WORTH SEEING
Which movies to watch this weekend
Atomic Blonde:
Charlize Theron dazzles as a British agent sent to East Berlin in 1989 to recover a missing list of double agents, helped by fellow agent James McAvoy. The hand-to-hand combat comes fast and furious in this colorful, fabulously entertaining, although thinly plotted and sometimes tedious, action film. With this film following “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Theron is now the top action actress in the movies. Rated R. 115 minutes. — G. Allen Johnson The Big Sick:
Kumail Nanjiani co-wrote (with his wife, Emily V. Gordon) and stars in this romantic comedy, based on his own life, about a romance that is interrupted by the woman’s getting sick and falling into a coma. Funny, unexpected, human and appealing, it features winning performances by Nanjiani and especially Zoe Kazan, who is asleep for most of the film. Rated R. 120 minutes. — Mick LaSalle
Detroit:
Kathryn Bigelow’s account of the 1967 Detroit riot, written by Mark Boal, is exceptionally paced and photographed, with one long, harrowing scene at its center, an imaginative re-creation of an event at a hotel, in which a handful of police officers abused and terrorized a group of people. Absolutely riveting (and often maddening) from start to finish. Rated R. 143 minutes. — Walter Addiego
The Midwife:
Catherine Frot is a veteran midwife and Catherine Deneuve is her temperamental opposite, who pops up from out of the past and forces the midwife to confront her long-neglected emotional life. It’s a strong film with terrific performances from France’s two great Catherines. Not rated. 117 minutes. In French with English subtitles. — Mick LaSalle