The movies of fall 2022 include top actors and directors (one returning after 16 years) and some promising newcomers.

Armageddon Time stars Oscar winners Sir Anthony Hopkins and Anne Hathaway plus “Succession” star Jeremy Strong in a 1980s-set story of a white boy from a Jewish family in New York who is befriended by a Black classmate.

Triangle of Sadness You think “Below Deck” is about what it’s like to be yacht crew for the super-rich? Or “Titanic” is about how vulnerable even the highest level of society are? Wait until you see this film, with Woody Harrelson as the captain of a yacht for the .0001 percent, when things go very wrong.

Confess Fletch The laconic, snarky reporter originally played by Chevy Chase returns, this time with Jon Hamm in the role, alongside his “Mad Man” co-star John Slattery, from director Greg Mottola of “Adventureland,” “Superbad,” and “Paul.”

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Everyone loves Wierd Al. Everyone loves Daniel Radcliffe. This is going to be a treat.

Don’t Worry Darling We’ve heard a lot about the behind the scenes on Olivia Wilde’s follow-up to “Booksmart,” which looks like a more sophisticated version of “The Stepford Wives.” Now we’ll get a chance to see Harry Styles and Florence Pugh in this story about what at first likes a suburban paradise but turns out very much not to be.

Till Emmitt Till was a 14 year old Black young man from Chicago who went to visit his cousin in Mississippi in 1955. A white woman accused him of being disrespectful and he was murdered. His murderers were acquitted. Just this year, the woman involved was brought before a grand jury, and they declined to indict her. This is the story of Till’s mother, Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley (played by Danielle Deadwyler), who would not let America look away from what happened. She spoke out and advocated and was a key figure in the Civil Rights movement.

Operation Seawolf A veteran submarine captain (Dolph Lundgren) defends the United States from a German attack near the end of WWII.

The Whale Brendan Fraser is getting a lot of early acclaim for his performance as a morbidly obese teacher whose estranged daughter comes home. Director Darren Aronofsky always delivers the striking and unexpected.

White Noise The trailer does not give a good idea of what it is about. From what I’ve heard, the DeLillo book it is based on does not either. What we know is that Greta Gerwig and Adam Driver star as a couple in a college town confronting some strange event.

Bros The second R-rated gay male rom-com of the year also features “SNL” star Bowen Yang. The lead is co-writer Billy Eichner and behind the scenes are director Nicholas Stoller and producer Judd Apatow.

Wendell and Wilde Director Henry Selick and composer Bruno Coulais of “Coraline” reunite for another stop-motion film, featuring voices from Key and Peele (Jordan Peele also co-wrote with Selick and Clay McLeod Chapman) and Angela Bassett. Like “Coraline” and Selick’s “Nightmare Before Christmas,” it looks wonderfully creative and just the right amount of creepy.

TWO PINOCCHIOS: Disney’s live action version stars Tom Hanks as Gepetto. We’re also getting Guillermo del Toro’s version with Tilda Swinton, Ewan McGregor, and Christoph Waltz.

The Woman King The all-female force in “The Black Panther” may have been inspired in part by the real-life Agojie, the fierce, all-female warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s. General Nanisca, played by Oscar-winner Viola Davis trains her troops to take their most powerful adversary.

Meet Cute Pete Davidson (“SNL”) and Kaley Cuoco (“the Big Bang Theory”) star in a romantic comedy about a couple who keep meeting and falling in love — and then meet and fall in love again.

She Said One of the most powerful men in one of the most powerful businesses in the world was a despicable predator but no one wanted to talk about it. This is the real-life story of the persistence and integrity reporters who insisted that the truth about Harvey Weinstein be told and the courage of the women who could not be silenced.

Strange World Disney’s animated story of a family on an adventure looks fabulously inventive. “Strange” barely touches the surface. Voice talent includes Dennis Quaid, Gabrielle Union, and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Catherine Called Birdy The beloved novel about a feisty medieval heroine is brought to the screen by Lena Dunham.

The Black Panther: Wakanda Forever There is no comic book villain as devastating as cancer, and the loss of Chadwick Boseman will be felt deeply by the audience and the characters in this sequel.

The Fablemans Steven Spielberg’s movies are usually, in one way or another, about family. But this is his most personal, a movie inspired by his own experiences growing up as a child and teenager in love with movies. The cast includes Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, and Seth Rogen.

The Greatest Beer Run Ever Zac Efron stars in a story that has to be true because no one could make it up, In 1967, as protests rocked the United States and Americans were being killed in Viet Nam, some dude who was a vet decided to bring the soldiers some beer. Really. The movie also stars Bill Murray and Russell Crowe. True story here and here. My favorite quote: “In what wound up being a two-month journey, Donohue boarded the Drake Victory with a duffel bag full of American beer and some clothing. The 8,000-mile trip was grueling, and by the time the ship docked at Qui Nhơn harbor, the Marine veteran had drank all the beer and needed to replenish his supplies.In what wound up being a two-month journey, Donohue boarded the Drake Victory with a duffel bag full of American beer and some clothing. The 8,000-mile trip was grueling, and by the time the ship docked at Qui Nhơn harbor, the Marine veteran had drank all the beer and needed to replenish his supplies.”

Clerks III The View Askewniverse is rivaling the MCU and the Fast/Furious films for sheer numbers. In this one, Jay, Silent Bob, Dante and Randall are back and, what else, making a movie.

Black Adam Dwayne Johnson plays a once-enslaved man-turned god who exemplifies the term “anti-hero.”

Amsterdam David O. Russell directs and Christian Bale, Anya Taylor-Joy, Mike Meyers, Chris Rock Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Zoe Saldana, and Robert De Niro star in a 1930s story about some people who witness something they shouldn’t.

Medieval Inspired by the true story of Jan Žižka, one of greatest warriors in history, who led a rebel army to battle the corruption, greed and betrayal rampant amongst those clawing for power in the 14th century.

“Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul” is a rare satire with some sympathy for its characters. We first see Trinitie Childs (co-producer Regina Hall) sitting in a pew, alone in a huge mega-church, talking to someone off-camera.It is instantly clear that Trinitie is used to performing for an audience, but that she is uncomfortable and not sure she wants to be filmed.

Trinitie’s husband is Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown) and we begin to understand that he and Trinitie, who has presided as First Lady at the church, have been wildly successful in building a congregation of 25,000, and richly rewarded in every sense of he word. We also begin to understand that there has been some very traumatic scandal. Lee-Curtis has brought in a documentary crew to film them as they try to come back from disgrace and return their church to its former glory.

This angle is wisely chosen because Lee-Curtis and Trinitie are essentially performers, even with each other. Lee-Curtis is certain that he can enlist the documentarian to be on his side and portray him as worthy of restoration to his previous position of prominence and respect. Trinitie is less sure of the filmmaker and less sure of Lee-Curtis’ ability to sustain the persona he thinks he can. She is even a little uncertain about herself. One of the most telling — and saddest — parts of the film is the way Trinitie tries to laugh when it is clear that she is anxious and scared. Why a laugh? She is trying to convey a lightness of spirit, the joy of being filled with the spirit, the sense that she is not ruffled, that Lee-Curtis’ transgressions are just jokes due to his own high spirits. She is exquisitely aware in every moment that they are not just preaching; they are or should be the best possible example of all that God can do for the followers.

We get a glimpse of what Lee-Curtiss and Trinitie might have been like in their early years with a young rival couple, both pastors, Shakura and Keon Sumpter (Nicole Beharie and Conphidance), their ambition and competitiveness not hidden behind their “praise the Lord” pieties. When both churches pick Easter Sunday for their big events, the Childs play a call on the Sumpters and, as with an encounter with a former church member in the mall, the result is a small masterpiece of simmering aggression bubbling up under a thin veneer of sweetness.

All of the performances are brilliantly conceived. Brown shows us a man whose entire life has been a performance. Lee-Curtis has deployed his natural magnetism to hide his true self from the world and to obtain the validation that he thinks will help him overcome his sense of shame. His near-frantic focus on surfaces is superbly realized by costume designer Lorraine Coppin, who created his designer looks. Hall gives another in a series of performances that show she can make any tone and genre work. The layers of emotion she shows us as Trinitie desperately tries to maintain an expression of confidence and joy in the spirit are heartbreaking. Near the end, as the script pushes too hard, she ends up in literal whiteface. The movie’s careful balance of satire while allowing for layered characters wobbles but even with the blankness painted over her features, we feel all of the suppressed anger and desperation she is experiencing. Her identity, her power, her reason for being is her position. Without that, who is she?

Beharie, who I called a breakthrough performer in 2009 gave what I picked as the top performance of 2020 in “Juneteenth,” continues to dazzle with her exquisitely precise work here as a pastor — not a First Lady — who understands the opportunity Lee-Curtis’ misbehavior has created. The scenes of the Childs and Sumpters are electric, the older couple seeing themselves in the younger and thus understanding exactly how much of a threat they are.

Writer/director Adamma Ebo, with her twin sister Adanne Ebo as producer, shows a strong vision and a gift for creating vivid, authentic characters. It is easy to make characters like these into caricatures, but she never lets them be less than fully human while never softening their flaws and failures. This is not a movie about a church scandal. It is a movie about people who struggle to find meaning and acceptance.

Parents should know that this film includes very strong language and sexual references, including predatory behavior and abuse.

Family discussion: What is it fair to expect from church leaders? How can people begin to atone for serious mistakes?

If you like this, try: “Elmer Gantry” and “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” and the documentaries “Say Amen Somebody,” “Marjoe” and “The Way Down” and the Henry Louis Gates miniseries “The Black Church”

Like most children, I was fascinated by the power of wishes, and by the fairy tales where wishes never seemed to end with happily ever after. I was fond of a poem by Annette Wynne called “I Keep Three Wishes Ready,” which sensibly advised the readers to think ahead of time of what wishes we would want so we would be prepared and careful to avoid impulses and loopholes.

But, as Alithea (Tilda Swinton), a distinguished professor of stories (narrative) who specializes in fantasy, explains, there is no story about wishes that is not a cautionary tale. And thus, when she has the opportunity to use three wishes to fulfill her heart’s desire, she instead sits down with the djinn (genie) who has come out of her bottle, to hear his stories. As they sit, improbably, in white terrycloth robes in a luxurious Istanbul hotel room, he tells her of the wishes he has granted and the people who made them. And yes, they are all cautionary tales. Is wishing itself, the idea that we can escape the reality of time and the laws of physics and the limits of human power, so inevitably doomed by hubris?

Alithea tells us that the story we will hear is true, but that we will better receive it as fantasy. She also tells us that she is a solitary person, and happy to be so. That, in itself may be a fantasy, though she may not be willing to acknowledge it. I note here that the name Alithea is from the Greek word for fact or truth. And that this story is based on The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye, the title story in a book of fairy tales for adults by A.S. Byatt. Alithea begins by telling us of magical-sounding wonders, humans hurtling through the air on metal wings or walking under water with webbed feet, with images reminding us of Arthur C. Clarke’s observation that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

On her way to the conference, Alithea sees, or thinks she sees, a small, possibly magical person. And then, when she is on stage, she sees another mythical being. Is she jet-lagged? Is she losing her mind? Or is she opening herself to what the rest of us refuse to see?

She buys an antique glass bottle, telling the seller that it looks like it has a story. Back in her hotel room, she begins to clean it with her electric toothbrush. The stopper falls out, smoke appears, and a giant hand reaches into the bathroom. It is a djinn (Idris Elba), and he has been inside the bottle for a very long time. Alithea would rather hear his stories than make a wish.

George Miller, the visionary writer/director behind the Mad Max and Babe movies, has a gift for wonder. Somewhere between the dystopian world of Fury Road and the endearing charm of “That’ll do, pig,” is this film, with striking, gorgeous images and swoon-worthy stories of passion — romantic, ambitious, angry, jealous, lustful passions.

Three Thousand Years of Longing goes back and forth between the hotel room conversation and the stories of the wishes the djinn has granted, his repeated returns to confinement and how his adventures have forms his view of humanity, The djinn needs Alithea to make three heartfelt, personal wishes to gain his freedom. She insists that she has no wishes and certainly no wish to become ensnared as those who have tried to gain without effort.

The stories are dark at times, but always gorgeously filmed and resonant. And the end is surprisingly tender, perhaps reflecting the one wish all people share if we are brave enough to admit it.

Parents should know that this film has nudity and sexual references and situations, drinking and drunkenness, and violence, some grisly.

Family discussion: What would you wish? What is your favorite fairy tale and why?

If you like this, try: the book by A.S. Byatt, “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm”

If full-time workers are below the poverty line, then the welfare recipient is the corporation. I’m looking forward to this film from Abigail Disney about the way the company that creates magic for its audience treats its employees like the stepmother treated Cinderella.

Director Jeff Baena is developing something of a repertory company and something of a genre all his own that could be called “high concept deranged farce.” He co-wrote one of my favorite films, “I Heart Huckabee’s,” a story about a department store, some environmental activists, complex existential philosophical concepts that was hilarious and bracingly smart. In his other films, wild, out of control behavior occurs in a medieval convent populated by highly impious foul-mouthed nuns (“The Little Hours”) and a dead girlfriend returns as a zombie (“Life After Beth”). Actors who have appeared in two or more of his films include his wife, Aubrey Plaza, and Alison Brie (her husband, Dave Franco appeared in “The Little Hours”), and “SNL” veterans Molly Shannon and Fred Armison. All of them are brilliant at exactly the combination of heightened circumstance and deadpan delivery he specializes in, and all of them clearly enjoy it.

His latest film, “Spin Me Round” does not just star Alison Brie; she wrote it as well. She plays Amber, who has worked for nine years at an Italian Garden-style restaurant in Bakersfield, California, called Tuscan Grove. As the movie opens, we see the industrial operations of the restaurant chain, with Alfredo sauce squeezed out of pre-packaged bags onto microwaved all-you-can-eat pasta. Amber is very professional and respected by her colleagues. Her boss, played by Lil Rel Howery, has a surprise for her; he has submitted her name for a special study session in Tuscany sponsored by their parent company. and she has been selected. Amber is thrilled. She has never been to Europe and it looks like a fabulous adventure, and, maybe, with the possibility of romance.

But this is one of those stories that starts out like a Hallmark movie and turns into a Lifetime movie.

Amber is still in “please the customer” mode and determined to bring the same upbeat, can-do spirit that made her successful at the restaurant. So when things begin to go wrong after her arrival she is sunny and helpful. Another attendee is Deb (Shannon), pouting over a lost bag, and Amber offers to loan her anything she needs, modestly assuring Deb, “I overpacked.” It turns out they are not staying in the beautiful villa pictured on the website but in a generic little motel with no locks on the doors nearby. When asked to turn over their passports and stay within the compound, she agrees. The promised lessons on Italian culture and cuisine are dull and basic. One of the other attendees is an ambitious chef (Tim Heidecker) who wants to teach the others about haute cuisine and molecular gastronomy, but no one cares.

The founder of the Tuscan Grove is Nick (Alessandro Nivola, always great), a dissolute yacht-owning zillionaire with surface charm and, clear to us at least, no interest in anything but pleasure. His assistant, Cat (Plaza) wakes Amber up and takes her to Nick’s yacht. While the others are in a boring class about herbs, she is living a Cinderella dream.

But then things start to get weird. Some of the other participants disappear. Amber starts to investigate and the storyline and tone take a swerve.

The last 20 minutes and he ending do not make a lot of sense. It’s pretty random. The script may be more a role Brie wants to play than a story she wants to tell. But the performances are excellent, especially Shannon, Plaza, and Brie herself, all precise and consistent despite the shifts. Shannon is funny and scary as the volatile over-sharer, both with confidences and with Amber’s clothes. Plaza, as always, is a master of deadpan with an underlay of recklessness. She and Brie play off each other beautifully as Amber tries hard to be a “good girl” and is scared and a little thrilled at finding her tendency to go along leading her to cross some boundaries she would never have considered in Bakersfield. I hope Baena keeps this repertory company going.

Parents should know that this movie has very explicit sexual situations and nudity, including group sex, and very strong language. Characters drink alcohol. There is some peril and there are some graphic and disturbing images of injuries.

Family discussion: Is there a point where Amber should have asked more questions? Why was the kind of restaurant so important to the story?

If you like this, try: Baena’s other films