ON THE BIG SCREEN

BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Not yet rated 
It’s been 36 years since Tim Burton, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder (as Lydia) and Catherine O’Hara made the much-loved afterlife fantasy-comedy Beetlejuice; now they are all together again, in what might just be the most long-awaited sequel in cinema history. For who doesn’t love Beetlejuice? We sure do, and love Burton’s inspired casting of Jenna Ortega as Astrid, Lydia’s teenage daughter who opens the Afterlife portal once again when the Deetz family returns to Winter River and their haunted house. Add in Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci, Justin Theroux, and a crazy cast of dead folks and this one looks to be another keeper.

THE SUBSTANCE
R
Winner of the Best Screenplay at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Coralie Fargeat’s dazzlingly satiric film The Substance is ready to make waves here in the States. Demi Moore lets it all hang out as a fading fitness guru who risks life and limb by injecting a substance designed to give her back everything her age has taken away, only to find what she wished for isn’t quite what happens. With inspired performances by Moore, as well as Margaret Qualley as her “better” self and Dennis Quaid as her completely creepy boss, this “body horror” flick will definitely shake you up.

WOLFS
Not yet rated
Can George Clooney and Brad Pitt make movie magic together again? With Wolfs, the two buddies are betting their own money that they can, as both are producing the flick. Written and directed by Jon Watts, who is best known for his Spider-Man movies made with Tom Holland and Zendaya, this action comedy pits the two against each other, each as a fixer who takes care of criminal messes. When both accidentally end up on the same job, they soon find they’ve got their own mess to clean up, and neither one likes that one bit.

TRANSFORMERS ONE
Not yet rated
What do Oscar nominees and Emmy Award winners do when they get bored? Well, if you ask Scarlett Johansson, Laurence Fishburne, Brian Tyree Henry, Jon Hamm, Steve Buscemi, and Keegan-Michael Key, they’d all have to say, “Make an animated movie!” For that’s just what they all did, as vocal stars of Transformers One, along with Chris Hemsworth, who plays Optimus Prime opposite Henry’s Megatron in this big-budget film designed for kids as well as adults who love the Transformers franchise.

THE WILD ROBOT
Not yet rated
Based on the best-selling book written for kids by Peter Brown, this animated feature from DreamWorks has an all-star vocal cast that includes Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o as Roz the robot. With a story that captured so much imagination that it hit number one on The New York Times bestseller list, the filmmakers and animators are hoping this one is the start of another lucrative movie franchise. Pedro Pascal, Stephanie Hsu, Bill Nighy, Ving Rhames, and Catherine O’Hara are all here too, lending voices to this action-adventure tale of a robot lost on a wild island.