Another stacked week here in movieland Twin Cities. Cine Latino just started last night at the Main, and TCFF kicks off next Thursday at Marcus West End. And I have three reviews for you, of The Social Reckoning, Digger, and Never After Dark.
Special Screenings
Thursday, October 8
Beetlejuice (1988)
Alamo Drafthouse
In the ’80s, small town America lived in fear of pretentious yuppies fleeing the city. $13.99. 7:15 p.m. More info here.
Spirited Away—Live on Stage
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
The Miyazaki classic, spectacularly adapted for the stage. Prices, showtimes, and more info here.
Rooted: Stories From Minnesota’s Farming Future (2026)
Animales
Dinner plus a film about Minnesota farmers. $25. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Exorcist (1973)
Grandview 1&2
Kids these days! $13.19. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Babylon (2022)
Heights Theater
This movie should be about the Long Island town celebrated by the New York Dolls. $16/$19. 7 p.m. More info here.
Gugu’s World (Feito pipa) (2026)
Main Cinema
A queer teen comes of age in a small Brazilian town. Part of Cine Latino. $18. 5 p.m. More info here.
On Behalf of My Son (Vincentina pede desculpas) (2026)
Main Cinema
The mother of a bus driver involved in a crash that killed multiple passengers and himself sets out to apologize to their families. Part of Cine Latino. $18. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Return of the Jedi (1983)
Orchestra Hall
Never heard of it. $68-$140. Friday-Saturday 7 p.m. Sunday 2 p.m. More info here.
Le chant des oubliés (The Song of the Forgotten) (2022)
Walker Art Center
French workers struggle to keep a factory open. $12/$15. 8 p.m. More info here.
Friday, October 9
Hellraiser (1987)
Alamo Drafthouse
Like Inspektah Deck says, “Raisin’ hell with the flavor.” $13.99. 7 p.m. More info here.
Friday the 13th (1980)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16
Playing on Friday the 8th and Tuesday the 13th. That’s cheating. Also Tuesday. $7. 8 p.m. More info here.
Mysterious Skin (2004)
Heights Theater
RIP Michelle Trachtenberg. $10/$13. 9:15 p.m. Saturday 9:30 p.m. Sunday 6:45 p.m. More info here.
TheyDream (2026)
Main Cinema
A director reimagines his family history using stop motion animation. Presented with the short film Belong. Part of Cine Latino. $18. 5 p.m. More info here.
Cine Latino Shorts
Main Cinema
The festival’s shorts program. Part of Cine Latino. $18. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Ashes (Ceniza en la boca) (2026)
Main Cinema
A woman and her younger brother leave Mexico to reunite with their mother in Madrid. Part of Cine Latino. $18. 9:45 p.m. More info here.
At the Place of Ghosts (2026)
TriLingua Cinema
Two brothers must take a journey together to overcome their past trauma. $5. 5:45 p.m. Saturday 8 p.m. More info here.
Kwaidan (1965)
TriLingua Cinema
Masaki Kobayashi’s gorgeous, epic ghost story. $5. 8 p.m. Saturday 6:20 p.m. More info here.
Horrorthon X
Trylon
Sorry, but it's sold out. 8 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. & 8 p.m. More info here.
De l’autre coté (From the Other Side) (2003)
Walker Art Center
Chantal Akerman's study of the Mexican/U.S. border. $12/$15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, October 10
Repo: The Genetic Opera (2008)
Alamo Drafthouse
Takes place just 30 years from now. $20. 6:45 p.m. More info here.
Trust Me, I’m a Doctor (2026)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16
Kal Penn plays Anna Nicole Smith’s doctor and I’m sure this will all be handled tastefully. An advance screening. $13.49. 4 p.m. More info here.
Queen Budapest (2026)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Marcus West End
Queen’s 1986 Népstadion show. Prices, showtimes, and more info here.
WWE Money in the Bank
AMC Southdale 16
Wrasslin’ at the movies. $15. 5 p.m. More info here.
Medicine Ball (2025)
Battle Creek Park and Recreation Center
Two Native athletes uncover their university’s dark past. Presented by TriLingua Cinema. Free. 6:30 p.m. More info here.
Beetlejuice (1988)
Emagine Willow Creek
In case you'd rather see it in Plymouth. Also Sunday & Wednesday. $11. Noon & 6:45 p.m. More info here.
The Great Beauty (2013)
Howard Conn Theater
Paolo Sorrentino's sumptuous Roman reverie. Presented by Cinema Ecclesia. $12.50. 10:30 a.m. More info here.
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
Heights Theater
It’s important to remember that witches can be cute too. $6-$13. 11 a.m. More info here.
Good Sport (2026)
Heights Theater
The coach of a tween basketball team has a hard day. $10/$13. 4:15 p.m. More info here.
Frankenstein (1931)
Lagoon Cinema
Never heard of it. $13. 12:15 p.m. More info here.
Blood Wedding (Bodas de sangre) (1981)
Main Cinema
An immersive look at a flamenco adaptation of Lorca's tragedy. Part of Cine Latino. $18. 11 a.m. More info here.
The Newcomers (Los nuevos) (2026)
Main Cinema
Three children and their dog bravely flee their polluted homes. Part of Cine Latino. $18. 11:30 a.m. More info here.
Light Memories (2026)
Main Cinema
A filmmaker explores her family history through photos. Presented with the short film Jason (Eco de luz). Part of Cine Latino. $18. 1:30 p.m. More info here.
The Garden We Dreamed (El jardín que soñamos) (2026)
Main Cinema
A Haitian couple and their children migrate north looking for work. Part of Cine Latino. $18. 4:30 p.m. More info here.
The Meltdown (El deshielo) (2026)
Main Cinema
In 1992 Chile, a 9-year-old helps search for a missing German teen. Part of Cine Latino. $18. 7 p.m. More info here.
Campeón Gabacho (2026)
Main Cinema
A young migrant seeks a better life in New York City. Presented with the short film Birds of Paradise. Part of Cine Latino. $18. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Hocus Pocus (1993)
Parkway Theater
Yes, the Parkway is gettin’ spooky for October. $6/$12. 1 p.m. More info here.
2026 Hump! Film Festival
Parkway Theater
Dan Savage’s dirty film festival returns. $20/$25. 6:30 & 9 p.m. More info here.
Demain on déménage (Tomorrow We Move) (2003)
Walker Art Center
The comic side of Chantal Akerman. $12/$15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Sunday, October 11
Sense and Sensibility (2026)
Alamo Drafthouse
Daisy Edgar-Jones was born to star in 19th century novel adaptations. An advance screening. $20. 6 p.m. More info here.
The Lost Boys (1987)
Grandview 1&2
Yep, still makes me think of the Phoebe Bridgers song. Also Thursday. $13.19. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
A Song for My Land (Una canción para mi tierra) (2025)
Main Cinema
A documentary about an inspirational music teacher in Argentina. Presented with the short Nuestro norte. Part of Cine Latino. $18. Noon. More info here.
Daughters of the Forest: Hijas del bosque: Crónicas del micelio (2026)
Main Cinema
A “sci-fi documentary” about two Indigenous mycologists in Mexico. Part of Cine Latino. $18. 2:30 p.m. More info here.
One of Our Own: Joan Roca’s Legacy (Uno de los nuestros: Legado de Joan Roca) (2025)
Main Cinema
A doc about the great Catalan chef. Part of Cine Latino. $18. 5 p.m. More info here.
Old Bandits (Velhos bandidos) (2026)
Main Cinema
Cine Latino wraps up with a comedy about old folks who plan a bank robbery. $30. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Name That Nightmare
Marcus West End
A surprise horror flick. $6. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Kid Flicks: ¡Hola Cine!
Mia
Hola, kids! Part of Cine Latino. Free. 10:30 a.m., Noon, and 1:30 p.m. More info here.
Whitman on Walls
Parkway Theater
Seven short films of actors performing Whitman's "Song of Myself," along with live poetry and music. Free. 6 p.m. More info here.
The Conjuring (2013)
Trylon
James Wan's haunted house story. $8. 12:30, 2:45, 5, & 7:15 p.m. Monday-Tuesday 7 & 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Monday, October 12
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Alamo Drafthouse
Took my baby away from me. $13.99. 7:15 p.m. More info here.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Edina Mann
Would you people keep it down? I’m trying to watch the movie. Also Wednesday. $10.90. 7 p.m. More info here.
Fresh Meat (2026)
Emagine Willow Creek/Main Cinema/Marcus West End
A new horror anthology. Emagine: $13. 7:30 p.m. More info here. Main: $13. 7:15 p.m. Marcus: $10.50. 8 p.m. More info here.
Hell Night (1981)
Emagine Willow Creek
An ’80s slasher. $9. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
The Last Picture Shows (2026)
Heights Theater
A look at the dead, dying, and struggling movie theaters of the American West. $10/$13. 7 p.m. More info here.
Marcus Mystery Movie (2026)
Marcus West End
This time it’s a horror movie. $6. 9 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, October 13
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Alamo Drafthouse
A girl turns into a Wer Wulf! $10.99. 8 p.m. More info here.
Blade (1998)
Lagoon Cinema
Wesley Snipes had a pretty great ’90s. $13. 7:15 p.m. More info here.
Wednesday, October 14
Secret Movie Night
Emagine Willow Creek
A surprise movie chosen by a local notable. $12. 7 p.m. More info here.
Sense and Sensibility (2026)
AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek
Additional advance screenings, if you’d rather see it in Edina or Plymouth. AMC: $13.49. 7 p.m. More info here. Emagine: $13. 7 p.m. More info here.
Village of the Damned (1995)
Lagoon Cinema
*Jim Morrison voice* $13. 7:15 p.m. More info here.
Rear Window (1954)
Main Cinema
Men would rather watch Raymond Burr through a telescope than have sex with Grace Kelly. $18. 7 p.m. More info here.
Name That Nightmare
Marcus West End
Another secret horror movie. $6. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
Trylon
Sorry, the Macklemore dis is still funny. Presented by Sound Unseen. $13. 7 & 9 p.m. More info here.
Thursday, October 15
Training Day (2001)
AMC Southdale 16
A 25th anniversary screening. $19.99. 7 p.m. More info here.
You Belong Here (2026)
Marcus West End
A documentary about Chef Ouita Michel. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $15. 5 p.m. More info here.
Wild Horse Nine (2026)
Marcus West End
Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich are CIA agents in the latest from Martin McDonough. Part of the Twin Cities Film Fest. $30. 7:15 & 7:45 p.m. More info here.
Get Out! (2017)
Parkway Theater
What a game changer this was. $10/$15. Trivia at 7:30 p.m. Movie at 8 p.m. More info here.
Minnesota Neighbors (2026)
Riverview Theater
A documentary about neighborhood activism during the ICE occupation. $10 suggested donation. 7 p.m. More info here.
Opening
Follow the links for showtimes.
Angel and the Badman
A remake of the John Wayne oldie.
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Not just for racist Lost Cause apologists! But mostly for them.
Hanuman Ansh
A biopic of an Indian spiritual master.
Instructions Not Included
A Mexican playboy learns he has a daughter—and he has to raise her.
Naza
The documentary investigation into the IDF targeting of civilians in Gaza that has Netanyahu fuming.
Never After Dark
Shogun’s Moeka Hoshi has gone from diplomatically translating the anjin to straightforwardly communicating with spirits. In this atmospherically creepy ghost story, Hoshi plays Airi, a medium who, traveling with the shade of her dead sister (Kurumi Inagaki), specializes in ridding homes of pesky unalive malingerers. Her MO: She ritually allows her own out-of-body spirit to travel beyond the veil of the living, assists the dead with whatever unfinished business has delayed their departure, and collects her fee. But when what seems to be a routine ghostbust goes sideways when Airi, whose one-time failure of nerve haunts her, commits to exorcising a ghost (Mutsui Yoshioka) unlike any she’s encountered before. Writer/director Dave Boyle works within the genre without simply ticking off boxes, and without getting too gory—though if you have any sort of dental anxieties, a scene or two might grab ya by the roots. B
9 to 5 (1980)
Oooh, that villainous Dabney Coleman.
Other Mommy
Jessica Chastain does Blumhouse.
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
Guillermo del Toro’s dark fairytale about the Spanish Civil War.
Portrait of an Artist: Stephen Curry
But I was told he wasn’t a good shooter.
The Social Reckoning
As both fans and foes are aware, Aaron Sorkin has two modes of dialogue, and The Social Reckoning overindulges in each. In 2019-20, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) and WSJ muckraker Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), while building a case against the social media company’s corrosive effects, banter in rat-a-tat faux screwballisms that confuse velocity and wit. (I'm guessing Horwitz's supposedly amusing/charming inability to use basic tech will just remind anyone under 50 of their boss who doesn't know how to open a PDF.) A year later, Jeremy Strong’s stiff-necked Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Burr’s “Charlie,” a mythical colleague turned gadfly, hurl tiresome paragraphs of pontification at one another about whether Facebook should better moderate its content until—spoiler for anyone who’s slept through the past decade—Janu-anu-anuary 6, 2021. Because The Social Network was too “your weird Boomer uncles explain the internet” for me, I don’t consider this flat-footed sorta-sequel a desecration, though David Fincher’s sense of style is missed. If Jesse Eisenberg played Zuckerberg like Jesse Eisenberg, Strong plays him like Strong, and while the former was more entertaining, at least the latter doesn’t ask for our sympathy. In fact, mediocre as it is, The Social Reckoning might have a positive effect. I’m assuming plenty of Aaron Sorkin fans also spend an inordinate percentage of their golden years sharing angry liberal memes on Facebook, and if nothing else, this film makes you hate Facebook passionately. So maybe some of them will quit in disgust? A boy can dream. C+
Ueck
A doc about the beloved Miller Lite pitchman/Mr. Belvedere TV dad.
Ongoing in Local Theaters
Follow the links for showtimes.
Adore Him: He Is Here—ends October 8
Bad Apples—ends October 8
Coyote vs. Acme
When a fed-up Wile E. Coyote belatedly recognizes that defective Acme products are the source of all his woes, he seeks out Kevin Avery (Will Forte), a lawyer who specializes in settling animated clients’ product-liability cases fast and cheap. But the fired-up Coyote, along with Avery’s idealistic niece (Lana Condor), decide to stick it to The Man. Or rather, The Rooster—as Acme’s CEO, Foghorn Leghorn reveals himself as the evil bully we always knew he was, and it’s a hoot to watch him intimidate his lawyer, an obligingly game John Cena. If much of the comedy here leans on nostalgia, the old bits remain good ones. And while there’s a reason classic Looney Tunes didn’t exceed 10 minutes, Bugs and Daffy and Porky and Tweety all turn up at opportune moments. The human/toon interaction is as seamless as it should be, with Forte a serviceable enough straight man that I won’t compare him to Bob Hoskins. Though having avoided mentioning Who Framed Roger Rabbit? as long as I could, I couldn't help but notice that this film flirts with the other’s idea of cartoons as manic chaos agents but never quite plunges in. As for the anti-corporate storyline, it could be a critique of animal testing if it wanted to. (It’s a stretch, I say, I say, a stretch to claim it’s metaphorically calling out Big Tech’s beta-testing.) What stage of capitalism have we reached when a solid piece of entertainment like this becomes a cause célèbre simply because biz pinheads nearly binned it as a tax write off? I’m just glad it gives today’s kids the opportunity to learn who Peter Lorre was the same way that I did. B+
Digger
Spoilers ahoy, because this frustrating puzzle-box of a film is unintelligible without them. The gaudy, artificial production design has you asking within minutes if Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s latest is some kind of elaborate put-on. And of course, it is: It’s soon revealed that we’re watching a stage production about a catastrophic climate crisis. But that’s not all! It’s revealed much later (in a gush of exposition that Jesse Plemons is almost good enough to pull off) that this all really happened several decades earlier, and the broad cartoonishness of the staged farce (or is it a satire?) will be cathartic for the traumatized survivors in the audience. Digger is the sort of film that anticipates your every objection—there was a reason for all that loud overacting, and how dare you deny imaginary future generations the balm of watching the men who destroyed the Earth suffer. But back here in 2026, there are still two hours of loud overacting to sit through: As the president, John Goodman’s ferocity level basically starts at the climax of Barton Fink and ratchets up from there, while Sandra Hüller is wasted as a shrill half-sister. As for Tom Cruise’s performance as oil tycoon Digger Rockwell, that’s a meta text in itself: Here’s the dumpy, balding, little old man he might well have become had he not gone to such neurotically/professionally motivated extremes to preserve himself. And the film’s ultimate message is that no matter how dystopian the future may get, audiences will still crave spectacle—and Tom Cruise. B-
The History of Concrete
A partial list of topics un- or just semi-related to concrete that are covered over the course of John Wilson’s first feature film: the structure of Hallmark movies, preserving corpses’ tattoos, DMX’s criminal record, the difficulty of financing your passion project, the debate over affordable housing, and a monthlong 3,100-mile foot race around a Queens high school. This is very much not where to start with Wilson for newbs: You may well find his affected speech patterns, his reliance on punny street signs or emotionally expressive dogs as punchlines, and his willfully tangential storytelling to be flat-out maddening. But if you already appreciate how Wilson chronicles the absurdity of our jobs and lives and preoccupations with a comedy that rarely stoops to condescension (in part because he’s well aware of the absurdity of his own job and life and preoccupations), then you won’t pass up what’s essentially but not exactly a solid but not transcendent extended episode of How to With John Wilson. And you’ll even learn a little something about concrete, if that’s really what you’re here for. B+
The Odyssey—read full review here
What we tend to forget about The Odyssey is that it’s maybe 10% cool mythological shit like one-eyed giant cannibals and sinister witches and gods punishing impudent mortals and like 90% about exchanging gifts with your hosts and telling very long stories to impress them. What’s remarkable about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is that it honors this aspect of the epic while delivering the supernatural adventure film moviegoers want. Yet as always, Nolan is so transparent in his ideology you can almost believe he’s making an argument, when like any storyteller he’s just using fiction to justify his beliefs. Which, as always, is that we are always one well-told tale away from chaos. Whether the gods are real or not, warns the David Brooks of the cineplex, if we don’t honor them we will undermine the customs that hold our society together. Hey man, I just came here for the Cyclops. B+
Primetime
If you were born too late to experience the ass-end of the Bush era, Lance Oppenheimer presents the grubby sanctimony of 2006 in all its garish, digitally green-tinted horror for you. In this maybe too engaging dark comedy about one of that moment’s most telling cultural artifacts, NBC’s Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson, rehearsing for Batman or maybe auditioning for Ahab) creates a national phenomenon by luring online creeps in front of the TV camera with the promise of hooking up with minors. Yet this is not really a story best told from within—Hansen’s troubled marriage and professional ambitions are of limited interest, and David Osit’s smart 2025 doc Predator is much better at tracing the legacy of To Catch a Predator. Not only does god write lousy theater, but he inspires screenwriter Ajon Singh to overcompensate for his divine sloppiness with too-tautly structured character arcs, so Merritt Wever’s Nicorette-chomping producer Andie Bender ponders whether she should jump ship to NBC and Skyler Gisondo’s twinky decoy Dan Plum strives to balance his thespian ideals against his tawdry job. And while I appreciate that Primetime assumes we all retrospectively view this once-celebrated bottom-feeder phenomenon as a grotesque relic, its strengths (especially Pattison’s magnetic performance) are more parodic than insightful. Is it really that much less scummy to snicker at these crass vigilantes than it was for TV viewers to cheer for the downfall of the creeps Hansen and his crew entrapped? B
Resident Evil
If video game movies we must have (not like we get to decide) better this gory schlock slapstick than the klutz existentialism of the tedious Exit 8. (Both share a plot point—pregnant girlfriend—if that means anything.) Zach Cregger keeps it simpler here than in Barbarian or Weapons, which means Resident Evil is a little dumber than those (derogatory) but also means Resident Evil is a little dumber than those (complimentary). Austin Abrams (the addict from Weapons) is our dumbass hero, a driver dispatched with a high-priority delivery to the hospital in snowy Raccoon City. His cargo, I sincerely hope you won’t be astounded to learn, is the crucial ingredient needed to synthesize an antidote to a man-made contagion sweeping the land. Symptoms typically include zombie catatonia, grasping tentacles, and blob-like absorption of other humans, but there are also acid-puking ghoulies and one tubby fella with an exploding, critter-infested gut. The script could occasionally try a tiny bit harder (how much Abrams muttering “fuck” do we need?) but in a world of forced MCU quippery that’s a venial sin. And in keeping with the source material, the stakes are both enormous (the end of the world!) and virtually negligible (game over). B
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Look, we all know what’s wrong with the MCU. Too long, too constructed to promote future installments, just plain too familiar. But I’m not here to relitigate all that. I’m here to tell people who might be in the mood for a Spider-Man movie whether they should see this Spider-Man movie, and my answer is a resounding “Uh, sure.” It is the one currently in theaters, after all, and it’s downright sleek compared to the Spider-Man: No Way Home, which was overstuffed with Spiders-Men, supervillains, and multiverse nonsense. Peter Parker’s existence (Tom Holland) has been magicked away from everyone’s memory, and as he watches his once-gf MJ (Zendaya) and once-bff Ned (Jacob Batalon) live blissful Peter-free lives at MIT, he throws himself into his work. He debates attempting to reintroduce himself while tracking a mysterious entity that leaps from body to body in search of some government secret and dealing with some freakily increasing spidery tendencies. Along the way, he encounters Florence Pugh’s Black Widow (says “potatoes” amusingly), Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk (bigger than ever), (a little too much of) Jon Berenthal’s Punisher, and, of course, Sadie Sink, who plays Jean Grey with an intense school-shooter vibe. Because this is Spider-Man, the fights are less monotonous than the MCU norm, though I was a bit fatigued by the time we got to the climatic battle with the evil ninjas. And as for future installments, I’m sure the device Peter invents that inhibits superpowers won’t be used against the good guys in future films. B
Stand and Deliver (1988)—ends October 8
Verity
“I can’t tell if you’re just very calm or you’re in shock,” Josh Hartnett’s Jeremy Crawford says to Dakota Johnson’s Lowen Ashleigh as she mops blood off her face following a grisly traffic accident, and who among us hasn’t wondered the same about a Dakota Johnson character before? (Lowen later admits, “I have resting bored face.” We get it, girl. You can’t act.) In this eye-roll of a Colleen Hoover adaptation, Lowen, a struggling novelist, has been recruited to finish the work of best-selling author Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway), who has been rendered mute and immobile by an accident (OR HAS SHE?) Lowen stays with the Crawfords in their fancy Vermont home while working on the book. Lowen discovers a SECRET JOURNAL wherein Verity confesses to CRIMES! (OR DOES SHE?) Lowen masturbates in a tub. Lowen repeatedly says “wow” in that dopey, unphased way we’ve come to expect/dread from Johnson. While I’d blame Hoover for the plot, which would have gotten her laughed out of the 19th century by bona fide Gothic credibility-stretchers, Michael Showalter’s diffident direction, which aspires to no stylistic flair at all, is the real culprit—it’s like he’s trying to keep this dumb thing on the rails, which takes misunderstanding the assignment to all new levels of incomprehension. And now, if you’ll promise to believe me when I say there’s little or nothing more where this comes from, I’ll leave you with the only good line in the movie: “You deserve to rock in your sad little robot bed, you selfish Machiavellian cunt.” C-
