With more than 400,000 viewers since its release as of Nov. 14, and counting, a new film about the Sacred Heart of Jesus has become an unexpected box office hit in France — and a lightning rod for controversy.

In the lead-up to Pope Leo XIV’s Nov. 15 meeting with a group of Hollywood actors and directors, the Vatican offered an insight into the American-born pontiff’s cinematic taste by publishing a short list of his favorite films. Despite its brevity, the collection of four movies covers quite a lot of thematic and tonal territory.

A new documentary released by the Vatican on Pope Leo XIV’s early life is more than just a film about the life of the new pope, but the story of an ordinary person who answered a calling to serve the church, said Vatican News journalist Salvatore Cernuzio.

With a grunting, barbaric alien for its protagonist, the sci-fi action film “Predator: Badlands” (20th Century) gets off to an unpromising start. Yet by the end of the movie, the brute in question — Dek by name and played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi — has experienced a conversion to better values.

A new thriller about the Nuremberg trials held to prosecute high-ranking Nazi Germany officials following World War II wrestles with the capacity of ordinary men to commit extraordinary evil.

As the historical drama “Nuremberg” (Sony Pictures Classics) successfully reminds its audience, the trials held in the titular German city in the aftermath of World War II almost didn’t happen. What takes place in the uncertain lead-up to them kicks off the film’s action.

Capsule reviews of theatrical movies available now for streaming or scheduled for broadcast on network or cable television as well as notes on TV programming for the same week.

Existential issues: the fear of becoming outmoded, of dying unloved, of having one’s work forgotten, are wrestled with in the very loosely fact-based mix of comedy and drama “Blue Moon” (Sony Pictures Classics).

As anyone who saw director Yorgos Lanthimos’ 2023 fantasy “Poor Things” will be aware, the Greek-born filmmaker is capable of bringing deep weirdness to the screen. If further evidence of his capacity in that regard was needed, it’s provided in abundance by his latest offering, “Bugonia” (Focus).

Part teen romance, part emotionally convoluted soap opera, “Regretting You” (Paramount), director Josh Boone’s screen version of Colleen Hoover’s 2019 novel, is ill-suited to the youthful audience at which its source material was aimed. As for mature viewers, they’re likely to find the film’s proceedings both inauthentic and pat.