What to Watch on TV and at the Movies This Week

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⭐⭐⭐⭐☆  Nickel Boys, PG-13

For a fictional film inspired by Florida’s segregated Dozier reform school, where young boys were beaten, raped and murdered, Nickel Boys (based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel) is startlingly beautiful. Violence is mostly heard, not seen, as in Zone of Interest, and the lyrical scenes are like moving paintings. It’s a buddy picture about a tough kid (Brandon Wilson) and an idealistic one (Ethan Herisse) whose grandma (brilliant Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, 55) struggles to get him freed. It’s bizarrely shot from the characters’ point of view, sometimes behind their heads. The storytelling is irritatingly elliptical, but it’s highly poetic and haunting. —Tim Appelo (T.A.)

Watch it: Nickel Boys, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ The Room Next Door, R

In the first English-language feature by Pedro Almodóvar, onetime New York journalism colleagues Martha (Tilda Swinton, 64), a former war reporter, and successful author Ingrid (Julianne Moore, 64) reunite after many years when Martha confronts terminal cancer and asks Martha to come to her fabulously woodsy Woodstock home to help her die with dignity. At 75, former enfant terrible Almodóvar is preoccupied with issues of aging, and this is more like a cool, abstract essay about life than the sizzling, propulsive cinema he's known for. The dialogue is a bit stilted, the storytelling drifty and detached. But he couldn't have cast subtler, deeper actresses in his high-IQ meditation on mortality, and John Turturro, 67, is great as the gloomy ex-boyfriend of both women, who comes back into their lives to warn that the whole world is dying from climate change. —Tim Appelo (T.A.)

Watch it: The Room Next Door, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐☆☆ The Brutalist, R

In this much-lauded, 215-minute-long period drama, Hungarian Jewish architect Laslo Toth (Adrien Brody, 51) emigrates to America, and discovers a world of hurt inflicted by his boss, fiendish capitalist Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr. (a mustache-twirling Guy Pearce, 57). Toth’s wife (a miscast Felicity Jones) belatedly arrives, having been “saved” from Nazi death camps by the Russians, only to be crippled by famine. Far be it from me to discourage discriminating audiences from watching this much-lauded trauma drama, which got a 13-minute standing ovation at Venice Film Festival and is a contender for Oscars (and AARP Movies for Grownups Awards). For me, many moments challenged my ability to suspend disbelief and sustain interest, and it struck me as an overwrought, monochromatic unfolding of persistent misery and sexual assault, wrapped up in an epilogue that belatedly fills in the gaping plot holes. –Thelma M. Adams (T.M.A.)

Watch it: The Brutalist, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Nosferatu, R

Robert Eggers' seductive, visually stunning and swiftly paced vampire film overflows with vivid characters: undead Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard, who played the also-scary Pennywise in Stephen King’s It), ethereal beauty Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp, Johnny’s daughter) and her husband (Nicholas Hoult), who traipses into the Count’s castle and doesn't emerge unscathed. Willem Dafoe, 69, plays a daring vampire hunter, in contrast to his famous portrayal of the original Orlok — the actor Max Schreck in F.W. Murnau's 1922 Nosferatu— in the 2000 Shadow of the Vampire. –T.M.A.

Watch it: Nosferatu, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ A Complete Unknown, R

Midwesterner Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) hitches into Greenwich Village in 1961 slinging his guitar. In a few short years, a star is born. Chalamet looks, sounds and irritates like the legendary singer-songwriter. Meanwhile, a never-better Edward Norton, 55, singing and soul-searching, upstages Dylan as folkie Pete Seeger. Both Elle Fanning (as a character based on Dylan’s girlfriend Suze Rotolo) and Monica Barbaro’s Joan Baez enchant in an immersive movie about a bygone era when Dylan became the voice of a changing generation, and the electric guitar would drive the folk music scene nuclear. —T.M.A.

Watch it: A Complete Unknown, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Babygirl, R

Babygirl is a shaggy-dog story in which Romy (Nicole Kidman, 57) learns how to roll over and beg. Her trainer is buff, tattooed intern Samuel (Harris Dickinson), who takes on his haughty, chic, self-possessed CEO Romy and literally upends the corporate power structure, becoming the boss in the bedroom. Romy risks it all – self-respect, career, motherhood and marriage to the loveliest of husbands (Antonio Banderas, 64) – in order to get her kink on. It’s the kind of movie where you can’t help but giggle your way through the many sex scenes, and pity poor Banderas, who has more untapped sex appeal than the other two combined. — T.M.A.

Watch it: Babygirl, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ September 5, R

Steven Spielberg’s 2005 Munich dramatized the hunt for the terrorists who struck the 1972 Munich Olympics, but this riveting pulse-pounder puts you in the hearts and minds of the ABC Sports news crew who had to show it to the world, making split-second decisions without getting more people killed. They must remember that the terrorists are also watching what they telecast, and fend off the efforts of the arrogant news division to grab the story from them. It’s a leading contender for the Best Picture Oscar. It’s even better than Spielberg’s film, which has a 78 percent critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, versus September 5’s 86 percent. —T.A.

Watch it: September 5 in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Nightbitch, R

The best maternal body horror since David Cronenberg’s The Brood, this outrageous dark comedy stars Amy Adams, 50, in a pedal-to-the-metal performance as “Mother.” A married artist who put her career on hold to tend her tow-headed toddler in the deep suburbs, she’s naturally exhausted — but discovers it’s not just sleep deprivation. She experiences a strange, inexplicable transformation not listed in the What to Expect manuals. Meanwhile, her nice-but-useless traveling worker-bee husband (Scoot McNairy) isn’t present enough to notice when she begins to grow odd chin hairs, then furry patches and extra nipples on her belly. Her sense of smell becomes acute. She goes from feeling like a powerless stay-at-home mom to embracing her inner dog, connecting with the neighborhood pooch pack. Through the unexpected transformation, “Mother” finds her power in the world and as a mom. Brilliant as movie and metaphor – that’s Nightbitch. – Thelma M. Adams (T.M.A.)

Watch it: Nightbitch, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ The Order, R

Obsession, suspense and a strong ensemble drive this crime thriller. British actors Jude Law, 51, and Nicholas Hoult play American opposites, a rugged, seen-it-all G-man versus a righteous right-wing rebel leader, at war for the nation’s soul. Based on the real-life bank robberies, bombings and assassination of outspoken Jewish radio host Alan Berg (Marc Maron, 61), carried out by an Aryan Nation splinter group called The Order in the 1980s, the drama is relentless. As antagonists, Law and Hoult are powerful yet restrained in committed performances that drive towards an inevitable combustible climax. – T.M.A.

Watch it: The Order, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  Wicked, PG 

To quote Kermit the Frog, it’s not easy being green. That goes double for Elphaba. Oscar-bound singer-actress Cynthia Erivo plays the future Wicked Witch of the West in a two-film adaptation of the fourth-longest-running Broadway show (a reimagining of 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz). While Elphaba is struggling to realize her latent powers and overcome her own father’s anti-green prejudice, the younger enchantress attends a Hogwarts-style school. It’s peopled with a glittering cast: the fabulous Michelle Yeoh, 62, as the headmistress, Ariana Grande as that pretty, magic princess in a bubble Glinda, and Jonathan Bailey as the naughty boy love interest Fiyero. Invited on a special trip to Oz, Elphaba meets the perfectly cast Jeff Goldblum, 72, having great fun as the Wizard himself. Between glorious songs and massive old-Hollywood-style dance numbers, amid magnificent sets and stunning costumes, the audience discovers how the original flying monkeys got their wings, how the yellow brick road got its name, and what pushed a nice spirit like Elphaba to mount a broom and embrace the dark side. Built to last, Wickedenchants. –Thelma M. Adams (T.M.A.)

Watch it: Wicked, in theaters

 Don't miss this: 'Wicked' Star Michelle Yeoh Has Long Said Enough Is Never Enough—“I Want More!”

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Real Pain, R

Holocaust humor is rare, but A Real Pain is a counterintuitive outlier: vivid, moving, funny and emotionally devastating. Lanky actor/playwright Jesse Eisenberg wrote and directed this bold family dramedy based on his own experience visiting his late great-aunt’s haunted hometown. The short and snappy, never sappy, film rides along with American cousins David (Eisenberg) and Benji Kaplan (Succession’s Kieran Culkin). David has organized a trip to Poland, their grandmother’s homeland. Their guided group tour culminates in a visit to the Nazi death camps, before they peel off to see their late grandmother’s house. David appears to be high-functioning OCD; Benji is seemingly bipolar, the life of the party one moment, the next a disruptive agent — a real pain. The Kaplans’ neurotic jaunt unfolds as a lively, insightful, conflicted, emotional exploration of generational trauma and mental illness. Culkin spins brilliantly in the flashier part, Eisenberg’s troubled partner on the rocky road to a visceral understanding of the mantra “never forget.” —Thelma M. Adams (T.M.A.)

Watch it: A Real Pain, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Emilia Pérez 

Director Jacques Audiard’s rampageous musical fantasia/crime drama stars Karla Sofía Gascón as a ruthless Mexican drug lord who hires a high-powered attorney (Zoe Saldaña) to find him a doctor so he can transition to female and start a new life under a new name: Emilia Pérez. He doesn’t tell his young wife (Selena Gomez), who goes from clueless to furious. The initially upright attorney helps run the gangster biz, and it gets harder and harder to separate the good guys and gals from the bad, and tragedy from comedy. Plus, everybody keeps breaking out into exuberant song. Who knew Saldaña was such a terrific singer? And who says a violent gangster film can’t also be a musical, and more over the top than any opera? —Tim Appelo (T.A.)

Watch it: Emilia Pérez, in theaters and on Netflix

​⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Anora, R

​The hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold movie returns in Cannes Film Fest top prizewinner Anora. The titular Brooklyn sex worker (an incandescent Mikey Madison, a likely Best Actress nominee) plies the pole and private dance rooms wearing little more than a chain and a bubble butt. When her boss introduces her to Ivan (Mark Eidenshtein), the scion of a Russian mob clan, she names her price to be his girlfriend for a week. The cute, goofy guy is loaded but defines fecklessness. A quickie Vegas wedding gives Ani hope she can attain the luxe life of a Kardashian without selling her flesh. But when Ivan’s parents jet in from Moscow to annul the match, all hell breaks loose in an antic, comic, visceral way. Ivan goes AWOL, his folks go batty, and the feral Anora keeps fighting for a fleeting autonomy. In an awards season of overlong seriousness, Madison’s Anora pops like Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment. —T.M.A.

Watch it: Anora, in theaters now

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Conclave, PG

Ralph Fiennes, 61, ascends to the head of the Best Actor line in Edward Berger’s tense pontifical thriller that transfers the conflicts of Succession to the Vatican’s private chambers. When the existing pope expires, Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Fiennes) must organize the Conclave, the secret meeting of cardinals to elect the successor. Lawrence, spurning the papal mitre himself, must navigate the political scrum of rivals and attendant conspirators. These include conservative throwback Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto, 71), ambitious Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow, 79), the wise-but-weak Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci, 63) — and a little-known ringer Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz). Isabella Rossellini, 72, is a grace note of strength, speaking truth to power as Sister Agnes. Even for those that have never sat on the edge of their pew at mass, this battle for the soul of the church is sure footed, suspenseful, satisfying and executed without a scrap of fat — a prime movie for grownups. —T.M.A.

Watch it: Conclave, in theaters