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★★★★★ Dirs. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. 1947. N/R. 100mins. Deborah Kerr, Flora Robson, Kathleen Byron. The five nuns, led by the reserved Sister Clodagh (Kerr), have their orders: Turn a remote Himalayan palace, once home to a king’s concubines, into a working convent that will minister to the local populace in body and spirit. That’s enough of a challenge, but there’s something truly unearthly about this place of howling winds, yawning chasms and atmosphere thick with temptation.

★★☆☆☆ Dir. Gus Van Sant. 2012. R. 107mins. Matt Damon, Frances McDormand, John Krasinski. Steve Butler (Damon) isn’t a bad guy. Oh sure, he may work as a corporate lackey for a natural-gas company that wants to frack the hell out of economically depressed U.S. farming communities. But as the son of a grower himself, he’s so aw-shucks personable it’s infectious, and — for good measure — he makes sure to say, “I’m not a bad guy” to many of the people he meets.

★★☆☆☆ Dir. Christopher McQuarrie. 2012. PG-13. 130mins. Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Werner Herzog. Hilariously haughty opening credits aside (“A Tom Cruise production” … “Tom Cruise” …), the former Mr. Katie Holmes doesn’t appear until about 20 minutes into this ludicrous film adaptation of author Lee Child’s popular military thriller series.

What I See When I See Leopards (2026) VIEWED August 1 Batman: Caped Crusader, “Brute Force” (2026) Batman: Caped Crusader, “Rocket’s Red Glare” (2026) Batman: Caped Crusader, “Deep Cover” (2026) Batman: Caped Crusader, “The Devil’s Due” (2026) Batman: Caped Crusader, “The Spectral Hand” (2026) Batman: Caped Crusader, “Sudden Fear” (2026) August 2 Batman: Caped Crusader, “Her Dark Reflection” (2026) Batman: Caped Crusader, “Zero Hour” (2026) Batman: Caped Crusader, “Dead Before Dawn” (2026)...

★☆☆☆☆ Dir. Fisher Stevens. 2012. R. 95mins. Al Pacino, Alan Arkin, Christopher Walken. Fresh out of prison after a 28-year stint, career criminal Val (Pacino) is picked up at the gate by his old partner, Doc (Walken). The duo make some catch-up small talk, but all Val really wants to do is “party,” which Pacino pronounces, in a shape-of-things-to-come sort of way, as “potty.” Doc goes along willingly to both the local whorehouse and the singles bar to help his friend indulge.

★★☆☆☆ Dir. Walter Salles. 2012. R. 124mins. Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart. Jack Kerouac’s generation-defining novel has long been coveted for a silver-screen adaptation; both Joel Schumacher and Francis Ford Coppola had their names attached at different points. Even the author himself got in on the action in 1957, attempting to woo Marlon Brando to play droolworthy central character Dean Moriarty, the fictional alter ego of major Beat figure Neal Cassady.

★★★★★ Dir. David Chase. 2012. R. 112mins. John Magaro, James Gandolfini, Bella Heathcote. A great movie is always about more than what it’s about. In the case of writer-director David Chase’s remarkable feature debut, the story is deceptively simple: It’s a ’60s-set tale of a two-bit rock band started by Douglas (Magaro), a small-town New Jersey youth, in the wake of the British Invasion. Yet from frame one, the film proves immeasurably more substantive.

★★★★☆ Dir. Peter Jackson. 2012. PG-13. 2hrs 46mins. Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage. A mesmerizing study in excess, Peter Jackson and company’s long-awaited prequel to the Lord of the Rings saga is bursting with surplus characters, wall-to-wall special effects, unapologetically drawn-out story tangents and double the frame rate (48 over 24) of the average movie. It is, in other words, a P.J. & Co. superproduction through and through.

★★☆☆☆ Dir. Stephen Frears. 2012. R. 94mins. Rebecca Hall, Bruce Willis, Vince Vaughn. Beth Raymer (Hall) is a ditz with hidden depths. No sooner does her sex-industry gig end unceremoniously than this squeaky-voiced Floridian upstart is off to Las Vegas to make it as a cocktail waitress (she dreams big). But Sin City being a union town, drink-tray-hauling careers are hard to come by. So it’s down to the underground, specifically a sports-gambling operation — Dink Inc.

★★★☆☆ Dir. Roger Michell. 2012. R. 94mins. Bill Murray, Laura Linney, Olivia Williams. In case you didn’t know, FDR was a playa! It’s not too long into Roger Michell’s amiably featherweight period drama before our 32nd President (Murray) gets a metacarpal happy ending from his sixth cousin, and the film’s narrator, Margaret Suckley (Linney). This is a new deal for the gal with the jokes-write-themselves last name: How many women can claim to be on intimate terms with the 1930s commander in chief?