THE INTERN

Older audiences deserve comforting, pandering crap as much as everyone else, so I probably shouldn't be too hard on The Intern, especially because, with Nora Ephron's passing, writer/director Nancy Meyers is pretty much carrying the torch for Hollywood's all-too-rare female-centric dramedies detailing the personal costs of Having It All. But I'm going to be hard on it anyway, given that Meyers' mildly insulting sitcoms about strong, successful career women who are only truly fulfilled after Finding the Right Man are usually buoyed by ace performances (Something's Gotta Give's Diane Kaeaton and Jack Nicholson; It's Complicated's Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin), and this film just doesn't have 'em.

EVEREST

At present, the only way to see director Baltasar Kormákur's adventure drama Everest - the only legal way, at any rate - is in its IMAX 3D presentation, as the film won't be released in other, less surcharge-filled formats until September 25. Yet even if, like me, you consider yourself a generally frugal (i.e., cheapskate) cineplex patron, I implore you to suck it up, shell out the extra dough, and treat yourself to the biggest, loudest Everest available. I'm not sure how well this thing will play on smaller screens, but the IMAX 3D version is a staggering, even humbling experience for the eyes and ears - a mountain that, on your TV or computer or iPhone, might more accurately suggest a molehill.

A WALK IN THE WOODS

Based on a widely adored nonfiction from 1998, A Walk in the Woods finds Robert Redford's Bill Bryson (the book's author) and Nick Nolte's Stephen Katz embarking on a months-long trek along the Appalachian Trail, and from his first moments here, you fear for the latter's health. By which I mean you fear for Nolte's health. Because based on the 74-year-old's initial appearance - hauling his substantial frame out of an airplane seemingly half his size, his face nearly purple from the effort - and that strained, gravelly baritone that sounds like heavy rocks in a wood chipper, Nolte doesn't appear at all capable of surviving this particular Walk. (It should go without saying that even though he's finally starting to look his age, you don't feel similar trepidation for 79-year-old Redford, given that his voice and hair - or "hair" - still suggest a man in his late 30s.)

THE END OF THE TOUR

An interviewer for Rolling Stone travels to Bloomington, Illinois, to meet his subject: an author embarking on the last leg of his book tour. They make small talk at the author's house. They smoke incessantly. They gorge on junk food. They travel to Minnesota for a reading and radio segment. They visit the Mall of America. They catch a multiplex movie. They hang out with a couple of young women. They consume more junk food. They return to Bloomington. They part ways.

In broad outline, that is the entire plot of director James Ponsoldt's and screenwriter Donald Margulies' The End of the Tour. And with the possible exception of Mad Max: Fury Road, no other 2015 release, to date, has entertained, thrilled, and devastated me quite as much as this one. (The film is currently playing at Iowa City's Marcus Sycamore Cinema.) I'll concede that much of the reason for my enjoyment might be strictly personal, or at least intensely specific. But I also don't think anyone needs to have been an interviewer, or an interviewee, to be dazzled by the film's intelligence, emotional complexity, and deep empathy, or by the insight it demonstrates regarding the oddly fraught practice of the celebrity profile. You probably also don't need to be an admirer of David Foster Wallace to find yourself frequently moved to tears, but if you are one, consider yourself warned.