In-Theater Releases of the Week 
Arco
(Neon)
French director Ugo Bienvenu makes his feature debut with this charming and touching animated feature about a young boy, Arco, who time-travels from the year 2932 back to 2075, where he meets a like-minded young girl, Iris, who becomes his only friend. Their adventures—which include outsmarting a trio of comically dumb conspiracy theorists hot on their trail along with robotic thugs—are reminiscent of E.T.’s friendship with Elliott, but Bienvenu smartly keeps the focus on the children’s burgeoning relationship even as he fills in the details of an antiseptic future world of environmental catastrophes, with an eye-popping color scheme that visualizes hope amid hopelessness. The English-language dub features co-producer Natalie Portman and Mark Ruffalo as Iris’ parents, with Will Farrell, Andy Samberg and Flea hamming it up as the dastardly trio.
(Roadside Attractions)
Claire Foy’s emotionally raw portrayal of Helen Macdonald, dealing with beloved father (and famous press photographer) Alisdair’s sudden death, is the centerpiece of Philippa Lowthorpe’s lacerating adaptation of Macdonald’s memoir—for which Lowthorpe cowrote the script with Emma Donoghue—that explores how obtaining a goshawk to help the grieving process became the focal point that allowed Helen to pick up the emotional pieces. There are mawkish moments when Helen flashes back to dad (played with his usual charm and humor by Brendan Gleeson) and mom (the always reliable Lindsay Duncan), but Foy’s stoicism and the unforgettable goshawk (actually several) are highlights.
4K/UHD Release of the Week 
One Battle After Another
(Warner Bros)
Each Paul Thomas Anderson film is treated as an Event, but his latest magnum opus cobbles together themes and characters he’s worked on for decades—this loose adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland is a flashy, convoluted, crude and cartoonish take on an America comprising left-wing terrorists and right-wing authoritarians. There’s some good material here, but Anderson throws everything against the wall to see what will stick, resulting in a tonally unbalanced and unwieldy 160 minutes. The acting is all over the map—Leonardo DiCaprio’s wild-eyed terrorist hero stops just short of caricature, while Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti are solid if unspectacular as his wife and daughter, both of whom however (especially Taylor) are shortchanged by the script.
Then there’s Sean Penn’s villainous Colonel Lockjaw—a failed attempt to channel Dr. Strangelove’s Jack D. Ripper and General Turgidson—a wincingly embarrassing performance that’s likely the worst of a storied career. Anderson’s bombast reaches its nadir when he kills off Lockjaw three times in a couple of dragged-out, pedestrian sequences that add nothing to an already overstuffed vehicle. Finally, the less said about Jonny Greenwood’s typically excessive score—whose rhythmic drive is more repetitious than tense—the better. At least the film looks eye-popping in 4K.
Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 5
(Criterion)
In the latest volume of this valuable series, four international films have been painstakingly restored and are available in all their visual glory: Indian director G. Aravindan’s lovely children’s tale Kummatty (1977) and Burkinabè director Idrissa Ouédraogo’s impressive feature debut Yam Dabbo (1986) are small-scale gems. But the standouts are two historical epics: Algerian master Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina’s devastating chronicle of the road from colonialism to revolution in his home country, Chronicle of the Years of Fire (1975); and Kazakhstani director Ardak Amirkulov’s complex dramatization of a decisive 13th-century battle involving Genghis Kahn, The Fall of Otrar (1991). All four films look spectacular on Blu; extras comprise short Scorsese intros for and retrospective featurettes about each of the films.
Streaming Releases of the Week 
The Hell of Auschwitz—Maus by Art Spiegelman
(Icarus Films)
When Art Spiegelman created Maus—his comic-book recounting of his father’s memories of Auschwitz, with the Jews drawn as mice, the Nazis as cats and the Polish people as pigs—he also created a sensation, some accusing him of trivializing the Holocaust while many others praising the power of his artistry and storytelling. Now, decades later, French director Pauline Horovitz—who herself is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors—brings in other voices (including Horovitz’s son, who is not as shaken after reading the book as she was) to explore the notion of “the second generation,” those who came after the actual survivors and were subjected to either silence or denial. (A segment about French students being shown Alain Resnais’ shattering documentary Night and Fog in classrooms is as powerful as anything about Spiegelman’s seminal graphic novel.)
(Netflix)
In this wispy, lyrical drama, director Clint Bentley cribs from Terrence Malick (as does Chloe Zhao with Hamnet, another best picture Oscar contender) to tell the story of Robert Grainier, a rugged frontiersman, whose long life is shaped by tragedies writ large and small, personal and expansive—in other words, it’s an allegory for American expansionism. Based on a novel by Denis Johnson, Bentley’s film is beautifully shot (by Adolpho Veloso), with an attention to naturalistic details that would make Malick proud—although the third-person narration seems an almost willful rejection of Malick’s subjective first-person voiceovers—but its stillness is contrived, and the ending is a whimper that thinks it’s a bang. Joel Edgerton makes a properly haggard Robert, but Felicity Jones and Kerry Condon are wasted as the women in his life.
CD Release of the Week 
The Warning—Error Deluxe Edition
(Lava/Republic Records)
The Mexican hard-rock trio the Warning—comprising sisters Daniela (guitar, vocals), Paulina (drums, vocals) and Alejandra (bass, backing vocals) Villarreal—put out two solid albums independently while still teenagers: the 2017 debut, XXI Century Blood, is the best Green Day album of the past decade, while 2018’s Queen of the Murder Scene is the best hard-rock concept album since Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime.
When they signed to major label Republic Records, the sisters released Error in 2022, an album about the fallout of the COVID pandemic and an exploration of what it means to be Gen Z. With hard-hitting songs like “Disciple,” “Choke,” Animosity, “Evolve” and—yes—“Z,” the trio had its finger on the pulse of a confused and confusing time. And the Warning’s second song in its native language, “Martirio,” is a sonic masterpiece, combining emotionally charged vocals, subtle instrumental interplay—listen to Alejandra’s marvelously McCartney-esque bass playing—and a brilliant arrangement to craft what remains the Warning’s best song, even after the release of its best album, Keep Me Fed, in 2024.
This so-called “deluxe edition” tacks on live versions of six songs from the band’s historic 2023 headlining shows in Mexico City, five from Error (including a powerful “Martirio”) and one from XXI Century Blood. A real deluxe edition would have included a second disc of the entire concert. There’s also an unforced error in the liner notes: nearly three pages in, the entire essay starts over; no copy editor in the house? Still, the deluxe Error should accomplish two things: introduce the band to a bigger fan base and pave the way for what should be the Warning’s fifth album later this year.
