Looking for what to see in theaters? Our feature, updated weekly, highlights our top recommendations for films currently in theaters, from new releases to restorations receiving a proper theatrical run.
While we already provide extensive monthly new-release recommendations and weekly streaming recommendations, as distributors’ roll-outs can vary, this is a one-stop list to share the essential films that may be on a screen near you.
The Baltimorons (Jay Duplass)
A return to form for Jay Duplass, who’s also making his solo-directing debut, The Baltimorons is a charming throwback to the low-budget indies he directed with his brother Mark. Written and starring burly stand-up comedian Michael Strassner, the Baltimore-set film follows the mis-adventures of an unlikely romantic duo: Strassner’s Cliff, a stand-up comedian six months sober, and his older workaholic dentist Didi (Liz Larsen). Cliff is bantering with his fiancée Brittany (Olivia Luccardi) when he falls and chips a tooth, sending him frantically searching for a dentist who will take him on Christmas Eve. Didi is the only one who takes his call, agreeing to meet him in her empty office for surgery. – John F. (full review)
Happyend (Neo Sora)
“Something big is about to change,” is surely one ominous beginning for a debut fiction feature, but director Neo Sora knows how to calibrate the fine balance between anticipation and inevitability. A story set in the near future, Happyend makes Tokyo a vast playground to high-school seniors gathered around childhood pals Yuta (Hayato Kurihara) and Kou (Yukito Hidaka). Life is blooming and the future is ripe for those teenagers, even if the whole city is constantly preparing itself for a catastrophic earthquake. Daily drills and false alarms interrupt an otherwise-smooth rhythm where Yuta and Kou gather their classmates at their Music Research Club, an extracurricular that’s more enjoyable than practical in purpose. With a fully equipped school room at their disposal at all times, the gang can build a secure microcosm for the shared love of electronic avant-garde and a generally good time. – Savina P. (full review)
The History of Sound (Oliver Hermanus)
It’s strange to hear backwood Appalachian fiddle folk in a French theater at the hand of a South African director portraying the queer, song-collecting lives of two American men who are madly, delicately in love and played by British stars. Thanks to Paul Mescal, it’s also quite lovely. The History of Sound––Oliver Hermanus’ hushed ode to New England’s rich tapestry of folk history, adapted by Ben Shattuck from his short-story collection of the same name––is a tenderly felt drama sung in whisper and sorrow, the kind that almost guarantees a cry for anyone weakened by a phenomenal homegrown voice or piercing romance. Its alternately hyper-specific and vast range of vocals, styles, and tunes suggest the minor dawning of a lesser-known American sound. – Luke H. (full review)
A Little Prayer (Angus MacLachlan)
In the quiet, peaceful mornings that ease your way into writer-director Angus MacLachlan’s A Little Prayer, a woman belts out gospel songs that echo down the block. They’re a bleary-eyed nuisance to many waking in this small, North Carolina neighborhood, but Bill Brass (David Straitharn) and his daughter-in-law Tammy (Jane Levy) have a mutual fascination with them, rising early with curiosity and wonder. Why does she sing them? Where do they come from exactly? The pair eventually attempt to investigate their leafy streets to find the source, yet as the spirituals dissipate and leave them alone in bird-chirping silence, they seem to revel in their beautiful, unsolved mystery. – Jake K-S. (full review)
My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow (Julia Loktev)
Thirteen long years since her brilliant feature The Loneliest Planet, Julia Loktev finally returned last fall with a five-hour documentary––the first of a two-part project. World-premiering at the New York Film Festival, the intimate, intricate My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow finds Loktev capturing Putin’s assault on independent journalism in Russia, which was only exacerbated by his full-on attack on Ukraine. Loktev documented a group of her friends fighting the good fight running TV Rain, Russia’s last remaining independent news channel. As Luke Hicks said in his NYFF review, “Through Loktev’s run-and-gun immersion in their world, we begin to understand how the groundwork is laid to propagandize and miseducate the masses, a huge swath of whom see straight through it.”
Riefenstahl (Andres Veiel)
It is fascinating what the human mind will allow. Riefenstahl, a documentary directed by Andres Veiel about the life of Leni Riefenstahl, explores the rationalizations the filmmaker allowed herself in order to explain her collaborations with the Nazi Party in Germany during their time in power. Until the day she died (at 101 years old in 2003), Riefenstahl refuted accusations that she was aware of the crimes being committed around her. “I never saw any atrocities happening,” she says in an interview from 1976, after the interviewer presents her with an account of her witnessing the murder of 22 Jews. She denies it adamantly. Throughout the film, we watch her deny much, while separate information suggests she was more aware of the evil around her than she ever let on. How much did Leni Riefenstahl know when she was working directly with Hitler and his team of monsters? – Dan M. (full review)
Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass (The Quay Brothers)
Timothy and Stephen Quay have developed an entirely unique style in the world of stop-motion animation: vigorously kinetic yet meticulously controlled; balletic in its interweaving of aural and visual rhythms; full of the sort of trivia and esoterica that fascinated Borges and Pessoa; and given to looped sequences of pure, sensual, cinematographic abstraction. Their latest production, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, which draws generously from Bruno Schulz’s novel of the same name, adds yet more stylistic oddities to the foregoing list, albeit in a more conventional, narrativized context. – Oliver W. (full review)
Splitsville (Michael Angelo Covino)
Six years after their breakout feature The Climb, Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin have returned, with stars in tow, for Splitsville, a rom-com as unexpected as it his hilarious. After a Cannes premiere, it’s now in theaters. Luke Hicks said in his review, “Marvin and Covino have certainly carved a distinct path in this early phase of their careers. Apart, Covino caught the acting bug a bit more than Marvin, picking up roles in Oscar contender News of the World and starry ensemble dud Riff Raff, while Marvin won a significant supporting role in the Apple TV+ miniseries WeCrashed and launched his feature directing career with, of all things, 80 for Brady. Together they write whip-smart, Sorkin-quick buddy comedies that tee up the duo’s inimitable comedic chemistry and timing. Their relatable, down-to-earth brand of foolhardy, dipshit-driven, erratic comedy feels like the arrival of a style that could catch fire––a fresh comedic voice that harkens back to the emergence of Wes Anderson’s playfully dry indie tone in the ‘90s.”
Sunfish (& Other Stories On Green Lake) (Sierra Falconer)
Filmmaker Sierra Falconer’s Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake) captures a bittersweet feeling. That feeling of endings and beginnings, happening at the same time. For eighty minutes, we watch four short stories unfold in and around Green Lake. One involves a young girl (Maren Heary) learning how to sail after being dumped at the doorstep of her grandparents’ lake house by her neglectful mother. Another concerns a young boy (Jim Kaplan) at the fancy summer camp on the other side of the lake. He’s facing intense pressure from his mother to make first chair violin in the camp orchestra. An extended sequence of him practicing is particularly tense. The third story features an overworked young mother (Karsten Liotta) seduced by adventure in the form of a charming, wayward bar patron (Dominic Bogart) and a once-in-a-lifetime fish to be caught. Finally, there’s the lovely tale of two sisters (Tenley Kellogg and Emily Hall) running a lakeside bed-and-breakfast, the older of the two teaching the younger every needed task to completion before leaving for college. – Dan M. (full review)
Suspended Time (Olivier Assayas)
It’s been such a long wait for Olivier Assayas’ Suspended Time, which premiered back at the 2024 Berlinale Film Festival, that the director has already shot another feature in the meantime, with The Wizard of the Kremlin gearing up for a Venice debut. Prior to that, his personal, 2020-set drama will arrive in theaters from Music Box Films beginning August 15. Rory O’Connor said in his review, “The memes won’t let you forget, but 2019 was half a decade ago. That was also the year Olivier Assayas’ Wasp Network––an odd return to the realm of his TV series Carlos, and subsequently picked up by Narcos-era Netflix––premiered at the Venice Film Festival. That was Assayas’ last feature, making the intervening period (Irma Vep for HBO aside) the longest dry patch of his 38-year career. The dexterous director returns this week to the Berlinale with the aptly titled Suspended Time, a personal essay wrapped up in an effortless comedy that shows no signs whatsoever of long gestation. Naturally, it’s all the better for it.”
Twinless (James Sweeney)
Twinless starts like a prototypical Sundance movie––grim and serious, plus unexpected levity. That’s the general formula for a festival that might as well have manufactured the term “dramedy.” In this case there’s an offscreen car accident and quick cut to a funeral. Roman (Dylan O’Brien) stands grieving beside his mother (Lauren Graham) as the casket containing his gay identical twin brother, Rocky, is lowered into the ground. It’s a somber affair––tears, tissues, a violinist’s rendition of “Danny Boy”––until the song pauses abruptly on a false note, engendering awkward silence. It’s the first permission you have to laugh, then to recognize the faint absurdity of a gathering in which mourners approach Roman and bawl at his uncanny likeness to the deceased. – Jake K-S. (full review)
Where to Land (Hal Hartley)
“I’m done being a superhero.” An international movie star who’s become synonymous with her intergalactic onscreen persona in a wildly successful television show, Muriel (Kim Taff) has reached her creative breaking point. She confesses as much to her boyfriend Joe Fulton (Bill Sage), a former director of romantic comedies who’s begun his own self-reflective shift toward a simpler life by applying to work as a groundskeeper at the local cemetery. Such epiphanies occur throughout the climactic hangout session of Hal Hartley’s great new film Where to Land, a shaggy and spellbinding ode to shifting gears despite everyday life’s crippling opposition to change. – Glenn H. (full review)
More Films Now Playing in Theaters
The Best New Restorations Now Playing in Theaters
The below list features newly restored films receiving a theatrical release run. For NYC-specific repertory round-ups, bookmark NYC Weekend Watch.
- The Friends
- Lovers on the Bridge
- In the Mood for Love with In the Mood for Love 2001
- Yi Yi
Read all reviews here.
The post The Best Movies Now Playing in Theaters first appeared on The Film Stage.
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