Movie & Television Reviews

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.

In theory, the tale of a shy but enthusiastic high schooler who is really a sea creature rather than a human might make for a pleasant diversion. But the major feminist and minor gay agendas that underlie the animated adventure “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” (Universal) spoil any potential fun the film might offer.

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.

“The Blackening” (Lionsgate) is a brilliant comic riff on what constitutes authentic African American identity.