Reel-View Ratings: The Bigger The Beard, The Better The Movie

COMING HOME

This Cultural Revolution-era melodrama is more star-crossed romance than political indictment — to mixed results on both fronts. Academic Lu Yanshi escapes from a prison camp to see his beloved wife Feng Wanyu and daughter Dandan. His party-line daughter betrays him, however, and when he finally is released, years later, he discovers his ailing wife cannot recognize him, even as she faithfully waits for his return. This achingly sad story is undermined at times by the film’s relatively shallow treatment of the characters, their motivations and the shaky world that they live in. But Feng waiting at the train station — for the husband standing right beside her — will still bring tears to your eyes. Opens Oct. 23 at Kahala Theatre

GOODNIGHT MOMMY

One day, Mother returns from plastic surgery a different person in more than just physical appearance. She’s not the same kind woman she used to be, and it unnerves twin brothers Elias and Lukas, who begin to suspect that she may not be their real mother at all. The two sides face off in an increasingly high-stakes confrontation, with enormously disturbing consequences for everyone involved. There’s a big twist (of course) that isn’t hard to see coming early on, but the film’s adept handling of perspective makes every new development both unnervingly terrifying and yet completely explainable from another angle. There’s no need for supernatural horrors when you’ve got imposter mothers and creepy twins. Opens Oct. 23 at Kahala Theatre

ATTACK ON TITAN: PART TWO: END OF THE WORLD

This is not a good movie, not on its own nor as an adaptation of the popular Attack on Titan manga. The complex story of Eren Yaeger and the dangerous world he lives in requires much too much plot for this 87-minute movie, which devotes one-fourth of its runtime to a long, monotonous and monologue-y recap of the first film (which was also a terrible film, though it was probably better than this one) and then a general exposition dump. Oh, the fights are bloody and stylish, and there are occasional flashes of brilliance in design (the film’s futuristic setting now makes sense), but little else will remind viewers of the beloved original. Plays at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27 at Doris Duke Theatre