OPENING
Ali G: Who Iz I? (R) Sacha Baron Cohen stars in and directs this documentary featuring a resurrection of his character as a hip-hop journalist. Also with Morgana Robinson. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
5 Centimeters per Second (NR) The live-action adaptation of the 2005 Japanese anime film stars Hokuto Matsumura as a young man whose romantic feelings towards a woman (Mitsuki Takahata) change over time. Also with Yuzu Aoki, Nana Mori, Mai Kiryu, Noa Shiroyama, Takashi Okabe, and Seina Nakata. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Fjord (R) The latest film by Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days) stars Sebastian Stan as a Romanian immigrant in Norway whose disciplinary methods draw the attention of the country’s justice system. Also with Renate Reinsve, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Lisa Carlehed, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Henrikke Lund-Olsen, and Christian Rubeck. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
418 (NR) This Telugu-language horror film is about a group of medical students trying to solve a mystery in the surrounding village. Starring Chaithra Achar, Charan Lakkaraju, Surya Raj Veerabathini, Preethi Pagadala, and Shashank Patil. (Opens Friday)
Go for Broke 2 (NR) This Chinese thriller stars Isabella Leong as a mother who takes on the organized criminals responsible for her son’s death. Also with Wen Junhui, Bai Ke, Wang Longzheng, Alan Aruna, Casper Chu, and Sammo Hung. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Kabaddi 5 (NR) Dayahang Rai stars in the fifth installment of the Nepalese sports series as the kabaddi player seeking a new challenge after winning his greatest triumph. Also with Bijay Baral, Rishma Gurung, Bipin Karki, Buddhi Tamang, Puskar Gurung, Miruna Magar, and Shishir Bangdel. (Opens Friday at Cinépolis Euless)
Klara and the Sun (PG-13) A pleasant little trifle, though you’d be right to expect more from an adaptation of a Kazuo Ishiguro novel. Jenna Ortega stars as a companion robot in the future who’s purchased by a seriously ill teenage girl (Mia Tharia) and has to learn how to act like a human. Director/co-writer Taika Waititi stages this with pratfalls and slapstick comedy, which is better than the overly buttoned-up treatment that Ishiguro’s books usually get in the movies. The sentimentality does grow rather heavy towards the end, and Waititi soft-pedals the darkness in this science-fiction dystopia. It’s still not too terrible, especially for viewers who haven’t read the book. Also with Amy Adams, Natasha Lyonne, Aran Murphy, Rachel House, Jesse Griffin, Molly Curnow, Harry Greenwood, and Steve Buscemi. (Opens Friday)
Kung Fu Soccer (PG-13) Stephen Chow’s sequel to Shaolin Soccer is about a women’s team trying to make it through a challenging cup tournament. Starring Zhang Xiaofei, Dilraba Dilmurat, Zhang Yixing, Isabelle Zhang, Carina Lau, Takeru Satoh, Luna Fujimoto, and Jimmy O. Yang. (Opens Friday)
Making Marie Antoinette (NR) Eleanor Coppola’s documentary follows her daughter Sofia Coppola as she makes the 2006 historical drama. Also with Kirsten Dunst. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Pehla Pyaar Doosri Baar (NR) This Hindi-language romantic comedy is about three couples who find new romantic challenges at a university reunion. Starring Alisha Chopra, Sparsh Walia, Sakshi Vaidya, Kunal Aryan Vaid, Sargun Luthra, and Thushar Chhibber. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Possible Love (R) The latest film by Lee Chang-dong (Poetry) stars Sul Kyung-gu as a laid-off welder who agrees to be the subject of a documentary film that tells his story. Also with Jeon Do-yeon, Cho Yeo-jeong, Zo In-sung, and Jo Yu-ri. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Rise and Shine (NR) This drama stars Rachel Bay Jones as a mother struggling to get her cerebral palsy-suffering daughter (Ana Sharp) into a regular high school. Also with Miranda Jones, Jennifer Mays, Gabriel del Valle, and Elise Campagna. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Seniors (NR) Paris Brosnan stars in this drama as a teen forced to perform community service at a retirement home. Also with John Rhys-Davies, Bethany Anne Lind, Eric Mendenhall, Maisie Merlock, Ann Hagemann, and Cindy Jackson. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
A Talent for Murder (R) Anton Corbijn’s historical thriller stars Alden Ehrenreich as an aspiring writer sent to the home of Patricia Highsmith (Helen Mirren) to persuade her to write her final novel about Ripley. Also with Olivia Cooke, James Faulkner, Brid Brennan, and Juliet Stevenson. (Opens Friday)
Terrestrial (NR) Jermaine Fowler stars in this science-fiction thriller as a newly successful novelist who invites his friends to his new house. Also with Pauline Chalamet, James Morosini, Edy Modica, Brendan Hunt, Flora Wildes, Taylor Gray, and Rob Yang. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Udta Teer (NR) This Hindi-language comedy stars Ayushmann Khurrana as a spy who accidentally causes a chain of international incidents. Also with Sara Ali Khan, Mukul Dev, Gulshan Grover, Ram Kapoor, Rahul Bose, Brijendra Kala, and Suhail Nayyar. (Opens Friday)
La venganza del charro negro (NR) This Mexican animated film and eighth movie in its series has the hero (voiced by Benny Emmanuel) fighting demons from his past. Additional voices by Emilio Treviño, Mayté Cordeiro, Paola Ramones, Jesus Guzmán, Eduardo España, and Andrés Couturier. (Opens Friday at América Cinemas Fort Worth)
Wicker (R) Based on Ursula Wills’ short story, this fantasy film stars Olivia Colman as an ostracized fisherwoman who hires a warlock (Peter Dinklage) to make her a husband out of basket material. Also with Alexander Skarsgård, Elizabeth Debicki, Ella Bruccoleri, Marli Siu, Gustav Lindh, Ben Ashenden, and Richard E. Grant. (Opens Friday)
Wildwood (PG-13) This stop-motion animated film is about a girl (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee) who ventures into the forest outside Portland to find her kidnapped brother. Additional voices by Carey Mulligan, Angela Bassett, Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina, Charlie Day, Jake Johnson, Jemaine Clement, Tom Waits, Maya Erskine, Tantoo Cardinal, Amandla Stenberg, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Richard E. Grant, Len Cariou, and Blythe Danner. (Opens Friday)
NOW PLAYING
Daniel and the Fiery Furnace (PG-13) This Biblical drama stars Mena Massoud as the prophet trying to stay alive under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar (Elijah Alexander). Also with Zaki Ali, Sophie DeCaro, Jazz Lintott, Roberto Zenca, Mahir Pandhi, and Zachary Coffin.
The Devils (NC-17) In 1971, this movie was released in a censored version in America that director Ken Russell disavowed because it no longer made sense. Now we can see its hallucinatory power. Loosely based on a historical incident in 1634, the film stars Vanessa Redgrave as a viciously repressed French nun in the city of Loudun who accuses a priest (Oliver Reed) of consorting with Satan to demonically possess the nuns in her order. His real crime is insisting on Loudun’s self-government and going against Cardinal Richelieu (Christopher Logue). The film is overheated and loses track of its characters too often, but Reed does some great work as a flawed man who becomes a martyr to the authorities of his own religion. The jaw-dropping sets and Peter Maxwell Davies’ music alone make this worth taking in on the big screen. The controversy over the film’s initial release was over its copious nudity, which makes most present-day exorcism movies look trite. Also with Dudley Sutton, Gemma Jones, Max Adrian, Murray Melvin, Georgina Hale, Graham Armitage, John Woodvine, Kenneth Colley, and an uncredited Twiggy.
Digger (R) I always hate myself while watching Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s movies, and you may hate yourself too if you watch this gruesome environmental satire. Tom Cruise portrays an elderly Texas oilman whose drilling in Greenland creates an environmental disaster that’s set to kill millions in Northern Europe. The opening half-hour plays like the Coen brothers at their cartoonish worst before the movie introduces a framing device that adds on a layer of metafiction. This actually works better than the main story, because it addresses the continued usefulness of making art when the world is literally falling apart. The sad part is, you have to sit through so much cack-handed buffoonery to get to it. The role chimes with Cruise’s gonzo side, but he can’t make this movie into the statement about American hubris that Iñárritu means it to be. Also with John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed, Jesse Plemons, Emma D’Arcy, Sophie Wilde, Burn Gorman, Robert John Burke, Pip Torrens, Stephen Wight, and Michael Stuhlbarg.
Forgotten Island (PG) The mere fact that this animated film warrants comparison with KPop Demon Hunters should tell you everything. On the eve of their separation for college, two teenage Filipino best friends (voiced by H.E.R. and Liza Soberano) are transported to an enchanted island filled with magical creatures from Filipino folklore. The creatures are a big reason why the movie works so well, as they are unfamiliar to Western audiences and the animators clearly have a grand time depicting their wonderful and terrifying aspects. On top of that, the animation style shifts between 3D and the hand-drawn look of 1990s Japanese anime, and the background of the picture is full of references to the highly distinctive culture of the Asian islands with Spanish and American influences. It’s enough to make you want to hit the nearest Jollibee. Additional voices by Dave Franco, Jenny Slate, Dolly de Leon, Manny Jacinto, Jo Koy, Ronny Chieng, Kevin McCann, Eric Bauza, Harvey Guillém, Wagner Moura, and Lea Salonga.
Heart of the Beast (R) Watchable, though no more than that. Brad Pitt stars in this survival drama as a Special Forces veteran and bush pilot who suffers a heart attack in mid-flight and crashes his plane in the Alaskan wilderness. With the help of his dog (like him, a PTSD-suffering veteran of the Iraq war), he has to make his way to civilization. The simple story and lack of dialogue helps protect writer-director David Ayer (Suicide Squad) from the worst of his melodramatic excesses. The new Shaun the Sheep movie is better at depicting our bonds with dogs, but the wild backdrop is imposing on the big screen, and the way the soldier passes on his combat-trained dog to a new owner is moving in the end. Also with Anna Lambe and J.K. Simmons.
Jailer 2 (NR) Rajinikanth stars in this Tamil-language action-comedy about a retired prison guard trying to protect his family from criminals. Also with S.J. Suryah, Mithun Chakraborty, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Ramya Krishnan, Vidya Balan, Yogi Babu, Shiva Rajkumar, Mohanlal, Nora Fatehi, Vijay Sethupathi, Hrithik Roshan, and Jackie Shroff.
Musk (R) The latest documentary by Alex Gibney is a 4-hour portrait of Elon Musk. Also with Samantha Power, Kara Swisher, and Geoffrey Hinton.
The Odyssey (R) Not free of flaws, but a cogent modern interpretation of Homer’s epic poem. As you might guess, this epic needs the biggest screen you can find so that you can properly appreciate its natural vistas and visual set pieces like the boat steering between Scylla and Charybdis. Writer-director Christopher Nolan is too scrupulous when it comes to the violence in the epic poem; more blood would have brought home the movie’s point that Odysseus (Matt Damon) won the Trojan War by violating sacred values and is trying to restore them. Some of the actors in this cast laden with A-list stars do get lost, but Anne Hathaway finds the rage beneath Penelope’s regal exterior and Lupita Nyong’o pulls off an impressive double role as Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. Instead of a turgid homework assignment, this earns its epic status thanks to Nolan’s contemporary angle on the story. Also with Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel, Elliot Page, Samantha Morton, James Remar, Mia Goth, Corey Hawkins, Bill Irwin, Benny Safdie, Jovan Adepo, Logan Marshall-Green, Will Yun Lee, Ryan Hurst, Shiloh Fernandez, Rafi Gavron, and Travis Scott.
Other Mommy (R) The premise of this horror film is a sound one, but the finished product is massively disappointing. Arabella Olivia Clark portrays a 7-year-old girl who is haunted by a demon that looks exactly like her mother (both played by Jessica Chastain). Based on Josh Malerman’s novel Incidents Around the House, the film throws us in the deep end with the demon making itself known to the girl’s parents within the first 15 minutes of the movie. That may seem like the movie being bold and dispensing with buildup, but it turns out that director Rob Savage (The Boogeyman) is just sloppy. Jump scares quickly become wearisome when a movie has no other way to scare you. Savage reveals himself to be a one-trick pony, and he’s not even good at that one trick. A nice performance by Clark gets wasted. Also with Jay Duplass, Dichen Lachman, Arian Moayed, Sean Kaufman, and Karen Allen.
Practical Magic 2 (PG-13) A tired nostalgia act. Everything that was charming about the 1998 original film is gone from this sequel, in which the Owens sisters (Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman) travel to London to prevent Sally’s youngest daughter (Joey King) from being entrapped as she tries to end the family’s love curse, The change of scenery doesn’t help, and despite the energy brought by both the leads and the younger generation of Owens witches, the film remains curiously inert as everybody works through their issues. Director Susanne Bier was an Oscar-winning director back in Denmark, and her qualities are very little in evidence. The talent showed up for this follow-up, but the material didn’t. Also with Maisie Williams, Lee Pace, Xolo Maridueña, Solly McLeod, Katy Wix, Stockard Channing, and Dianne Wiest.
Primetime (R) Robert Pattinson portrays NBC journalist Chris Hansen as a preening, stuck-up actor whose every gesture and line reading is overrehearsed and overdone. As a result, he has never been better. The film follows the To Catch a Predator host in the fall of 2006, who works with an aspiring Hollywood actor (Skyler Gisondo) who’s on the show to impersonate 13-year-old boys and lure pedophiles into various trap houses before Chris swoops in. The movie looks like crap because it’s shot on cameras available in the mid-2000s, a deliberate choice by director Lance Oppenheim, who emphasizes the artificial nature of the Dateline NBC segment at every turn. Playing a ten-cent narcissist who preys on even smaller men for ratings numbers, Pattinson manages to be even creepier than the pedophiles. Also with Merritt Wever, Matthew Maher, Phoebe Bridgers, Bokeem Woodbine, Tony Revolori, Bob Ari, Jonathan Lipnicki, Sean Bridgers, Jessica Hecht, Bill Heck, Creed Bratton, Alex Winter, and Anna Faris.
Ranabaali (NR) This Telugu-language historical drama stars Vijay Deverakonda as a 19th-century man protesting famine conditions in southern India. Also with Rashmika Mandanna, Luke McGibney, Geoffrey Giuliano, Vladimir Angelove, and Arnold Vosloo.
Resident Evil (R) The eighth movie in the series is the one that the video games deserved the whole time. Austin Abrams portrays an organ courier making a delivery to the hospital in Raccoon City on the day that the zombie pandemic breaks out. Director/co-writer Zach Cregger (Weapons) replicates the feel of the games in all the right ways, structuring scenes as puzzles that the main character has to solve and realizing every setting as thoroughly as if it were designed for a game. This may be a paycheck job for him, but he doesn’t treat it like one. Instead, he brings much of his skill to bear so that you don’t feel cheapened for enjoying the zombie shenanigans, and Abrams is a capable lead playing a man who’s not trained for his situation. Also with Paul Walter Hauser, Kali Reis, Will Merrick, Griffin Newman, Johnno Wilson, and Zach Cherry. Voice by Sara Paxton.
Sense and Sensibility (PG) Georgia Oakley films this Jane Austen like it’s a Charlotte Brontë adaptation, which works more or less well. Daisy Edgar-Jones portrays the more sensible of the Dashwood sisters while Esmé Creed-Miles is the more heedless one as they both have differing romantic adventures after their family loses their fortune. Both actresses play their roles well, and Creed-Miles comes close to stealing this one away. The filmmaking may be a bit conventional, but Diana Reid’s script is always intelligent (though it could be funnier) and the eruptions of emotion are well-placed. This admirable film could have turned out much worse. Also with Caitríona Balfe, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Stacy Martin, Tom Brooke, Turlough Convery, Herbert Nordrum, Frank Dillane, Chloe Pirrie, Ceara Coveney, Eliot Sumner, Fiona Shaw, and George MacKay.
The Social Reckoning (R) Aaron Sorkin drops yet another metric ton of verbiage on our heads in this intelligent but wearisome follow-up to The Social Network. The film takes place in the years 2019-21 as Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) secretly meets with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) over the latter’s information that the social media platform is rigging the algorithm to promote hate speech and other ragebait. The script makes some useful points about how our networks manipulate us, but it all gets drowned in writer-director Sorkin’s sameness of tone, and his writing isn’t as sharp as it used to be. The climax set during the Jan. 6 riots feels too cheap by half, and so does the Mary Tyler Moore-style ending. As Mark Zuckerberg, Jeremy Strong takes over the role from Jesse Eisenberg and plays the Facebook CEO like he’s Dracula. Also with Wunmi Mosaku, Billy Magnussen, Betty Gilpin, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Anna Lambe, Aidan Laprete, Kelley Pereira, Nelson Franklin, Patrick Fischler, Portia Doubleday, and Bill Burr.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (PG-13) Peter Parker (Tom Holland) endures some growing pains in this flawed movie that nevertheless will cure your Marvel fatigue. In a new reality where everyone has forgotten his identity, Peter has to deal with the fritzing of his superpowers, a new villain who can take control of people’s minds, and trying to re-connect with his former friends MJ and Ned (Zendaya and Jacob Batalon). Peter’s team-up with the Punisher (Jon Bernthal) is a terrific one, as Peter finds himself trying not to become Frank Castle while turning Jean Grey (Sadie Sink) away from the dark side. The shape of the movie defeats director Destin Daniel Cretton, but the story elements get Peter out of a holding pattern and set up the future Avengers movie quite nicely, as Peter realizes that continuing his crime-fighting by himself will lead to him becoming angry and lonely. Also with Mark Ruffalo, Florence Pugh, Liza Colón-Zayas, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando, Olivia Booth-Ford, Marvin Jones III, Billy Clements, and Marisa Tomei. Voices by Keith David and Naomi Watts.
Street Fighter (PG-13) Brilliantly stupid at times, but just stupid for most of the time. The second film adaptation of the 1990s video game is set in 1993, with Ken and Ryu (Noah Centineo and Andrew Koji) working through their past issues as they compete in a fighting tournament hosted by Bison (David Dastmalchian). The film finds flashes of inspiration in Ken’s period stardom as well as a hotel-room fight sequence where Ryu merely dodges Ken’s blows and gets his nemesis to hurt himself. Elsewhere, the movie suffers from too many characters and poorly lit fights intended to disguise the stunt doubles. Despite the extensive use of 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up?”, the film’s attempt to mine Gen X nostalgia falls flat. Also with Jason Momoa, Callina Liang, Cody Rhodes, Olivier Richters, Vidyut Jammwal, Hirooki Goto, Mel Jarnson, Orville Peck, Kyle Mooney, Roman Reigns, and 50 Cent.
Verity (R) The best-ever movie adaptation of a Colleen Hoover novel, for what that’s worth. Dakota Johnson plays an unsuccessful novelist who’s hired to complete a series of popular crime novels by a best-selling author (Anne Hathaway) who’s now paralyzed and catatonic because of a car accident. Our heroine comes across a draft of the author’s memoir where she appears to confess to murdering her child, or does she? Hathaway gets to play a mother wrestling with her impulses to do the unspeakable, and the movie does best with its Gothic-horror touches as our heroine sees the patient walking around the palatial house in rural Vermont. Yet there are too many holes in the plot, and director Michael Showalter is a comedy filmmaker who doesn’t have the instincts to give this movie the zip of a good thriller. Hoover’s readers deserve better craftsmanship than this. Also with Josh Hartnett, Brady Wagner, Irina Dvorovenko, K.K. Moggie, and Ismael Cruz Córdova.
Whalefall (PG-13) The special effects people here deserve Oscar consideration. Based on Daniel Kraus’ novel, the film stars Austin Abrams as a man who searches for the remains of his abusive father (Josh Brolin) who committed suicide in Monastery Bay off central California. While scuba diving, the young man gets swallowed by a sperm whale along with a seriously pissed-off giant squid and has about an hour’s worth of air to work his way out. The re-creation of the inside of the whale is good enough to send claustrophobes running for the hills, and Abrams emerges with much credit in a role that no actor could adequately prepare for. The father-son stuff, however, gets heavy enough to derail the last third of the movie. The film’s achievement is more technical than anything else. Also with John Ortiz, Jane Levy, Emily Rudd, and Elisabeth Shue.
You Can’t Leave (R) Scott Windhauser’s horror film is about a group of people searching for a missing friend deep in the forest. Starring Spencer Boldman, Paola Andino, Cameron Inman, Thomas Bauer, Taylor Murphy, and Kristos Andrews.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother (R) Quite unlike any other movie about American Muslims that you’ve seen. Mahershala Ali portrays a Houston-based contract killer whose work is suffering after his wife suddenly dies and he has to take care of his three children by himself. He’s given a handy foil in a gun-toting, bling-sporting Christian preacher (John Cho) who has earned a slot on his hit list for urging his followers to commit hate crimes against Muslims. Writer-director Bassam Tariq stumbles at the end trying to stage a miraculous resurrection via divine intervention, but he does well throughout most of the movie, which plays like a Paul Schrader-like drama about a man tormented by questions about his faith and a profession that’s fundamentally at odds with it. The triplicate title comes from a passage in the Qur’an with Mohammed giving advice about who most deserves a man’s respect. Also with Tramell Tillman, Abubakr Ali, Laith Nakli, Adia, Jahleel Kamara, John Henry Ward, Tiffany Boone, and Giancarlo Esposito.
Dallas Exclusives
Animals (R) Ben Affleck directs and stars in this thriller as a politician whose son is kidnapped while he is running for mayor of Los Angeles. Also with Kerry Washington, Steven Yeun, Ray Fisher, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Adriana Paz, and Gillian Anderson.
Concessions (NR) Mas Bouzidi’s drama takes place on the last day of business for a Texas movie theater. Starring Steven Ogg, Josh Hamilton, Samuel Dunning, Greg Roman, Lily Autumn Page, Ritishsa Chakraborty, and the late Michael Madsen.
The Scout (NR) Paula González-Nasser’s drama stars Mimi Davila as a New York City location scout trying to find locations for the shooting of a film project. Also with Rutanya Alda, Matt Barats, Jackson Devereux, Lisa Haas, Sarah Herman, Otmara Marrero, and Ikechukwu Ufomadu.
Unzipped (R) The historical re-release of Douglas Keeve’s 1995 documentary follows fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi as he prepares to unveil his 1994 fall collection.
