Movie recommendations from critics Kenneth Turan, Justin Chang and other reviewers.
Café Society
Woody Allen’s new film, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Steve Carell, is, of course, funny but also ends up, almost without our realizing it, trafficking in memory, regret and the fate of relationships in a world of romantic melancholy. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13.
Don’t Think Twice
Actor-comedian Mike Birbiglia’s funny and endearing love letter to the world of improvisational comedy and the spontaneous performers who keep it bubbling. (Gary Goldstein) R.
Hell or High Water
Set in West Texas, this gripping heist drama starring Jeff Bridges, Ben Foster and Chris Pine is attuned to the outsider politics of our times. (Glenn Whipp) R.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
This wonderful New Zealand film has a gently absurdist quality, a simultaneously sweet and subversive sensibility all its own, mixing warmth, adventure and comedy. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13.
Indignation
Adapted by director James Schamus from the Philip Roth novel and starring Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon, this is a melancholy, star-crossed romance laced with Roth’s piercing humor. (Kenneth Turan) R.
Jason Bourne
The fourth film to feature Matt Damon as the unstoppable secret agent, the third to be directed by Paul Greengrass, this propulsive motion picture is a model of what mainstream entertainment can be like when everything goes right. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13.
Kubo and the Two Strings
In this 3-D wonderment steeped in ancient Japanese folklore and brought to life by the stop-motion innovators at Laika Entertainment, magic is both an eye-popping phenomenon and an everyday reality. (J.C., Aug. 19) (1:41) PG. (Aug. 19)
Little Men
Ira Sachs’ beautifully observed, modestly scaled drama zeros in on teenspirit qualities of creativity and innocenc. (Sheri Linden) (1:25) PG.
Pete’s Dragon
An unapologetic family film, this re-imagining of the 1977 film about a boy and his dragon is the kind of foursquare movie its distributor Disney could have made decades ago. (Kenneth Turan) PG.