For several years, we had “The Best Movies in Theaters” as a running article. We felt it was a helpful utility for those looking for a night out at the movies. Obviously, the pandemic shut all that down pretty quickly, but now that the vaccines are here and widely available, that means there’s a path back to the movies. Let us stress that you should really only be going back to the movies if you’re fully vaccinated. To return to an enclosed space where people may or may not be wearing masks and may or may not be infected with COVID is not a wise decision. While you should still wear a mask whenever possible at the theater (per current CDC guidelines), it’s far safer to go to the movies once you’re fully vaccinated.

If you have been fully vaccinated, you’re probably itching to go back to the movies, and the good news is that there are some great films worth checking out. Below you’ll find our recommendations of films that are currently playing in theaters. While some of these movies are also on streaming, nothing can compare to the theatrical experience, and we think it’s worth going out to see these films on the big screen.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Director: Edgar Wright

Writers: Michael Bacall & Edgar Wright

Cast: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Alison Pill, Brandon Routh, Brie Larson, Mark Webber, Johnny Simmons, Ellen Wong, and Jason Schwartzman

Edgar Wright’s 2010 cult classic is now back in theaters, and in Dolby so you can be better rocked by the sounds of Sex Bob-Omb. For those that haven’t seen the film, it focuses on the immature Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), a 22-year-old who falls for delivery girl Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), but in order to keep dating her he must defeat her evil exes. Adapted from the terrific graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley, Wright’s movie bursts from the screen with all manner of terrific graphics, sound effects, and witty comedy. And yet at its core, it’s a story about what it means to be in a new relationship when you’re both hauling around all the baggage from your past relationships. For all its bombast and colorful designs, what has given Scott Pilgrim vs. the World its extra life is its big heart. – Matt Goldberg

Raya and the Last Dragon

Directors: Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada

Writers: Qui Nguyen and Adele Lim

Cast: Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Izaac Wang, Gemma Chan, Daniel Dae Kim, Benedict Wong, Sandra Oh, Thalia Tran, Lucille Soong, and Alan Tudyk

Yes, you can get Raya and the Last Dragon on Disney+ for a $30 fee, but this is a film that benefits from the biggest screen possible. The story takes place in the land of Kumandra, which has been divided into the warring factions of Fang, Heart, Spine, Talon, and Tail. When the world is ravaged by a blight known as the Druun that turns people to stone, it’s up to young warrior Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) to piece together the dragon gem that can fend off the blight and restore the world to its previous state. But to do that, she’ll have to team up with not only the last dragon, Sisu (Awkwafina), but members of the other tribes. It’s a story about uniting with people who you thought were your enemies in a divided world to make the world a better place and fight off a bigger evil that threatens all of us. So yeah, it’s not only a thrilling action movie; it’s also pretty timely. – Matt Goldberg

Nobody

Director: Ilya Naishuller

Writer: Derek Kolstad

Cast: Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, Aleksei Serebryakov, RZA, Michael Ironside, Colin Salmon, and Christopher Lloyd

While there are traces of John Wick in the latest from John Wick screenwriter Derek Kolstad, what gives Nobody its unique flavor is putting it on the shoulders of Bob Odenkirk. On some level, we expect a guy like Keanu Reeves to be a deadly force. It’s another thing when it comes from a guy like Odenkirk. The Better Call Saul star plays Hutch Mansell, a painfully ordinary family man who can’t get any respect from the people around him. When his family is the victim of a home invasion, it sets Hutch off and has him digging into his secret past that has provided him with a special set of skills that makes him bad news for any bad guy that would dare cross his path. Nobody knows how to deliver big action thrills in its B-movie frame, and while it doesn’t pause to consider what it means for a mild-mannered man to have this violent impulse, the movie understands we’re not that eager to look at that bloodlust in ourselves. All the better to dismantle nameless, faceless thugs. – Matt Goldberg

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The Father

Director: Florian Zeller

Writers: Florian Zeller & Christopher Hampton

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, and Olivia Williams

What does life look like when our memories start to fail us? That’s the approach Florian Zeller took to his Oscar-winning film The Father. Zeller firmly puts us in the shoes of Anthony (Anthony Hopkins), an aging man who is suffering from progressive memory loss and bristling under the care of his daughter Anne (Olivia Colman). Through skillful editing, casting, and direction, The Father takes on Anthony’s point of view as information and even people become jumbled. He’s trying to hold on to reality and it’s slipping through his fingers, which makes The Father a story that’s both sad and yet also poignant as it explores what our relationships mean when a loss of memory can shatter even the closest bonds. It’s not an easy movie, but it is a deeply moving one and Hopkins earned his second Oscar win with one of the best performances of his storied career. – Matt Goldberg

The Truffle Hunters

Directors: Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw

Truffle hunting is no joke in Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw’s acclaimed documentary. The Truffle Huntersfollows a group of aging men in Northern Italy who use their dogs to dig for the highly valuable Alba truffle. The film is fascinating as it explores what life means as you approach the end of it, what it means to be engaged in what’s a cutthroat business far from the consumers who pay top dollar for these prized truffles and raises questions about what we choose to value. On the surface, the situation may seem low stakes, but the economy of truffle hunting is a microcosm of how trade functions at both ends of the spectrum from those who labor to dig up these truffles to the high-end sellers that turn these fungi for a hefty profit. – Matt Goldberg

Nomadland

Writer/Director: Chloé Zhao

Cast: Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Linda May, and Swankie

Don’t let its Oscar-season prestige scare you off. The 2020 Best Picture winner is a moving and elegiac reflection of a post-recession America that still manages to capture the beauty and humanity of a country where, for countless reasons, we’ve become so disconnected from each other. The story follows Fern (Frances McDormand), who lost her husband, her job, and her town in the aftermath of the Great Recession. She resolves to become a nomad, living her life out of a van and traveling across the American West. The trick of Zhao’s film is that it never romanticizes Fern’s circumstances while also not falling into the trap of equating anything outside the American Dream with failure. It’s a deft, thoughtful film held together by the intelligence of Zhao’s direction and the strength of McDormand’s performance. – Matt Goldberg

Minari

Writer/Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Cast: Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, Alan Kim, Noel Kate Cho, Youn Yuh-jung, and Will Patton

Lee Isaac Chung crafts a beautiful rendering of the allure of the American Dream with his semi-autobiographical immigrant story. The film follows the Yi family, Korean immigrants who originally moved to California, but are now in Arkansas so the father Jacob (Steven Yeun) can fulfill his dream of farming Korean produce that he can then sell to vendors in Dallas. As he pursues this dream, the family requires the help of his mother-in-law Soon-ja (Youn Yuh-jung), who is a far cry from what young son David (Alan Kim) expects a grandmother to be. The genius of Minari is in how Chung shows this personal story as familiar to all of us with parents who fought for their dreams and relatives who needed to be called in for support. We can see the friction that emerges between wives and husbands, parents and children, and how the struggle for the American Dream goes far beyond a simple business plan. – Matt Goldberg

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