Movie guide: 'Mid90s,' 'Johnny English,' 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' open this weekend

Four stars: superior. Three stars: good. Two stars: average. One star: poor. D (drug use), L (language), N (nudity), S (sexual situations, references), V (violence). Ratings by Film Critic Dann Gire, unless otherwise noted.

New this week

"Can You Ever Forgive Me?" - In one of her best and most dramatic performances, Plainfield native Melissa McCarthy stars as real-life writer Lee Israel, an embittered, hard-drinking curmudgeon who turns to forging celebrity letters to pay the rent. With Richard E. Grant as her drinking buddy. Reviewed by Jake Coyle, Associated Press. (R) D, L, S. 107 minutes.    ½

"The Happy Prince" - Fine performances help offset the maudlin script in writer-director-star Rupert Everett's account of the older Oscar Wilde. The drama charts the author's life from his release from a British prison to his 1900 death in Paris. Reviewed by Mark Jenkins, Washington Post. (R) D, L, N, S. In English, French and Italian with some subtitles. 104 minutes.   ½

"Hunter Killer" - Gerard Butler stars in yet another frenetic, cliche-ridden thriller - this time as a rogue Navy guy called in when an American submarine disappears in Russian waters. It's laughable at times, but never never boring. With Gary Oldman, Common and Glen Ellyn's Ryan McPartlin. Reviewed by Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press. (R) L, V.  

"Indivisible" - The marriage between an Army chaplain and his wife is strained when he is deployed to Iraq and she must care for three kids on her own in this fact-based tale. Not reviewed. (PG-13) V. 119 minutes.

"Johnny English Strikes Again" - The inept secret agent must return to duty after a cyberattack exposes the identities of far more capable agents in the third chapter of the spy spoof franchise. Slapstick rules as Rowan Atkinson delivers a brand of charming buffoonery that is a balm for these troubled times. Reviewed by Pat Padua, Washington Post. (PG) 88 minutes.   ½

"London Fields" - A dying American author (Billy Bob Thornton) in London encounters an unusual cast of characters, including a mysterious woman plotting her own murder. Not reviewed. (R) L, N, S. 108 minutes.

"Mid90s" - Jonah Hill's directorial debut stars winningly vulnerable Sunny Suljic as a 13-year-old kid adopted by a group of rag-tag L.A. skateboarding teens. In lieu of a standard Hollywood plot, Hill concentrates on the too-common bonds that tie these characters together: alienation, frustration and an abject lack of spiritual growth and family support. (R) D, L, V. 84 minutes.   

"Silencio" - A mother stumbles on secrets and danger as she tries to find a powerful stone that her grandfather discovered in Mexico to save her son's life. Not reviewed. (R) V. 98 minutes.

"What They Had" - Hilary Swank and Michael Shannon's performances as complex, conflicted siblings dealing with their mother's (Blythe Danner) Alzheimer's and their father's (Robert Forster) rigidity are the best things about former Hinsdale resident Elizabeth Chomko's family drama. Brace for an ending likely to illicit groans. Reviewed by Mark Jenkins, Washington Post. (R) L, S. 100 minutes.   ½

Picks

"Crazy Rich Asians" - An economics professor from China (Henry Golding) brings his girlfriend (Constance Wu) to Singapore for a friend's wedding and to meet his parents. She's shocked to find out they're multimillionaires. The hotly anticipated rom-com, featuring an all-Asian cast, does not disappoint. Reviewed by Ann Hornaday, Washington Post. (PG-13) L. 121 minutes.   

"First Man" - The sounds of silence make lots of noise in director Damien Chazelle's surprising, anti-epic, historical drama "First Man," a tightly coiled study of the first human to set foot on the moon. Ryan Gosling gives an understated performance as quiet, stoic astronaut Neil Armstrong. With Claire Foy and Jason Clarke. (PG-13) L. 141 minutes.    ½

"Free Solo" - The often breathtaking adventure documentary chronicles the exploits of champion climber Alex Honnold, who sets out to be the first person ever to solo climb El Capitan, a sheer, 3,000-foot-high rock face in Yosemite National Park. And he plans to do it without a harness. Reviewed by Ann Hornaday, Washington Post. (PG-13) L. 100 minutes.    ½

"The Hate U Give" - After witnessing the shooting death of her friend during a routine traffic stop, a teen (the remarkable Amandla Stenberg) is pushed and pulled in multiple directions over the course of this powerful, timely and deeply moving tale. Impeccably directed by George Tillman Jr., the drama defies expectation at every turn. Reviewed by Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post. (PG-13) D, L, V. 132 minutes.    

"Mission: Impossible - Fallout" - Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the Impossible Missions Force must recover three stolen plutonium cores that an arms dealer and a terrorist group intend to use to target the world's holiest of places. Cruise blows way past James Bond for sheer athleticism and astonishing stunts in this tightly wound thriller. (PG-13) L, V. 147 minutes.    ½

"The Nun" - This fifth installment of "The Conjuring" series tells the origin story of demon nun Valek. This time, our protagonist is Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga), a novitiate who is dispatched by the Vatican, along with Father Burke (Demian Bichir), to a remote Romanian abbey where a young nun has just hung herself. Reviewed by Jake Coyle, Associated Press. (R) V. 96 minutes.   

"The Old Man & The Gun" - Robert Redford picked the perfect character for what he says is his last acting role - that of charming real-life bank robber and frequent prison escapee Forrest Tucker. Sissy Spacek co-stars as his love interest and Casey Affleck plays the Texas police sergeant piecing Tucker's crimes together. Reviewed by Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press. (PG-13) L. 93 minutes.   

"The Sisters Brothers" - John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix play the title brothers, accomplished hit men following a target during the heights of the Gold Rush. Jacques Audiard's Western is spiked with violence, but there's a sweetness as well. Reviewed by Ann Hornaday. (R) L, S, V. 121 minutes.   

"A Star is Born" - In his moving directing debut, actor Bradley Cooper remakes a stodgy Hollywood classic, giving it gritty, relevant new life. Cooper stars as a hard-drinking musician who discovers and falls for a young singer (a transporting Lady Gaga) whose career soars as his implodes. (R) D, L, N, S. 135 minutes.    

Passables

"Bad Times at the El Royale" - In director Drew Goddard's pulpy but artificial thriller, a motley crew of travelers (Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Jon Hamm, Dakota Johnson, Chris Hemsworth), all with secrets in tow, meet at the rundown El Royale hotel in Lake Tahoe. While this slow-burn thriller looks terrific, the payoff is less than. Reviewed by Jake Coyle, Associated Press. (R) D, L, S, N. 140 minutes.  

"Beautiful Boy" - Timothée Chalamet's profound performance as a young man grappling with addiction helps elevate this fact-based melodrama, a harrowing and frustrating tale of how a child of privilege became hostage to drugs. Steve Carell, however, is not as convincing as his desperate dad. Reviewed by Ann Hornaday, Washington Post. (R) D, L, S. 112 minutes.  

"Colette" - Wash Westmoreland's handsome but too-timid period film stars Keira Knightley as author Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, who blazed a relentlessly unconventional path through Belle Epoque Paris, leaving behind a litany of affairs, scandals and dozens of books. Reviewed by Jake Coyle, Associated Press. (R) N, S. 121 minutes.   ½

"Fahrenheit 11/9" - The latest documentary from agent provocateur Michael Moore attempts nothing short of a magic act: turning despair into hope. He starts off with the question asking how Trump got elected, then moves on to the Flint water crisis, and then to grass-roots activists who are impatient for change. Reviewed by Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post. (R) L. 125 minutes.   ½

"Halloween" - Forty years after John Carpenter's seminal horror tale "Halloween" scared audiences, Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her role as Laurie Strode, the sole surviving baby sitter of crazed killer Michael Myers' original massacre. Michael is once again on the loose, and Laurie must protect her daughter and granddaughter. (R) D, L, N, V. 109 minutes.  

"The House With a Clock in Its Walls" - As far as kid-centric comic horror goes, Eli Roth's film has everything going for it, outside of originality and cleverness. A young orphan aids his magical uncle (Jack Black) in locating a clock with the power to bring about the end of the world. Cate Blanchett is superb as the stylish sorceress Mrs. Zimmerman. (PG) 104 minutes.   ½

"Night School" - A smooth-talking salesman (Kevin Hart) seeking his GED joins a group of misfits in a class presided over by a no-nonsense teacher (Tiffany Haddish). The crude comedy has heart and an important message, but the road to knowledge here passes through bodily fluids. Reviewed by Pat Padua, Washington Post. (PG-13) D, L, S, V. 111 minutes.   ½

"The Oath" - Ike Barinholtz's blistering made-for-liberals political satire imagines a dystopian near future in which civilians have been enjoined to publicly declare their loyalty to a thin-skinned, conservative commander in chief. Things come to a boil - and violence - over one family's Thanksgiving dinner. Reviewed by Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post. (R) D, L, V. 93 minutes.   ½

"A Simple Favor" - A fashion publicist (Blake Lively) disappears after leaving her son with a friend, a widowed parenting vlogger (Anna Kendrick), in Paul Feig's hybrid of twisty mystery and absurdist comedy. The film, however, makes a better comedy than thriller. Reviewed by Sonia Rao, Washington Post. (R) D, L, N, S, V. 116 minutes.   ½

"Smallfoot" - A Yeti (voiced by Channing Tatum), raised in a community where government deceit has kept his massive fellow creatures from knowing that humans exist, befriends a "smallfoot" (James Corden) in a needlessly complicated animated tale that delivers an unexpected lesson in integrity. (PG) 109 minutes.   ½

"Venom" - Tom Hardy plays a TV investigative journalist whose body is invaded by an alien organism in a destabilizing mix of intentional and unintentional comedy that for better and worse returns the superhero movie to its natural state: camp. Reviewed by Jake Coyle, Associated Press. (PG-13) V, L. 112 minutes.  

Unpreviewed

"Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween" - Slappy is back to wreak more havoc this Halloween in this sequel based on the "Goosebumps" books by R.L. Stine. Jack Black, Chris Parnell and Ken Jeong star. (PG) 90 minutes.

"Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer" - This drama follows the true story of the investigation and trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, who ran an unchecked abortion clinic where at least one patient died and many were injured. (PG-13) 93 minutes.

"Hell Fest" - A masked serial killer stalks a horror-themed amusement park, terrorizing patrons. (R) L, S, V. 89 minutes.

"Indivisible" - The marriage between an Army chaplain and his wife is strained when he is deployed to Iraq and she must care for three kids on her own in this fact-based drama. (PG-13) V. 119 minutes.

"London Fields" - A dying American author (Billy Bob Thornton) in London encounters an unusual cast of characters, including a mysterious woman plotting her own murder. (R) L, N, S. 108 minutes.

"Silencio" - A mother stumbles on secrets and danger as she tries to find a powerful stone that her grandfather discovered in Mexico to save her son's life. (R) V. 98 minutes.

Foreign language

"Andhadhun" - In Hindi.

"Aravindha Sametha Veera Raghava" - In Telugu.

"Baazaar" - In Hindi.

"Badhaai Ho" - In Telugu.

"First Love" - In Tagalog.

"Hello Guru Prema Kosame" - In Telugu.

"Namaste England" - In Hindi.

"Veera Bhoga Vasantha Rayalu" - In Telugu.

"Ya Veremos" - In Spanish.