Among this week's new releases, I'm curious about Dreams and Nightmares and the documentary American Doctor. As for rep screenings, the Trylon's got a pair from the great Italian director Francesco Rosi, the Heights's Billy Wilder series is well underway, and the Main begins its monthly "Night School" series.
Special Screenings
Thursday, September 3
The Uprising (2026)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16
Advance screening of the new Paul Greengrass medieval rebellion flick. $13.99. 8 p.m. More info here.
The Hunger Games (2012)
AMC Rosedale 14/B&B Bloomington 13/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
Well, I guess they've run out of Harry Potter movies. Prices, times, and more info here.
The Goonies (1985)
Boom Island Park
Look at that horrifying start time. Free. 7:50 p.m. More info here.
Lisztomania (1975)
Emagine Willow Creek
Roger Daltrey is Franz Liszt. Ringo is the Pope. Rick Wakeman is Thor. $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Aladdin (1992)
Granada
Waiter, this genie is overcooked. A Taste the Movies event. $169. 6 p.m. More info here.
Easy Rider (1969)
Grandview 1&2
Sometimes I feel like the ’60s would have really annoyed me. $14.14. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
The Land Before Time (1988)
Riverview Theater
We only had Newsweek back then. $2. 10:45 a.m. More info here.
Psycho III (1986)
Trylon
Anthony Perkins gets to direct himself as Norman Bates in this installment. $8. 7 p.m. More info here.
Mysterious Skin (2004)
Walker Art Center
RIP Michelle Trachtenberg. $6/$8. 7 p.m. More info here.
Friday, September 4
The Fog (1980)
Alamo Drafthouse
Spooky stuff! $13.99. 9:45 p.m. More info here.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Alamo Drafthouse/AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Marcus West End
The director’s cut, paired with the 1967 episode “The Changeling.” Alamo: $10.99. 2:30 p.m. More info here. AMC: $13.99. 4 p.m. More info here. Marcus: $8. 6 p.m. More info here.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
AMC Rosedale 14/B&B Bloomington 13/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
More hunger, more games. Prices, times, and more info here.
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Granada Theater
I’m amazed that these pricey Taste the Movies events sell out so consistently. Sold out. 6:30 p.m. More info here.
Death Becomes Her (1992)
Heights Theater
"A highly treasured film within the gay community," says Wikipedia. $16. 9:45 p.m. More info here.
P.C.U. (1994)
Loring Park
Before “woke,” there was “political correctness.” A bike-in movie. Free. 8 p.m. More info here.
Coco (2017)
Midway Peace Park
Still makes me cry. Free. Dusk. More info here.
Scream It Off Screen
Parkway Theater
Yell at some movies! $18/$25. 8 p.m. More info here.
Illustrious Corpses (1976)
Trylon
An Italian police investigator struggles to prevent a rash of judicial assassinations. $8. 7 p.m. Saturday 5 & 9:30 p.m. Sunday 1 p.m. More info here.
The Mattei Affair (1972)
Trylon
A controversial state petroleum company leader dies in a suspicious plane crash. $8. 9:15 p.m. Saturday 7:15 p.m. Sunday 3:15 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, September 5
Boorman and the Devil (2025)
Alamo Drafthouse
Wow, an entire documentary about The Exorcist II: The Heretic. $10.99. Noon. Tuesday 7:15 p.m. More info here.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Alamo Drafthouse/AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Marcus West End
The director’s cut, along with the 1967 episode that inspired it, “Space Seed.” Alamo: $10.99. 3:30 p.m. More info here. AMC: Also Tuesday. $13.99. 4 p.m. More info here. Marcus: $8. 6 p.m. More info here.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 (2014)
AMC Rosedale 14/B&B Bloomington 13/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
The end of the Hunger Games begins. Prices, times, and more info here.
Rocky (1976)
Bryant Square Park
Can a nobody beat the world champ? (Spoiler: Not till the sequel.) Free. 7:45 p.m. More info here.
Metropolis (1927)
Conn Theater
When I was a teen, the only VHS of this available had a Giorgio Moroder score featuring Loverboy. Presented by the Picturegoer Film Club. $10. 6 p.m. More info here.
Pacific Rim (2013)
Emagine Willow Creek
Guillermo del Toro does monsters vs. robots. Also Monday. $11. 3 & 6:15 p.m. More info here.
The School of Rock (2003)
Heights Theater
I will say this: Miranda Cosgrove is very good here. $10-$13. Noon. More info here.
The Room (2003)
Heights Theater
Never heard of it. $16. 9:45 p.m. More info here.
From Beyond (1986)
Main Cinema
From the folks who brought you Re-Animator. Part of Midnight Mayhem. $13. 10 p.m. More info here.
CatVideoFest 2026
Riverview Theater
Riverview’s still got the cats. Also Sunday. $5. 11 a.m. More info here.
Sunday, September 6
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
Alamo Drafthouse/AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Marcus West End
“The best of the odd-numbered Treks,” Alamo quips. Paired with the 1967 episode “Amok Time.” Alamo: $10.99. 3 p.m. More info here. AMC: $13.99. 4 p.m. More info here. Marcus: $8. 6:30 p.m. More info here.
The Nutty Professor (1996)
Alamo Drafthouse/AMC Southdale
I’d rather watch Jerry Lewis—and that’s saying something. Alamo: $10.99. Noon. Wednesday 4 p.m. More info here. AMC: $7. 2 p.m. Wednesday 6:30 p.m. More info here.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2 (2015)
AMC Rosedale 14/B&B Bloomington 13/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
The end of the end of the Hunger Games. Prices, times, and more info here.
F1 on Apple TV Live in IMAX: Italy Race
AMC Southdale 16
Vroom. $30. 7:30 a.m. More info here.
Titane (2021)
Grandview 1&2
The very first movie I reviewed for Racket. Also Thursday. $14.14. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Double Indemnity (1944)
Heights Theater
Oh, like you wouldn’t kill who Barbara Stanwyck told you to. $10-$13. 7 p.m. More info here.
Wild Inside (2026)
Main Cinema
An eagle-owl escapes from the Central Park Zoo and has an adventure. $13. 4 p.m. More info here.
Superstar (1999)
Roxy’s Cabaret
Remember when basically any SNL character got a movie? Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Trylon
Warren Oates, man. $8. 5:20 & 7:15 p.m. Monday-Tuesday 7 & 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Monday, September 7
Boyhood (2014)
Alamo Drafthouse
When do we get the sequel, Manhood? $13.99. 7:15 p.m. More info here.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Alamo Drafthouse/AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Marcus West End
The one with the whales, paired with the 1967 episode “The City on the Edge of Forever.” Alamo: $10.99. 3 p.m. More info here. AMC: $13.99. 7 p.m. Tuesday 6:30 p.m. More info here. Marcus: $8. 6:45 p.m. More info here.
The Hunger Games: The Balled of Songbirds and Snakes (2023)
AMC Rosedale 14/B&B Bloomington 13/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
Hey, wait a minute, Jennifer Lawrence isn’t in this. Prices, times, and more info here.
AMC Screen Unseen
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16
What could it be? $7. 7 p.m. More info here.
Hope (2026)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16
An advance screening of the new Korean monster movie. $19.99. 6:30 p.m. More info here.
Uncut Gems (2019)
Edina Mann
I had to walk around the block to decompress after I saw this one. Also Wednesday. $12.12. 7 p.m. More info here.
Error_MovieTitle_Unknown (2026)
Emagine Willow Creek
This secret movie is a long one—2:20 runtime. $7. 7 p.m. More info here.
Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000)
Emagine Willow Creek
Friends, it was not the final cut. $9. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Marcus Mystery Movie (2026)
Marcus West End
It's a Labor Day full of secret movies. $7. 7 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, September 8
Star Trek: The Genesis Trilogy (1986)
Alamo Drafthouse
Treks II-IV, in one sitting. $20. Noon. More info here.
The Dead Next Door (1989)
Alamo Drafthouse
Sam Raimi secretly funded this low-budget zombie romp. $10.99. 8 p.m. More info here.
Wednesday, September 9
MST3K: The RiffTrax Experiment—Sting of Death
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Marcus West End
Mike and the bots are back to roast another cheesy movie. Showtimes, prices, and more info here.
To Die For (1995)
Lagoon Cinema
Yes, TV news actually is a realm of sociopathy. $11. 4:15 & 7 p.m. More info here.
The Great Dictator (1940)
Main Cinema
The Main begins its new monthly series, "Night School," “exploring film history and form.” $18. 7 p.m. More info here.
Thursday, September 10
Earth, Wind & Fire: To Be Celestial vs. That’s the Weight of the World (2026)
Capri Theater
Questlove’s latest music doc. Free-$20. 7 p.m. More info here.
Altered States (1980)
Emagine Willow Creek
As commercial as Ken Russell gets. $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Ace in the Hole (1951)
Heights Theater
Billy Wilder at his most brilliantly cynical. $10-$13. 7 p.m. More info here.
In the Heights (2021)
Mia
But not at the Heights. Free. 8 p.m. More info here.
Gush (2023)
Walker Art Center
A montage of home movies, personal videos, animation, and TV clips from director Fox Maxy. $10/$12. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Parkway Theater
These kids have nothing in common! $10/$15. DJ Chrissie Kawasaki at 7 p.m. Movie at 8 p.m. More info here.
Vive Le Punk (2026)
Trylon
A doc that speaks with the original British punk bands still going today. Presented by Sound Unseen. $13. 7 p.m. More info here.
Opening
Follow the links for showtimes.
Akira (1988)
This movie took place seven years ago.
American Doctor
*Burton Cummings voice* Stay away from me-ee.
By Any Means
An FBI agent and a hitman (guess which is Mark Wahlberg) investigate the murder of civil rights leaders in the '60s.
Cars (2006)
You can lock all your doors. It's the only way to live.
Dear You
A Chinese man learns his family history during a trip to Thailand.
Dreams in Nightmares
Three queer Black women take a road trip to track down a friend who's fallen out of touch.
Fall 2: Deadpoint
The sister of a character in the first Fall movie also gets trapped at a great height. You'd think this family would have learned to stay on the ground!
Onslaught
Adria Arjona defends her daughter from genetically modified super soldiers.
The Sun Never Sets
Dakota Fanning in a Joe Swanberg movie.
Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass
Time travel? I'm sorry, but anything beyond "the cat chases the mouse" is too much plot for Tom and Jerry.
Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day
Well, I'm curious.
Ongoing in Local Theaters
Follow the links for showtimes.
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 could 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+
Echoes in the Night: The Search for Jacob Wetterling—ends September 3
The End of Oak Street
Blame Spielberg, I guess. The ’80s were obsessed with the ’50s as a prelapsarian past to celebrate and/or deconstruct, so why shouldn’t the ’80s become the equivalent of the ’50s for blockbuster-minded cinephiles? Writer/director David Robert Mitchell (It Follows) gives us a seemingly happy nuclear family where All Is Not As It Seems: Mom (Anne Hathaway) is secretly writing a novel about a woman desperate to ditch her family, and Dad (Ewan McGregor, looking oddly like Jim Walsh at times and still questing for that elusive American accent) is the too-cheery husband hiding that he’s been laid-off. When a chunk of their idyllic neighborhood is wormholed into prehistory, they must overcome their differences to etc. etc. etc. The genuinely scary dinosaurs do get to do some chomping, making meals of an unexpected character or two, and I’m especially fond of the raptors that are more Harryhausen harpies than Jurassic Park escapees. If elevated horror is a thing (bracket your objections for the moment), Mitchell seems to be going for elevated popcorn movie here, but he repeatedly edges toward uncontained violence and then backs away—the all-too-adequate fingerprints of producer J.J. Abrams (the Stray Cats to Spielberg’s Elvis) are all over this product. I’m just glad the wonderful Maisy Stella, as the teen daughter, is getting work, even if she’s not given much to do besides cry, run, and flirt sapphically with the girl next door. B-
Hadestown: The Musical
This is an impressive work. Taking a little narrative license (nobody tell Emily Wilson), Anaïs Mitchell’s Tony-gobbling musical weaves (as though Fates-like) the myths of Hades/Persephone and Orpheus/Eurydice together with a little au courant class politics, and its five leads embody striking characters. Our guide in silver, André De Shields is a dapper, precise Hermes. Amber Gray is a flask-tippling, fed-up Persephone, while wide-eyed Eva Noblezada is a delightful Eurydice. And Patrick Page plays Hades as a baritone silver fox, a mix of Leonard Cohen and Logan Roy. Only Reeve Carney as Orpheus is a bit of a chore —if I ruled Hell, I’d be like, “Take the girl and GTFOH with that corny Jeff Buckley falsetto.” And as a film, this impressively guides us around the stage and, like the production itself, acknowledges the rowdy audience. I’ll even allow the conclusion’s chin-up crimes against Aristotle (we’re not drawn to tragedy because we hope it’ll turn out differently, but because we know it won’t). But my problem is the same that I have with most contemporary stage musicals: Where da hooks at? Maybe after a few spins through the soundtrack I could hum a bar or two, but that’s not how musicals work. At least it’s not how they’re supposed to. B
Idiots—ends September 3
The Invite—ends September 3
We all know couples like Angela and Joe. As played by Olivia Wilde and Seth Rogan, they’re perpetually bickering over things you can’t believe either cares all that much about, as though following a preordained script. We’re less likely to know a couple like Hawk and Pina, embodied by two of our most ageless actors, Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz. The older couple has frequent, explosive sex upstairs, which irritates Joe, intrigues Angela, and becomes a topic of intense discussion when Hawk and Pina come downstairs one night for dinner. Over the course of one exhausting, hilarious, and loquacious evening, Joe and Angela are forced to confront some truths about their relationship. Joe falls back on wisecracks, Angela turns positively giddy at the thought of experiencing orgasms like Pina’s, and composer Devonte Hynes’s strings ratchet up the tension throughout. I can’t say I wholly agree with the film’s final assessment of their relationship—for all its pyrotechnics, the Will McCormack/Rashida Jones script doesn’t give us much beyond the surface, even when it purports to peek underneath. But what a surface it is. Norton is on a nice later career run and Cruz is just a fuckin’ movie star whatever she does. And as for Wilde the director, she makes a few awkward shot choices but the screwball-paced dialogue guides us through a (mostly) single-set film that’s rarely stagey and only as claustrophobic as it’s meant to be. I’m ready to pretend Don’t Worry Darling never happened if she is. A-
It Ends—ends September 3
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+
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
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
Jane Schoenbrun’s latest had me hooked before the end of the opening credits sequence, which guides us through the cultural impact of an imaginary slasher series, right down to a fake New Yorker cartoon. Trash connoisseurs tend to be polemicists for their own niche fetishes—boys with toys and a rulebook for playing with them—but Schoenbrun is more intrigued with how pop culture psychologically embeds itself within our identities. They’re also, refreshingly, less respectful of their source material, and happy to indulge in fountains of blood, incongruous needle drops, and a willingness to cringe at the film’s tendency to wink at us. Here Hannah Einbinder is Kris, an indie director fluent in gender-ese and the theoretics of desire who has a shot to resurrect the played-out Camp Miasma series, centered on the unkillable, lake-dwelling trans serial murderer Little Death (Jack Haven). During a trip to recruit the reclusive star of the original installment, Billy Pressley (Gillian Anderson), for the new film, Kris must confront her own trashy sexual fantasies, and I gotta say, it gets pretty hot. Where Shoenburn’s moody, neon-saturated I Saw the TV Glow floated the idea of pop obsession as a fraught portal to self-awareness, this gloriously garish meta-slasher more simply encourages us to learn to revel in the tawdriness of our own unchosen, mass culturally imprinted desires. The leads are perfectly chosen, with a resonance for certain audiences beyond these roles, and the supporting cast balances avatars of contemporary cool like Eva Victor and Sarah Sherman with recognizable character actors like Dylan Baker and the unmistakably Lynchian Patrick Fischler. We’re offered plenty to ponder about the gaze (and, I suppose, the gays), and Teenage Sex may wax a little too therapeutic and, well, polemical in the homestretch. But it’ll take a second viewing for me to care about all that, ‘cause I was preoccupied laughing as hard as the theater of delighted 20-somethings around me. That’s the thing: This works first as entertainment, and also as a tale of sexual bonding that doesn't quite reduce to a love story. Lowering its stakes even as it ratchets up the tension, Teenage Sex is surprisingly tender for a movie that ends with its stars bloodier than Sissy Spacek at the prom. A-
Tony
A portrait of the artist as a young fraud. Looking like all of the Strokes rolled into one, Dominic Sessa plays Anthony “Call Me Tony” Bourdain as an intense, pretentious kid who confidentially mispronounces “bildungsroman,” slouches as though he’s perpetually passing through a low door frame only he can see, and lies as reflexively as only someone who hasn’t yet figured out who he is can. When his crush (Emilia Jones) heads to Cape Cod for the summer, the tousled lad stalks after her, pretending he won a writing fellowship while washing dishes at a touristy seafood joint. Tony succeeds because it’s less a biopic than a coming-of-age story, with the young Bourdain forced to choose between the devil on one shoulder (Leo Woodall’s hard-drinkin’, tail-chasin’, smack-shootin’, bar-fightin’ Sal) and the angel on the other (the restaurant’s somber, devout, and meticulous chef, played by Antonio Banderas). It falters because the choice that kept him alive and set him on his path is, well, just less fun to watch. Sessa has the charisma to play the young Bourdain (even if he’s just a few clicks away from his turn in The Holdovers—what happens when he has to play a 21st century adult?) and I’ve come to savor Banderas’s late career, in which he underplays as dramatically as he once overheated during the peak of his Hollywood stardom. B+
