NOW IN THEATERS

THE ACCOUNTANT

Ben Affleck plays a mathematics savant with a lethal streak in this combination of the cerebral and the visceral. Plot threads twist, flashbacks flash, exposition unfolds, and bullets fly. Affleck’s “high-functioning autistic” is at the center of it all, reliving memories of a childhood with his toughlove dad and his kid brother, as well as a prison stint where he learned skills from his mob accountant cellmate (Jeffrey Tambor) that he uses to launder money for international arms dealers. Meanwhile he’s unraveling financial chicanery at John Lithgow’s corporation while shyly romancing its in-house whistle-blower (Anna Kendrick) and staying a step ahead of treasury agents (J.K. Simmons and Cynthia Addai-Robinson). On a parallel track, a hit man named Brax (Jon Bernthal) keeps up a steady and related stream of assassinations. Bill Dubuque’s screenplay is a complex, sometimes exasperating puzzle, but director Gavin O’Connor manages to gather in the reins and keep things entertaining. Rated R. 128 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Jonathan Richards)

THE BEATLES: EIGHT DAYS A WEEK  THE TOURING YEARS

Ron Howard lovingly directs this documentary, which focuses on the touring career of the Beatles between 1963 and 1966 through found concert footage (some of it too familiar, some of it seemingly fresh material), interviews, and press conferences (when the Fab Four were at their most refreshingly cheeky). The story is not new by any means, but it’s well told at a fast pace and particularly compelling in detailing the private hell of being a Beatle toward the end of their run of live shows. It may inspire fans or even casual appreciators to dig back into the Beatles catalog; after all, as Paul McCartney recently observed in Rolling Stone, “The thing about the Beatles — they were a damn hot little band.” Not rated. 137 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Molly Boyle)

BRIDGET JONES’ BABY

Renée Zellweger returns to play author Helen Fielding’s beloved heroine Bridget Jones once more. This time, Jones finds herself in a new pickle: She’s pregnant and uncertain who the father is. Could it be the new man she has taken a fancy to (Patrick Dempsey) or the old flame who has re-entered her life (Colin Firth)? More to the point: who does she want it to be? Rated R. 122 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Not reviewed)

DEEPWATER HORIZON

In 2010, the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico known as Deepwater Horizon tapped into a massive bubble of methane gas that caused a series of explosions, eventually polluting the Gulf with petroleum for months on end. Of the 126 workers onboard, 11 were killed, and the rest had just minutes to escape the firestorm. In this action movie set around the ecological disaster, Mark Wahlberg plays a real-life hero who is determined to survive and save his coworkers. Rated PG-13. 107 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)

DENIAL

This courtroom drama, based on Deborah E. Lipstadt’s book History on Trial: My Day in Court

with a Holocaust Denier, describes the real-life legal battle that occurred in the late 1990s when infamous Holocaust denier David Irving (Timothy Spall) sued Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz) for libel — a result of her calling him a Holocaust denier. She and her lawyers then must prove that the Holocaust actually happened and that Irving intentionally falsified his historical writing to argue otherwise. This no-frills film focuses on the trial and leaves small bits of character development to the superb cast (which also includes Andrew Scott and the ever-charming Tom Wilkinson). It’s not a terribly stylish movie, but the court case it highly compelling, especially given that the court was essentially just proving that a truth was true. Rated PG-13. 110 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Robert Ker)

DESIERTO

Jonás Cuarón (son of famed filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón, who produces) makes his directorial debut with this film starring Gael García Bernal as the leader of a group of Mexican migrant workers looking for a new life in America by sneaking across the border. When they run into a bloodthirsty American vigilante (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), they find themselves in a fight for their lives. Rated R. 94 minutes. In English and Spanish with subtitles. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)

THE DRESSMAKER

Kate Winslet stars as Tilly Dunnage, a dressmaker who in the 1950s returns to her hometown in the Australian Outback. She and her sophisticated haute-couture designs invigorate the rural town with new energy. However, she also harbors a secret and is looking to exact some sweet revenge. Based on the novel by Rosalie Ham. Rated R. 119 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Not reviewed)

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

Based on Paula Hawkins’ bestselling 2015 novel, this moody psychological thriller centers on Rachel (Emily Blunt), a depressive alcoholic divorcée who takes the train to Manhattan every day. From her window, she often catches glimpses of Megan (Haley Bennett) and her husband (Luke Evans), who seem to embody the ideal couple. One day, she sees Megan canoodling with a stranger, and the next morning, Rachel wakes up bruised and covered in blood, unable to remember the events of the previous night — and Megan is missing. Director Tate Taylor manages to turn this juicy material into a drawn-out snooze-fest, with an over-reliance on lingering close-ups of his female stars’ faces, as if attempting to get the camera near enough to reveal the characters’ secrets. Blunt is compelling as she tries to make sense of events through the debilitating fog of her character’s alcoholism, but her powerful performance is not enough to carry a film that jumps at the chance to devolve into tawdry Lifetime movie territory. Rated R. 112 minutes. Regal DeVargas; Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Molly Boyle)

IXCANUL HARRY AND SNOWMAN

Director Ron Davis’s tribute to Snowman, the horse that won the triple crown of show jumping in 1958, is a Cinderella story about the bond between two friends. Dutch immigrant Harry deLayer bought the horse off the back of a slaughterhouse truck and discovered the workhorse’s talent for jumping by accident. The film parallels moments in the horse’s life with that of deLayer, who (like Snowman) came from nothing but eventually found success in a new land. The story has moments of triumph and poignancy as Harry and Snowman’s long relationship takes them on the jumping circuit to win numerous awards, appear on television, and become legends in their field. It’s a moving film about a chance, but life-altering, encounter between man and beast. Not rated. 84 minutes. The Screen. (Michael Abatemarco)

HELL OR HIGH WATER

New Mexico doubles for Texas in this film about two brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) who 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 tale 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. Rated R. 102 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Robert Nott)

IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE

Up-and-coming horror filmmaker Ti West (The House of the

Devil) tries his hand at his first Western. Ethan Hawke plays a military man who rolls into 19th-century Denton, Texas, and picks a fight with the whole town. John Travolta plays the marshal who must somehow mitigate the violence. Rated R. 104 minutes. Violet Crown. (Not reviewed) María (María Mercedes Coroy) is a seventeen-year-old Kaqchikel girl who lives on the side of an active volcano in Guatemala. Her parents have arranged a marriage for her, which means she must live in the uncomfortable alien environment of the city. When she becomes pregnant and the pregnancy becomes complicated, she must rely on the modern world she shies from. Not rated. 93 minutes. In Maya and Spanish with subtitles. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Not reviewed)

JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK

As bestselling author Lee Child’s formidable Jack Reacher, the ageless Tom Cruise is still punching through car windows, smashing people’s heads into desks, and taking out multiple bruisers using only his bare hands. This time Reacher must uncover a major government conspiracy involving the death of soldiers before he is taken out by the enemy. Edward Zwick directs. Rated PG-13. 118 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Regal DeVargas; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES

Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher play the Gaffneys, a pleasantly dull married couple who get a jolt of excitement when the Joneses (Gal Gadot and Jon Hamm) move to their neighborhood. An odd sort of friendship blossoms, and when the Gaffneys do a bit of amateur spy work to investigate the Joneses, they learn that their new neighbors are professional spies. Comic antics ensue when the Gaffneys are drawn into the world of international espionage. Rated PG-13. 101 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

After a promising start, Antoine Fuqua’s remake of the famous 1960 film about seven gunmen who defend an isolated town from Mexican bandits in order to preserve their place in the West turns into a standard shoot-’em-up with flying lead making up for the lack of smart dialogue. Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, and Ethan Hawke hold their own in the saddle, but some of the others sort of disappear into the bullet-fractured woodwork, and the villainy is played for one note bordering on the ludicrous. Rated PG-13. 132 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Robert Nott)

MIDDLE SCHOOL: THE WORST YEARS OF MY LIFE

Rafe (Griffin Gluck) is a tween stuck in a school with what could be the worst principal ever (Andrew Daly). Faced with an oppressive list of rules designed to stifle any semblance of creativity or expression, Rafe invents his own guidelines: Break every rule in the book. Rated PG. 92 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher (Not reviewed)

MISS HOKUSAI

This unusual and rewarding exercise in animated biographical drama is an adaptation of Hinako Sugiura’s manga, a form of Japanese comic book. It approaches the life and work of the legendary painter Katsushika Hokusai (best known for his classic woodblock print The Great Wave

off Kanagawa) through the central character of his daughter Katsushika Ōi, a gifted artist in her own right. Where director Keiichi Hara’s ambitious undertaking fails as a movie is in its inability to create a through line of story; the film breaks down into a series of episodes that are sometimes arresting but don’t build or pay off. And while there is some wonderful visualization of the art of the Katsushikas, père et fille, it leaves us craving a lot more. Still, despite its shortcomings, this is grown-up entertainment well off the beaten track and a journey worth taking. Rated PG-13. 93 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Jonathan Richards)

MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN

Just in time for Halloween, Tim Burton presents a haunted house of a movie containing children in creepy masks, walking skeletons, eyeball-eating villains, and many other ghastly and ghoulish delights. It comes in the form of an adaptation of Ransom Riggs’ whimsically Gothic young-adult novel, in which a boy named Jake (Asa Butterfield) follows a mystery to a secret institution where children with unusual powers are kept safe from society by the shape-shifting Miss Peregrine (Eva Green). The movie’s first half is too slow, and the premise eventually reveals itself to be more convoluted than necessary, but it’s a rare family film (roughly for ages nine and up) that’s spooky, silly, and sometimes gross. Rated PG-13. 127 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Robert Ker)

OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL

A prequel to 2014’s Ouija, this horror film centers on a single mom in 1967 Los Angeles who attempts to gain income through a scam in which she and her daughters pretend to contact the dead using a Ouija board. But then spirits come through the board, possess the youngest girl, and turn her into a sadistic supernatural killing machine. Rated PG-13. 99 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)

STORKS

Once upon a time, storks delivered babies to new parents. After that became unprofitable, they switched to delivering packages. That’s the premise of this animated comedy, which centers on one stork (voiced by Andy Samberg) who, on the eve of a big promotion, accidentally activates the company’s old “baby making machine” and then attempts to deliver the little tykes before his boss finds out. Rated PG. 89 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)

TYLER PERRY’S BOO! A MADEA HALLOWEEN

Writer, director, and actor Tyler Perry’s popular Madea character — a no-nonsense grandma played by Perry in drag — has starred in two Christmas movies, but this Halloween film is a first. Madea’s going to need all of her surly, gun-crazy ways to fend off the waves of zombies, ghouls, and ghosts (not to mention unruly teenagers) that rain down on her house on Oct. 31. Rated PG-13. 103 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)