OPENING
Animal Farm (PG) Based on George Orwell’s novel, this animated film is about a group of farm animals who descend into dictatorship. Voices by Seth Rogen, Woody Harrelson, Steve Buscemi, Kieran Culkin, Laverne Cox, Andy Serkis, Gaten Matarazzo, Jim Parsons, Kathleen Turner, and Glenn Close. (Opens Friday)
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. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
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. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Casa Grande (R) A continuation of the TV series, this film stars Christina Moore as a woman who returns home to defend her ancestors’ land against theft. Also with Lou Diamond Phillips, John Pyper-Ferguson, Madison Lawlor, Dorian de Tappan, Loren Escandon, Javier Bolaños, and Bruce Davison. (Opens Friday)
Deep Water (R) Aaron Eckhart stars in this thriller as the pilot of a commercial airliner that crash-lands in shark-infested waters. Also with Angus Sampson, Lucy Barrett, Molly Belle Wright, Lakota Johnson, Mark Hadlow, and Ben Kingsley. (Opens Friday)
Ek Din (NR) This Indian romance stars Sai Pallavi as a woman who falls in love with a colleague (Junaid Khan) during a company trip to Japan. Also with Kunal Kapoor, Kavin Dave, Pragati Mishra, Manoor Khan, and Aamir Khan. (Opens Friday)
Gaaya Padda Simham (NR) Tharun Bhascker stars in this drama as an Indian immigrant caught up in a mass deportation in America. Also with J.D. Chakravarthi, Faria Abdullah, Tarun Rohith, Sree Vishnu, Siddharth Gollapudi, and Ssubhaleika Sudhakar. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Hokum (R) Adam Scott stars in this horror movie as an American writer who encounters evil spirits when he travels to Ireland to scatter his parents’ ashes. Also with David Wilmot, Peter Coonan, Brendan Conroy, Will O’Connell, and Florence Ordesh. (Opens Friday)
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. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
One Spoon of Chocolate (R) RZA’s thriller stars Shameik Moore as an ex-convict trying to start his life over in a small town. Also with RJ Cyler, Paris Jackson, Rockmond Dunbar, Harry Goodwins, Emyri Crutchfield, and Blair Underwood. (Opens Friday)
Patriot (NR) This Malayalam-language spy thriller stars Mohanlal and Mammootty as agents trying to navigate a national security crisis. Also with Fahadh Faasil, Kunchacko Boban, Nayanthara, Darshana Rajendran, Revathi, Rajiv Menon, and R. Sarathkumar. (Opens Friday at Cinemark Tinseltown Grapevine)
Pitt Siyapa (NR) Sonam Bajwa stars in this comedy as an Indian woman who starts a business hosting virtual funerals for Indian emigrés. Also with Karamjit Anmol, Gurpreet Bhangu, Nisha Bano, Sukhwinder Chahal, Paramvir Cheema, and Balraj Sidhu. (Opens Friday at Cinemark North East Mall)
Raja Shivaji (NR) This Marathi-language historical drama stars Riteish Deshmukh as the 17th-century ruler who founded the Maratha Empire. Also with Sanjay Dutt, Abhishek Bachchan, Vidya Balan, Genelia Deshmukh, Mahesh Manjrekar, Fardeen Khan, Boman Irani, and Salman Khan. (Opens Friday)
The Story of Everything (NR) Stephen C. Meyer’s documentary is about the origins of life and the universe. (Opens Friday)
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. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
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. (Opens Friday)
NOW PLAYING
Busboys (R) David Spade and Theo Von star in and write this comedy about best friends who believe that becoming restaurant waiters will solve all their problems. Also with Jimmy Gonzales, Leah McKendrick, Arturo del Puerto, Michelle Ortiz, Tim Dillon, Lindsey Normington, and Jay Pharoah.
Desert Warrior (R) What was supposed to be the first big-budget Saudi blockbuster comes to us after numerous delays and reports of on-set trouble, and does it ever show. Anthony Mackie stars as a 6th-century Arabian mercenary who’s caught between a royal order to make all the tribal chief’s daughters into part of the king’s harem, and a princess (Aiysha Hart) who refuses to go along. Director Rupert Wyatt comes up with some breathtakingly beautiful visuals, but those are drowned out by incomprehensible action sequences and stilted theatrics. This misfire goes down as a worthy entry in the catalogue of cursed films. Also with Sharlto Copley, Numan Acar, Géza Röhrig, Ghassan Massoud, Sami Bouajila, and Ben Kingsley.
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.
Fireflies at El Mozote (NR) Based on historical events, this drama stars Juan Pablo Shuk as a 10-year-old Salvadoran boy seeking justice for the murder of his entire village in 1981. Also with Paz Vega, Jeff Fahey, Yancey Arias, Diana Aboujian, Gabriel Pinto, Mateo Honies, and Mena Suvari.
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.
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.
I Swear (R) Another cozily uplifting British drama, with a notable performance at its center. Robert Aramayo stars as John Davidson, the real-life Scottish Tourette’’s syndrome sufferer who devoted his life to helping others with his condition and educating the public about it. Aramayo does well to mimic the ferocious tics that Tourette’s patients display as well as the offensive language that they often spew without the ability to control it. The film receives its mild distinctivenes from a protagonist who announces himself a pedophile when he enters a school and shouts “Fuck the police!” at cops. It raises this biopic to the level of watchable. Famously, the real Davidson appeared at the BAFTA Awards and shouted the n-word at Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo during the ceremony. Also with Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson, David Carlyle, Scott Ellis Watson, Steven Cree, and Peter Mullan.
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.
Mistura (NR) This Peruvian film stars Bárbara Mori as a divorced woman overcoming social stigma to open a restaurant for Lima’s high society. Also with Cesar Ballumbrosio, Stefano Meier, Juan Pablo Olyslager, Hermelinda Luján, Vanessa Saba, Marco Zunino, and Christian Meier.
Mother Mary (R) David Lowery’s latest film is more interesting than Michael. Anne Hathaway stars as a reclusive pop-music star who begs her ex-best friend and costumer (Michaela Coel) for a dress for her comeback tour. Lowery gives us way too much overwritten dialogue about the burdens of living in a celebrity’s shadow or living as a celebrity, but the film jerks to life during a dance interlude when Mother Mary performs her new choreography. While the director’s talents are everywhere in evidence, especially in flashbacks that take place on sets or adjacent to our main characters, the music is not on the same level despite some superstar talent writing them. This feels like a substandard pop album from a star who can do much better. Also with Hunter Schafer, Kaia Gerber, Atheena Frizzell, Jessica Brown Findlay, Alba Baptista, Sian Clifford, and FKA twigs.
Over Your Dead Body (R) This remake of the Norwegian comic thriller The Trip offers some modest improvements. Jason Segel and Samara Weaving portray a washed-up Hollywood director and his Australian failed-actress wife who take a weekend trip to a remote cabin. They both secretly plan to murder the other, only to find that the cabin isn’t as remote as they think, so they wind up killing a lot more people. The comedy doesn’t really work until the murder plot kicks in, but the comic skills of the two leads put across the farcical deaths that our main couple causes. Director Jorma Taccone (MacGruber) organizes the bloody chaos with due energy and wit. Also with Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, Paul Guilfoyle, Jake Curran, Keith Jardine, and an uncredited Kumail Nanjiani.
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.
Saint Joseph: Guardian of the Family (NR) This Polish film stars Rafal Zawierucha as a radio reporter who copes with a crisis by telling the stories of people visiting a nearby shrine. Also with Karolina Chapko, Radoslaw Pazura, Karol Biskup, Lech Wierzbowski, Aleksandra Palka-Lopatka, and Maja Barełkowska.
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.
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
The Wolf and the Lamb (NR) Adrianne Palicki stars in this Western as a Montana widow whose son disappears from a remote mining camp and returns terribly altered. Also with Zach McGowan, Q’orianka Kilcher, James Landry Hébert, Cassandra Scerbo, Clint Howard, and Angus Macfadyen.
