21 years after her sleeper-hit romantic-comedy blew up the box office, and seven years after the sequel (although this one is set only a year later), Nia Vardalos returns as Toula alongside John Corbett as Ian in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, joined by the (surviving, RIP Michael Constantine) members of the supporting cast, including Elena Kampouris as their now-grown daughter, Paris. This travelog sequel centers around a family reunion in actual Greece, surprisingly a hitherto unvisited location for the franchise. Vardalos wrote all three films, and also directs this time, as she did when she co-starred opposite Corbett in 2009’s unrelated I Hate Valentine’s Day. Now in theaters.

The remarkably successful Conjuring cinematic universe continues to expand with The Nun II, directed by Michael Chaves, who is proving himself to be the franchise’s in-house director of choice after helming 2019’s The Curse of La Llorona and 2021’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. The Nun star Taissa Farmiga, younger sister of series lead Vera Farmiga (who naturally promises to cameo alongside Patrick Wilson), returns as Sister Irene, who must once again face the titular demonic force, played by Bonnie Aaron, who recently sued Warner Bros. over merchandising residuals. Now in theaters.

It turns out that Michael Goorjian—an actor familiar to audiences of a certain age as Neve Campbell’s cool-nerd boyfriend Justin on Party of Five (the one who got dumped for Jeremy London), or as Bob in SLC Punk—is an accomplished filmmaker as well. He taps into his own Armenian heritage for the wry Amerikatsi, which he writes, directs and stars in as a man who escaped to America from the Armenian genocide as a child, then gets thrown in prison when he returns to Armenia as an adult. Comparisons to Life Is Beautiful abound in the reviews. “The best representation of my people and culture that I have ever seen on the big screen,” proclaims Manob007. Now in select US theaters.

Letterboxd favorite Pablo Larraín, the Chilean director who made Jackie and Spencer, just premiered his latest movie at Venice and it sounds like a doozy: El Conde (“The Count”) imagines Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (played by prior Larraín collaborator Jaime Vadell) as a 250-year-old vampire who decides to end his life. The vampire puns are running wild in early reactions. “What if Béla Tarr directed Renfield with a lot of money from Netflix?” asks Dalma. “Visually stunning… but all these Netflix personal passion projects have the same problem: hot mess,” cautions S_ru. Now in select theaters, on Netflix from September 15.

Actor, martial artist, filmmaker and one-time Spawn Michael Jai White is a cult favorite for many reasons, the main one being the beloved blaxploitation spoof Black Dynamite, which he co-wrote and starred in. Outlaw Johnny Black is a follow-up of sorts, with White now also in the directing chair, and taking on the Western as a vengeance-seeking kung-fu cowboy posing as a preacher. In US theaters September 15.

From the “Well, that didn’t take long” file comes Dumb Money, a film about the GameStop/Reddit “meme stock” incident that generated global headlines and freaked out Wall Street in 2021. Adapted from The Antisocial Network by Ben Mezrich, who also wrote the non-fiction books that generated the films 21 and The Social Network, this film stars Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Seth Rogen and many other zeitgeist-y actors. I, Tonya’s Craig Gillespie directs, and for some reason, the Winklevoss twins (memorably portrayed by Armie Hammer in The Social Network) are executive producers here. In LA and New York theaters September 15, before going wide on October 5.

Selected by Journal contributor Rafa Sales Ross as one of the best films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Cassandro, helmed by Roger Ross Williams, has Gael García Bernal portraying gay Mexican luchador Saúl Armendáriz, who rose to prominence under the titular persona, known as the “Liberace of Lucha Libre”. Bernal is the focal point of many Letterboxd reviews, with Nick honing in on his ability to smoke seductively: “He is in the upper echelon of rippin’ cigs on screen.” Alyssa asserts that it’s “Rocky IV for the queer community” while Clint describes it as “a lovely tale about the masks we wear as queer people, and how liberating it can be when we finally put on our real face.” In select US theaters September 15.