A Simple Favor

Widowed single mother Stephanie (Kendrick) meets fellow mom Emily (Lively) while they're both dropping off their sons at school, and the two women quickly become close friends, sharing secrets and enjoying each other's company while their boys have play dates. Things change when Emily calls Stephanie out of the blue and asks her to babysit since Emily's husband, Sean (Golding), is out of town. When Emily disappears and doesn't respond to calls or texts, both Stephanie and Sean become increasingly worried that something terrible has happened to her.

Director: Paul Feig. Stars: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding, Ian Ho, Joshua Satine. 2018. 117 min. Drama.

The House with a Clock in Its Walls

Ten-year-old Lewis Barnavelt (Vaccaro) finds his life going in a direction that he'd never imagined after his parents are killed in a car crash and he's sent to live with his uncle Jonathan (Black). He meets his uncle's neighbor and best friend, Florence (Blanchett), and not long after, he is woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of a clock ticking in the walls of his uncle's house. He learns that his uncle is a warlock, but when Lewis starts teaching himself magic without Jonathan's supervision, he ends up casting a spell that could bring doom to the entire world.

Director: Eli Roth. Stars: Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Owen Vaccaro, Kyle MacLachlan, Renée Elise Goldsberry. 2018. 105 min. Comedy.

Venom

When investigative journalist Eddie Brock (Hardy) digs into the unethical and secret experiments being run in the secret lab of a major corporation, he ends up exposed to an alien organism that bonds with his body and speaks only to him. Calling itself Venom, the symbiotic creature helps Brock evade capture by both the company's security forces and by police as it prepares the Earth for an invasion by its villainous species.

Director: Ruben Fleischer. Stars: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, Reid Scott, Jenny Slate. 2018. 112 min. Action.