If Mufasa: The Lion King is a marginal improvement on its very bad 2019 predecessor – director Jon Favreau's deeply unnecessary, frequently shot-for-shot remake that substituted photorealism for traditional animation – it's only because, unlike last time, we don't enter the film knowing precisely what we're gonna get. Except, of course, we do.

Not that the material demanded or invited it, but I think I now know why Ralph Fiennes was never seen out of his clerical robe in Conclave. Because if we ever saw him shirtless, or even got a gander at his bare arms, that entire papal drama would've collapsed through one simple question: “How did a cloistered, late-middle-aged cardinal get so freakin' jacked?!”

It goes without saying that the long-awaited arrival of a Wicked movie is being met with feverish anticipation by many sects of the musical's fan base. The best news about director Jon M. Chu's film version is that it matches devotees' collective excitement with unmissable, infectious excitement of its own.

Both the funniest and saddest Cinderella tale you've ever seen, writer/director Sean Baker's Anora is a great movie with some great big problems.