“I had you as a head down sort of fellow. Anything for a quiet life.” Jonathan Pryce as the headmaster of a posh private school in Buenos Aires is disappointed to discover that the English professor he thought wanted to hide from the world and, especially, from his feelings, might have started out that way but due to an outside influence, had become a head up sort of fellow who was increasingly less quiet.

That professor is Tom Michell (Steve Coogan), who is joking-not-joking when he tells the headmaster his career has been “steadily working my way down,” and then adds, “geographically speaking.” Both are Brits who have ended up in Argentina just as it is on the brink of a military coup in 1976. The headmaster explains that there is “trouble in the streets and the economy is in free fall,” but their school is a haven where wealthy families send their sons. He tells the faculty it is also a haven from any conversation about politics. “Whatever strong opinions you may have, keep them to yourselves and don’t bore the rest of us.”

The coup happens and the school sends the students home for a week until the country calms down. All this means to Michell is a chance to go to Uruguay for a chance to drink and perhaps find some ladies. A lonely colleague from Finland (Björn Gustafsson) comes along, telling Michell, “I like you.” Michell responds, more wry than bitter, “Do you? I don’t.”

They go to a bar and Michell meets a beautiful woman who takes him for a walk on the beach. They come across a Magellanic penguin drenched in oil from a spill. Only because he wants to impress (meaning, have sex with) the lady, Michell agrees to clean off the penguin. The lady then leaves and Michell is about to discover that penguins are very loyal and this one will not leave him.

That is how Michell ends up hiding a penguin, later named Juan Salvador, in his room. The flightless bird is quickly discovered by the maid and her granddaughter, Sofia (Alfonsina Carrocio) who gives him his name, from the Spanish version of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

The setting makes this more than the typical “grumpy or grieving person finds solace, hope, and connection with an animal” movie. Screenwriter Jeff Pope, who worked with Coogan on “Philomena,” “The Lost King,” and “Stan and Ollie,” took the real-life story of a 23-year-old teacher and adapted it to Coogan’s strengths as an actor. This is one of the best performances from someone who is not given a chance to show all he can do often enough. At first he is remote, though not humorless. He tries to reach his “privileged and spoiled” students by explaining sarcasm. Then, as it becomes harder to pretend to ignore the atrocities around him, especially after Sofia is taken, the poetry he shares with his students begins to tend first toward loss, then courage, integrity, even rebellion. There’s a wonderful moment when Michell is on the phone with the local zoo, saying he will kill the bird if they won’t take Juan Salvador, quickly gesturing to the penguin reassuringly.

The combination of horrific national tragedy with the personal story of someone unconnected to the community does not always work. But people do struggle to work through their own losses and sometimes they do find connection in unexpected places that help them reconcile emotions they thought were too painful to acknowledge. There is so much warmth and humor in this story that we cannot help feeling touched by the story and maybe even thinking about a penguin of our own.

Parents should know: This movie occurs during a brutal military coup and while much of the abuse is off-screen, a character is “disappeared” and the end credits acknowledge that thousands were captured and killed during this period. Characters use strong language, drink alcohol, and mention sex

Family discussion: When did Michell’s feelings about the penguin begin to change? Why did everyone want to talk to the penguin?

If you like this, try: The book by the real Tom Michell, My Penguin Friend, and the beloved documentary March of the Penguins

Elliot (Paul Rudd), a nervous lawyer who is late to a very important meeting with a vastly wealthy client and constantly sneezing from his allergy to pollen. He is driving much too fast on a precarious mountain road and he hits…a unicorn. He and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) get out of the car. She touches the unicorn’s glowing horn and makes some kind of connection to the animal and its wisdom about the universe. He, seeing that the animal is suffering and again, frantic about getting to the compound on top of the mountain to meet with the client, hits the unicorn with a tire iron to, well, you saw the title.

They shove the unicorn’s body into the rental car and proceed up the mountain to the compound of the client, Odell (Richard E. Grant), critically ill and on oxygen, his wife Belinda (Tea Leoni) and their son, Shepard (Will Poulter). This visit will determine whether Odell will bring Elliot on as a partner of the pharmaceutical company, and Elliot has brought Ridley along to demonstrate his value as a family man. He does not pay attention to Ridley’s unhappiness with him and with the client as a representative of the oppressive oligarchy. She has grudgingly agreed to pretend to close to him. And he keeps assuring her that all of the compromises he is making are because he wants to take care of her.

This conflict is acutely shown in the first scene, when they are stuck on a plane that has been delayed. Ridley has fallen asleep on her father’s shoulder. He looks at her tenderly. But then the papers he was working on fall into the aisle, and, after some brief efforts to reach them without disturbing her, he stretches out and lets her head fall to the armrest with a thunk.

Odell, Belinda, and Shepard do not exemplify Ridley’s view of the oligarchy; they are even more selfish, fatuous, and predatory than she imagined. Grant and Leoni are right on point in conveying the superficial congeniality and underlying combination of carelessness and ruthlessness that comes from a complete disconnection to any adverse consequences. Why shouldn’t the entire world exist for no purpose other than their comfort and, perhaps, immortality?

Their reaction to the unicorn is to follow the Native American “every part of the buffalo” theory, not out of economy or respect but out of greed. This is amplified when an infusion of unicorn blood brings Odell back from the brink of death to vibrant health. It might even cure cancer. Poulter is also terrific as the spoiled bro heir.” That’s the biggest one!” Shepard shouts joyfully. There’s a recurring joke about the way the family yells “Griff” for the servant (Anthony Carrigan) any time one of them needs something, thinks they need something, or just has a whim.

The dead unicorn is a baby and the other unicorns want it back. Ridley does some research into the legend behind the famous unicorn tapestries now in New York’s Cloisters Museum. The connection she made when she touched the horn helps her understand that it will not go well for anyone who hurts or captures. The movie gets very grisly.

We are in the midst of a prevalent “eat the rich” theme in television series from “Squid Games” to “White Lotus” and “Severance” and movies like “The Menu,” “Triangle of Sadness,” and “Mickey 17.” Some of them are more effective than others. I’d put this somewhere in the middle. The extended bloodbath at the end and the slight nod at one character’s redemption are not as well-executed as the satiric first half. But its audacity and imagination are impressive and the skill and commitment of the cast makes it very watchable.

Parents should know that this movie has extended and very graphic violence with most characters injured or killed and very disturbing images. Characters use strong language.

Family discussion: Why was it hard for Elliot to see that he was not helping Ridley? What do you think will happen after the ending of the movie?

If you like this, try: “Glass Onion,” “Dumb Money,” and “Mickey 17”

“How can you explain death to a dog?”

A character in “The Friend” asks that question as she tries to persuade Iris (Naomi Watts) to take a very sad dag who is mourning the loss of Walter (Bill Murray). It is the hardest kind of death to explain to anyone, canine or human. Walter took his own life.

Walter was a writer and he loved to tell the story of how he found the dog, a very large black and white Great Dane named Apollo. Walter’s widow is the rather imperious Barbara (Noma Dumezweni), his fourth wife. She does not like dogs. Iris, also a writer, is an animal person, but she likes cats, not dogs. Her building does not permit animals of any kind. Yet when she finds out that Barbara has sent Apollo to a kennel, she allows herself to be persuaded — temporarily. Iris lives in a rent-controlled apartment. She cannot move. And yet once Apollo gets past the tearing up the pillows and knocking over the furniture phase and Iris gets used to giving him the bed and sleeping on a blow-up mattress, she finds she is very attached to him.

Walter was Iris’ closest friend, and his death is devastating. Iris is struggling with her latest book and also teaching college students and working on a book of Walter’s collected letters with the help of his daughter, Val (Sarah Pidgeon). We get a brief look at a happy dinner party, and it is clear Walter is a natural story-teller who relishes being on center stage, being charmingly incorrigible. It is also clear that Iris relishes challenging him with love and humor as only the dearest friends can. Later she will speak fondly of the way they talked for hours about books and people and we can imagine that their conversations were playful, heartfelt, and very literary, lots of witty references and ripostes.

One of the best scenes in the film has Iris meeting with a therapist for what she thinks is going to be a simple request. Tom McCarthy, better known as a director of films like “The Station Agent” and “Spotlight,” gives a beautiful performance as the sympathetic doctor, gently asking Iris what she would say to Walter if he was there. Watts shows us the pain and confusion Iris is feeling, and the anger she has not been willing to allow herself to feel. Being honest with herself gives her the insight she needs to tell her own story, gently revealed to us in an imaginary conversation between Iris and Walter.

McCarthy is just one of the outstanding cast in supporting roles, including Constance Wu and Carla Gugino as Walter’s previous wives, Sara Pidgeon as the daughter Walter did not know about until she was an adult, Josh Pais as Iris’s editor, who cheerfully tells her that Walter’s suicide has made him “hotter than ever,” which will help sales of the book of his letters, and Felix Solis as Hektor, the super in Iris’ building who tries to enforce the no-pets rule.

“The Friend” is based on a best-selling book of that name by Sigrid Nunez, winner of the National Book Award. While we see the Iris-Apollo relationship develop from putting up each other to deep affection, the movie is much more a meditation on grief, and it matches the literary grace of the book with delicacy and depth.

Parents should know that this film includes discussion of suicide and loss, some strong language, drinking and drunkenness, and sexual references.

Family discussion: Would you want to be friends with Walter? Why were people so devoted to him despite his faults? Was the solution Iris came up with fair?

if you like this, try: “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and “Wonder Boys”

Pain has a purpose. It helps keep us safe. We avoid being hurt and we get help when we are hurt. But Nathan Caine (a game Jack Quaid) has a condition called congenital insensitivity to pain and anhydrosis. He can be injured, but the pain message never makes it to his brain. The only way his parents could keep him safe was to keep him away from anything that might injure him. There’s a tennis ball on the corner of his desk just in case it is sharp enough to hurt him if he bangs into it. The tips of the pencils on his desk are covered. Nate does not eat solid food because what if he bit his tongue? He would never know.

He has a risk-averse job. That tennis ball-adorned desk is in a quiet neighborhood bank, where Nate is an assistant manager. At the office, he is kind to a widower who has missed his loan payments, giving him an unauthorized extension. And he looks longingly at Sherry (Amber Midthunder) but has no idea of how to talk to her. At home, he plays online games with Roscoe a 6’5″ guy with a man-bun, I mean a mini high ponytail, who rides a Harley. They’ve never actually met in person, but that’s as close to an IRL relationship as Nate has.

It is just before Christmas, and the bank is preparing for a busy day with people depositing their bonus checks. Then three men come in, dressed as Santa, and start shooting. Things go badly. The manager is killed. Many police officers are killed. And Sherry is taken hostage.

Nate immediately switches from being the most careful person on earth to being the most reckless as he races to rescue Sherry and basically turns the movie into something between an old school video game and a Road Runner cartoon. That almost but not quite makes it possible not to be overwhelmed by the constant carnage, with the Dolby sound of the guns making the theater seats shake.

It’s just one scene after another of Nate going after the bad guys, the cops going after him, the bad guys going after him, at one point a booby-trapped house going after him. Screenwriter Lars Jacobson comes up with a very inventive series of ways to inflict injury, if not pain, on Nate, whether he is sticking his hand in boiling oil to retrieve a gun, removing a bullet from his arm and sewing up the wound, being slammed in the back with a giant shining spiked flail, and pulling out a big knife that went through his hand so he can use it on someone else. As they used to say in the Timex watch commercials, he takes a licking and keeps on ticking. None of it makes sense, even if he does stop for an adrenaline injection, but if we wanted to see something make sense we’d be at a different movie.

Hero Quaid and Ray Nicholson, who plays bad guy Simon, are both sons of Hollywood stars, and we can guess who their fathers are when they smile. Quaid is the son of Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid, and he has his dad’s wickedly charming grin. Nicholson does not look much like his dad, Jack, until we see his smile. Midthunder is also from a show business family; her father is an actor and her mother is a casting director. She is also appearing in another movie opening this week, “Opus,” with John Malcovich. In her first lead role in a film, she is immensely appealing and gives her character more depth than we might expect, deftly rounding some character arcs that would be a challenge for many more experienced performers.

As we careen from fight to shoot-out to chase, it feels more like an FPS game than a story, but what little story there is gives Nate a chance to discover himself and his capabilities, including connections to Shelly and Roscoe. Quaid handles all of that more than capably. It’s not memorable, and there’s too much carnage for the spirited tone it strives for, but the actors make it work.

Parents should know that this film has non-stop very intense peril and violence with many characters injured and killed and many graphic and disturbing images. Characters use constant very strong language. Characters drink alcohol and there is a scene in a bar.

Family discussion: Why didn’t Nate tell the police how to find the robbers? Do you agree with what the judge decided?

If you like this, try: “Crank” and “Shoot ’em Up”

“Opus” is almost smart, almost good, and almost worth your time. A first-rate but mostly under-used cast flounders in the second half of a story that begins as a satire of obsession with celebrity that veers into a less successful thriller.

The first feature film from writer/director Mark Anthony Green stars John Malcovich as Alfred Moretti, a rock star who is a combination of Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley, not in style of music but in prominence and influence. Thirty years ago, he was the most popular musician in the world (every teenager of the era used his signature song as a ring tone, we learn). And then he burnished his legend by disappearing. Now, after decades of isolation, his long-time publicist (a very funny Tony Hale playing a character with the wonderfully name Soledad Yusef) informs the world that Moretti will release a new record and he is inviting a very small group to his compound to be the first to hear it.

They are Ariel Ecton (Ayo Edebiri), a frustrated young journalist working at a Rolling Stone-style magazine whose ideas are always given to more senior writers, her boss, Stan Sullivan (Murray Bartlett), television star Clara Armstrong (Juliette Lewis), estranged former Moretti colleague Bill Lotto (Mark Sivertsen), veteran photographer Bianca Tyson (Melissa Chambers), and “influencer” (I always have to put that term in quotes) Emily Katz (Stephanie Suganami). Other than Ariel, these characters have at most one attribute each, despite the best efforts of the excellent cast. Stan is starstruck and arrogant, telling Ariel to take notes and forbidding her to write even a subsidiary piece about the compound and its residents. The others barely have anything to do except taking for granted this exceptional opportunity and going along (as long as they can) with everything that happens because they want Moretti to keep including them. They keep telling the emperor that his clothes are fabulous. Maybe they’ve deluded themselves into thinking he is. Maybe they just want him to think they’re cool, an even bigger delusion.

Their phones and laptops are confiscated “to preserve the integrity” of the experience (so much for the “influencer.” And the residents of this remote compound are more than staff; they all seem to be part of a cult. At first, they seem to be a peaceful arts community. Then things get quirky. Then they get creepy. Then they get terrifying.

Like Moretti, this movie is not as smart as it thinks it is. It is better at raising thoughtful questions than illuminating them. By the end, it does not earn its provocation.

Parents should know that this movie has extended peril and violence with many graphic and very disturbing images. Many characters are injured and killed. Characters use strong language and drink alcohol.

Family discussion: Why do the visitors go along with some of the craziness? At what point would you decide to leave? Who does Moretti remind you of? What is the meaning of the final “thank you?”