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Annihilation
This attempt at a thinking person’s action movie devolves into a motiveless slog, in which a group of women soldiers go on a suicide mission, for little or no reason, and end up seeing some very gory, disgusting things. But Jennifer Jason Leigh has a major role, so it can’t be all bad. Rated R. 115 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Black Panther
This Ryan Coogler film, about a young African king (Chadwick Boseman) with special powers, breaks the pattern of most Marvel superhero movies, with its leisurely opening, story-driven plotting and general aura of seriousness. There’s probably less action in this film than in any other recent Marvel movie, and the change is welcome. Rated PG-13. 134 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Call Me by Your Name This is an emphatic celebration of the mystery and power of sexuality, set in a small Italian town, where the sun, the water and the surrounding beauty reinforce lust and longing. Timothée
Chamalet and Armie Hammer are superb in the central roles, and despite an unignorable bathetic turn in the supporting performances, this is an important film. Rated R. 132 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Coco Pixar’s new Dia de los Muertosthemed animated movie crams the first sequences with exposition, and then takes a colorful yet light spin through the land of the dead. But everything is leading up to a powerhouse finish. The success of this final act, and the way it transforms the entire film, is remarkable. A strong second movie from “Toy Story 3” director Lee Unkrich is one of Pixar’s better productions. Rated PG. 105 minutes. — P. Hartlaub
The Commuter This follows the usual Liam Neeson pattern of a decent downtrodden guy who finds redemption and glory while facing great odds, but this transcends formula, with genuine thrills and a complicated and interesting story. It all takes place on a train. Rated PG-13. 104 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Darkest Hour Gary Oldman gives the performance of his career as Winston Churchill, fighting to rally his country and inspire a war cabinet bent on surrender, in this dramatic study of a crucial month during World War II. If Oldman doesn’t win an Oscar for this, something is very wrong around here. Rated PG-13. 125 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Death Wish Remake of the 1974 Charles Bronson movie about a man who becomes a vigilante after a horrific attack on his wife and daughter. The new film stars Bruce Willis, Vincent D’Onofrio and Elisabeth Shue. Rated R. 107 minutes. Detective Chinatown 2 More interesting as a cultural product than as entertainment, this action comedy from China features a detective duo trying to solve a case in New York City, so we get lots of gags that show what the Chinese think of us. (Two clues: They think we’re all carrying guns, and they don’t like Trump.) Rated R. 121 minutes. In Mandarin with English subtitles. — M. LaSalle
Double Lover Another audacious entry from French filmmaker Francois Ozon, this tells the story of a woman who is having an affair with her boyfriend’s evil twin, or maybe she’s just imagining it. Clever and outrageous, it also loses steam halfway in, seeming more like a provocation than an emotionally engaging experience. Not rated. 107 minutes. In French with English subtitles. — M. LaSalle
Early Man The new stop-motion animated caveman/soccer comedy by “Wallace and Gromit” creator Nick Park is filled with disarmingly funny moments and lacking in narrative sweep, as if the story team came out of a long brainstorming session — and then just decided to use all of their ideas. But the film is charming throughout. Rated PG. 89 minutes.
— P. Hartlaub A Fantastic Woman Chilean trans actress Daniela Vega delivers a stunning performance as a trans singer named Marina Vidal whose older lover (Francisco Reyes) dies suddenly. She battles grief, but more to the point, hatred from her lover’s family out to erase her from their late husband and father’s memory. Director Sebastián Lelio does a solid job with a somewhat predictable script, but Vega elevates the film to fantastic heights. Rated R. 103 minutes.
— D. Wiegand
15:17 to Paris Director Clint Eastwood overwhelms the extraordinary with the mundane in this fact-based tale of three young men from the Sacramento area who in 2015 helped thwart a gun attack on a Paris-bound train. The trainattack scenes thrill and fascinate but take up only a fraction of the film’s run time. The rest is all lead-up, filled with banal dialogue and familiar tourist spots revisited for Eastwood’s cameras by the real train heroes, who play themselves. Rated PG-13. 94 minutes. — C. Meyer Fifty Shades Freed Unless you’re determined to be in a bad mood, it’s hard to see what’s not to like about this jolly sex romp, in which Anastasia (Dakota Johnson) and Christian (Jamie Dornan) get married and continue their frisky ways, in between getting stalked by a murderous psycho. Rated R. 105 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Game Night Friends who get together for a night of games get more than they’ve bargained for, when they find themselves dealing with international criminals. The movie manages the balance between comedy, absurdity and thrills fairly well, and it keeps the audience amused and interested from beginning to end. Rated R. 100 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Half Magic Heather Graham wrote, directed and stars in this comedy about female empowerment. Also with Angela Kinsey and Stephanie Beatriz. Not reviewed. Rated R. 94 minutes.
Have a Nice Day Liu Jian’s Chinese animated noir about a bag of stolen money and the lowlifes drawn into its orbit is visually interesting in its depiction of a small industrialized town and its hard-scrabble citizens, but it’s slow moving with a paperthin screenplay. Not rated. 77 minutes. In Mandarin Chinese with subtitles.
— G. Allen Johnson
I, Tonya Craig Gillespie delvers a tonally brilliant mix of caustic comedy and genuine pathos in this uncompromising story of Tonya Harding, an Olympic skater implicated in a conspiracy to maim her chief rival. Featuring standout perfor-
mances from Robbie, as Harding, and Allison Janney, as Tonya’s terrifying mother, this is one of the best of 2017. Rated R. 121 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
In Between This engaging slice of life follows three Palestinian women in Tel Aviv — kind of a “Sex and the City” and “Girls” for the Arab set. It’s sometimes funny, sometimes dark and always absorbing in illustrating the budding societal changes in the Middle East. Not rated. 103 minutes. In Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles. — D. Lewis Insidious: The Last Key The latest installment in the “Insidious” horror franchise is serviceable, thanks to a stellar performance by Lin Shaye, who plays a demonologist with guts, guile and good humor. Rated PG-13. 103 minutes. — D. Lewis
The Insult A minor dispute between a Christian Lebanese man and a Palestinian construction worker spirals into a court case with national implications, in this tense, well-observed and intelligent film, nominated for a foreignfilm Oscar. Rated R. 112 minutes. In Arabic with English subtitles. — M. LaSalle
Jumanji: Welcome to
the Jungle A nominal sequel to the 1995 Robin Williams movie, this fun film is more like a mash-up of ’80s John Hughes teen films and wrong-body comedies like “Big” and “All of Me.” Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan play avatar versions of four detention-doing teens who get sucked into a video game. The action scenes are decent, but the film’s entertainment value comes from seeing adult stars playing teens very different from themselves. Rated PG-13. 119 minutes. — C. Meyer
Lady Bird Greta Gerwig’s debut as a solo writer-director is this unconventional coming-of-age tale about an extroverted high school senior (Saoirse Ronan), clashing with her mother and wanting to leave her native Sacramento. This is a warm, good-hearted, intuitive movie that could be the start of an exceptional filmmaking career. Rated R. 94 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Loveless A relentless and chilling portrait of spiritual vacuity, this intense drama by Andrey Zvyagintsev is a clinical examination of a dreadful married couple, united only by their mutual disdain, searching for their 12-year-old son, who has disappeared. Zvyagintsev is the director of 2014’s very fine “Leviathan,” which takes a similar scathing view of the malaise of 21st century Russia. Rated R. 127 minutes. In Russian with English subtitles
— W. Addiego
Nostalgia Director Mark Pellington tries to create a sense of loss and mystery, with this rambling story of various people suffering from grief or catastrophe, but while the attempt is occasionally effective, the story becomes grim and lugubrious. Starring Jon Hamm, Ellen Burstyn and Catherine Keener. Rated R. 114 minutes. — M. LaSalle
The Party Writerdirector Sally Potter creates a seriocomic pressure cooker, using her story — about a party celebrating the promotion of a woman (Kristin Scott Thomas) to Shadow Minister of Health — as a gauge for pressures outside the compressed setting. It’s a movie about the collapse of idealism and the dawn of uncertain, brutal age. Rated R. 71 minutes. — M. LaSalle Phantom Thread Daniel Day-Lewis stars as a dress designer in 1950s London, whose obses-
sive work habits distort every relationship. This film, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, traces the trajectory of one such relationship — with a waitress (Vicky Krieps), who comes into his life wanting something more. One of Paul Thomas Anderson’s best films, his first success in a while. Rated R. 130 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Red Sparrow A thoroughly entertaining action film, this gets an extra boost by being a perfect showcase for Jennifer Lawrence, who plays a Russian ballerina turned reluctant spy — forced into it by her government. It’s long but fun from beginning to end. Rated R. 139 minutes. — M. LaSalle The Shape of Water Visually brilliant and psychologically strange, this Guillermo del Toro film, starring Sally Hawkins, is essentially about the power of love, but it functions as another of its director’s indulgences in cruelty, with Michael Shannon as a sadistic government agent. Still, the set design and cinematography make this film impossible to dismiss. Rated R. 123 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Star Wars: The Last
Jedi Mark Hamill takes the all-time “Star Wars” acting prize, as a jaded man confronting a life of failure, in this latest installment, in which Luke Skywalker (Hamill) is asked by the new guard to lead the Resistance. At a certain point some battle fatigue settles in, but this is an appealing entry in the series. Rated PG-13. 152 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Tehran Taboo This handsomely animated film, much of it set in the libertine underworld of Tehran, makes an unassailable point about the hardships of life in today’s Iran, mostly involving sexual morality and the status of women. But it belabors its points and is so heavily loaded with grievances that it begins to feel onedimensional. The director, Ali Soozandeh, was born in Iran and now lives and works in Germany. Not rated. 96 minutes. In Persian with English subtitles. — W. Addiego
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing,
Missouri Frances McDormand has one of her career-best showcases as a woman, mourning the murder of her daughter, who tries to prod the local police by renting three billboards criticizing them for their slow investigation. Written and directed by Martin McDonagh, the movie is both funny and sad, with brilliant performances by McDormand and by Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson as local policemen. Rated R. 115 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
12 Strong This telling of a remarkable military campaign, in which Americans joined forces with the Northern Alliance to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban, suffers from an overfictionalized story and the length and sameness of the scenes. But Chris Hemsworth is an appealing hero and Navid Negahban is superb as the Northern Alliance General. Rated R. 130 minutes.
— M. LaSalle