Movies: New and Noteworthy

Bad Moms

Three over-stressed mothers abandon their responsibilities for a binge of self-indulgence. Mila Kunis, Christina Applegate, and Kristen Bell star.

Into the Forest Two sisters must survive difficult conditions in their isolated home after a massive power outage. Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood star.

Jason Bourne As his true identity comes back to him, Bourne (Matt Damon) searches for additional clues about his past.

Our Little Sister Three sisters who live with their grandmother are joined by a half-sister. Japanese with subtitles.

Phantom Boy In this animated feature, a boy with superpowers helps a wheelchair-bound police officer take down the mob.

Nerve A high schooler steps into trouble when she plays an online game of Truth or Dare. Opens Wednesday

Reviewed by staff critics Steven Rea (S.R.), Tirdad Derakhshani (T.D.), David Patrick Stearns (D.P.S.), and Molly Eichel (M.E.). W.S. denotes a wire-service review.

Hunt For the Wilderpeople As near perfect a film as I've ever seen, this lushly photographed kiwi comedy from Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows) features a star turn by teen actor Julian Dennison as a maladjusted orphan who bonds with a gruff widower (Sam Neill) during a monthslong trek through the bush. 1 hr. 41 PG-13 (thematic elements, including violent content, and some profanity) - T.D.

The Lobster Oscar-nominated director Yorgos Lanthimos' English-language debut stars Colin Farrell as a mild-mannered widower sent to a hotel where he is encouraged - nay, required - to find a new partner. A surreal, comic, sad, strange, beautiful fable, set in a disquietingly serene not-far- from-now. Imagine Wes Anderson doing Franz Kafka, with George Orwell thrown into the mix. Sublime. 1 hr. 58 R (violence, sex, nudity, adult themes) - S.R.

Dheepan

Jacques Audiard's 2015 Cannes Film Festival winner follows a pretend family - a man, woman, and child, refugees of the Sri Lankan civil war - as they try to make a new life in a grim, graffitied housing complex on the outskirts of Paris. It's tough, sobering stuff, with a heartbreaking performance by Antonythasan Jesuthasan, himself a veteran of the Sri Lankan conflict. 1 hr. 50

R

(violence, profanity, adult themes) -

S.R.

Maggie's Plan Rebecca Miller's smart, shambling screwball romance about a single woman (Greta Gerwig) who falls into an affair with a self-absorbed writer and anthropologist (Ethan Hawke) who happens to be married (with kids) to a frosty Danish scholar (Julianne Moore). Complications, and conspiracy, ensue. 1 hr. 38 R (profanity, sex, adult themes) - S.R.

Sunset Song Set in rural Scotland in the years leading up to WWI, Terence Davies' adaptation of the beloved Lewis Grassic Gibbon novel is a lyrical masterwork about the tug-of-war between modernity and tradition as it manifests in a budding intellectual still enmeshed in the farmland where she was born. 2 hrs. 15 R (sexuality, nudity violence, profanity) - T.D.

The BFG ***

Steven Spielberg's supersize dream of a movie, adapted from the Roald Dahl children's book about a little orphan girl and the Big Friendly Giant who takes her away. Newcomer Ruby Barnhill and Oscar-winner Mark Rylance star, and even if the story takes some silly turns, there is magic here - on a very large scale.

PG

(scary images) -

S.R.

Breaking a Monster Documentarian Luke Meyer (Darkon) exposes the music industry as a soul-less machine in this observational documentary that follows about a year in the life of Unlocking the Truth, a heavy metal band formed by three African American middle schoolers from Flatbush, N.Y. When the band wins a big Sony record contract, they enter a strange world peopled with corporate flunkies charged with turning people into products. 1 hr. 32 No MPAA rating (adult themes, some profanity) - T.D.

Central Intelligence **1/2 Kevin Hart follows up the dreadful Ride Along 2 with yet another buddy-action comedy about a mismatched duo who vanquish evildoers. Hart plays an accountant recruited by a rogue CIA officer. Played brilliantly by Dwyane Johnson, the spy was once an obese, geeky, lonely boy victimized by bullies. 1 hr. 54 PG-13 (crude and suggestive humor, some nudity, action violence and some profanity) - T.D.

Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words *** In this documentary that has three of his four kids' blessing (Dweezil is not on board) Frank Zappa talks and talks some more - to talk show hosts, a game-show audience, even a Pennsylvania state trooper. German director Thorsten Schutte uses the musician's own words to build a picture of the man, minus the usual behind-the-music memes. 1 hr. 33 R (language, some sexual references, brief nudity) - D.D.

Finding Dory *** The cheery, royal-blue, yellow-finned sidekick of 2003's Pixar smash Finding Nemo gets a movie of her own, in which Dory - who suffers from short-term memory loss - finds herself separated from her family, trying desperately to remember where they might be. Aquatic adventures ensue, along with life lessons and swell moral messages, but there's a slightly disturbing, dreamlike thread running through the computer- animated feature, too. 1 hr. 37 PG (adult themes) - S.R.

Free State of Jones **1/2 Matthew McConaughey plays little-known Southern abolitionist Newton Knight in Oscar- nominated Seabiscuit writer-director Gary Ross' exhausting, overlong biopic about a Confederate Army deserter who forms an army of his own to fight injustice in Mississippi during the Civil War. 2 hrs. 19 R (brutal battle scenes and disturbing graphic images) - T.D.

Ghostbusters Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones star in the distaff reboot/remake of the 1984 paranormal smash comedy about a squad of proton-packed spectral exterminators. Under the leadership of director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Spy), the gender-flipped cast proves more than a gimmick. Girl power and ghoul power - it's a winning combination. PG-13 (scares, supernatural violence, adult themes) - S.R.

Ice Age: Collision 1/2 A glorified Saturday morning cartoon, the fifth entry in the animated 3D family adventure reunites its well-known stars, including Ray Romano, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah and Jennifer Lopez for a flat, tired storyline that has our early mammalian heroes try to avert asteroids from destroying the earth. Rated PG (mild rude humor and some action/peril) - T.D.

The Innocents *** A young Red Cross doctor in post WWII Warsaw provides care for a Benedictine nun after a sexual assault and finds several of the nuns in the convent are pregnant. The powerful drama, based on the experience of Dr. Madeleine Pauliac, shows women of faith working side by side with nonbelievers to bring light to a dark, horrifying world. 1 hr. 55 PG-13 (sexual assault, graphic depiction of surgery, brief suggestive material) - W.S.

The Legend of Tarzan ** After spending time in London, Tarzan returns to the jungle. Alexander Skarsgård and Margot Robbie star. 1 hr. 49 PG-13 (violence, sexual situations, profanity) - M.E.

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates **1/2 Zac Efron and Adam DeVine play brothers in search of women to take to their sister's wedding so they won't ruin yet another family affair. Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick play two debaucherous ladies who mostly see a free vacation. It feels like a series of loosely linked scenes instead of a full-fledged movie; it's not nearly as memorable, smart, or sweet as Wedding Crashers. 1 hr. 38 R (crude sexual content, language, drug use, some graphic nudity) - M.E.

Our Kind of Traitor **1/2 Ewan McGregor is likable as a Hitchcockian Everyman in this adaptation of the man who is sucked into a dangerous spy game when a Russian mobster (a hulking, over-the-top Stellan Skarsgård) hands him evidence against his bosses to pass on to British intelligence, while Damian Lewis strains credulity as their case officer. One of the very few John le Carré adaptations that doesn't quite hold together. 1 hr. 47 R (violence, profanity throughout, some sexuality, nudity, brief drug use) - T.D.

The Purge: Election Year ** There aren't any big surprises in the third entry in the popular, ultraviolent franchise about the near future, where once a year, for 12 hours, Americans are allowed to commit murder. Frank Grillo returns as a former cop who saves people on Purge night. This time around, he has been hired to protect a presidential candidate (Elizabeth Mitchell) who wants to repeal the Purge. 1 hr. 45 R (disturbing bloody violence profanity) - T.D.

The Secret Life of Pets *** Directed by the Despicable Me franchise's Chris Renaud, a pet lovers' loving salute to the domesticated animals we rely on to bring us comfort, companionship, and triple-digit veterinary bills. Louis C.K. gives voice to a needy Jack Russell, and Kevin Hart is a white bunny named Snowball (talk about color-blind casting!). An extremely animated animated romp. 1 hr. 30 PG (some scares for little kids) - S.R.

The Shallows **1/2 It's girl vs. shark - and not just any girl, but a highly resourceful, bikini-clad girl - in this campy summer delight, wherein Blake Lively goes mano a fin-o with a great white. Just silly enough to be the perfect summer refresher. 1 hr. 27 PG-13 (for bloody images, intense sequences of peril, brief strong language) - W.S.