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Movies at local cinemas

ABIGAIL

★★ 1/2

R, 109 minutes. Through today only at Mystic. Still playing at Waterford, Westbrook, Lisbon.

The filmmaking team known as Radio Silence, made up of directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and producer Chad Villella, struck black (comedy) gold with their 2019 horror thriller “Ready or Not,” about a young bride, played by Samara Weaving, who has to battle her way out of a murderous game hosted by her wealthy soon-to-be in-laws. The film demonstrated their mastery of coupling an irreverent tone with splashy violence, and netted the team the responsibility of making the next two “Scream” movies. With their latest feature “Abigail,” Universal gets into the Radio Silence business, hoping that their brand of female-driven horror can pay big dividends at the box office. With a script by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick, who co-wrote “Ready or Not,” Radio Silence have delivered what is essentially a spiritual sequel to their breakout hit, this time with vampires rather than superstitious old-money sadists, and starring “Scream” queen Melissa Barrera. In “Abigail,” a band of sarcastic kidnappers have been hired to snatch and then guard Abigail (Alisha Weir), the 12-year-old daughter of a rich and powerful man. But innocent Abigail is much, much more than meets the eye. If you’ve seen the trailers, you already know that tiny ballerina Abigail is a ferociously terrifying vampire who starts to hunt and feast on each kidnapper.

BOY KILLS WORLD ★ R, 111 minutes. Through today only at Waterford. Still playing at Westbrook, Lisbon.

Hi kids, do you like violence? “Boy Kills World” is a bloody action thriller revenge comedy built for hyperactive, video game addled 12-year-old boys who think that blood and punching and Uzis spraying bullets while being held sideways are so, so awesome and the pinnacle of this thing we call life. Maybe some of them will see this movie and have all their beliefs reaffirmed. Others are likely to find this fanboy fantasy an agonizing and dreary barrage of hyperviolence, devoid of anything approaching human emotion. Bill Skarsgard stars as he who is known as Boy — this world is so cruel he doesn’t even have a name! — a deaf and mute man hellbent on revenge after his family is murdered by the evil Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen). Van Der Koy is the head of a dynasty in a dystopian future where enemies are picked off for fun and sport in an annual event dubbed “The Culling.”

— Adam Graham, Detroit News

CABRINI ★★

PG-13, 145 minutes. Through today only at Westbrook.

“Cabrini,” an illuminating if workmanlike portrait of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, tells the story of the woman behind the name that has graced hundreds of shrines, hospitals, parks and schools around the world. In this handsomely filmed chronicle of Cabrini’s rise — from a small parish in Lombardy, Italy, to late-19th-century New York City — a woman who at first glance was a modest, physically frail nun emerges as a fiercely determined figure who battled sexism, xenophobia and her own ailments to give radical meaning to the words “on Earth as it is in heaven.” As Pope Leo XIII tells her in one of their several respectful but spiky conversations, “I can’t tell where your faith ends and your ambition begins.” Pope Leo is played in a wonderfully warm performance by the great Giancarlo Giannini, who gives “Cabrini” a jolt of life every time he appears on-screen.

— Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

CHALLENGERS ★★★★ R, 131 minutes. Mystic, Waterford, Westbrook, Lisbon, Madison, United Westerly.

By the time Luca Guadagnino’s erotically charged tennis film “Challengers” reaches its breathless, sweaty, pulse-pounding and deeply satisfying climax, you’ll be reaching for a cigarette, so to speak. Rarely is a film so sensorially captivating, every element of cinema, including script, cinematography, editing, score and performance blending together to create such a fizzy, frenzied brew, a chemical reaction of rage and lust sizzling with bubbling ferocity. “Challengers” is a movie about bodies: sexy, strong, scarred bodies; bodies in glorious motion, crumpling under force, and drawn together over space and time, again and again. During a hard-fought match at a New Rochelle tournament, our players — which include the two men on the court and one woman, spectating on the sidelines — engage in body talk, communicating with gestures, glances, grunts and gasps, expressing what’s been left unsaid between them. It’s the ultimate example of the concept that tennis isn’t just hitting a ball, it’s a relationship. This bit of wisdom was espoused by teen tennis phenom Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) 13 years prior to this match; now she watches this relationship unfold as two men smash the ball back and forth in front of her. They are her husband, Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), and her ex, Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor). Over the course of each set, we’ll come to understand the complex relationship between this trio. The script is the debut of playwright and novelist Justin Kuritzkes, and his script is hyperactive, the characters smart, cutting and acerbic, simultaneously deeply romantic and cynical.

— Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

CIVIL WAR ★★★

R, 169 minutes. Through today only at Mystic. Still playing at Waterford, Westbrook, Lisbon, United Westerly.

The United States is crumbling in Alex Garland’s sharp new film “Civil War,” a bellowing and haunting big screen experience. The country has been at war with itself for years by the time we’re invited in, through the gaze of a few journalists documenting the chaos on the front lines and chasing an impossible interview with the president. Garland, the writer-director of “Annihilation” and “Ex Machina,” always seems to have an eye on the ugliest sides of humanity and our capacity for self-destruction. His themes are profound and his exploration of them sincere in films that are imbued with strange and haunting images. In “Civil War,” starring Kirsten Dunst as a veteran war photographer named Lee, Garland is challenging his audience once again by not making the film about what everyone thinks it will, or should, be about. Yes, it’s a politically divided country.

Yes, the President (Nick Offerman) is a blustery, rising despot who has given himself a third term, taken to attacking his citizens and shut himself off from the press. Yes, there is one terrifying character played by Jesse Plemons who has some pretty hard lines about who is and isn’t a real American. But that trailer that had everyone talking is not the story. All we really know is that the socalled Western Forces of Texas and California have seceded from the country and are closing in to overthrow the government. We don’t know what they want or why. This choice might be frustrating to some audiences, but it’s also the only one that makes sense in a film focused on the kinds of journalists who put themselves in harm’s way to tell the story of violent conflicts and unrest.

— Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press

DUNE: PART TWO ★★★★

PG-13, 166 minutes. Through today only at Westbrook.

There’s a moment late in Denis Villeneuve’s sweeping sci-fi epic “Dune: Part Two,” when the camera lingers on a hand emerging out of desert sand, forming into a fist. It’s a small but apt visual metaphor for this sequel’s story, written by Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, which takes all of the foundational exposition carefully laid in “Dune: Part One,” and kicks the plot of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel into spice-powered motion. In “Dune: Part Two,” power, and violence, rise from the desert sand of the planet Arrakis, where young Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) has found his true path among the desert people known as Fremen. This film is a spectacular feat of science-fiction filmmaking, marrying immersive world-building with engrossing storytelling. The color, the sound, the sheer weight of it makes for a visual and sonic feast laden with lore.

— Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

★★

PG-13, 115 minutes. Through today only at Waterford, Lisbon. Still playing at Westbrook.

It doesn’t feel good to beat up on a movie like “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” which is a film with the right intentions: to entertain families looking for spectacle that will please both kids and their Gen X/millennial parents. It’s at least slightly better than its ghoulish predecessor, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” because at least there aren’t any holograms of deceased actors in this one, which is a relief. Still, there’s very little opportunity for critical examination of this sequel to the “lega-sequel” of the “Ghostbusters” franchise, which already has one failed reboot on its record. What else could one possibly say about “Ghostbusters” in general, and this perfectly fine, but incredibly dull installment specifically? It does exactly what it needs to do for die-hard fans and families seeking a night out at the movies. As a cultural industrial product, it’s emblematic of Hollywood’s obsession with reboots, nostalgia and IP, but that subject has already been talked to death and doesn’t bear repeating. Those arguments aren’t worth making again, especially when “Frozen Empire” is such an uninspiring example. In its favor, it does try to do something that is both familiar and expansive.

— Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE ★★ PG-13, 115 minutes. Waterford, Lisbon.

As the old saying goes, there are two kinds of people on this Earth: Those who like their movies with a giant evil ape swinging a vertebrae like a lasso while riding a kaiju controlled by a crystal, and those who don’t. The former types will have much to cheer in “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” a ground-stomping, radiation-spewing monster-mash feast. Technically, we are not on this Earth. We’re inside it, in a subterranean jungle world that gives the movie’s filmmakers an exotic, untrampled realm in which they try to chart some new ground for a pair of well-traveled beasts. But “Godzilla x Kong” is no drastic pivot for its monsters. We are back in the pure spectacle territory that has traditionally been Godzilla and King Kong’s stomping ground. This one promises a team-up, with the frenemies joining forces to fight a mutual foe.

— Jake Coyle, Associated Press

KUNG FU PANDA 4 ★★

PG, 94 minutes. Through today only at Westbrook. Still playing at Lisbon.

The “Kung Fu Panda” movies have always been a reliable name when it comes to animated franchises. A distinctive style, star-studded voice cast, and the winning Jack Black voicing Po, the roly-poly, dumpling-appreciating Dragon Warrior, is usually a recipe for success. Or at least it has been. “Kung Fu Panda 2” was even nominated for a best animated feature Oscar in 2012. It’s been eight years since we last saw our old pal Po, in 2016’s “Kung Fu Panda 3,” and this new installment, “Kung Fu Panda 4,” is co-directed by journeyman animation director Mike Mitchell and Stephanie Ma Stine, making her feature debut. Franchise writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger return, with Darren Lemke rounding out the writing team. The film coasts on the elements that have worked before: Black’s vocal charms and the franchise’s signature style, which is inspired by various Chinese arts from painting to music to film.

LOVE LIES BLEEDING ★★★ 1/2

R, 104 minutes. Through today only at United Westerly.

The first time we glimpse Jackie (Katy O’Brian) on screen in “Love Lies Bleeding,” it is not particularly auspicious. But we haven’t yet seen Jackie through the eyes of Lou (Kristen Stewart), and that’s the only gaze that matters in this film. When Lou — the manager at a muscle-head gym — catches sight of Jackie prowling among the weight machines, skin gleaming, her powerfully muscular body reflected in the mirror, almost glowing, it’s like director Rose Glass is letting us in on a lusty little secret. Lou’s desire is so palpable you can smell it, and lucky for her, the feeling is mutual. But the reality of life in this small, rough town has an insistent, inevitable darkness. There are too many connections and coincidences swirling around, and as Lou and Jackie collide, sexually, there looms a bloodier collision on the horizon: sheer ominousness telegraphed in Lou’s red-drenched flashbacks.

— Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE ★★ 1/2

R, 120 minutes. Through today only at Mystic, Waterford. Still playing at Westbrook, Lisbon.

The latest Guy Ritchie flick “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” has a spine of true story to it, even if it does all it can to amplify a long-declassified World War II tale with enough dead Nazis to make “Inglourious Basterds” blush. The result is a jauntily entertaining film but also an awkward fusion. Ritchie’s film takes the increasingly prolific director’s fondness for swaggering, exploitation-style ultraviolence and applies it to a real-life stealth mission that would have been thrilling enough if it had been told with a little historical accuracy. In 2016, documents were declassified that detailed Operation Postmaster, during which a small group of British special operatives sailed to the West African island of Fernando Po, then a Spanish colony. Spain was then neutral in the war, which made the Churchill-approved gambit audacious. In January 1942, they snuck into the port and sailed off with several ships that were potentially being used in Atlantic warfare. As in the director’s previous movies, everyone seems to be having a good time. Ritchie revels in his characters’ debonair nonchalance while meting out all manner of savagery.

— Jake Coyle, Associated Press

MONKEY MAN ★★★

R, 113 minutes. Through today only at Westbrook, Lisbon.

Dev Patel’s got something to say, but he’s going to let his fists do the talking. With his directorial debut, the wild action revenge flick “Monkey Man,” the Oscar-nominated actor makes a bold statement with this one-two punch of a film that asserts himself as both an action star and promising genre director. Having achieved his fame in more serious dramas like “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Lion,” Patel’s passion project “Monkey Man” is a big swing, and a big swerve for the actor. Luckily, it connects, landing with a satisfyingly bone-crunching intensity. “Monkey Man” is a love letter to East Asian martial arts movies, and to Indian folklore and culture. The monkey in question is both Hanuman, the Hindu god of wisdom, strength, courage, devotion and self-discipline, and it is also the face of the dingy rubber mask that the Kid (Patel) dons for his underground boxing matches. This is a revenge picture, and so the Kid must get revenge, driven by his fiery blood-soaked memories. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

SPY X FAMILY CODE: WHITE

PG-13, 110 minutes. Through today only at Waterford, Lisbon.

A spy and an assassin keep their double lives to themselves while pretending to be the perfect family.

STAR WARS: EPISODE I — THE PHANTOM MENACE

PG, 136 minutes. Starts Friday at Waterford, Westbrook, Lisbon.

This is the 25th anniversary re-release.

UNSUNG HERO ★★ PG, 112 minutes. Mystic, Waterford, Lisbon.

Cinematic memoir can be a complex creative endeavor. Film is a collaborative medium, and memoir requires a certain acknowledgement of the author’s creation. Without that self-reflection, memoir can slip into murky, confusing territory. This space is where the new film “Unsung Hero” exists, which is billed as “A For King + Country Film.” If you’re not yet aware of the Grammy winning Christian pop duo For King + Country, comprised of brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone, “Unsung Hero” will introduce you to their folksy family lore, if not their musical successes. The film is a biographical drama about the Smallbone family, a large brood from Australia who emigrated to Nashville, Tennessee, in the early 1990s, following father David’s dreams of working as a promoter in the music industry. “Unsung Hero” is co-written and co-directed by Joel Smallbone (with Richard L. Ramsey), and he also stars in the film playing his own father, David, who eventually managed the music careers of For King + Country, and Joel’s sister Rebecca St. James. Their siblings work in the family business as managers, lighting directors and documentarians (they all make cameos in the film), and there’s a sense of can-do collaboration among the tight-knit Smallbone family. This isn’t just a music biopic or a family drama, it’s a presentation of a family narrative as told, and embodied, by the family themselves.

— Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

WICKED LITTLE LETTERS ★★★ 1/2

R, 100 minutes. Starts Friday at Mystic. Through today only at Madison, United Westerly.

The “Wicked Little Letters” start arriving even before the dark comedy has begun. The movie is about the escalating battle between prim Englishwoman Edith Swan (Olivia Colman), who is given to remarking that suffering is a gift because it strengthens her, and new neighbor Rose (Jessie Buckley). Edith pretends to like Rose, in the same way she pretends to like suffering, but there are plenty of reasons to feud with her neighbor: She is Irish. She is a single mother who lives with a Black man. She is loud. She swears like a sailor. She drinks. And she isn’t especially tidy. Inspired by events that happened in an English village in the 1920s, “Wicked Little Letters” is an “Odd Couple” situation and the two leads are spectacular. The stakes get high quickly — someone (possibly Edith) reports Rose to child protection authorities, which leads to her being jailed. Meanwhile, the acts described in the profane letters Rose receives, and seems to relish reading aloud, get increasingly vile. A big part of the appeal of “Wicked” is its leads. Both actors are adept at cluing us in that there’s more to their characters than what’s on the surface.

— Chris Hewitt, Minneapolis Star Tribune