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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
Baby Driver Edgar Wright’s action movie, starring Ansel Elgort as a talented young getaway driver, is propulsive and fun, full of surprises and delights. The gimmick of a very pervasive soundtrack wears a bit, but this is an entertaining genre movie. Rated R. 113 minutes. — M. LaSalle
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.
— M. LaSalle
Brigsby Bear It starts with a brilliant caustic premise, but by the middle this sort-of satire, about a young man raised by kidnappers he believed to be his parents, turns sentimental, and what began as a critique of pop culture’s pernicious influence becomes a naive celebration of selfdelusion and mass manipulation. Starring Kyle Mooney. Rated PG-13. 97 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Cars 3 The third entry in this Pixar series is one too many, with Lightning McQueen — the red car voiced by Owen Wilson — going through a midlife crisis having to do with not being as fast as he used to be. This is a long film that feels longer, with many sequences consisting of nothing but racing, but Pixar’s sterling production values give it something of a lift. Rated G. 119 minutes. — M. LaSalle
The Dark Tower Fantasy about an apocalyptic battle based on Stephen King’s series of novels combining science fiction and Western elements. With Idris Elba, Katheryn Winnick and Matthew McConaughey. Rated PG-13. 95 minutes.
Despicable Me 3 The latest installment in the juggernaut series, about an ex-villain who now chases super-villains, has cute characters, some clever set-pieces and dazzling animation, but this time around, the story appears to have been lost in the shuffle. It’s competent, but rather joyless. Rated PG. 90 minutes. — D. Lewis
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. — W. Addiego
Dunkirk Christopher Nolan’s career-best film tells the story of World War II’s harrowing Dunkirk evacuation as experienced on land, sea and air. It’s inspired filmmaking from the first frame. Rated PG-13. 107 minutes. — M. LaSalle
The Emoji Movie Animated comedy about the adventures of emojis who live in Textoplis. With voices of T.J. Miller, James Corden and Anna Faris. Not reviewed. Rated PG. 126 minutes.
Endless Poetry Cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky, who made one of the original “midnight movies” (“El Topo,” 1970), offers a surreal autobiography recounting the growth of his youthful artistic ambitions. As always, he mixes the grotesque and subversive, and the film often resembles Fellini at his ripest. But there’s a certain dated quality to his avant-garde naughtiness. Not rated. 128 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles. — W. Addiego
A Ghost Story David Lowery’s audacious and methodical fantasy tells the story of a haunting from the standpoint of a sad, disoriented and a rather heartbroken ghost. The movie is slow and contains very little dialogue. It is completely against the pattern of contemporary popular cinema, but if you’re up for a drastic change, you will find it rewarding. Starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck. Rated R. 92 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Girls Trip Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith and the very funny Tiffany Haddish play college friends who reunite for a wild long weekend in New Orleans. Lovable and often side-splitting, full of outrageous humor and well-conceived comic situations. Rated R. 122 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power Al Gore is back with a compelling update to his 2006 documentary about climate change. The film gives the latest in scientific research while following Gore on his worldwide crusade that includes a decisive visit to Paris during the Paris Agreement negotiations. Rated PG. 98 minutes.
— J. Kosman
Kidnap In this thriller, which has echoes of “Taken,” Halle Berry plays a working-class single mom who chases down her little boy’s abductors. It’s a serviceable B-movie vehicle. Rated R. 94 minutes.
— D. Lewis
Lady Macbeth This is a smart, streamlined reimagining of “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” transplanted to rural 19th century England, and a star-making showcase for young Florence Pugh, who has the turbulence and composure of the young Kate Winslet. Rated R. 89 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Landline Lightweight but honest, this is a mostly likable movie about a family in 1996, with Jenny Slate a particular standout as the eldest daughter having second thoughts about her engagement. Directed by Gillian Robespierre (“Obvious Child”). Rated R. 93 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
The Last Dalai Lama Director Mickey Lemle’s follow-up to his 1991 Dalai Lama documentary shows a Buddhist leader at peace entering his ninth decade, even with so much uncertainty surrounding the future of the position. MVPs in the slow-moving but engaging film include George W. Bush in an interview, and the Lama-inspired musical score by composer Philip Glass and Tenzin Choegyal. Not rated. 90 minutes. — P. Hartlaub
The Last Face One long snore from a talented team — Sean Penn directed and Charlize Theron and Javier Bardem star — this is the story of a pair of doctors working for a relief organization in Africa. They fall in love, but who cares about them when everyone around them is getting shot and blown up? Rated R. 130 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Letters From Baghdad Absorbing documentary about Gertrude Bell, often called the female Lawrence of Arabia, and her role in the making of the modern Middle East. Taken from actual correspondence and journals by Bell and her fiends and colleagues, with Tilda Swinton as the voice of Bell, and filled with archival photographs and film footage, directors Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum intimately evoke Baghdad, Syria and London in the first two decades of the 20th century. Not rated. 95 minutes. — G. Allen Johnson
The Little Hours Jeff Baena wrote and directed this very funny comedy about three nuns coping with pent-up anger and sexual frustration in 14th century Europe. Aubrey Plaza, Alison Brie and Kate Micucci co-star. Based on Boccaccio’s “Decameron. Rated R. 90 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge A curiously downbeat, rather cold French film about the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only one to win it twice, focusing on the difficult years spent rebuilding her life and career after the death of her husband and colleague Pierre Curie. Not much science or passion in a movie that portrays a life that was brimming with both. Not rated. 100 minutes.
— G. Allen Johnson
Maudie This year’s example of the Vera Drake Syndrome in action — a movie that has no life and vitality but that you feel guilty for disliking because it tells the story of a nice person — is a biopic about the Canadian artist Maud Lewis (a relentlessly poignant Sally Hawkins) who, if you believe this movie, went through life without a single interesting thing happening to her. Deadly. Rated PG-13. 115 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Maurice James Ivory’s 1987 film based on E.M. Forster’s novel is rereleased in a digital restoration. Not reviewed. Rated R. 140 minutes.
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.
— M. LaSalle
Person to Person Writer-director Dustin Guy Defa follows more than a dozen characters across four story lines during a day in New York City, but there is not one convincing situation or performance. A rather slight film with Michael Cera, Phillip Baker Hall and Abbi Jacobson. Not rated. 84 minutes. — G. Allen Johnson
Spider-Man: Homecoming This is yet another reboot of the “Spider-Man” franchise and the least interesting yet, with Tom Holland in the title role. It’s a routine entry with some half-hearted humanizing elements and lackluster action. Still, it’s reasonably entertaining. Rated PG-13. 134 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Step This inspiring and entertaining documentary focuses on three young African American members of the stepdancing team at a Baltimore charter school, and their issues at home and in school in the era of Black Lives Matter. Rated PG. 83 minutes.
— W. Addiego
The Untamed Ersatz Mexican erotic thriller with tentacles, in the vein of “Possession,” the 1981 film with Isabelle Adjani. Some good images, but the director’s approach to strong political material is uneven and the movie’s tedious conclusions aren’t as profound or radical as it thinks. Not rated. 100 minutes. Reviewed by C. Valldares
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets Luc Besson returns to the space opera for the first time since he made “The Fifth Element” in 1997. The production and character design are off the charts, adequately masking structure and pacing deficiencies. There’s so much coolness going on in each individual interplanetary sequence, that the so-so story about detectives investigating a government plot is mostly an afterthought. Rated PG-13. 137 minutes. — P. Hartlaub
War for the Planet of the Apes The last in this trilogy of prequels to the 1968 classic finds the apes and humans in a struggle for survival, in this lowkey, thinking person’s action movie, which concludes the series in a satisfying and intelligent way. Rated PG-13. 140 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Wish Upon This summer horror film is a disciple of the “Final Destination” films, relying less on scares and more on sort of an otherworldly comeuppance. This isn’t close to being a great movie. But if you don’t overthink it, there is some fun to be had in the grisly consequences. Rated PG-13. 89 minutes.
— P. Hartlaub Wonder Woman This is a different kind of comic book movie, with a sense of history and purpose, featuring a starmaking performance by Gal Gadot in the title role. Costarring Chris Pine and directed by Patty Jenkins (“Monster”). Rated PG-13. 141 minutes. — M. LaSalle