Justin Chang

Comedian Kumail Nanjiani steps into the leading role in a semi-autobiographical love story. It's a quietly groundbreaking crowd-pleaser, though some characters aren't as fully dimensional as others.

Salma Hayek plays a Mexican-American massage therapist who attends the dinner party of a wealthy client in Beatriz At Dinner. Reviewer Justin Chang calls the film an "elegantly acerbic new comedy."

The title of Cate Shortland's new film, Berlin Syndrome, is a sly riff on "Stockholm syndrome," that condition in which a hostage begins to feel sympathy for her captor. It's never clear what sets the Berlin version apart, and in some ways Shortland and the screenwriter, Shaun Grant, seem to be figuring it out as they go along.