“You may think you know my story,” says Mary, having galloped into the movie on horseback. “Trust me. You don’t.”

The pacing of “Gladiator II” says a lot about what Ridley Scott’s priorities were for this film: spectacle, immersion, pure feeling.

What separates “Bonhoeffer” from the myriad instructive Holocaust biographies and melodramas is its timing.

“Wicked” arrives on a whirlwind of eager (and anxious) anticipation among fans of the musical.

“Small Things Like These” is dedicated to the girls and babies who went through the Magdalene laundries, the last of which closed in 1996.

“The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” presents the internet as a place where true connection is possible and limitations can be transcended.