The Screening Room — film reviews, features and awards

Rosalind Eleazar gives Chris Rock's Hollywood comeback drama an intensity the uneven film around her cannot always sustain.

Alex Gibney's nearly four-hour documentary demands patience, but its real subject is how one man's mythology became permission for enormous power.

Cristian Mungiu turns a Norwegian child-protection case into a difficult, absorbing examination of authority, belonging and moral certainty.

Genden Phuntsok anchors a handsome Everest drama whose best achievement is making recognition of Tenzing Norgay part of the climb.

Jessica Chastain supplies a memorable menace, but Rob Savage's domestic nightmare keeps trading slow-building unease for another jolt.

Mikey Madison gives Aaron Sorkin's Facebook whistleblower story a human center, but the film too often explains its urgency rather than staging it.

Mahershala Ali and Bassam Tariq turn a hitman premise into a searching drama about faith, grief and the unglamorous work of keeping a child alive.

Tom Cruise makes Alejandro G. Iñárritu's unruly apocalypse satire compelling, even when the film works too hard to show off its intelligence.

Dakota Johnson, Anne Hathaway and Josh Hartnett sell the glamour of Colleen Hoover's thriller, but its twists announce more than they earn.

Owen Wilson's festival misadventure has a lively setting and a workable premise, but too little comic rhythm to turn the chaos into laughs.