OPENING
Court – State vs. a Nobody (NR) Priyadarshi Pulikonda stars in this Indian legal thriller as a defense attorney fighting on behalf of a teenage client. Also with Rohini, Sai Kumar, Harsh Roshan, Sivaji, and Subhalekha Sudhakar. (Opens Friday)
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (PG) Daffy Duck and Porky Pig (both voiced by Eric Bauza) have to repel an alien invasion in this animated film. Additional voices by Peter MacNicol, Wayne Knight, Candi Milo, Carlos Alazraqui, and Laraine Newman. (Opens Friday)
Dilruba (NR) This Telugu-language movie stars Kiran Abbavaram. Also with Rukshar Dhillon, Nazia Davison, Tulasi Shivamani, Aadukalam Naren, and Satya Akkala. (Opens Friday)
The Diplomat (NR) Not based on the Netflix TV series by that name, this Indian film stars John Abraham as a diplomat handling the case of an Indian woman (Sadia Khateeb) claiming she was forced into marrying a Pakistani man. Also with Kumud Mishra, Sharib Hashmi, and Revathy. (Opens Friday)
The 4 Rascals (NR) This Vietnamese comedy is about a group of troublemakers who decide to resolve a love triangle among their friends. Starring Huynh Uyen An, Tran Quoc Anh, Le Giang, Le Duong Bao Lam, Ky Duyen Cao Nguyen, Tran Thanh, and Tran Tieu Vy. (Opens Friday)
High Rollers (R) This thriller stars Gina Gershon, Lukas Haas, Kelly Greyson, Swen Temmel, Natali Yura, Korrina Rico, Demián Castro, and John Travolta. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
The Last Supper (PG-13) This Christian film depicts the betrayal of Jesus Christ (Jamie Ward) by Judas Iscariot (Robert Knepper). Also with James Faulkner, Henry Garrett, Daniel Fathers, James Oliver Wheatley, Harry Anton, Marie-Batoul Prenant, and Nathalie Rapti Gomez. (Opens Friday)
Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story (NR) Bruce David Klein’s documentary profiles Liza Minnelli. Also with Joel Grey, Chita Rivera, Michael Feinstein, Alan Cumming, Darren Criss, John Kander, Lorna Luft, Ben Vereen, Billy Stritch, George Hamilton, and Mia Farrow. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
October 8 (NR) Wendy Sachs’ documentary chronicles the rise of anti-Semitism on college campuses following Hamas’ 2023 terrorist attacks on Israel. Starring Kirsten Gillibrand, Bari Weiss, Sheryl Sandberg, Michael Rapaport, and Debra Messing. (Opens Friday at AMC Parks at ARlington)
Opus (R) Ayo Edebiri stars in this drama about a journalist who travels to a private island owned by a reclusive ex-pop music star (John Malkovich). Also with Juliette Lewis, Amber Midthunder, Tatanka Means, Murray Bartlett, Melissa Chambers, and Tony Hale. (Opens Friday)
Perusu (NR) This Tamil-language remake of the Sinhalese-language comedy Tentigo is about a family running a funeral home. Starring Vaibhav Reddy, Sunil Reddy, Redin Kingsley, Deepa Shankar, Bala Saravanan, Chandini Tamilarasan, and VTV Ganesh. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Raging Midlife (NR) Rob Taylor and Nic Costa co-write and co-star in this comedy as wrestling fans who plot to steal 1980s memorabilia after they’re outbid in an online auction. Also with Danielle Vasinova, Emily Sweet, Eddie Griffin, Walter Koenig, and Paula Abdul. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Universal Language (NR) Matthew Rankin directs and stars in this Canadian film about a series of stories taking place between Winnipeg and Tehran. Also with Pirouz Nemati, Denis Houle, Danielle Fichaud, Baharan BaniAhmadi, and Bahram Nabatian. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
NOW PLAYING
Anora (R) This wild sex comedy won the Best Picture Oscar, and is it ever a blast. Mikey Madison plays a Russian-speaking stripper in New York City who’s introduced to a Russian oligarch’s 21-year-old son (Mark Eydelshteyn), who becomes so infatuated with her that he proposes marriage to her so that he won’t have to return to Russia. Writer-director Sean Baker displays some old-school filmmaking chops to go with his oft-remarked-on non-judgmental view of the sex trade, and he executes a great comic set piece where the oligarch’s goons are reduced to helplessness by this tiny woman who’s throwing heavy glass ornaments. I don’t buy the idea that the stripper actually falls in love with her new husband, or that he might ever stand up to the parents who are paying for his partying. Yura Borisov puts in a nicely turned performance as a Russian thug who’s the only man who tries to treat Anora decently, and Madison looks like a new star. Also with Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Vincent Radwinsky, Darya Ekamasova, and Aleksey Serebryakov. (Re-opens Friday)
Becoming Led Zeppelin (PG-13) Bernard MacMahon’s documentary focuses on how the band got together and scored their initial successes in the 1960s. The film interviews the three surviving members of the group (Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones) and unearths audio footage of an interview by the press-shy John Bonham, who died in 1980. It also includes behind-the-scenes photographs that haven’t been published to date. The result is a movie that imparts some valuable information to newcomers, while fans of the seminal British rock band can hear the music through a movie theater’s speakers.
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.
Chhaava (NR) Historical whitewashing by Bollywood. Vicky Kaushal stars in this biography of Sambhaji, the 17th-century Maratha king who fought against the Mughal empire that was ruling India at the time. The film is truthful about how Sambhaji won successes against India’s Muslim rulers and wound up tortured and executed for it, becoming a martyr in the eyes of Hindu nationalists. It doesn’t mention Sambhaji’s numerous failures and the wartime atrocities that his soldiers committed in his name. Writer-director Laxman Utekar does so much pandering to his audience that it overwhelms the modest skill he shows in the combat set pieces, and the last half hour of the film is clearly modeled on The Passion of the Christ. Also with Rashmika Mandanna, Akshaye Khanna, Ashutosh Rana, Divya Dutta, Vineet Kumar Singh, Diana Penty, Santosh Juvekar, and Neil Bhoopalam.
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.
Heart Eyes (R) Using a horror movie to parody the tropes of romantic comedies is only a great idea if it works, and this just isn’t funny. Olivia Holt stars as a lovelorn advertising executive who meets her dream guy (Mason Gooding) a few days before Valentine’s Day, when a slasher whose mask has heart-shaped eye holes starts targeting couples in the Seattle area. The script does recognize the sort of coincidences that romcoms traffic in, but the jokes simply don’t land and the murders aren’t inventively staged. The leads are pretty flavorless, too. The current Companion does everything this movie is after and does it better. Also with Jordana Brewster, Devon Sawa, Gigi Zumbado, Ben Black, Lauren O’Hara, Chris Parker, and Michaela Watkins.
In the Lost Lands (R) Director Paul W.S. Anderson and his wife and star Milla Jovovich have left Screen Gems (where they made the Resident Evil films, among others) for a Polish studio, and the results are considerably worse in this medieval fantasy based on a short story by George R.R. Martin. Jovovich portrays a witch who’s ordered by a tyrannical queen (Amara Okereke) to undertake a quest in uncharted lands to find a magic power. Our witch hires a muscular guide (Dave Bautista) to take her through. The visual polish of the Resident Evil films has been traded in for a CGI landscape where the camera lens appears to have been smeared with mud, and Martin’s themes have been lost amid poor storytelling and forgettable set pieces. Also with Arly Jover, Fraser James, Simon Lööf, Sebastian Stankiewicz, Eveline Hall, and Deirdre Mullins.
Laaj Sharanam (NR) This Nepalese comedy stars Bijay Baral, Sagar Lamsal Kshetri, Harish Niraula, and Arjun Ghimire.
Last Breath (PG-13) Alex Parkinson adapts his own documentary into a rather unmemorable fiction film. Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu play two saturation divers repairing an oil pipeline in the North Sea when their fellow diver (Finn Cole) becomes detached from the ship by a storm. Film nerds like me will appreciate the difficulty of the movie’s underwater photography, but it’s not great enough to catch the attention of the ordinary moviegoer, and neither the character bits nor the performances are enough for the human aspect of the story to hook us. Considering the remarkable aspects of the real-life story, this film really should have come to more. Also with Cliff Curtis, Mark Bonnar, Josef Altin, Bobby Rainsbury, and MyAnna Buring.
Mickey 17 (R) Bong Joon-ho continues to be his crazy self in this English-language follow-up to his Oscar-winning Parasite. Based on Edward Ashton’s science-fiction novel, this movie stars Robert Pattinson as a future worker who agrees to be cloned repeatedly so that his doubles can get killed doing dangerous jobs on a space expedition to a distant frozen planet. Seeing Bong work on a Hollywood budget alone is worth the admission price, as the Korean filmmaker conjures awe-inspiring interiors for the spaceship and massive herds of giant animals on the planet. His wacky humor also cuts against the visual splendor, as stuff malfunctions constantly in this techno-utopia and the characters’ stupidity keeps them from achieving their dream of colonizing another world. Few other filmmakers would let themselves be this silly on such a big budget. Also with Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Patsy Ferran, Cameron Britton, Bronwyn James, Holliday Grainger, Daniel Henshall, Thomas Turgoose, Anamaria Vartolomei, Steve Park, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo.
Moana 2 (PG) The backwash hits the Disney animated sequel pretty hard. Auli’i Cravalho returns as the voice of our Polynesian heroine, who’s sent back out on the ocean to reunite her scattered people and meet back up with Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson). She’s given a crew this time, but her interactions with them aren’t as interesting as you’d hope for. More grievously, Lin-Manuel Miranda has jumped ship, and new songwriters Emily Bear and Abigail Barlow appear to have been given the assignment too soon. Maui remains the best thing about this sequel, with The Rock getting to wisecrack irreverently and sing the movie’s musical highlight, “Can I Get a Chee Hoo?” The sequel shows flashes of some great ideas like a sea monster that looks like a mountainous island, but those can’t keep this from feeling rote. Additional voices by Temuera Morrison, Rachel House, Rose Matafeo, Hualālai Chung, David Fane, Awhimai Fraser, Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, Tofiga Fepulea’i, Alan Tudyk, Jemaine Clement, and Nicole Scherzinger.
The Monkey (R) Osgood Perkins follows up Longlegs by trying to make a horror-comedy out of Stephen King’s short story, and the results are very bad indeed. Christian Convery and then Theo James portray identical twins who find a windup toy monkey that causes the deaths of everybody around them. Convery is particularly good at differentiating the twins, one of whom constantly bullies the other. Still, despite the deaths coming about in often farcical ways, Perkins doesn’t have the temperament for staging violent deaths that are also funny, and the supporting cast doesn’t have much opportunity to contribute to this. The director is just terribly miscast with this project. Also with Tatiana Maslany, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, Adam Scott, and Elijah Wood.
Mufasa: The Lion King (PG-13) More interesting, though not necessarily better, than any of Disney’s recent live-action remakes. This prequel shows the young Mufasa (voiced by Aaron Pierre) being orphaned at an early age, taken in by a rival pride, then sent away as a bodyguard to the king’s son (voiced by Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who will betray him and become Scar. Much of the humor comes from the framing story, as Rafiki (voiced by John Kani) narrates the tale along with Timon and Pumbaa (voiced by Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen). We get to see Rafiki prove his mettle as a sage, and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s song for the villainous lion (voiced by Mads Mikkelsen) gratifyingly dings Mufasa’s circle-of-life philosophy. However, director Barry Jenkins seems miscast and uncomfortable with the big climax during an earthquake, and the romantic triangle that drives Mufasa and Scar apart doesn’t land. Still, this seems like a direction Disney should pursue, using these live-action films to continue the animated movies’ stories instead of remaking them. Additional voices by Tiffany Boone, Kagiso Lediga, Preston Nyman, Blue Ivy Carter, Thandiwe Newton, Lennie James, Braelyn Rankins, Theo Somolu, Donald Glover, and Beyoncé.
Ne Zha 2 (NR) This movie became one of the highest-grossing films in world history before anyone had seen it outside of China, and now you can get an idea about why. Our heroes from the 2019 animated film (voiced by Joseph Cao and Han Mo) are reincarnated and sent to protect Chentang Pass from dragons of the sea, who have betrayed the humans. Like the original, this sequel is a not-always-steady mix of action and humor, and there are serious issues with the pacing of this 148-minute epic. However, the set pieces are pretty spectacular, as armies of demons invade the seacoast, clouds of angel-like demon hunters fly overhead, characters visit the next world and gain additional powers, and farcical battles against beavers and deer take place. For all its flaws, this is worth seeing for its aesthetics and the box-office history that it made. Additional voices by Wang Deshun, Lü Qi, Lü Yanting, Yang Wei, Yu Chen, Zhou Yongxi, Li Nan, and Zhang Jiaming.
Night of the Zoopocalypse (PG) This animated comedy tries to be friendly enough for kids and scary enough for adults, and winds up being neither. When a meteor carrying a zombie virus crashes into a zoo, a mountain lion and a wolf (voiced by David Harbour and Gabbi Cosmidis) have to team up to stop the virus from infecting all the animals. The script comes from an idea by Clive Barker, and there’s a funny side character in a French-accented lemur (voiced by Pierre Simpson) who’s obsessed with old monster movies. Unfortunately, even the zombified animals combining into one gigantic kaiju can’t get this idea off the ground. Additional voices by Paul Sun-hyung Lee, Kyle Derek, Scott Farley, Heather Loreto, and Bryn McAuley.
One of Them Days (R) Keke Palmer and SZA make a capable comedy team in this film that occasionally catches a groove. They portray two women in L.A. who are hard up when one’s boyfriend blows their rent money, so they have nine hours to come up with $1,500 or face eviction. Despite the clock that these characters are on, I really wish director Lawrence Lamont had generated a sense of the time crunch and increasing desperation as the hours go by. Still, the movie has a white woman (Maude Apatow) who moves into this Black apartment complex as part of the gentrification process, and when the women try to take out a payday loan, everything about the business is funny, from the 1,900 percent interest rate to the homeless man (Katt Williams) who begs customers not to take the loan. Also with Vanessa Bell Calloway, Patrick Cage, Joshua David Neal, Gabrielle Dennis, Janelle James, Amin Joseph, Aziza Scott, Dewayne Perkins, Rizi Timane, and Lil Rel Howery.
Paddington in Peru (PG) Paul King left the series to work with Timothée Chalamet on the Willy Wonka movies, and he seems to have taken everything good with him. This brain-dead and unwatchable third installment has our marmalade-loving bear (voiced by Ben Whishaw) traveling with the Brown family to the Amazon jungle to locate his missing aunt (voiced by Imelda Staunton), only for the trip to turn into a quest to find El Dorado. The movie introduces Olivia Colman as a guitar-strumming nun and Antonio Banderas as a riverboat captain, and both of them are particularly badly served. The same goes for the Brown kids (Samuel Joslin and Madeleine Harris), who are now teenagers and much less interesting. The only time this movie even raises a laugh is during the post-credit sequence, when an uncredited Hugh Grant pops up. He only serves to remind you how much better the last movie was than this slog. Also with Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer, Carla Tous, Julie Walters, Joel Fry, Robbie Gee, Jim Broadbent, and Hayley Atwell.
Queen of the Ring (PG-13) Emily Bett Rickards stars in this biography of Mildred Burke, the 1930s single mother who became the first female professional wrestler in America. Also with Josh Lucas, Tyler Posey, Francesca Eastwood, Cara Buono, Adam Demos, Deborah Ann Woll, and Walton Goggins.
Rule Breakers (PG) The title is ironically funny, since this movie couldn’t feel safer. Nikohl Boosheri portrays an Afghan woman who defies Taliban rule in the 1990s and starts educating women about how to use computers and the internet. The English-language script makes Afghanistan seem a lot more familiar than it should, and the Christian studio that put this movie out soft-pedals the fact that all these characters are Muslim. This movie wants to salute the courage of the women who did this work in secret at great risk to their lives, but they deserve a more memorable cinematic experience than this. Also with Christian Contreras, Ali Fazal, Sara Rowe, Nada El Belkasmi, and Nasser Memarzia.
The Rule of Jenny Pen (R) This horror film stars Geoffrey Rush as a nursing home resident who discovers that a fellow resident (John Lithgow) is a psychopathic murderer. Also with Nathaniel Lees, Thomas Sainsbury, Anapela Polataivao, Ian Mune, Holly Shanahan, and Bruce Phillips.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (PG) About what you’d expect, and not in a good way. When an evil superpowered hedgehog (voiced by Keanu Reeves) breaks out of his prison on Earth, Sonic and his friends (voiced by Ben Schwartz, Colleen O’Shaughnessey, and Idris Elba) have to do the unthinkable and team up with Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) to stop him. Unfortunately, the mad scientist betrays them when he’s reunited with his long-lost grandfather (also Carrey). The hedgehogs go to Tokyo and London as part of their fight, but the movie bogs down in so many platitudes about family that it could qualify as an installment in the Fast & Furious franchise. Even the movie’s left turn into a clone of The Shape of Water can’t save it. Also with James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Lee Majdoub, Adam Pally, Shemar Moore, Natasha Rothwell, Alyla Browne, Tom Butler, Jorma Taccone, and Krysten Ritter.
Las Tres Sisters (NR) This dramedy stars Marta Cross, Virginia Novello, and Valeria Maldonado as estranged sisters of Mexican descent who reunite to complete their grandmother’s pilgrimage through rural Mexico. Also with Cristo Fernández, Maya Zapata, Adam Mayfield, Pilar Ixquic Mata, and Gonzalo Garcia Vivanco.
The Unbreakable Boy (PG) Based on Scott LeRette and Susy Flory’s book, this film stars Jacob Laval as a 13-year-old autistic boy who also suffers from osteogenesis imperfecta a.k.a. brittle bone disease. I like how this Christian film does not undersell the challenges of raising a child with this condition, as his parents (Zachary Levi and Meghann Fahy) are driven to distraction by the boy’s constant talking, while the medical expenses end up driving the father to alcoholism. Even so, director/co-writer Jon Gunn can’t resist tying things up with an overly tidy moral or flattening out his main character into some paragon of living life in the present. Also with Pilot Bunch, Gavin Warren, Bruce Davis, Peter Facinelli, Patricia Heaton, and Arianne Martin.
Dallas Exclusives
Everyone Is Going to Die (R) This British horror film takes place at a birthday party where two masked intruders (Jaime Winstone and Chiara D’Anna) take everyone hostage. Also with Richard Cotton, Brad Moore, Marina Lazaris, Gledisa Arthur, and Tamsin Dean.
Guns of Redemption (NR) Casper Van Dien stars in this Western about a gunfighter who must save two captives. Also with Kaitlyn Kemp, Siena Bjornerud, James Logan, Liz Atwater, Celeste Blandon, Jesse Gallegos, Jeff Fahey, and Sean Astin.
The Island Between Tides (NR) Based on James M. Barrie’s short story The Lost Daughter, this film stars Paloma Kwiatkowski as a woman who journeys to a remote island that is stuck in time. Also with Donal Logue, Camille Sullivan, David Mazouz, Matthew MacCaull, Sarah Lind, Megan Charpentier, Gabrielle Rose, and Adam Beach.
