Halloween Ends **
Over the course of three films now, co-writer/director David Gordon Green has attempted to turn the four-decade-long conflict between Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and serial killer Michael Myers into a brooding examination of trauma and fear on both an individual and communal level. But he keeps hitting this awkward spot between “not interesting enough as psychological drama” and “not scary enough as horror.” Four years after Michael’s last rampage in Haddonfield, Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) begins dating Corey (Rohan Campbell), a young man whose own life has been forever changed by the legacy of “the boogeyman.” Green and his co-writers are full of potentially compelling ideas, ranging from the way people create the monsters they fear, to evil as a kind of infection (a bit too literally underlined). Those ideas tend to get jumbled up with one another, though, fumbling a crucial point in which Michael somehow connects with Corey in a supernatural/psychic case of “game recognize game.” Most disappointingly, the focus on Allyson and Corey ignores that the audience is mostly there for what is promised by the title and the marketing: a final showdown between Laurie and Michael. We do get that confrontation, and a fairly effective one at that, but everything about the Halloween legend that remains potent 40 years on gets taken from the realm of the primal to a place where all of the subtext is turned into text. Available Oct. 14 in theaters and via Peacock. (R)

Plan A **1/2
The tangled threads of grief, justice and revenge are given an earnest but somewhat flat treatment in this fact-based drama from the brother writer/director team of Doron and Yoav Paz. In 1945 Germany, Holocaust survivor Max (August Diehl), traumatized by his own experience and the loss of his wife and son, agrees to infiltrate a Jewish organization called Nakam that plans large-scale vengeance against the German people—an act that Jews like British soldier Michael (Michael Aloni) believes would poison international sentiment against creating a Jewish state. It takes a lot of table-setting before Max finally finds his way among the Nakam operatives like Anna (Sylvia Hoeks) who wrestle with their own trauma, and not surprisingly, the central character arc becomes whether Max can fulfill his mission without becoming a Nakam true believer himself. But while Plan A does a decent job with similar “consequences of perpetual cycles of retribution” material as Munich, and Diehl’s haunted performance offers a powerful foundation, the narrative that seems built on Max’s ultimate moral choice effectively robs him of that choice. Framed at the beginning and end by asking “what would you do,” the film loses its dramatic punch by being more interested in that hypothetical than in its protagonist’s own answer to the question. Available Oct. 14 in theaters. (R)

Rosaline **1/2
Some great art has been born of putting Shakespeare’s supporting characters in the spotlight, and it’s a fun notion to turn that Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead philosophy into a romantic comedy. But a classic text and a modern sensibility aren’t always two great tastes that taste great together. Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (500 Days of Summer) adapt Rebecca Serle’s novel that center’s Rosaline (Kaitlyn Dever), the referred-to-but-never-seen initial beloved of Romeo (Kyle Allen, a dead ringer for young Heath Ledger) and cousin of Juliet (Isabela Merced) in Shakespeare’s text, here re-imagined as a jilted ex trying to thwart the already star-cross’d lovers. The screenwriters and director Karen Maine go all-out on adding a contemporary slant to the story, from making Rosaline an aspiring cartographer with her own hopes and dreams, to giving her a gay best friend (Spencer Stevenson), to decidedly non-Elizabethan era colloquialisms like “blow me.” It’s all generally enjoyable, with a satisfying chemistry between Dever and Sean Teale as the suitor Rosaline initially rejects. As a commentary on Romeo & Juliet, however, it falls kind of flat, nor does it bring the anachronistically feisty energy that the recent Catherine Called Birdy did to a similar kind of heroine. While it’s not necessarily true that you have to have a great reason to bring the Bard into your conventional rom-com premise, maybe you should at least show some reason that isn’t just a marketing hook. Available Oct. 14 via Hulu. (PG-13)

Signs of Love **
I’d never accuse a filmmaker of being disingenuous in their intentions, but there’s something about writer/director Clarence Fuller’s feature that feels like it was constructed from a “gritty indie drama” checklist of ingredients. In a rough Philadelphia neighborhood, Frankie (Hopper Penn) works as a small-time drug dealer, helping to support his alcoholic sister Patty (Dylan Penn) and his beloved 15-year-old nephew Sean (Cree Kawa). Into Frankie’s life comes Jane (Zoë Bleu Sidel), a Deaf photographer from a wealthy family whom he falls for instantly, beginning a relationship that makes Frankie want to clean up his life. Fuller and cinematographer Eric Foster go for that handheld verité vibe that seems almost obligatory, although they mix things up nicely with the montage of Frankie and Jane’s first dates. But as welcome as it is that Signs of Love doesn’t underline Frankie’s conflict with Jane’s right-side-of-the-tracks parents, there’s not much left to the story but moments that feel like they could have come from a dozen other similar stories about inner-city hopelessness, and characters whose fate feels preordained. Hopper Penn doesn’t really demonstrate the chops necessary to transcend the familiar material, either; it feels kind of damning that the scene that should have been the emotional climax occurs off-screen, giving him nothing to react to. Best case scenario, it’s a story by filmmakers with sincere intentions, but without the ability to deliver on them. Available Oct. 14 at Broadway Centre Cinemas. (NR)