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Following her love for cinema Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) finds herself in Hollywood, shy of her big dreams and working in porn; but, when a break comes as a starring role in Director Elizabeth Bender’s (Elizabeth Debicki) next film, it would seem her luck has changed. Meanwhile, the Hollywood Strangler has sights on Maxine and all of her friends. From hunted to hunter, Maxine is clearly a resourceful woman, and, given her dark past, who will survive the Hollywood grind is anyone’s guess. Written and Directed by Ti West, this is the third installment of the Maxine/Pearl trilogy, a series of highly stylized satirical, slasher, crime, drama pics centered around Mia Goth’s character. In this go round West and crew re-animate and embody the fun of the 80’s slasher flick with the formulaic panache, color, and nod to all slashers that have come before, in a word, it’s fun, and while perhaps not the zenith of the series as one might hope, for fans of the genre there’s plenty to chew on, squirm at, and laugh in disgust with, mission accomplished. The gods of Hollywood gore are clearly smiling upon this feature. With a brisk runtime of one hour and 44 minutes, MaXXXine makes sure to keep you wanting more. MaXXXine is rated R.

On her ride home from the airport to midtown New York city, a young woman (Dakota Johnson) finds herself in a taxi cab with a driver (Sean Penn) that has an interesting outlook on life. As their conversation weaves into life lessons and relationship talk, what transpires is a healing and deep conversation for both. For Johnson’s character, it’s the fatherly advice and guidance from this stranger that might just be the chicken soup for the soul she needs, and for Penn’s character it might be the absolution he needs in a world that’s changing all around him. Written and Directed by newcomer Christy Hall, the whole film uses the premise of the drive home as the carrier for what feels like an well developed One act, a piece that clearly has beats and break points, but explores each character’s flaws and victories to a faultless point and delivers a rich and incredibly thoughtful capture as two random strangers manage to bear their soul to each other in a very real way. And, while there are a few writing crutches or “tools” that Hall relies on to drive her narrative, such as score keeping in storytelling which never quite seems to land as genuine, this is a minor offense in relation to the overall performances which allow Penn and Johnson to generate some of the most heartfelt, relatable, and emotionally complex moments on screen to touch the viewer in a significant way. Bottom line, at one hour and forty one minutes of run time, the film sits as the perfect length for this duo to not overstay their welcome and deliver some knockout performances, smelling Oscar nods from here. Daddio is rated R.

Building on the basic human emotions of Joy (Amy Poehler), Anger (Lewis Black), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Tony Hale), and Disgust (Liza Lapira), young Riley (Kensington Tallman) is about to launch into puberty adding a whole host of new characters to her head including Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), and Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos). Learning to navigate new schools, new friends, and new challenges while trying to be the best youth hockey player she can be might be too much. How will Riley ever right the ship? Written by Meg LeFauve, Dave Holstein, and Kelsey Mann and Directed by Mann, this reprisal of Pixar’s wildly creative psychology 101 romp Inside Out (2015) continues to build on the colorful visualization of the human psyche; although, since the majority of the Inside Out “world building” was already established in the previous work, the overall feel is less breakthrough and instead more additive, and thus a little less impressive despite the clearly well researched concepts and ideas. Also of note, a recasting of several of the key characters, Fear and Disgust, previously voiced by Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling, apparently for financial reasons, changes things up a bit and sits as strange considering the level of success that Inside Out was originally met with. Sure, the new voices are fine, but the rationale seems misguided. Meanwhile, true to Pixar standards, the almost paint by number plotline and story follows their recipe for success to a tee. Characters are faced with a challenge and must choose option A or B, but in reality must choose option C to transcend their situation all together. Checking all the boxes for family fun, this encore performance will still have audiences smiling and laughing along the way, cringe and all. Running 96 minutes in length, Inside Out 2 is rated PG.