God of the Piano
NYT Critic’s Pick | Drama | Directed by Itay Tal
A family drama and psychological horror story, this directorial debut examines a parent’s projection of her own failed dreams onto a talented child.
By GLENN KENNY
Residue
NYT Critic’s Pick | Drama | Directed by Merawi Gerima
In Merawi Gerima’s first feature film, a failed screenwriter returns to Washington, D.C., and finds gentrification has overrun his home.
By GLENN KENNY
Gather
NYT Critic’s Pick | Documentary | Directed by Sanjay Rawal
This documentary wonderfully weaves personal stories with archival footage that contextualizes the continued violence against Native Americans.
By LOVIA GYARKYE
Buoyancy
NYT Critic’s Pick | Not Rated | Crime, Drama | Directed by Rodd Rathjen
In this sobering, moving drama, a Cambodian teenager runs away from home and is sold into slavery on a Thai fishing boat.
By MANOHLA DARGIS
I’m Thinking of Ending Things
NYT Critic’s Pick | R | Drama, Horror, Thriller | Directed by Charlie Kaufman
Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemons play a couple on a trip to some very odd places in Charlie Kaufman’s latest film.
Family togetherness (or is it?) in Charlie Kaufman’s “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” with, from left, Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley, Toni Collette and David Thewlis.
By A.O. SCOTT
Isadora’s Children
NYT Critic’s Pick | Drama | Directed by Damien Manivel
The work of a 20th-century dance innovator inspires four women of the present day in this film, composed like a piece of music by Damien Manivel.
Marika Rizzi, left, and Manon Carpentier, in “Isadora’s Children.”
By GLENN KENNY
Feels Good Man
NYT Critic’s Pick | Documentary, Comedy | Directed by Arthur Jones
A new documentary looks at how the cartoonist Matt Furie’s creation Pepe the Frog became a symbol of hate.
His frog was stolen: The artist Matt Furie in the documentary “Feels Good Man.”
By BEN KENIGSBERG
— Of Possible Interest —
Mulan
PG-13 | Action, Adventure, Drama, Family | Directed by Niki Caro
In Niki Caro and Disney’s live-action version of the ancient story, a young woman rides off to war and discovers herself.
Going to war for China and Disney: Yifei Liu as the title character in the live-action remake of “Mulan.”
By MANOHLA DARGIS
The New Mutants
PG-13 | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi | Directed by Josh Boone
From left, Maisie Williams, Henry Zaga, Blu Hunt, Charlie Heaton and Anya Taylor-Joy from “The New Mutants.”
This much-delayed “X-Men”-related film from Josh Boone features five teens with not-so-great powers.
By AMY NICHOLSON
Children of the Sea
Animation, Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Mystery | Directed by Ayumu Watanabe
Exploration is at the heart of the mostly stunning and totally mystifying Japanese anime feature.
In “Children of the Sea,” Ruka, a shy teenage girl, feels a curious connection to water.
By MAYA PHILLIPS
Chuck Berry
Documentary, Biography, Music | Directed by Jon Brewer
Jon Brewer’s documentary about the musical legend is far more traditional than its subject.
The title subject of the documentary “Chuck Berry.”
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
The Personal History of David Copperfield
NYT Critic’s Pick | PG | Comedy, Drama | Directed by Armando Iannucci
Armando Iannucci’s souped-up, trimmed-down adaptation of the Dickens novel is an exuberant, heartfelt delight.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Ghost Tropic
NYT Critic’s Pick | Drama | Directed by Bas Devos
Bas Devos captures the sleeping outer portions of Brussels in this drama about a hard-working woman who finds herself stranded.
By GLENN KENNY
Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin
NYT Critic’s Pick | Documentary, Biography | Directed by Werner Herzog
Herzog honors the writer and explorer Bruce Chatwin in this stimulating and visually overwhelming documentary.
By GLENN KENNY
— Of Possible Interest —
Bill & Ted Face the Music
PG-13 | Adventure, Comedy, Music, Sci-Fi | Directed by Dean Parisot
Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter travel through time to save reality and redeem the honor of Generation X.
‘That’s too strong a word [genius] to apply to “Bill & Ted Face the Music,” which like its predecessors is winningly modest and harmlessly silly. I don’t know if it made me feel young or old, but it was all in all a most non-bogus experience.’
By A.O. SCOTT
Son of the White Mare
NYT Critic’s Pick | Animation, Adventure, Fantasy | Directed by Marcell Jankovics
The film nods to earlier notables of animation: the hallucinatory palette of “Yellow Submarine” and the rich visual storytelling of “Fantasia.”
By MAYA PHILLIPS
Cut Throat City
NYT Critic’s Pick | R | Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller | Directed by RZA
With his third feature as | Director, RZA, who first rose to fame with Wu-Tang Clan, comes into his own as a filmmaker.
By GLENN KENNY
Coup 53
NYT Critic’s Pick | Documentary, History | Directed by Taghi Amirani
Taghi Amirani’s documentary is an obsessively detailed dive into the 1953 ouster of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh of Iran.
By BEN KENIGSBERG
— Of Possible Interest —
Tesla
PG-13 | Biography, Drama | Directed by Michael Almereyda
Ethan Hawke plays the melancholy visionary Nikola Tesla in Michael Almereyda’s meditative anti-biopic.
By A.O. SCOTT
A Thousand Cuts
NYT Critic’s Pick | Documentary | Directed by Ramona S. Diaz
This documentary profiles Maria Ressa, a journalist who has fearlessly chronicled abuses in the Philippines under the Duterte government.
By BEN KENIGSBERG
An Easy Girl
NYT Critic’s Pick | Comedy, Drama | Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski
An inexperienced teenager and her more sophisticated cousin experience a transformative summer in this smart and sultry coming-of-age story.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Mudar de Vida
NYT Critic’s Pick | Drama | Directed by Paulo Rocha
Paulo Rocha’s 1966 triumph is set in a Portuguese fishing village, where residents live hand-to-mouth.
By GLENN KENNY
— Of Possible Interest —
Unrated | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller | Directed by Egor Abramenko
This Russian sci-fi horror picture strongly advises that what you find in space should stay there.
By GLENN KENNY
NYT Critic’s Pick | R | Comedy, Drama, Thriller | Directed by Amy Seimetz
A film made before the pandemic now feels uncomfortably timely.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
NYT Critic’s Pick | Documentary | Directed by Mehrdad Oskouei
Mehrdad Oskouei’s documentary brings empathy to a tough subject: women and girls convicted of murdering male family members.
By KRISTEN YOONSOO KIM
NYT Critic’s Pick | Documentary | Directed by Anne Flatte, Marlon Johnson
At the heart of this documentary from Marlon Johnson and Anne Flatté is a drum line in Louisville, Ky., that offers children a chance to engage with Black art and history.
By TEO BUGBEE
NYT Critic’s Pick | Documentary | Directed by Don Hahn
A new documentary looks at the prodigious talent of Howard Ashman, one half of the musical team behind “The Little Mermaid” and others, before he died of AIDS at 40.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Documentary | Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky
In this documentary, Alejandro Jodorowsky compares Freud’s “science” to his own “magic” and chronicles aiming for cures with methods resembling performance art.
By GLENN KENNY
Not Rated | Drama, Mystery | Directed by Hans Petter Moland
But the protagonist of this film, based on a Norwegian novel, would prefer to forget the past.
By GLENN KENNY
Ain’t none.
— Of Possible Interest —
Not Rated | Documentary, Biography, Music | Directed by Martha Kehoe, Joan Tosoni
The singer-songwriter, now 81, is frank about his own work and refreshingly open to today’s music.
By GLENN KENNY
NYT Critic’s Pick | Drama | Directed by Catalina Arroyave Restrepo
Teenage graffiti artists have to confront the pleasures and pains of adolescence in this noteworthy new film from Colombia.
By GLENN KENNY
NYT Critic’s Pick | Documentary | Directed by Jethro Waters
This documentary explores the life of Uzzle, who doesn’t have the name recognition of others in his field, but whose work you’ve probably seen and remember.
By GLENN KENNY