This week sees the return to theaters (at least US theaters) of a pair of veteran auteurs long absent, as well as a pair of promising feature-directing debuts, mixed among the wide releases and big names.

Mixing bleak naturalism with touches of surrealism and dark humor, Urchin follows the all-too-believable struggles of Mike (Frank Dillane), an addict living, when we meet him, on the streets of London. After Mike gets into a public altercation, a passerby, Simon (Okezie Morro) offers to help him find a shelter, but Mike takes advantage, beating and robbing the man. Being arrested for that crime seems, though, like it may be the best thing to have happened to Mike in a while. The British justice and social welfare system, recognizing the futility of excessively punitive policies, places him with a hostel, gives him job leads, and uses a restorative justice process intended to culminate in a meeting between Mike and his victim. But the journey to sobriety and sustainability comes with challenges, especially for a wounded, emotionally stunted guy like him.

If this all sounds like an after-school special or a social-justice pity party, the deft performance by Dillane and an impressive approach by writer-director Harris Dickinson make it much more textured than that would imply. Dillane, who played Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as a teen and starred in Fear the Walking Dead on TV, tackles his first big-screen lead role with relish. He gives Mike a childlike veneer that blunts the brutality of some of his actions and (perhaps unfairly) makes us root for him despite his multiple fuckups. Dickinson appeared in Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness and Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper (also about folks on society’s margins) before coming to stateside prominence as the dom to Nicole Kidman’s sub in last year’s Babygirl. The 29-year-old (who also has a supporting role as Mike’s streetwise antagonist) made a few shorts before tackling this as his first feature, and he demonstrates enough of a sure hand and a singular vision to dispel any “But what I really want to do is direct” snark. Abstract, corpuscular sequences provide a break from Mike’s gritty day-to-day, and strategically employed long shots—one in a karaoke bar, the other during the restorative justice session between Mike and Simon—allow Dillane the space to inhabit his flawed but fundamentally decent character. The film, which debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, has been compared to the work of Mike Leigh, particularly Naked, but it’s a far less scabrous take on similar material. It reminded me more of Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher, another feature directing debut that blended poetry and poverty to create a distinctive vision. If Dickinson’s career ascends as Ramsay’s did (her latest, Die My Love, with Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, opens next month), it wouldn’t be a shock, based on this initial effort. (Regal Fox Tower)

An Officer and a Spy: This retelling of the 19th-century Dreyfus affair, based on Robert Harris’s novel, focuses on Lieutenant-Colonel Georges Picquart (Jean Dujardin), whose dogged investigation resulted in the eventual exoneration of Alfred Dreyfus (Louis Garrel), the Jewish army officer who was falsely convicted of treason in 1894 France. That shouldn’t be a spoiler alert for those who remember their high school history classes, but they probably don’t teach this stuff in schools anymore, so: Dreyfus’s case, which rested on circumstantial evidence and was overtly motivated by anti-Semitism, became a cause célèbre once Picquart, an anti-Semite himself but one who recognized injustice when he saw it, determined another man was in fact the spy who leaked military secrets and publicized his discovery after the French military establishment refused to acknowledge its error. Only after iconic French novelist Émile Zola (André Marcon) wrote an open letter condemning the situation was Dreyfus, who had spent several years in horrific isolation on Devil’s Island off the coast of South America, presented with the possibility of redemption.

Handsomely mounted and tensely plotted, the film includes appearances from numerous French film veterans, including Mathieu Amalric, Vincent Perez, Melvil Poupaud, and Emmanuelle Seigner. Seigner’s appearance offers a hint to the reason why the movie, which was released in France in 2019 and nominated for 12 César Awards, winning three, has not appeared in the U.S. until now. Those wins were for Best Costume Design, Best Adaptation, and Best Director: Roman Polanski, who has been married to Seigner since 1989. Polanski, who made his first public appearance in years at the 2018 Venice Film Festival premiere of An Officer and a Spy, remains, of course, a polarizing and complicated figure and one of the most high-profile litmus tests for the “art vs. artist” debate. To this day, he is a fugitive from American justice after fleeing the country in the wake of charges that he drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl.

Leaving that aside, to whatever extent possible, there’s not much here that feels like a Polanski film: none of the rawness or energy of more recent efforts such as 2011’s Carnage or 2002’s The Pianist, much less the dark genius of Chinatown or Rosemary’s Baby. One can’t help but wonder whether Polanski was drawn to the Dreyfus tale as a story of unjust persecution and a sick parallel to his own experience, as the director’s own comments absurdly indicate. If his name were not on this picture, it would be seen as an exceedingly well-crafted legal thriller and history lesson about an injustice whose details have faded with time. But his name is on the film, which will understandably be a deal-breaker for many. Polanski has completed one more film since this one, but he is 93 years old. Before long, the debate about this brilliant, troubled, tragedy-plagued man who is also a serial assaulter of girls and women will be about his posthumous legacy, and it is a debate that will not be settled any time soon. (Cinema 21)

Fairyland: After his wife is killed in a car crash in 1974, Steve Hammond (Scoot McNairy) moves from the Midwest to San Francisco with his young daughter Alysia (Nessa Dougherty), where he’s free (or at least freer) to live openly as a gay man. Alysia learns to fend for herself amid her father’s bohemian, druggy lifestyle, which includes dropping tabs of “window pane” during her birthday party. Through her eyes, we see the ups and downs of that era, from living literally on the corner of Haight & Ashbury and the political rise of Harvey Milk to the Anita Bryant-fueled backlash against gay rights and the eventual appearance of AIDS. In the ’80s, Alysia (now played by Emilia Jones from CODA), confronts her dad about his hands-off parenting while negotiating the plague that threatens him and his entire community.

Based on the real Alysia’s memoir, this is the first film directed by Andrew Durham, a longtime associate of Sofia Coppola, who produced Fairyland and was clearly drawn by its depiction of a young woman crafting her own identity in a chaotic, artistic environment. Paper Moon seems like another touchpoint. There’s a nice graininess to the visuals that mimics the 1970s color palette, and the period details are spot on, if sometimes overly showy (do we need a blaring newspaper headline about Jonestown to remind us what year we’re in?). McNairy’s performance is solid, and nice supporting work comes from Geena Davis as Alysia’s grandmother and Maria Bakalova as a member of Steve’s bohemian chosen family, but the film does suffer from predictable story arcs and a general lack of cohesion. (Salem Cinema)

Where to Land: After being a key part of the 1990s indie film scene with films such as The Unbelievable Truth, Trust, and Henry Fool, writer-director Hal Hartley slowly receded from prominence. Whether due to his unwillingness to go Hollywood or disappointing returns on his successive efforts, Hartley hasn’t released a feature since 2014’s Ned Rifle, which was a culmination of the twisted family saga spawned in his earlier work. With this new film, he turns the lens on himself, or at least a version thereof, maintaining his own mannered style in a story about a retired film director who confronts his own not-necessarily-impending mortality by volunteering as a cemetery groundskeeper and drafting his last will and testament.

Joe Fulton (Bill Sage), who has the same name as the main character in Hartley’s 2011 film Meanwhile, puts himself under the tutelage of a local graveyard’s current caretaker, Leonard (Robert John Burke). He meets with his lawyer (Gia Crovatin), who explains to him that as a successful director of romantic comedies (the movie is only so autobiographical), he needs to make sure his estate planning includes the disposition of any intellectual property he owns. (She doesn’t mention that, assuming he worked for film studios, they’re probably the ones who own any intellectual property he created, but I digress.) There’s a poster for Hartley’s Flirt in the lawyer’s office, which only enhances the metafictional similarity to Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry.

Joe, who’s divorced, tells the famous TV star he’s dating, Muriel (Kim Taff), about his estate planning. A pair of dorks named Mick and Keith (Jeremy Hendrik and Jay Lenox) are working on a TV script in the same café spot as him, and one of them indicates that Joe might be his biological father. When Joe’s niece Veronica (Katelyn Sparks) visits from college, she spots an envelope from a hospital in his apartment and learns about his groundskeeping work. When Veronica and Muriel compare notes, they become convinced he’s not long for this world and take appropriate (and inappropriate) measures in response. Where to Land should be catnip for Hartley-starved fans, although the intentionally flat dialogue delivery and stilted demeanor will likely turn off those who aren’t. It’s a great reunion: Burke and Sage have been part of the director’s troupe since the beginning, and Edie Falco, who was also in The Unbelievable Truth, has a nice cameo as Joe’s ex-wife. In fact, the film would have benefited from more scenes with Burke and Sage. That troupe also included Martin Donovan and James Urbaniak, who aren’t here, as well as, tragically, Adrienne Shelly, who can’t be since she was murdered in 2006. As a reflective retrospective of his own life and career, the movie works, and its self-distribution (under Hartley’s Possible Films label) is a testament to his truly independent spirit. In a perfect world, he’d have more resources to work with, and the film wouldn’t be quite so aesthetically rough around the edges. But this world ain’t perfect, and this will just have to do. (Living Room)

The Man Who Saves the World?: This intriguing, to say the least, documentary about Patrick McCollum, an ordained cleric who believes he is the answer to a centuries-old prophecy foretold by indigenous Amazonian tribes, is the latest work from filmmaker Gabe Polsky. Both Polsky and McCollum will be in attendance at this screening for a post-film Q&A moderated by yours truly. (Tuesday 10/21, Cinema 21)

American Skyjacker: In the wake of D. B. Cooper’s 1971 escapade, skyjacking became a surprisingly common occurrence over the next year or so. Heck, Cooper got away with it, so why not, right? Martin McNally was one of several such imitators, and this stranger-than-fiction documentary centers on an extended interview with him, in which he relates the life of petty crime and bad decisions that led to his takeover of an American Airlines flight out of St. Louis in June 1972. In only one of the surreal twists to his story, that skyjacking was briefly interrupted when an enraged local who heard about the crime in progress drove his Cadillac onto the runway in Tulsa, where it had landed to retrieve McNally’s ransom money, and rammed the jet, causing McNally to commandeer a second plane as his escape vehicle. Unlike Cooper, McNally got caught after parachuting away with his bag of cash, but that’s just the beginning of a true-crime tale that gets weirder and more tragic as it unspools. Filmmakers in attendance. (Thursday 10/23, Kiggins)

Also opening

After the Hunt: “A college professor (Julia Roberts) finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star pupil (Ayo Edebiri) levels an accusation against one of her colleagues (Andrew Garfield) and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come to light.” (multiple locations)

Black Phone 2: “As Finn (Mason Thomas), now 17, struggles with life after his captivity, his sister begins receiving calls in her dreams from the black phone and seeing disturbing visions of three boys being stalked at a winter camp known as Alpine Lake.” (multiple locations)

Good Fortune: “A well-meaning but rather inept angel named Gabriel (Keanu Reeves) meddles in the lives of a struggling gig worker (Aziz Ansari) and a wealthy venture capitalist (Seth Rogen).” (multiple locations)

Grow: “An exuberant tale full of giant pumpkins, madcap characters, and a little girl who just might be a pumpkin-growing savant.” (multiple locations)

Truth & Treason: “When loyalty to country becomes loyalty to a lie, one teen risks everything to expose the truth. With the Gestapo closing in, he must decide what it really means to be a good German.” (multiple locations)

Also this week

Vampire Zombies…From Space!: Done in a style that would make Ed Wood proud, this Canadian schlock comedy has Dracula arriving in a small Midwestern town in 1957 via UFO and promptly turning all the townspeople into his undead minions. (Saturday 10/18, Clinton)

Tutti Frutti: The Temple of Underground: The Portland Latin American Film Festival presents this documentary about a legendary underground bar in Mexico City that incubated the country’s counterculture during the 1980s. Director Laura Ponte will be in attendance for a post-film Q&A. (Sunday 10/19, Hollywood)

Heightened Scrutiny: Documentary portrait of attorney Chase Strangio, the ACLU attorney who became the first trans person to argue a case before the Supreme Court. (Sunday 10/19, Tomorrow)

Evil Puddle: “When evil, deadly water starts pooling around their feet, the citizens of Medialight must figure out a way stay alive until it evaporates.” (Sunday 10/19, Clinton)

Living Machine: The Search for Meaning in 16mm: Astral Projections presents a kaleidoscope of celluloid nuggets that in one way or another address what it is to be a human being. (Tuesday 10/21; Hollywood, on 16mm)

Fangs!: “A 1981 Egyptian remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show completely reinvents O’Brien’s classic, refocusing his efforts on a horde of flamboyant vampires who enjoy nothing more than a sing-along.” (Wednesday 10/22, Clinton, presented by Church of Film)

This Island (Esta Isla): In present-day Puerto Rico, two teenaged brothers try to get by while living in public housing. One falls for a girl from a privileged family, while the other flirts with a life of crime, causing them both to flee into the island’s interior wilderness. Presented by the Portland Latin American Film Festival. (Wednesday 10/22, Hollywood)

Big Medicine: York Outdoors: This 30-minute documentary produced by the Lewis and Clark National Historical Trail follows eight Black educators as they retrace the expedition’s path and reflect on the legacy of York, the only Black member of the party. Part of a nine-day celebration of York, whose story has long been neglected. (Wednesday 10/22, Tomorrow)

Repertory

Friday 10/17

• Beetlejuice [1985] (Clinton; pre-film drag show & costume contest)
• The Changeling [1980] (Kiggins)
• Ghostbusters [1984] (Academy; through 10/23)
• The Haunting [1963] (Academy; through 10/23)
• Hereditary [2018] (multiple locations)
• The Hills Have Eyes [1977] (Hollywood; through 10/19)
• Jennifer’s Body [2009] (Hollywood)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street [1984] (Cinemagic; also 10/22 & 10/23)
• Phenomena [1985] (Academy; through 10/23)
• A Question of Silence [1982] (5th Avenue; through 10/19)
• Re-Animator [1985] (Cinema 21; also 10/18)
• Return to Oz [1985] (Tomorrow)
• St. Elmo’s Fire [1985] (Eastport, Cedar Hills, Clackamas Town Center; through 10/19)
• Wishmaster [1997] (Cinemagic; also 10/18 & 10/23)

Saturday 10/18

• Corpse Bride [2005] (Salem)
• Eraserhead [1975] (Salem; also 10/20)
• The Exorcist [1973] (multiple locations)
• Mandy [2018] (Clinton)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge [1985] (Cinemagic; also 10/21)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors [1987] (Cinemagic; also 10/21)
• Practical Magic [1998] (Tomorrow)
• Seconds [1966] (Cinema 21)
• Spirited Away [2001] (multiple locations; through 10/22)
• Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit [2005] (Hollywood, also 10/19)

Sunday 10/19

• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid [1969] (Salem)
• The Chase [1966] (Living Room)
• The Craft [1999] (Tomorrow)
• Critters [1986] (Hollywood)
• Evil Dead 2 [1987] (Salem)
• New Nightmare [1994] (Cinemagic)
• Sneakers [1992] (Living Room)
• The Way We Were [1973] (Living Room)
• The Witch [2016] (multiple locations)

Monday 10/20

• Beetlejuice [1985] (Cinemagic; through 10/23)
• Blood for Dracula [1974] (Hollywood)
• Bubba Ho-Tep [2002] (Hollywood; hosted by Joe Bob Briggs)
• Let Us In! [2022] (Clinton)
• Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight [1995] (multiple locations)

Tuesday 10/21

• Event Horizon [1997] (multiple locations)
• Phenomena [1985] (Hollywood; through 10/23)
• Ready or Not [2019] (Clinton)

Wednesday 10/22

• The Invisible Man [1933] (multiple locations)
• The Nightmare Before Christmas [1993] (multiple locations; also 10/24 & 10/29)
• Tucker & Dale vs. Evil [2010] (Salem)

Thursday 10/23

• Pulse [2001] (Hollywood)
• Wolfman [1979] (multiple locations) With Earl Owensby?