Blue Heron has received such universal acclaim I worry that I'm adding fuel to the inevitable backlash by saying this, but it is the best new movie I've seen in 2026. Also, whether or not you make it to the Walker's screenings of Cecelia Condit's videos, please read Natalie Marlin's in-depth feature on her. That's all for now!
Special Screenings
Thursday, May 7
Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition (2026)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
Would you believe me if I told you this isn't the only Iron Maiden doc screening this week? Showtimes, prices and more info here.
Highest 2 Lowest (2025)
Capri Theater
Spike Lee’s uneven riff off Kurosawa’s great High and Low. Full review here. $5. 7 p.m. More info here.
After Hours (1985)
Emagine Willow Creek
Emagine begins a monthlong tribute to Catherine O’Hara (RIP). $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
North by Northwest (1959)
Grandview 1&2
The funnest Hitchcock? I think so. $14.14. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Charade (1963)
Heights Theater
As good as fake Hitchcock gets. Also Sunday. $13. 7 p.m. More info here.
Monster in Me: The Video Work of Cecelia Condit
Walker Art Center
Includes a conversation with the artist and the premiere of two new works. $15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Friday, May 8
Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
AMC Southdale16
This movie feels like it was made a thousand years ago. $7. 4 p.m. More info here.
The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
AMC Southdale 16
Put all your money on the merman. $7. 8 p.m. More info here.
Scooby Doo (2002)
Heights Theater
This song holds up. $16. 9:45 p.m. More info here.
Dragnet Girl (1933)
Trylon
A silent gangster film—from Ozu? With live accompaniment by Katie Condon. $12. Friday-Saturday 7 p.m. Sunday 3 p.m. More info here.
A Hen in the Wind (1948)
Trylon
A returning Japanese soldier is enraged that his wife has become a sex worker. $8. Friday-Saturday 9 p.m. Sunday 5:15 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, May 9
Serial Mom (1994)
Alamo Drafthouse
Here’s a great Q&A with Kathleen Turner about this movie. $10.99. Noon. More info here.
Holy Motors (2012)
Alamo Drafthouse
Oh Leos Carax, you glorious French weirdo. $10.99. 4 p.m. More info here.
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
Capri Theater
Yep, the one where the rocket hits the moon in the face. With live accompaniment. $5.72–$22.05. More info here.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Emagine Willow Creek
Never heard of it. Also Sunday & Wednesday. $11. 3:45 & 6:30 p.m. More info here.
UFC 328: Chimaev vs. Strickland
AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek
Fite! AMC: $25. 8 p.m. More info here. Emagine: $27. 8 p.m. More info here.
A Gathering: An East African Shorts Showcase
The Heights
Seven short films, two hours of East African cinema. $15. 6:30 p.m. More info here.
Sunday, May 10
Mamma Mia! (2008)
Alamo Drafthouse
For Mamma’s Day. $17. Noon. More info here.
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/B&B Bloomington/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
No, you’re thinking of Steel Magnolias. Also Wednesday. Showtimes, prices, and more info here.
Labyrinth (2026)
AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
No, not that one. AMC: $15. 1 & 4 p.m. Monday 7 p.m. More info here. Emagine: $13. 1 & 4 p.m. Monday 7 p.m. More info here. Marcus: $13. 1 p.m. Monday 7 p.m. More info here.
Vertigo (1958)
Grandview 1&2
Well, somebody is really into blondes. Also Thursday. $14.14. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Lagoon Cinema
Greed! It corrupts men’s souls! $11. 2 p.m. Wednesday 4:35 & 7:15 p.m. More info here.
Clueless (1995)
Roxy’s Cabaret
In case you need a reminder that it does not say “RSVP” on the Statue of Liberty! Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
Black Gravel (1961)
Trylon
A gritty story of life in postwar Germany. $8. 7 p.m. Monday-Tuesday 7 & 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Monday, May 11
AMC Screen Unseen
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16
A brand new (secret) movie. $7. 7 p.m. More info here.
Vertigo (1958)
Edina Mann
In case you’d rather see it in Edina. Also Wednesday. $12.12. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Children (1980)
Emagine Willow Creek
Nuclear waste turns a busload of kids into monsters. $9. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Secret Movie
Lagoon Cinema
A new movie. What can it be? $5. 7 p.m. More info here.
Marcus Mystery Movie
Marcus West End
Monday is secret movie night. $6. 7 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, May 12
Hello Mary Lou: Prom Date II (1987)
Alamo Drafthouse
An incinerated prom date returns from the dead to possess bodies and kill. Not again! $10.99. 8 p.m. More info here.
Promotional still
Wednesday, May 13
Secret Movie Night
Emagine Willow Creek
An undisclosed film chosen by a local notable. $12. 7 p.m. More info here.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Orchestra Hall
I think this is the one with the Chamber of Secrets. Also Thursday. $50-$130. 7 p.m. More info here.
Pieowa: A Piece of America (2026)
Riverview Theater
Every wonder why pie is so popular in Iowa? Me either, but there’s a movie about it. $10. 7:15 p.m. More info here.
Di’Anno: Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer (2026)
Trylon
Told ya there were two Iron Maiden docs this week. Presented by Sound Unseen. $13. 7 p.m. More info here.
Thursday, May 14
Waiting for Guffman (1996)
Emagine Willow Creek
The first (and best?) of Christopher Guest's string of great improvved ensemble mockumentaries. $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Heights Theater
Get this? "Baby" is a leopard! $16. 7 p.m. More info here.
Opening
Follow the links for showtimes.
Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard And Soft: The Tour 3D
A concert movie? Who does she think she is, a K-Pop star?
Blue Heron
Best movie I've seen all year.
Cold War 1994
A prequel to the Hong Kong crime-thriller series.
Godari Gattupaina
A cross-class Indian love story.
Meet Me at the Eclipse
A new Vietnamese romantic film.
Mortal Kombat II
Will I be able to follow this if I didn’t see the first one?
Omaha
A dad and his two sons take a cross country trip.
Our Hero, Balthazar
“A wealthy New York City teenager travels to Texas to stop a would-be mass shooter from executing his plan”? Wait, that can’t be right.
The Sheep Detectives
They help Hugh Jackman solve a crime.
Steal This Story, Please!
A doc about Democracy Now! and host Amy Goodman.
29
A new Indian drama.
Ongoing in Local Theaters
Follow the links for showtimes.
The Drama
I’m not big on the “hypothetical movie.” You know, “What would you do if [some outlandish situation arose]?” and so on—just something a little too “Chuck Klosterman dorm-room conversation” about the whole idea. The latest from Kristoffer Borgli does have a great premise, though, the specifics of which I’d advise you steer clear of if it’s not too late: When sweet Emma (Zendaya) shares a secret about her past, fussy Charlie (Robert Pattinson) wonders if he should call off their wedding. As with his last film Dream Scenario, which tormented Nicolas Cage for involuntarily showing up in people’s dreams, Borgli is fascinated with the unforgiving, punitive instinct in people to the point where it feels like a personal obsession. The characters here are so judgmental—especially best friend Rachel, played as a one-note scold by Alana Haim—I started to judge people for being too judgy. Which is maybe the point? Who can say? Borgli seems torn between riding the dark comedy wherever it takes us and making some vague statements about honesty in relationships or whatever. When The Drama does work, it’s to the two stars’ credit: Pattinson works well in uptight nerd mode, Zendaya is finally growing into movie stardom, exercising greater control over her overly expressive teen-TV face. B
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Michael
This is the story of a sweetly eccentric young fellow who merely wants to collect exotic animals, visit children in hospitals, and share his incredible talents with the world. With the help of agent (and, incidentally, the film’s executive producer) John Branca (Miles Teller), our hero wriggles free of his abusive, domineering father (Colman Domingo) and embarks on his first solo tour in 1988, finally his own man—presumably it was all smooth sailing from there. A glitzy extended ad for the disgraced superstar’s estate, Michael follows in the footsteps of the modern music biopic not only as a form of brand management, but as a means of score-settling—from NWA to Elton John, every star wants to be a victim nowadays. Michael has a made-to-order villain in Jackson paterfamilias Joseph, but with his grotesque prosthetics and Nixonian hunched shoulders, Domingo is actually more cartoonish than Mike Myers is in his brief borscht-belt turn as CBS head Walter Yetnikoff. The lesson of Michael Jackson’s life is that the further you retreat into escapist fantasy the more inescapably your neuroses surface, and that plays out with his fandom: The more irreparably Jackson’s reputation is tarnished, the more his worshippers demand a portrait of a saint’s life. And so they get as lousy a movie as they deserve. Shout out to Janet Jackson, who refused to participate and therefore simply doesn’t exist in this Michaelverse. C
Mother Mary—ends May 7
Over Your Dead Body —ends May 7
Project Hail Mary
Anyone who has a heart will love this adorably techno-optimistic film about Ryan Gosling buddying up with an intelligent alien who looks like a rock as they save the galaxy together. I guess so, anyway—I’m extrapolating from the fact that even a soulless monster like me thought it was pretty cute. Interstellar parasites are gobbling up the stars, including our sun, and as will happen when the Earth is in danger, only a middle school science teacher can save the day. Ryland Grace (which sounds like a name Gosling would give if he wanted to check into a hotel in secret) is recruited by a grim German bureaucrat (the great Sandra Hüller, who deserves all the Hollywood blockbuster cash that comes her way) to research these solar gluttons. His insights prove so invaluable he’s sent on a suicide mission to the only star that’s proven impervious to the baddies to learn how to counteract them. There he meets an alien scientist on the same quest for his own world, who he dubs Rocky, and both species work together to etc. etc. as their unique friendship and so on and so forths. Drew Goddard’s script, adapted from the much-loved Andy Weir novel, has the same plucky scientific spirit as Goddard’s script of Weir’s The Martian, and Gosling remains likeable as ever, though I do wish he’d find some new ways to be likeable. The pleased laughter all around me at the screening was so delightful I felt left out a little. Maybe someday when the wizard grants me a heart I’ll give this another go. B
The Stranger
"Great butts" may not be a comment you’d expect to hear about a Camus adaptation, but it’s hardly the first time I’ve made it about a François Ozon film. The libertine French director’s Meursault is Benjamin Voisin, who made his mark in Ozon’s Summer of 85 and then held his own at the center of the 2021 Balzac adaptation Lost Illusions. Voisin has the look of a lippy sensualist, whether he’s enduring his mother’s funeral, distractedly fucking the woman who inexplicably adores him, or sealing his fate by shooting an Arab. In other words, he seems impeccably French in attitude and style, as does the film itself, shot as it is in a stylized black and white by cinematographer Manu DacosseI—Dennis Levant even shows up to do his weird-little-guy act. And if the film’s requisite 21st century postcolonial framing can feel a little studied, so can the novel’s postwar absurdism, non? (Another sign of the times: When I typed “Is Meursault” and Google completed “autistic” before I got it—apparently there’s a whole literature on the question.) A-
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Tears of the Azure Sea
