Looking for what to see in theaters? Our feature, updated weekly, highlights our top recommendations for films currently in theaters, from new releases to restorations receiving a proper theatrical run.

While we already provide extensive monthly new-release recommendations and weekly streaming recommendations, as distributors’ roll-outs can vary, this is a one-stop list to share the essential films that may be on a screen near you.

April (Dea Kulumbegashvili)

Like Beginning, April also carries the mark of reality, mediated. The director is inspired by fictionalized stories gleaned from the real world––especially her hometown, a village at the foot of the Caucasus mountains in Georgia and its people. Beginning’s sparse dialogue, long takes, and atmosphere of violence closing in on the main character––a Jehovah Witnesses pastor’s wife played by the new film’s lead, Ia Sukhitashvili––made space thicken and swell, while April breathes. Arseni Khachaturan’s patient, somehow insistent camera uncovers a world that is both familiar and uncanny: a world split between rumbling storms, rainfall, a gorgeous sunset seen from angles almost as low as the grass itself, and a rotting patriarchal society that squashes female independence with its body politics. Nina (Sukhitashvili) is an OBGYN who, despite best efforts, has to report a newborn’s death as the result of a previously unregistered pregnancy. The local woman’s husband demands an investigation, well aware of rumors that Nina performs illegal abortions in the village––something the patriarchy cannot allow. – Savina P. (full review)

Caught by the Tides (Jia Zhangke)

His first narrative feature in six years, featuring footage collected over some two decades, Jia Zhangke’s Caught by the Tides is one of the filmmaker’s greatest achievements. A summative piece in a career-spanning project of capturing China’s transformation, the Cannes, TIFF, and NYFF selection is now in theaters. Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Jia Zhangke’s is often a cinema of déjà vu: ‘We’re again in the northern Chinese city of Datong,’ Giovanni Marchini Camia wrote for Sight and Sound back in 2019, ‘it’s again the start of the new millennium, Qiao is again dating a mobster, yet no one else makes a reappearance and there are enough differences to signal that this isn’t a sequel or remake.’ Camia was writing about Ash Is Purest White yet much of the same could be said for Caught by the Tides, the director’s latest experiment in plundering his archive––indeed his memories––and spinning what he finds into something new. The protagonist of Tides is again named Qiao and is again played by Zhao Tao, appearing here in more than 20 years of the director’s footage and allowing the viewer to watch that singular creative partnership evolve in real time––one of the great treasures of contemporary cinema.”

The Encampments (Michael T. Workman, Kei Pritsker)

A document of a moment in time for a story very much still unfolding, The Encampments is a thorough, engrossing portrait of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, created by Columbia University students last year, calling for their university to divest from U.S. and Israeli weapons companies. With insights from those most directly involved in the protests––including many fearing for their safety and future as America’s newly-instated fascist regime continues to strip away rights––the documentary becomes a sobering, infuriating look at the dismantling of free speech and the nefarious ways those in power will go to any lengths to silence those that are of opposing interests. If there’s any positivity to be gleaned, The Encampments is a powerful portrait of collective action and, as other universities and organizations drew inspiration, how acts of courage can cause ripple effects across the world. – Jordan R. (full review)

Friendship (Andrew DeYoung)

At long last, Tim Robinson is now a leading man. World-premiering at TIFF this past fall to much acclaim, Andrew DeYoung’s hilarious (and hilariously dark) Friendship follows the I Think You Should Leave star as a dad who becomes obsessed with becoming friends with his neighbor (Paul Rudd). Christopher Schobert said in his review, “The level of enjoyment audience members will have with Andrew DeYoung’s Friendship is tied directly to their tolerance for the humor of Tim Robinson. The star of the meme-inspiring Netflix series I Think You Should Leave has cultivated a devoted following by creating situations of embarrassment and characters who veer wildly from absurdist rage to complete self-delusion. (See the infamous “we’re all trying to find the guy who did this” meme.) In my mind, I Think You Should Leave is the funniest series of the last decade or so. While Robinson’s full-length feature as star does not reach his show’s highs, it’s still a hysterically funny, pitch-black comedy.”

No Other Land (Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor)

Despite the horrors shown throughout No Other Land (all prior to October 7), it’s the Israeli bulldozers calmly retreating post-demolitions that I cannot shake. Beyond the secret document proving that “converting” Palestinian villages like Masafer Yatta into army training grounds was to drive inhabitants out, or an Israeli courtroom––devoid of jurisdiction as illegal settlers––ruling to reject Arab permit requests while evicting families with roots going back almost two centuries, all that’s necessary to understand the terrorism at play are those trucks blindly destroying private property before rolling away. Because it’s not about these occupiers “needing the land” or “enforcing the law.” It’s about control. About laughing at Israeli Yuval Abraham and Palestinian Basel Adra, knowing their only recourse is creating devastatingly crucial documents like this. So prove it’s enough by watching, absorbing, and refusing to remain silent––once a distributor finds the courage to let you. – Jared M.

Pavements (Alex Ross Perry)

If the Hollywood superhero-industrial complex is perishing, the Rolling Stone and Spin magazine extended universe is hastily being built. What better defines “pre-awareness” for the studios like the data logged by Spotify’s algorithm, where billions of track plays confirm what past popular music has stood the test of time, and also how––in the streaming era––you can gouge ancillary money from it? But unlike the still-brilliant Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, which stood to excoriate the nostalgia sought by such films, recently reinvigorated by the success of Bohemian Rhapsody, Alex Ross Perry’s Pavements, on the eponymous ’90s slacker idols, justifies that every great band deserves a film portrait helping us to wistfully remember them, and also chuckle as pretty young actors attempt to nail the mannerisms of weathered, road-bitten musicians. So good luck, Timothée. – David K. (full review)

Queens of Drama (Alexis Langlois)

The relationship the queer community has with an ever-expanding and rotating lineup of pop divas goes back decades, even if the current iteration of that relationship in the social media age––via the wars between unhinged stan accounts and, of course, endless posts about flop stars doomed to the “Khia asylum”––feels like an entirely new evolution in parasocial fandom. The decades-spanning pop industry satire Queens of Drama might skip over the present day altogether, spending more time reflecting on the mid-2000s dominance of stars manufactured by the Simon Cowell machine than anything more contemporary, but it feels completely of-the-moment for how it establishes the ways in which cultural backlash has transformed for the digital age. It’s reductive to view this as solely a product of the pearl-clutching right when this toxicity can often originate within the queer community––particularly for openly queer artists, who tend to receive just as much vitriolic scrutiny within the LGBTQ community as they do those wanting to erase them from existence. – Alistair R. (full review)

The Shrouds (David Cronenberg)

If any single thing distinguishes directors from auteurs, the capacity to put oneself into the film might be a strong dividing line. Few living directors have defined themselves so strongly as David Cronenberg, and while this sets expectations that can very well engender confused responses, it’s all the more opportunity to surprise––such as a sold-out New York Film Festival crowd being hushed into stunned silence when they realized his new film, The Shrouds, was less of the Videodrome or Scanners variety than an unsparing film about grief and loss, albeit a study spring-loaded with doppelgängers, vaguely futuristic tech, and dense conspiracy plotting. When all is said and done, The Shrouds might very well emerge one of Cronenberg’s best films. – Nick N. (full interview)

Sinners (Ryan Coogler)

Yet Sinners mainly feels so refreshing when this richness of text can easily be overlooked for enjoyment of an unholy hybrid of period drama and horror freakout, Coogler showing as much reverence for the genre as he does the centuries of music which guide this story (and Ludwig Göransson’s excellent score). Most importantly, he remembers that the archetypal vampire tale is an inherently horny one, and he pulls some tricks from Luca Guadagnino’s book for making sexually explicit stories which play even more erotically from what they withhold. Every sex scene features fully clothed actors, but all contain dialogue, or specific kinky details, which serve to remind us that, Dracula onwards, the best vampire stories are carnal ones where characters’ lust is baked into the premise. – Alistair R. (full review)

Vulcanizadora (Joel Potrykus)

Watch an exclusive clip above.

Like the punk-rock cousin of Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy, Joel Potrykus’ Vulcanizadora also concerns a voyage in the woods that pinpoints the exact moment an old friendship abruptly dies. The film also represents a maturing-of-sorts for the Michigan-based provocateur, revisiting characters first introduced in his 2014 film Buzzard and a few themes explored in his lesser-known 2016 feature The Alchemist Cookbook. Like many artists shifting from early to mid-career, Potrykus explores themes of having a family––or, in this case, abandoning it––while still retaining the edge present in his nascent works. It suggests a conundrum of sorts, but while other indie filmmakers start small and work towards scaling-up, this filmmaker refreshingly hasn’t. (His 2018 masterpiece Relaxer took place in the corner of an apartment, rather than expanding his slacker universe). – John F. (full review)

More Films Now Playing in Theaters

The Best New Restorations Now Playing in Theaters

The below list features newly restored films receiving a theatrical release run. For NYC-specific repertory round-ups, bookmark NYC Weekend Watch.

  • Forbidden Games
  • High Art
  • Killer of Sheep
  • Little Buddha
  • Love Hotel
  • Pink Narcissus
  • A Man and a Woman

Read all reviews here.

No more articles