Aurelia Butler

This gauzy film builds an impression of Floridian malaise by trailing four locals the day before a hurricane.The naturalistic mood piece “No Sleep Till” captures a calm before a storm — specifically, the days before a hurricane is forecast to strike the coastal hamlet of Atlantic Beach, Fla.The film opens with a newscaster warning of the impending weather. The first-time writer-director, Alexandra Simpson, then follows four young locals — two stand-up comics on a road trip (Jordan Coley and Xavier Brown-Sanders), a teenager with a crush (Brynne Hofbauer) and a storm chaser living in his truck (Taylor Benton) — as they ignore the evacuation order and fritter away the hours before the hurricane hits.Eschewing traditional narrative, Simpson uses gauzy imagery to build an impression of Floridian malaise. Skateboarders land tricks on a concrete halfpipe. A motel guest wades into a pool illuminated by neon signage. A teenager slogs through a shift at a souvenir shop.As the storm grows nearer, the scenes take on an eerie feeling of liminality. In one weighted sequence, housing developers inspect a newly constructed residence. Simpson lingers on the wooden rafters, signaling at the irony of unchecked urban sprawl as climate disaster looms.“No Sleep Till” is an understated — and somewhat sleepy — film. Its mood of boredom tinged with dread sometimes verges on outright listlessness. It helps that Simpson uses a cast of first-time actors almost entirely from the area: When Mike (Brown-Sanders) punctures the film’s observational mode to articulate one of its themes — that he appreciates the hurricane because it gives him “an excuse to do something” — the sentiment feels organic.No Sleep TillNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters. More

The filmmaker Reid Davenport raises thorny questions about how the option of medically assisted death is presented to disabled people.Near the end of his feature debut, the self-shot “I Didn’t See You There” (2022), the director Reid Davenport expresses a wish: “I hope this is my last personal film,” he says. But “Life After,” his new documentary, couldn’t be anything but.Davenport starts with a hook: What happened to Elizabeth Bouvia, who, beginning in 1983, was the subject of a highly publicized legal battle in California? Bouvia, who had cerebral palsy, as Davenport does, had sought to starve herself to death with medical supervision — something the courts initially did not allow.Forty years later, Davenport can find no record of her death. Is she still alive? Has her perspective changed? His investigation is fueled in part by parallels he sees in his life. When he and his producer, Colleen Cassingham, locate Bouvia’s sisters, they learn that her trajectory was more complicated than the news media’s framing revealed.But “Life After” also dives into broader questions about the legalization of medical assistance in death. The director makes clear that he does not oppose that choice, but he is concerned that messages of rejection from society and the economics of long-term care might push disabled people toward that end. He casts a particularly harsh spotlight on Canada’s commercialization of this issue. (“Don’t miss out on your chance to have an assisted death,” says a video that he and Cassingham watch that urges viewers to make arrangements early.) Davenport, upon learning he would qualify for assisted suicide if he lived in Canada, wonders if he would see his life differently if he didn’t have such positive support from family and friends. He has felt alienated at times, but so have many people, yet only those with disabilities are subtly encouraged to consider a state-sanctioned demise.“Life After” doesn’t equivocate; neither does it offer easy answers. It tackles a thorny topic in a challenging way, with the tenderness, complexity and — notwithstanding Davenport’s earlier wish — the personal perspective it deserves.Life AfterNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. In theaters. More

This movie, directed by Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd, follows Luke and Aysha, who meet by chance at a drag event.When Luke (Ben Hardy), a single dad in “Unicorns,” meets Aysha (Jason Patel), a drag queen, Luke thinks Aysha is a cisgender woman. After they kiss, there’s a palpable fear for Aysha’s safety when Luke recoils at the sight of her Adam’s apple.“Unicorns,” directed by Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd, follows in the cinematic tradition of straight men bonding with L.G.B.T.Q. characters — this time arriving at a moment when drag performers face renewed attacks.Their unlikely encounter begins at a nightclub in East London, when Luke, a white working-class guy, accidentally stumbles into the underground “gaysian” scene on his way to the bathroom. His eyes are fixed on Aysha, the night’s star performer. But why would Aysha — who later says that she receives death threats for doing drag — seek him out not once, but twice? First, by running in front of his car after his agitated reaction to their kiss, and then by showing up at his car repair shop in Essex. None of this clicks with who we discover Aysha to be: guarded by necessity.Whether the later conflict involving queer infighting comes off as a thoughtless subversion of expectations depends on if you identify more with Luke or Aysha. More effective are the subtleties within their blossoming romance, like during a karaoke duet sequence that shows Luke softening to Aysha’s charms. Hardy peels back the layers to reveal Luke’s sexual awakening so viscerally that it’s easier to overlook the film’s narrative shortcuts.UnicornsNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 59 minutes. In theaters. More

The lovable blue guys (and one gal) go on a mission to save Papa Smurf in this colorful romp with an impressive voice cast.Smurfs, the blue-skinned, white-clad wee creatures created by the Belgian comic artist Pierre Culliford, known as Peyo, in 1958, have come a long way.This feature film, ostensibly a reboot of a franchise that began in 2011 with a picture called “The Smurfs,” is the most lavish and possibly bizarre cinematic take on these folk. Here, Smurfette (voiced by Rihanna), leads her fellow Smurfs on a mission to save Papa Smurf (voiced by John Goodman), who has been kidnapped.The little fellas and lone Smurfette speak as the Smurfs always have — that is, they say things like “You Smurfs don’t know Smurf about Smurf.” The word “Smurf” can be a noun, verb or a gerund.Each Smurf in Smurf Village serves a specific function or has a specific trait; Brainy Smurf can solve problems, while Vanity Smurf is, well, vain. Into this mix arrives a Smurf who doesn’t know his function because he doesn’t have a name (voiced by James Corden). From this introduction the viewer is catapulted into a singing, dancing multidimensional romp in which, among other things, four books are responsible for maintaining balance in the universe. (I was disappointed to learn they were not Lawrence Durrell’s “Alexandria Quartet.”)The loopy plot allows the director Chris Miller to unleash visuals that get trippy to the extreme. There’s a clever sequence in which the characters traverse planes of reality that tell a short history of animation itself. It’s refreshing to see children’s animation makers use surrealism, instead of winking pop-culture references, to charm adults.The excellent voice cast features Goodman and Nick Offerman as dueling patriarchs. They’re all very zippy, or if you wish, Smurfy.SmurfsRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters. More

This revival of a 1990s horror franchise fumbles its shot.Following a string of mid-to-meh horror reboots that seem only to reaffirm the original’s greatness (like “Black Christmas” in 2019, “Candyman” in 2021 and “Scream” in 2022), the latest resurrection, “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” has something big going for it: Its predecessor from 1997 is a bit of a dud.That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of us who think fondly of the coastal teen slasher, a major hit in its time starring (and perhaps buoyed by) its flashy ensemble cast, which included the It Girls Jennifer Love Hewitt (“Party of Five”) and Sarah Michelle Gellar (“Buffy”).Scored with grungy alt-rock tracks and set in the foggy fishing town of Southport, N.C., the film follows four high school grads stalked by a hook-wielding killer who somehow knows they’re the culprits behind a hit-and-run that took place the previous Fourth of July. Like a mash-up of “The Tell-Tale Heart” and a P.S.A. for drunk-driving, all inflected with the era’s pessimism for the future, the film remains a notable artifact of ’90s youth culture. But, frankly, I still find it generic — and weirdly low energy — for a masked-maniac movie.In other words, there’s room for improvement — but Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s new version fumbles its shot.Back in Southport, 27 years after the events of the original, a new group of reckless friends triggers the wrath of another madman in slickers after a roadside incident. Ava (Chase Sui Wonders) is back from college to attend an engagement party for Danica (Madelyn Cline); she’s also eager to rekindle the flame with Milo (Jonah Hauer-King). At the same time, their once-estranged working-class pal, Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon), has re-entered the friend group, replacing the trust-fund brat, Teddy (Tyriq Withers), Danica’s ex, whose politically influential father (Billy Campbell) covered up the deadly accident. Then, the night after Danica opens a card at her bridal shower with the film title’s menacing words, her fiancé Wyatt (Joshua Orpin) gets gutted by a harpoon gun, kicking off the murder spree and opening up a mystery about who knows the group’s secret.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

This Italian drama, set in the 1950s and starring Lily James, Willem Dafoe and Joe Keery, sends a star-struck naïf through the looking glass darkly.In “Finally Dawn,” a black-and-white World War II playing onscreen gives way to a richly hued scene of sisters Mimosa (Rebecca Antonaci), Iris (Sofia Panizzi) and their mother, Elvira (Carmen Pommella), sitting in a Roman cinema arguing the merits of Italian neorealism versus Hollywood’s star-dusted fare.As the three women leave the theater, a man approaches and proposes that the Iris audition as an extra for an American-produced sand-and-sandal epic filming at Cinecittà studios. The writer and director Saverio Costanzo sets this movie about the movies and their allure in the 1950s, a period when Cinecittà was called Hollywood on the Tiber.If Iris’s future brightens, Mimosa’s appears to dim. But after a bit of dumb luck and a series of backlot mishaps, Mimosa becomes a “featured extra.” And soon she is swept up into the world of the movie star Josephine Esperanto (Lily James), her self-serious co-star Sean Lockwood (Joe Keery), the up-and-coming starlet Nan Roth (Rachel Sennott) and Josephine’s confidant, Rufus Priori (Willem Dafoe).Casting an inky shadow over Mimosa’s long night — which resembles an abduction as much as it does an adventure — is the recent discovery of a dead actress. This is the director’s nod to the 1953 murder of Wilma Montesi, a 21-year-old woman, which captivated the Italian press. The death is also a wink toward Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita.” “Finally Dawn” is at its most intriguing as Costanzo entrusts his curly haired, wide-eyed naïf to maneuver the looking glass of Italian versus Hollywood cinema. Hint: Italy comes off more soulful.Finally DawnNot rated. In English and Italian, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 59 minutes. In theaters. More