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A straightforward but delightful and unusually spirited love letter to the least straightforward (but delightful and unusually spirited) art pop duo in the history of British-sounding American music, Edgar Wright’s “The Sparks Brothers” is a beat-for-beat celebration of the band’s deathless creative odyssey, an irresistible invitation to join their small but devoted cult of diehard fans, and a beautifully wrapped gift to anyone who’s ever had angst in their pants about Ron and Russell Mael before....

In direct contrast to, say, the “Game of Thrones” opening credits’ insistence on getting us to know who lives where, “The Witcher” doesn’t offer viewers any understanding of where Cintra is in relation to Nilfgaard, or how big The North is, or how far it is from Oxenfurt to Sodden. “The Witcher” has no interest in presenting its invented geography as a way for us to believe in that world, and deliberately avoids using that kind of a top-level view to get us to care about Ciri (Freya Allen), Geralt (Henry Cavill), and Yennifer (Anya Chalotra)....

“We already had a deal in place, but to get the green light for production, Troye really helped with that process, as did the entire cast,” Frieder said during a recent phone interview with IndieWire. “It’s not an exact science. There’s no specific algorithm for when that green light comes.” Even though he knew Sivan socially, the musician received the script while he was on tour, and didn’t immediately read it....

The intermission comes to a jolting finale with “X,” West’s A24-produced midnight movie that makes up for missed time. The ‘70s-set story follows a ragtag group of pornographic filmmakers and their cast as they head to a remote farmhouse to shoot their latest project, only to find themselves at the mercy of a psychotic older couple. Mia Goth does double duty as both a castmember for the production and, under tremendous and disturbing makeup, one of the nightmarish assailants....

“It is funny to see [Matt Reeves’ ‘The Batman’] now, because all these memories come back of, ‘It’s too dark,’” Burton told Empire magazine in honor of the 30th anniversary of “Batman Returns.” “So, it makes me laugh a little bit.” Despite not having watched “The Batman” yet, Burton found irony in the jaded comic book superhero going darker in its modern storylines over the “wham! bam!” pop art aesthetic defined by the original comics, William Dozier’s classic TV series, and then Joel Schumacher’s “Batman Forever” and “Batman & Robin” films, which followed Burton’s two Warner Bros....

Netflix announced that “Wednesday” will be directed by Burton, who was previously tapped to direct a 3D Addams Family project that was scrapped in 2013. Longtime writing partners Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, who previously wrote films such as “Spider-Man 2” and “Shanghai Noon” and the “Smallville” television show, will serve as showrunners on Netflix’s upcoming series. Netflix billed the eight-episode “Wednesday” as a “sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday’s years as a student at the peculiar Nevermore Academy....

Studios and producers need signs that the public can respond to standalone titles that show some degree of originality. That is what happened here and it’s a big deal. “Uncharted,” based on a well-known video game and starring Tom Holland, while his most recent “Spider-Man” is still #3, will gross and estimated $44 million for the three-day weekend; $51 million, with Presidents Day added. That’s as much as 50 percent above conservative estimates and a third better than the more realistic ones....