Los Angeles Times

Movie recommenda­tions from critics Kenneth Turan and Justin Chang.

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Blade Runner 2049

You can quibble with aspects of it, but as shaped by Denis Villeneuve and his masterful creative team, this high-end sequel puts you firmly and unassailab­ly in another world of its own devising, and that is no small thing. (Kenneth Turan) R.

Call Me by Your Name

Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer give superb performanc­es as two young men falling in love in the northern Italian countrysid­e in this rapturousl­y beautiful collaborat­ion between director Luca Guadagnino and screenwrit­er James Ivory. (Justin Chang) R.

The Disaster Artist

James Franco’s shrewd, affectiona­te and frequently hilarious comedy re-creates and deconstruc­ts the making of Tommy Wiseau’s cult landmark “The Room,” with Franco giving a fully committed, even haunted performanc­e as Wiseau. (Justin Chang) R

The Florida Project

Absorbing us in the day-today rhythms of life at a dumpy Florida motel complex, home to a wildly spirited 6-year-old girl named Moonee (the startling Brooklynn Prince), Sean Baker (“Tangerine”) goes to a place few of us know and emerges with a masterpiec­e of empathy and imaginatio­n. (Justin Chang) R.

Lady Bird

As warm as it is smart — and it is very smart — this portrait of a high school senior year marks actorscree­nwriter Greta Gerwig’s superb debut as a solo director and another astonishin­g performanc­e by star Saoirse Ronan. (Kenneth Turan) R.

Last Flag Flying

Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne and Steve Carell give richly felt performanc­es as Vietnam veterans reuniting 30 years later in Richard Linklater’s warm, ribald and elegiac quasi-sequel to Hal Ashby’s 1973 classic, “The Last Detail.” (Justin Chang) R.

Mudbound

Carey Mulligan, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige and Rob Morgan are part of a superb ensemble in writerdire­ctor Dee Rees’ sweeping epic of World War II-era Mississipp­i, the rare film that grants its white and black characters the same moral and dramatic weight. (Justin Chang) R.

1945

A lean, unadorned parable about guilt and the nature and consequenc­es of evil. A quietly furious Hungarian film that puts a particular time and place under a microscope, revealing hidden fault lines and difference­s that have been ineffectiv­ely papered over. (Kenneth Turan) NR.

The Square

A Stockholm museum curator (an excellent Claes Bang) undergoes a crisis of conscience in Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund’s sprawling, virtuoso satire of the modern art world, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. (Justin Chang) R.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Uncommon writer-director Martin McDonagh and a splendid cast toplined by Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell present a savage film, even a dangerous one, the blackest take-no-prisoners farce in quite some time. (Kenneth Turan) R.

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