'Hostiles'
By 1892 — or so Wisconsin historian Frederick Jackson Turner famously concluded in his "Fronter Thesis" — America's westward movement was at an end, and a new era was beginning.
In the new Western "Hostiles," the new era is still dealing with a lot of old wounds.
Christian Bale plays an Army captain who reluctantly agrees to escort a dying Cheyenne war chief, played by West Studi, back to tribal lands in Montana from an Army outpost in New Mexico.
RELATED: How you can watch this year's Oscar-nominated movies
En route, Bale and company meet a young widow, played by Rosamund Pike, whose family was murdered on the plains. Along the way, they are united by even more hostile forces from without.
Directed by Scott Cooper ("Crazy Heart"), "Hostiles" also stars Jesse Plemons, Ben Foster and Adam Beach.
Critics have generally liked the movie, acknowledging its deliberate pacing and beautiful location landscapes and crediting its performances, especially Pike's.
"Cooper’s film’s title carries a lot of weight as description," Arizona Republic critic Bill Goodykoontz wrote in his 3-star (out of 5) review. "Given the right circumstances, it can apply to anyone. The question is whether it’s possible to rise above it."
"Hostiles" is rated R for violence and language. It runs for 135 minutes.
'Maze Runner: The Death Cure'
Another day, another maze — the last maze.
In "Maze Runner: The Death Cure" — the last movie in the series based on the young adult dystopian novels by James Dashner — Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) and his fellow Gladers have to break into the Last City, another maze controlled by WCKD (the bad guys) that might have the answers.
The cast includes many returnees from the first two "Maze Runner" movies, including Patricia Clarkson, Aidan Gillen, Kaya Scodelario, Ki Hong Lee, Rosa Salazar, Giancarlo Esposito, Thomas Sangster, Barry Pepper and Walton Goggins.
"Death Cure" the movie has been a long time in coming. The movie was supposed to hit theaters nearly a year ago, but production was delayed when O'Brien was seriously injured during filming in 2016.
Critics don't seem to think it was worth the wait. "The best thing that 'The Death Cure' does is blow it up spectacularly," The Wrap's Alonso Duralde wrote.
"Maze Runner: The Death Cure" is rated PG-13 for violence, language and some thematic elements. It runs for 141 minutes.
'Bucky and the Squirrels'
You mean, you don't remember Bucky and the Squirrels? The one-hit wonder band from Appleton that disappeared and was presumed dead in a plane crash in the Alps in 1968 — only to be found and thawed out 50 years later?
Well, as Mike Ferrell says in the introduction to the music mockumentary "Bucky and the Squirrels," "a great deal of this incredible true story is true. How much is hard to say."
What is true is that a chunk of "Bucky and the Squirrels," written and directed by TV veteran Allan Katz, was filmed in Appleton, with particular attention and affection for Lawrence University.
(Lawrence alumni Tom and Julie Hurvis, whose $5 million gift launched the Hurvis Center for Interdisciplinary Film Studies at the school, provided a chunk of the financing for the low-budget movie.)
Told in a mix of mock news footage and interviews, "Bucky and the Squirrels" focuses on the bands' life after being defrosted. As they struggle to adjust to modern life, they're confronted by a tougher challenge: The IRS is demanding 50 years of back taxes. The still-addled Squirrels may have to sing to keep from going behind bars.
In addition to Ferrell, the movie features a handful of offbeat cameos, including Jason Alexander, Raquel Castro and Richard Lewis.
"Bucky and the Squirrels" is rated PG for some language and rude humor. It runs for 83 minutes.