I've seen Together, The Naked Gun, and Highest 2 Lowest, but since I was on feature duty this week, I haven't had time to jot all my thoughts. Revisit this page early next week if you're curious.
Special Screenings
Thursday, August 14
Rifttrax Live: Timecop
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
The former MST3K joke pros take on Van Damme. Also Tuesday. $16.28. 7 p.m. More info here.
Wicked (2024)
Creekview Park
Maybe the second-best movie musical ever set in Oz. Free. 8:20 p.m. More info here.
Edina Community Shorts
Edina 4
Short films from local filmmakers. $14.33. 7 p.m. More info here.
Kids (1995)
Emagine Willow Creek
Struck me as sensationalist trash at the time—Reefer Madness, but for AIDS. $11.60. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)
Emagine Willow Creek
This could be your last chance to see it this summer! $3. 11 a.m. More info here.
The Map That Leads to You (2025)
Granada
An advance screening of this romantic new film. Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1984)
Grandview 1&2
Saw this at the Grandview on Monday and god damn! I didn’t know Schrader had something with this much sweep and control in him. $14.44. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Mad Love (1935)
Heights Theater
Peter Lorre as a mad scientist—what else do you need to know? $16. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
Mia
Make art and chill outside the museum before this Julia Roberts movie. Free. 8:30 p.m. More info here.
The Room (2005)
Parkway Theater
A screening of the cult classic with star Greg Sestero in attendance. No wonder it’s… Sold out. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
The Truman Show (1998)
Riverview Theater
Peter Weir has such a strange filmography. $5. 9:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday 11:15 p.m. More info here.
Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)
Riverview Theater
Can't get enough of that Minion lore. $1. 11 a.m. More info here.
Sound for Silents 2025
Walker Art Center
Phil Harder selects films from the Walker library as local musicians perform music composed by Matt Arthur. Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
Friday, August 15
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)
Alamo Drafthouse
Pretty fun toon reboot. Also Tuesday. $7. 12 p.m. More info here.
In the Mood for Love (2001)
Alamo Drafthouse
Great dresses, beautiful dresses. $13.99. 6:45 p.m. Monday 7 p.m. More info here.
Toy Story (1995)
Edgcumbe Recreation Center
What if your toys were jealous of each other? Free. Dusk. More info here.
Trolls Band Together (2023)
Emagine Willow Creek
The trolls take on poptimism. Through Wednesday. $3. 11 a.m. More info here.
Kung 4 Panda 4 (2024)
Phelps Field Park
OK, maybe this is your last chance to see it this summer. Free. 8:15 p.m. More info here.
Soul (2020)
Sovereign Starts Seedling Co.
With garden-grown popcorn! Free. 8:15 p.m. More info here.
20.0 Megaquake (2025)
Trylon
Starring a Baldwin. $8. Friday-Saturday, Monday-Tuesday 5 p.m. Sunday 1 p.m. Wednesday 10 a.m. More info here.
Heavenly Bodies (1984)
Trylon
Long out-of-print aerobixploitation flick. Look, we had to make do with what we had before free internet porn, OK? $8. Friday-Saturday 7 & 9 p.m. Sunday 3 & 5 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, August 16
13 Assassins (2010)
Alamo Drafthouse
That’s a lot of assassins! $14.14. 11 a.m. Monday 3 p.m. More info here.
Malcolm X (1992)
Alamo Drafthouse
The rare sequel that’s better than the original. $10.99. 4 p.m. More info here.
CatVideoFest 2025
Riverview Theater
Encore screenings, in case you missed ’em the last two weeks. Also Sunday. $5. 11:15 a.m. More info here.
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended (2002)
Emagine Willow Creek
So long there’s actually time for a third tower. Also Sunday & Wednesday. $10.60 p.m. 1:45 & 6:30 p.m. More info here.
Grease (1978)
Lake Harriet Bandshell
A nice Australian girl is inspired by a friend's pregnancy scare to slut it up. Free. 8:15 p.m. More info here.
Flow (2024)
Walker Art Center
Part of the Walker’s “Middle School Movie Club.” Free. 1 p.m. More info here.
Sunday, August 17
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Alamo Drafthouse
The one with the real director. $10.99. 12 p.m. More info here.
Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me (1992)
Grandview 1&2
There’s more to Laura Palmer’s story than we saw on TV. $14.44. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)
Roxy's Cabaret
Roxy's shows free movies? I did not know this. And it's my job to know this. Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
Casablanca (1942)
Trylon
A seductive Vichy cop steals Humphrey Bogart from Ingrid Bergman. $8. 7 p.m. Monday-Tuesday 7 & 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Monday, August 18
Lurker (2025)
Alamo Drafthouse
An advance screening of the sequel to Lurk. $13.99. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/B&B Bloomington/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
Celebrate “Texas Chain Saw Day”—the date the events in the film supposedly occurred in 1973. $15.68. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Boy and the Beast (2015)
Alamo Drafthouse/AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the animated Japanese hit. 7 p.m. Ticket prices and more info here.
A Taste of Cherry (1997)
Edina 4
Sexy title... for a movie about a suicidal Tehran man searching for someone who will bury him. Also Wednesday. $12.15. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Mist (2007)
Emagine Willow Creek
The Stephen King adaptation, shown in black and white. $7.60. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
WTF! Watch Terrible Films Club
56 Brewing
Don’t know what the movie’ll be, but I know it’ll be terrible. Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
Haunted Mansion (2023)
Loring Park
Sorry to keep doing this, but look at that start time. Free. 8:15 p.m. More info here.
Marcus Mystery Movie
Marcus West End
A new R-rated movie, and that’s all I know. $6. 7 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, August 19
The Original Kings of Comedy (2000)
Alamo Drafthouse
Spike Lee captures the atmosphere of the show, as well as the jokes. $13.99. 6:45 p.m. More info here.
Bloody Moon (1981)
Alamo Drafthouse
Jess Franco goes slasher. $10.99. 9:45 p.m. More info here.
Catacomb Cinema Club
Bryant Lake Bowl
The Haunted Basement folks present a spooky movie for y’all. $12/$15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Minecraft Movie (2024)
40th Street Park
Scream “chicken jockey!” all you want. Free. 8:15 p.m. More info here.
Shrek (2001)
Riverview Theater
Wait, they’re working on a Shrek 5? Also Wednesday. $1. 11 a.m. More info here.
Because of Winn-Dixie (2005)
Riverview Theater
Didja read our feature on Kate DiCamillo? $20. 8:15 p.m. More info here.
Wednesday, August 20
Mean Girls (2024)
The Commons
Make a movie worse with songs. Free. 8:15 p.m. More info here.
Hell House LLC: Lineage (2025)
Emagine Willow Creek
The franchise moves away from found footage. $14.20 7 & 9:45 p.m. More info here.
Brutal Fury (1993)
Trylon
A shy teen girl joins a vigilante group! $5. 7 p.m. More info here.
Opening This Week
Follow the links for showtimes.
Americana
Wonder if any of Sydney Sweeney’s new fans will show up to this.
Coolie
A retired Indian gold smuggler gets the team back together for one last score.
Dead to Rights
Chinese civilians seek shelter during the Nanjing Massacre.
East of Wall
A widowed horse trainer provides refuge on her ranch to troubled teens.
The Grateful Dead Movie 2025 Meet-Up
Time for the annual release of the 1977 Dead concert film.
Highest 2 Lowest
Spoiler: Spike Lee really loves New York City.
Eli Roth Presents: Jimmy and Stiggs
Horror weirdo Joe Begos returns.
The Knife
After a woman breaks into a family’s home, a police investigation reveals hidden personal truths.
Nobody 2
Going back in time to tell ’90s me that Bob Odenkirk has an action franchise.
Shin Godzilla
A 4K rerelease of the 2016 kaiju reboot.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
Rereleased for its 35th anniversary. Doesn't anything just get old and forgotten anymore?
To a Land Unknown
Two Palestinian refugees in Greece struggle to reach Germany.
Went Up the Hill
A dead woman's spirit returns to inhabit the bodies of her son and her widow.
Witchboard
Time for a reboot, I suppose.
Ongoing in Local Theaters
Follow the links for showtimes.
Eddington
If you’ve ever wondered what Ari Aster would make of Covid, Black Lives Matter, and our all-too-online modern existence… why? Why would you ever wonder that? Aster’s films are airless, carefully arranged dioramas, which is OK when you work in horror, where self-contained formalism can be part of the point, but unacceptable when you’re using the murder of George Floyd and the aftermath in Minneapolis as a plot point for your dim satire. Joaquin Phoenix, in Doc Sportello stumblin’ ‘round mode, is an Arizona sheriff (styled to resemble Dennis Weaver, which is funny, I admit); he’s so miffed that he has to mask up that he decides to unseat the town’s smug mayor, Pedro Pascal. With seemingly every encounter between townsfolk mediated by screens, misinformation proliferates, bodies pile up, and everyone, from dumbass cops to woke protesters, embodies their worst selves. That, apparently, is How We Live Now. But what’s so soul-deadening about internet life isn’t just how it leads us to act out in cartoonish ways; it’s how it encourages us to perceive our fellow humans from a single, simple vantage point, to strip their actions of all context, and to make that point, Aster would have had to give us some three-dimensional characters to begin with. Plodding loudly toward its preordaining conclusion, Eddington is as cynical and misanthropic as dumb people have always said the Coen brothers are; worse still, its cynicism and misanthropy are flaunted as intellectual and spiritual achievements. And Aster really needs to get over his mommy issues. C
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Folktales—ends Thursday
F1
Well of course this is Top Gun for race cars—you thought Joseph Kosinski was gonna go back to directing Tron movies and Halo ads? What matters is that F1’s on-track action is as gripping as Top Gun: Maverick’s mid-air feats, and there are moments that had me, a non-gasper, gasping. The acting bits are not entirely as bad as those TG:M’s Oscar-nominated screenplay made us endure. And if your attention may wander in these off-track moments, at least F1 (I am not calling it F1: The Movie—I got my own Google problems to worry about) leaves us at leisure to compare and contrast Tom Cruise’s smugness with Brad Pitt’s: eternal youth vs. staved-off decline, skill vs. savvy, unnerving intensity vs indolent swagger. Yes, ideally, Pitt’s Sonny Hayes would learn as much from his younger colleagues as he teaches them, but instead it’s the wily old driver who touches the lives of everyone he encounters—he’s kind of a Magical Caucasian. Chastened hotshot Damson Idris learns not to showboat for the press. Kerry Condon overcomes his mistrust of Sonny’s arrogance long enough to bed him. And team owner Javier Bardem, who took a chance on Sonny, sees his long shot pay off, defeating the machinations of evil-as-ever Tobias Menzies. And they say Hollywood doesn’t make movies for aging white guys who feel like their talents have gone unacknowledged anymore. B-
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Jurassic World Rebirth
Well, at least now we know why the dinosaurs went extinct—they couldn’t hunt for shit. I mean, one predator here not only fails to gobble up a child hiding under a life raft, but the loser can’t even pop the raft. Godzilla director Gareth Edwards and original Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp (who I’ll just note is also responsible for the Indiana Jones duds The Dial of Destiny and The Crystal Skill) were called upon to right this series seven installments in, but the best they can dream up is an island of mutant dinosaurs like the Distortus Rex and the Mutadon. Plotwise, a team of mercenaries organized by Scarlett Johansson (who must have serious gambling debts or something) is dispatched to collect blood samples from the three largest breeds of dinosaurs, a key ingredient in a cure for heart disease. En route, the adventurers rescue a family that’s crossing the Atlantic on a sailboat, because the pictures needs children to imperil. The pro-forma backstory these characters are given is worse than none at all—a friend of Johansson’s Zora Bennett was blown up by a Yemen car bomb so she’s ready to retire, Mahershala Ali’s Duncan Kincaid lost his son so he wants to protect children (he’d let them die otherwise?). But it’s hard to care what happens to these people unless you’re just opposed in principle to the idea of make-believe humans being eaten by make-believe dinosaurs. C
Mission: Impossible–The Final Reckoning
How is it that the only prominent person in this dumb country suspicious of AI seems to be Tom Fuckin’ Cruise? The most consistent action franchise this side of John Wick wraps up (or does it?—you really think that peppy lil guy is about to retire?) with Cruise’s agent Ethan Hunt fighting to prevent an all-powerful artificial intelligence called The Entity from starting a nuclear war. But The Final Reckoning is no more immune to bloat than any other blockbuster—you could lop a full half-hour of talking from this nearly three-hour adventure and no one would be the wiser. The script hunts for loose ends from previous installments just to tie them up, and the supporting cast is uneven—if Pom Klementieff has a truly fierce shooting-people face, Esai Morales remains a nonentity of a villain. By next month, you’ll remember The Final Reckoning as the MI where Tom hunts through a nuclear sub at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean and climbs around on a biplane as the wind resistance does weirder things to his face than Vanilla Sky. Both incredible set pieces, worth the price of admission even. But you’ll probably forget most of the rest. I already have. B
Sketch
My comically exaggerated exasperation aside, I don’t hate kids’ movies. I just think most of ’em are for, well, kids. But Seth Worley’s goofy but genuinely creepy Sketch was a pleasant surprise. Tony Hale is raising two children after his wife’s death: Amber (Bianca Belle), who’s channeling her anger into drawings of cartoonishly vicious monsters, and Jack (Kue Lawrence), the protective brother who just wants everything to be the way it was. When Amber’s drawings get dumped into a magical lake, her visions come to life, and many of these predators of crayon, marker, and chalk target a boy who teases her (the perfectly annoying Kalon Cox). There’s something a little too much of the pitchman about Worley—the screening I attended ended with an ad for an app that can bring your own kid’s drawings to life. But without edging into trauma dump territory, his script feels emotionally astute to me, and its characters more like actual kids than most onscreen young’uns. Parents really do need to take it easy when naming their babies though—this cast also includes a Jaxen, a Genesis, and a Leigha. B+
Sorry, Baby
Eva Victor takes some getting used to. As a screen presence, they often hold back cryptically behind a half-smile or throw other actors off the beat with their own rhythms, capturing how awkwardness feels to be around, rather than how it's typically performed on screen. Yet to say Victor seems like a person who learned to talk from the internet is description, not criticism; we’ve had decades of actors who learned to talk from TV or magazines or other movies after all. Victor also wrote and directed Sorry, Baby, which takes some getting used to as well. Partly it’s the non-chronological storytelling, which feels unnecessary and therefore affected, but it’s also because Sorry, Baby is the story of a sexual assault, and how to talk about it, or around it, when the words you have to communicate seem to distort what you’ve experienced. What anchors the film is the friendship between Victor’s Agnes and Naomi Ackie’s Lydie, and how it shifts over time. Often the humor is too broad for the scenario (Agnes’s nemesis Natasha, played by Kelly McCormack, feels especially sitcommy), and Sorry, Baby can also feel too crafted, with Victor creating moments—a stranger commiserating with Agnes after a panic attack, a postcoital cuddle ruined by a discussion of the future, a heart-to-heart about life’s cruelties with your friend’s infant—that feel deliberate, arranged, artistic. But all these moments, along with the halting discussion between Agnes and Lydie immediately after the assault, all work, and isn’t great filmmaking about believing in the illusion even when you know how the trick is done? A-
Superman (read the full review here)
James Gunn’s flagship reboot of the DC film universe has its moments. In its best scene, a smug Clark Kent insists on a candid interview—as Superman—with co-worker/girlfriend Lois Lane, and the ace journalist he’s dating pulls no punches, getting in as many good hits as any of Lex Luthor’s henchfolk. David Corenswet’s Clark/Kal/Supes is all-too-human, with a real temper and self-regard bubbling up from beneath his Midwestern aw-shuckistude. He’s well-matched by Rachel Brosnahan, a purely 21st century Lois Lane who avoids Rosalind Russell throwback vibes as she fields modern problems like work-life balance and how to fly Mr. Terrific’s spacecraft. Yet the rest of Superman never matches the energy of that interview; in fact, Gunn foolishly splits Clark and Lois up on separate adventures. As we enter a world of intra-dimensional pocket universes and Metropolis-(Cleveland- actually) gobbling black holes, Superman gets loud and ugly and digital and, well, MCUish. And sorry, there’s just too much Krypto. B-
