Looking to be royally entertained at the movies?

★★½ “Wicked”: Only the first act of the beloved 2003 musical gets covered in director Jon M. Chu’s adaptation, which is odd as this film is actually longer than the entire Broadway show. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo play Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West in this revisionist take on “The Wizard of Oz.” The overlong runtime forces us to dwell on how mean Glinda is to people less fortunate than her, but the two leads have an incredible chemistry together that makes their eventual friendship ring true. The cinematic version of Oz is visually unappealing, and Chu can’t handle the tonal shifts between darkness and broad comedy, but Erivo and Grande sing the hell out of Stephen Schwartz’s score. The two songs you know from this musical, “Defying Gravity” and “Popular,” are here. Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum are also on hand to sing, dance, and scheme. Part Two doesn’t come out until November 2025. For diehard fans only. (160 min., PG)

★★ “Gladiator II”: Ridley Scott returns to the Colosseum for this sequel to his best-picture-winning 2000 film, “Gladiator.” David Scarpa’s script plays more like a remake than a sequel, with many of the original film’s plot beats recreated using a surprisingly ineffective Paul Mescal instead of Russell Crowe. Mescal’s vengeance-filled gladiator may be Lucius, the now-grown son of Crowe’s Maximus and Connie Nielsen’s Lucilla. Exiled from Rome as a kid, he returns as an enslaved gladiator fighting for Macrinus (Denzel Washington). Lucius has his own plan to murder General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) for leading the army that killed his wife. With gigantic spectacles like shark-filled water battles, “Gladiator II” is very silly, but only Washington got that memo. Acting circles around everyone else while chewing an obscene amount of scenery, Washington owns every scene he’s in; he’s so expertly over-the-top he’s Oscar-worthy. The rest of this film should be sent to the lions. (148 min., R)

★★★½ “A Real Pain”: Jesse Eisenberg writes, directs, and stars in this road trip dramedy based on his own family history. Eisenberg plays David, an IT engineer who embarks on a multi-city trip through Poland with his cousin, Benji (Kieran Culkin). They hope to visit the ancestral home of their late grandmother, a Holocaust survivor who shared her home with Benji. The trip becomes a chance for the cousins to reconnect and bond. Eisenberg is excellent, but it’s Culkin’s show all the way. He’s superb, making this bittersweet tale resonate with feeling. The Polish landscape is lovely; so are the supporting performances by Jennifer Grey and Will Sharpe. (90 min., R)

★★★ “Small Things Like These”: Cillian Murphy bucks the Oscar curse that says the next film an Academy Award-winning actor makes will be terrible. This quiet, angry film is dedicated to the young women sent to Ireland’s Magdalene laundries. It’s 1985, and Murphy’s coal man, Bill Furlong, witnesses a young teenage girl (Zara Devlin) being dragged into one of these convents. The event troubles him tremendously, and in flashback, we discover why. Murphy is even better here than he was in “Oppenheimer.” This film’s story is written not with words but with the face of its lead actor. Murphy gives an unforgettable master class in silent acting that will haunt you long after the credits roll. (98 min., PG-13)

★★★½ “Blitz”: Writer-director Steve McQueen’s look at the 1940 blitz on London during World War II is at times as sentimental as the wartime morale-boosting movies were back then. The difference here is that the central character is a person of color, a biracial 9-year-old named George (Elliott Heffernan in a stunning debut). George is separated from his Rosie the Riveter-type factory-worker mother, Rita (Saoirse Ronan), by a law that sent children to the English countryside during the blitz. He escapes the train and begins a harrowing journey back home to East London. The acting is first rate, but the film’s MVPs are its production design and cinematography. A remarkable film. (120 min., PG-13)

★★★ “Heretic”: Hugh Grant continues his late-career descent into villainous roles as Mr. Reed, the antagonist of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’s (“A Quiet Place”) fun and thought-provoking religious horror movie. Matching his wits are two Mormon missionaries, Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher), whom he has entrapped in his creepy house. Their survival hinges on correctly answering subjective questions like “What is the one true religion?” Mr. Reed proves to be a formidable opponent. But these women are no slouches, and the movie is driven more by dialogue than cheap jump scares. Cinematographer Chung-Hoon Chung and production designer Philip Messina contribute to the film’s effective sense of dread. (110 min., R)

★★★½ “Conclave”: Director Edward Berger follows his Oscar-winning “All Quiet on the Western Front” with this juicy, fun, and suspenseful adaptation of Robert Harris’s 2016 bestseller. The Pope has died, and a conclave of cardinals led by Cardinal Lawrence (Fiennes) is sequestered in the Sistine Chapel to pick a successor. It sounds stodgy, but this is actually a thriller filled with excellent performances and a jaw-dropping revelation or two. Imagine an Agatha Christie mystery set in the Vatican. Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow star opposite Fiennes, who does some of the best work of his career. In a small role as a nun, Isabella Rossellini walks off with the picture. (120 min., PG)