BOY ERASED

cheap. In this documentary about the people who pulled off the spectacular feat of sending Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the moon in 1969, the ovations are genuine, spontaneous and well deserved. NASA’s first lunar landing is not exactly an obscure event. And “Apollo 11” doesn’t profess to offer new information or insights. What it does offer is a wealth of fresh images and sound, assembled into an immersive Imax journey by director and editor Todd Douglas Miller. It’s a more visceral trip than any moviegoer — even the armchair experts — has ever taken before. — Mark Jenkins, Washington Post R, 114 min. Tonight only at Garde. For much of “Boy Erased,” we are watching the face of 19-year-old Jared Eamons as he takes in his surroundings. It’s a handsome, intelligent face — it belongs to the actor Lucas Hedges — and its range of expressions subtly distills the drama of this somber, coolly appalled and appalling movie. You note Jared’s dutiful attentiveness as his father preaches a sermon, his furtive downward glance in the company of a boy he likes and his quiet anguish when he finally approaches his parents and disgorges the long-held secret of his homosexuality. — Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

CAPTAIN MARVEL

1/2 PG-13, 124 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is nothing if not consistent. Since their films slot together like a jigsaw puzzle, it helps if everything looks and feels the same, if the values align, if the emotional beats vibrate at the same frequency. The MCU is the chain restaurant of superhero franchises — satisfying but always the same. Every now and then the Disney-owned comic corporation offers a new flavor, bringing on an auteur like Ryan Coogler to imbue a film like “Black Panther” with real pathos steeped in African and African-American history and tradition. For their latest installment, Marvel has gone for girl power, hiring their first female director, Anna Boden, and her writing/directing partner Ryan Fleck, to helm “Captain Marvel.” It’s the MCU’s first film led by a female superhero, starring Brie Larson. “Captain Marvel” is a plucky and pleasing, if predictable, excursion that burns brightly, if briefly. Fleck and Boden have crafted a superhero character study that is bit of a feminist “Lethal Weapon,” a retro buddy cop charmer that drives home its female empowerment themes with needle drops of every popular hit by female-fronted 1990s rock bands. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

EVERYBODY KNOWS

1/2 R, 133 minutes. Starts Friday at Niantic. Through today only at Mystic Luxury Cinemas. “How do you know it’s a lie?” one character asks near the climax of the riveting “Everybody Knows,” to which comes the response, “How do you know it’s true?” That’s the dilemma of the movie (and, you know, life). Laura (Penélope Cruz) and her kids have returned to her tiny Spanish hometown for her sister’s wedding, during which her teenage daughter is kidnapped. Suspicion immediately falls on strangers who were at the wedding to shoot a video, but, as Cruz and friends try to figure out what’s going on, afraid to involve the police, the web of suspicion tightens to include wedding guests, her daughter (maybe the kidnapping was a setup?), other family members, her mysterious husband and, finally, even the man she has trusted most, Paco, a former lover/family servant who is played by Javier Bardem. Paco is the moral center of the movie, and the fact that Bardem is Cruz’s real-life husband adds extra zing to scenes in which the tortured pair search for the missing girl. The tension also builds thanks to the skill with which writer/ director Asghar Farhadi reveals and withholds information. Farhadi, whose “A Separation” and “The Salesman” both won foreign-language Oscars, makes family dramas that are driven by the secrets even loved ones keep from one another, and, in the end, his films are usually about class. — Chris Hewitt, Minn. Star Tribune

FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY

1/2 PG-13, 108 minutes. Through today only at Waterford, Westbrook. Still playing at Stonington, Lisbon. Is there anything Florence Pugh can’t do? In this generous, big-hearted new comedy, Pugh hurls herself against a lot of other things: the ropes of a wrestling ring, various male and female opponents, the opportunity of a lifetime. She does this while sporting a lip ring, jet-black hair and the other goth-girl accouterments of her real-life character, Saraya Jade-Bevis, a retired World Wrestling Entertainment personality known to her fans as Paige. Paige hailed from a wrestling-obsessed family in England. Within the context of a sport that thrives on artifice, writer-director Stephen Merchant spins a story whose emotions feel genuine. — Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

FREE SOLO

1/2 PG-13, 97 minutes. Through tonight only at Madison Art Cinemas. Both intimate and expansive, the Oscar-winning “Free Solo” is a documentary beautifully calculated to literally take your breath away. And it does. — Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

GREEN BOOK

1/2 PG-13, 130 minutes. Through tonight only at Niantic, Lisbon. Still playing at Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook. Saturday only at Garde. If there is a big studio movie that’s more generally crowd-pleasing than the Oscar-winning “Green Book “this season, I have yet to find it. In this landscape of provocative, edgy films, Viggo Mortensen, Oscar winner Mahershala Ali and director Peter Farrelly have come along with a movie about friendship that goes down easy. — Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press

GRETA

1/2 R, 98 minutes. Through today only at Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Lisbon. Still playing at Westbrook. The B-movie pedigree shows up in this standard stalker script, but what elevates “Greta” beyond schlock is the performances, as well as the insouciant élan director Neil Jordan deploys. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD

1/2 PG, 104 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. Writer/director Dean DeBlois skillfully brings the beloved and much-lauded “Dragon” franchise in for a landing with the third film in the series. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

ISN’T IT ROMANTIC

PG-13, 88 minutes. Through today only at Lisbon. Still at Westbrook. “Isn’t It Romantic” gets by, barely, on its inexhaustible comic premise, and on Rebel Wilson’s stand-back-worldget-offa-my-runway comic chops. — Rick Bentley, Tribune News

THE LEGO MOVIE 2: THE SECOND PART

PG, 106 minutes. Through tonight only at Niantic. Still playing at Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. “The LEGO Movie” is a hard act to follow. Its world was so fresh and vibrant and unexpected, it’s no wonder that it spawned a number of spinoffs of varying quality. But the big test was always going to be the sequel and whether or not it could recreate the magic of the first. And I’m pleased to report that “The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part “is pretty darn good, but also you can’t help shake the feeling that it’s just never going to live up to the exciting newness of the first. — Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press

MARY POPPINS RETURNS

1/2 PG-13, 131 minutes. Westbrook. Saturday only at Garde. Families could do a lot worse than to take out a home equity loan for a bucket of multiplex popcorn and take in “Mary Poppins Returns,” director Rob Marshall’s hectic sequel to the 1964 Disney musical cherished by millions. Those who don’t want their memories of the original messed with unduly can take comfort in how the sequel’s storyline follows the narrative and musical beats of the original. And it’s hard to imagine either slaves to the 1964 musical or newcomers of any age having a problem with Emily Blunt. — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD

R, 99 minutes. Madison Art Cinemas. Peter Jackson’s documentary about the thrills and horrors of World War I, “They Shall Not Grow Old,” uses stateof-the-art technology to bring history to life so vividly that it feels almost supernatural. Using digital restoration techniques, Jackson turns blackand-white, century-old footage of long-dead soldiers into richly colored images that brim with expressive energy.

TYLER PERRY’S A MADEA FAMILY FUNERAL

PG-13. Waterford, Lisbon. In what is reportedly Tyler Perry’s last time playing Madea, her family ends up planning a funeral that might reveal some secrets. A review wasn’t available by deadline.

THE UPSIDE

PG-13, 125 minutes. Through today only at Stonington. Starts Friday at Lisbon. Still playing at Westbrook. Kevin Hart’s transition from brattily charming comic persona to serious dramatic cinematic presence isn’t going quite as planned. His extracurricular controversies notwithstanding, the comedian’s first turn in a more serious role in “The Upside” — a remake of the French hit “The Intouchables,” across from Bryan Cranston and Nicole Kidman — should have been a slam dunk. Yet, “Upside” is missing some crucial elements. It’s a struggle to find the bright side to this rather hackneyed film. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service