‘Soul’ Film Review: Pixar Gets Existential in Dizzying Animated Film

This month, stay-at-home moviegoers can watch Sacha Baron Cohen be a political prankster who delights in provoking opponents into exposing their worst sides. They can enjoy his career-best performance and marvel at the subtleties he finds in a character whose reputation has suffered from years of caricature.

"We don't have much in the way of Obamacare down here," says Eloise (Loretta Devine), the hoodoo-practicing matriarch who serves as the chief villain of Spell. That it's the most ominous line of Kurt Wimmer's screenplay provides some indication of the dearth of genuine thrills in the new horror film directed by Mark Tonderai that provides an African-American riff on themes rendered much scarier in Misery.

Kelly Oxford’s debut feature Pink Skies Ahead is the kind of coming-of-age comedy that is destined for cult status, if not full-on indie success. It has all the necessary ingredients of an upper-middle-class coming-of-age comedy: a young woman trying to find herself, a pair of worried, coddling parents, and a crew of comical friends.

Can a repentant law-breaker find forgiveness in the blind prejudice of provincial America? Although the slow-starting drama Home never really catches fire, it patiently draws the viewer into the story of a young ex-con struggling for normalcy and acceptance, thanks to emotionally convincing turns by leads Jake McLaughlin, Kathy Bates and Derek Richardson.

Two complete strangers trying to scrape by in the sprawling metropolis of Lagos are at the heart of Eyimofe (This is My Desire), a promising, quietly moving first feature from the directing duo of Arie and Chuko Esiri.

Thriller author Gillian Flynn didn't invent the "cool girl," but she did codify her.

Whether you call it classic or generic, the coming-of-age story of Sparkle, the fittingly named 17-year-old at the center of She Paradise, follows a familiar trajectory. She's a teen with drive, talent and an independent streak, defying parental disapproval and breaking away from childhood.

A holiday plan for two lifelong friends to drown their sorrows in pie turns into something much more sociable in Friendsgiving, the writing-directing debut of comic actress Nicole Paone. Jam-packed with familiar names, it is most interested in those besties (played by Malin Akerman and Kat Dennings), whose exasperated complaints about failed relationships don't deliver the laughs they seem intended to.

Set against the majestic backdrop of Ireland's wild west coast, Pixie is a trigger-happy comedy road movie that relies more on boorish energy than wit or charm. It marks the self-produced solo directing debut of veteran British producer Barnaby Thompson, whose long lost of credits includes the Wayne's World movies, working here from a screenplay by his son Preston.

A middle-class couple who can’t have children turns to an adoption agency for a baby, only to find their happiness threatened years later when their son’s biological mother shows up and demands him back. Though the story is based on a novel by mystery writer Mizuki Tsujimura, True Mothers (Asa ga Kuru) is a true Naomi Kawase film: a lush visual reworking of parental angst and despair, offset by frequent interludes of communing with that great healer, Mother Nature.

The macabre humor of Roald Dahl survived even a sweetened ending that irked the famed British children’s author in Nicolas Roeg's delectable 1990 film of The Witches, thanks in large part to the glorious villainy of Anjelica Huston.

Documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi says that the purpose of her latest film was to "take the temperature of how people feel about America today." Judging by the alarming footage on display in American Selfie: One Nation Shoots Itself —premiering Friday on Showtime — the country is suffering from a high-grade fever.

In The Boy Behind the Door, a gripping twist on the home-invasion thriller, first-time feature directors David Charbonier and Justin Powell plunge two tween boys into escalating peril, relentlessly intensifying a cascading series of lethal threats over the film’s excruciating runtime.

You can feel the urgency fueling Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler's historical drama about a little-known, shameful episode in our country's past. Despite taking place in the 1920s, Radium Girls feels particularly relevant in these times when the current administration has devoted itself with a passion to rolling back protections for workers.

Mental health institutions are not filled with emotionally disturbed individuals, but rather brave iconoclasts unwilling to conform to societal rules. That, at least, is an idea that's been posited in popular culture for what seems like forever, most prominently advanced in the book, stage and screen versions of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Kim Kardashian West, Dax Shepherd and Yara Shahidi have joined the voice cast for Paw Patrol, the upcoming Paramount Pictures feature based on the hit preschool television series about rescue dogs on Nickelodeon. Jimmy Kimmel, Tyler Perry and Randall Park, Iain Armitage, Marsai Martin and Will Brisbin will also lend their voices to the film now in production with creators, artists and producers working remotely.

Outlander star Sam Heughan.

Amanda N'Duka pmc-editorial-managerEXCLUSIVE: Booboo Stewart, best known from franchises like Disney Channel’s Descendants and The Twilight Saga, has been tapped to voice the lead role in The Adventures of Tikki the Wonder Dog, an animated feature that is being directed by LaMarcus Tinker.Stewart will voice the character of Picasso, a spider who creates incredible unique webs that are works of art but he doesn’t fit in with and is bullied by other spiders.

Dade Hayes Finance EditorAbigail Disney, Sheila Nevins are among the notable speakers slated to appear at a documentary-focused edition of the New York Women in Film & Television Creative Workforce Summit.The event, which will take place virtually from October 20 to 23, will feature keynote speakers, panels and film screenings.