OPENING
Azrael (R) This dialogue-free horror film stars Samara Weaving as a young woman who fights to prevent herself from being made a human sacrifice by her primitive community. Also with Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Vic Carmen Sonne, Sebastian Bull, Eero Milonoff, Rea Lest, Phong Giang, Johhan Rosenberg, and Katariina Unt. (Opens Friday)
Bagman (PG-13) Sam Claflin stars in this horror film as a father who must protect his family from the child-snatching monster who pursued him as a boy. Also with Antonia Thomas, Caréll Rhoden, Steven Cree, Adelle Leonce, and William Hope. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Devara: Part 1 (NR) N.T. Rama Rao Jr. stars in this Indian epic about a sailor and his son who protect India against its enemies. Also with Saif Ali Khan, Janhvi Kapoor, Shruti Marathe, Prakash Raj, Srikanth, and Murali Sharma. (Opens Friday)
Empire Waist (PG-13) Claire Ayoub’s comedy is about a group of teenagers who decide to design fashions for people whose bodies don’t conform to traditional beauty standards. Starring Jemima Yuva, Mia Kaplan, Daisy Washington, Holly McDowell, Aric Floyd, Tabyana Ali, Missi Pyle, Jolene Purdy, and Rainn Wilson. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Escape From Extinction: Rewilding (NR) Matthew R. Brady’s documentary looks at efforts to restore entire ecosystems to avert environmental collapse. Narrated by Meryl Streep. (Opens Friday at Cinemark Ridgmar)
Faith of Angels (PG) This Christian film is about a stranger (J. Michael Finley) called by God to rescue a boy trapped in a mine. Also with Michael Bradford, Cameron Arnett, Kirby Heyborne, Jasen Wade, Ben Lomu, and Charlotte Hemmings. (Opens Friday)
Girls Will Be Girls (NR) This Indian drama stars Preeti Panigrahi as a 16-year-old girl coming of age sexually in a repressive family. Also with Kani Kusruti, Kesav Binoy Kiron, Kajol Chugh, Nandini Verma, Devika Shahani, Akash Pramanik, and Aman Desai. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Go for Broke (NR) This Chinese action film stars Nick Cheung as a civilian who seeks revenge on the drug kingpins who destroyed his family. Also with Ethan Juan, Sandrine Pinna, Marc Ma, Danny Kwok-Kwan Chan, Jack Kao, and Vithaya Pansringarm. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Haunted Heart (NR) This drama stars Aida Folch as a waitress at a Greek seaside restaurant who falls for the place’s American manager (Matt Dillon). Also with Juan Pablo Urrego, Kika Georgiou, Vassilis Halakatevakis, Polydoros Vogiatzis, Anthi Andreopoulou, Marina Argyropoulou, and Kostas Antalopoulos. (Opens Friday at Studio Movie Grill Chisholm Trail)
I, the Executioner (NR) A huge hit in South Korea, this action-comedy by Ryoo Seung-wan (Escape from Mogadishu) stars Hwang Jung-min as a police detective trying to bring down a mob boss protected by a wealthy family. Also with Jung Hae-in, Jang Yoon-ju, Jin Kyung, Jung Man-sik, Shin Seung-hwan, and Oh Dal-su. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Lee (R) Kate Winslet stars in this biography of fashion model-turned-war photographer Lee Miller. Also with Alexander Skarsgård, Andrea Riseborough, Josh O’Connor, Andy Samberg, Noémie Merlant, Arinzé Kene, James Murray, and Marion Cotillard. (Opens Friday)
The Lost Holliday (NR) The title is not a misprint. Jussie Smollett co-stars in and directs this comedy as a gay man who must deal with his late husband’s mother (Vivica A. Fox), who had no idea of her son’s homosexuality. Also with Jabari Redd, Marquise Vilson, Brittany S. Hall, Miriam A. Hyman, Leslie David Baker, and Gina Belafonte. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Megalopolis (R) Francis Ford Coppola’s film is about an artist (Adam Driver) who dreams of a utopian future for his futuristic city. Also with Aubrey Plaza, Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Kathryn Hunter, Balthazar Getty, James Remar, Chloe Fineman, Grace VanderWaal, D.B. Sweeney, Jon Voight, Shia LaBeouf, and Dustin Hoffman. (Opens Friday)
Meiyazhagan (NR) This Indian comedy-drama stars Karthi, Arvind Swamy, Sri Divya, Rajkiran, Swathi Konde, Devadarshini, Jayaprakash, and Sriranjani. (Opens Friday)
Notice to Quit (PG-13) This comedy stars Michael Zegen as a struggling New York actor who discovers the existence of a 10-year-old daughter (Kasey Bella Suarez) while dealing with a career change. Also with Nell Verlaque, Isabel Arraiza, Michael Angelo Covino, Leah Loftin, and Robert Klein. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Vindicating Trump (PG-13) Convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza’s latest documentary makes a case for the president who pardoned him being a great president. (Opens Friday)
The Wild Robot (PG) Not as good as the hype, but still good. Chris Sanders’ animated film is about a helper robot (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) that activates on an island devoid of humans and learns to communicate with the animals. The film is adapted from Peter Brown’s illustrated novel, and the animators do well to translate Brown’s simple drawings into a world of riotous colors and a robot that can change shape depending on the situation. The plot here has the robot having to take care of a baby gosling (voiced by Kit Connor), and on a story level, it doesn’t compare with either WALL-E or Big Hero 6 as a movie about a robot becoming more human by interacting with our world. Additional voices by Pedro Pascal, Mark Hamill, Catherine O’Hara, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames, Stephanie Hsu, and Bill Nighy. (Opens Friday)
NOW PLAYING
Alien: Romulus (R) Not as good as the first two movies in the series, but better than the last two. Some years after the events of the first Alien movie, the story is about a miner (Cailee Spaeny) and her android protector (David Jonsson) who fall in with a group of young space pirates looking to ransack a space station before it self-destructs, not knowing that the aliens are waiting for them on board. The film fills in some bits of knowledge about the alien mythology, and new director Fede Álvarez (Don’t Breathe) does much to bring the franchise back to its horror roots. Unfortunately, it doesn’t point the series in any sort of new direction, although Spaeny has the emotional depth to be the heroine of any future installments. Also with Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu.
Am I Racist? (PG-13) Matt Walsh stars in Justin Folk’s documentary about DEI practices.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (PG-13) Oddly comforting. Among many reprising their roles from Tim Burton’s 1988 film, Winona Ryder plays the grown-up Lydia Deetz who’s back in Connecticut to go through her deceased father’s things when her teenage daughter (Jenna Ortega) gets dragged into the afterlife, and Lydia has to enlist Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) to get her back. There are even more subplots that cause this movie to run all over the place, although tight plotting was never what we went to Burton’s movies for. None of the actors in this heavyweight cast seem to quite bring their best, either, but the macabre comedy bits hit at an agreeable pace, especially with the waiting room for dead people and a flashback that parodies Mario Bava’s 1960s horror movies. It’s enough to make this return trip to Burton’s old stomping grounds worth taking. Also with Catherine O’Hara, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Arthur Conti, Santiago Cabrera, Amy Nuttall, Danny DeVito, and Willem Dafoe.
Deadpool & Wolverine (R) The partnership of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman has been teased for so long, it would have been easy for the thing to disappoint. Fortunately, Jackman’s eternally grumpy Wolverine and Reynolds’ Deadpool with his psychological need to make a joke out of everything is comedy gold. Deadpool has to save his world from annihilation, so he teams up with the worst version of Wolverine and goes to The Void, a funny dystopia where superheroes past are banished because their storylines never got resolved. It may not add up to great art, but it is very funny. Also with Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Karan Soni, Matthew Macfadyen, Leslie Uggams, Brianna Hildebrand, Dafne Keen, Tyler Mane, Ray Park, Aaron Stanford, Henry Cavill, Jon Favreau, Jennifer Garner, Wesley Snipes, Channing Tatum, and Chris Evans. Voices by Stefan Kapicic, Nathan Fillion, Blake Lively, and Matthew McConaughey.
Despicable Me 4 (PG) Where other long-running movie franchises run out of ideas, this fourth installment has so many ideas that they get in each other’s way. When a cockroach-obsessed French supervillain (voiced by Will Ferrell) busts out of prison and vows revenge on Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), our bald baddie and his family have to go into hiding and pretend to be normies in the suburbs. This would be enough plot for a movie, but this chapter piles on a new baby for Gru, a honey badger, and some of the minions gaining X-Men powers. It’s so much that even Ferrell gets lost in the shuffle, and the only part that works at all is when he and Carell duet on “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” This could have worked if it had been broken down into episodes of an animated TV show, but on the big screen, it’s exhausting. Additional voices by Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Joey King, Sofía Vergara, Madison Polan, Chris Renaud, Laraine Newman, Chloe Fineman, Pierre Coffin, Steve Coogan, and Stephen Colbert.
The Forge (PG) While other Christian movies are getting better, the ones by the Kendrick brothers are getting worse. Aspen Kennedy plays a young Black man in Charlotte who goes to work for a fitness equipment manufacturer and winds up learning lessons about manhood and Jesus Christ from the company’s CEO (Cameron Arnett). The lack of pace and dramatic tension in this thing makes you wonder whether the filmmakers have ever seen a movie before, and the acting is too embarrassing even to trash in this space. Whatever lessons this movie is trying to teach about what makes a boy into a man, they get lost amid this movie’s amateur theatrics. Also with Priscilla C. Shirer, Selah Avery, T.C. Stallings, Ben VanderMey, Tommy Woodward, and Karen Abercrombie.
It Ends With Us (PG-13) Blake Lively’s performance is the best thing about this too-cozy movie about cycles of abuse. She portrays a small-town Mainer who flees her abusive dad to set up a flower shop in Boston, only to repeat the cycle by falling in love with a neurosurgeon (Justin Baldoni) who hits her. Baldoni also doubles as the director here, and while he starts off well, he becomes bogged down as he tries to toggle between the present day and flashbacks to the teenage protagonist (Isabela Ferrer) and her first love (Alex Neustaedter). Based on Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel, this movie takes forever to get to the subject and then eagerly waves a magic wand to make everyone into some endlessly forgiving saint. Hate to say this, but a movie about domestic abuse really needs to be harder-hitting. Also with Jenny Slate, Brandon Sklenar, Hasan Minhaj, Amy Morton, Robert Clohessy, Robyn Lively, and Kevin McKidd.
The Killer’s Game (R) Adapted from Jay Bonansinga’s novel, this movie tries to be three things and succeeds at one of them. Dave Bautista portrays a hit man who discovers that he’s terminally ill and puts out a contract on himself. The action sequences that result are reasonably well done, but the comedy relies too heavily on broad European stereotypes (even if we do get Scott Adkins as a Scottish killer whose accent is so heavy that we need subtitles to understand him). Even worse is the romantic subplot with a French dancer (Sofia Boutella), which fails to generate any sort of chemistry and drags down the entire affair. Bautista is a capable actor, but this movie calls on him to do all the things that he’s not suited to. Also with Pom Klementieff, Terry Crews, Marko Zaror, Drew McIntyre, Shaina West, Lee Hoon, Lucy Cork, and Ben Kingsley.
Lubber Pandhu (NR) This Indian sports movie stars Harish Kalyan and Attakathi Dinesh as local cricket stars whose rivalry spans years. Also with Swasika, Sanjana Krishnamoorthy, Kaali Venkat, Bala Saravanan, Devadarshini, Geetha Kailasam, and Jenson Divakar.
Never Let Go (R) Halle Berry stars in this horror film as a mother who’s raising her two young sons (Anthony B. Jenkins and Percy Daggs IV) off the grid in a remote cabin after an apocalyptic event, except that the boys are now old enough to wonder whether Momma might just be delusional, especially since she’s the only one who seems able to see the evil that she claims is out there in the woods. Director Alexandre Aja (Crawl) keeps things moving and Daggs is particularly good as the youngest and most skeptical son, but the writers try to have it too many different ways when the movie ends. Lee Daniels’ The Deliverance is another current movie about an unstable Black mother, and while it’s a lot messier than this, it’s the better movie because it touches on more subjects. This claustrophobic exercise is too thin intellectually when you take a step back. Also with William Catlett and Matthew Kevin Anderson.
Reagan (PG-13) Weird, very weird. This biography of the movie star-turned-40th president of the United States applies a ton of CGI de-aging to Dennis Quaid and to Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan. That’s not nearly as bizarre as the framing story of a retired KGB agent (Jon Voight) in the present day telling the story of Reagan’s ascent to power. In addition to whitewashing the president’s record on civil rights, AIDS, and propping up dictatorships abroad, the movie also casts hideous studio boss Jack Warner (Kevin Dillon) as a hero of anti-communism. Other than about a thousand dead spots, this movie’s cavalier approach to history is a ton of fun. Also with Mena Suvari, C. Thomas Howell, Justin Chatwin, Amanda Righetti, Xander Berkeley, Lesley-Anne Down, Jennifer O’Neill, Robert Davi, Mark Moses, Nick Searcy, Scott Stapp, and Kevin Sorbo.
Speak No Evil (R) Fine, as long as you’re not expecting it to stick to the 2022 Danish film that it’s based on. This remake is about an American expat family in London who visit a British family in the countryside only to realize that they’re very wrong. James McAvoy is pretty well the right shade of uncomfortable as the British father who bullies both his guests and his 10-year-old mute son (Dan Hough) — his performance generates the queasy feeling that you get when you see a Karen berating a service employee, when you don’t know if intervening might make the situation worse. Still, more interesting stuff in this remake comes with the treatment of the ineffectual American father (Scoot McNairy), who blows two good chances of killing people threatening his family and is full of repressed anger over his family situation. It all makes for a flawed but effective piece of entertainment. Also with Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi, Alix West Lefler, Motaz Malhees, and Kris Hitchen.
Stree 2 (NR) Yet more proof that Indian horror movies are incompatible with Western tastes. After exorcising the demon from the original movie, the hero (Rajkummar Rao) of this sequel has to bring her back in order to stop the evil spirit who is abducting women from his village. There’s an interesting undercurrent here with the victims being all modern women who want to leave for the big city and the demon being a female avenger against male predators, but the scares simply don’t work for audiences brought up on Hollywood fare, and the attempts at comedy are truly groan-worthy. I will say this: The visual of the heroes fleeing down a country road on motorcycles pursued by a flaming severed head is pretty metal. Also with Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee, Atul Srivastava, Anya Singh, Tamannaah Bhatia, Varun Dhawan, and Akshay Kumar.
The Substance (R) The culmination of Demi Moore’s career. She stars as an aging Hollywood star who receives word of a black-market beauty product and uses it to transform into a younger, hotter self (Margaret Qualley). French writer-director Coralie Fargeat (Revenge) keeps both actresses naked for much of the time as a way of illustrating that while our protagonist has a physique that many 60-year-olds would envy, she can’t resist wanting to stay in the younger body. Qualley, who usually plays self-possessed types, comes memorably unhinged as she takes out her rage on her older alter ego, and Moore also seems to be tapping into a deep well of anger as she turns into a reclusive monster full of anger at herself and the culture that leaves her behind. It all plays like David Cronenberg meets The Picture of Dorian Gray from a female perspective, and that’s something we haven’t seen. Also with Dennis Quaid, Oscar Lesage, Hugo Diego Garcia, and Joseph Balderrama.
Transformers One (PG) The irreverent tone of this animated origin story is just about right for little kids. Too bad the writing isn’t sharp enough for the grown-ups. The story goes back to when Optimus Prime and Megatron (voiced by Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry) are menial labor robots on Cybertron who acquire the power to transform into vehicles just as they discover that their leader (voiced by Jon Hamm) is a fraud who’s actually working for their sworn enemies. Director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4) makes sure that the thing doesn’t drag and the whole story bears an uncanny resemblance to Lucifer’s rebellion against God, but the thing just isn’t funny or distinctive enough to stick in the mind. Additional voices by Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, James Remar, Jon Bailey, Steve Buscemi, and Laurence Fishburne.
Twisters (PG-13) An agreeable sequel to the 1996 blockbuster. Daisy Edgar-Jones plays a meteorologist from Oklahoma who’s coaxed back home years after a tragedy in the field to kill tornadoes with an ex-colleague (Anthony Ramos) and a YouTube influencer (Glen Powell). From such a splendidly stupid premise, the movie wades hip-deep into so much weather jargon that it becomes so much noise for those of us who don’t have meteorology degrees. Fortunately, director Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) keeps the narrative from dragging. Powell is no slouch here, but you may be surprised to find Edgar-Jones carrying this movie effortlessly, conveying her character’s guilt without harshing the fun popcorn vibe that the movie is going for. The country music-laden soundtrack helps this movie lift off, too. Also with Maura Tierney, Sasha Lane, Katy O’Brian, Brandon Perea, Kiernan Shipka, Nik Dodani, Tunde Adebimpe, Harry Hadden-Paton, Daryl McCormack, David Born, David Corenswet, and James Paxton.
You Gotta Believe (PG) The filmmaking team of Ty Roberts and Lane Garrison (12 Mighty Orphans) reunites for this baseball drama about the real-life Texas team that made the final of the Little League World Series. Starring Luke Wilson, Molly Parker, Sarah Gadon, Lew Temple, Patrick Renna, and Greg Kinnear.
DALLAS EXCLUSIVES
All Happy Families (NR) This ensemble comedy is about a family who reunites to remodel their family home. Starring Josh Radnor, Rob Huebel, Chandra Russell, Becky Ann Baker, John Ashton, Antoine McKay, Rodney Crowell, and Colleen Camp.
And Mrs. (NR) This British comedy stars Aisling Bea as a woman who determines to marry her fiancé (Colin Hanks) even after he dies shortly before their wedding. Also with Billie Lourd, Paul Kaye, Susan Wokoma, Elizabeth McGovern, Sinéad Cusack, and Harriet Walter.
The Last Redemption (NR) John Real writes, directs, and stars in his own medieval adventure film as a knight who must team up with a criminal (Natalie Burn) to overthrow a villainous lord (Kevin Sorbo). Also with Angus Macfadyen, Simon Phillips, Neb Chupin, Carl Wharton, and James Cosmo.
Long Gone Heroes (R) This action-thriller stars Frank Grillo as an ex-Special Forces soldier who must enter a war zone to track down his missing niece. Also with Josh Hutcherson, Beau Knapp, Mekhi Phifer, Eden Brolin, Juan Pablo Raba, Wendy Moniz, Andy Garcia, and Melissa Leo.
What We Find on the Road (R) Finn Haney stars in this drama as a young man challenged to take a road trip in a vintage car with a bunch of odd acquaintances. Also with Paul Guilfoyle, William Chris Sumpter, Ross Partridge, Katherine Laheen, Toby Poser, and John Adams.
Wolfs (R) George Clooney and Brad Pitt portray rival corporate fixers who are double-booked to cover up the same mistake by a powerful government official. Also with Amy Ryan, Zlatko Buric, Poorna Jagannathan, Austin Abrams, and Richard Kind.
