John Mulderig

The onset of overlapping strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has put Hollywood on hiatus.

If writer-director Christopher Nolan’s impressive but uneven portrait “Oppenheimer” (Universal) is anything to go by, famed theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was a highly complex man.

Hollywood has decided that Asian American women deserve their very own raunchy road movie. And so viewers are invited along for “Joy Ride” (Lionsgate). They’d do well to skip the trip.

The story of Ballard’s battle against the sexual enslavement of kids — a horrifying form of depravity that’s disturbingly widespread — makes for a valuable and ultimately uplifting experience.

In the often-raunchy comedy “No Hard Feelings” (Sony) star Jennifer Lawrence plays a woman who agrees to sell her body for a Buick.

Thanks to its rich blend of ethnicities, the United States has long been referred to as a melting pot. In the animated romantic comedy “Elemental” (Disney), director Peter Sohn substitutes for that metaphor a fable featuring embodiments of the four elements, using the dynamics of their imaginary world to explore the immigrant experience.

The parade of Spideys is something of an inside joke and may prove confusing to the uninitiated. But the film overall – which is safest for grown-ups but also possibly acceptable for mature adolescents – is a lively crowd pleaser and will likely be catnip for hardcore fans.