Opening This Week

Wednesday Midsommar Friday Maiden SpiderMan: Far From Home

Aladdin This live action remake of the 1992 Disney animation is more than a pleasant surprise. It’s a complete delight that stands up on its own and is, in many ways, an improvement on the original. It adds a full 30 minutes to the running time, and yet it seems to fly by. Rated PG. 128 minutes. — M. LaSalle

American Woman Sienna Miller can be highly affecting as a woman whose teenage daughter goes missing, but she also can veer into the overwrought. So can the script, which piles on the drama as it follows Miller’s character over the course of several years, through bad choices and worse romances. Miller is best in scenes with Christina Hendricks, as her character’s down-earth sister. Rated R. 111 minutes. — C. Meyer

Annabelle Comes Home: This latest in the "Conjuring" series is a meticulously made, well-acted, small-scale horror movies, featuring three girls trapped in what slowly becomes a haunted house. It's better than a routine genre movie. Rated R. 106 minutes. — M. LaSalle

Asako I & II Not two movies, as the title might indicate, but one. And thank goodness. The title character — a young woman whose life takes her from Osaka to Tokyo and who loses one boyfriend only to get another who looks just like the first -- is dull and uninteresting. Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi doesn’t seem to know women. In Japanese with subtitles. Not rated. 119 minutes. —G.A. Johnson

Avengers: Endgame It’s three hours long, and it’s not boring, and that’s saying a lot for this final installment of the Avengers series. The new film, in which the irrepressible gang decides to go back in time, brings the Marvel series to a satisfying close. Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Hemsworth are particular standouts. Rated PG-13. 181 minutes. — M. LaSalle

Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché If there were any justice in the world Alice Guy-Blaché would be remembered alongside D.W. Griffith as one of the great pioneers of the early screen. The good news is that she is becoming better known, but as the new documentary, “Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché” makes clear, not nearly as much as she deserves, nor for the right reasons. — M. LaSalle

Being Frank A frustrating mix of promising elements and appealing performances shackled to an unwieldy storyline. Jim Gaffigan is likable in an unpleasant role, playing a bigamist who's maintained separate families for nearly 20 years, and Logan Miller is strong as the son who accidentally discovers the big secret. R. 110 minutes.

— Z. Hasan

The Biggest Little

Farm Absorbing, fascinating documentary about a city couple who chuck it all and buy an abandoned farm, but face constant struggle to realize their dream of a self-sustained biodiversity. A film with life lessons, as well as an implied commentary on modern agriculture and climate change. Rated PG. 91 minutes.

— G.A. Johnson

Booksmart Two best friends, smart kids who’ve spent four years studying, go on a tear in their last day before graduation, hoping to pack four years of missed experience into one great night. Thought it has some lags, it’s a fairly fun movie, directed by Olivia Wilde and written by four female screenwriters. Rated R. 102 minutes. — M. LaSalle

Brightburn So it’s kind of like what happened to Clark Kent’s family, only different. This time the kid (who lands on the farm as a baby) grows into an evil monster, and there’s nothing his parents or anyone else can do about it. He’s just going to wreck everything — for a whole movie. Elizabeth Banks plays Mom, and that makes the movie bearable. Rated R. 90 minutes. — M. LaSalle

Chasing the Dragon II This Hong Kong thriller, a sequel to “Chasing the Dragon” (2017), is an efficiently made police action-drama, but it fails to give us anything we haven’t seen many times before. Focusing on an undercover cop who infiltrates a kidnapping gang, the film is full of the requisite car chases, shootouts etc., but there’s little fresh here. In Cantonese with English subtitles. Not rated. 100 minutes. — C. Darling

Dark Phoenix One of the best X-Men movies, this one explores the idea of mental illness: What happens if an all-powerful person becomes unstable and starts lashing out? Starring Sophie Turner in the title role and featuring a great villainess turn by Jessica Chastain, this is a more thoughtful sci-fi movie, albeit with the obligatory derailment in superhero battles in the last quarter. Rated PG-13. 113 minutes. — M. LaSalle

The Dead Don’t Die The latest from Jim Jarmusch has a good cast and moments of humor, but it’s terribly slow and pointless, a tongue-in-cheek movie that seems entirely without purpose. Co-starring Adam Driver, Bill Murray and Chloe Sevigny, among others. R. 105 minutes.

— M. LaSalle

Diamantino: Lamebrained Portuguese farce about the world's greatest soccer player, a virginal animal lover who has just blown the World Cup final, whose evil twin sisters hatch a plot to clone him and embezzle his money, and whose refugee adoptee is a plant by the Portugese Secret Service. Gets points for sheer loopiness, but no. In Portuguese with English subtitles. No rated. 96 minutes.

— G.A. Johnson

A Dog’s Journey This tearjerker sequel to 2017’s “A Dog’s Purpose” continues the story of canine reincarnation, as one pooch in various bodies protects a young woman throughout her life. Both films are based on novels by W. Bruce Cameron. There’s a modest girl-power

theme here and a few sequences that could soften the hardest of hearts, but a sky-high saccharine quotient limits its appeal Rated PG. 108 minutes.

— W. Addiego

Echo in the Canyon A highly entertaining look at the musical Golden Age of L.A.’s Laurel Canyon, around 1965 to ’67, when performers like the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the Mamas and the Papas were creating groundbreaking work. Narrated by Jakob Dylan (who also executive produced), the film uses archival footage from the glory days and recent interviews with musicians such as David Crosby, Michelle Phillips, Tom Petty, Brian Wilson, Ringo Starr and Roger McGuinn. The movie is certainly not a comprehensive history of the Laurel Canyon scene, but it’s great fun. Rated PG-13. 82 minutes. — W. Addiego

5B This documentary tells the story of the AIDS ward at San Francisco General, which began in 1983 and pioneered ways of comforting and treating AIDS, back in those terrible days when a diagnosis was the same as a death sentence. It’s a moving look at an important piece of medical and cultural history. PG-13. 94 minutes.

— M. LaSalle

Framing John DeLorean Like its titular automaker, this documentary admirably is not afraid to take risks, including the use of famous actors who reenact scenes after they discuss their craft and their characters. These moments are memorable, even if they sometimes throw the movie off-balance. Not rated. 109 minutes.

— D. Lewis

Godzilla: King of the Monsters The monsters end up crowding out the people in this long, fight-filled movie, in which Mothra, Rodan, Ghidorah and Godzilla fight it out, while human beings sit passively by, looking up the whole time. Recommended only to people who really and truly love monsters. Rated PG-13. 132 minutes.

— M. LaSalle

John Wick 3 — Parabellum The Wick series has lost the emotional weight of the superb first movie, when the hitman protagonist

was motivated by his dead dog. But the series remains very entertaining, with propulsive action mayhem and well-choreographed fights. Keanu Reeves continues to give max effort, while Halle Berry and her martial arts dogs are solid additions. Rated R. 131 minutes. — P. Hartlaub

The Last Black Man in San Francisco San Francisco native Joe Talbot’s directorial debut is a strikingly immersive movie, a slow burn filled with subtleties and nuance, with its message nestled in the details as much as the greater story. Jimmie Fails stars in the film. While other filmmakers have effectively captured San Francisco’s landmarks and topography, story co-writers Fails and

Talbot seem to be filming the city’s streets with a microscope. Rated R. 120 minutes.

— P. Hartlaub

Late Night Emma Thompson gets her best role in years, as an acerbic, longtime talk show host hitting ratings trouble, and she’s the only reason to see this otherwise lightweight but pleasant comedy, co-starring and written by Mindy Kaling. R. 102 minutes. — M. LaSalle

Ma Director Tate Taylor takes things to extremes and the result is lowdown, satisfying fun, with Octavia Spencer as a lonely, mentally ill woman whose emotional issues are triggered when she offers her basement as a haven for partying teenagers. Rated R. 99 minutes.

— M. LaSalle

Men in Black: International If the intention is to reboot the “MIB” franchise, someone is going to have to come up with a better idea than this flat installment, which mutes the natural charm of its two leads, Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. However, it has some good moments — particularly, a cameo from Rebecca Ferguson. PG-13. 114 minutes.

— M. LaSalle

Pavarotti This Ron Howard documentary, about the life of Luciano Pavarotti, is a straight-up birth-to-death saga about the great tenor, featuring most of the major career and personal milestones. If you love Pavarotti, it’s a great way to spend two hours, and if you don’t know him, it’s a great introduction. Rated PG-13. 114 minutes.

— M. LaSalle

The Quiet One Bill Wyman apparently saved everything. The founding member of the Rolling Stones accumulated a huge collection of material from the band’s storied career. In the new documentary, “The Quiet One,” 82 year-old Wyman is seen buried in his archive, an obsessive accumulation that is the Rolling Stones’ answer to the final scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” That this film consists almost entirely of previously unseen footage of the band qualifies as something of a minor miracle.

— J. Selvin

Rocketman This fantasia on the life of Elton John is a minor disaster, presenting the pop star’s career as an alcoholic’s recovery saga, with lots of self-pitying interludes in which we see Elton’s parents being mean to him. Worst of all, Taron Egerton has a weak voice and sounds nothing like Elton John in the ’70s and something like Elton in his 70s. Rated R. 121 minutes. — M. LaSalle

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Film by Martin Scorsese Bob Dylan wanted to jettison all the conventions of rock concerts when he conceived the Rolling Thunder Revue. In 1975, Dylan set out on this unwieldy, improvised tour that more closely resembled a roving circus than regulation rock band. Martin Scorsese’s documentary that reminds us why there’s a mythology around Dylan. TV-MA. 142 minutes. — J. Selvin

The Secret Lives of Pets 2 In 2016, the animated “The Secret Lives of Pets” captured young hearts by not straying too far, with its characters, from what real pets are like, and what they might be able to do on adventures. The sequel sticks to the same appealing formula but wears its premise thin with too many story lines. Rated PG. 86 minutes. — C. Meyer

Shaft If there were an Oscar category for coolest and most irresponsible dad, Samuel L. Jackson would win it.In the new incarnation of “Shaft,” transmuted from an action-detective franchise into a buddy comedy with father-son bonding at its heart, he singlehandedly makes it worth watching. Jackson’s Shaft takes what could have been just a run-of-the-mill contemporary urban comedy and gives it a shot of adrenaline. Rated R. 111 minutes. — C. Darling

The Souvenir Another quiet, multi-layered character study by the emerging British master Joanna Hogg about a film school student (Honor Swinton Byrne, daughter of Tilda Swinton) in 1980s England whose dreams are derailed by an affair with an older, sophisticated man (Tom Burke) who has a secret drug addiction. Rated R. 119 minutes.

— G. Allen Johnson

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am: This touching and expansive documentary, produced for PBS' American Masters label, is unreserved and unflinching in its praise for its subject: Nobelwinning writer Toni Morrison, now age 88. Among those singing her praises: Oprah Winfrey, Walter Mosley, Fran Lebowitz, Angela Davis. Rated PG-13. 119 minutes.

—Z. Hasan

Too Late to Die Young: A group of fairly well-off Chileans go on a camping vacation in the Chilean summer (really the winter) of 1990, and the movie is little more than that -- narrativeless slices of life. Lots of slices, no life. In Spanish with English subtitles. Not rated. 110 minutes.

— M. LaSalle

Toy Story 4 The toys in “Toy Story 4” are the most loving, purehearted beings on the planet, and they’re all ultimately heading for the garbage pail. This makes them touching figures, and sets the stage for a story that introduces new characters, new dangers and new possibilities for toys like Woody and Buzz Lightyear. There’s a serious current running through it about the inevitability of change and the loss that goes with it.

— M. LaSalle

Wild Rose: Thinly plotted yet highly engaging, this tale of a Glaswegian woman just out of prison and intent on pursuing country stardom in Nashville confirms the extraordinary talent of Irish singer and actress Jessie Buckley Her unusually unguarded expression gives the viewer entry into all her character's emotions, her singing voice is wonderful and her charisma abundant. Rated R. 100 minutes.

— C. Meyer

Yesterday: This latest from Danny Boyle, about a struggling musician who wakes up in an alternate universe in which the Beatles never existed, features winning performances from Himesh Patel and Lily James, and allows audiences to share vicariously in the experience of hearing Beatles songs as if for the first time. Funny and at times touching. Rated PG-13. 116 minutes.

— M. LaSalle