BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. 3 stars. Live-action version of the 1991 animated classic, starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens in the title roles. Competently staged by Bill Condon, but does not improve on the 2D Disney original. With Luke Evans and Josh Gad. 2 hrs. 9 PG (action violence, peril) _ Gary Thompson
BEFORE I FALL. 3 stars. Surprisingly dark, often interesting variation on "Groundhog Day" about a teen girl (Zoey Deutch) who relives the same tragic day, re-evaluating her life in the process. With Jennifer Beals. 1 hr. 39 mins. PG-13 (drinking, sexuality, bullying) _ Gary Thompson
FENCES. 3.5 stars. August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, about a working-class African American family in the 1950s, is transformed into a compelling, searing film in the hands of producer, director, and star Denzel Washington. He plays a charismatic, funny, energetic, but equally embittered Pittsburgh garbage collector who derides anyone, including his wife, Rose (Viola Davis), and his best friend (Stephen Henderson), who suggest life has improved for African Americans since the Civil War. Once a star baseball player forced by segregation to play in the Negro Leagues, the aging patriarch is harshest on his sons (Russell Hornsby, Jovan Adepo), whose optimism disturb him deeply. 2 hrs. 18 PG-13 (thematic elements, profanity, and some suggestive references) _ Tirdad Derakhshani
FIFTY SHADES DARKER. 2 stars. Dull sequel to the smash-hit original, adapted from the E.L. James novels about a woman (Dakota Johnson) and her on-again, off-again romance with a billionaire playboy (Jamie Dornan) who is into S&M. The title to the sequel is a bit misleading, since the two get along just fine in this installment, which owes as much to "Cinderella" as it does to erotica. With Kim Basinger and Marcia Gay Harden. 1 hr. 55 mins. R (strong sexual content, graphic nudity, language) _ Gary Thompson
FIST FIGHT. 2 stars. Charlie Day plays a teacher who gets a colleague (Ice Cube) fired, leading to a showdown brawl in the parking lot after school. The fight is unexpectedly epic, but the comedy leading up to it is not. With Jillian Bell, Tracy Morgan. and Dean Norris. 1 hr. 31 R (language, sexual content, drugs) _ Gary Thompson
GET OUT. 3 stars. Jordan Peele's horror movie about a black man (Daniel Kaluuya) who heads to mansion country to meet the parents (Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener) of his white girlfriend (Allison Williams). Conceptually clever, though not always as scary as it could be, with a winning supporting role for Lil Rel Howery. 1 hr. 43 R (violence, bloody images) _ Gary Thompson
THE GREAT WALL. 2 stars. A big-budget Chinese-American action-fantasy starring Matt Damon as a mercenary who helps the Chinese army (led by Jing Tian) repel an invasion of fearsome creatures. A merger of Chinese and American talent (Zhang Yimou directs) heralded as the wave of the future, but the results here are not that promising. 1 hr. 44 mins. PG-13 (fantasy action violence) _ Gary Thompson
HIDDEN FIGURES. 3 stars. Taraji P. Henson, Octavio Spencer, and Janelle Monae are terrific in this feel-good family movie about a group of black female mathematicians who worked at NASA during the 1960s. The true story is about overqualified scientists who could only get jobs crunching numbers for their white male bosses, but who overcame prejudice to make their own mark on the space program. Where it lacks as serious history, the film makes up for with an empowering social message. The ensemble cast includes Kevin Costner, Glen Powell, Mahershala Ali, and Aldis Hodge. 2 hr. 7 PG (thematic elements and some profanity) _ Tirdad Derakhshani
I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO. 4 stars. A stunning documentary about William Baldwin's work as an artist and foremost as a civil-rights activist by celebrated Haitian-born director Raoul Peck ("It's Not About Love," "Lumumba"). The film has an ambitious goal: to use footage and narration (read by Samuel L. Jackson) to reconstruct Baldwin's unfinished opus "Remember This House," a study of the life and death of civil-rights activists who had been assassinated, including Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 1 hr. 35 PG-13 (disturbing violent images, thematic material, profanity and brief nudity) _ T.D.
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER TWO. 3 stars. Action-packed sequel again starring Keanu Reeves as the underwold's most fearsome hitman, this time squaring off against the world's most adept assassins (including Common) in scenes of highly stylized violence that build to crescendos of comic absurdity. At better than two hours, though, the movie feels over-stretched. With Ian McShane and Laurence Fishburne, reunited with his co-star from "The Matrix." 2 hrs.2 R (strong violence throughout, nudity, language) _ Gary Thompson
KONG: SKULL ISLAND. 3 stars. Rousing matinee-style fun about scientists (John Goodman, Corey Hawkins) and soldiers (Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston) and an Oscar winner (Brie Larson) mapping an island that has a large inhabitant. Things get hairy. With John C. Reilly. 1 hr. 55 PG-13 (sci-fi violence, brief strong language) _ Gary Thompson
LA LA LAND. 4 stars. Some kind of transcendent magic happens in Damien Chazelle's starry-eyed musical, with one foot (in tap shoes) firmly planted in the past, and the other (in taps, too, of course) planted in a me-first, modern-day world. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are the struggling Los Angelinos who fall in love despite a mutual wariness, walking and talking, singing and dancing, amid a swirl of classic Hollywood references. Not quite perfect, but its imperfections, and its embrace of passion over cynicism, are part of the charm. 2 hrs. 8 PG-13 (profanity, adult themes) _ Steven Rea
LAND OF MINE. 3 stars. Tense, thoughtful drama, set in Denmark during the months after the conclusion of World War II, detailing the often ruthless practice of using German POWs to defuse land mines. With Roland Moller. 1 hr. 50 mins. R (grisly images) _ Gary Thompson
THE LAST WORD. 2 stars. Shirley MacLaine is an elderly control freak who commissions her own obituary, to the chagrin of the obit writer (Amanda Seyfried). A love letter to MacLaine but instead of a letter, how about a better script? 1 hr. 44 R (Language) _ Gary Thompson
THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE. 3 stars. Witty animated sequel to the surprise hit original, with Will Arnett providing the voice of lonely recluse Batman, who changes for the better when he falls for the police commissioner's daughter (Rosario Dawson) and adopts an orphan (Michael Cera) who becomes Robin. Fast-paced, full of jokes that draw from the long history of Batman comic books, movies and television shows. Also featuring Zach Galifianakis as the voice of The Joker. 1 hr. 30 PG (rude humor and some action) _ Gary Thompson
LION. 3 stars. Australian TV director Garth Davis ("Top of the Lake") makes his feature debut with this heart-breaking, if sometimes maudlin, true story told in two parts. In the first, a 5-year-old boy in India becomes separated from his impoverished family and ends up being adopted by an Australian couple (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham). In the second part, the boy has grown up to be a young man (Dev Patel of "Slumdog Millionaire") who goes back in search of his lost family. 1 hr. 48 PG-13 (thematic material and some sensuality) _ Tirdad Derakhshani
LOGAN. 2.5 stars. A promising premise has the title X-Man (Hugh Jackman) and Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) stricken with old age, but the movie, which has them guiding Mexican children over the border, becomes relentlessly, gruesomely violent, and the kids get some of the worst of it. 2 hrs. 15 mins. R (strong brutal violence) _ Gary Thompson
MOONLIGHT. 4 stars. A true American masterpiece, the sophomore feature from Barry Jenkins ("Medicine for Melancholy") is a heady mix of brutal social realism and poetry as it tells the coming age story of a young black gay man from the Miami ghetto. Divided into three parts, it tells the story of Chiron as a 10-year-old, a high school student and a 20-something professional as he wrestles with external forces he can't control including poverty and drug crime and internal desires he cannot ignore. Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders and Trevante Rhodes give memorable performances as Chiron. With Andre Holland, Janelle Monae, Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali. 1 hr. 50 R (some sexuality, drug use, brief violence, and profanity throughout) _ Tirdad Derakhshani
MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI. 3 stars. Charming stop-motion animated movie from France (dubbed in English) about an orphan boy who finds happiness in a home for troubled children. Featuring the voices of John Offerman, Will Forte and Ellen Page. 1 hr. 6 PG-13 (suggestive material) _ Gary Thompson
RAW. 2 stars. Notorious French horror movie about a young veterinary student (Garance Marillier) and vegetarian who develops and insatiable taste for meat. Not for all tastes. 1 hr. 38 R (aberrant behavior, bloody and grisly images, strong sexuality, nudity, language and drug use/partying) _ Gary Thompson
THE SALESMAN. 3.5 stars. Nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film, Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi's latest domestic masterwork is about a pair of young husband-and-wife actors (Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh Alidoosti), rehearsing for a new production of "Death of a Salesman," whose world falls apart when an intruder almost assaults the wife. Her husband becomes possessed by rage and vengeance and loses his humanity. 2 hrs. 5 PG-13 (mature thematic elements and a brief bloody image) _ Tirdad Derakhshani
THE SENSE OF AN ENDING. 3 stars. Divorced loner (Jim Broadbent) is forced to reconsider faulty "memories" of his past, forcing him to abandon self-constructed ideas of himself. Based on Julian Barnes' novel, with Charlotte Rampling and Michelle Dockery. 1 hr. 48 PG-13 (sexuality) _ Gary Thompson
SPLIT. 3 stars. M. Night Shyamalan who made something of a comeback with the small budget found footage horror pic "The Visit," continues the trend with this intensely creepy, engaging and entertaining psychological thriller featuring a virtuoso performance by James McAvoy ("The Last King of Scotland," the "X-Men" series) as deranged killer with 23 distinct personalities who abducts three teenage girls he plans to feed to a demonic beast he believes is emerging as his 24th personality. Anya Taylor-Joy (Morgan) is terrific as one of the hostages, the strong-willed, disturbed outcast Casey. 1 hr. 57 PG-13 (disturbing thematic content and behavior, violence and some profanity) _ Tirdad Derakhshani
TONI ERDMANN. 4 stars. Writer-director Maren Ade's stun-gun of a comedy-drama is a bizarre, brilliant and madly original story about an aging German hippie man-child (Peter Simonischek) and amateur comedian who pulls every book in and his book to reconnect with his estranged yuppie daughter (Sandra Huller). She works in Romania as a corporate consultant who is hired by struggling companies to lay off workers by the hundreds. He's retired and lonely so he pops up in her life unannounced _ and in disguise as a life coach to CEOs. Their encounter takes them on a bizarre tour of Bucharest. The comedy is out of this world, the emotional journey deeply authentic and affecting. In German and Romanian with English subtitles. 2 hrs. 42 R (strong sexual content, graphic nudity, profanity and brief drug use) _ Tirdad Derakhshani
A UNITED KINGDOM. 3.5 stars. David Oyewolo and Rosamund Pike shine in this true story about the remarkable marriage of African tribal prince Seretse and London office girl Ruth Williams. They met in 1947 and wed less than a year later, an event which sparked an international diplomatic crisis. Seretse was set to lead his people _ under the guidance of Britain. Instead, the British exiled him. Shot on location in Botswana, the film shows how the couple's commitment to each other and to democratic ideals allowed them to triumph against all odds. 1 hr. 51 PG-13 (some language, including racial epithets and a scene of sensuality) _ Tirdad Derakhshani
