How fitting that the “Planet of the Apes” franchise continues to evolve, despite forever encircling the same inescapable themes of inhumanity — even in a post-human world — and the double-edged sword of technological advancement. Wes Ball’s lush and nuanced “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” might lack the epic sweep or revolutionary fervor of the recent Matt Reeves movies that salvaged this series from the stink that had been on it since 2001, but this well-honed adventure still…

Ethan Hawke’s “Wildcat” has an intriguing fixation with artistic process. The actor-turned-director casts his own daughter, Maya Hawke, as Southern Gothic author Flannery O’Connor, in another film about a real artist’s life — “Blaze” was about a country musician; “Seymour: An Introduction” followed a classical pianist — with an unconventional and alluring narrative structure. However, despite Maya Hawke throwing herself headfirst into the part, her father’s attempts to capture O’Connor’s mind, body, and soul end up feeling incomplete.

The opening…

Zeroing in on a glamorous notable from this or that royal court, and using them a kind of mannequin over which to drape lofty themes and embellishments, “Jeanne du Barry” is a perfectly serviceable entry in a genre born of the stage and perfected by Old Hollywood: the star showcase. That the icon in the spotlight is writer-director-lead actor Maïwenn, and not her American co-star Johnny Depp, should come as a relief to some, a crushing disappointment to others, and…

“Evil Does Not Exist,” the title of the latest film from “Drive My Car” director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, is a bold statement to make in the year 2023. As it turns out in this eerie and elusive ecological tone poem about man, nature, and man’s nature, the statement is not necessarily something the Japanese filmmaker believes.

This made-in-secret and gently lilting film set in a bucolic village on the outskirts of Tokyo seems like a call for compassion on the surface…

At this year’s Academy Awards, “The Fall Guy” stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt presented a video tribute to stunt performers that included clips ranging from the silent era up through recent action juggernauts like “RRR” and the “Fast & Furious” series. It was a step forward for a group whose contributions are frequently undervalued despite, as Blunt put it, “risk[ing] life and limb” for cinema. And yet, the segment didn’t come with an award attached.

There’s a joke about the…

Sinister and liberating in equal measure (and often at the same time), Jane Schoenbrun’s ultra-lo-fi “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” leveraged the inherent loneliness of webcams and the performative danger of online creepypasta into a haunting portrait of the potentially dysphoric relationship between screens and identity in the internet age. The kind of sui generis shot in the dark that feels like it could only have been made by someone who wasn’t sure if anyone would see it,…

Robinne Lee’s 2017 debut novel “The Idea of You” followed an almost 40-year-old woman who enters a romance with the star of a giant boyband sensation. The book was a giant hit, in no small part due to fans viewing one of the main characters as a stand-in for One Direction’s Harry Styles. Now comes a movie adaptation from the director of “The Big Sick,” which translates the novel while making enough changes to improve upon the source material, including…

America has been starved for pure, unapologetic, multiplex-grade romantic comedies, and Will Gluck’s “Anyone but You” doesn’t waste any time announcing itself as one of those. The first five minutes alone serve up a classic meet-cute in a coffee shop, a funny but wholly illogical bit of physical comedy involving a splash of water that might be mistaken for a pee stain, and a magical — but chaste — night together in a personality-less bachelor pad that looks just like…