Other new movies

Men

This “button-pushing” film from Ex Machina director Alex Garland “seems designed more to start arguments than to tell any kind of cohesive or meaningful story,” said Tasha Robinson in Polygon. After a personal trauma, a young woman rents an English country house. But her retreat is repeatedly interrupted by unnerving encounters with strange men from the estate and surrounding village—all played by the same actor, Rory Kinnear. What does it all mean? Viewers will leave “full of strong opinions and emotions” but with few concrete answers. (In theaters only) R

On the Count of Three

Arriving more than a year after its debut at Sundance, Jerrod Carmichael’s directorial debut is “a minor effort from an artist who’s already moved on to bigger things,” said Alison Willmore in NYMag.com. In this “bitterly dark” comedy, Carmichael and Christopher Abbott play two friends who commit to a suicide pact, then spend their expected final hours seeking “closure, or novelty, or something.” The movie “works more than it doesn’t,” but Carmichael’s own stand-up comedy has more heft. (In theaters or $7 on demand) R

Pleasure

This “smart, gutsy” drama about an aspiring female porn star isn’t for everyone, said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times.

But Ninja Thyberg’s own Sundance entry “might surprise you as much as it did me,” because it shows the industry for what it is—brutal and exploitive—while refusing to treat its heroine as merely a victim. Thyberg “knows how to shock.” But more surprising than her film’s sexual explicitness is that it “engages feminist issues while making you laugh and prompting you to squirm.” (In theaters only) Not rated

Montana Story

The pace of this modern western “can be as slow as the clouds over Big Sky Country,” said Pat Padua in The Washington Post.

But that reticence suits the story—about estranged siblings who return to what remains of a family ranch after their father’s stroke. With Haley Lu Richardson and Owen Teague co-starring, “the flawed young characters grow on you” and “their troubles gradually becoming as mythic as the landscape that surrounds them.” (In theaters only) R