Quick Flicks

NEW THIS WEEK

Ip Man (Donnie Yen) moves to the U.S., where his student, Bruce Lee (KwokKwan Chan), has opened a school, angering the local martial arts community. (Not rated — 105 minutes)

Greta Gerwig’s take on the beloved novel of four sisters growing up in Civil War-era New England is handsome and heartfelt holiday fare, if uneven. (PG — 134 minutes)

Will Smith stars in an animated film as a secret agent who gets turned into a pigeon; Tom Holland plays the tech geek who must help him to save the world. (PG — 101 minutes) V.

Adam Sandler is great — yes, great — in Benny and Josh Safdie’s “Uncut Gems.” He plays a jeweler in debt up to his ears, but he’s got big plans. Good luck with that. (R — 135 minutes) D, P, S, V.

STILL PLAYING

Poots and Cary Elwes. (PG-13 — 92 minutes) P, S, V.

Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie lead an ensemble cast in “Bombshell,” a darkly humorous glimpse at the sexual harassment female Fox News personalities endured under late CEO Roger Ailes. John Lithgow stars as Ailes; Kate McKinnon, Mark Duplass, Allison Janney and Connie Britton also star. (R — 108 minutes) P, S.

Despite the backlash over the “digital fur” in the trailer, the CGI-enhanced costumes work pretty well in director Tom Hooper’s adaptation of the musical about a tribe of cats holding a contest to see who gets to transcend to the “Heavenside Layer.” Yeah, it’s cheesy. But it’s fun to see so many stars hamming it up, including Idris Elba, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, James Corden and Jennifer Hudson, who sings the heck out of “Memory.” Twice, of course. (PG – 110 minutes)

Mark Ruffalo stars as an attorney taking on DuPont in Todd Haynes’ drama, based on a real case. Sometimes melodramatic but never plodding, and effective. (PG-13 — 126 minutes). P.

Matt Damon and Christian Bale star as the men who brought Ford to glory Le Mans in this technically superb (if dramatically flawed) race-car film. (PG-13 — 152 minutes) P.

This animated Disney sequel is pretty to look at and listen to, but a plot that sends Elsa, Anna and crew into an enchanted forest is a bit of a mess. (PG — 103 minutes).

Cynthia Erivo gives a strong performance in Kasi Lemmons’ somewhat by-the-numbers biopic, which transforms the freedom fighter of history into a kind of actionmovie superhero. (PG-13 — 125 minutes) V.

Terrence Malick has made a transcendent film, a deeply moral meditation of an Austrian man who conscientiously objects to

Hitler at profound personal cost. (PG-13 – 174 minutes) V.

Screenwriter Shia LaBeouf plays a version of his own father in this bittersweet memoir about his dysfunctional Hollywood upbringing. Richly layered and subtly disturbing, it is carried by great performances, including Lucas Hedges and a young Noah Jupe as LaBoeuf’s alter ego at ages 22 and 12. (R — 94 minutes) D, P, S.

Taika Waititi pulls off a balancing act in his film about a boy (Roman Griffin Davis, terrific) whose imaginary friend is Adolf Hitler (Waititi). Obviously questions of tone and taste arise, but Waititi and the cast make it work. (PG-13 — 108 minutes) P, V.

Danny DeVito and Danny Glover join the cast of this sequel, giving video game avatars Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart new voices to impersonate. The writing is even lazier than in 2017’s “Welcome to the Jungle,” but the CGI ostrich stampede is mildly

Daniel Craig leads an all-star cast in a grand whodunit that smiles as it spins you on a merry-goround of deceit. ( (PG-13 — 130 minutes). V, P, D.

Nationwide

“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”

$177.3 million (First week) ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’

$26.5 million ($102 million) ‘Frozen II’

$12.9 million ($387 million) ‘Cats’

$6.6 million

(First week) ‘Knives Out’

$6.5 million ($89.9 million) “Bombshell’

$5.1 million

($5.5 million) “Richard Jewell” $2.5 million

($9.5 million) “Queen & Slim” $1.8 million ($36.5 million) “Ford v. Ferarri” $1.8 million

($102 million)

“Black Christmas” $1.8 million

($7.2 million)

— Box Office Mojo

In the Valley

1. “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” 2.“Jumanji: The Next Level”

3. “Frozen II” 4. “Bombshell”

5. “Cats”

6. “Knives Out”

7. “Richard Jewell” 8. “Ford v. Ferarri” 9. “Black Christmas” 10. “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”

— Harkins Theatres

John Boyega as Finn (with Oscar Isaac in the background) in “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” cool. (PG-13 — 123 minutes) P. ‘Knives Out’ ‘Last Christmas’ Emilia Clarke plays a hot mess working as an elf at a London Christmas shop in this would-be holiday rom-com that fails in spectacular fashion. (PG-13 — 102 minutes) P. ‘Parasite’ Bong Joon Ho looks at class division and warfare through two families at either end of the wealth spectrum in his nearly perfect film. (R — 132 minutes) P, S, V. ‘Queen & Slim’ A young black couple on a date end up on the run after killing a cop during a traffic stop. A righteous film grappling with the enduring legacy of slavery in America. (R — 132 minutes) P, V, S, N, D. ‘Richard Jewell’( Clint Eastwood tells the story of Jewell, the security guard falsely accused of the Atlanta Olympics bombing. Eastwood’s simplistic conservative politics are on display. More troublesome is a made-up sex-for-story scene. (R — 129 minutes) P, S. V. ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ J.J. Abrams gives fans what they want in ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.’ The movie is unquestionably entertaining. But it’s not particularly challenging. (PG-13 — 141 minutes) V.