home to get jobs in the film industry in Madras. Also with Kalyani Priyadarshan, Basil Joseph, Aju Varghese, Nivin Pauly, Neeraj Madhav, Visakh Subramaniam, and Vineeth Sreenivasan.
Wicked Little Letters (R) For all the profanity in this British comedy, it still isn’t nasty enough. Olivia Colman plays a prim Christian spinster in a small Sussex seaside town in the 1920s who starts receiving anonymous letters in the mail filled with vicious insults, and the suspicion immediately falls on the foul-mouthed Irish widowed mother (Jessie Buckley) who lives next door. The acting is irreproachable, especially from Colman as a case study in poorly repressed rage and Anjana Vasan as a South Asian police officer who thinks there’s more to the case. Somehow, though, the drama is too buttoned-up and too British to ever truly take flight. The cast deserved a director unafraid to cut loose, but Thea Sharrock isn’t that person. Also with Timothy Spall, Joanna Scanlan, Paul Chahidi, Hugh Skinner, Lolly Adefope, Tim Key, Malachi Kirby, Alisha Weir, Jason Watkins, Gemma Jones, and Eileen Atkins.
DALLAS EXCLUSIVES
A Bit of Light (NR) Anna Paquin stars in this drama as an alcoholic mother forced to move back in with her parents after losing custody of her children. Also with Ray Winstone, Youssef Kerkour, Pippa Bennett-Warner, and Luca Hogan.
La Chimera (NR) Alice Rohrwacher’s drama stars Josh O’Connor as an English ex-convict in Italy who’s eager to resume his previous career smuggling historical artifacts out of the country. Also with Alba Rohrwacher, Carol Duarte, Vincenzo Nemolato, Lou Roy-Lecollinet, Giuliano Mantovani, Gian Piero Capretto, and Isabella Rossellini.
The Greatest Hits (PG-13) This romantic comedy stars Lucy Boynton as a woman who discovers that certain songs literally transport her back in time. Also with Justin H. Min, David Corenswet, Rory Keane, Austin Crute, Andie Ju, Tom Yi, and Retta.
LaRoy, Texas (NR) John Magaro stars in this action-comedy as a suicidal small-town Texan who’s mistaken for a hitman. Also with Steve Zahn, Galadriel Stineman, Matthew Del Negro, Brad Leland, Megan Stevenson, and Dylan Baker.
