NOW IN THEATERS

ARRIVAL

Director Denis Villeneuve, adapting Ted Chiang’s story about large spacecrafts that have landed all over Earth, gives us a quiet thriller that plays like an arthouse version of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Amy Adams stars as a brilliant linguist who, along with a physicist (Jeremy Renner), is charged by an Army colonel (Forest Whitaker) to communicate with the aliens. This thematically rich story unfolds slowly, often without music, but never feels slow. It offers philosophical questions and emphasizes the importance of language and togetherness — the story’s biggest barriers are not between people and aliens but between Earth’s nations. Expect a few big plot twists, which not only dazzle you with their cleverness but also add renewed emotional heft to everything that has come before. Nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Rated PG-13. 116 minutes. Violet Crown. (Robert Ker)

DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST

Julie Dash’s luminous 1991 film, the first movie written and directed by an African-American woman to have a general theatrical release, is back, buoyed by a Beyoncé boost (the singer draws on the film’s early-1900s aesthetics in her 2016 video album Lemonade), along with a digital restoration and new color grading. A vital document of African-American tradition and connectivity, it tells the story of a Lowcountry family on the verge of “crossing over” not only from their Sea Island home to the mainland, but from the spectre of slavery to the promise of the future. The story’s hybridity — of historical scars and clean slates, black and white, island and mainland, African and American — feels as relevant as ever to the American experience. Not rated. 112 minutes. In English and Gullah with subtitles. The Screen. (Molly Boyle)

THE EAGLE HUNTRESS

Training golden eagles to aid the Kazakh hunters of Mongolia has been a traditional skill, handed down from father to son, for generations. The Eagle Huntress tells the dramatic story of one girl, thirteen-year-old Aisholpan Nurgaiv, who trains with her father to be the first female eagle hunter in her family. This moving documentary by director Otto Bell, balances a portrait of Kazakh family life and culture with breathtaking aerial footage of the Altai Mountains. Aisholpan inhabits a harsh, unforgiving terrain, where the Kazakhs live in symbiotic relationship with their environment and hunt out of necessity. An intimate look at the relationship between father and daughter, the film is a feel-good, inspirational story for all ages, especially for young girls. Rated G. 87 minutes. In Kazakh with subtitles. Violet Crown. (Michael Abatemarco)

ELLE

“The rape joke cries out to be told,” writes Patricia Lockwood in the 2013 viral poem “Rape Joke.” That’s one way to look at Paul Verhoeven’s darkly comic Frenchlanguage thriller starring Isabelle Huppert (nominated for a Best Actress Oscar here). The actress portrays Michéle Leblanc, who is violently raped by a masked man in the movie’s opening. Following her assault, rather than call the police, she charges headlong back into her messy life. The suspects are numerous, and when the perpetrator is revealed, she begins to toy with him. Verhoeven (Basic Instinct) loves a demented woman, and Michéle’s detached machinations are the most compelling aspect of Elle, boosted by a Teflon performance from Huppert. But despite the film’s having been touted as an empowering tale of revenge, its undercurrents are uglier, emptier, and much more cynical than cathartic. “Imagine the rape joke looking in the mirror, perfectly reflecting back itself, and grooming itself to look more like a rape joke,” Lockwood writes, and therein lies another way of looking at Elle. Rated R. 130 minutes. In French with subtitles. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Molly Boyle)

FENCES

August Wilson’s prize-winning drama, Fences, has finally made it from Broadway to the screen, and now it’s been nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Much of the film takes place in the backyard of a house in a rundown black neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The house belongs to Troy Maxson, a fifty-three-year-old former Negro League ballplayer whose best years are behind him. Denzel Washington, who plays Troy, also directs, and matching him stroke for stroke is the great Viola Davis as Rose, Troy’s longsuffering wife, who provides wisdom and ballast to his mood swings. Both actors were Oscar-nominated for their roles. The apartheid that robs the dignity of a black man in America is the focus of Wilson’s story, but in Davis’ Rose we see another rung down the ladder: a black woman. Washington’s direction honors his fine cast, and celebrates the words of the playwright, who also got an Oscar nomination for his adaptation. Rated PG-13. 138 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Jonathan Richards)

THE FOUNDER

John Lee Hancock’s ironically titled biopic might be considered the first movie of the Trump era. It’s the story of Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), not the founder of the