By subverting its central trope, screenwriter Akela Cooper and director Gerard Johnstone serve up a wickedly funny treat in “M3GAN.”

It’s the adolescent child and not the parent who’s at the center of the action in “Missing.”

The idea of incorporating iconic author Edgar Allan Poe, the inventor of the modern detective story, into a whodunit would seem like a winning one.

Grown fans of Gerard Butler and of the action genre may find director Jean-François Richet’s aviation adventure “Plane” (Lionsgate) appealing in some respects.

While the drama-and-comedy blend “A Man Called Otto” (Sony) proves generally goodhearted, it also turns out to be formulaic.

Director Kasi Lemmons’ profile charts singer Whitney Houston’s meteoric rise as well as the gradual descent into dependence that culminated in her untimely 2012 death at age 48.

The disappearance 40 years ago of Emanuela Orlandi has haunted her family, fueled conspiracy theories and provided grist for a recent Netflix series.

The good news is that, overall, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” proves a worthy successor to its sparkling precursor, “Knives Out.”

“Babylon” (Paramount), writer-director Damien Chazelle’s sprawling recreation of Hollywood shortly before and after the advent of talkies, is a film of undeniable artistic intent. Yet its considerable aesthetic strong points are overshadowed by both overt content and an underlying tone that viewers of faith will feel compelled to reject.

Frenetic action sequences are interspersed with a series of gentle moral lessons in the entertaining animated adventure “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” (Universal).