Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

The wondrous world of Harry Potter returns to the screen in this spinoff film. Newt Scamander (Redmayne), a British wizard and expert on magical creatures, arrives in New York City in 1926 on his way to Arizona to return a beast to its natural habitat. When a magical creature escapes from his briefcase, it causes a mixup with unlucky non-wizard Jacob Kowalski (Fogler), and the situation escalates quickly, with many of the beasts disappearing into the city. Because of the escaped beasts, Newt finds himself in trouble with the local wizarding authorities, but with the help of Kowalski and a disgraced dark wizard hunter named Tina (Waterston) at his side, he sets out to dodge the authorities and recapture the escaped beasts before the magical community becomes exposed to the public at large.

Director: David Yates. Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Colin Farrell, Ezra Miller, Faith Wood-Blagrove. 2016. 133 min. Adventure.

Why Him?

When Ned's (Cranston) daughter Stephanie (Deutch) invites her family to meet her boyfriend, Laird (Franco), what she hoped would be a happy meet-and-greet turns into an explosive fireworks display. A straight-laced Ned immediately dislikes the eccentric and off-the-wall -- but exceptionally wealthy -- Laird, who is planning to ask Stephanie to marry him. When Ned refuses to give the union his blessing, the disappointment causes Laird to go all out in his mission to make Ned want to be his future father-in-law.

Director: John Hamburg. Stars: Zoey Deutch, James Franco, Bryan Cranston, Megan Mullally, Cedric the Entertainer, Griffin Gluck. 2016. 111 min. Comedy.

Patriots Day

The events of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing unfold in this story of terror and heroism. After brothers Tamerlan (Melikidze) and Dzhokhar (Wolff) Tsarnaev detonate two bombs at the iconic race, FBI Special Agent Richard DesLauriers (Bacon) and Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis (Goodman) launch a massive manhunt to find the suspects, while Officer Tommy Saunders (Wahlberg) works the front lines to get to the truth. 

Director: Peter Berg. Stars: Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, Alex Wolff, Themo Melikidze, J.K. Simmons. 2016. 133 min. Drama.