MOVIE STARS
★★½ All the Beauty and the Bloodshed Laura Poitras (the Oscar-winning “Citizenfour”) has directed this documentary about the photographer Nan Goldin and her crusade against the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma, for its marketing of opioid painkillers. Poitras braids together the protests with Goldin’s personal and artistic history. The history is more compelling. (122 min., unrated) (Mark Feeney)
★★★ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever The fictional world of Wakanda deals with the loss of its protector while facing a new and deadly threat to its existence. A most melancholy Marvel movie, one whose tribute to Chadwick Boseman stirs the heart even as its action sequences occasionally stumble. (161 min., PG-13) (Odie Henderson)
★★★½ Devotion Rousing true story of Ensign Jesse Brown, the first Black person to pass the US Navy’s flight training and a Korean War hero, and the bond he shared with friend and fellow war hero Lieutenant Junior Grade Tom Hudner. Bypasses many of the pitfalls of interracial friendship movies. Jonathan Majors is superb as Brown. (138 min., PG-13) (Odie Henderson)
★½ Emancipation Will Smith plays real-life “Whipped Peter,” the enslaved subject of the famous photo that galvanized abolitionists. Antoine Fuqua’s film can’t decide whether it’s a prestige picture or straight-up Blaxploitation. The Blaxploitation parts work better. (132 min., R) (Odie Henderson)
★½ Empire of Light Sam Mendes makes an interminable slog about the “magic of the movies,” set in an English seaside town in the 1980s. Olivia Colman and Micheal Ward can’t rise above a script that uses racism and mental illness as hollow plot points. It sure looks purdy, though. (119 min., R) (Odie Henderson)
YYYY The Fabelmans Steven Spielberg makes a “Spielberg movie” about Steven Spielberg. His most personal work benefits from fine performances by Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, and newcomer Gabriel LaBelle. The rare “portrait of an artist as a young man” film that’s not nauseating. (151 min., PG-13) (Odie Henderson)
YY The Menu Mark Mylod’s satire of luxury dining has two deliciously unpredictable leads in Anya TaylorJoy and Ralph Fiennes. Both have a mixture of tenderness and resolve that makes for exciting tests of wills; unfortunately, the rest of the film’s cast of characters are far more onedimensional. As a suspenseful, overthe-top black comedy, the film largely succeeds. But as a satire, it leaves you less than satisfied. (107 min., R) (Joy Ashford)
YYY Spoiler Alert An old-fashioned tearjerker that earns its emotions without resorting to a brute force attack on your heartstrings. Jim Parsons and Ben Aldridge shine as lovers in this bittersweet romantic dramedy. (112 min., PG-13) (Odie Henderson)
YYY Strange World Disney’s latest hides its very unsubtle message about saving the planet under a mountain of excellent voice-over work, visuals, and action scenes. The makers of “Big Hero 6” and “Raya and the Last Dragon” have another hit on their hands. (102 min., PG) (Odie Henderson)