Review: ‘The Disaster Artist,’ ‘Loveless,’ ‘Mary and the Witch’s Flower’ and other movie picks for Dec. 1

Movie recommendations from critics Kenneth Turan and Justin Chang.

Battle of the Sexes This enjoyable and entertaining film, with the gifted and innately likable actors Emma Stone and Steve Carell as Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, respectively, is most involving when it deals not with sports or society but with the personal struggles both players, especially King, were going through in the run-up to their 1973 tennis match. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13.

Blade Runner 2049 You can quibble with aspects of it, but as shaped by Denis Villeneuve and his masterful creative team, this high-end sequel puts you firmly and unassailably in another world of its own devising, and that is no small thing. (Kenneth Turan) R.

The Breadwinner In its power and its beauty, this story of a young girl’s struggles in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan reminds us that animation can be every bit as much of a medium for adults as it is for children. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13.

Call Me By Your Name Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer give superb performances as two young men falling in love in the northern Italian countryside in this rapturously beautiful collaboration between director Luca Guadagnino and screenwriter James Ivory. (Justin Chang) R.

The Disaster Artist James Franco’s shrewd, affectionate and frequently hilarious comedy re-creates and deconstructs the making of Tommy Wiseau’s cult landmark “The Room,” with Franco giving a fully committed, even haunted performance as Wiseau himself. (Justin Chang) R

The Florida Project Absorbing us in the day-to-day rhythms of life at a dumpy Florida motel complex, home to a wildly spirited 6-year-old girl named Moonee (the startling Brooklynn Prince), Sean Baker (“Tangerine”) goes to a place few of us know and emerges with a masterpiece of empathy and imagination. (Justin Chang) R.

Lady Bird As warm as it is smart, and it is very smart, this portrait of a high school senior year marks actor-screenwriter Greta Gerwig’s superb debut as a solo director and yet another astonishing performance by star Saoirse Ronan. (Kenneth Turan) R.

Last Flag Flying Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne and Steve Carell give richly felt performances as Vietnam veterans reuniting 30 years later in Richard Linklater’s warm, ribald and elegiac quasi-sequel to Hal Ashby’s 1973 classic, “The Last Detail.” (Justin Chang) R.

Loveless A story about a broken marriage and a missing child becomes a withering snapshot of Russian social malaise in this bleak and beautifully shot drama from the gifted Andrey Zvyagintsev (“Leviathan”). (Justin Chang) R.

Mary and the Witch’s Flower Adapted from “The Little Broomstick,” Mary Stewart’s novel about a young girl swept into a world of enchantment, this third animated feature from Japanese director Hiromasa Yonebayashi (“When Marnie Was There”) is an effortless charmer. (Justin Chang) PG.

Mudbound Carey Mulligan, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige and Rob Morgan are part of a superb ensemble in writer-director Dee Rees’ sweeping epic of World War II-era Mississippi, the rare film that grants its white and black characters the same moral and dramatic weight. (Justin Chang) R.

1945 A lean, unadorned parable about guilt and the nature and consequences of evil. A quietly furious Hungarian film that puts a particular time and place under a microscope, revealing hidden fault lines and differences that have been ineffectively papered over. (Kenneth Turan) NR.

The Square A Stockholm museum curator (an excellent Claes Bang) undergoes a crisis of conscience in Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund’s sprawling, virtuoso satire of the modern art world, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. (Justin Chang) R.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Uncommon writer-director Martin McDonagh and a splendid cast toplined by Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell present a savage film, even a dangerous one, the blackest take-no-prisoners farce in quite some time. (Kenneth Turan) R.

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour »

[email protected]