It’s hard to imagine Maria existing without Angelina Jolie in the title role as the iconic opera singer Maria Callas. No other contemporary performer could quite capture the majestic presence, self-absorption, and tragic divahood of La Callas than La Jolie. In fact, the casting is almost too perfect. Some of the very few moments in Pablo Larraín’s worshipful biopic that wobble are those that seem to settle a beat too long where the veil between the performer and the role is the thinnest. And yet, even that’s appropriate, as Callas herself seemed to ingest the tragic heroines she played, not least during the last week of her life, at least as Larraín depicts it here.

Living in a spacious Parisian apartment in 1977 with her ever-loyal and long-suffering butler (Pierfrancesco Favino) and housekeeper/cook (Alba Rohrwacher), the 53-year-old Callas wades through a haze of pills and regret, having given up performing some years earlier when her voice began to decline. Now, she imagines a television interviewer (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is asking her to relive her life as she threatens to anyone who’ll listen that she’s about to write her memoir. All the while, her devoted domestic workers do what they can to mollify and protect her.

We see the legendary soprano at various stages in her career, Jolie reenacting arias that will no doubt be familiar to opera aficionados. The film opens with an extended close-up of Jolie expertly lip-synching to Callas’s performance of the Ave Maria from Verdi’s Otello (I had to look it up), inviting us to scrutinize what was surely an exacting and exhausting technical feat. It closes with another such prolonged sequence, during which the technical prowess, taken for granted, can yield to a pure glimpse into the dying diva’s soul.

In between we get Maria and her sister being forced to perform for Nazi officers in World War II Greece; her tumultuous, adulterous, truncated relationship with Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer); and even a brief, spiky conversation with John F. Kennedy (Caspar Phillipson, who gives more of a Bobby vibe if you ask me). These flashbacks, or hallucinations, or memories prompt the help to call in a doctor and try to wean Callas off the pills.

Each day, she heads out to a nearby theater where a single pianist (Stephen Ashfield) waits. There, she tests her voice, only to find it still wanting, despite the effusive reactions she gets at home from the help. There’s pathos aplenty in Callas’s desperate attempt to retain her former glory, but Jolie gives her an innate gravitas that repels any attempts at pity.

One curious decision by Larraín was to omit subtitles for the sung opera passages. In a filmed intro to the film, he explains that he fell in love with opera as a boy in Santiago, and that he never read the text if it was projected. Obviously, that’s valid, but if there are any correspondences or ironies to be found in what she’s singing and the events of her life, they remain unrecognized by yours truly. Even as an operatic ignoramus, however, it’s impossible not to be moved by the strength and grace of the human voice at its absolute peak.

This is the third in what has become a trilogy of Larraín’s, each excavating the inner life of one of the 20th century’s most recognizable women: Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie, Princess Diana in Diana, and now Callas. He’s had a fascinating career, bouncing between his native Chile to take on more experimental fare (such as last year’s La Conde, about a 250-year-old undead version of Auguste Pinochet), and Hollywood for these star-studded biopics. The first two garnered Oscar nominations for their stars (Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart), and Jolie will surely follow suit. The screenplay, by Steve Knight, who also wrote Diana, is also worthy, shifting between past and present, reality and fiction to conjure a portrait of a figure who always had a foot on each side of those divides. (Currently playing at Salem Cinema; streaming via Netflix starting Dec. 11)

Heavier Trip: In 2018’s Heavy Trip, the Finnish metal band Impaled Rektum emerged from the basement in a reindeer slaughterhouse where they had been practicing for 12 years to embark on a foolhardy road trip to a Norwegian music festival. This involved digging up the coffin of their recently departed drummer, replacing him with an inmate at the local insane asylum, avoiding the wrath of the town sheriff, and nearly starting a global (or at least Scandinavian) diplomatic disaster. You don’t really need to know any of that to enjoy this sequel, which finds the band members escaping from prison on a desperate mission to prevent that slaughterhouse (owned by the guitarist’s family) from being repossessed. Once free, their notoriety earns them the opportunity to appear at a massive, mainstream music fest, which leads to division over whether or not they should sell out. The dopey leads are consistently endearing, even if the slapstick antics are increasingly strained. My advice: see the first one, and if you really love it, check out the sequel. Unless you’re a fan of the unique Japanese all-female trio Babymetal, in which case Heavier Trip is a must-see (Hollywood Theatre, Friday)

Graduates: In this sensitive, subtly directed indie drama, it’s been a year since Tyler, the boyfriend of Genevieve (Mina Sundwall), and five of her other classmates were killed in a school shooting. Now, as her senior year progresses, she struggles to handle her overwhelming grief. On this journey with her are Tyler’s best friend, who moved away after the shooting but has now returned, and Tyler’s father (John Cho), the coach of the high school basketball team. Studiously and wisely avoiding politics, the Second Amendment, gun culture, mental illness, or any other hot button issues, director Hannah Petersen’s impressive debut focuses on the personal and draws empathetic performances from her mostly raw, but talented cast. (Salem Cinema, Saturday; Tomorrow Theater, Sunday; both screenings with director Hannah Peterson in attendance)

STREAMING PICK

The Piano Lesson: Hollywood’s nepo babies get a bad rap, often deservedly so. Leave it to the progeny of Denzel Washington, though, to demonstrate how sometimes talent can legitimately run in the family. We’ve already seen John David Washington prove himself in, among others, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and Spike Lee’s BlackKklansman. Now, under the direction of his brother Malcolm (making his feature film debut), John David delivers a magnificent performance in this adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer-winning 1987 play set in 1930s Pittsburgh. Boy Willie (Washington) arrives at the home of his sister Berniece (an excellent Danielle Deadwyler) and their uncle Doaker Charles (Samuel L. Jackson, reprising his Tony-nominated role from the 2022 Broadway revival). He’s come to reclaim a family heirloom, a piano, that represents their family’s history of enslavement and the theft of which from their ancestor’s master, Sutter, led to the death of Boy Willie and Berniece’s father. He intends to sell the piano in order to buy Sutter’s land, but Berniece insists on retaining it as an emblem of their heritage. The debate evolves into one about the pros and cons of legacy, and the story satisfyingly veers into genuine ghost story territory in the third act. Malcolm Washington’s direction balances fidelity to the work’s theatrical origins with a fluid, cinematic approach that allows his actors to spread their wings. (Currently streaming on Netflix)

BLU-RAY PICK

A Simple Plan: This one was a real eye-opener from director Sam Raimi when it was released in 1998, and it might remain his best film not to feature Bruce Campbell and/or the Necronomicon. (It does, of course, include a cameo by the 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 that appears in nearly every one of Raimi’s pictures.) Scott Smith adapted his own novel into a masterful screenplay that takes a simple noir setup (three friends stumble across a mountain of cash that, shock of shocks, ends up ruining their lives) and infuses it with a dose of Midwestern stoicism that calls to mind Fargo without the dark, if leavening, humor. Bill Paxton (RIP) is brilliant as the ill-fated protagonist, and Bridget Fonda is at her best as his scheming, Skyler White-esque wife. But the honors go to Billy Bob Thornton, still a relative Hollywood newcomer, who willingly adopts one of cinema’s worst haircuts and a pair of dorky glasses to play Paxton’s character’s dim-witted but surprisingly tender brother. This new release from Arrow Video, on both 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray, includes a pair of audio commentary tracks as well as interviews with supporting cast members and contemporary set interviews with Paxton, Thornton, and others. Among the supplements, the highlight is the conversation between film critics Glenn Kenny and Farran Smith Nehme. Nehme employs here expertise with classic films noir to make comparisons between those films and A Simple Plan, while Kenny relies on his days interviewing Thornton in the 1990s for Premiere magazine as a source for many of his observations. Overall, they don’t step on each others’ toes too much, and provide a wealth of background and insight.

ALSO OPENING

Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion: With the release of the first volume of Cher’s memoir, what better time for a documentary on the designer behind her unique, sometimes notorious outfits? (Well, the release of the second volume would probably be more appropriate, but you get it…) Mackie’s ostentatiously glamorous fashions have graced the forms of celebrities, from Vicky Lawrence to Elton John to Miley Cyrus, and he gets his due here. (Now when is someone going to make a documentary about Louis Vuitton?) (Kiggins Theater, through Monday)

The World According to Allee Willis: Fresh from its appearance at the Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival, this portrait of the fascinating woman responsible for the lyrics of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September,” the theme song for Friends, and many other earworms gets a theatrical release. Willis was also a visual artist, decorator extraordinaire, internet pioneer, and host of some of the Valley’s best parties in the ’80s. (Salem Cinema; Cinema 21 [Sunday only])

The Birthday: As part of its “Night of 1,000 Corey Feldmans” tribute, PAM CUT screens this rediscovered, offbeat 2004 thriller featuring the The Lost Boys star as a hapless dude who comes to his girlfriend’s father’s birthday party and discovers nefarious happenings underfoot. (Tomorrow Theater, Saturday)

FRIDAY

• Blood Rage [1987] (Hollywood Theatre)
• The Princess Bride [1987] (Kiggins Theater, through Monday)
• Princess Mononoke [1997] (Cinemagic, also Sunday, Monday, Thursday)
• Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion [1997] (Tomorrow Theater)

SATURDAY

• The Birds [1963] (Hollywood Theatre, in 35mm)
• Grave of the Fireflies [1987] (Cinemagic, also Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday)
• Gremlins [1984] (Tomorrow Theater)
• Miracle on 34th Street [1947] (Cinema 21)
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind [1984] (Cinemagic, also Sunday through Tuesday)
• Nosferatu [1922] (Hollywood Theatre, with live pipe organ accompaniment)
• The Shining [1980] (Clinton St. Theater)
• Stop Making Sense [1984] (Hollywood Theatre)
• This Is What Democracy Looks Like [2000] (Clinton St. Theater)

SUNDAY

• Curious Tobi and the Treasure Hunt to the Flying Rivers [2023] (Clinton St. Theater, presented by the Portland German Film Festival)
• Home Alone [1990] (Tomorrow Theater)
• Psychotronic After School Christmas Special (Hollywood Theater, presented by Greg Hamilton of Darkroom Associates, on 16mm)

WEDNESDAY

• Infernal Affairs [2002] (Cinemagic)
• Join or Die [2024] (Tomorrow Theater)
• The Monkey King Conquers the Demon [1985] (Clinton St. Theater, presented by Church of Film)

THURSDAY

• Hundreds of Beavers [2024] (Kiggins Theater)