Near as I can recall, the last cineplex release that caused me to accidentally fall asleep was 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and I'm on-record as having nodded off not once, but twice, during 2014's Godzilla. I wish I could say those were the only two mutant-lizard flicks over the years to make me conk out, but alas, we're now confronted with Godzilla vs. Kong both on the big screen and via HBO Max. At least this time, my snoring was confined to my apartment.

Two new cineplex releases this past weekend opened with words that frequently inspire ennui in moviegoers everywhere: “Based on a true story.” Yet while both dramatic thrillers – The Courier and City of Lies – are overly earnest and expository in ways those five-word preambles usually imply, their true (or more precisely true-ish) tales are gripping nonetheless, and the performers carry you through the occasional dead spots. One of those films is mostly tight and polished. The other is mostly sprawling and messy. And I mostly enjoyed them both … but kinda preferred the messy one.

An adaptation of his Tony Award-winning stage drama, director/co-screenwriter Florian Zeller's The Father casts Anthony Hopkins as an octogenarian suffering from dementia, and there's no point to me even trying to bury the lede: I bawled like a baby at this thing.

While director Doug Liman's finally un-shelved release shares DNA strands with all those Hunger Gameses and Maze Runners and Divergents – orphaned youths, nihilism, paranoia, common nouns elevated to proper-noun status – thie largely underwhelming Chaos Walking at least provides in abundance something those other works woefully lacked: charm.