OPENING
The Accountant 2 (R) Ben Affleck reprises his role as an autistic accountant who uses illegal methods to solve crimes. Also with Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robertson, Daniella Pineda, Robert Morgan, Grant Harvey, and J.K. Simmons. (Opens Friday)
Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie (R) David Bushell’s documentary explores the history of the storied comedy partnership. Also with Lou Adler. (Opens Friday)
Ground Zero (NR) This Indian historical thriller stars Emraan Hashmi as a counterterrorism officer leading an operation to kill a terrorist. Also with Zoya Hussain, Sai Tamhankar, Mukesh Tiwari, Deepak Parmesh, Lalit Prabhakar, and Abhay Dheeraj Singh. (Opens Friday)
Jongli (NR) Siam Ahmed stars in this Indian drama as a man seeking to recover from a family tragedy. Also with Shabnam Bubly, Noireeta Hasin Roudromoyee, Prarthona Fardin Dighi, Gulshan Ara Ahmed, and Subrata Barua. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
On Swift Horses (R) On the scale of gay Westerns, this ranks above National Anthem but below The Power of the Dog. Based on Shannon Pufahl’s novel, this movie takes place in the 1950s with a Korean War veteran (Jacob Elordi) falling for a co-worker (Diego Calva) in Las Vegas while his married sister-in-law (Daisy Edgar-Jones) has her own gay awakening via an affair with a neighbor (Sasha Calle) in San Diego. The movie loses the book’s neat structure of alternating chapters between the two protagonists, although it thankfully soft-pedals the theme of love = gambling, as the housewife starts betting on horse-racing and gets good at it. Neither romantic plotline works well enough to carry the film, and director Daniel Minahan has trouble coming up with any memorable visuals, unless you count the faces of the British lead actors, which you could stare at for days. Also with Will Poulter, Don Swayze, and Kat Cunning. (Opens Friday)
Sarangapani Jathakam (NR) Priyadarshi Pulikonda stars in this comedy as a man who takes extreme measures to avoid the bad fate foretold in his horoscope. Also with Vennela Kishore, Srinivas Avasarala, Kalpalatha, Tanikella Bharani, V.K. Naresh, and Harsha Chemudu. (Opens Friday)
The Shrouds (R) David Cronenberg’s latest film stars Vincent Cassel as a recently widowed inventor who creates a device that allows people to talk to the dead. Also with Diane Kruger, Sandrine Holt, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Jennifer Dale, Erin Weinthal, Jeff Yung, and Guy Pearce. (Opens Friday)
Thudaram (NR) This Malayalam-language thriller stars Mohanlal as a taxi driver who goes to extreme lengths when his cab is stolen. Also with Arjun Ashokan, Shobana, Thomas Mathew, Bharathiraja, Binu Pappu, and Neil Vincent. (Opens Friday)
The Trouble With Jessica (NR) This British thriller stars Indira Varma as a woman who causes havoc when she crashes a dinner party in a wealthy neighborhood. Also with Alan Tudyk, Shirley Henderson, Anne Reid, Jonathan Livingstone, Amber Rose Revah, Olivia Williams, and Rufus Sewell. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Until Dawn (R) This horror movie is about a group of teenagers whose remote house becomes stuck in a time loop that causes them to be repeatedly killed by different monsters. Starring Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, Yoo Ji-young, Maia Mitchell, Belmont Cameli, and Peter Stormare. (Opens Friday)
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The Amateur (PG-13) Rami Malek is miscast in this action-thriller, and that’s sort of the point. He stars as a CIA intelligence analyst who seeks revenge after his wife (Rachel Brosnahan) is murdered in a terrorist attack. Based on Robert Littell’s novel (which got made into a Hollywood spy thriller back in 1981), the story specifically takes as its protagonist a man who can’t look a bad guy in the eye and then pull the trigger on him. Even though the action hero is highly intelligent and highly motivated, the movie knows that it takes more than that to make a viable operative. Unfortunately, the movie around our unconventional hero is too conventional, and his eluding of his own agents in European backwaters isn’t handled creatively enough. Also with Laurence Fishburne, Julianne Nicholson, Holt McCallany, Danny Sapani, Adrian Martinez, Evan Milton, Barbara Probst, Marc Rissmann, Jon Bernthal, and Michael Stuhlbarg.
The Ballad of Wallis Island (PG-13) Utterly charming. Based on a short film from 2007, this British comedy is about a lottery winner (Tim Key) who spends some of his winnings to reunite the split-up members of a folk-rock band (Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan) for a private concert on his private island. Key does a fancy tightrope act as a guy who’s cheerful and polite to the point of creepiness, never more than 20 feet away from the musicians even though the island is large. He also comes through when his character turns out to be a lonely widower who wants to reunite his late wife’s favorite band. Mulligan is way overqualified for what she’s given to do, but the songs (all written by Basden) are sweet when they could have been cloying. The movie maintains the strength of its source, depicting an unlikely friendship that causes a lost musician to rediscover his purpose. Also with Akemnji Ndifornyen and Sian Clifford.
Captain America: Brave New World (PG-13) A lean two-hour Marvel superhero film that yields some decent thrills. Anthony Mackie takes over the shield as the new Captain America working with and then against a new president (Harrison Ford) to avert a war between America and Japan as well as clear Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) of guilt in an assassination attempt on the president. Director/co-writer Julius Onah pares down the scale of the film without sacrificing the maximalist set pieces that Marvel fans are used to. Less successful is the supervillain (Tim Blake Nelson) and his overly convoluted plot to turn the president into the Red Hulk. Mackie well deserves a star vehicle like this and makes for an edgier and more modern Captain than Chris Evans did, and Ford manages to be fully engaged in his role. Also with Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Giancarlo Esposito, Xosha Roquemore, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, William Mark McCullough, Takehiro Hira, Liv Tyler, and an uncredited Rosa Salazar.
The Chosen: Last Supper (NR) Not to be confused with the other movie about the Last Supper that’s reviewed below, this continuation of the TV series also deals with Jesus’ final meeting with his disciples. Starring Jonathan Roumie, Shahar Isaac, Reza Diako, Jordan Walker Ross, Catherine Lidstone, and Elizabeth Tabish.
Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing (NR) Based on the mobile video game, this Japanese anime musical is about a group of teenagers who discover an alternate world of emotions. (Opens Friday)
Dog Man (PG) Dav Pilkey’s series of children’s books becomes this frenetic but unexpectedly moving animated film. Director Peter Hastings does the voice of a stupid cop and his genius dog whose lives are saved after a bombing when the dog’s head is glued onto the man’s body. Together, Dog Man aims to thwart a cat supervillain (voiced by Pete Davidson) with a lot of abandonment issues. Those lead the cat to ditch his cloned kitten self (voiced by Lucas Hopkins Calderon), and the movie has some sweet moments when Dog Man takes in the abandoned kitten. Some better writing and a bit of slacking off with the pace might have made this into a great movie. Additional voices by Lil Rel Howery, Isla Fisher, Poppy Liu, Billy Boyd, Maggie Wheeler, Laraine Newman, Cheri Oteri, and Stephen Root.
Drop (PG-13) There are several plot contrivances too many in this thriller. Meghann Fahy stars as a psychotherapist and widowed mother who goes on a blind date at a fancy Chicago restaurant, only for a mysterious caller to keep sending digital drops to her phone threatening the lives of her family if she doesn’t kill the man she’s dating (Brandon Sklenar). The movie has some intrigue in narrowing down the perpetrator to somebody in the restaurant, and Broadway star Fahy does some good work as someone who’s haunted by a previous abusive relationship. However, the puppetmaster who’s trying to manipulate her remotely is too absurd to be credible. Christopher Landon previously directed Happy Death Day and Freaky, and he did wittier work in those than he does here. Also with Violett Beane, Jacob Robinson, Reed Diamond, Gabrielle Ryan, Jeffery Self, Sarah McCormack, Ed Weeks, Travis Nelson, and Ben Pelletier.
Kesari Chapter 2 (NR) This sequel to the 2019 historical epic continues the story of the fallout from the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Starring Akshay Kumar, R. Madhavan, Ananya Panday, Regina Cassandra, Simon Paisley Day, and Steven Hartley.
The King of Kings (PG) Leaden in both visual and narrative terms, this animated Christian film has the story of Jesus Christ (voiced by Oscar Isaac) being narrated by Charles Dickens (voiced by Kenneth Branagh) for some reason. Neither the telling of the Passion story nor the framing story in Victorian England are interesting in itself, and the intersections of the two don’t work. The opportunities for great visuals from the animation are there, but the filmmakers don’t take any of them. It’s hard to tell what the purpose of all this is. Painters and other visual artists have done much better at making Christian art. Additional voices by Uma Thurman, Ben Kingsley, Pierce Brosnan, Jim Cummings, Fred Tatasciore, Roman Griffin Davis, and Forest Whitaker.
A Minecraft Movie (PG) The charm that has won the video game millions of followers around the world is little in evidence in this film version. Jack Black stars as the ruler of the Overworld, who has to prevent the queen of the Nether (voiced by Rachel House) from taking over, with the help of a group of visitors from Idaho (Jason Momoa, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, and Sebastian Hansen) who have accidentally been pulled into the Minecraft world. Director Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) finds a nice comic groove in Idaho, but once everybody goes into the game, his sense of pacing and timing deserts him. The writers frantically move these characters back and forth to make up for the fact that the game famously has no story, and the actors scream their lines. Making an intellectual property into a good movie requires a filmmaker with peculiar talents, and this movie doesn’t find one. Also with Jennifer Coolidge, Bret McKenzie, Matt Berry, Jemaine Clement, and an uncredited Kate McKinnon.
Parvulos (NR) This Mexican horror film is about a family defending their cabin in the woods from a zombie attack. Starring Mateo Ortega Casillas, Farid Escalante Correa, Leonardo Cervantes, Carla Adell, Norma Flores, Horacio F. Lazo, and Noé Hernández.
Pride & Prejudice (PG) The grit and sweat in this 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel was what made it feel different from the Austen adaptations that came before it. Joe Wright gets the atmosphere right, but he can’t keep the comic energy up all the way through, and Keira Knightley isn’t funny enough as the heroine of the piece. The script by Deborah Moggach is intelligent, literate, and occasionally too wordy, but Matthew Macfadyen manages to make Darcy starchy and brusque without seeming constipated, and Judi Dench makes a formidable Lady Catherine. It’s not a world-beater, but it is worth a look. Also with Rosamund Pike, Brenda Blethyn, Jena Malone, Tom Hollander, Carey Mulligan, Simon Woods, Penelope Wilton, Peter Wight, Pip Torrens, Rupert Friend, Kelly Reilly, and the late Donald Sutherland.
Sinners (R) Ryan Coogler’s foray into Jordan Peele territory is wild and wildly original, even when it doesn’t make sense. Michael B. Jordan plays identical twins who return from Chicago to their Mississippi hometown in the 1930s to open a blues joint with their cousin (Miles Caton) who happens to be an otherworldly musician. Jordan gives two bracing performances as brothers with different jobs and temperaments, the Mississippi town is more layered than we usually see in Hollywood movies, and there’s a great sequence with the blues musician delivering a song so powerful that it opens a rift in time and space as well as attracting vampires. Coogler winds up with a few too many ideas in his intellectual stew, but it frames Delta blues in a wholly unexpected way and emerges as a worthy vampire movie. What other movie can say that? Also with Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Mosaku, Li Jun Li, Jack O’Connell, Lola Kirke, Jayme Lawson, Saul Williams, Andrene Ward-Hammond, Peter Dreimanis, Omar Miller, Yao, Delroy Lindo, and Buddy Guy.
Sneaks (PG) The hip-hop soundtrack is better than this animated movie about sneakers coming to life. A teenager (voiced by Swae Lee) wins a pair of top-of-the-line basketball shoes (voiced by Anthony Mackie and Chloe Bailey) at a sneaker convention, but the shoes get separated after they’re stolen by a greedy shoe collector (voiced by Laurence Fishburne). Directors Rob Edwards and Christopher Jenkins don’t handle the premise with as much creativity as you’d like, and the jokes are groan-worthy. (“We shoes don’t talk, we Converse!”) The culture of collectors isn’t explored, either. Better just to buy the soundtrack, with songs by Mustard, Ella Mai, Macy Gray, and The Lock, some of whom have voice roles in the movie. Additional voices by Martin Lawrence, Keith David, Macy Gray, Quavo, Mustard, Rico Rodriguez, Roddy Ricch, Young Miko, and Chris Paul.
Snow White (PG) If this Disney live-action remake is too flawed to drown out the noise around it, it’s good enough to obscure that noise for a long stretch. Rachel Zegler plays the orphaned princess whose wicked stepmother (Gal Gadot) orders her killed for the crime of being more beautiful. Despite a darker color palette that distinguishes this from other Disney remakes, this film’s initial dramatic setup is flat, and the CGI dwarves are a huge distraction. Even so, the movie kicks into life with the villain’s aria “All Is Fair” and the romantic interest (Andrew Burnap) busting Snow White on her royal privilege in “Princess Problems,” and Zegler herself brings the appropriate energy in an expanded version of “Whistle While You Work.” If only the story of Snow White taking her kingdom back worked on any level, we could call this a success. Also with Hadley Fraser, Lorena Andrea, Emilia Faucher, Ansu Kabia, George Appleby, and Samuel Baxter. Voices by Patrick Page, Jeremy Swift, George Salazar, Andrew Barth Feldman, Martin Klebba, Jason Kravits, Andy Grotelueschen, and Titus Burgess.
The Ugly Stepsister (NR) This Norwegian take on the Cinderella story stars Lea Myren as a woman who will stop at nothing to capture the handsome prince (Isac Calmroth). Also with Thea Sofie Loch Næss, Ane Dahl Torp, Flo Fagerli, Malte Gårdinger, and Ralph Carlsson.
Warfare (R) Too focused for its own good, this war film sets out to change the way war is depicted in a movie, and fails. Set in 2006, the film is about a platoon of Navy SEALs in Iraq who become trapped in a house after the locals figure out where they are. This is based on a real-life incident lived through by Ray Mendoza, who co-directs the movie with Alex Garland (Civil War). The movie does some good work building anticipation as the Navy SEALs await the attack, but it’s so hellbent on removing anything extraneous to the action that it falls flat utterly as a piece of storytelling. The characters are interchangeable and the action itself doesn’t do anything that other war movies haven’t already accomplished. Starring Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Joseph Quinn, Alex Brockdorff, Aaron Mackenzie, Finn Bennett, Michael Gandolfini, and Charles Melton.
The Wedding Banquet (R) This remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 comedy succeeds in updating the story for the current environment, but unfortunately loses many of the laughs in the process. One lesbian couple (Lily Gladstone and Kelly Marie Tran) are trying to conceive a child despite their financial troubles, while one gay couple (Bowen Yang and Han Gi-chan) are facing being split up by an expired visa, so they arrange to have the gay man marry the lesbian in exchange for a green card and the money for another IVF treatment. The actors are game, with Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung acting in English as the Korean man’s grandmother and Oscar nominee Gladstone proving that she’s viable in a comedy. Still, director/co-writer Andrew Ahn too often bogs himself down in treatment of the couples’ marital and psychological issues. He would have been better off concentrating on the details of pulling together a traditional Korean wedding at such short notice. We don’t think of Lee as a funny filmmaker, but this will make you appreciate his comedic skills. Also with Joan Chen, Françoise Yip, Bobo Le, Camille Atebe, Jeffrey Liang, and Emma Yi.
The Woman in the Yard (PG-13) Missing greatness through some conceptual flaws, this horror movie stars Danielle Deadwyler as a mother widowed and disabled by the same car accident who’s trying to raise her children (Peyton Jackson and Estella Kahiha) on their remote rural farm. The appearance of a mysterious woman clad all in black (Okpui Okpokwasili) sitting on their property brings all her unresolved trauma to the surface. Director Jaume Collet-Serra knows his way around a claustrophobic horror film, but the film would have worked better if the same actress had played the mother and the woman in black. Even better would have been some more thinking through about what the woman is supposed to represent. Nevertheless, this exercise remains watchable and effective in spots. Also with Russell Hornsby.
A Working Man (R) This might have been okay if it weren’t for the overplotted script. Jason Statham stars in this thriller as an ex-British soldier-turned-construction foreman in Chicago who has to call on his former skills after his boss’ teenage daughter (Arianna Rivas) is kidnapped by human traffickers. This is based on Chuck Dixon’s novel Levon’s Trade, and all the extra stuff about Russian mobsters, crooked cops, bikers who deal meth, and the daughter (Isla Gie) whom the hero is raising by himself might have worked on the page. Here, though, it feels like so much padding for the protagonist to kill his way through. Director David Ayer doesn’t even come up with any memorable fight sequences for all this. Also with Michael Peña, Maximilian Osinski, Merab Ninidze, Noemi Gonzalez, Emmett J. Scanlan, Eve Mauro, Jason Flemyng, and David Harbour.
Dallas Exclusives
It Feeds (NR) This horror film stars Ashley Greene as a psychiatrist who must protect her daughter (Ellie O’Brien) after a demonic entity breaks into her home office. Also with Shawn Ashmore, Juno Rinaldi, Mark Taylor, Scott Baker, and Dave Dewar.
