For once, I have reviews of two new movies as they open this week: Late Fame and Tony. And I also took a whack at capturing my first impressions of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, which may develop over time. I'm also very excited for El Norte at the Trylon, which has been on my (seemingly endless) to-watch list for years.
Special Screenings
Thursday, August 20
Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
Alamo Drafthouse
The guys from Daft Punk saw this movie together 20 times when they were kids. $13.99. 7 p.m. More info here.
Muppet Treasure Island (1996)
Emagine Willow Creek
Among the Muppets' lesser work. $8. 11 a.m. More info here.
The Boy Friend (1971)
Emagine Willow Creek
Twiggy stars in a Ken Russell musical. $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Mulan (1998)
Granada
A Taste the Movies event. Sold out. 6 p.m. More info here.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Grandview 1&2
From the director of Babe. $14.14. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
The Thing (1982)
Riverview Theater
Can you be more specific, Mr. Carpenter? What kind of “thing”? $5/$7. 9:45 p.m. Friday-Saturday 11:40 p.m. More info here.
Shrek 2 (2004)
Riverview Theater
Wait, there’s a second Shrek movie??? $3. Thursday 11:30 a.m. More info here.
Wicked: For Good (2025)
Victory Park
Look how early that start time is. Sorry, I’m panicking. Free. 8:10 p.m. More info here.
Sound for Silents
Walker Art Center
This year, the experimental pow wow group Bizhiki soundtracks selections from the Walker’s film collection. Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
Friday, August 21
Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987)
Alamo Drafthouse
Abbas Kiarostami’s perfectly charming children’s movie. $7. 12:30 p.m. More info here.
The Spongebob Movie: Search for Squarepants (2025)
Corcoran Park
They still haven’t found him? Free. 8:10 p.m. More info here.
Encanto (2021)
El Rio Vista Recreation Center
This one made me cry. Free. Dusk. More info here.
The Sandlot (1993)
Emagine Willow Creek
A very important movie to some of you, I’m told. $8. Friday, Monday-Thursday 11 a.m. Saturday-Sunday 10 a.m. More info here.
Ratatouille (2007)
Granada
Demand that your meal be cooked by an actual rat. A Taste the Movie event. $169. 6 p.m. More info here.
She’s the Man (2006)
Heights Theater
I hope Amanda Bynes is doing better these days. $13. 9:45 p.m. More info here.
Mars Attacks! (1996)
Loring Park
Have you been to a bike-in movie yet? Free. 8:30 p.m. More info here.
El Norte (1983)
Trylon
Director Gregory Nava will be on hand for these screenings of his epic film about Guatemalan refugees. $8. 7 p.m. Saturday 5 & 8:30 p.m. Sunday 2 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, August 22
De Palma (2016)
Alamo Drafthouse
A look at the director’s life and career. $13.99. 9:30 p.m. More info here.
Matilda (1996)
Heights Theater
And that little girl grew up to be an ace social media poster. $6-$13. 11 a.m. More info here.
Perfect Blue (1997)
Heights Theater
Fantasy and reality blur in Satoshi Kon’s animated classic. $13. 9:45 p.m. More info here.
Space Jam (1996)
Play-on-Payne
The rabbit has boobs in this one, if that's what you're into. Free. 8 p.m. More info here.
CatVideoFest 2026
Riverview Theater
The Riverview’s still got yer cats. $5. 11:30 a.m. More info here.
Ferngully: The Last Rainforest (1992)
The Trailhead
Fun fact: Disney tried to block this movie because Jeffrey Katzenberg didn’t want Robin Williams doing voice work for an Aladdin competitor. Free. 8:10 p.m. More info here.
The Muppet Movie (1979)
Trylon
Starring all your children’s favorite actors, including Edgar Bergen, Charles Durning, and, of course, Orson Welles. $8. 3 p.m. More info here.
Sunday, August 23
Coyote v. Acme (2026)
AMC Southdale 16
An advance screening of the nearly unreleased film. $11.19. 1 p.m. More info here.
House of Worship (2026)
AMC Southdale 16
A big Contemporary Christian concert. $13.99. 2 & 6:30 p.m. Tuesday 7:30 p.m More info here.
40 Years of F****in’ Up (2026)
AMC Southdale 16/Marcus West End
A new doc about NOFX. AMC: $15. 7 p.m. Wednesday 7:30 p.m. More info here. Marcus: $15.50. 7 p.m. Wednesday 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Five Easy Pieces (1970)
Grandview 1&2
Jack Nicholson is a slumming jerk. Also Thursday. $14.14. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Welcome Space Brothers (2023)
Heights Theater
A look at an “extraterrestrial-channeling spiritual school.” Only in California, amirite? $10/$13. 7 p.m. More info here.
Marcus Mystery Movie
Marcus West End
A mystery movie on a Sunday? $7. 1 p.m. More info here.
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Trylon
Hey, wait a minute—this isn’t a B-52s biopic. $8. 5 & 7:15 p.m. Monday-Tuesday 7 & 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Monday, August 24
Butthole Surfers: The Hole and Nothing Butt (2026)
Alamo Drafthouse
All these years later, the Shah still sleeps in Lee Harvey’s grave. $13.99. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Edina Mann
Oh shit, he’s back! Also Wednesday. $12.12. 7 p.m. More info here.
It’s Alive (1974)
Emagine Willow Creek
What if your baby was an evil mutant? $9. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Secret Movie (2026)
Lagoon Cinema
What could it be? $5. 7 p.m. More info here.
Marcus Mystery Movie (2026)
Marcus West End
Two mystery movies in the same week? $6. 7 p.m. More info here.
Stealing Beauty (1996)
Parkway Theater
If you’re a fan of the “aging European director pervs out stylishly over a hot young American actress” genre (raises hand guiltily), have we got one for you. $15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, August 25
Bride of Chucky (1998)
Alamo Drafthouse
Everyone deserves companionship. $10.99. 8 p.m. More info here.
American Martyr: The Stanley Rother Story (2026)
AMC Rosedale 14/Marcus West End
The story of a priest killed in Guatemala. Through Thursday. Showtimes, prices, and more info here.
The Blues Brothers (1980)
Parkway Theater
A great Chicago movie and a great anti-Nazi movie. $10/$15. Music from Goo Goo Mucks at 7 p.m. Movie at 8 p.m. More info here.
Sing (2016)
Riverview Theater
Sometimes I’m glad I never had kids. Through Thursday. $2. 10:45 a.m. More info here.
Tron: Ares (2025)
Whittier Park
Totally forgot that this movie happened. Free. 8:05 p.m. More info here.
Wednesday, August 26
Jeopardy! Interactive
Alamo Drafthouse
Play Jeopardy! at the movie theater. $15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Little Giants (1994)
The Commons
OK, time for my weekly freakout about the earlier start times. Free. 8 p.m. More info here.
Bitter Rice (1948)
Heights Theater
Female Italian rice workers take a stand against manipulative men. $10/$13. 7 p.m. More info here.
Ghost: 2 Big 2 Rig (2026)
Emagine Willow Creek/Lagoon Cinema
The Swedish rockers, live in Mexico City. Also Thursday. Emagine: $17. 6 p.m. More info here. Lagoon: $15.50. 7 p.m. More info here.
Ninja Zombie (1992)
Emagine Willow Creek
Shot in Super 8 and long unreleased. $9. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Lagoon Cinema
I heretically may prefer this one to the original? Don’t quote me on that. $11. 4 & 7 p.m. More info here.
Cuba After Castro (2026)
Main Cinema
A doc about Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel. $13. 7 p.m. More info here.
Trylon Club Exclusive Screening
Trylon
Free for Trylon Club members. 7 p.m. More info here.
Thursday, August 27
Grotesque Fest VII
Bryant Lake Bowl
The short film showcase returns. Also Saturday. $9/$13. 7 p.m. More info here.
Tommy (1975)
Emagine Willow Creek
Ken Russell does The Who. Or vice versa. $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
Lynnhurst Park
Personally, I would not shrink my kids, but that’s just me. Free. 8 p.m. More info here.
The Shining (1980)
Riverview Theater
“I was the belle of The Governor's Ball/Hiding in the bathroom like Shelley Duvall.” $5/$7. 9:45 p.m. More info here.
Jawbreaker: A Film About Anti-Cimex (2025)
Trylon
Not to be confused with Anti-Cimex: A Film About Jawbreaker. $10. 7 p.m. More info here.
Opening
Follow the links for showtimes.
Castle in the Sky
Miyazaki in pure adventure mode.
The Fast and the Furious
Back in theaters for its 25th anniversary.
Franz
I want to be more excited for an Agnieszka Holland movie about Kafka than I am.
Hot Spot
In the future, AI rules the world, and rebels fight against it.
Insidious: Out of the Further
Now even insidiouser.
Irumudi
An Indian family drama.
La La Land
More like blah blah bland.
Late Fame
Director Kent Jones, who provided Mary Kay Place with a late-career star turn in Diane, does the same here for the equally deserving (though more steadily employed) Willem Dafoe. The perfectly named Ed Saxberger (Dafoe) is a longtime postal worker (surely he should be retired by now?) whose static life hiccups back into gear when he’s introduced to a group of young literati who are obsessed with a slim volume of poetry he published in 1979. As he attempts to process the fandom of a rich devotee (Edmund Donovan) and begins finding fault with his blue-collar pals, Ed falls for the very actressy actress (Greta Lee) who’s sort of the den mother to these lost poseurs. (“You must have been beautiful when you were young,” she tells him with oblivious cruelty.) More commonly visible these days in broad character roles for Yorgos Lanthimos and Robert Eggers, Dafoe reminds us here he’s one of those actors who draws you in more deeply the less he says, and he sinks comfortably into the role of a man prickling with emotional pins and needles as if he’d let a part of himself go numb. A gentle movie in which no one is mocked even as their foolishness is noted, Late Fame is the sort of character study that finds virtue in restraint. And (spoiler) it ends with a character headed to Minneapolis for a role in The Winter’s Tale (at the Guthrie, I presume). A-
Mutiny
Jason Statham movie titles are supposed to tell us who he is (e.g., The Beekeeper, A Working Man, The Transporter).
Never Stop Chasing
Doc about the dude that Twisters was based on.
Paper Flowers
"The inspiring journey of a young man who transforms a rare cancer diagnosis into a powerful celebration of love, gratitude, purpose, and human connection," if that's what you're into.
Spa Weekend
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+
Ongoing in Local Theaters
Follow the links for showtimes.
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
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+
One Night Only—read full review here
The misguided concept here is that the U.S. has banned premarital sex except for one night of the year (uh… ha ha ha?), but “The Purge meets-cute with The Lobster” isn’t even a good idea in theory. When the big night rolls around, Owen (Callum Turner) learns that his girlfriend (Maya Hawke) would rather experiment with their hunky neighbor. As he dejectedly searches for a substitute partner, he repeatedly bumps into Allie (Monica Barbero), who stiff-arms him because she’s determined to find true love. At times, One Night Only seems to have been made as court-ordered punishment (blink twice if you’re in danger, Monica). At others—particularly the finale, which pretends to be a meaningful riff off An Affair to Remember—Gluck and co. clearly think they’re on to something clever. And yet, One Night Only does accurately capture our own cinematic dystopian present. First off, it’s all titillation, dangling two hotties in various states of undress for us to gawk at as they endlessly talk about sex (and not in a fun, French art-film kinda way) instead of just, you know, doing it. Then there’s the excessive stunt casting and indulgence in celebrity in-jokes and its New York City overrun with brands like Durex, Buck Mason, Dunkin Donuts, Duolingo, and CitiBike. It’s not a spoiler to say that Owen and Allie wind up together (you can’t spoil something that’s never been fresh) or that they’re forced to wait another year to consummate their relationship. But I wonder if anyone involved here even realizes that this happy ending is essentially an argument for state-sponsored celibacy. C-
The Samurai and the Prisoner
Despite his surname, Kiyoshi Kurosawa is not the sort of fella you’d expect to assay a historical drama—psychological horror is his beat. But the period setting, swordmanship, and concerns with archaic codes of honor here don’t keep The Samurai and the Prisoner from sitting comfortably within the director’s oeuvre. In the 16th century, the rebellious Araki Murashige (Masahiro Motoki) is walled off within his castle, besieged by the warlord Odo. After he endungeons Odu’s emissary, the cunning Kuroda Kanbei (Masaki Suda), Murashige is forced to investigate a series of strange crimes on his grounds. As he slowly traces the traitor within his circle, matters are complicated by the lord’s aversion to bloodshed, which strikes many of his allegiants as dishonorable. Now in his 70s, Kurosawa may be straining a bit in the service of something monumental—the pacing is doggedly unrushed, bordering occasionally on sluggish. But the framing is impeccable, Motoki and Suda are subtle and compelling as the strategically dueling title characters, and the film takes on the shape of a fable, its moral underlined by a slightly twisty and abrupt ending. 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-
