HIGH AND LOW (143 minutes) PG
The spatial showmanship of Akira Kurosawa is on full display in this 1963 thriller about a kidnapping scheme gone awry, where the title is literal and metaphorical at once. Kurosawa regular Toshiro Mifune stars as a powerful businessman who lives in a house on a hill, and the action moves up and down Yokohama's steep streets. Screens as part of a Kurosawa retrospective. 35mm print. ACMI, today, 6.30pm.
CRIMES AND MISDEMEANOURS (104 minutes) M
Woody Allen has spent much of his career proving that life is meaningless and nice guys finish last, but this 1989 parable is more dramatically powerful than most of his "serious" work. Martin Landau stars as a pillar of the community faced with temptation, while Allen himself supplies comic relief as a self-pitying filmmaker. Screens as part of an Allen retrospective. Digitally projected. Lido, today, 4pm and Classic, tomorrow, 2pm.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (122 minutes) M
Chris Pratt leads a band of space rapscallions on a quest to save the galaxy in this colourful 2014 science-fiction adventure from writer-director James Gunn (Slither). It's pure visual pop – and still the best Marvel superhero film to date, combining irreverent attitude with a deep respect for its comic-book origins. Astor, today, 7.30pm. Double bill with Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
HOUNDS OF LOVE (108 minutes) MA
Set in a nondescript suburb of Perth in the 1980s, this unpleasant but stylish and suspenseful thriller from first-time writer-director Ben Young forces us to suffer along with the teenage heroine (Ashleigh Cummings) after she's kidnapped by a perverse couple (Stephen Curry and Emma Booth). The performances are impeccable, as is the low-rent production design. Selected.
WONDER WOMAN (141 minutes) M
Patty Jenkins' long-awaited origin story for the dauntless Amazon princess gets the essentials right: Israel's Gal Gadot is wholly persuasive as a superior being, physically splendid and warmly amused. The plot carries her from her island home to the trenches of World War I, allowing for fish-out-of-water jokes as well as ruminations on the evil that men do. General.