What better time to hide out in a dark, air-conditioned movie theater than a weekend that's supposed to be hot and full of people trying to soak up the last days of summer? To assist you in escaping reality this weekend, our film critics have picked the best movies playing in town, ranging from a movie about a teenage American rapper who moves to small-town Germany to a much-needed presidential rom-com to what may be one of your last weekends to see Ghostbusters on the big screen. See them all below, and, as always, check out our complete movie times calendar for even more options.

NEW RELEASES
1. Equity
You will not find a film that gets closer to the truth about Wall Street than Equity. It makes The Wolf of Wall Street look like a cartoon. Indeed, Equity’s ending is so radical, it will stun you into silence. You will not see it coming. You will think that its story, which is about a Bay Area tech company going public, and this transition being managed by a powerful money-loving female investment banker, is heading in a completely different direction. You will think you know who will win and who will lose in this high-stakes game. And you will be surprised by how much you got it all wrong—because this film is after a much deeper truth about finance and American greed. CHARLES MUDEDE

2. Southside With You
In service of the Obama story—and the bigger story outside all of that—Southside with You presents a presidential rom-com in the midst of one of the ugliest election seasons in recent memory. The film follows a young, chain-smoking Barack Obama (Parker Sawyers) and a deeply principled Michelle Robinson (Tika Sumpter) as they traverse Chicago's South Side on their first "date." Southside with You, while sweet and overly schmaltzy at times, powerfully reminds viewers that the story the Obamas gave us over the past eight years—an eight years that may look a paradise if Trump wins—is one worth holding onto and retelling for future generations. SYDNEY BROWNSTONE

LIMITED RUNS
Thursday Only
3. Fantastic Planet
Many movies may aspire to cult status, but only a few can slither right in and stake an unquestionable claim. The 1973 French/Czechoslovakian animated film Fantastic Planet, thankfully, is absolutely one of the latter. A Grand Prix winner at Cannes (and originally brought to American theaters by legendary king of schlock Roger Corman), its combination of seriously trippy illustrations and groovy jazz-porny musical score creates a stunning, vividly potent sensation. Once it hits your brain, it’s there to stay. ANDREW WRIGHT
Grand Illusion

4. Little Men
In the end, this terrific film plays like a sequel to Hal Ashby's 1970 debut, The Landlord, in which Beau Bridges's trust-fund kid tangled with the African American tenants of a Park Slope tenement. He assumed gentrification would be easy, but it never is—not least for the most vulnerable among us. KATHY FENNESSY
Sundance Cinemas

5. The Room
Tommy Wiseau's (writer/director/producer/lead actor/distributor) PSA about sleeping with your best friend's girl.
Central Cinema

Starting Friday
6. Breaking a Monster
A band of 13-year-olds gets caught in the gears of the star-making machinery in Darkon director Luke Meyer's empathetic and compelling documentary. Power trio Unlocking the Truth, three black kids from Brooklyn, shred like Death by way of Metallica. The way they see it, fame is theirs for the taking. When they post a live video that garners over a million hits, gap-toothed producer Alan Sacks comes calling, and the culture clash begins. The kids are from working-class stock, while Alan is a showbiz vet who meditates daily. I can't imagine a better companion piece to Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's Metallica-on-the-rocks documentary, Some Kind of Monster. KATHY FENNESSY
Northwest Film Forum

7. The Intervention
For her directorial debut, Clea DuVall borrows the template that served John Sayles (Return of the Secaucus 7) and Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill) so well in their early days: Thirtysomething friends gather to reminisce over good times and pick at old wounds. Their ulterior motive: to stage an intervention around a toxic marriage. It’s incredibly presumptuous… but considering that DuVall shot the film on a small budget over a short amount of time, it’s a deft piece of work, and proves she has what it takes to make a go of a directing career.
Sundance Cinemas

8. Morris from America
This Chad Hartigan film follows the story of Morris, a 13-year-old rapper, who moves from America to picturesque Heidelberg, Germany, with his widowed father. According to The New York Times, "the novelty of the setting and the familiarity of the premise — an adolescent boy navigating a bumpy stretch on the road from boyhood to maturity — combine to give Morris From America buoyancy and heart," and, "if you know someone Morris’s age and swearing is not a deal-breaker for you, this is a perfect movie to see together as the new school year approaches."
Sundance Cinemas

All Weekend
9. Anthropoid
Spy movies come preloaded with expectations, promising many scenes of shadowy people doing shadowy things. The historical thriller Anthropoid thankfully knows the trappings of its genre well, telling a compelling, unexpectedly moving story that’s rife with secret knocks, signal mirrors, and hastily decoded messages. ANDREW WRIGHT
Regal Meridian

10. Don't Think Twice
The premise for Mike Birbiglia’s new film—a follow-up to his 2012 debut, Sleepwalk with Me—probably sounds insufferable. Basically, he’s gathered sketch-comedy performers from IFC, Comedy Central, and Netflix for a film about a New York improv troupe. Watch them succeed! Watch them fail! Watch them fall in and out of love! And that’s exactly what happens. If the film isn’t especially funny—the curse of most comedies about comedy—I’m not sure that was Birbiglia’s intention. Mostly, it’s like a lo-fi cover of Morrissey’s “We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful.” Kind of whiny, kind of mean, and kind of true. KATHY FENNESSY
SIFF Cinema Uptown and Sundance Cinemas

11. Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World
The French philosopher Quentin Meillassoux once suggested that god does not exist but might exist in the future. This future god is the one legendary German director Werner Herzog looks for in his new documentary, Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World—the god whose mind seems to be emerging, flicker by flicker, in the global communication network we call the internet. What will this god do? How will we worship it? Will it make demands? And if so, will these demands harm or improve the lives of the god's creators? CHARLES MUDEDE
SIFF Cinema Uptown

12. Our Little Sister
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s luminous adaptation of Akima Yoshida’s manga series Umimachi Diary is a stealth masterpiece. Like his other films, Our Little Sister never draws attention to itself (or to its maker’s understated brilliance). He simply depicts four sisters going about their lives in coastal Kamakura, where plums grow freely, mackerel is plentiful, and the air glistens with humidity. The women have their flaws, like a fondness for the wrong men, but the better you get to know them, the harder it is to let them go. In that sense, his 12th narrative feature plays more like a miniseries than a movie. KATHY FENNESSY
Seven Gables

CONTINUING RUNS
13. Captain Fantastic
In Captain Fantastic, this alternative family has to leave their little compound to attend a funeral, and in the outside world, we get to observe their smug disconnection from society alongside their admirably thoughtful, sustainable, and creative approach to life. Any audience would have a hard time not laughing out loud at the quick, complex jokes—but liberal, thoughtful Seattleites will get an extra kick when they recognize themselves in the characters. The mood shifts constantly, so that at any given moment the family’s lifestyle seems either ideal or like a mild form of child abuse. JULIA RABAN

14. Finding Dory
I never thought a movie about animated fish would make me cry so much. But then again, not all fish are Dory, the charming protagonist of Finding Dory, Pixar's sequel to 2003's Finding Nemo. Although the movie is intended to be a follow-up, Finding Dory holds its own 13 years after its predecessor debuted and anchored itself in the hearts of then-10-year-olds like me. As an adult, I discovered a new appreciation for the characters of my favorite Pixar film. ANA SOFIA KNAUF

15. Ghostbusters
Because I’m so enthralled by all four lead actors, and even more enthralled by watching the world of bitter, obstructionist dorks implode with rage over their casting, I was almost ecstatic to see how well the whole thing turned out. It’s not just that it works and is hilarious and has great special effects and all the candy—It's also a perfect commentary on gender inequality in movies. Leading by example. SEAN NELSON

16. Hell or High Water
Leave it to a Scot to deliver the next great American western. It’s possible director David Mackenzie (Starred Up) had the distance and perspective to depict Hell or High Water’s depressed West Texas towns and dust-dry plains with unvarnished truth. Maybe he recognized, from across the pond, a universal struggle in the specific plight of brothers Toby and Tanner Howard (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) as they try to hang on to their father’s ranch. Perhaps he sensed the timeliness of a story that depicts white American men running out of time, money, and land. More likely, Mackenzie had Taylor Sheridan’s (Sicario) superb script to navigate a path around the obvious men-with-guns clichés that make up Hell or High Water’s western-noir milieu. Whatever the case may be, it’s resulted in a great film. NED LANNAMANN

17. Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Sure, Hunt for the Wilderpeople’s scope is small, but it gives you everything you could want from a movie: It’s smart, emotional, and even a bit action-packed once Ricky and Hec embark on an unplanned adventure in the forest. But most of all, it’s funny. So, so funny. Wilderpeople is a hugely loveable movie that’s suitable for date night or the whole family, and I know that sounds like a hacky movie poster blurb. But when a movie’s this good, it’s tough to avoid clichés, so I’ll leave you with another: Don’t miss it. NED LANNAMANN

18. Jason Bourne
Director Paul Greengrass and his co-scriptwriter Christopher Rouse (also the movie’s editor, interestingly) focus on a coterie of supporting characters, including Alicia Vikander as a smooth-skinned computer surveillance whiz, Vincent Cassel as a deadly “asset” (translation: assassin), and Tommy Lee Jones as a melted jack-o’-lantern who’s also head of the CIA. They’re all tracking Bourne, who discovered his real identity in 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum and feels bad about all the people he killed, so he’s taken on the life of a wandering bare-knuckle boxer, punching large men for cash throughout Eastern Europe. NED LANNAMANN

19. Kubo and the Two Strings
Set in ancient Japan, the fantasy film Kubo and the Two Strings (directed by Travis Knight, who was the lead animator for Coraline) doesn’t just open on a note of despair, it lingers there. The early scenes—in which Kubo, the protagonist, takes care of his injured, confused mother, feeding her and putting her to bed—don’t serve as narrative contrast; instead, the melancholy convincingly follows him throughout the movie, and death is its central theme. While the gloomy, thoughtful premise will certainly appeal to adults searching for realism, kids will also appreciate the film’s frankness and emotional honesty. Even more than that, they will be entranced with Kubo’s brand of magic. Go watch Kubo and the Two Strings now, for its expensive and gorgeous production value, and allow yourself to be pleasantly surprised by its complex emotionality. JULIA RABAN

20. Pete's Dragon
It’s a cold slap in the face when you realize your entire childhood was built on a nuclear garbage dump. So it was the day I saw the original Pete’s Dragon (1977), which ran through my young consciousness like a DNA strand (shall I sing a few bars of “Candle on the Water” for you? No? “Every Little Piece,” perhaps? Hello?), but which was, alas, as poor as Passamaquoddy. Fortunately for all, someone had the good idea to give the job of reimagining the film to the hugely imaginative indie filmmaker David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints). The result of this seemingly unlikely collision is a really magical, surprisingly resonant work built on the essential foundation of all great stories about being a kid: Life is sadness, but sadness can be conquered. SEAN NELSON

21. Star Trek Beyond
Despite the 21st century having surpassed many of Roddenberry's wildest technological dreams, those of us living in 2016 find ourselves struggling with some of the same social and political issues as those who were alive in the 1960s. That can make Star Trek's interstellar utopia seem goofy and preposterous—like it's merely one more fantasy world for us to gaze into as we retreat from reality. But every once in a while, the future of Star Trek can feel like something more—like a melding of entertainment and ideology, of adventure and potential. Every once in a while, Star Trek feels like an actual glimpse into a future. A future where, if we wanted, we could scrape the blood off our faces and do better. ERIK HENRIKSEN

22. War Dogs
Like black licorice or the PT Cruiser, Jonah Hill is divisive. I have friends who can’t get enough of his potty-mouthed braggadocio, and others who only watch his movies on the off chance there might be a scene where he gets punched in the face. War Dogs, his latest odyssey of swearing, sex workers, and spreadsheets, probably isn’t going to change your mind either way, but it’s a damn good time if you’re picking up what Hill’s putting down. BEN COLEMAN