These will be in descending order of recommendation.
A Little Prayer David Strathairn gives an Oscar-worthy performance as the paterfamilias of a family in quiet crisis, supported by solid performances by the rest of the cast. It is reminiscent of some of the French films I’ve seen lately, with the story dipping into lives being lived and then ending with those lives continuing, but changed in profound ways. There is no violence, shocking deaths, or even evil villains. Just people making good, bad, and tough decisions that ripple through their lives and their family’s lives. Highly recommended.
Relay A solid action picture about corporate misdeeds and coverups. Good central performances and an atmospheric twisty plot with a surprising amount of suspense and action. Refreshingly, the twists (which most will see coming) do not depend on any of the characters making stupid or out of character decisions. Not profound, but it doesn’t try to hammer home any “moral of the story” moments. Recommended.
Caught Stealing I wish I could recommend this one. I was really looking forward to this story of a hapless hero drawn into a world of gangsters and double crosses through no fault of his own. . It has a sterling cast and some worthy black-comedy elements, but the story never coheres into something I cared about. It is set in late 90s NYC and captures that retro atmosphere, But the plot holes poke through and I ended up not caring enough about the protagonist to be pulled into the film. Others may find the performances and action scenes to be enough, though.
The Toxic Avenger This is a faithful to the original recreation of one of the most celebrated Troma films. However, it is so faithful to the action and atmosphere of the original, one has to ask what the point is and why not just watch the original. But it was fun and properly gory and transgressive in honoring Troma, so there’s that. I can’t say I regret watching it, but can’t recommend it.
Run This one is…well, if you grafted the first half of a Tyler Perry movie about a cancelled wedding and the efforts of the bridesmaids and groomsmen to put the two lovebirds back together onto an alien invasion by predatory super-aliens hunting humans, you’d end up with this movie. But don’t assume any of the characters are written to have the survival sense of a sheep or that there will be any sensible response from the government’s of the Earth to what is essentially an invasion of weapons-free creatures who can be killed with a well aimed bullet and repelled by cell phones. On the other hand, I pretty rapidly started rooting for various characters to be the next to be torn to pieces by the (seemingly infinite) hordes of aliens surrounding a lone cabin in the middle of the woods. I was not disappointed by the boneheaded ways in which the characters were reduced to the core survivors. My recommendation is to wait for the RiffTrax version.