“If Beale Street Could Talk” (Annapurna) is a faithful, evocative and reverent adaptation of James Baldwin’s 1974 novel about a struggling young African-American couple, with many of the attendant weaknesses such careful film realizations can bring with them.
The Arthurian legend gets an inventive updating in “The Kid Who Would Be King” (Fox), a thrilling adventure that casts schoolchildren as latter-day Knights of the Round Table, destined to save the world.
Those willing to entertain the real-life existence of superheroes as well as those well-versed in the previous films of director M. Night Shyamalan would appear to be the target audience for his thriller “Glass” (Universal).
Fans of 2017’s “A Dog’s Purpose” may be anxious to catch the quest-based adventure “A Dog’s Way Home” (Columbia). Both movies are based on novels by W. Bruce Cameron (who co-wrote the current screenplay with his wife, Cathryn Michon) and canine cuteness abounds in both.
The scientist who serves as the main character of the dull sci-fi misfire “Replicas” (Entertainment Studios) has clearly failed to heed the wisdom of Motown.
Take the “white savior” formula of 2009’s “The Blind Side,” in which a Caucasian of considerable means changes the life of an impoverished African-American, mix in a little of “Driving Miss Daisy” from 1989, and you have “The Upside” (STX).
The latest example, “The Favourite” (Fox Searchlight), is a costume comedy-drama about a royal love triangle in 18th-century England (hence the British spelling of “favorite”).
From “On the Basis of Sex” (Focus) one learns that even though a tax case may be destined to serve as a landmark for equal treatment under the law — as well as a breakthrough for future Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Felicity Jones) — it’s nearly impossible to keep stodginess at bay.
