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Volkmar Richter

Volkmar Richter reviews new movies opening in Vancouver on Fridays.

Big sequels to Mamma Mia and The Equalizer plus Joaquin Phoenix and Gus Van Sant’s return with Don’t Worry …

More? How about Mary Shelley, who wrote Frankenstein, Arrhythmia, the real Russia, Prodigals, a BC look eastward, and memories of horror with The Accountant of Auschwitz

The Rock to the rescue again, brothers separated at birth and Whitney Houston’s wild life

Also Drac and family go on vacation, Mexican migrants make the best of it in New York, a telemarketer learns power selling, a teen fights depression and one man’s ideas to change soccer

Silly fun with Ant-Man; off-the grid emotions in Leave No Trace and a quirky feminist western

Also two of the best of Hot Docs: one placid, idyllic; the other harsh and angry and a pot-fuelled trip starring Christopher Plummer

American Animals, a fine heist movie, Sicario 2, evil on the Mexican border, and Hearts Beat Loud, amiable

Also: visit a fashion icon, an anime rarity, basketball stars as actors, a creepy Canadian thriller and a post-Holocaust story told with humor and chutzpah

More stomping from the Jurassic dinosaurs, a hopeful essay on climate change and real work observed

Also: Bono’s daughter and a Vancouver up and comer portray a married couple going wrong

Incredible superhero home life, remembering Mr. Rogers and a teenager’s rule-choked Iran

Also a best-selling mystery from Italy and the return of blaxploitation with Superfly

Women on an elaborate heist, farm work by women while the men are off to war and a modern gothic horror

Also Jodie Foster patching up criminals and two documentaries about major artists

A sailing yarn for summer; a parson’s turn to social responsibility and a quest for true love by an older woman

And much more: an environmental artist, young love crashing on a beach, colonial errors in South America and a black cop’s misdeeds here in Canada

Han Solo’s back story, a style maven’s triumph and a small festival of indie films

Another week, another blockbuster. Solo is the new one and that’s three in theatres right now and more lined up to come. If they’re not your thing you could take the advice the Wall Street Journal...

Deadpool jokes again; Jane Fonda reads in Book Club, and two modern icons explain their missions

Also: an artist’s intense struggles, two gay love stories and a bad doggie.