The movies are back! Again!

This past Thanksgiving witnessed a new holiday weekend box-office record, with early arrival blockbusters “Wicked” and “Gladiator 2” greeted by the right-on-time kid-flick sequel “Moana 2.”

As a see-it-in-a-theater partisan, I’m glad to see people at the movies, but as cultural moments go, I can’t quite compare “Glicked”-plus to “Barbenheimer.”

Memphis Movies This Week: ‘Gladiator II,’ ‘Wicked’ bring back familiar stories

The latter featured two of the best films of last year. This time? Um. 

I confess, I haven’t seen “Wicked” yet. I struggle with Broadway-to-screen musicals and my wife’s on a work trip. I’ll get to a theater when she returns. And as someone who is no longer the parent of young children, I will probably never see “Moana 2.” 

I did catch “Gladiator 2” and, well, I wish I liked it more. It’s a good enough watch, especially as a chance to see Denzel Washington act, which should always be savored. But it felt like a pretty forced sequel/rehash of the better first film. 

With those three films still expected to dominate, the slate of new releases this week is quieter but with a couple of sleepers that might appeal to moviegoers who’ve already seen the big titles or are looking for counter-programming.

Opening this week: “Flow,” “The Order”

Returning to Memphis for a full run after screening at the Indie Memphis Film Festival last month is “Flow,” which is showing exclusively at Studio on the Square and won Best Animated Film from the New York Film Critics Circle this week.

Like the year’s earlier animated commercial hit, “The Wild Robot,” “Flow” shows a group of animals of different species navigating a natural landscape that does not include humans. But this time there are no talking animals, much less a robot. 

This dialogue-free film honors the true sounds, movement and behaviors (to a point) of its multi-species subjects. 

Here’s a look at Memphis museums, galleries in December

The protagonist is an unnamed cat who navigates a biblical-level flood while meeting other survival-minded creatures along the way. There’s evidence of human civilization but no humans, adding an air of mystery never quite resolved. 

The computer-based animation and visual style suggests a tracking point-of-view camera and evokes high-end video games. This may be a feature for some viewers. It was a bug for me, initially, but one I got past quickly. 

The title seems to suggest, at once, water, feline movement and the uncertain forward motion of life itself. It’s an often anxious film, and often beautiful, too, with some of the year’s more gripping action-movie moments. Highly recommended to fans of cats and/or animated films, but more modestly recommended to other filmgoers. Only 85 minutes.

Are you a fan of solid, straightforward cops-and-criminals procedurals? “B”-level but no-nonsense thrillers? I am, and if you are, too, “The Order” might be up your alley.

It stars a well-worn Jude Law as a weary FBI agent recently assigned to the Pacific Northwest, who suspects a spate of recent bank robberies may be more than they seem. He finds himself in pursuit of a white nationalist group and its charismatic young leader, played by Nicholas Hoult.

“The Order” arrives in theaters, somewhat surprisingly, ahead of a couple of higher profile starring roles in what’s shaping up for a big end-of-year for Hoult, who is also in Robert Eggers’ forthcoming “Nosferatu” and in Clint Eastwood’s mostly straight-to-Max “Juror #2.”

Set in the early 1980s, “The Order” is based on the true story of a white nationalist group most infamous for assassinating a Denver-area radio host, a crime depicted in the film. 

Also opening this week in wide release: “Y2K” is the debut directing effort of former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Kyle Mooney. It’s a comedy-thriller about two teens crashing a 1999 New Year’s Eve party ahead of the titular event (Remember that?). Rachel Zegler (“West Side Story”) co-stars.

“Werewolves” is a horror/action film about the light from a “super moon” unlocking a dormant gene that turns humans into the title creatures. 

“The Return” tells the final part of the Odysseus story, with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche in the lead. Sounds prestigious, but this Greek film production has gotten pretty mediocre notices.

“Get Away” is a horror comedy about a family that goes on a remote vacation only to discover they are on an island with a serial killer. Nick Frost (“Shaun of the Dead,” Hot Fuzz”) stars.

“Solo Leveling: Reawakening” is an anime. 

Special screenings and new to streaming

Like “Emilia Perez” a few weeks ago, “The Piano Lesson” is another end-of-year awards candidate that bypassed Memphis screens completely. It debuted on Netflix on Nov. 22.

“The Piano Lesson” is the third recent Denzel Washigton-produced film adaptation of the work of lauded Pittsburgh playwright August Wilson.

The first, 2016’s “Fences,” starred Washington and Viola Davis and got a wide theatrical release. The second, 2020’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” starring Davis as the titular blues great, went mostly straight to Netflix. It was notable as the last role for Chadwick Boseman before his death.

“The Piano Lesson” is directed by one of Washington’s sons (Malcolm Washington) and co-stars another (John David Washington) alongside recent Oscar nominee Danielle Deadwyler. A kind of Great Migration drama, it concerns a couple of siblings in the 1930s who’ve moved north to Pittsburgh and who spar over the future of a family heirloom piano, which contains images carved by an enslaved ancestor. 

I found “The Piano Lesson” to be the least successful of the three recent Wilson adaptations, but that’s a high bar, and it’s well worth a watch. 

Beer bottles, finger models form ‘Energy States’ art exhibit

Back on the big screen, the Pink Palace will screen “The Wizard of Oz” — that’s the movie that “Wicked” is a prequel to, dontcha know — on Saturday, Dec. 7, at 4:30 p.m. If you’ve never seen this signature work of American culture in a theater, much less just never seen it, this is a fantastic opportunity. Tickets are $12.75 for adults, $10.75 for kids.

Speaking of kid-cinema classics, I don’t know if 1988’s “My Neighbor Totoro” is the best film by Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki (I might vote “Spirited Away” among those I’ve seen), but it may be his most undeniable. It’s about a couple of young girls who move to the country to be near their ailing mother and encounter forest spirits, among them this large, rotund, quiet neighbor, a new friend you will never forget. “My Neighbor Totoro” screens on Monday, at 7 p.m., at Malco Theatres’ Collierville and Paradiso theaters as well as at Hollywood 20. It also screens at Hollywood at 3 p.m. on Sunday and at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. 

“Sugarland Express” was Steven Spielberg’s first theatrical feature, following the made-for-TV classic “Duel,” and lands on local screens this week for a surprising one-off 50th-anniversary screening, showing on the back half of a Malco Summer Drive-In double-bill with “Wicked” on Saturday. 

It stars Goldie Hawn and William Atherton as a couple of small-time crooks whose young son is taken from them by the state, and they take him back, leading to the couple being chased across Texas. “Sugarland Express” is rentable, but it isn’t outright streaming anywhere. By my count, it’s one of only three Spielberg features I haven’t seen. Wish I could be there. 

Five must-see shows in Memphis for December

Director David Lowery’s “The Green Knight,” a vibrant, hallucinatory adaptation of British folk literature, was one of the more striking films of 2021, if not one of the most easily comprehensible. It gets a surprising encore screening at 7 p.m. at Paradiso Cinema Grill Wednesday, Dec. 11. 

For its Wider Angle film series, the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library is screening the 2022 Palestinian film “Alam,” about a teenage boy drawn into political activism by a new girl at his school. “Alam” screens at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.