Our critics recommend...

The Patience Stone Atiq Rahimi adapts his own best-selling novel, about a Muslim woman who bares her soul to her comatose husband. Set in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, and revealing much about the sexual and spiritual repression of women in fundamentalist spheres. Rp

Riddick Vin Diesel is back in the third installment of the space saga, betrayed by Necromongers and hatching an epic scheme of revenge and retribution - which begins with those otherworldly line readings of his. R

Salinger The secret documentary project, years in the making, is finally here, promising revelations about the famously reclusive Catcher in the Rye scribe and the writing he continued to do long after his last story was published - in 1965. He died in 2010. With Tom Wolfe, Martin Sheen, Edward Norton, and Philip Seymour Hoffman among the talking heads. PG-13

    Tio Papi A carefree batchelor's life is turned upside down when he becomes guardian to his sister's six children.

Reviewed by critics Steven Rea (S.R.), Tirdad Derakhshani (T.D.), David Hiltbrand (D.H.), and Dan DeLuca (D.D). W.S. denotes a wire-service review.

Cutie and the Boxer A brilliant, beautiful documentary portrait of Ushio and Noriko Shinohara, a Japanese artist couple who have lived together in New York, and made art, since the early 1970s, through good times and bad, drunken rages, ego trips, shivering poverty and sacrifice. And mostly, the sacrifice has been Noriko's. How does a relationship work when one of the partners - the wild man Ushio, using boxing gloves to pummel his canvases with paint - is self-involved, a showman, a drunk? 1 hr. 28 R (adult themes) - S.R.

Fruitvale Station Michael B. Jordan gives a deeply nuanced performance as Oscar Grant, the 22-year-old Oakland, Calif., man shot and killed by a transit cop in the early hours of New Year's Day 2009. Ryan Coogler's film reconstructs - and in some instances reimagines - the events of the day and night leading up to that tragic episode. 1 hr. 25 R (violence, profanity, drugs, adult themes) - S.R.

20 Feet From Stardom A rocking doc about the unsung singers standing just to the right and left of Mick Jagger, Bette Midler, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, and other music superstars. Backup vocalists finally get their due. 1 hr. 30 PG-13 (profanity) - D.D.

Drinking Buddies *** Olivia Wilde and Jake Johnson play workmates at a Chicago brewery - they lunch together, drink together, joke and flirt. But each has a significant other, throwing a wrench in their friendship in Joe Swanberg's minimalist take on modern-day male-female relationships. With Ron Livingston and Anna Kendrick. 1 hr. 30 R (profanity, sex, craft beer, adult themes) - S.R.

Getaway 1/2 Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez (now there's an odd couple) drive around in circles in this pointless and puzzling action film. 1 hr. 29 PG-13 (violence, profanity) - D.H.

Lee Daniels' The Butler *** Based on the true story of an African American who served eight presidents from Truman to Reagan, with Forest Whitaker, full of dignity and humility, in the title role as pivotal events in the history of the civil rights movement swirl around him. With Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Gooding Jr., and David Oyelowo. 2 hrs. 12 PG-13 (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones ** Discovering she has mysterious powers, a girl (Lily Collins) hooks up with her kindreds (Jamie Campbell Bower and Robert Sheehan) to battle evil in all its gory guises. A slick but imitative Goth teen thriller. 2 hr. 10 PG-13 (intense violence, adult themes) - D.H.

We're the Millers **1/2 A pot dealer and a stripper - Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston - pose as an all-American, RV-driving couple who recruit two misfit teens to play their kids so they can smuggle a huge shipment of marijuana across the Mexican border. Innocuously smutty, intermittently funny road comedy. R (profanity, nudity, drugs, violence, adult themes) -S.R.

The World's End *** Edgar Wright and his anarchic nutball mates from the Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz parodies turn their attention to another genre, as five old school chums reunite for an epic pub crawl in their old hometown. A town whose occupants seem eerily unfamiliar. 1 hr. 49 R (profanity, cartoon violence, gore, sex, adult themes) - S.R.

Reviewed by David Patrick Stearns (D.P.S.) .

2013 Fringe Festival (All over the place) The Live Arts Festival/Philly Fringe-that-was officially launches its 18-day run Thursday, offering 16 "presented" (i.e. high-end) productions and a gazillion madcap "Neighborhood Fringe" outliers. Find the copious details at www.fringearts.com.

Any Given Monday (Delaware Theatre Company) Bruce Graham's horrifying, hilarious tale of football and manship. Previews Wednesday, Thursday, opens Friday.

In the Heights (Walnut Street Theatre) West Philly's own Quiara Alegria Hudes wrote the book for this Tony-winning musical set in a tough, changing New York neighborhood. Previews Tuesday-Sept. 10, opens Sept. 11.

The Tale of the Allergist's Wife (Bucks County Playhouse) A culture-devouring Manhattanite finds her life, and herself, wanting. Hysteria ensues. Ends Sunday.

Blancanieves **** Inspiring and intoxicating mix of the old and the new, a Spanish black-and-white silent that takes the Brothers Grimm's Snow White fable and flips and spins it wondrously - and throws in a whole bullfighting angle to go along with the dwarfs. Set in 1920s Seville, with a rapturous musical score. If you loved The Artist, you'll love this even more. 1 hr. 49 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) - S.R.

Sunday from 2 to 5:30 p.m., WRTI (90.1FM) rebroadcasts Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the work that initiated the great rediscovery of Bach's music when young Felix Mendelssohn conducted it in Berlin in 1829. The Passion According to St. Matthew features an impressive roster of soloists as well as the Westminster Symphonic Choir and the American Boychoir.

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