There’s a lot of authenticity to Deal… and it may indeed be the best poker film since Rounders—but that might not be saying a lot. This time out, though, what we’re really getting is The Color of Money repackaged for the world of Texas Hold ’Em. The Paul Newman role is filled by Burt Reynolds (playing the part of Tommy Vinson), and the young buck played by Tom Cruise in Martin Scorsese’s billiards classic is this time named Alex, and he’s played by Bret Harrison. (For those keeping score, you can kind of sense how things might go awry with this project.) The celebrity appearances are rote at best, and the film’s finale is scripted, for dramatic effect, to deny Hold ’Em fans the thing that really makes the game fascinating: getting to see the players’ hole cards. I’m afraid that I’m making this sound like a bad movie—which it is not. It’s just that’s it’s not particularly gripping.

The Life Before Her Eyes asks the question, “What would you do?”—not only in the moment itself, but in living with the outcome as we watch Diana’s life unravel. The survivor’s guilt is not just that she lives through something that others did not, but that she lives because others, namely her best friend, did not. As the film slowly climbs to its dramatic peak, the audience is drawn into not only the difficulty of making moral decisions, but also into vacillating ambivalence between empathy and shame for Diana. People of faith may wonder if they could be as strong as Maureen, loving Diana so deeply despite her sin, even being willing to die for her friend.

What a dark, dark film is Street Kings… and, for its type, pretty entertaining too. Yes, this is yet another tale of police corruption—one that finds a certain loveliness in the battle between evil and less evil. So when an argument arises between “good can come from bad” and “bad breeds more bad,” the latter can’t help but win. Even when it seems that director David Ayer’s imagery is telling us that an innocent man’s death will somehow result in the betterment of the country, we’re still left with an abiding conviction at film’s end that one character’s assessment is ultimately accurate: “You hate me, but you need me.” Surely someone out there is protecting and serving without being dirty. Surely.

You won’t find a plethora of sub-plots or complex twists and turns. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is what it appears to be, a simple story about people trying to cope with their lives as the shadow of war looms over them. As Miss Pettigrew learns, the trappings of money, fame and power are no guarantee of happiness and love. Indeed, they can often serve as distractions from true happiness. It feels like a 1930s movie, and to his credit director Bharat Nalluri doesn’t try to interject modern sensibilities. The period vibe is critical to telling the story here and all aspects of the film—setting, costumes, cinematography, dialogue, and acting—successfully contribute to that goal.