‘ANORA’: Over the course of his career, filmmaker Sean Baker has delivered intimate films of humanity and connection that take place in the nooks and crannies of society. His Palme d’Or-winning “Anora” is his first true-blue love story. Or so it seems. Like any Baker film, “Anora” is not so easy to define. But it does deliver the experience of falling in love, as we fall in love with Ani (Mikey Madison), our plucky protagonist, and in love with “Anora” itself, a rollicking, wild bender of an adventure from the beaches of Coney Island to the desert sands of Las Vegas and back again. Ani (short for Anora) knows her worth. An exotic dancer at a New York City strip club, the Brooklyn beauty hustles lap dances on the floor and has a price for extracurricular sex work — she’s an independent contractor after all. When Ivan Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn), the spoiled young son of a Russian oligarch she has been seeing, proposes a weeklong “girlfriend experience,” she negotiates a larger sum. When he proposes to her, she accepts by pointing at her ring finger: “three carats.” Baker presents this version of a Cinderella story in a heady, dizzying, almost absurdist montage of conspicuous consumption, which comes to a screeching halt as soon as Ivan’s parents catch wind of the happy union. At the center of this careening circus of chaos is the tiny dancer with a banshee wail. Madison taps into a seemingly bottomless well of sheer emotion to deliver a towering performance. When she finally lets the wall fall, it’s in a moment of true emotional catharsis and hard-fought, surprising connection, where she finally lets us in. That moment is the pearl at the center of the oyster, a gem produced of distress. Baker finds it every time, and “Anora” is his most spectacular pearl yet. 2:19. 4 stars. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

‘THE APPRENTICE’: Is it just my imagination, or is “The Apprentice” a pretty interesting movie? Less than a month before a U.S. presidential election, you’d expect an 11th-hour Trump biopic (which premiered earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival) to settle for cheap smears and a bunch of propaganda. “The Apprentice” works a little differently. It’s an actual, conflicted and sporadically insightful film, dramatizing what made Trump Trump at an especially impressionable period in his rise. Disappointingly, “The Apprentice” settles too often for broader, less illuminating touches, along with, yes, some snark. The performers save the movie from itself. As Trump, Sebastian Stan captures just enough of the familiar externals — the pursing of the lips, the frequent check-in with the nearest reflective surface to see how his hair’s doing — without doing an impersonation. 2:00. 2 1/2 stars. — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

‘CONCLAVE’: Voters have a choice: Do you vote for the candidate you believe in, or do you vote to keep a strongman out of power? Ideally, those goals and desires will overlap, and the electorate here happens to be a group of cardinals, sequestered in the Vatican in Edward Berger’s “Conclave.” Adapted from the Robert Harris novel by Peter Straughan, the handsomely rendered and meticulously acted “Conclave” encompasses these universal electoral struggles within the tightly controlled and rigorously regimented ritual of electing a new pope. The film stars Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Lucian Msamati, Sergio Castellitto, Stanley Tucci and Carlos Diehz. While the screenplay’s themes can be extrapolated to broader sociopolitical questions, distracted by its own flashy revelations, it fails to impart any new or surprising insights beyond the basic notion that cardinals, they’re just like us. 2:00. 2 1/2 stars. — Katie Walsh

‘PIECE BY PIECE’: A documentary about Pharrell Williams rendered entirely as a Lego movie? It’s understandable to be a bit skeptical of this gimmick, but in “Piece by Piece,” directed by Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville, it’s a gimmick that works. In an introductory bit of conversation about the film between the subject and director, it’s explained how the Lego style affords the somewhat mysterious and inscrutable Williams a shield that allows him to let his guard down while sharing his personal story. It also comes to make thematic sense in the larger narrative about how he understands his life and the context in which he exists. Of course, the Lego style is also just fun, a spin on the usual biographical documentary that tells the story of a creative genius through talking head interviews and archival footage. Everything here is Lego: the interviews, the music videos, the home movies, the scenes of Williams returning to his hometown of Virginia Beach to perform a homecoming concert. The style is funny and cute, and while it offers him a modicum of privacy, it also makes you want to revisit the real thing when the film is over. 1:33. 3 stars. — Katie Walsh

‘SATURDAY NIGHT’: There’s an existential question that runs throughout “Saturday Night,” Jason Reitman’s love letter to the iconic sketch show “Saturday Night Live” and its chaotic entry into the world on Oct. 11, 1975. People keep asking the show’s creator and producer, Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle), what, exactly, the show is? It’s a question he’s not able to answer until nearly the end of the movie, at about 11:15 p.m. The film, which starts at 10 p.m., and takes place over the course of the 90 minutes leading up to the first live show, utilizes an ominous ticking clock to count down the minutes until showtime. Over the course of those 90 minutes (which the film, with a run time of 1 hour and 49 minutes, fudges a bit) whatever can go wrong already has, will or is in the process of going wrong, swirling around the preternaturally calm eye of the artistic storm, Lorne. Though “Saturday Night,” the movie, feels ephemeral and somewhat fleeting, it represents something that has endured — and continues to — through the sheer force of will that is Lorne Michaels. 1:49. 2 1/2 stars. — Katie Walsh

‘SMILE 2’: The first “Smile,” from writer-director Parker Finn, came out in 2022, and in a less promising directorial debut its premise would’ve fallen apart around the third or fourth mirthless stare. Evil spirit, loose in the world, flits from human to human; unfortunate victim commits suicide in some heinous fashion in the presence of the next lucky customer; rinse, repeat. Simple, flexible idea, yes, but enough for a feature film? It was. “Smile 2” goes in a newish direction, to frustrating mixed results — but it’s a mixed bag you can respect because it’s not hackwork and it’s trying new things. This time, the anguished center of the narrative is pop superstar Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), about to launch a massive world tour after a difficult substance abuse recovery. She is also recovering from a terrifying car accident that took the life of her fellow cocaine addict boyfriend. The movie is up and down. But when it’s up, “Smile 2” makes you look forward to Finn’s next project. 2:07. 2 1/2 stars. — Michael Phillips

‘VENOM: THE LAST DANCE’: You’re either on Venom’s wavelength or you’re not. If you are, you’re not alone, because as it turns out, a lot of folks are. The wildly successful Marvel series from Sony comprises a triptych of strangely appealing comic book movies featuring Tom Hardy’s take on journalist Eddie Brock and his sassy symbiote sidekick, Venom (whom Hardy also voices). The third installment, “Venom: The Last Dance,” rounds out the films, which are both straight-faced and irreverent — creating a campy tone all their own, distinct from the more self-serious superheroes, or the sarcastically self-referential ones. Though the concept itself is running out of gas — and it would be nice to free Hardy to do other things — it’s a fitting send-off for the cheeky alien with the thousand-watt grin. 1:49. 2 1/2 stars. — Katie Walsh

RATINGS: The movies listed are rated according to the following key: 4 stars, excellent; 3 stars, good; 2 stars, fair; 1 star, poor.