Good Luck, Ladies 

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In my (lately frequent) absences, the Editor seems compelled to see and write almost exclusively about horror. I suspect the impetus for this is actually two-fold. Despite frequent, vociferous protestations, the Editor is actually an ardent fan of the genre. But these occasions allow her even more opportunity than the normal, strictly enforced, brigade-style hierarchy of this publication to excoriate me for forcing her into such a position; a win-win, I think it's sometimes called. [Editor's note: This is accurate.]

Both because this scenario triggers my bone-deep, quasi-Catholic guilt and because the season of fright and lamentation — the widely agreed upon, festive one, not the new normal — is fully upon us, I waded into a couple of fun/scary/horrifying selections from far-flung reaches of the horror spectrum. The Editor may now return to the regularly scheduled hammer-revenge programming already in progress.

FAIR PLAY. Lacking what I, a relic, think of as conventional movie marketing, streaming services primarily leave us to rely on virtual movie posters — thumbnails? valueless NFTs? — to make up our minds both as to what to watch and as to what we are watching might be about. Fair Play presents itself as an erotic thriller, judged by that simple standard. The idea alone that it might work to revive a formative genre of my long-ago youth made it worth the no-stakes gamble.

And indeed, that genre does serve as an entry point for this lovers-turned-rivals-turned-adversaries pressure-cooker. But like the recent Reptile (also a Netflix production) Fair Play actually uses its origin and influences in service of making progress within an established, somewhat conventional framework. This is something movies used to do (someday I might stop harping on this) and which served as a built-in reference, providing the audience an almost-subliminal sense of past and future without battering us with exposition and re-iteration. I wouldn't say I'm hopeful (never happen), but I am at least cautiously optimistic, based on these examples among others, that a generation of filmmakers with a sense of history and craft and its own sensibility might be aborning.

In present-day New York City, Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) are having a very good time together; they might even be in love. They are introduced by way of a wedding-reception bathroom quickie-turned-menstrual-mishap-turned-engagement, and we're off. In an economical visual turn, we learn that the couple have been carrying on their relationship sub rosa for a couple of years, as it violates the personnel policy of the elite investment firm (read: viper's nest) where they are both employed. They both seem upwardly mobile and rumors even suggest Luke might be up for a promotion. When Emily lands the job instead, though, tension begins to mount.

As Emily becomes "one of the guys," Luke becomes ever-less able to handle the shifting dynamic of their workplace and relationship. The disparity of their professional acumen, not to mention their coping skills, shows through ever more prominently and the floor begins to crazily tilt.

The brilliance of Fair Play, from writer-director Chloe Domont, is in its melding of atmosphere with narrative and performance (its grasp of cinema, one could say) to create its own frightful, claustrophobic environment that plays to and with our preconceived notions about genre, but also about relationships and the balance of power. Domont re-engineers present-day Manhattan as an almost Taxi Driver level nightmare of steam and headlights and terrible anonymity. And the leads, along with Eddie Marsan playing the devil with better couture, inhabit this scary, nasty world with a terrifying vulnerability and verisimilitude. Only the ruthless survive. R. 113M. NETFLIX.

NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU. While Fair Play leads us into a world of horrible things, this deceptively ambitious exploration of the alien invasion sub-genre aims more squarely at the sort of horror we can simultaneously laugh at and recoil from.

Essentially a silent one-hander, the movie stands as perhaps the pre-eminent contemporary example of the "show don't tell" commandment of the art of the screenplay. Written and directed by Brian Duffield (using I think three words of spoken dialogue), it tells the story of Brynn (Kaitlyn Dever), a young woman living very alone outside a nondescript small town. Her mother having recently died, and her one friend having left her life, Brynn leads a small but seemingly full life building a dollhouse village, practicing old-fashioned dance steps and learning to cook. And then the aliens arrive (no spoiler).

What follows is a breathless, funny, ingeniously plotted riff on Whitley Streiber-style space-creatures, complete with gray skin, bulbous heads and giant black eyes. It goes all the places one would want it to without tipping its hand or ever feeling rote. And Dever, who seems to have a perfect record as an actor, plays the lead with such control and assuredness that I can't imagine anyone else in the role.

Scary enough to seize upon the spirit of the season, No One Will Save You is made with an ingenuity, soulfulness and sense of fun that immediately set it apart from the standard spook-fest. PG13. 93M. NETFLIX.

John J. Bennett (he/him) is a movie nerd who loves a good car chase.

NOW PLAYING

BARBIE. Barbie and Ken live in a colorful, seemingly idyllic world but want to leave it behind for the real one. Where can I sign up for this version of Freaky Friday? With Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and Will Ferrell. PG13. 114M. BROADWAY.

BEETLEJUICE (1988). Hands to yourselves, folks. R. 92M. MINOR.

THE BLIND. Biopic about the marriage, family, downward spiral and spiritual redemption of ... the Duck Dynasty guy. PG13. 108M. BROADWAY.

BUTCHER'S CROSSING. Nicolas Cage hunting buffalo in a frontier drama. R. 105M. BROADWAY.

THE CREATOR. A soldier (John David Washington) in the war between humans and AI robots captures a secret weapon in the form of a child robot. PG13. 133M. BROADWAY.

THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER. Ellen Burstyn reprises her maternal role from the original horror masterpiece, this time to aid possessed twins. R. 121M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.

EXPEND4BLES. Yet another ensemble of action movie elder statesmen joined by Megan Fox and legends Tony Jaa and Iko Uwais. R. 93M. BROADWAY.

A HAUNTING IN VENICE. Kenneth Branagh reprises his role as the mustachioed Belgian detective solving a murder at a seance. With Tina Fey and Michelle Yeoh. PG13. 104M. BROADWAY.

HOCUS POCUS (1993). Halloween throwback with Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy. PG. 96M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON. Adaptation of the David Grann novel about oil-thirsty murders of Osage Nation people by white men in Oklahoma in the 1920s. R. 207M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK, MINOR.

LEO: BLOODY SWEET. Tamil-language action-thriller starring Vijay and his majestic hair. NR. 159M. BROADWAY.

MET OPERA: DEAD MAN WALKING. Composer Jake Heggie's opera in a production by Ivo van Hove. NR. 195M. MINOR.

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993). Jack Skellington does some disastrous cultural appropriation. PG. 76M. BROADWAY 3D.

PAW PATROL: THE MIGHTY MOVIE. An asteroid grants dogs superpowers in this animated adventure voiced by Dan Duran and Kristen Bell. PG. 92M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.

POLTERGEIST (1982). They're here. PG. 114M. MINOR.

ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. With live shadow cast from Ferndale Repertory Theatre. R. 128M. MINOR.

SAW X. The puppet-loving serial killer (Tobin Bell) makes the case for socialized medicine via gross basement torture when he takes revenge on medical fraudsters. R. 118. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.

TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR. Swifties, your time is now. NR. 165M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK, MINOR.

Fortuna Theatre is temporarily closed. For showtimes call: Broadway Cinema (707) 443-3456; Mill Creek Cinema 839-3456; Minor Theatre (707) 822-3456.