Photo © Universal Pictures
Meghann Fahy and Brandon Sklenar in Drop (2025)
Meghann Fahy and Brandon Sklenar in Drop (2025)
The Amateur
(In Theaters April 11)
Charlie (Rami Malek) is a nerdy CIA analyst who becomes a dangerous assassin. He wishes to become a killer so he can personally take revenge for the murder of his beloved wife Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan) by European baddies. Charlie knows where the skeletons are buried, forcing his bosses (Holt McCallany, and Julianne Nicholson) to get Charlie training from an expert marksman (Laurence Fishburne). When it turns out that Charlie has no knack for guns, he realizes he’s well-suited to bombmaking. During the 44 years since author Robert Littell wrote the 1981 novel on which this film is based, it’s become abundantly clear that computer nerds can indeed be dangerous. (Lisa Miller)
Drop
(In Theaters April 11)
A survivor of abuse and single mom, Violet (Meghann Fahy) is also a therapist for domestic violence survivors. Raising her five-year-old son, Violet has finally agreed to a first date with Henry (Brandon Sklenar), having met him on a dating app months earlier. They meet for dinner at an upscale restaurant atop a Chicago skyscraper. It isn’t long before Violet receives a barrage of messages threatening to kill her son. She is ordered to act normally, and to remain in the restaurant. Her every move is tracked, thwarting Violet’s repeated efforts to escape. Director Christopher Landon keeps us rooting for Violet and Henry via the screenplay’s romantic-comedy aspirations, all while Violet sizes up potential suspects. Pushed and pulled between romance and terror, this tale resonates on Hitchcock’s wavelength. (Lisa Miller)
The Long Kiss Goodnight
(Arrow Video Blu-ray)
Amnesia is an old story in Hollywood, brought into the violent action thriller genre with The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996). Geena Davis plays a woman who woke up pregnant on a beach with no memory at all. Eight years later she’s a happy wife, mom and teacher in a postcard New England town—until a car accident begins to trigger memories of her previous life as a skilled killer. Samuel L. Jackson plays the corrupt private eye she hired to trace her past. He grows more sympathetic. Behind it all is the sort of Deep State fantasy that’s become breakfast cereal for conspiracy theorists. The limited edition includes a full disc of interviews and mini documentaries. (David Luhrssen)
Warfare
(In Theaters April 11)
Co-directors and screenwriters, Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, paint a terrifying portrait of a battle gone wrong when a group of Navy SEALS undertake a 2006 mission in Iraq. Mendoza was one of the real-life combatants (portrayed here by D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), tasked with ensuring the security of a route to be used by allied ground forces. The SEALS hole up in a building unaware that insurgents are right next door. When the SEALS are discovered, they come under severe attack. The story elects to ignore the SEALS backstories, relying on the loyalty between these soldiers to provide what little emotional footing exists. Some of the soldiers sustain brutal, cruel wounds that are difficult to witness. They are portrayed by Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Taylor John Smith, Michael Gandolfini, Adain Bradley, Noah Centineo, Evan Holtzman, Henrique Zaga, Joseph Quinn and Charles Melton. (Lisa Miller)
