First Love
NYT Critic’s PickComedy, Crime, RomanceDirected by Takashi Miike
The prolific director Takashi Miike delivers an unusually satisfying Japanese genre romp.
By GLENN KENNY

— Of Possible Interest —

‘In the Shadow of the Moon’ Review: A Twisty Romp Through Time and Genre
Jim Mickle’s unconventional serial-killer movie for Netflix is clever, if bloody messy.
By Chris Vognar

‘Sink or Swim’ Review: Pool Boys
In over their heads, these unlikely underwater artistes find their happy place.
By Jeannette Catsoulis

‘The Death of Dick Long’ Review: About Last Night …
Three young Alabama men have a less-than-enchanted evening in this dark comedy.
By Glenn Kenny

Long Shot
NYT Critic’s Pick R Comedy, Romance Directed by Jonathan Levine
The improbably yet perfectly paired stars play old friends who unexpectedly find love in this charming (and a bit vulgar) romantic comedy.
By MANOHLA DARGIS

Meeting Gorbachev
NYT Critic’s Pick Documentary Directed by Werner Herzog, Andre Singer
Werner Herzog’s latest documentary is centered on Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who helped bring the Cold War to an end.
By BEN KENIGSBERG

Hesburgh
NYT Critic’s Pick Documentary Directed by Patrick Creadon
A man of the cloth, a man against racism: “Hesburgh” tells the story of a tireless civil rights champion.
By GLENN KENNY

Shadow
NYT Critic’s Pick Action, Drama, War Directed by Yimou Zhang
Zhang Yimou’s film, set during the “Three Kingdoms” era in Chinese history, features head-spinning palace intrigue and spectacularly inventive violence.
By GLENN KENNY

— Of Possible Interest —

Ask Dr. Ruth
Documentary Directed by Ryan White
Ryan White’s rose-tinted portrait of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the irrepressible sex therapist and Holocaust survivor, leaves no room for naysayers.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

UglyDolls
PG Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Musical Directed by Kelly Asbury
Voiced by the likes of Kelly Clarkson and Janelle Monáe, singing plush toys populate this a neon-colored fable of self-love.
By GLENN KENNY

Peter Mayhew, the Actor Behind Chewbacca’s Mask in ‘Star Wars,’ Dies at 74
Mr. Mayhew, who played the Wookiee Chewbacca in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, died at home in Texas after having a heart attack.

Fast Color
NYT Critic’s Pick PG-13 Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller Directed by Julia Hart
Julia Hart’s wonderfully strange dystopian drama pits three gifted black women against a dried-up world and a hostile government.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Grass
NYT Critic’s Pick Drama Directed by Sang-soo Hong
A sense of dislocation hangs over the South Korean director’s latest feature as a young woman writer observes mostly melancholy people, old and young.
By GLENN KENNY

Hail Satan?
NYT Critic’s Pick R Documentary Directed by Penny Lane
Members of the Satanic Temple are not your average devil worshipers.
By BEN KENIGSBERG

Breakthrough
NYT Critic’s Pick PG Biography, Drama Directed by Roxann Dawson
After a 14-year-old boy falls into freezing water and his pulse stops, prayers and medical workers both seem to play a role in his recovery.
By BILGE EBIRI

— Of Possible Interest —

Penguins
G Documentary Directed by Alastair Fothergill, Jeff Wilson
Ed Helms provides the internal monologue for a 5-year-old Adélie penguin referred to as Steve, who is about to embark on his first mating season.
By TEO BUGBEE

Rafiki
Drama, Romance Directed by Wanuri Kahiu
The story of a romance between two Kenyan women was shown at Cannes after being banned in Kenya.
By BEN KENIGSBERG

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Not Rated Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy Directed by Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam’s long-deferred tribute to Cervantes’s knight errant finally arrives, starring Jonathan Pryce and Adam Driver.
By A.O. SCOTT

Red Joan
R Biography, Drama, Romance Directed by Trevor Nunn
Trevor Nunn’s listless period drama about an English physicist who leaks atom-bomb secrets, drags when it should zing.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Guava Island
Comedy, Thriller Directed by Hiro Murai
The star, along with Rihanna and his “Atlanta” collaborators, crafts a freewheeling paean to the pleasures of taking it easy.
By JASON BAILEY

<a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/movies/capernaum-review.html?rref=collection%2Fcollection%2Fmovie-guide” target=”_blank”>Capernaum</a>
NYT Critic’s Pick R Drama Directed by Nadine Labaki
Like a Charles Dickens hero, Zain makes his way through a city where cruelty and injustice threaten to overwhelm kindness and decency.
By A.O. SCOTT

<a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/movies/ghostbox-cowboy-review.html?rref=collection%2Fcollection%2Fmovie-guide” target=”_blank”>Ghostbox Cowboy</a>
NYT Critic’s Pick Action, Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Thriller Directed by John Maringouin
John Maringouin directs a dryly funny dissection of entrepreneurial absurdism bleeding into existential and metaphysical despair.
By GLENN KENNY

<a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/movies/lots-of-kids-a-monkey-and-a-castle-review.html?rref=collection%2Fcollection%2Fmovie-guide” target=”_blank”>Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle</a>
NYT Critic’s Pick Documentary Directed by Gustavo Salmerón
The Spanish actor Gustavo Salmerón stitches together an affectionate, frank portrait of his indomitable mother in this family documentary.
By GLENN KENNY

<a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/movies/dead-souls-review.html?rref=collection%2Fcollection%2Fmovie-guide” target=”_blank”>Dead Souls</a>
NYT Critic’s Pick Documentary Directed by Bing Wang
More than eight hours long and harrowing to watch, Wang Bing’s “Dead Souls” is a necessary look at China’s brutal re-education camps for “rightists.”
By BILGE EBIRI

<a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/movies/if-beale-street-could-talk-review.html?rref=collection%2Fcollection%2Fmovie-guide” target=”_blank”>If Beale Street Could Talk</a>
NYT Critic’s Pick R Crime, Drama, Romance Directed by Barry Jenkins
The couple in this adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel are loving while black, an existential truth that is turned into a nightmare.
By MANOHLA DARGIS

<a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/movies/spider-man-into-the-spider-verse-review.html?rref=collection%2Fcollection%2Fmovie-guide” target=”_blank”>Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse</a>
NYT Critic’s Pick PG Animation, Action, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Sci-Fi Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman
This lively, diverse comic-book movie brings some fun to a genre that often takes itself too seriously.
By A.O. SCOTT

— Of Possible Interest —

<a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/movies/mortal-engines-review.html?rref=collection%2Fcollection%2Fmovie-guide” target=”_blank”>Mortal Engines</a>
PG-13 Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Thriller Directed by Christian Rivers
To the extent that “Mortal Engines” resembles anything, it’s other movies, which it plunders with a landfill-diving zeal that suits the surviving populace.
By BEN KENIGSBERG

<a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/movies/never-ending-man-hayao-miyazaki-review.html?rref=collection%2Fcollection%2Fmovie-guide” target=”_blank”>Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki</a>
Documentary, Biography Directed by Kaku Arakawa
The director of animated classics like “Spirited Away” reflects on his career in this documentary.
By GLENN KENNY

<a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/movies/martyr-review.html?rref=collection%2Fcollection%2Fmovie-guide” target=”_blank”>Martyr</a>
Drama, Family, Fantasy Directed by Mazen Khaled
Set in a poor section of the city, Mazen Khaled’s film captures the numbness, grief and rage that come out of strife.
By WESLEY MORRIS

<a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/movies/the-house-that-jack-built-review.html?rref=collection%2Fcollection%2Fmovie-guide” target=”_blank”>The House That Jack Built</a>
R Comedy, Drama, Horror, Thriller Directed by Lars von Trier
Matt Dillon may play a serial killer in Lars von Trier’s latest movie, but its real subject seems to be its director.
By WESLEY MORRIS

Shoplifters
NYT Critic’s Pick R Crime, Drama Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda
In this beautifully felt drama, the Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda dives into the mess of life with a story about a family on the ragged edge.
By MANOHLA DARGIS

Becoming Astrid
NYT Critic’s Pick Biography, Drama Directed by Pernille Fischer Christensen
This biopic of the Swedish writer of the “Pippi Longstocking” series hits familiar beats, but its performances are pitch perfect.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Inquiring Nuns
NYT Critic’s Pick Not Rated Documentary Directed by Gordon Quinn
In this newly restored 1968 documentary, two nuns ask a variety of passers-by in Chicago: “Are you happy?”
By GLENN KENNY

Invisible Hands
NYT Critic’s Pick Documentary Directed by Shraysi Tandon
Shraysi Tandon’s dense investigative documentary jumps into the murky and shameful world of child trafficking and forced labor.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

The Favourite
NYT Critic’s Pick R Biography, Drama Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Yorgos Lanthimos’s new film, starring Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz, turns 18th-century royal intrigue into sublime and ridiculous comedy.
By A.O. SCOTT

Roma
NYT Critic’s Pick R Drama Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Cuarón uses both intimacy and monumentality to express the depths of ordinary life in this autobiographical movie set in Mexico City in the 1970s.
By MANOHLA DARGIS

Creed II
NYT Critic’s Pick PG-13 Drama, Sport Directed by Steven Caple Jr.
Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson and Sylvester Stallone reunite in a terrific follow-up to “Creed.”
By A.O. SCOTT

The World Before Your Feet
NYT Critic’s Pick Documentary Directed by Jeremy Workman
Not everyone can spend several years walking every block of New York. But spending 90 minutes doing that in this documentary is swell.
By BEN KENIGSBERG

Ralph Breaks the Internet
NYT Critic’s Pick PG Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy Directed by Phil Johnston, Rich Moore
John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman return to voice the characters in this social satire sequel that is downright scary.
By BILGE EBIRI

— Of Possible Interest —

Family in Transition
Documentary Directed by Ofir Trainin
The documentary tells the story of Amit Tsuk, who comes out as transgender, and the effect it has on the family.
By KEN JAWOROWSKI

Robin Hood
PG-13 Action, Adventure, Thriller Directed by Otto Bathurst
This is not your father’s, or grandfather’s, “Robin Hood,” and it’s not very good, either.
By GLENN KENNY

Infinite Football
NYT Critic’s Pick Documentary Directed by Corneliu Porumboiu
By its end, the Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu’s new documentary, nominally about world’s most popular sport, moves onto a plane of mysticism.
By GLENN KENNY

Number 37
NYT Critic’s Pick Thriller Directed by Nosipho Dumisa
This slick film is cheerfully derivative yet doggedly entertaining.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Weightless
NYT Critic’s Pick R Drama Directed by Jaron Albertin
The film, with a screenplay by the playwright Enda Walsh and the director Jaron Albertin, follows a mentally ill man reuniting with his 10-year-old son.
By KEN JAWOROWSKI

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
NYT Critic’s Pick R Comedy, Drama, Musical, Mystery, Romance, Western Directed by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
A.O. Scott says this cowboy anthology is among the silliest Coen brothers films, and also one of the grimmest.
By A.O. SCOTT

— Of Possible Interest —

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
PG-13 Adventure, Family, Fantasy Directed by David Yates
This second installment in J.K. Rowling’s series about a “magizoologist” is so freighted with foreboding that even the would-be whimsy feels leaden.
By MANOHLA DARGIS

Outlaw King
R Action, Biography, Drama, History Directed by David Mackenzie
Chris Pine stars in a historical slog about Robert the Bruce (1274-1329) that is little more than a churn of mud, entrails and misty nationalism.
By MANOHLA DARGIS

Postcards from London
Drama Directed by Steve McLean
Steve McLean’s film is a pretty movie about pretty boys.
By BILGE EBIRI

El Angel
Biography, Crime, Drama Directed by Luis Ortega
The film, which was inspired by a real-life killer, follows Carlitos as he moves from one transgression to the next.
By BEN KENIGSBERG

The Grinch
PG Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy Directed by Yarrow Cheney, Scott Mosier
Aside from colorful computer animation and enhanced cuteness for the lovable sidekick dog, Max, this new “Grinch” brings little of note to the table.
By GLENN KENNY

Pimp
Drama Directed by Christine Crokos
This lurid melodrama follows a female pimp (Keke Palmer) and her girlfriend-prostitute.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Chef Flynn
Documentary Directed by Cameron Yates
This documentary from Cameron Yates looks at Flynn McGarry, a young innovator in dining who tries to live up to his hype.
By GLENN KENNY

The Girl in the Spider’s Web: A New Dragon Tattoo Story
R Crime, Drama, Thriller Directed by Fede Alvarez
In the latest and emptiest Salander vehicle, the character’s unclassifiable quality has been dulled and contained.
By MANOHLA DARGIS

The Other Side of the Wind
NYT Critic’s Pick R Comedy, Drama Directed by Orson Welles
Welles’s last project is something of a seductive tease, a film that at times entrances and delights and at times offends and embarrasses.
By MANOHLA DARGIS

A Private War
NYT Critic’s Pick R Biography, Drama, War Directed by Matthew Heineman
Rosamund Pike’s powerhouse lead performance anchors Matthew Heineman’s raw, moving portrait of the war correspondent.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Searching for Ingmar Bergman
NYT Critic’s Pick Documentary Directed by Felix Moeller, Margarethe von Trotta, Bettina Böhler
A new documentary featuring interviews with collaborators and critics makes clear that Bergman, for all his depth, was also an entertainer.
By GLENN KENNY

Maria by Callas
NYT Critic’s Pick PG Documentary, Biography Directed by Tom Volf
The film proposes a corrective to the notion that Callas was a diva both onstage and off.
By BEN KENIGSBERG

Bodied
NYT Critic’s Pick R Comedy, Drama, Music Directed by Joseph Kahn
Joseph Kahn’s outrageously smart film uses the battle rap scene to grab P.C. culture by the neck and squeeze.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

The Grief of Others
NYT Critic’s Pick Drama Directed by Patrick Wang
Patrick Wang’s film, getting a long-overdue theatrical release, looks at a troubled family’s inability to mourn.
By BILGE EBIRI

— Of Possible Interest —

Boy Erased
R Biography, Drama Directed by Joel Edgerton
Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe star in a true story about a discredited (but still practiced) “treatment” for homosexuality.
By A.O. SCOTT

Bohemian Rhapsody
PG-13 Biography, Drama, Music Directed by Bryan Singer
Rami Malek wears prosthetic choppers in a by-the-book biopic of Freddie Mercury and Queen.
By A.O. SCOTT