OPENING
All That’s Left of You (NR) Cherien Dabis writes, directs, and stars in this Jordanian film as a mother recalling her teenage son (Adam Bakri) being swept up in an anti-Israel protest. Also with Saleh Bakri, Maria Zreik, Hayat Abu Samra, Ramzi Maqdisi, Muhammed Abed Elrahman, and Mohammad Bakri. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Atropia (R) Alia Shawkat stars in this comedy as a Hollywood actress portraying an Arab Muslim on a U.S. military training base’s simulation of a Middle Eastern town. Also with Callum Turner, Jane Levy, Chloe East, Tim Blake Nelson, Tim Heidecker, Chloë Sevigny, and Channing Tatum. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Border 2 (NR) The sequel to the 1997 blockbuster tells the stories of different people at the front lines of the 1971 Indo-Pak War. Starring Sunny Deol, Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh, Ahan Shetty, Mona Singh, Sonam Bajwa, Medha Rana, Anya Singh, Akshaye Khanna, Sudesh Berry, and Suniel Shetty. (Opens Friday)
Clika (R) This drama stars Jay Dee as an aspiring musician who receives a break in his career. Also with Nana Ponceleon, Josh Benitez, James Burbage, Alison Chace, Bourke Floyd, Cory Aycock, and the late Peter Greene. (Opens Friday)
Every Dog Has Its Day (NR) This Chinese comedy stars Li Xueqin as a retired steelworker who takes on a full-time caregiver (Lin Gengxin). Also with Li Youbin, Pan Binlong, Feng Lei, Chen Halin, Song Qian, He Zhengjun, and Victoria Song. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
H Is for Hawk (PG-13) Everything involving the bird is fascinating in this British weeper based on Helen Macdonald’s memoir. Claire Foy portrays the Cambridge biology professor whose father (Brendan Gleeson) dies suddenly. Remembering their shared love of birdwatching, she resolves to buy and raise a Eurasian goshawk, despite their reputation as the most troublesome of the raptors to deal with. Clearly Foy is interacting with a real live bird that is not exactly eager to be spending a lot of time around humans, and watching the two of them trying to coexist is undeniably compelling. It’s good that this takes up a lot of the movie, because Macdonald’s insights into her own depression get reduced to platitudes and repeated close-ups of Foy’s tear-stained face. This is strictly for people who are interested in raising a raptor and want to know what that entails. Also with Denise Gough, Sam Spruell, Josh Dylan, Arty Froushan, Emma Cunniffe, and Lindsay Duncan. (Opens Friday)
In Cold Light (R) Maika Monroe stars in this thriller as an ex-convict who has to flee after her identical twin is murdered in a case of mistaken identity. Also with Helen Hunt, Allan Hawco, Jesse Irving, Patrick Sabongui, Noah Parker, and Troy Kotsur. (Opens Friday)
Mercy (PG-13) This science-fiction thriller looks cool but fails on a deeper level. Chris Pratt stars as a homicide cop in a near-future L.A. who’s accused of murdering his wife (Annabelle Wallis) and has 90 minutes to prove his innocence. Director Timur Bekmambetov manages well with a thriller that plays out largely on a screen, and even though Pratt spends most of the film immobilized in a chair, he somehow manages to give a good performance as a relapsed alcoholic who reckons with being a deficient husband and father. The detective plot unfortunately has too many watery developments, and the movie hopelessly scrambles its critique of a police state that’s powered by AI and electronic surveillance. Like most of Bekmambetov’s films, this is all sizzle and far too little steak. Also with Rebecca Ferguson, Kali Reis, Kylie Rogers, Jeff Pierre, Chris Sullivan, Rafi Gavron, Kenneth Choi, and Ross Gosla. (Opens Friday)
One Battle After Another (R) One of Paul Thomas Anderson’s more purely enjoyable movies stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a former anti-ICE revolutionary who has to save his teenage daughter (Chase Infiniti) from a supersoldier (Sean Penn) who has reason to think the girl is his own biological daughter and kill her to destroy evidence of his sexual preference for Black women. The story is loosely adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland and set in the present day, which brings out the antic, puckish side of Anderson’s filmmaking. The film has nerve-frying action sequences, including an inventive car chase in the California desert with the cars appearing and disappearing from view because of the hilly terrain. The film also gets great performances from the newcomer Infiniti, DiCaprio as a father who realizes he’s not doing so good as a parent because he’s drunk and stoned all the time, and Penn as a villain brimming with hatred for this girl he has never met. It’s not as tidy as I’d like, but it’s great anyway. Also with Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Alana Haim, Wood Harris, Shayna McHayle, Kevin Tighe, D.W. Moffett, and Tony Goldwyn. (Re-opens Friday)
Return to Silent Hill (R) The sequel to the 2006 video game adaptation stars Jeremy Irvine as a man lured to a haunted town. Also with Hannah Emily Anderson, Evie Templeton, Pearse Egan, Eve Macklin, Martine Richards, and Emily Carding. (Opens Friday)
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. (Re-opens Friday)
NOW PLAYING
Anaconda (PG-13) B- if you haven’t seen the original, B if you have. Paul Rudd portrays a struggling Hollywood actor who tells his friends back in Buffalo that he has bought the rights to the legendarily bad 1997 movie and arranges for all of them to travel to the Amazon to film a remake. Director/co-writer Tom Gormican (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent) has some fun at the expense of the original, and Jack Black as the remake’s director makes this into a better and funnier comedy than either The Minecraft Movie or any of the Jumanji sequels. The star of the Oscar-winning I’m Still Here, Selton Mello plays a riverboat captain and proves to have a winning sense of humor in English. Also with Thandiwe Newton, Steve Zahn, Daniela Melchior, Ione Skye, John Billingsley, Ice Cube, and an uncredited Jennifer Lopez.
Anaganaga Oka Raju (NR) This Telugu-language comedy stars Naveen Polishetty as an overconfident man whose preparations for his own wedding go awry. Also with Meenakshi Chaudhary, Rao Ramesh, Goparaju Ramana, Tarak Ponnappa, Chammak Chandra, Ananth Babu, and Saanve Megghana.
Avatar: Fire and Ash (PG-13) Actually more interesting than the first two films, though that doesn’t make this good. Human being Spider (Jack Champion) gains the ability to breathe Pandora’s air, which only creates more problems because it makes him more attractive to the humans as a test subject. The best thing the series could do is kill off both Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Col. Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who both were wearing out their welcome even before this movie. While this film is beset by many of the same issues as its predecessors, it at least introduces us to a new Na’vi clan who ally themselves with the humans to get their hands on Earth weapons. They make more interesting villains than any this franchise has had before, and their presence lets us know that the Na’vi are not just innocent victims. A better writer than James Cameron might make this world interesting yet. Also with Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Oona Chaplin, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Giovanni Ribisi, Jemaine Clement, David Thewlis, and Kate Winslet.
Charlie the Wonderdog (PG) This animated film is about a dog (voiced by Owen Wilson) who gains superpowers after being abducted by aliens. Additional voices by Tabitha St. Germain, Anthony Bolognese, Rhona Rees, Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez, and Caitlynne Medrek.
David (PG) Theoretically, this animated musical should appeal to Jews as well as Christians, but it’s too boilerplate to do that. The Biblical hero (voiced by Brandon Engman as a boy and Phil Wickham as a young man) starts out as a shepherd who’s anointed to be Israel’s next king, which earns him the enmity of King Saul (voiced by Adam Michael Gold). While Saul is depicted properly as a conflicted villain, the computer-generated animation is dull to look at, and the songs by Jonas Myrin are even less interesting to listen to. The movie makes David’s superhuman deeds seem all too ordinary, and the story ends before getting into the messy events of David’s adulthood. Additional voices by Mark Jacobson, Asim Chaudhry, Ashley Boettcher, Mark Whitten, Katie Bernstein, Mick Wingert, Brian Stivale, Lauren Daigle, and Kamran Nikhad.
Dead Man’s Wire (R) Gus Van Sant’s thriller is decently crafted, but I’m not sure what it’s about. The film dramatizes a real-life 1977 incident in Indianapolis when a would-be land developer (Bill Skarsgård) took a mortgage company heir (Dacre Montgomery) prisoner at gunpoint to draw attention to the company’s predatory lending practices. The whole affair is paced well and Skarsgård has a good handle on a character who has planned the crime carefully but is nevertheless angry and aggrieved. There’s a chilling moment, too, when the mortgage company founder (Al Pacino) dares the gunman to kill his son rather than admit any wrongdoing. With all this, Van Sant seems unsure of what he wants to say or why he is telling us this story at this time. The same feeling will be uncomfortable for you, if you’ve paid your way in and taken time out of your day for the movie. Also with Colman Domingo, Cary Elwes, Myha’la, Daniel R. Hill, Kevin Ragsdale, Todd Gable, and Kelly Lynch.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (PG-13) Did they throw this together at the last minute? It sure feels that way, and not in a good way. The sequel to the 2023 horror hit has Abby (PIper Rubio) enabling the animatronic animals to leave Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza and wreak havoc on the surrounding town, partly because both her dad (Josh Hutcherson) and his girlfriend (Elizabeth Lail) are too damaged to divulge key pieces of information. At one point there are three sets of the animals wandering about, and still Emma Tammi can’t make any of them scary. The actors give slapdash performances, which is only one reason why the story clanks even louder than the robots do. Also with Mckenna Grace, Wayne Knight, Han Soto, Teo Briones, Freddy Carter, Skeet Ulrich, and Matthew Lillard.
Greenland 2: Migration (PG-13) The apocalypse is a boring place to be in this sequel to the 2020 disaster movie. Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin star as the parents and scientists who are forced from their underground bunker by an earthquake and set out for a possible safe zone in southern France. The action set pieces are nowhere near as compelling as they were in the original film, mostly because the Earth has already been destroyed. There is actually some decent acting by Baccarin when she finds out that her husband is terminally ill from radiation poisoning, but that isn’t enough to hang this disaster film on. Also with Roman Griffin Davis, Sophie Thompson, Amber Rose Revah, Gordon Alexander, Tommie Earl Jenkins, Trond Fausa Aurvåg, Peter Polycarpou, and William Abadie.
Hamnet (R) Beautifully crafted, occasionally crushing, and based on Maggie O’Farrell’s work of speculative fiction, Chloé Zhao’s film is about William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley) dealing with the death of their 11-year-old son Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) from the bubonic plague. The film is quite different from O’Farrell’s novel; instead of adopting different characters’ viewpoints and jumping around in time, the movie proceeds in a linear fashion and sticks with Agnes as she raises the children in Stratford while Will goes off to London and catches on with a theater company. Much like Shakespeare in Love, this movie truly takes flight during a production of a Shakespeare play, when Agnes travels to London and sees her husband’s Hamlet as an expression of his grief over their lost son. Great performances by both leads bring this Hamlet to tragic life no matter how many Hamlets you’ve seen. Also with Joe Alwyn, Freya Hannan-Mills, David Wilmot, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Olivia Lynes, Noah Jupe, and Emily Watson.
The Housemaid (R) Based on Freida McFadden’s best-selling novel, this thriller is a throwback to 1980s psychological thrillers like Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct, but from a female point of view. Sydney Sweeney portrays an ex-convict who takes a job as a live-in maid in a Long Island mansion, only to find her employer (Amanda Seyfried) behaving like such a psycho that it puts her in greater danger than she was in prison. The film ups the book’s violence considerably, which would be great if the acting were better. As it is, Seyfried blows away her co-stars as a wealthy housewife who’s simmering with rage and whose erratic behavior is cagier than it appears. She and Paul Feig’s direction make this about as good an adaptation of the novel as we could have expected. Also with Brandon Sklenar, Michele Morrone, Indiana Elle, Alexandra Seal, and Elizabeth Perkins.
Is This Thing On? (R) Bradley Cooper’s latest show-business drama is charming, but seems in search of a subject. Will Arnett stars as a man who copes with his recent divorce by performing at comedy clubs’ open-mic nights in New York. The material is realistically good enough to raise some laughs without being so good that it makes our hero seem too polished. The director contributes a funny turn as an eternally struggling actor, too. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work either as a story about a man seeking laughter therapy nor as one about an office worker mixing with comics and other creative types. Who is this movie for? Also with Laura Dern, Andra Day, Blake Kane, Calvin Knegten, Sean Hayes, Christine Ebersole, Ciarán Hinds, Amy Sedaris, and Peyton Manning.
Mana Shankara Varaprasad Garu (NR) Chiranjeevi stars in this Telugu-language thriller as a security officer who must protect his estranged family from a vindictive ex-cop. Also with Nayanthara, Catherine Tresa, Venkatesh Daggubati, Sharat Saxena, and VTV Ganesh.
Marty Supreme (R) Josh Safdie’s first solo effort as a director is better than Uncut Gems. Like that movie, it’s a sports-oriented film about a Jewish man who hustles because his life depends on it, but because this Jewish protagonist (Timothée Chalamet) has a great talent for table tennis, it dries out the movie and keeps it from becoming too heavy. Chalamet is electric and dangerous as a guy who is very far from being a nice Jewish boy, who knocks up his neighbor’s wife (Odessa A’zion) and beds a movie star (Gwyneth Paltrow) while trying to negotiate a sponsorship deal with her husband (Kevin O’Leary). Safdie creates set pieces that give us no time to catch our breath and displays creative approaches to music and the casting of the supporting roles. Still, it’s Chalamet’s performance that sells this, especially at the end, when he finds something other than his sport to focus on. Also with Fran Drescher, Sandra Bernhard, Tyler the Creator, Larry “Ratso” Sloman, Emory Cohen, Luke Manley, Géza Röhrig, Koto Kawaguchi, Pico Iyer, Fred Hechinger, Penn Jillette, Isaac Mizrahi, George Gervin, and Abel Ferrara.
Nari Nari Nadumamurari (NR) This Telugu-language romance stars Sharwanand as a young man who is caught between two women (Samyuktha Menon and Sakshi Vaidya). Also with Sree Vishnu.
Night Patrol (R) Justin Long stars in this horror film as an L.A. cop who discovers that the members of the force’s elite tactical unit are all vampires. Also with Jermaine Fowler, CM Punk, RJ Cyler, Flying Lotus, Freddie Gibbs, Colin Young, Nick Gillie, and Dermot Mulroney.
No Other Choice (R) The best movie of 2025 is a gleefully wicked thriller about how capitalism makes killers of us all. Based on Donald E. Westlake’s novel The Ax, this South Korean film stars Lee Byung-hun as a manager fired from his longtime job as a paper manufacturer who takes extreme measures to find new employment, namely murdering all his fellow paper makers who are more qualified than himself. The density of detail is incredible, with all manner of seemingly unrelated subplots tying into the main plot in surprising ways. Strangely, the movie also works as a drama about marital infidelity and a film about alcoholism. Director Park Chan-wook’s scene transitions are neat and tidy as ever, and Lee leans all the way into the ridiculousness of the antihero’s plight. Between Park and his film-school buddy Bong Joon-ho, Korean filmmakers make better movies out of the current economy than anybody. Also with Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won, Yoo Yeon-seok, Kim Woo-seung, Choi So-yul, and Kim Hyung-mook.
Primate (R) From making movies about killer sharks (the 47 Meters Down films), director Johannes Roberts moves on to a killer chimp. Johnny Sequoyah stars as a college student who returns to her home in Hawaii where her deaf father (Oscar winner Troy Kotsur) is housing a monkey in hopes of training it to communicate with humans. Unfortunately, the chimp contracts rabies and starts preying on our heroine’s friends. Despite some holes in the plot and the theme, the movie is adequate enough for what it sets out to do. For a January release, this is just barely good enough. Also with Jess Alexander, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter, Benjamin Cheng, Charlie Mann, and Tienne Simon. (Opens Friday)
Sheepdog (R) One of the most mixed of bags. Stephen Grayhm writes, directs, and stars in this drama as an Iraq war veteran who’s in court-ordered psychotherapy after assaulting an innocent bystander. While addressing his issues, he takes in a homeless ex-convict and Vietnam War veteran (Vondie Curtis-Hall). The stuff about the guy who has to be dragged kicking and screaming to therapy is all quite good, but the story around it features unbelievable coincidences, terrible overwriting, and some even worse acting by the supporting cast. You may be distracted by Grayhm’s incredible physical and vocal resemblance to a younger Matt Damon, which the story’s Boston setting only underscores. The gigantic beard that Grayhm grows for the movie doesn’t help. Also with Dominic Fumusa, Lilli Cooper, A.J. Paratore, Nathalie Sepulveda, Rose Mallick, Matt Dallas, and Virginia Madsen.
Song Sung Blue (PG-13) Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson portray Mike and Claire Sardina, the real-life married couple who endured personal tragedies to become a celebrated Neil Diamond tribute band in Milwaukee in the 1990s. Unfortunately, writer-director Craig Brewer reduces their story to inspirational pablum, though he does pick up what makes ordinary people take up careers as cover band musicians and celebrity impersonators. Jackman and Hudson perform Diamond’s songs to a listenable level but no more, and Jackman does well as a reformed alcoholic who’s reluctant to perform “Sweet Caroline” because the song is overexposed. Even if you are a Diamond fan, this thing never quite catches dramatic fire. Also with Ella Anderson, King Princess, Fisher Stevens, Mustafa Shakir, John Beckwith, Shyaporn Theerakulstit, Jim Belushi, and Michael Imperioli.
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants (PG) The series has gone stagnant creatively. Our square yellow hero (voiced by Tom Kenny) journeys to the ocean’s depths to encounter the Flying Dutchman (voiced by Mark Hamill) and become a true swashbuckler, unaware that the pirate is using him for his own purposes. The charm and childlike joy of the TV series is nowhere in evidence in this big-screen adventure that takes little advantage of the larger canvas that its animators have to work with. After three SpongeBob movies, I finally feel safe in saying that SpongeBob should stick to TV. Additional voices by Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown, Carolyn Lawrence, Arturo Castro, George Lopez, Sherry Cola, Ice Spice, and Regina Hall.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (PG-13) The best movie in the series. Following his parents’ deaths, Spike (Alfie Williams) falls into the hands of a murderous religious cult leader (Jack O’Connell) while Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) tries to stop and perhaps even cure the zombie plague. The two halves of the film come together neatly, which results in a terrific bit when the doctor convinces the cult members that he’s a god by blasting Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast” and putting on a pyrotechnic show. This unfortunately reduces Spike to a bystander for much of the movie, but O’Connell (channeling the late Sir Jimmy Savile) makes a fairly terrifying villain and Fiennes does some of his best work as a Duran Duran fan who has maintained his humanity amid the devastation. New director Nia DaCosta builds character and atmosphere without sacrificing the zombie thrills that we come for. Also with Chi Lewis-Parry, Erin Kellyman, Emma Laird, Maura Bird, Connor Newall, Ghazi al-Ruffai, Robert Rhodes, Sam Locke, Mirren Mack, and Louis Ashbourne Serkis.
Wicked: For Good (PG) Not so good as a stand-alone movie, but aces as a conclusion to the two-part saga. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) becomes a fugitive from Oz’ flying monkeys while Glinda (Ariana Grande) finds her popularity being used to prop up the corrupt regime. The whole movie is a case study in good intentions gone awry, as various characters’ attempts to prove themselves backfire disastrously. This back half spotlights Grande as much as the first half did for Erivo, and the pop singer comes through whether she’s betraying her best friend or wresting control of Oz from its rulers. All the show’s best songs were in the first film, and the ones newly written for this movie aren’t up to scratch, but the story of the popular girl learning how to be good is deeply moving. Musical fans now have their own multi-part fantasy series to cherish. Also with Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Marissa Bode, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, and Bronwyn James. Voices by Peter Dinklage and Colman Domingo.
Zootopia 2 (PG) Not as good as the first one, I’m afraid. Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman) have to deal with a new case involving the family of snakes who founded the city and were screwed out of their inheritance by the mammals. Some of the jokes do land like they should, but the metaphors are not as resonant, and the new supporting characters aren’t as well drawn as they were in the original. The fraying partnership between our two cops doesn’t throw up anything new, either. There is a funny subplot with a TV actor stallion (voiced by Patrick Warburton) becoming Zootopia’s new mayor, but it’s not enough to recommend the film. Additional voices by Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, Andy Samberg, David Strathairn, Quinta Brunson, Danny Trejo, Nate Torrence, Don Lake, Bonnie Hunt, CM Punk, Stephanie Beatriz, Alan Tudyk, Macaulay Culkin, Brenda Song, Tiny Lister Jr., John Leguizamo, Tommy Chong, Auli’i Cravalho, Tig Notaro, Ed Sheeran, Cecily Strong, June Squibb, Michael J. Fox, Josh Gad, Idris Elba, and Jenny Slate.
Dallas Exclusives
The Chronology of Water (R) Kristen Stewart’s directing debut is based on Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir about recovering from an abusive childhood and discovering her bisexuality and preference for BDSM sex. Starring Imogen Poots, Tom Sturridge, Thora Birch, Charlie Carrick, Susannah Flood, Kim Gordon, and Jim Belushi.
Rosemead (NR) Lucy Liu stars in this drama as a Chinese immigrant in upstate New York who takes extreme measures to protect her teenage son (Lawrence Shou). Also with Orion Lee, Jennifer Lim, Madison Hu, Eleven Lee, James Chen, and Susan Pourfar.
The Secret Agent (R) Kleber Mendonça Filho’s thriller stars Wagner Moura as a Brazilian research scientist in 1977 who’s hunted down by government agents for free speech. Also with Maria Fernanda Cândido, Robson Andrade, Rubens Santos, Marcelo Valle, Licínio Januário, Fabiana Pirro, Hermila Guedes, Buda Lira, Alice Carvalho, Luciano Chirolli, Thomás Aquino, Enzo Nunes, and the late Udo Kier.
The Voice of Hind Rajab (NR) Kaouther Ben Hania’s documentary dramatizes the killing of a 5-year-old girl in Gaza by Israeli armed forces by using her real-life distress calls against staged re-enactments of the emergency workers in Ramallah who answered her. Starring Motaz Malhees, Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury, and Amer Hlehel.
