CONTINUING

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

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This sequel catches up with Avatar‘s protagonist, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a decade after he’s decided to retire from service with the Marines and take up residence on Pandora (the planet he was sent to colonize), become a member of the native Na’vi tribe, and marry Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). When an ancient threat resurfaces, Jake must fight a difficult war against the humans. The Way of Water is frequently clunky and hamhanded in its storytelling, and the words spoken by its characters aren’t particularly memorable. But there’s no denying the power of images that can only be described as transporting — literally and figuratively. With Kate Winslet and Sigourney Weaver. (Ann Hornaday/the Washington Post) Sci-fi/action, rated PG-13, 192 minutes, Regal Santa Fe Place 6, Regal Stadium 14, Violet Crown

BABYLON

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Damien Chazelle’s Babylon is a lavish, febrile, ultimately ambiguous portrait of American cinema before the moralizing censors and Wall Street moguls got their mitts on a once-glorious tribe of outlaws, reprobates, perverts, and pirates. Raffish, ungovernable, and not a little unhinged, the early settlers of 1920s Hollywoodland were, by Chazelle’s reckoning, a motley crew of wackos and visionaries, prone to self-destruction but also to soaring flights of inspiration and ecstasy. By the time this overcrowded, tiresomely digressive trip finally crashes like so many post-binge hangovers, Chazelle’s point has gotten lost in a self-indulgent, erratic shuffle. Babylon wants to pay tribute to the medium that brings us all together in the dark, but it also doesn’t miss an opportunity to alienate the audience at every turn. (Ann Hornaday/the Washington Post) Drama, rated R, 188 minutes, Regal Stadium 14, Violet Crown

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER

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In the wake of King T’challa’s death, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba) fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and forge a new path for their kingdom. (Ann Hornaday/the Washington Post) Action/adventure, rated PG-13, 161 minutes, Regal Stadium 14, Violet Crown

CORSAGE

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Faced with a future of strict ceremonies and royal duties, Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Vicky Krieps) rebels against her public image and comes up with a plan to protect her legacy. “Corsage benefits from an exceedingly handsome production ... but its episodic structure, which leads to a bizarre speculation regarding Elisabeth’s ultimate fate, loses interest even as it gains a certain masochistic momentum.” (Ann Hornaday/the Washington Post) Historical drama, not rated, 114 minutes, CCAC, Violet Crown. Review Page 21

EO

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Eo, a grey donkey with melancholic eyes, meets good and bad people on his life’s path, experiences joy and pain, endures the wheel of fortune randomly turning his luck into disaster and his despair into unexpected bliss. But not even for a moment does he lose his innocence. “Eo’s fate is both shocking and unsurprising, but the sadness of the donkey’s saga is at least partly assuaged by the rapturous empathy with which it’s told.” (Mark Jenkins/for The Washington Post) Drama, not rated, 88 minutes, CCAC

THE FABELMANS

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Young Sammy Fabelman falls in love with movies after his parents take him to see The Greatest Show on Earth. Armed with a camera, Sammy starts to make his own films at home, much to the delight of his supportive mother (Michelle Williams). With Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, and Judd Hirsch. “A love letter from director Steven Spielberg to the people and the art form that made him who he is.” (Newsday) Drama, rated PG-13, 151 minutes, Regal Stadium 14, Violet Crown

M3GAN Trailer youtu.be/oodhm_a1axc M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a lifelike doll that’s programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. Designed by Gemma (Allison Williams), a brilliant roboticist, M3GAN can listen, watch, and learn as it plays the role of friend and teacher, playmate and protector. When Gemma becomes the unexpected caretaker of her 8-year-old niece, she decides to give the girl a M3GAN prototype, a decision that leads to unimaginable consequences. Horror/suspense, rated PG-13, 102 minutes, Regal Santa Fe Place 6, Regal Stadium 14, Violet Crown

PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST Wish

Trailer youtu.be/thb7wlgyauc The latest installment in the adventures of the swashbuckling ginger cat kicks off with a swooping, flying, visually fun opening battle, and Puss (Antonio Banderas) learns that he has just run through his eighth of nine lives. The imminent loss of quasi-immortality sends Puss into a funk. Eliminating all risk is the only thing Puss can think of to do, so he eats and sleeps and not much else — until learning of a magical star that can reset his nine lives if he wishes on it. He reunites with Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) from the last film and sets off. The Last Wish arrives just in time to give families something to do after all the presents have been unwrapped. And sometimes that’s enough. The bar isn’t terribly high here, but Puss and company clear it comfortably, landing — but of course — on their feet. (Kristen Page-kirby/the Washington Post) Comedy/animation, rated PG, 100 minutes, Regal Santa Fe Place 6, Regal Stadium 14, Violet Crown

THE WHALE

Trailer youtu.be/d30r0cwtikc It’s impossible not to root for Brendan Fraser, one of Hollywood’s most likable actors, whose comeback has been one of the most heartening movie stories of 2022. But admiring Fraser’s performance in The Whale doesn’t necessarily mean liking the movie he’s in. Darren Aronofsky’s adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter’s play is a murky-looking, claustrophobic exercise in emotionalism at its most trite and ostentatiously maudlin. Fraser plays Charlie, a 600-pound recluse rendered virtually immobilized by shame, itself the result of numbing the losses of his life in trancelike binge-eating sessions. The Whale might start out being about a man struggling to break free of his corporeal and spiritual bonds. But it’s Fraser’s smart, humane, vulnerable performance that too often seems trapped, in this case by a film whose mawkishness so oppressively weighs him down. (Ann Hornaday/the Washington Post) Drama, rated R, 117 minutes, Regal Santa Fe Place 6, Violet Crown

WHITNEY HOUSTON: I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY

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Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, director Kasi Lemmons’ frustratingly one-note biopic about the pop songstress, who died in 2012 at age 48, suffers from an egregiously ironic musical sin: It’s all hooks and no bridges. Despite clocking in at nearly 2 1/2 hours, I Wanna Dance barely scratches the surface of its celestial subject and the figures in her orbit. Plot points are raised and dismissed so jarringly that it feels as if the movie had been torn to shreds in the edit, with all the connective tissue sitting on the cutting room floor. That’s a shame for star Naomi Ackie, who gamely embodies Houston’s luminous star power, sharp spunk and, later, world-weary disillusionment. In the movie’s final moments, the filmmaker captures the tragedy of a generational genius undone by her demons. But until that point, there’s little texture to this musical mosaic. (Thomas Floyd/the Washington Post) Music/biography, rated PG-13, 146 minutes, Regal Stadium 14

THE WOMAN KING (REISSUE)

Trailer youtu.be/3rdapv_rj1y From the moment she appears on the screen, Viola Davis owns The Woman King, a movie every bit as majestic and monumental as its title implies. Davis plays Nanisca, the ferocious, forbidding general of the Agojie, the legendary female fighting force that helped defend the West African kingdom of Dahomey. Set in 1823, The Woman King spins a fictional tale rooted in the real-life Dahomey Amazons who were among the most feared warriors of the era. In the hands of director Gina Prince-bythewood, The Woman King pulses with energy, tightly coiled intensity, and Shakespearean filial drama. It may be a fable, but its power is real: Her name is Viola Davis, and she’s nothing less than magnificent. (Ann Hornaday/the Washington Post) Drama, rated PG-13, 135 minutes, Regal Stadium 14

Center for Contemporary Arts Cinema (1050 Old Pecos Trail, 505-982-1338, ext.105, santafe.org), Jean Cocteau Cinema (418 Montezuma Ave., 505-466-5528, jean cocteaucinema.com), No Name Cinema (2013 Pinion St., nonamecinema.org), Regal Santa Fe Place 6 (4250 Cerrillos Road, 505-424-6109, showtimes.com/movie-theaters/ regal-santa-fe-13482), Regal Stadium 14 (3474 Zafarano, 844-462-7342, showtimes.com/ movie-theaters/regal-santa-fe-stadium-14-7442), and Violet Crown (106 Alcaldesa St., 505-216-5678, santafe.violetcrown.com)

Note: The streaming list will return in January.