Two low-profile sequels and the adaptation of a best-selling memoir lead the late-summer multiplex offerings, while art houses offer a pair of heroic true stories and a collection of Sundance Film Festival shorts.

Jeanette Walls' memoir The Glass Castle (pictured) becomes a solid drama about a dysfunctional family with a complex understanding of people who can be good and bad for you. The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature  is the kind of animated junk that believes loud relentlessness is an adequate substitute for imagination. The historical drama of 13 Minutes is more compelling chronicling the creation of a radical than in detailing what happens after the would-be assassin of Adolph Hitler is caught. A brilliant Swedish documentary about people on a high-dive platform is the highlight of a collection of 2017 Sundance Shorts.

MaryAnn Johanson raves over Letters from Baghdad, the documentary portrait of Gertrude Bell's pioneering political and cultural investigations into the Middle East.  Annabelle: Creation offers the kind of rote horror scares that are forgotten before they even happen.

In this week's feature, enjoy a pre-Utah Beer Festival roundup of films for a beer-themed film festival.