NOW IN THEATERS

ANTHROPOID

In late 1941, two Czech agents (Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan) parachute into German-occupied Czechoslovakia on a mission to assassinate SS General Reinhard Heydrich (Detlef Bothe). The film is based on the true story of Operation Anthropoid; Heydrich was the main architect of the Final Solution as well as the head of Nazi forces in the agents’ homeland. Rated R. 120 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Not reviewed)

BAD MOMS

Parenting can be an emotional trial, between the endless logistics, the constant expectations of perfection, and the damning judgment of mom-and-pop peers. This comedy sticks a pin in the cult of parenting, casting Mila Kunis as a mother stretched so thin she finally snaps. Along with two friends (Kathryn Hahn and Kristen Bell), she takes a walk on the wild side of motherhood, complete with recklessness and excessive drinking. This behavior eventually puts her at odds with an uptight PTA president (the always-great Christina Applegate). The movie’s antics can get obnoxious, but it’s still a kick to watch an R-rated movie about figuring out how to be the best mom you can be. Kunis is terrific — she and the screenplay ground all of the naughty behavior with a strong emotional core, which makes the whole movie work. Rated R. 100 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Robert Ker)

BENHUR

This movie is not exactly a remake of the 1959 Charlton Heston epic but rather a different adaptation of the 1880 Lew Wallace novel on which both films are based. In this telling, the role of Jesus Christ (Rodrigo Santoro) is much more prominent. Jack Huston plays the title character, a Roman nobleman framed for a crime by his brother (Toby Gebbell). After surviving years of slavery, he attempts revenge through a chariot race. Along the way, his life is changed through the teachings of Jesus.Rated PG-13. 124 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14. Screens in 2-D only at DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)

THE BRIDE

This Spanish drama, based on the 1933 tragedy Blood Wedding by Federico García Lorca, centers on a woman (Inma Cuesta) who is set to marry one man (Asier Etxeandia) but still loves

another (Álex García). Just before the wedding, a beggar appears at the bride-to-be’s door, suggests that she not marry her prospective groom if she doesn’t love him, and gives her two crystal daggers. Not rated. 93 minutes. In Spanish with subtitles. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Not reviewed)

CAFÉ SOCIETY

Woody Allen’s latest teems with themes, plots, and subplots dear to his philosophy as well as the kind of easygoing storytelling rhythms and deft wisecracks that have become a trademark of his style at its best. Here we have a crazy, funny concoction of interrelated stories built around Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg), a Brooklyn kid who tries his luck in the dream factory of Hollywood in the ’30s and then returns to the real enchanted city of New York. He falls in love with a pretty secretary, Vonnie (Kristen Stewart), and gets shown the Hollywood ropes by his Uncle Phil (Steve Carell), a name-dropping super-agent. Back in the Big Apple, he goes into the nightclub business with his hoodlum brother Ben (Corey Stoll). There’s romance, betrayal, family, religion, murder, and fabulous music, and it’s all seen through the peerless lens of cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. Rated PG-13. 96 minutes. Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)

DON’T BREATHE

When three friends break into the home of an elderly blind man (Stephen Lang), they think they’re on the way to a quick robbery and a massive, easy score. Their plans go awry when the man kills one of them and traps the others inside. From there, the chase is on, as the two remaining friends try to evade the man, who possesses both keen hearing and some dark secrets. The simple premise is engaging, and director Fede Alvarez is up to the challenge, swooping the camera around the house in such a way that viewers have a good sense of where everyone’s hiding and how immediate the danger is. Too bad we’re forced to endure a gross plot twist and numerous false endings that ruin the film’s early goodwill. Rated R. 88 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Robert Ker)

DON’T THINK TWICE

Mike Birbiglia (Sleepwalk With Me) examines the fragile Eden of a not-so-young-anymore New York City improv troupe dedicated to making people laugh every night, without a script and without a net. When the lease on their theater is canceled and one of their number (Keegan-Michael Key) makes the leap to Weekend Live (think

Saturday Night Live), jealousies and thwarted ambitions eat away at the others. There are nicely defined performances throughout and some clever moments onstage and off; and the story is a loving tribute to the rules and practice of the form, as defined in the ’50s by people like Del Close, Elaine May, and Santa Fe’s late Ted Flicker. But the strength of this touching film is in its relationships and its dreams; the inspired hysteria of great improvisational comedy never quite takes off. Rated R. 92 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Jonathan Richards)

EQUITY

This ambitious assault on the halls of high finance looks at the world through a perceptive feminist lens. Its central character, Naomi Bishop, is a tough top-level investment banker in a male-dominated world. Written, directed, and produced by women, the movie is most notable for making the viewer constantly aware of the gender differences men and women bring to interpersonal and business relationships. If it ultimately succeeds more on a thematic than a dramatic level, it is no discredit to the strong, mostly female cast led by Santa Fe’s Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad) and the thoughtful direction by Meera Menon. Rated R. 100 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Jonathan Richards)

FINDING DORY

This follow-up to the 2003 smash Finding Nemo is fairly uninspired. It centers on Dory, the forgetful blue fish voiced by Ellen DeGeneres. In a rare instance when Dory’s memory works, she recalls that her family lives in the Monterey area and sets out to find them, aided by old friends Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Hayden Rolence). The animation is colorful, there are some inventive bits, and an octopus named Hank (Ed O’Neill) nearly steals the show. Attempts to muster fresh energy never quite take off, so it will please kids more than adults. Rated PG. 103 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Robert Ker)

FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS

Meryl Streep crafts an odd but appealing character out of the New York socialite who in the 1930s and ’40s earned renown as the world’s worst concert singer. Directed by Stephen Frears, this highly fictionalized tale (ever so selectively “based on the inspiring true story”) also elicits a more sympathetic portrayal than you might think likely from Hugh Grant, who plays the husband who supports her unbounded aspirations and enforces unswerving devotion from those she seeks to impress. Simon Helberg, as her accompanist, helps glue the movie together; he actually plays the piano, and his reactions to sounds emanating from “Lady Florence” exemplify stunned disbelief. Streep sings her own bits, conveying the diva’s distinctive style with élan. Rated PG-13. 110 minutes. Regal DeVargas; Violet Crown. (James M. Keller)

HANDS OF STONE

Robert De Niro won an Academy Award for getting in the ring and playing pugilist Jake LaMotta in 1980’s Raging Bull. Now seventy-three years old, De Niro finds himself in an another movie based on a real-life boxer, this time playing the elderly trainer. He portrays Ray Arcel, the man who helped guide Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán (Édgar Ramirez) to glory in the 1970s and ’80s. Along the way, the two men transform each other’s lives. Rated R. 105 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)

HELL OR HIGH WATER

Two brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) take to robbing banks while two experienced lawmen (Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham) doggedly pursue them. As a heist-action film, the story offers little that’s new, but Taylor Sheridan’s insightful script and David Mackenzie’s deft direction transform the story into an involving drama about the bonds of love and loyalty and the lengths to which modern-day outlaws and lawmen will go to uphold their respective codes of the West. New Mexico doubles for Texas in the film, and it looks pretty darn realistic at that. Rated R. 102 minutes. Regal DeVargas; Violet Crown (Robert Nott)

HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE

This movie opens with Paula Hall (Rachel House) delivering the pudgy, sullen thirteen-year-old Ricky (newcomer Julian Dennison) into the hands of his lastchance foster family, the remote bush-dwelling farm couple Bella (Rima Te Wiata) and her husband, the grumpy old Hec (Sam Neill). Ricky runs away. He gets hopelessly lost and is found by savvy woodsman Hec. But Hec is injured, and the two have to hole up in the woods while he heals. The authorities assume kidnapping and worse, and a massive manhunt ensues. The movie follows as the two traverse the New Zealand bush. All this is in the inventive hands of Kiwi writer-director Taika Waititi. It’s the well-worn story of the gradual, grudging bonding of a curmudgeon and a kid, but told with a deep reservoir of charm and surprise. Rated PG-13. 101 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Jonathan Richards)

ICE AGE: COLLISION COURSE

It’s now been 12 years since the original Ice Age film, and the series is still going strong despite the fact that Americans are no longer terribly passionate about it. The rest of the world, however, made the last film a smash and still loves that animated mammoth (Ray Romano), sabertoothed tiger (Denis Leary), and sloth (John Leguizamo), so the franchise keeps marching on. This time, their adventures find them up against a meteor on a crash course with the planet. Rated PG. 94 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)

THE INNOCENTS

In this tense and troubling drama, French director Anne Fontaine revisits a documented horror from the immediate aftermath of World War II, when a remote Polish convent was invaded by occupying Soviet troops who repeatedly raped the nuns, leaving many of them pregnant. Mathilde (Lou de Laâge), a young French doctor, must sneak away from her duties at the Red Cross to deliver a baby. The Mother Abbess (Agata Kulesza) resists outside interference in convent matters — exposure of their situation could result in disgrace and the closing of the place. This is a story of choices and the absence of choice, of nightmarish fundamentalist conviction, superstition, and the horror of physical abuse. Only at the end does it steer into the shallows of screenplay contrivance. The performances and the direction are powerful, and Caroline Champetier’s cinematography, which paints the convent in chilly blues and locates it in a maze of forest, is stunning. Rated PG-13. 115 minutes. In Polish, Russian, and French with subtitles. The Screen. (Jonathan Richards)

JASON BOURNE

In the latest installment of the popular franchise, Matt Damon is Bourne again, and once more, director Paul Greengrass at the helm. This time, Bourne has most of his memory intact, and he attempts to learn more about his past while being pursued by a shadow organization called Ironhand. Tommy Lee Jones and Alicia Vikander co-star. Rated PG-13. 123 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)

KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS

This stop-motion-animated adventure centers on a young Japanese boy named Kubo (voiced by Art Parkinson), who accidentally summons an angry spirit and then must set off on a journey to stop it. Charlize Theron and Matthew McConaughey voice the Monkey and the Beetle, respectively, who help him on this path. Rated PG. 101 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14. Screens in 2-D only at Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)

LITTLE MEN

When his father dies, struggling actor Brian (Greg Kinnear) inherits his dad’s place in Brooklyn and moves the family, including thirteen-year-old Jake (Theo Taplitz), into the building. The flat comes with a storefront occupied by a feisty Chilean seamstress, Leonor (Paulina García). We

don’t know how long she’s been there, and the old man never raised her rent, but that’s about to change in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn. Leonor’s son Tony (Michael Barbieri) and Jake hit it off immediately, and as the boys’ friendship deepens, the adults’ relationship grows frostier. The feud becomes a triangle, with the sad-eyed Brian pitted against the antagonistic Leonor and the kids giving their parents the silent treatment. Rated PG. 85 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Jonathan Richards)

The internet is the vehicle for a stimulating look at where we are on our human journey. Director Werner Herzog is a provocateur, asking scientists, engineers, hackers, and entrepreneurs questions that force us to carefully consider the unwieldy global system we have created. He provides an objective look at the good and the bad of the online world, from advancements in artificial intelligence, dream research, and technologies to cyberbullying, computer hacking, and the destructive nature of solar flares. Lo and Behold doesn’t celebrate or condemn the internet, but it reveals ways we’ve become dependent on it. Herzog asks us to take an objective look at a chaotic global system that may be changing our very nature. It’s fascinating and frightening. Rated PG-13. 98 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Michael Abatemarco)

MECHANIC: RESURRECTION

This sequel to the 2011 action film The Mechanic (itself a remake of a 1972 Charles Bronson film) finds Jason Statham returning as hitman Arthur Bishop, now retired. When his girlfriend (Jessica Alba) is kidnapped, he must put his assassin’s gloves back on and perform three executions around the world to save her. Tommy Lee Jones and Michelle Yeoh costar. Rated R. 99 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)

NERVE NINE LIVES LO AND BEHOLD: REVERIES OF THE CONNECTED WORLD THE MUSIC OF STRANGERS: YOYO MA AND THE SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, charismatic and introspective in this documentary, unites musicians from around the world (with a emphasis on the Middle East and Asia) as the Silk Road Ensemble. The engrossing film highlights various musicians, including Chinese pipa player Wu Man and Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor, and ties it together with outstanding photography, crisp editing, and predictably wonderful music. Rated PG-13. 96 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Robert Ker) This movie imagines a sprawling virtual-reality game that people play on their phones. A young woman (Emma Roberts) finds herself compelled to pair up with a stranger (Dave Franco) in an increasingly dangerous mission where their final goal might be their very survival. Rated PG-13. 96 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Not reviewed) This classic body-switching comedy stars Kevin Spacey as Tom Brand, a billionaire who has neglected his family while tending to his business empire. Enter a mystical pet-store owner (Christopher Walken), who transforms Tom into a house cat so that he can use the experience to grow closer to his family. Jennifer Garner also stars. Rated PG. 87 minutes. DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)

PETE’S DRAGON

This remake of Disney’s 1977 feature combines live action and computer animation and focuses on a woman (Bryce Dallas Howard) who encounters young Pete (Oakes Fegley) in the woods, where he has lived for years with the help of his dragon, and attempts to learn Pete’s identity. Karl Urban and Robert Redford co-star. Rated PG. 102 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)

RICHARD III

Ralph Fiennes smiles, and murders while he smiles, as he assumes the twisted frame and warped soul of Shakespeare’s arch villain, a man who won’t be discouraged by his low standing on the ladder of succession to the English throne. Under the skillful direction of Rupert Goold (King Charles III), the performances are outstanding from top to bottom. Fiennes’ Richard is malevolent, misanthropic, and startlingly matter-of-fact, even as he schemes and assassinates and rapes his way through the family to get his hands on the crown. The women, starting with Vanessa Redgrave, are superb, and the quality never slackens through the cast. The production at London’s Almeida Theatre was filmed live in July for worldwide broadcast, and that recording is what is now in cinemas. The program, with an introduction and an intermission, runs well over three hours, but it moves fluidly and doesn’t lose its grip. Not rated. 197 minutes. The Screen. (Jonathan Richards)

SAUSAGE PARTY

This profanity-laden animated feature stars a sausage named Frank (voiced by co-writer Seth Rogen), who lives in a grocery store. Frank yearns to get together with his crush, a curvaceous bun named Brenda (Kristen Wiig), in the glorious world beyond the store’s doors. However, when he discovers the reality of his lot in life — that he exists only to be eaten by humans — he strives to alert his oblivious food friends to the truth and escape this fate. What could be an oddball examination of the usefulness of faith to make it through life is buried beneath an avalanche of old, unfunny stereotypes and meant-to-shock moments of immaturity. A few good gags and some excellent voicework, such as Edward Norton’s Woody Allen impression as the voice of a bagel, can’t save this movie from the compost heap. Rated R. 89 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Robert Ker)

THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS

What mischief goes on when humans aren’t around? The first part of this movie is content to imagine the shenanigans your four-legged pals might actually be involved in when you close that door. But there are 90 minutes to fill, and before long, we’re off to car chases, physical mayhem, and all sorts of reptiles and birds of prey, led by a rogue bunny who has it in for humankind. There are some undeniably funny moments but also long stretches where you can check your watch or make mental grocery lists. The movie is voiced by an all-star cast led by Louis C.K. and Kevin Hart. Rated PG. 90 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14. (Jonathan Richards)

SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU

Tika Sumpter plays Michelle Robinson, and Parker Sawyers plays Barack Obama in this imagination of the first date between the future President and First Lady, told mostly from Michelle’s perspective. In the summer of 1989, the two young Harvardeducated lawyers have a meet-cute on a work assignment that results in their roaming all over Chicago as they grow closer. Who knew where that first bit of flirtation would lead? Rated PG-13. 84 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Not reviewed)

STAR TREK BEYOND

In the third installment of the Star Trek film franchise, the crew of the USS Enterprise launches a rescue mission to the planet Altamid, only to find themselves caught in an ambush. When alien tough guy Krall (Idris Elba) ransacks the Enterprise searching for a component of an ancient bioweapon, the crew abandons ship, and they find themselves trapped on Altamid. Chris Pine (Captain James T. Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Mr. Spock), Karl Urban (Doctor “Bones” McCoy), Zoe Saldana (Lieutenant Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty), and the late Anton Yelchin (Chekov) all reprise their roles, and the film balances the action with plenty of character development, intrigue, and internal conflict. Rated PG-13. 122 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Violet Crown. (Michael Abatemarco)

SUICIDE SQUAD

This trashy (in a mostly good way) story of a bunch of dangerous criminals who are forced by the government to fight superpowered villains nails its casting — Will Smith as the sharpshooting Deadshot, Margot Robbie as nihilistic Harley Quinn, and Viola Davis as the no-nonsense bureaucrat Amanda Waller, all of whom are excellent. However, director David Ayer sends them on a mission that isn’t exciting and is rendered in a murky visual palette, leading up to a forgettable climax. He tries to usher the plot and too many character introductions along by using dozens of popular rock and rap songs, but the result is a mess. Still, healthy seeds are planted for a superior sequel, and the box office numbers suggest that we’ll get one. Rated PG-13. 130 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Robert Ker)

WAR DOGS

Director Todd Phillips (the Hangover trilogy) gets slightly more serious with this tale, based loosely on actual events, of two ambitious young men (Jonah Hill and Miles Teller) who score a lucrative arms contract from the American government. As they try to make good on their end of the deal and supply weapons to U.S. allies in Afghanistan, they find themselves in cahoots with some shady people and in some dangerous situations. Bradley Cooper also stars. Rated R. 114 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)