‘Secret Mall Apartment’ and the Blurred Line Between Life and Art
Culture, March 28
Jeremy Workman’s documentary looks back at a project that may sound like a joke but had serious underpinnings.
‘A Working Man’ Review: Blue Collar, Bloody Hands
Weekend, March 27
Jason Statham plays a construction worker who’s as deft at breaking bones as he is at building high-rises.
‘Julie Keeps Quiet’ Review: Coping at Her Own Speed
Weekend, March 27
A teenage regional tennis star moves on at her own pace after her ex-coach is dismissed under a cloud of suspicion.
‘The Penguin Lessons’ Review: A Unique Approach to Teaching
Weekend, March 27
Steve Coogan plays Tom Michell, an English teacher in 1970s Argentina, whose small new friend makes his class a hit.
‘Grand Tour’ Review: A Quiet Knockout
Weekend, March 27
The Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes’s black-and-white film follows a colonial official on a 20th-century odyssey across Asia, with his fiancée in pursuit.
‘Holland’ Review: Nicole Kidman Goes Dutch
Weekend, March 27
Set in a Michigan town designed to evoke the Netherlands, this thriller has red herring on the menu.
‘Viet and Nam’ Review: A Soft Kiss Underground
Weekend, March 27
Truong Minh Quy’s haunting romance between two Vietnamese coal miners contemplates war and loss with pained elegance.
‘Holy Cow’ Review: How to Become a Big Cheese
Weekend, March 27
Louise Courvoisier’s debut feature follows a teenager in the French Alps who, when thrust into caring for his sister, forges a path in cheese making.
‘The Friend’ Review: The Writer vs. the Great Dane
Weekend, March 27
Naomi Watts plays a writer in mourning who is given a formidable gift from a friend in this adaptation of the Sigrid Nunez novel.
‘Death of a Unicorn’ Review: Into the Woods (Chomp, Chomp)
Weekend, March 27
Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega play a father and daughter who run down a mystical beast and end up running amok with a monstrous brood.
‘The Ballad of Wallis Island’ Review: A Sour Note
Weekend, March 27
Carey Mulligan briefly warms this damp, downbeat comedy about two lonely men and their musical obsession.
‘Art for Everybody’ Review: The Hidden Life of the ‘Painter of Light’
Weekend, March 27
Thomas Kinkade turned himself into a ubiquitous brand — but there was more to him than that, a new documentary shows.
‘Being Maria’ Review: The Muse’s Side of the Story
Weekend, March 25
Starring Anamaria Vartolomei and Matt Dillon, this French drama chronicles the life of the actress Maria Schneider after her traumatic experience on the set of “Last Tango in Paris.”
‘Misericordia’ Review: Danger Always Hides in the Bushes
Weekend, March 20
The French director Alain Guiraudie’s latest film, a bent kind of murder mystery, presents life at its basest and gamiest.
‘Locked’ Review: Cramped Quarters
Weekend, March 20
This gimmicky thriller starring Bill Skarsgard and Anthony Hopkins sees a petty criminal fall victim to a vigilante’s trap.
‘Bob Trevino Likes It’ Review: From a Stranger to Found Family
Weekend, March 20
Barbie Ferreira shines as a young woman who befriends a stranger with her father’s name in this indie tear-jerker.
‘The Alto Knights’ Review: A Double Helping of De Niro
Weekend, March 20
Robert De Niro plays the crime lords Vito Genovese and Frank Costello in this film about midcentury Mafia moves.
‘The Assessment’ Review: Meticulously Planned Parenthood
Weekend, March 20
A couple must endure a punishing evaluation process for permission to become parents in this sleek, hermetic science fiction.
‘Snow White’ Review: A Princess’s Progress
Weekend, March 20
The new live-action version of Disney’s 1937 animated fairy tale has drawn (maddening) criticism for its casting and an updated story. But liberation only goes so far.
‘Magazine Dreams’ Review: Pain Without Gain
Weekend, March 20
Shown at Sundance two years ago, the film was shelved when its star, Jonathan Majors, was arrested and charged with assault and harassment of his girlfriend at the time.
‘Ash’ Review: Deep-Space Horrors
Weekend, March 20
In this sleek film by Flying Lotus, Eiza González plays a marooned explorer haunted by the killing of her crew mates.
‘O’Dessa’ Review: One Song to Save Them All
Weekend, March 20
Sadie Sink (“Stranger Things”) rules this postapocalyptic musical with a guitar and an attitude.
In ‘Meanwhile,’ a Nation Remembers to Breathe
Culture, March 14
The director Catherine Gund fuses work from multiple artists with archival footage and interviews to craft an exploration of Black resilience.
‘Young Hearts’ Review: Finding Acceptance
Weekend, March 13
In this coming-of-age drama from Belgium, a 14-year-old boy falls in love with his neighbor and questions his sexual identity.
‘Novocaine’ Review: Sticks and Stones Will Never Hurt Him
Weekend, March 13
In this gross-out action spectacle, Jack Quaid plays an unlikely action hero who, because of a genetic disorder, can’t feel any pain.
‘Who by Fire’ Review: Masculinity and Its Discontents
Weekend, March 13
Men posture and peacock in the Québecois director Philippe Lesage’s ensemble drama set at an isolated house in a remote forest.
‘Opus’ Review: A New Album They’re Dying to Hear
Weekend, March 13
John Malkovich plays a ’90s pop star who emerges from retirement with a bloody agenda.
‘The Day the Earth Blew Up’ Review: Daffy, Porky, Petunia and Alien Goo
Weekend, March 13
Subtitled “A Looney Tunes Movie,” this installment, directed by Peter Browngardt, takes bubble gum to a whole new level.
‘The Electric State’ Review: 1990s Robot Apocalypse? As If!
Weekend, March 13
Who needs dystopian artificial intelligence to destroy faith in humanity when you can watch this sci-fi extravaganza?
‘An Unfinished Film’ Review: When Reality Interrupts Art
Weekend, March 13
A drama full of unconventional touches recalls a time when all we had were our screens.
‘Black Bag’ Review: Blanchett v. Fassbender
Weekend, March 13
The actors play a glamorous couple of spies in this latest sleek collaboration from the director Steven Soderbergh and the screenwriter David Koepp.
‘The Parenting’ Review: Meet the Poltergeist
Weekend, March 13
A family getaway turns ghastly when a demon is awakened in this juvenile, meanspirited horror-comedy.
‘The Actor’ Review: No Direction Home
Weekend, March 13
André Holland plays an actor with amnesia in this wonderfully surreal and poignant mystery.
‘Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna’ Review: Confusing Accounts
Weekend, March 11
The Hulu documentary challenges ideas around who is responsible for the death of the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust.”
‘Housewife of the Year’: Contestants Look Back in Dismay
Culture, March 7
Ciaran Cassidy’s film revisits an Irish television show that judged stay-at-home moms on budgeting and appearance.
‘Chaos: The Manson Murders’ Review: All You Ever Knew is Suspect
Weekend, March 7
Errol Morris returns to his main obsessions — evil and delusion — in a new Netflix documentary about the famous murders.
‘On Becoming a Guinea Fowl’ Review: Watchful Eyes
Weekend, March 6
The heroine of Rungano Nyoni’s second feature keeps her cool even as she uncovers long-buried family secrets in Zambia.
‘Picture This’ Review: Five Dates Away From Love
Weekend, March 6
Simone Ashley (“Bridgerton”) stars as Pia, a talented photographer in London navigating business pressures with her wish for independence in this vivid rom-com.
‘There’s Still Tomorrow’ Review: An Updated Italian Heroine
Weekend, March 6
Set in Rome after World War II, this black-and-white feminist film directed by (and starring) Paola Cortellesi tells a nuanced story about domestic abuse.
‘Seven Veils’ Review: Private Anguish in Public View
Weekend, March 6
Atom Egoyan’s latest film, starring Amanda Seyfried as a director of an opera, could only have come from him, in ways both good and bad.
‘The Rule of Jenny Pen’ Review: More Than the Usual Nursing Home Horrors
Weekend, March 6
A bully with a baby doll makes life distressing for all.
‘Rule Breakers’ Review: Afghanistan’s First Robotics Team
Weekend, March 6
Based on a true story, this wholesome movie centers on four girls who make it to a worldwide competition in Washington, despite the odds.
‘Queen of the Ring’ Review: Fighting for Respect
Weekend, March 6
A waitress becomes a wrestler in this sports drama, based on the true story of the champion Mildred Burke.
‘In the Lost Lands’ Review: A Postapocalyptic Romance
Weekend, March 6
Dave Bautista and Milla Jovovich lack chemistry in this action film, based on a short story by George R.R. Martin.
‘The Empire’ Review: Star Tangled
Weekend, March 6
In Bruno Dumont’s sci-fi farce, an alien conflict disrupts a sleepy French village.
‘Mickey 17’ Review: This Job Is Killing Him
Weekend, March 6
In Bong Joon Ho’s latest dystopian romp, Robert Pattinson plays a hapless underdog whose work aboard a spaceship requires him to die, over and over.
‘Eephus’ Review: One Last Game
Weekend, March 6
The final day on a small town baseball field is the setting for a funny, elegiac feature directorial debut.
‘Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net’ Review: How the Magic Happens
Weekend, July 25
This documentary chronicles the reboot and reopening in Las Vegas of the acrobatic show “O,” which shutdown during the pandemic.
‘Fire Through Dry Grass’ Review: Unsafe Space
Weekend, September 28
This enlightening, troubling documentary chronicles life (and death) among residents in a long-term care facility during the heights of the pandemic.
‘Broadway Rising’ Review: Surviving the Pandemic
Weekend, December 27
Stakeholders including Patti LuPone and Lynn Nottage share their real-time reactions to New York theater’s shutdown and reopening in Amy Rice’s documentary.
‘Bad Axe’ Review: A Pandemic Family Portrait
Weekend, November 17
The filmmaker David Siev chronicles his family’s struggle to keep their Michigan restaurant afloat through the pandemic in this hermetic documentary.