What to watch: ‘Wakanda Forever’ aims to recreate blockbuster magic; Weird Al biopic true to character, and more

(RATINGS: The movies listed below are rated according to the following key: 4 stars — excellent; 3 stars — good; 2 stars — fair; 1 star — poor.)

(This week’s package includes: capsule film reviews by Michael Phillips, chief movie critic for the Chicago Tribune, and other contributing writers; 2) longer reviews of “Aftersun,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “The Estate” and “The Fabelmans.”

‘AFTERSUN’: Time and memories flow like water in “Aftersun,” the Scottish writer-director Charlotte Wells’ singular feature debut. It is not a generalized sort of tear-jerker about parents and children. It is a film, rather, about one child, as seen from the perspective of the child’s adult self, and one parent, the girl’s fond, troubled father. Clearly, it found its way on the page, and as filmed, with two excellent leading actors. But something magical occurred when Wells collaborated with the inspired editor Blair McClendon. That’s when the filmmaker saw what she had, and what her mosaic of memory, feeling, loss and love could become. 1:36. 3 1/2 stars. — Michael Phillips.

‘AMSTERDAM’: The trailer for David O. Russell’s latest ensemble romp, “Amsterdam,” seems to promise some kind of 1930s-set caper about a dead body and a trio of friends who are fingered for a murder. Presumably, Amsterdam will figure in, but the premise presented is vague at best. As it turns out, the trailer is sly by design, and the film itself doesn’t even give away its own gambit — and reason for existing — until the very end. “Amsterdam” boasts all the markers of a prestigious project, including a cavalcade of movie stars, from Oscar-winners (Christian Bale, Rami Malek) to stunt casting (Taylor Swift, Mike Myers). At its core, “Amsterdam” is a movie about friendship, and kindness, a theme that Russell underlines and italicizes in its last moments. But it’s a challenge to buy what he’s selling here, when even he doesn’t seem to buy it. 2:14. 1 1/2 stars. — Katie Walsh.

‘ARMAGEDDON TIME’: In his cinematic memoir “Armageddon Time,” the filmmaker James Gray unpacks his early influences with the kind of uncommonly sensitive and keen perception that he has employed throughout his body of work, which has evolved from crime thrillers (“Little Odessa,” “The Yards,” “We Own The Night”) to historical dramas (“The Immigrant,” “The Lost City of Z”) to existential sci-fi explorations of love, existence and family (“Ad Astra”). In this childhood coming-of-age drama, set in 1980 in his hometown of Queens, New York, Gray manages to touch on all of these previous genre excursions — it’s a period piece, with childish experiments into mischief and criminal behavior, set against the backdrop of space exploration and a fascination with NASA. Gray lays out the cultural influences swirling around Paul Graff (a remarkable Banks Repeta), his ostensible avatar, an art obsessed sixth grader who is in a transitional impressionistic moment, graduating from comic books to Kandinsky, from the Beatles to Sugarhill Gang. But there are bigger influences than just the artistic looming in Paul’s life— people who teach him a few of the hard truths about the world and how one should strive to show up in it. 1:55. 3 1/2 stars. — Katie Walsh.

‘THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN’: Friendships dissolve for a litany of reasons. Exasperation. Envy. Fallen scales from gradually or suddenly clearer eyes. Sometimes it’s a last straw; sometimes, an entire bale of hay, parked in plain sight, unnoticed for years. The reasons for the breakup in “The Banshees of Inisherin,” writer-director Martin McDonagh’s fourth feature, become clear in due course. But they’re not important, not really. Like “some fool of a moody schoolchild” or simply a man protective of his remaining time on his tiny, gorgeously forlorn (and fictional) island off the coast of Ireland, amateur pub fiddler and aspiring composer Colm Sonny Larry, played by Brendan Gleeson, has decided to sever his longtime friendship with his mate Padraic, portrayed by Colin Farrell. The result is McDonagh’s most fully realized work since his breakthrough play, “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” a generation ago. 2:14. 1 1/2 stars. — Michael Phillips.

‘BLACK ADAM’: The newest entry in the DC Extended Universe, “Black Adam,” starring Dwayne Johnson, has been hyped as a “new phase” and a “change in the hierarchy” for the embattled comic book franchise, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t also been cause for concern. The trailers have looked ponderous and gray, and though the film is directed by the auteur of many lively Liam Neeson actioners, Jaume Collet-Serra, his prior outing with Johnson, “Jungle Cruise,” left his signature verve behind. But, it seems Collet-Serra has got his groove back for “Black Adam,” or perhaps he was saving up said groove for this film, as it’s far more entertaining than it has any right to be. 2:04. 2 1/2 stars. — Katie Walsh.

‘BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER”: A big, rangy Marvel follow-up — made without the grand presence of Chadwick Boseman, who died two years after “Black Panther” came out in 2018 — “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” acknowledges the loss of both King T’Challa and the actor who played him with a grave and moving extended prologue. It’s exactly right, down to the last flip-flip-flip of the Marvel Studios logo dedicated this time to images of the star no longer with us. This is followed by an hour or so of scene-setting, reintroductions and introductions deft and engaging enough to make you think: Can all this really be sustained in the back half? (The full running time is 2 hours, 41 minutes, or 26 minutes longer than the first “Black Panther.”) If the answer is no, well, welcome to the majority of Marvel sequels, and sequels in general. “Wakanda Forever” is not special like the first movie was. The quality of the storytelling and especially the action sequences grows less effective as the film proceeds. That said: It’s still juicier than most Marvels. 2:41. 3 stars. — Michael Phillips.

‘CALL JANE’: “Are you Jane?” It’s a question that Chicago housewife Joy (Elizabeth Banks) repeatedly asks, as she calls a number from a flyer, is picked up, blindfolded, driven to a nondescript office where she receives an illegal, but safe, abortion from an unfeeling doctor (Cory Michael Smith), and is then cared for by an eclectic group of women. In this group, no one is Jane, but they are all Jane, the generic alias that shields their identities becoming the de facto name for this underground network of women providing abortion care in the years before Roe v. Wade. In “Call Jane,” Oscar-nominated “Carol” screenwriter Phyllis Nagy, working with a script by Hayley Schore and Roshan Sethi, crafts an unconventional biopic, not of any real person, but of Jane, the collective. That “Jane” was an alias, an avatar, is part of the problem with “Call Jane,” in which all of the fictionalized characters, from Joy, to Virginia (Sigourney Weaver), the organizer behind the group, to Joy’s husband Will (Chris Messina), to her daughter (Grace Edwards) and neighbor (Kate Mara), never really feel like real people, but indeed, avatars, merely representatives or devices to move the plot along. 2:01. 2 1/2 stars. — Katie Walsh.

‘CATHERINE CALLED BIRDY’: Lena Dunham’s warm, lively adaptation of Karen Cushman’s 1994 historical novel “Catherine Called Birdy,” opens with a needle drop that references another classic teen movie. Misty Miller’s cover of the ’90s Supergrass tune “Alright” plays as a young Lady Catherine (called Birdy) (Bella Ramsey), finds herself in the midst of a mud fight during a raucous cottage raising in her medieval English village. The song choice is a high-five to Amy Heckerling’s 1995 film “Clueless,” and it inextricably links the two films together. One is an adaptation of a novel written in the ’90s, set in medieval times, the other is based on a Regency-era Jane Austen novel, set in the ’90s, but both films are about a virgin who can’t drive. Birdy is navigating that tricky moment when she’s not a girl, not yet a woman. She stuffs her menstrual rags in floors of the outhouse to hide them, because getting her period is a high-stakes affair. It means her father, the fey and funny Lord Rollo (Andrew Scott) can marry her off to the highest bidder to save the manor’s finances. Birdy rebels against the wife life in defiance but also in fear. Her mother, Lady Aislinn (Billie Piper) struggles to produce healthy babies. “Catherine, Called Birdy” is a chronicle of this distinct transitional time, as told by Birdy herself in a journal written for her brother Edward, a monk (Archie Renaux). As suitors come to call, Birdy attempts to thwart the marriage plot as best she can with pranks and capers, relying on her best friends, Perkin (Michael Woolfitt) and Aelis (Isis Hainsworth), while feuding with her brother Robert (Dean-Charles Chapman) and occasionally pining after her hunky Uncle George (Joe Alwyn). 1:48. 4 stars. — Katie Walsh. In theaters now; streaming on Prime Video Oct. 7.

‘CAUSEWAY’: One of the top actors of his generation, it’s only a matter of time before Brian Tyree Henry lands a project that puts his talents front and center. But even in supporting roles, whenever he’s on screen, suddenly you’re locked in to what he’s doing regardless of genre. In the indie movie “Causeway” on Apple TV+, he’s showing off his looser side as an actor, playing an auto mechanic, James, who befriends a young woman back home after serving in Afghanistan. It’s a wonderfully layered performance that elevates the film at every turn. However, Jennifer Lawrence is the film’s primary interest as Lynsey, the aforementioned veteran who has suffered a traumatic brain injury after an explosion. Numbed, closed off and dealing with some serious physical disabilities, she first rehabs in the residence of a gentle but practical home health care provider (Jayne Houdyshell) who literally gets her back on her feet. The title itself refers to the Causeway bridge, which spans 24 miles over Louisiana’s Lake Pontchartrain. James was in a car accident on the Causeway that has left him sorting through the emotional wreckage, though he keeps most of that tamped down beneath his easygoing demeanor. Being around Lynsey offers him the opportunity to interact with someone new who doesn’t look at him with pity — until she does. That amounts to the film’s climax, and I’m not sure it’s actually enough. The movie also takes a colorblind approach, which has a way of erasing some specificity along the way. 1:32. 2 stars. — Nina Metz. On Apple TV+

‘CONFESS, FLETCH’: The crime novels of Gregory Mcdonald emerged in the ’70s as a self-amused antithesis to more typically hard-boiled detective stories. The series began with “Fletch” in 1974 and continued a 20-year run, ending with “Fletch Reflected” in 1994. Irwin Maurice Fletcher (Fletch to everyone who knows him) is a shaggy if confident rebel without a cause — but with a reporter’s stubborn curiosity and tenacity. Helpful traits, seeing as he works for a newspaper when we meet him in the first book. Chevy Chase starred in two movie adaptations in the ’80s and Jon Hamm steps into those shoes for the newest incarnation, based on Mcdonald’s 1976 follow up to his debut effort: “Confess, Fletch.” It’s a performance that makes you wonder if Hamm even wants to be here. He made his name playing the fictional 1960s ad exec Don Draper for seven seasons on “Mad Men.” It was magnetic to watch, but one career-defining role does not necessarily translate into the kind of movie stardom (or actorly instincts) needed to carry a film like this. Hamm just has no take on the guy. 1:39. 1 1/2 stars. — Nina Metz. In theaters and on demand.

‘DECISION TO LEAVE’: World-weary detective falls for sphinx-like widow in a murder case. Talk about the usual suspects! We have seen this setup once or twice. But “Decision to Leave,” director and co-writer Park Chan-wook’s dazzling, confounding, gorgeously crafted variation on a dangerously familiar film trope, takes its component parts and comes up with something no one has ever built before. Visually it’s alive every second, in ways both considered and imaginative; the story, meanwhile, takes some risky wait-what? detours en route to a surprisingly grave finish. The South Korean genre master, whose films include the feverishly violent “Oldboy” and the ripely seductive “The Handmaiden,” hasn’t ditched either sex or violence for his latest film, co-written by his frequent collaborator Chung Seo-kyung. But both of those primal cinematic ingredients spice the result here in unexpected ways. 2:18. 3 1/2 stars. — Michael Phillips. In Korean and Mandarin with English subtitles.

‘THE ESTATE’: Watching the ensemble black comedy “The Estate,” written and directed by Dean Craig and co-starring Toni Collette, will no doubt draw comparison to another ensemble black comedy co-starring Toni Collette, “Knives Out,” which dwells in the same story milieu of money-hungry family members competing for a mention in a wealthy family member’s will. Of course, “Knives Out” is a twisty whodunit in the vein of Agatha Christie, and Craig’s film is merely an exploration of what depravities people might sink to in hopes of getting a bigger piece of the financial pie. Still, there are enough similarities between the two films, both rife with smarmy, unlikable characters, that one could become preoccupied in wondering why “Knives Out” works and why “The Estate” decidedly does not. The answer lies in what “The Estate” is lacking, which is someone to root for. There might be some actual stakes in the game if we wanted someone, anyone, to win the inheritance that’s up for grabs when it’s announced that the wealthy and childless Aunt Hilda (Kathleen Turner) does not have long for this world. Watching “The Estate” feels like being gaslit, in attempting to understand the purpose of anyone’s actions, or to find humor at all in these morbidly bleak antics, when there is simply nothing there. It’s not funny, it’s not satirical, and it’s not worth your time, or Toni Collette’s. Hopefully it was a nice trip to New Orleans. 1:36. 1 star. — Katie Walsh.

‘THE FABELMANS’: “I need to see them crash.” These are the first fated words of a future filmmaker, Sammy Fabelman (Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord), whispered to his mother, Mitzi (Michelle Williams) after he’s crashed his toy train after bedtime, inspired by his very first big-screen cinematic experience, “The Greatest Show on Earth.” Mitzi instantly recognizes that re-creating the train crash is a way for young Sammy to exert some control over the fear he felt during the movie, and so she presents him with his father’s 8mm camera to capture, and replay, the crash. With this lesson on art as catharsis imprinted in his young mind, a movie director is born. In the deeply personal “The Fabelmans,” legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg applies his artistic instincts to his own familial catharsis, turning his lens on his own upbringing, his childhood journey to becoming a filmmaker, and his parents. What could have been some kind of auto-hagiography is a playful, honest and ultimately gracious childhood memoir that derives its universal lessons from its specificity. 2:31. 4 stars. — Katie Walsh.

‘GOOD NIGHT OPPY’: Great true stories about space exploration don’t come around too often anymore. Our pop cultural representations about NASA’s achievements (or failures) tend to be period pieces and retreads of the greatest hits. But the new documentary “Good Night Oppy,” directed by Ryan White, is an exciting and fresh story about a very recent mission to Mars, one that exceeded all expectations and then some, thanks to hard work, ingenuity, a lot of luck and dogged perseverance. Produced by, among others, Amazon Studios, Amblin Entertainment and Industrial Light and Magic, “Good Night Oppy” is a documentary that aims to capture the sense of childlike wonder and expansive, imaginative scope akin to the films for which Amblin and ILM are known. It’s a documentary recounting the amazing story of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission that manages to feel emotionally like “E.T.”, and look like “Star Wars.” 1:45. 3 stars. — Katie Walsh. 1:45. In theaters now and streaming on Amazon Prime Nov. 23.

‘HALLOWEEN ENDS’: Previously, in the “Halloween” franchise: the residents of Haddonfield, fed up with four decades of fear inflicted by their local mask-wearing serial killer, Michael Myers, descended into a pitchfork wielding mob, chanting “Evil Dies Tonight.” Unfortunately, it was a forgone conclusion that they would not be successful in their crusade, because the film, “Halloween Kills,” was only the second installment in David Gordon Green’s trio of Hallo-reboots, and he still needed a Myers for the third film in the trilogy, “Halloween Ends.” And end it does, not with a scream but with a whimper, or perhaps, a sigh of relief that it’s over — the franchise that is, at least for now. 1:51. 2 stars. — Katie Walsh. In theaters and streaming on Peacock.

‘LYLE, LYLE CROCODILE’: “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” is indeed a strange beast, both the animal — a city-dwelling croc with the voice of an angel — and the movie, which is also a sort of monstrous hybrid of unexpected tones. Based on the children’s book series by Bernard Waber, adapted by Will Davies, “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” is directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, who are known for more adult comedies like “Office Christmas Party,” “The Switch” and “Blades of Glory,” and they bring a bit of that ironic sensibility to the film, which is both a blessing and a curse. It’s clear every adult in the room is in on the joke in the over-the-top “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,” including Gordon and Speck, as well as Scoot McNairy and Constace Wu, who play Mr. and Mrs. Primm, the gobsmacked couple who find themselves cohabitating with Lyle in a Manhattan brownstone, after their son Josh (Winslow Fegley) befriends the creature. “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” goes for a kind of “Clifford the Big Red Dog” vibe, with the whole “fantastical pet in New York City” plot, but there’s not enough connective tissue in the writing, which feels choppy and abrupt. Pasek and Paul’s songs end up having to do much of the emotional heavy lifting, and the rest of the film feels cobbled together from random parts scavenged from other kids’ movies and pop culture ephemera. 1:46. 2 stars. — Katie Walsh.

‘SMILE’: Writer/director Parker Finn’s feature debut “Smile” boasts the thinnest of premises based on a laundry list of horror movie trends and tropes, from the historical to the contemporary. Based on his 2020 short film “Laura Hasn’t Slept,” Finn inserts the latest hot topic in horror — trauma — into a story structured around a death curse chain, as seen in films like “The Ring,” “It Follows” and “She Dies Tomorrow.” All that’s needed to pass along the curse is a mere smile, but it’s the kind of chin-lowered, eyes-raised toothy grin that communicates something far more devious than friendly. That’s pretty much the movie right there, but Finn fleshes it out with some dizzying cinematography by Charlie Sarroff, a creepily effective score by Cristobal Tapia de Veer, and a believably twitchy lead performance from Sosie Bacon. Oh, and jump scares, a whole lotta jump scares. 1:55. 2 stars. — Katie Walsh.

‘TICKET TO PARADISE’: When it comes to rom-com movie weddings, beware Julia Roberts — she’s already run away as a bride and sown chaos at her best friend’s nuptials, and now, in “Ticket to Paradise,” her character has set her matrimony-disrupting sights on her own daughter’s union. Written and directed by Ol Parker, “Ticket to Paradise” reunites Roberts with the rom-com, and with her “Ocean’s Eleven” co-star George Clooney, too, but what should be a slam dunk is instead a missed free throw. The elements are there: the megastar power of Roberts and Clooney, who banter and eye-twinkle effortfully throughout the film as Georgia and David, the acrimoniously divorced parents of ambitious recent grad Lily (Kaitlin Dever). Before starting her career as a lawyer in Chicago, Lily sets off to eat, pray, love her way around Bali with her bestie Wren (Billie Lourd). But one boat rescue by a handsome seaweed farmer, Gede (Maxime Bouttier), sends Lily’s well-laid plans into the drink. The next time her parents see her, it’s in Bali, and unbeknownst to her, they’re finally united — when it comes to sabotaging her wedding. 1:44. 2 stars. — Katie Walsh.

‘TILL’: The tragic story of Emmett Till is one of a face. The face of a 14-year-old boy, beaten and murdered in Mississippi, a battered and bloated face that his mother insisted be seen by the world. Chinonye Chukwu’s “Till” is a story of two faces: Emmett’s and that of his mother Mamie Till-Mobley, portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler in a powerfully skilled and undeniably star-making screen performance. In imagining a way to tell Emmett Till’s story without focusing on the violence and torture the boy suffered, Chukwu, along with co-writers Michael Reilly and Till investigator and filmmaker Keith Beauchamp, focus on his mother, Mamie, whose decision to share her son’s face with the world had an indelible impact on the civil rights movement. 2:10. 4 stars. — Katie Walsh.

‘WEIRD: THE AL YANKOVIC STORY’. It only makes sense that Al Yankovic’s biopic would be a parody of biopics. So “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” is anything but the A-Z story of the song parodist who is perhaps not technically the best but arguably went on to become the most famous accordion player in an extremely specific genre of music. Take any music biopic, whether it’s “Walk the Line,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” or “Ray,” and give it the “Weird” Al treatment, and you’ve got this absurdist, playful, self-aware send-up of the man who took a gamble and risked it all to turn “Like a Virgin” into “Like a Surgeon.” Yankovic, who co-wrote the screenplay with director Eric Appel, isn’t much interested in mining the dramatic gold from his process of flipping pop songs into comedy songs. So he instead lampoons himself — a kid who “dreamed of making up new words to songs that already existed” — and turns his life into an over-the-top fantasy where he’s not only climbing the charts but dating the world’s hottest musician and knocking off Colombian drug lords while he’s at it. 1:47. Not ranked. — Adam Graham. Streaming on The Roku Channel.

‘THE WOMAN KING’: When actress Maria Bello visited the West African nation of Benin in 2015, she learned the history of the Agojie, an all-female military regiment from the Kingdom of Dahomey (and the inspiration for Wakanda’s Dora Milaje from “Black Panther”). Recognizing the cinematic potential for this story, she developed the project with producer Cathy Schulman, and landed “The Old Guard” director Gina Prince-Bythewood as director, as well as the formidable, Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis as star. The result is “The Woman King,” an epic, inspiring and beautifully made historical action film that puts women in the middle of the battle for Dahomey circa 1823. It is a remarkable, powerful film, and not to be missed. 2:15. 3 1/2 stars. — Katie Walsh. In English and Portuguese with English subtitles.

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REVIEW: ‘AFTERSUN’

By Michael Phillips

Chicago Tribune

3 1/2 stars

Time and memories flow like water in “Aftersun,” the Scottish writer-director Charlotte Wells’ singular feature debut. It is not a generalized sort of tear-jerker about parents and children. It is a film, rather, about one child, as seen from the perspective of the child’s adult self, and one parent, the girl’s fond, troubled father.

Clearly, it found its way on the page, and as filmed, with two excellent leading actors. But something magical occurred when Wells collaborated with the inspired editor Blair McClendon. That’s when the filmmaker saw what she had, and what her mosaic of memory, feeling, loss and love could become.

In the opening seconds of “Aftersun,” we hear the nostalgically glitchy sounds of videotape rewinding in a ’90s-looking camcorder. A woman, Sophie, is sitting on her couch, playing back some old vacation footage of her 11-year-old self and her barely 30 father. In the footage, the girl is interviewing her dad and asks. “When you were 11, what did you think you’d be doing now?”

There is no reply, at least not the first time we see this in “Aftersun.” The father, Calum, seems thrown by Sophie’s query, and the woman watching the footage years later, in the present, pauses the image. What sort of life did Calum live when he was 11? What sort of relationship did he have with Sophie’s mother? Most films would take pains to spell out the answers, eventually. “Aftersun” works more obliquely and poetically, leaving prosaic touches to other filmmakers.

The premise is simplicity itself. Calum and Sophie have embarked on a holiday at a Turkish seaside hotel. They apparently do not see much of each other, but their bond is strong and fond.

They use the pool. They swim in the sea. They meet some fellow vacationers. They navigate the days together. Little by little, but never too much, the characters reveal bits about themselves, either to us or to each other and sometimes both.

“I’m surprised I made it to 30,” Calum says at one point. He references a violent past, and we see him practicing what appears to be tai chi. Sadness lurks behind his broad, kind smile. Calum is played by the beguiling Paul Mescal, best known in the U.S. for the Hulu-streaming series “Normal People,” and he’s a subtle, fascinating paradox. His portrayal gives us a man who is rock-steady in his love for Sophie, but in his own life, the rocks have begun to slide a bit. In one scene (a rare one where he’s on his own), Calum asks about the cost of a Persian rug Sophie has mentioned she admires. The man’s frustrations, his probable struggles and self-image, emerge quietly but clearly here and throughout “Aftersun.”

Sophie is played by Frankie Corio, with brief appearances in the older-Sophie scenes by Celia Rowlson-Hall. Corio and Mescal shine together, their characters’ easy times and tougher ones. At the hotel, Sophie hangs around, and then with an older group of teens who take a social interest in her. Sex, boys, girls, drinking: Sophie listens to every word without seeming to. A boy roughly Sophie’s age is a regular at the video arcade; Sophie gets to know him a bit, and then, tentatively, he becomes her first kiss in a scene of unusual, bittersweet authenticity. Later, on a swimming raft with her dad, Sophie relays what happened. Calum, who is given to bouts of depression (we see him weeping, one night, in the hotel room), responds to his daughter’s account with an intuitive parent’s openness and heartfelt desire to see his daughter get through childhood as unbruised as humanly possible.

By design, the tenderness of “Aftersun” is counterweighed by a lot of realistic tension, amped up, subtly, mostly, by the score and the sound design. Calum and Sophie break off on their own, separately, later in the vacation. Some of that tension is achieved by familiar means: Gradually the soundtrack becomes an aural landscape of potential danger. Some of this feels more engineered than imagined or felt. But Wells is trying to dramatize the everyday threat levels children face, in different ways, with or without a parent on the job.

Throughout “Aftersun” we’re shown tantalizing, strobe-lit flashes of a dance-floor rave in progress. In these eyeblink images, Calum and Sophie share a kind of psychic space together, at different stages of their lives, depending on the shot sequence. There’s no one insight being shared in these images, or the film itself. Wells works in a more oblique realm, though the imagery is crystal clear in its evocation of feelings any parent, any child, might feel about family, or the past, or the present. I don’t want to oversell it — plenty have already — because it’s a clear-eyed poem of remembering, made from material usually treated as heart-tugging prose. (Spoiler: Hearts will be tugged nonetheless.)

It took Wells many years to develop and complete “Aftersun,” with the patient backing of “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins’ production company. A second viewing helped me figure out some questions I had, and still have, about some of Wells’ decisions. Here’s what I learned: It’s OK to have reservations, and then to have reservations about those reservations. Much like “Moonlight,” “Aftersun” is formally beautiful enough to warrant the second viewing — and moving enough, without going for the throat, to warrant the first.

MPAA rating: R (for brief sexual material and some language).

Running time: 1:36.

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REVIEW: ‘BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER’

By Michael Phillips

Chicago Tribune

3 stars

A big, rangy Marvel follow-up — made without the grand presence of Chadwick Boseman, who died two years after “Black Panther” came out in 2018 — “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” acknowledges the loss of both King T’Challa and the actor who played him with a grave and moving extended prologue. It’s exactly right, down to the last flip-flip-flip of the Marvel Studios logo dedicated this time to images of the star no longer with us.

This is followed by an hour or so of scene-setting, reintroductions and introductions deft and engaging enough to make you think: Can all this really be sustained in the back half? (The full running time is 2 hours, 41 minutes, or 26 minutes longer than the first “Black Panther.”)

If the answer is no, well, welcome to the majority of Marvel sequels, and sequels in general.

“Wakanda Forever” is not special like the first movie was. The quality of the storytelling and especially the action sequences grows less effective as the film proceeds. By the time Princess Shuri, played by Letitia Wright, squares off in grisly combat with the undersea mutant god Namor (Tenoch Huerta), it’s enough, already, whatever your personal degree of investment in this world and these characters.

That said: It’s still juicier than most Marvels. Co-writer and director Ryan Coogler’s fourth feature — mapped out initially with Boseman in mind and then revised, heavily, after his death at age 43 — has many strengths in the ensemble spirit of the first “Black Panther.”

Here’s the most important one: Practically every actor on screen here is marvelous, even when the script and effects-driven spectacle settles for the wrong kind of “more.” Also, the soundtrack is fantastic, spanning the globe to bring us a constant variety of sounds, from Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” to Mexican vocalist Foudeqush (”Con La Brisa”) to Nigerian artist Bloody Civilian, heard on “Wake Up.”

The screenplay by Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole gathers up tales of colonial ravagements the world over. With T’Challa gone, Shuri buries her grief and rage in Wakandan science and new discoveries. Wakandan Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett, reaching some wonderful rhetorical heights in an expanded role) steels herself for the world’s suspicions and attacks in the wake of the king’s death.

An early scene in “Wakanda Forever” depicts an assault on an American deep sea mining crew, on the hunt for the precious meteor-borne vibranium detected far below the ocean’s surface. The world’s superpowers suspect Wakandan foul play. But Marvel’s got the brand new kingdom of Talocan (though dating back decades in the pages of the Marvel comics), with its own stash of glowing blue and all-powerful vibranium. These creatures are blue like “Avatar” in a hilariously conspicuous way that practically screams: I’ll show you the way of water, bub!

In actuality, which is to say in the story’s fantasy world, the undersea citizens of Talocan come from the Mayan culture; they’re refugees and mutant beings that fled the surface world in the time of genocidal 16th-century Spanish colonizers. Undersea mutant god Namor (the “fish man,” according to Winston Duke’s newly prominent M’Baku) sizes up Wakanda as a natural ally against the rest of the world. Wakanda isn’t so sure.

Another storyline involves a brilliant young MIT student (Dominique Thorne) whose vibranium detection invention has mobbed her up with the U.S. military and rendered her a target of Namor’s vengeance. Meantime there’s the question of succession back in Wakanda and of who will assume the next iteration of the Black Panther.

The Wakandan fighting forces remain in excellent hands in “Wakanda Forever.” Danai Gurira’s Okoye; Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia; and, new to the “Black Panther” franchise, the terrific Michaela Coel as Aneka make for a formidable leadership team when taking on humans and mutants alike. Some of the sequel’s design work, notably the royal dazzle of Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth Carter, equals the splendors of the first movie, though the new cinematographer, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, delivers light and shadow and color a little less lustrous than the first film’s images.

Partly it’s a story issue: When the action relocates to Namor’s kingdom, the movie stalls a bit, and the designs of the grandiose underwater cavern lack magic. It’s a shame, because the winged-ankle Namor and his leaping, flying, spear-throwing warriors are introduced into the story by clever and enticing degrees.

So it’s a mixed-to-positive verdict this time, which wouldn’t work in a court of law, but this is a review, not a legal ruling. I do think “Wakanda Forever” has plenty of what the enormous “Black Panther” fan base wants in a “Black Panther” sequel. There’s real emotion in the best material here. The loss of Boseman was enormous. So is the skill level of the actors, returning and new, who make the most of a pretty good sequel.

MPAA rating: PG-13 (for sequences of strong violence, action and some language).

Running time: 2:41.

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REVIEW: ‘THE ESTATE’

By Katie Walsh

Tribune News Service

1 star

Watching the ensemble black comedy “The Estate,” written and directed by Dean Craig and co-starring Toni Collette, will no doubt draw comparison to another ensemble black comedy co-starring Toni Collette, “Knives Out,” which dwells in the same story milieu of money-hungry family members competing for a mention in a wealthy family member’s will. Of course, “Knives Out” is a twisty whodunit in the vein of Agatha Christie, and Craig’s film is merely an exploration of what depravities people might sink to in hopes of getting a bigger piece of the financial pie. Still, there are enough similarities between the two films, both rife with smarmy, unlikable characters, that one could become preoccupied in wondering why “Knives Out” works and why “The Estate” decidedly does not.

The answer lies in what “The Estate” is lacking, which is someone to root for. There might be some actual stakes in the game if we wanted someone, anyone, to win the inheritance that’s up for grabs when it’s announced that the wealthy and childless Aunt Hilda (Kathleen Turner) does not have long for this world.

One would think that Collette’s character Macey, whose perspective we are aligned with throughout, would be the hero of this film, but it’s a challenge to identify with her passive-aggressive people-pleasing, her character defined by not a single discernible personality trait, but only through her relationship to men (her dead father, her ex-husband, her current boyfriend, her creepy cousin).

Craig has crammed the only character exposition and motivation into a truly appalling animated opening credits sequence set to a jazzy blues tune. We see the animated stick figure avatars of Macey and her sister Savanna (Anna Faris) working in a cafe that was left to them by their father, who has died, and a foreclosure notice from the bank. As we transition out of this animated sequence, the sisters are denied a loan, they discover Aunt Hilda is dying and Savanna convinces Macey to pay a visit to try and get written into Hilda’s will. Presumably it’s to save the cafe that we never see nor care about, until Macey changes her mind halfway through the film and declares she wants the money so her boyfriend Geoff (Gichi Gamba) won’t move to Alaska.

When they find their cousin, Beatrice (Rosemarie Dewitt) and her husband James (Ron Livingston) already ensconced in Hilda’s New Orleans mansion, with another cousin, the lecherous Richard (David Duchovny) pulling up outside in his Porsche, it’s war. Scatological mishaps and sex crimes (yes, sex crimes) ensue as the cousins fight to be Hilda’s favorite.

It turns out that Beatrice and James want the money for their struggling restaurant (that’s not one, but two failing restaurants) and Richard, who prefers Dick, just wants a new Porsche. Though Richard has a strange cousin fetish for Macey, his forthright manner and Duchovny’s relaxed delivery make him the only funny character in the film, and quite possibly the only cousin worth rooting for.

It’s just too hard to hang with Macey when she meekly goes along with Savanna’s harebrained schemes, which result in criminal behavior, such as kidnapping and sexual assault; Savanna is so off-the-rails it would make sense if she was in the throes of a psychotic break, and Faris’ tired comedic schtick doesn’t help dissuade us otherwise. That Macey is so easily swayed to these plans does not speak well to her character, either.

Watching “The Estate” feels like being gaslit, in attempting to understand the purpose of anyone’s actions, or to find humor at all in these morbidly bleak antics, when there is simply nothing there. It’s not funny, it’s not satirical, and it’s not worth your time, or Toni Collette’s. Hopefully it was a nice trip to New Orleans.

MPAA rating: R (for pervasive language, crude/sexual material, graphic nudity and brief drug use).

Running time: 1:36.

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REVIEW: ‘THE FABELMANS’

By Katie Walsh

Tribune News Service

4 stars

“I need to see them crash.” These are the first fated words of a future filmmaker, Sammy Fabelman (Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord), whispered to his mother, Mitzi (Michelle Williams) after he’s crashed his toy train after bedtime, inspired by his very first big-screen cinematic experience, “The Greatest Show on Earth.” Mitzi instantly recognizes that re-creating the train crash is a way for young Sammy to exert some control over the fear he felt during the movie, and so she presents him with his father’s 8mm camera to capture, and replay, the crash. With this lesson on art as catharsis imprinted in his young mind, a movie director is born.

In the deeply personal “The Fabelmans,” legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg applies his artistic instincts to his own familial catharsis, turning his lens on his own upbringing, his childhood journey to becoming a filmmaker, and his parents. What could have been some kind of auto-hagiography is a playful, honest and ultimately gracious childhood memoir that derives its universal lessons from its specificity.

“The Fabelmans” is simultaneously the story of how a filmmaker comes to be, the product of an artist and an engineer, and a reckoning with, or setting the record straight, about his parents’ relationship, which has been shared before in interviews and in the 2017 documentary “Spielberg.” It is also, on a more spiritual level, an attempt to capture the drive to be an artist and what following that dream entails, and philosophically, about what it means to see or be seen through the lens of a camera.

Spielberg and co-writer Tony Kushner pack a lot into “The Fabelmans,” but first and foremost, it is funny and warm and loving, and complicated, in an authentically familial way. Much of this comes from Williams’ performance as Mitzi, which is specific, and big, but always feels real. Mitzi is wild and wonderful, a concert pianist who feeds her family on paper plates because she refuses to do dishes and risk her hands. She is fascinating, frustrating, immensely loving and lovable, and ultimately, unknowable, especially by her husband Bert (Paul Dano), a sensible engineer working on the development of computers.

Sammy (played in his teenage years by an excellent Gabriel LaBelle) knows his mother, because he sees her, through the viewfinder of camera, and later, winding through his reels of 8mm footage. What he sees he does not always like, especially when it comes to Mitzi’s friendship with Bert’s best friend Benny (Seth Rogen), but Sammy and Mitzi are too similar, possessed of an artist’s heart that cannot be denied. In their darkest moments, they are both “selfish and scared,” as his sister Reggie (Julia Butters) shouts at him, but Mitzi’s dreams, and her dreams deferred, become Sammy’s guiding light as he fumbles toward his calling.

A film so intimate and revealing about one’s own family could end up being somewhat maudlin, but Spielberg’s filmmaking is lively and even mischievous here. Working with longtime cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, Spielberg deploys a signature fluid camera style, but he employs whip pans and record scratches and little playful jogs of the camera to find a horizon line. The approach isn’t just amusing and endearing, but a reminder that Spielberg’s still just a kid who loves making movies, as he loves his family, as messy as it might be.

With “The Fabelmans,” Spielberg asks us to have a little fun and to remember our childhood love of the movies. But he also makes a profound statement about how he sees others through his filmmaking, and in that process how he himself is seen. In this delightfully meta memoir, he allows us to see him too.

MPAA rating: PG-13 (for some strong language, thematic elements, brief violence and drug use).

Running time: 2:31.

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