OPENING
Affection (NR) This science-fiction thriller stars Jessica Rothe as a woman whose memory keeps resetting itself, estranging her from her family. Also with Joseph Cross and Julianna Layne. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft (PG-13) The odd couple of Eilish and James Cameron don’t quite manage to reinvent the concert documentary form, but the movie is worth the admission ticket anyway. Compiled from her 2025 performances in Manchester and Phoenix, the film mostly concentrates on Eilish’s performances. She could use some refreshers in breath control, but she commands the stage all by herself whether she’s singing bangers like “Chihiro” or softer numbers like “Ocean Eyes.” Either the movie or the setlist could have done with one or two fewer of the latter, but Eilish’s songwriting is sturdy enough that even moviegoers who aren’t fans of hers will find some items to put on their playlists. Also with Finneas O’Connell. (Opens Friday)
Blue Heron (NR) This film is about a Hungarian family moving into their new home on Vancouver Island, seen through the eyes of their youngest daughter (Eylul Guven). Also with Amy Zimmer, Iringó Réti, Ádám Tompa, Liam Serg, and Edik Beddoes. (Opens Friday at AMC Parks at Arlington)
Erupcja (NR) Charli xcx stars in this drama as a British tourist who re-connects with an ex-lover (Lena Góra) while stranded in Warsaw. Also with Will Madden, Agata Trzebuchowska, Maja Michnacka, Jan Lubaczewski, and Jeremy O. Harris. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Godari Gattupaina (NR) This Telugu-language romance stars Sumanth Prabhas and Nidhi Pradeep as a couple whose love is threatened by parental expectations. Also with Jagapathi Babu, Laila, Reenu S.K., Sudharshan, and Rajkumar Kasireddy. (Opens Friday)
Meet Me at the Eclipse (NR) This Vietnamese romance stars Doan Thien An as a nun in 1995 who discovers a cache of unsent love letters. Also with Khuong Le, Hua Vi Van, Nguyen Thao, Huynh Phuong, and Thanh Son. (Opens Friday)
Mortal Kombat II (R) Adapted from the 1990s video game, this sequel to the pandemic hit stars Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, a washed-up Hollywood martial-arts star who’s drafted to fight against demigods in a fighting tournament with the fate of the Earth at stake. This starts off somewhat well, with some inventive fight sequences and a very funny parody of 1990s action movies. Josh Lawson returns as a resurrected mercenary and contributes some snap despite playing every Australian stereotype at once. The script’s feeble attempts at humor are nevertheless a welcome break from the stilted dramatics, as the movie loses track of all the characters (including Johnny) for unconscionable stretches, and the climactic fights go on interminably. Also with Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Tadanobu Asano, Mehcad Brooks, Tati Gabrielle, Martyn Ford, CJ Bloomfield, Lewis Tan, Max Huang, Damon Herriman, Chin Han, Joe Taslim, and Hiroyuki Sanada. (Opens Friday)
Neglected (NR) Josh Duhamel stars in this thriller as a police detective whose son (Dylan Sprouse) is kidnapped by a serial killer. Also with Elena Sanchez, Jeremy London, Jason London, David Lipper, Linda Summer, Kristin Wollett, Corbin Pitts, and Til Schweiger. (Opens Friday at Movie Tavern Hulen)
Paral ko Aago (NR) A remake of a 1978 Nepalese movie by the same name, this stars Prakash Saput and Suhana Thapa as a village married couple whose relationship is strained by fiery arguments. Also with Saugat Malla, Srijana Adhikari, Shankar Acharaya, and Kishor Bhandari. (Opens Friday at Cinemark North East Mall)
The Sheep Detectives (PG) Adapted from Leonie Swann’s children’s book, this film has a fresh idea but botches the execution. When an English shepherd (Hugh Jackman) is found murdered, his flock of sheep sets out to solve the crime, since he used to read to them from his collection of detective novels. Nicholas Braun contributes a fine turn as a cop who’s dumber than any of the sheep, but the mystery plot is too balky for first-time director Kyle Balda, who has to balance it with the sheep leaving their meadow for the first time and interacting with other humans. This movie isn’t sure whether it’s supposed to be for the kids or for the Agatha Christie fans. Also with Emma Thompson, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon, Tosin Cole, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Conleth Hill, and Hong Chau. Voices by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O’Dowd, Regina Hall, Bella Ramsey, Brett Goldstein, Rhys Darby, and Patrick Stewart. (Opens Friday)
Takeover (R) This thriller stars Quavo as an ex-convict who’s pulled back into a life of crime after getting out of prison. Also with Billy Zane, Danny Boyd Jr., Brielle Rankins, LaMonica Garrett, Martin Sensmeier, and Serayah. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
NOW PLAYING
Animal Farm (PG) To an astonishing degree, this movie feels like it was thrown together at the last minute. Adapted from George Orwell’s novel, this animated film is about a young pig (voiced by Gaten Matarazzo) who helps the farm animals overthrow their human masters, only to watch a power-hungry pig (voiced by Seth Rogen) take over as a dictator. The run-up to the animals’ coup is practically nonexistent, and the filmmakers have the unmitigated gall to throw in a subplot with a Big Agro tycoon (voiced by Glenn Close). They even tack on a happy ending that Orwell would surely be having a cow over. The author’s message about dictatorship emerges as so garbled as to be unintelligible. No movie has ever done right by Orwell, and this one does him wrong more than most. Additional voices by Woody Harrelson, Steve Buscemi, Kieran Culkin, Laverne Cox, Andy Serkis, Jim Parsons, and Kathleen Turner.
Deep Water (R) Just crap. Aaron Eckhart stars in this thriller as an airline pilot whose commercial flight crash-lands in shark-infested waters in the Pacific. Renny Harlin used to be a hot commodity as an action-film director, but he does nothing here with any conviction or invention, and the whole subplot with the pilot having to take care of a little girl (Molly Belle Wright) is just insulting. Forget the Airport movies, 2023’s Plane handled this setup with more energy than this. Also with Angus Sampson, Lucy Barrett, Rosie Zhao, Kelly Gale, Ryan Brown, Kate Fitzpatrick, Richard Crouchley, Lakota Johnson, Mark Hadlow, and Ben Kingsley.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 (PG-13) This sequel is quite enjoyable in the same way as the original, but it has one big irritating issue. Anne Hathaway reprises her role as Andy, a newly unemployed journalist who takes a job at Runway, which is now embroiled in a PR crisis. The sequel registers how fashion media has changed in the last 20 years, but gets distracted by a succession battle after the fashion magazine’s owner (Tibor Feldman) suddenly dies. It would have been better devoting more time to Andy trying to detoxify Runway’s workplace culture and bring Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) into line. The characters have been away long enough for us to be happy to see them, and the script is smart enough that you won’t hate yourself for reveling in its posh setting. Shame that it goes too easy on its characters. Also with Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, Justin Theroux, Tracie Thoms, Patrick Brammall, Caleb Hearon, Simone Ashley, Helen J. Shen, Rachel Bloom, B.J. Novak, Lucy Liu, Kenneth Branagh, and Lady Gaga.
The Drama (R) You’ve seen movies about weddings where everything goes to hell, but never one quite like this. Zendaya and Robert Pattinson play an engaged couple who are slated to get married in a week, but she throws a wrench in the works during a party game when her friends reveal the worst thing they’ve ever done, and she comes up with a topper that horrifies everyone. Writer-director Kristoffer Borgli previously did Dream Scenario, but this is closer to the edgelord stuff he did in his native Norway. While he fails to comment meaningfully on America’s gun culture, he does make the film succeed as a cracked sort of romance between two appalling human beings whose flaws complement one another, and Pattinson steals away acting honors as an overwhelmed guy with an epic case of pre-wedding jitters. Also with Alana Haim, Mamoudou Athie, Hailey Benton Gates, Sydney Lemmon, Hannah Gross, Anna Baryshnikov, and Damon Gupton.
Exit 8 (PG-13) Unusual enough to stand out. Based on the recent video game, this Japanese horror film stars Kazunari Ninomiya as a nameless young man who becomes trapped in the subway, with signs that point him toward the exit but instead lead him in a big circle where he repeatedly passes by the same people and landmarks. The movie is actually about deeper psychological issues, as the hero finds out that he’s about to be a father and has to work through his own trauma from being an abandoned child. Director Genki Kawamura rings enough changes on near-identical subway halls to prevent this from becoming too monotonous. Also with Yamato Kochi, Naru Asanuma, Nana Komatsu, and Hirota Ōtsuka.
A Great Awakening (PG-13) Thoughtful enough to be the next great Christian drama, but taken down by other issues. The film follows both Benjamin Franklin (John Paul Sneed) as he sets up a printing business in the American colonies and George Whitefield (Jonathan Blair) as he turns his ambitions from acting to preaching the Word of God in Britain. The two men meet before the American revolution, and the deist Franklin finds inspiration in Whitefield’s speeches. It’s a good story, but director/co-writer Joshua Enck takes too long building things up — we’re more than an hour into the story before our two main characters finally meet. The writers (who also include Blair) do well to traverse the limits of religious faith and the need for human action based on that, but the whole thing has too many stops on the heroes’ journey. It needed some neater editing. Also with Russell Dean Schultz, Robert Bigley, JT Schaeffer, Josh Bates, Carson Burkett, Stephen Foster Harris, Ryan Jameson Hippe, and Daniel Stargel.
Hokum (R) Not only does this horror movie scare you, it also holds together on a storytelling level in inspiring fashion. Adam Scott plays a famous American novelist who travels to Ireland to scatter his parents’ ashes and commit suicide, but when he recovers from his failed attempt and tries to thank the hotel maid who saved his life (Florence Ordesh), he discovers that she has vanished along with a homeless man (David Wilmot). Writer-director Damian McCarthy injects bits of Irish folklore and buggy visuals like an evil rabbit-man lurking in the hotel’s halls, but the common murder mystery at the movie’s center helps keep the proceedings grounded. If you’re new to McCarthy’s slow-burning sense of horror, this is the best possible introduction to it. Also with Peter Coonan, Austin Amelio, Brendan Conroy, Will O’Connell, and Michael Patric.
Hoppers (PG) Maybe it doesn’t tug at the heartstrings like Pixar’s best movies do, but it’s funny enough that you won’t care. A 19-year-old college student (voiced by Piper Curda) discovers that her biology professor (voiced by Kathy Najimy) has developed a program to temporarily put human consciousness into realistic robot animals, so she uses it to talk to the animals and save a beloved forest glade from being demolished. She does point out that this is the plot of Avatar, but this movie is better thought out than Avatar because it recognizes how complicated the fight for environmental justice can become. This movie delivers on entertainment value better than most recent Pixar entries, making the kids laugh without talking down to the adults. That’s all the animation giant ever needed to do. Additional voices by Jon Hamm, Bobby Moynihan, Dave Franco, Eduardo Franco, Tom Law, Vanessa Bayer, Ego Nwodim, Melissa Villaseñor, Meryl Streep, and the late Isiah Whitlock Jr.
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (R) After a promising start, this movie comes apart spectacularly. Jack Reynor and Laia Costa portray an expatriate couple living in Egypt when their 8-year-old daughter (Emily Mitchell) is abducted during a sandstorm. Nine years later, the now-teenage child (Natalie Grace) reappears and is brought back to her parents in New Mexico, but appears to be much altered. The evil from an ancient civilization manifesting itself in the Southwestern desert is a nice touch, but it’s the only one that Cronin has. The attempts at character study in a broken family go awry, and the film loses track of its characters for long stretches. With scares that are more gross than scary, this take on the intellectual property is a loud misfire. Also with May Calamawy, Billie Roy, Shylo Molina, Mark Mitchinson, Hayat Kamille, May Elghety, Jonathan Gunning, and Veronica Falcón.
Michael (PG-13) There is no movie here. In a bid to appease the Jackson family and their lawyers, director Antoine Fuqua and screenwriter John Logan have thrown out every bit of plot, character development, and atmosphere that would make this Michael Jackson biopic into a semblance of a story. The film takes place in 1966-88, with Juliano Valdi playing little Michael and Jaafar Jackson as the adult. Everything from Janet Jackson to the pedophilia allegations is studiously ignored, and we don’t even get any insight into Michael Jackson’s creative process or psychology to compensate for it. Both Valdi and Jaafar Jackson imitate Michael’s fluid dance moves, which is no mean feat, but the man himself comes off as a cipher, so what hope do the supporting characters have? This is a good deal less than a nostalgia act, and Fuqua and Logan have nothing to do except play the hits. Also with Colman Domingo, Miles Teller, Nia Long, Larenz Tate, Kendrick Sampson, Laura Harrier, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Jessica Sula, Deon Cole, and Mike Myers.
Project Hail Mary (PG-13) Based on Andy Weir’s novel, this science-fiction movie is entertaining enough for the price of admission and maybe even an upcharge to a premium format. Ryan Gosling portrays an astronaut who travels to a star light-years away to find a solution to why our sun is dying. He meets an alien being whose world is facing the same problem with its sun. Gosling spends a great deal of time talking to himself, partly because his character is trying to keep from going insane from the solitude and partly because he has trouble communicating with the alien, but if any actor can make this assignment look easy, it’s Gosling. The filmmaking team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie) drills down into the trial-and-error that goes into the characters’ scientific work and manages to find both humor and beauty in the vastness of space. The movie earns its uplift because of the way the two life forms are willing to collaborate to save their civilizations. Also with Sandra Hüller, Ken Leung, Milana Vayntrub, Priya Kansara, Orion Lee, and Lionel Boyce. Voices by James Ortiz and an uncredited Meryl Streep.
The Story of Everything (NR) Stephen C. Meyer’s documentary is about the origins of life and the universe.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (PG) The Mario brothers (voiced by Chris Pratt and Charlie Day) rescue Yoshi (voiced by Donald Glover) while Bowser Jr. (voiced by Benny Safdie) kidnaps Princess Rosalina (voiced by Brie Larson) in this sequel. While there’s entirely too much going on, this is still better than the first movie. The new voice talent gives the thing some new energy and the filmmakers inject some visual wit that wasn’t there in the original, such as interludes made to look like sock puppet theater and Japanese anime, as well as a casino whose gaming floor extends to the walls and ceiling. Some Mario-fied Minions make an appearance as well. There’s certainly worse stuff made for the little ones out there. Additional voices by Jack Black, Anya Taylor-Joy, Keegan-Michael Key, Issa Rae, Luis Guzmán, and Glen Powell.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Tears of the Azure Sea (NR) The heroes of this Japanese anime must save an undersea kingdom. Voices by Miho Okasaki, Saori Onishi, Nao Kosaka, Kaho Fujishima, and Makoto Furukawa.
You, Me & Tuscany (PG-13) Pleasant enough, I guess. Halle Bailey stars in this comedy as a thwarted chef-turned-professional New York housesitter who finds herself temporarily homeless until an Italian businessman (Lorenzo de Moor) tells her about a family villa that’s sitting empty in his absence. She travels to the Italian countryside and crashes at his place without permission, but when his family discovers her, she lies and tells them that she’s his fiancée. To complicate matters further, she falls for his cousin (Regé-Jean Page). The farce here is leaden, but Page’s charm helps to smooth over the bumpy parts. The novelty of a Black American woman finding herself at home amid Italy’s sun-dappled scenery and fine food is enough to put this across. Her Italianized recipe for shrimp and grits sounds like it would work, too. Also with Isabella Ferrari, Marco Calvani, Stella Peccolo, Paolo Sassanelli, Tommaso Cassissa, Desirèe Pöpper, Stefania Casini, and Aziza Scott.
Dallas Exclusives
An Autumn Summer (NR) Jared Isaac’s drama is about a group of friends who spend a month together by a lake before going off to college. Starring Mark McKenna, Lukita Maxwell, Louise Barnes, Katie Baker, Jun Yu, Julian Bass, and Sophie Marty.
The Blue Trail (NR) This Brazilian film stars Denise Weinberg as an elderly woman who define the government’s order to move to the remote Amazon jungle. Also with Rodrigo Santoro, Miriam Socarras, Rosa Malagueta, Adanilo, Clarissa Pinheiro, and Daniel Ferrat.
Miroirs No. 3 (NR) Christian Petzold’s latest film stars Paula Beer as a classical pianist who is traumatized by the death of her boyfriend. Also with Barbara Auer, Matthias Brandt, Enno Trebs, Philip Froissant, and Victoire Laly.
The Stranger (NR) François Ozon adapts Albert Camus’ novel about a young man (Benjamin Voisin) who experiences traumas during a summer in the 1930s. Also with Rebecca Marder, Pierre Lottin, Swann Arlaud, Christopher Malavoy, Mireille Perrier, and Denis Lavant.
