THE RABBI'S CAT After snacking on a parrot, a cat acquires the power of speech. And he’s not just a talker but also an acerbic wit with an earthy, salacious outlook on the world. All the better to guide his kindly rabbi master, living in a byzantine time and place, an Algerian port city in the 1930s. This animated feature from France offers shimmering hand-drawn scenes that give a dreamy hue to the exotic setting and story. It’s quite special — more for adults than children — but ends on a less satisfying note as the rabbi, cat, and friends venture off into the desert in an Indiana Jones-style escapade, seeking a mythical Jewish kingdom. Not rated. 89 minutes. In French with subtitles. CCA (Jon Bowman) IMDB

PARKER Jason Statham plays a thief who is double-crossed in a heist for his share of the cash. The other thieves think they killed him, but they didn’t. Uh-oh. Expect lines of dialogue such as “leaving me alive was your first mistake” and “you don’t need to look for me — I’m coming for you.” Maybe you won’t hear those exact lines, but it’s that kind of movie. Jennifer Lopez co-stars. Rated R. 118 minutes. Storyteller Dreamcatcher Cinema IMDB

MOVIE 43 The cast for this movie is so star-studded that it’s almost comical: Hugh Jackman, Naomi Watts, Kate Winslet, Halle Berry, Terrence Howard, Gerard Butler, Uma Thurman, and Richard Gere are among the many, many famous names here. Hopefully, the movie — an outrageous, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink farce in the style of Kentucky Fried Movie — is comical as well. Rated R. 97 minutes. Regal Stadium 14 IMDB

HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS Those who have clamored for an edgy, modern take on Hansel and Gretel finally have a movie at the end of their bread-crumb trail. Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton play those feisty kids, all grown up and now bounty hunters who will push witches into ovens for money — while dressed in black leather and wielding high-tech weapons, of course. Rated R. 88 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D. Storyteller Dreamcatcher Cinema IMDB

BEWARE OF MR. BAKER Jay Bulger’s documentary about drummer Ginger Baker tries to paint him as a nasty old man, but he generally just comes across as a grump who’s lived the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle of drugs, women, and burned bridges. Bulger traces Baker’s life from a young man in London to a star behind the kit in Cream to an adventurous spirit in Nigeria with Afro-beat legend Fela Kuti. Baker’s story is best told, however, by simply watching the man play the drums. We receive plenty, though not quite enough, footage of that. Not rated. 92 minutes. The Screen (Robert Ker) IMDB

TCHOUPITOULAS This mesmerizing documentary works best if you toss aside sticky questions of veracity and continuity and just let it wash over you, like a dream. Directed by brothers Turner Ross and Bill Ross IV, Tchoupitoulas (named after a busy New Orleans street) follows Bryan, Kentrell, and William Zanders — along with their dog Buttercup — as they spend an evening wandering the streets of the Big Easy. In between encounters with characters and glimpses inside various venues, William shares random thoughts and observations and the Rosses blur and swirl the streetlights, creating hypnotic moments of colorful abstraction. Not rated. 80 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe.  CCA (Laurel Gladden)

RUST AND BONE Writer-director Jacques Audiard brings together two damaged characters in a drama of self-discovery. Tough guy Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) is self-centered and a bit brutish, but not a bad sort. Cool, beautiful, Stéphanie (Marion Cotillard) is head orca trainer at Marineland in Antibes, till she loses both legs at the knee to a killer whale. Ali has a 5-year-old son, with whom he is careless and disengaged, as he is with Stéphanie. But he helps her get back on her feet, so to speak, and their relationship develops. Audiard mixes brutishness and poetry, mostly to good effect, but loses the ending to sentimentality. Rated R. 120 minutes. In French with subtitles. Regal DeVargas (Jonathan Richards)

THE LAST STAND Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Ray Owens, an ex-LAPD officer who is, naturally, down and out. He takes a job as a small-time sheriff in a border town. The big-time calls, however, when a drug cartel storms his town. The gangsters realize they picked the wrong sheriff to mess with. The over-the-top violence comes courtesy of South Korean director Kim Jee-Woon (The Good, the Bad, and the Weird), making his English-language debut. Rated R. 107 minutes. Storyteller Dreamcatcher Cinema ()

BROKEN CITY Mark Wahlberg plays Billy Taggart, an ex-NYPD officer who is, naturally, down and out. Fortunately for him, the city’s popular mayor (Russell Crowe) suspects a man is having an affair with his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and hires Billy to investigate. This simple shot at redemption, however, opens a big can of worms, and Billy responds by opening a big can of whoop-butt. Rated R. 109 minutes. Storyteller Dreamcatcher Cinema ()

BARRYMORE In 2011, Christopher Plummer went to Toronto to revive his 1997 Tony-winning performance as the great and wasted actor John Barrymore and make a movie record of it. The role is an actor’s dream, a smorgasbord of everything from dirty limericks to classical soliloquies, and Plummer plays it to the hilt. We find the 60-year-old Barrymore in 1942 in a vacant Broadway theater he has rented to rehearse for a comeback in one of his triumphs, Richard III. The great man enters drunk, and the rehearsal degenerates into wandering reminiscences. Occasionally, almost by accident, he slips into the business at hand, grasping for the words that will no longer stick in his boozy head. Barrymore is at its best when it accepts that it is a play, and only slips up when it tries to open up into a movie. 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 18, only (screens with the short documentary Backstage With Barrymore). Not rated. 83 minutes. Lensic Performing Arts Center (Jonathan Richards)