Movie guide

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 Dann Gire, Daily Herald Film Critic, unless otherwise noted.

Picks

“Anthropoid” —Sean Ellis’ meticulously calibrated account of a 1941 Czechoslovakian resistance plot to assassinate one of the architects of Hitler’s Final Solution: S.S. Gen. Reinhard Heydrich. Reviewed by Christopher Kompanek, Washington Post. (R) V. 120 minutes.??? ?

“Equity”— Well-written high-finance drama told through the experiences of investment banker Naomi Bishop (Anna Gunn), dealing with double-crosses and politics while trying to break through the smudged glass ceiling in her office. (R) L. 100 minutes.???

“Finding Dory”— Pixar’s fun, animated comic adventure, but lacking the imagination and creativity of “Finding Nemo” from 13 years ago. Dory the fish (Ellen DeGeneres) searches for her missing parents with help from an octopus (Ed O’Neill), Nemo (Aurora resident Hayden Rolence) and Marlin (Albert Brooks). Really, a car chase in an ocean movie? (PG) 100 minutes.???

“Florence Foster Jenkins”— Meryl Streep wows us again as the titular character, a lovable, self-deluded woman in the 1940s who tries to sing opera, but can’t, and doesn’t let that stop her. A crowd-pleasing, eccentric comedy about romance, sort of. With Hugh Grant and Simon Helberg. (PG-13) S. 110 minutes.???½

“Gleason”— Clay Tweel’s sobering doc about Steve Gleason, former New Orleans Saints safety who at 34 was diagnosed with ALS and given two to five years to live. Reviewed by Pat Padua, Washington Post. At the River East and Century Centre in Chicago, plus the Evanston Century 18. (R) L. 110 minutes.???

“Hell or High Water”— Well-crafted modern western about two bankrobbing Texas brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) and the Texas Rangers (Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham) on their tails. (R) L, S, V. 102 minutes.???½

“The Infiltrator”— Bryan Cranston’s excellent, immersive performance highlights this flawed, fact-based crime tale about the undercover drug agent who toppled a worldwide money laundering operation for Pablo Escobar. With John Leguizamo and Diane Kruger. (R) D, L, S. 100 minutes.?? ?

“Lights Out”— Tidy little supernatural thriller about an at-risk family menaced by a malevolent entity named Diana, who only exists in the dark. Clever innovations mash with genre conventions in David Sandberg’s spook fest. (PG-13) D, V. 81 minutes.?? ?

“Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates”— Episodic, gross and periodically hilarious comedy based on the true story of two brothers (here Zac Efron and Adam Devine) who advertise on Craigslist for dates for their sister’s Hawaiian wedding. Two opportunistic women (Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza) get the jobs. Breakout performance by Canadian performer Sugar Lyn Beard as the sister. (R) D, L, N, S. 98 minutes.???

“Pete’s Dragon”— David Lowery’s reboot of the 1977 cheesy Walt Disney musical is a far superior work of amazing fantasy, all about the friendship between a young boy (a well-cast Oakes Fegley) and his giant dragon Elliott. (PG) 90 minutes.???

“Sausage Party”— Lewd, rude, insane animated adult comedy about living food substances in a supermarket hoping to be taken into heaven by shoppers. It’s like a Pixar movie on acid, but really a smart and smarting religious and political satire, too. With Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig. (R) D, L, S. 89 minutes.???½

Passables

“The BFG”— Steven Spielberg directs a tepid but serviceable kid’s fantasy about a young London girl kidnapped by a Big Friendly Giant (Mark Rylance) and whisked off to Giant Country. A slight disappointment based on the book by Roald Dahl. (PG) 117 minutes.??½

“Bad Moms”— Three stressed-out mothers (Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn and Kristen Bell) fold under their daily pressures and go crazy by breaking all the routine mom rules. With Christina Applegate and Jada Pinkett Smith. Reviewed by Stephanie Merry, Washington Post. (R) D, L, N, S. 101 minutes.??½

“Cafe Society”— Honeyed, hyper-ethnic nostalgia from Woody Allen, who directs, writes and narrates a bittersweet romantic triangle between a New York transplant (Jesse Eisenberg), his Hollywood agent uncle (Steve Carell) and his idealistic young secretary (Kristen Stewart). Superb lensing by Vittorio Storaro paired with Allen for the first time. Reviewed by Ann Hornaday, Washington Post. (PG-13) D, S, V. 96 minutes.??

“Ghostbusters”— Plainfield’s Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon take over the job of saving New York City from supernatural entities in Paul Feig’s bold but noisy, unscary, witless remake of Ivan Reitman’s comedy. But hey, it has its funny moments and original cast cameos to keep us amused. (PG-13) supernatural action, crude humor. 105 minutes.??

“Indignation”— A garden-variety coming-of-age story becomes a poetic, even prayerful, meditation on the pitiless vagaries of character and regret in James Schamus’ adaptation of the 2008 novel by Philip Roth. Logan Lerman plays the son of a kosher butcher in Newark who flees to an Ohio college where he meets an unapologetic sinner named Olivia (Sarah Gadon). Reviewed by Ann Hornaday, Washington Post. (R) L, S. 110 minutes.??½

“Nerve”— Just in time to provide a dark commentary on “Pokemon Go.” A shy teen (Emma Roberts) becomes swept up in a smartphone contest for popularity and money if she accomplishes increasingly dangerous assignments. A disastrous ending destroys what would have been a provocative, paranoid thriller. With fidgety Dave Franco as her date for the night. (PG-13) D, L, N, S. 96 minutes.??½

“Star Trek Beyond”— More mano-a-alieno fights than an intergalactic WWE match, an interracial bromance, plus a swarm of nasty mechanical space bees highlight this visually engaging third chapter in the sci-fi reboot, which looks great, but doesn’t feel 100 percent Trek. Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana return. (PG-13) V. 122 minutes.??½

Pits

“Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party”— After giving us the 2014 hit “Obama’s America,” Dinesh D’Souza delves into the unsavory history of the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s political mechanizations in a journalistically unsound doc undermined by cheesy dramatic re-creations of historical events. (PG-13) V. 105 minutes.One-half star.

“Ice Age: Collision Course”— Lazy, scattershot and excruciatingly unfunny fifth installment in the prehistoric animated comedy series. This one has an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Kids might come away with the impression that movies don’t get any better than this. With Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Jennifer Lopez. Reviewed by Stephanie Merry, Washington Post. (PG) 100 minutes.?

“Jason Bourne”— Frenetic, noisy, blurry action footage suffocates story and character as Matt Damon’s amnesiac CIA assassin discovers the truth about his father and settles a score with a ruthless new CIA director (Tommy Lee Jones). Perfunctory screenplay sets a record for utterances of “Copy that!” With Alicia Vikander and Julia Stiles. (PG-13) L, V. 123 minutes.?½

“The Secret Life of Pets”— Engaging animated comedy about what pets do all day while their owners are out working. If it didn’t condone bullying and violence as effective and efficient ways to solve problems, it would be a much better kids movie. Two canine rivals (Louis C.K. and Eric Stonestreet) must depend on each other to survive New York’s mean streets and animal control officers. Voices by Kevin Hart, Albert Brooks, Dana Carvey. (PG) 90 minutes.?½

“Suicide Squad”— The most anticipated summer movie turns out to be a dud, a muddled variation of “The Dirty Dozen” with thinly drawn supervillains recruited by a ruthless bureaucrat (Viola Davis) to stop an ancient warlock from stealing the ending to “Ghostbusters.” Only Margot Robbie’s sleazy Harley Quinn knows how to spin writer/director David Ayer’s material, extremely disturbing stuff blunted by a restrictive PG-13 rating. L, S, V. 123 minutes.?½

Unpreviewed

“Amateur Night”— A comedy about a financially desperate dad and husband (Jason Biggs) reduced to driving prostitutes to their jobs to make a few bucks. (NR) 93 minutes.

“Beyond Valkyrie: Dawn of the Fourth Reich”— Sean Patrick Flanery and Tom Sizemore star in a World War II drama about Allied forces out to rescue a resistance fighter behind Nazi lines. (R) L, N, V. 101 minutes.

“Emily and Tim”— A drama that looks at the tumultuous marriage of Tim and Emily Hanratty over half a century. With Kathleen Turner, Kal Penn and Alexis Bledel. (NR) 87 minutes.

“Mohenjo Daro”— In 2016 B.C., a farmer must stop an evil man from destroying one of the oldest cities on the planet. In Hindi with subtitles. (NR) 155 minutes.

“Nine Lives”— Following a terrible accident, an aloof, caustically unempathetic billionaire businessman (Kevin Spacey) wakes up in the body of his little daughter’s new cat. Can he learn to be a purrfect dad before it’s too late? With Jennifer Garner and Christopher Walken. (PG) 87 minutes.

“Rustom”— A mystery suspense romance about an officer and devoted family man who must defend his honor. (NR) 148 minutes.