The third round of Gru, Minions and company in Despicable Me 3 is less a feature movie than it is five(-ish) Despicable Me shorts pasted together to fill a release date. Sofia Coppola's adaptation of the Civil War-era suspense drama The Beguiled uses strong performances and mastery of mood to overcome a flattened whitewashing of its story. Writer/director/star Demetri Martin's romantic comedy-drama Dean channels Annie Hall through a story of a grieving guy that ignores the better story (and actors) relegated to a subplot. Sam Elliott more or less plays himself in The Hero, but does it well enough to get past a disappointingly formulaic structure.
In this week's feature review, Edgar Wright's love of genre feels second-hand filtered through Tarantino in the '70s heist thriller homage Baby Driver.
Also opening this week, but not screened for press: suburban couple Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler turn their home into a casino to finance their daughter's college education in The House.