“Napoleon”

R | 158 minutes
Director: Ridley Scott
Writer: David Scarpa
Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim

“Napoleon” begins in 1789, when Marie Antoinette is guillotined in the French Revolution, while a young gunnery officer, played by Joaquin Phoenix, watches with the heavy-lidded sneer he will adopt for much of the film. The Republic’s new leaders are afraid of being ousted by Royalists or invading Brits, so they send this scruffy Corsican soldier to the town of Toulon to liberate a fort occupied by British soldiers. Just as he is about to attack, he adjusts his famous hat from a jaunty off-center angle to a neat symmetrical one — and so it is that he begins his rise to greatness. Against a stunning backdrop of large-scale filmmaking orchestrated by legendary director Ridley Scott, “Napoleon” is an original and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine.

“Dream Scenario”

R | 102 minutes
Director/Writer: Kristoffer Borgli
Stars: Lily Bird, Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson

Just when you thought Nicolas Cage’s filmography couldn’t get any weirder, along comes Kristoffer Borgli’s “Dream Scenario.” Cage plays a character you probably wouldn’t notice in real life: Paul Matthews. Schlubby, balding, in rumpled pants and brown leather loafers, he’s a tenured professor at a university you’ve never heard of, droning on year after year about collective consciousness and the wisdom of the herd. And then something weird happens. Paul starts to appear in people’s dreams, either standing around or just strolling through, and, suddenly, this all-but-invisible man has people paying attention to him. 

“Poor Things”

R | 141 minutes
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writers: Tony McNamara, Alasdair Gray
Stars: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe

From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. ♦