New movies in theaters this week

After a few iffy efforts—at least by its own lofty standards—Pixar follows the marvelously mind-bending Inside Out with a Mexico-set adventure that bubbles with wit and daring. Effortlessly gliding between kid-friendly spectacle and heart-tugging emotion by way of surrealist touches and a hilariously specific recurring joke about Frida Kahlo’s unibrow, Coco is a goofy joy from start to finish. 

In cinemas 30 Nov

Dane Jensen is a hard-driven headhunter who works at a cutthroat firm. When his boss pits him against the equally driven Lynn Vogel, Dane gears up for the professional battle of his life. When his young son is then given a harrowing diagnosis, Dane is suddenly pulled between achieving his professional dream and spending time with the family that needs him now more than ever.

In cinemas 30 Nov

“Luck lives in the city,” we hear a character say late in the gripping, unusually wise Wind River, a movie that definitively demonstrates that, outside the city, you have to rely on stronger stuff. We’re in wintry Wyoming, a place of run-down Native American reservations, broken marriages and the sad scourge of opioids and drugs that seems to know no border.

In cinemas 30 Nov

Welcome to the deep freeze. The first American movie by absurdist Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, Dogtooth) sees him throwing the full weight of classical tragedy at a suburban family. Colin Farrell is Steven, a successful surgeon who once made a fatal mistake on the operating table that comes back to haunt him, his wife (Nicole Kidman) and their kids, in bloody fashion. If that sounds like a simple revenge story, there’s nothing simple about the way Lanthimos sneakily peels back the layers of this horror-inflected tale, stalking corridors and rooms with the gliding, artful precision of Stanley Kubrick. 

In cinemas 30 Nov

The first Saw took heat for launching the “torture porn” trend, but taken on its own terms, it was a cleverly nasty bit of business with a whopper of a surprise ending. While director James Wan went on to the more refined pastures of the Insidious and Conjuring franchises, the Saw sequels increasingly curdled into nastiness and convoluted plotting as tortured as their victims.

In cinemas 30 Nov

After graduating from college and moving into an apartment, young Thomas Webb befriends an alcoholic neighbor who dispenses worldly wisdom alongside shots of whiskey. Webb's world soon comes crashing down when he learns that his father is having an affair with a beautiful and seductive woman. Determined to break up the relationship, Thomas winds up sleeping with her, launching a chain of events that will change everything that he thinks he knows about his family and himself.

In cinemas 30 Nov 

It’s hard to know if this clunky comedy is part of Mel Gibson’s redemption arc or some strange new form of karmic retribution. A pre-holiday turkey, Daddy's Home 2 sees him unleash a monster as the growling alpha dad of Mark Walhberg’s rough-hewn Dusty. Meanwhile, John Lithgow is the touchy-feely father to Will Ferrell’s wimpy Brad, who’s still happily married to Dusty’s ex (Linda Cardellini) and now has a baby of his own. 

In cinemas 30 Nov