OPENING
Batulo Jun (NR) Bhuwan K.C. directs and co-stars in this Nepalese film about a 1980s couple separated by class prejudice. Also with Anmol K.C., Princy Khatiwada, Garima Panta, Nancy Khadka, and Amitesh Shah. (Opens Friday)
Being Heumann (R) Following up her Best Picture Oscar-winning CODA, Sian Heder writes and directs this film about disability-rights advocate Judy Heumann (Ruth Madeley) and her historic protest in San Francisco in 1977. Also with Dylan O’Brien, Rob Delaney, Ray Fisher, Will Brill, David Hewlett, and Mark Ruffalo. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Dark Chocolate (NR) This Telugu-language comedy stars Vishwadev Rachakonda as a faded former movie star who plots a comeback. Also with Bindhu Madhavi, Ramesh Konambhotla, and Rakesh Rachakonda. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Dead of Night (NR) Dermot Mulroney stars in this horror film as a sheriff trying to catch a serial killer in his small town. Also with Scott Grimes, Kirrilee Berger, Alex Camacho, Julianne Arrieta, Zach Justice, and Jake Busey. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Donga Naa Koduku (NR) Mouli Tanuj Prasanth stars in this Telugu-language comedy as a kleptomaniac whose stealing habit engulfs his family in a crime plot. Also with Raghu Babu, Sushmitha Shetty, Rajitha, Bhadram, Priya, and Nandu Gopal. (Opens Friday)
Ebenezer (PG-13) Johnny Depp stars in this re-telling of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Also with Daisy Ridley, Rupert Grint, Andrea Riseborough, Sam Claflin, Arthur Conti, Tramell Tillman, Ellie Bamber, Robert Strange, and Ian McKellen. (Opens Friday)
Ghost Soldier (PG-13) This action-thriller stars Jim Caviezel as an ex-Green Beret who protects his Wyoming neighbors against a corporation out to acquire their land. Also with Garret Dillahunt, Carlos Gómez, Shea Whigham, Beau Knapp, Ricky Whittle, and Olivia Thirlby. (Opens Wednesday)
GOAT: Greatest of All Time (NR) Not to be confused with the animated film from last winter, this Telugu-language comedy is about criminals whose kidnapping plot goes wrong. Starring Sudigali Sudheer, Divya Bharathi, Sarvadaman Banerjee, Nithin Prasanna, Prudhviraj, Chammak Chandra, and Brahmaji. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
God With Us (NR) Jimmy Jenkins’ drama takes place in a community dealing with the fallout after the promised Second Coming of Christ fails to happen. Starring Lil Rel Howery, Clifton Powell, Roger Guenveur Smith, Rotimi, Ashley Rios, Ashley Olivia Fisher, Aspen Kennedy, and Gregory Alan Williams. (Opens Friday)
Itllu Arjuna (NR) This Telugu-language romance stars Aniesh Reddy as a mute man who falls in love. Also with Anaswara Rajan, Vennela Kishore, Brahmaji, Mukesh Rishi, and Sandeep Sahu. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
John Doe (NR) Arjun Das stars in this Tamil-language thriller as a detective investigating a series of child murders in Tamil Nadu. Also with Sanchana Natarajan, Srishti Singh, Anupama Kumar, Karthick Kumar, Zaara Vineet, Shiju Raghavan, and Samarth Ambujakshan. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Maya Lady (NR) Yet another Telugu-language film. This psychological thriller stars Rakesh Varre as a man who becomes dangerously obsessed with a woman (Madhumita Sarcar). Also with Indraja, Satya, and Mysore Suresh. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Mouse (R) This drama stars Chloe Coleman and Katherine Mallen Kupferer as Arkansas teenagers in 2002 whose friendship is upset by a shared tragedy. Also with Sophie Okonedo, Iman Vellani, Tara Mallen, Audrey Grace Marshall, and David Hyde Pierce. (Opens Friday)
Once Upon a Time in Harlem (PG-13) In 1972, William Greaves took his cameras to a party at Duke Ellington’s house, where leading artists and intellectuals from the Harlem Renaissance discussed what that time was like. Now, his son David Greaves (who was part of the camera crew) assembles the footage into this essential documentary for anyone with an interest in American history. While the likes of songwriter Eubie Blake and producer Irvin C. Miller share valuable memories about Black theater, librarians Regina Anderson and Jean Blackwell Hutson recall the importance of opening up literacy to the younger generation, and everyone has something about Marcus Garvey and his effect on the political dimension of the movement. The conversation is sometimes contentious as the guests vividly evoke the ferment of the time and how it relates to the then-recent civil rights movement. It’s a great party, and the film puts you in the thick of it. (Opens Friday)
Once Upon a Time in Texas (NR) Tanner Beard’s Western stars Clive Standen as a man searching for his missing brother in San Francisco in 1905. Also with Jenna Dewan, Henry Thomas, Summer Glau, Kevin Alejandro, Eric Balfour, James Lafferty, Lou Taylor Pucci, and Glenn Morshower. (Opens Friday at Movie Tavern Hulen)
Queen at Sea (NR) Lance Hammer’s drama stars Anna Calder-Marshall as an elderly Englishwoman whose family has to deal with her dementia. Also with Juliette Binoche, Tom Courtenay, Florence Hunt, and Cody Molko. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Remember (NR) This Filipino film is about an estranged couple who briefly reunite in Canada when their son is terminally ill. Starring Dingdong Dantes, Marian Rivera, Joross Gamboa, Kyle Echarri, Ana Abad Santos, Aiza Marquez, and Dominic Lorange. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Space Cadet (PG) This dialogue-free Canadian animated film is about a robot training a human to be an astronaut. (Opens Friday)
Traces of Justice (NR) This Chinese epic stars Zhang Yi as a police detective who witnesses his country’s changes through his 50-year career. Also with Ma Li, Arthur Chen, Chen Minghao, Fan Chengcheng, Li Xuejian, and Karry Wang. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Út Lan 2: The River Demon (NR) This Vietnamese horror film is about a series of mysterious deaths in a small village linked to an ancient curse. Starring Kieu Diem, Ta Lam, Truong Huynh Nhu, Kieu Oanh, Ngoc Phuoc, and Kim Phuong. (Opens Friday)
Victorian Psycho (R) Based on Virginia Feito’s novel, this horror movie stars Maika Monroe as a 19th-century governess whose arrival at an English estate sparks mysterious disappearances. Also with Thomasin McKenzie, Ruth Wilson, Jason Isaacs, Evie Templeton, Kate Brady, Katherine Moran, Paul Reid, and Jacobi Jupe. (Opens Friday)
NOW PLAYING
La bola negra (R) Good, but overhyped. This Spanish epic takes place on three major timelines: One based on Federico García Lorca’s unfinished play is about a young man (Milo Quifes) blackballed from a casino in 1932 for his homosexuality, another is about a fascist soldier (Guitarricadelafuente) who falls in love with a communist prisoner of war (Miguel Bernardeau) in 1937, and the third is about an openly gay man (Carlos González) in 2017 who discovers the missing pages of the García Lorca play. Filmmakers Los Javis know how to create a striking image, and the studio spares no expense in re-creating 20th-century Spain. Yet the plotlines don’t reinforce one another or comment on one another in enlightening ways. It’s essential viewing for anyone who cares about Spanish history, Spanish literature, or gay history. If it weren’t being touted as the year’s best movie, I might appreciate it better. Also with Penélope Cruz, Lola Dueñas, Antonio de la Torre, Natalia de Molina, Albert Pla, Yenesi, Lorenzo Zurzolo, Alberto Cortés, Julio Torres, and Glenn Close.
The Cat in the Hat (PG) Not a straight adaptation of the children’s book, but a new story that continues the adventures of Dr. Seuss’ cat (voiced by Bill Hader). Given one last chance to entertain a family without causing chaos, the cat visits two kids (voiced by Xochitl Gomez and Tiago Martinez) and wreaks havoc with a time machine that might destroy the universe and also get him fired from his job. Some of the visuals here are completely inspired imitations of Seuss’ fantasy worlds with their wealth of detail, but sadly, the plot goes in way too many directions that result in an ending that makes an even bigger mess than the cat himself does. This is good enough to wash away memories of the putrid 2003 Mike Myers live-action film, but not good enough to make memories of its own. The film is preceded by Daffy Season, an animated short with Daffy Duck discovering that the other Warner Bros. cartoon characters have all caught soccer fever. Additional voices by Quinta Brunson, Matt Berry, Giancarlo Esposito, Bowen Yang, Tituss Burgess, Paula Pell, and America Ferrera.
Clayface (R) Adapted from DC Comics, this supervillain origin story plays like a male version of The Substance and is better for it. Tom Rhys Harries portrays a big-time Hollywood movie star whose handsome face is ruined by a mob boss (David Dencik) and becomes a monster because of an experimental treatment that’s meant to restore his beauty. The Welsh newcomer Rhys Harries doesn’t quite convince as an A-lister, but director James Watkins does not spare the gore in depicting the changes to the protagonist’s body, and uses it to good advantage when Clayface realizes that he can change his appearance to impersonate other people. The movie establishes its villain, ends without tipping over into bombast or sentimentality, and distinguishes itself from the tamer DC superhero movies. Also with Naomi Ackie, Eddie Marsan, Joshua James, Joana Ribeiro, Corey Johnson, Jake Curran, Wil Coban, Ruby Sear, Rob Brydon, Max Minghella, and an uncredited Aaron Paul.
Drummer Boy (PG-13) This Revolutionary War drama focuses on three characters dealing with the war for American independence. Starring Joel Smallbone, Ioan Gruffudd, India Brown, Melora Hardin, Lucas Leach, Beverley Knight, Charles Esten, Beth Easdown, and Iain Glen.
Everest: The Other Side (PG-13) It’s IMAX or bust with this one. No regular format can give you an idea of the scale of Mount Everest, so you’ll have to catch Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s documentary on the biggest screen possible. The Oscar-winning filmmakers (Free Solo) profile Jim Morrison and his wife Hilaree Nelson and their dream of climbing the mountain’s treacherous north face and then skiing down. Their cameras are rolling when Nelson is killed in an avalanche on another Himalayan peak, and so Morrison aims to complete the quest to scatter his wife’s ashes on the peak of Everest. These filmmakers never neglect the human side of their subjects, and they spend as much time with the Sherpas who assist with Morrison’s feat, because none of them have ever climbed the north face themselves. It makes for a handy companion piece to Chai Vasarhelyi and Chin’s other films about mountain climbing. They are experienced climbers themselves, and Chin made it to the top of Everest along with Morrison. (Opens Friday)
Godzilla Minus Zero (R) Great when there are monsters onscreen, turgidly sentimental when there aren’t. The sequel to the 2023 film takes place in 1949, two years after Godzilla was supposedly destroyed. He resurfaces when Ghidorah appears as a threat, initially with only one head but then sprouting two more after the Japanese try to kill it. The destruction of various cities in Japan is plenty satisfying, but the former kamikaze pilot from the first movie (Ryunosuke Kamiki) and his wife (Minami Hanabe) go through plenty of wearisome domestic drama as they try to keep their family together. Just like the Everest documentary, go IMAX with this one or don’t bother. Also with Min Tanaka, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Masami Nagasawa, Yuki Yamada, Miou Tanaka, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Sae Nagatani, Sakura Ando, and Jun Kunimura.
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.
Jimmy (PG-13) A completely paint-by-numbers version of Jimmy Stewart’s World War II years. KJ Apa portrays the Oscar-winning star who refuses offers to evade the draft or make propaganda films stateside and instead volunteers to fly bombing missions over Nazi Germany. The plot developments pile on one another with little regard for pacing or internal logic, and the supporting characters are flimsier than balsa wood. Apa does a decent imitation of Stewart’s easily imitated delivery, but he can’t make anything engaging out of one of movie history’s greatest actors, nor out of a story that makes him out to be some dashboard icon. Also with Max Casella, Neal McDonough, Rob Riggle, Jason Alexander, Kara Killmer, Sarah Drew, Julian Works, Jen Lilley, Marc Malkin, and Christopher McDonald.
The Mongoose (R) Liam Neeson stars in this thriller as a Special Forces veteran who flees police after being wrongfully accused of a murder. Also with Marisa Tomei, Michael Chiklis, Brett Tucker, Maurice Marvel Meredith, Dor Gvirtsman, Stella Stocker, and Ving Rhames.
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.
Ramayana (PG-13) The Indian epic poem receives a film treatment that isn’t as good as The Odyssey. Ranbir Kapoor portrays the prince who is exiled from his kingdom despite being the seventh avatar of Vishnu. He then has to take back control of the earthly and spiritual realms from a dictator (Yash) who has been granted invincibility against supernatural beings. The filmmakers have acquired top-level talent to play the mythical figures in the story, and the special effects are a cut above what you usually see in Indian movies, thanks to the efforts of Hollywood artisans. That said, the most expensive non-English movie ever made too frequently collapses into torpor when it’s not taking in the expansive combat sequences. If you’re new to Indian mythology, you’ll likely get more out of a 101-level college course. Also with Sai Pallavi, Sunny Deol, Ravi Dubey, Lara Dutta, Arun Govil, Indira Krishnan, Sonal Jhal, Vivek Oberoi, Rakul Preet Singh, Kajal Aggarwal, Kunal Kapoor, Adinath Kothare, and Anupam Kher.
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.
Scene (NR) Suriya stars in this Tamil-language action-comedy as a cop forced to take up a cold case from his past. Also with Naslen, Nazriya Nazim, Anandaraj, Lal, and John Vijay.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Wicker (R) This extremely bizarre minor masterpiece stars Olivia Colman as a lone fisherwoman in a fairy-tale village who hires a master basket weaver (Peter Dinklage) to make her a husband out of wicker. The man (Alexander Skarsgård) appears and they have mind-blowing and very creaky sex that makes all her village’s women jealous and all the men feel inadequate. Adapting Ursula Wills’ short story, writer-directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson do more than just stage really strange sex scenes, they carefully track the social upheaval that results from this unconventional arrangement. Skarsgård is weirdly appropriate in the role of a magical being who has to learn how human beings behave and idolizes his wife who is literally his reason for living. As cinematic fairy tales go, this is unique. Also with Elizabeth Debicki, Ella Bruccoleri, Marli Siu, Nabhaan Rizwan, Phil Daniels, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Emily Lloyd-Saini, Daniel Bellus, Gustav Lindh, Ben Ashenden, and Richard E. Grant.
Wild Horse Nine (R) Martin McDonagh’s patch on his debut film In Bruges is a considerable improvement. Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich play two CIA agents who are in Chile in 1973 to prepare the coup against Salvador Allende, but take a side trip to Easter Island because the terminally ill older agent wants his partner to kill him. The script is beautifully structured, but you may not notice because of McDonagh’s coruscating comic set pieces. The camaraderie between the two lead actors well captures the vibe of two colleagues who’ve been working together for some years, and Malkovich has never been better whether he’s drawling because his character is high on morphine or idly musing while he’s dictating a planned memoir about his exploits. The movie’s tragic view of life and its comedy about two friends enjoying one last hangout seems to coalesce in his performance. Also with Steve Buscemi, Mariana di Girolamo, Ailín Salas, Parker Posey, Paola Giannini, Tom Waits, and Parker Posey.
Wildwood (PG-13) Laika Studios’ stop-motion animated film is visually splendiferous, though it never quite reaches the same level in terms of story. It’s about a girl (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee) whose baby brother is kidnapped and has to discover her magical powers while she ventures into the forest outside Portland to confront the sorceress (voiced by Carey Mulligan) who took him. The film is full of wonders from a giant bird (voiced by Angela Bassett) that aids her quest to the army of coyotes working for the sorceress. The different factions of animals and bandits coming together to rise up against their ruler is fairly inspiring as well. It’s better than any of Disney or Pixar’s animated efforts so far this year. Additional voices by Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Charlie Day, Jake Johnson, Jemaine Clement, Tom Waits, Maya Erskine, Tantoo Cardinal, Amandla Stenberg, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Rob Delaney, Richard E. Grant, Len Cariou, and Blythe Danner.
You Can See Everything (R) Possibly the best documentary of the decade. The first third of Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s film has the filmmakers moving in with convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes and her partner Billy Evans at their rented San Diego beach house in the days before she’s scheduled to report to prison. The levels of self-delusion and gaslighting are compelling as everybody insists that she did nothing wrong and that Theranos worked like it was supposed to. Even so, the film only cracks open after Elizabeth goes inside and Amanda Seyfried (who portrayed Holmes in TV’s The Dropout) joins the investigative team while also reprising her role as Elizabeth in re-enacted scenes. The layers of reality become kaleidoscopic in their complexity and Evans reveals himself to be a genuine piece of shit. It all frequently plays like one of Fielder’s televised comedy bits, gives a good name to access journalism, and invents a whole new form of documentary film. Also with Christopher Abbott.
Dallas Exclusives
De Gaulle: Résistance (NR) This historical drama stars Simon Abkarian as the French resistance leader who flees to the U.K. during the Nazi takeover. Also with Simon Russell Beale, Benoît Magimel, Anamaria Vartolomei, Florian Lesieur, Kacey Mottet Klein, Grégoire Colin, Niels Schneider, Karim Leklou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Daniel Betts, and Campbell Scott.
Merry Christmas Aubrey Flint (NR) John Bradey stars in this British Christmas movie as a man who unexpectedly finds love during the festive season. Also with Sophia di Martino, Tom Bell, Dustin Demri-Burns, Karl Pilkington, Celia Imrie, Richard E. Grant, and Jim Broadbent.
The One (NR) This Christmas movie stars Noah Redclay as a Native American teenager who finds himself in Enid, Okla., for a Christmas tree lighting. Also with Jana Kramer, Bruce Davis, Erin Robinson, James Austin Kerr, Ben Hall, Olivia Sanabia, and Martin Sheen.
Paradise Lost (NR) This thriller by Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan) stars Kim Hyun-joo as a mother who feels threatened when her son (Bae Hyun-sung) returns to her nine years after he went missing.
