Video Alert

WONDER (Drama, PG, 113 m., 2017). What elevates this drama about a brave 10-year-old boy named Auggie (Jacob Tremblay), born with a genetic facial deformity, is the myriad ways in which “Wonder” catches us just a little off-guard and puts lumps in our throats even when Auggie is offscreen. With Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson. Rating: Three stars.

ROMAN J. ISRAEL,

ESQ. (Crime thriller, PG13, 129 m., 2017). After a long career of working behind the scenes for L.A.’s downtrodden, a socially inept legal savant (Denzel Washington) goes to work at a law firm run by a slick shark (Colin Farrell) who represents everything he despises. The strong performances are ultimately lost in the fog of a strange and confusing and bumpy and sometimes implausible story line. Rating: Two stars.

GOODBYE CHRIS

TOPHER ROBIN (Biography, PG, 117 m., 2107). This film of rough edges and jagged twists tries to straddle the line between a whimsical origins story about the beloved Winnie the Pooh, and a harsh character study about the bear’s creator, A.A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson), and his wife (Margot Robbie), unlikable adults who are far better at exploiting a child than loving him. Rating: Two stars.

LBJ (Biography, R, 97 m., 2017). It took two or maybe even three scenes for me to shake off the unconvincing prosthetics and hairpiece and settle in to Woody Harrelson’s excellent performance as Lyndon Baines Johnson. But we got there. It’s a well-calibrated performance, conveying how Johnson felt the weight of the world on his shoulders in this conventional but absorbing biopic. Rating: Three stars.