Over the weekend, Trump accused other countries of “stealing the movie-making capabilities” of the U.S. and said that he had authorized the Commerce Department and the U.S. Trade Representative to immediately begin the process of implementing this new import tax on all foreign-made films. But further specifics or dates weren’t provided. And the White House confirmed that no final decisions had been made as of Monday.

Trump later said that he would meet with industry executives about the proposal but a lot remains unclear about how an import tax on complex, international productions could even be implemented.

If imposed, experts warn that such a tariff would dramatically hike the costs of making movies today. That uncertainty could put filmmakers in limbo, much like other industries that have recently been caught in the crosshairs of today’s ongoing trade wars.

Unlike other sectors that have recently been targeted by tariffs, however, movies go beyond physical goods, bringing larger intellectual property ramifications into question. Here’s what we know.

Why is Trump threatening this steep movie tariff?

Trump is citing national security concerns, a justification he’s similarly used to impose import taxes on certain countries and a range of sector-specific goods.

In a Sunday night post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump claimed that the American movie industry is “DYING to a very fast death” as other countries offer “all sorts of incentives” to draw filmmaking away from the U.S.

Trump has previously voiced concern about movie production moving overseas. And in recent years, U.S. film and television production has been hampered between setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hollywood guild strikes of 2023 and the recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Incentive programs have also long-influenced where movies are shot both abroad and within the U.S., with more production leaving California to states like Georgia and New Mexico — as well as countries like Canada.

But unlike other sectors targeted by Trump’s recently-imposed tariffs, the American film industry currently holds a trade deficit that’s in the U.S.’s favor.

In movie theaters, American-produced movies overwhelmingly dominate the domestic marketplace. Data from the Motion Picture Association also shows that American films made $22.6 billion in exports and $15.3 billion in trade surplus in 2023 — with a recent report noting that these films “generated a positive balance of trade in every major market in the world” for the U.S.

Last year, international markets accounted for over 70% of Hollywood’s total box office revenue, notes Heeyon Kim, an assistant professor of strategy at Cornell University. She warns that tariffs and potential retaliation from other countries impacting this industry could result in billions of dollars in lost earnings and thousands of jobs.

“To me, (this) makes just no sense,” she said, adding that such tariffs could “undermine otherwise a thriving part of the U.S. economy.”

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which represents behind-the-scenes entertainment workers across the U.S. and Canada, said in a statement Monday that Trump had “correctly recognized” the “urgent threat from international competition” that the American film and television industry faces today. But the union said it instead recommended the administration implement a federal production tax incentive and other provisions to “level the playing field” while not harming the industry overall.

How could a tax on foreign-made movies work?

That’s anyone’s guess.

“Traditional tariffs apply to physical imports crossing borders, but film production primarily involves digital services — shooting, editing and post-production work that happens electronically,” notes Ann Koppuzha, a lawyer and business law lecturer at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business.

Koppuzha said that film production is more like an applied service that can be taxed, not tariffed. But taxes require Congressional approval, which could be a challenge even with a Republican majority.

Making a movie is also an incredibly complex — and international — process. It’s common for both large and small films to include production in the U.S. and in other countries. Big-budget movies like the upcoming “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” for instance, are shot around the world.

U.S. studios frequently shoot abroad because tax incentives can aid production costs. But a blanket tariff across the board could discourage that or limit options, Kim said — hurting both Hollywood films and the global industry that helps create them.

“When you make these sort of blanket rules, you’re missing some of the nuance of how production works,” added Steven Schiffman, a longtime industry veteran and adjunct professor at Georgetown University. “Sometimes you just need to go to the location, because frankly it’s way too expensive just to try to create in a soundstage”

Schiffman points to popular titles filmed outside the U.S. — such as Warner Bros’ “Harry Potter” series, which was almost entirely shot in the U.K. “The cost to have done that would have like literally double to produce those movies under this proposed tariff,” he said.

Could movie tariffs have repercussions on other intellectual property?

Overall, experts warn that the prospect of tariffing foreign-made movies ventures into uncharted waters.

“There’s simply no precedent or sense for applying tariffs to these types of creative services,” Koppuzha said. And while the Trump administration could extend similar threats to other forms of intellectual property, like music, “they’d encounter the same practical hurdles.”

But if successful, some also warn of potential retaliation. Kim points to “quotas” that some countries have had to help boost their domestic films by ensuring they get a portion of theater screens, for example. Many have reduced or suspended such quotas over the years in the name of open trade — but if the U.S. places a sweeping tariff on all foreign-made films, these kinds of quotas could come back, “which would hurt Hollywood film or any of the U.S.-made intellectual property,” Kim said.

And while U.S. dominance in film means “there are fewer substitutes” for retaliation, Schiffman notes that other forms of entertainment — like game development — could see related impacts down the road.

Others stress the potential consequences of hampering international collaboration overall.

“Creative content distribution requires thoughtful economic approaches that recognize how modern storytelling flows across borders,” notes Frank Albarella, U.S. media and telecommunications sector leader at KPMG. “The question hanging over every screen: Might we better nurture American storytelling through smart, targeted incentives, or could we inadvertently force audiences to pay more for what could become a narrower creative landscape?”

AP Writers Jake Coyle and Jill Colvin in New York, Aamer Madhani in Palm Beach, Florida and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

All eyes had been on whether “Thunderbolts” — a team-up of antihero rejects similar to “Avengers” – could restore the Walt Disney Co. superhero factory to the kind of box office performance the studio once enjoyed so regularly. The results – similar to the debuts of “The Eternals” ($71 million) and “Ant-Man and the Wasp” ($75 million) — suggested Marvel’s malaise won’t be so easy to snap out of.

Some had expected a bigger opening for “Thunderbolts” because of the film’s good word-of-mouth. Unlike most recent MCU entries, reviews (88% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) have been excellent for “Thunderbolts,” directed by Jake Schreier and starring Florence Pugh, David Harbour and Sebastian Stan. Audiences gave it an “A-” CinemaScore.

That kind of response should power the movie to strong business in the coming weeks. Though bigger MCU films — including 2024’s “Deadpool vs. Wolverine” (with a $211 million opening on the way to $1.34 billion worldwide) — have monopolized movie screens immediately, “Thunderbolts” could gather steam more steadily. Or, it could go down as another example of Marvel struggling to rekindle its golden touch.

Marvel spent about $180 million to produced the movie, which added $86.1 million in overseas sales. The film also teases the next MCU chapter, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” due out July 25.

“Marvel set the bar so high for so many years that a $76 million opening may seem to some like it should have done $100 million or something like that,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “This is a great reset. They’re hitting the reset with ‘Thunderbolts.” The great reviews and the word-of-mouth should hold it (in) good stead.”

The Walt Disney Co. also might not have expected such stout competition from Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.” The Warner Bros. release, which had led the box office the last two weeks, continued to hold remarkably well. In its third week, it grossed $33 million, a dip of only 28%.

“Sinners,” a 1932-set vampire movie about bootlegging brothers (both played by Michael B. Jordan) who open a juke joint in their Mississippi hometown, has proven a spring sensation in theaters. It has collected $179.7 million domestically and $236.7 million globally thus far.

Warner Bros. also nabbed third place with “A Minecraft Movie,” the smash-hit video game adaptation. In its fifth weekend, it rung up another $13.7 million to bring its North American gross to nearly $400 million. Worldwide, it has totaled $873.4 million. Warner Bros. added “Block Party Edition” screenings over the weekend for a sing-along and “meme-along” experience. The film has seen some rowdy screenings from TikTok-inspired moviegoers.

More than three years after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed on set, the Alec Baldwin western “Rust” arrived in theaters. Its release brought some closure to one of Hollywood’s greatest tragedies. Distributor Falling Forward Films didn’t report box office, but estimates suggested “Rust” grossed approximately $25,000 in 115 theaters.

Following Hutchins’ death, the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was sentenced to prison for involuntary manslaughter. First assistant director David Halls was sentenced to probation after pleading no contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon. Involuntary manslaughter charges against Baldwin, a co-producer on the film, were twice dismissed, in 2023 and again in 2024.

As part of a wrongful death settlement, Matt Hutchins, Hutchins’ husband, was made an executive producer on the film.

Also opening over the weekend was “The Surfer,” starring Nicolas Cage as a man trying to surf a “locals-only” Australian beach. The Madman Films release collected a modest $674,560 from 884 theaters.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1. “Thunderbolts,” $76 million.

2. “Sinners,” $33 million.

3. “A Minecraft Movie,” $13.7 million.

4. “The Accountant 2,” $9.5 million.

5. “Until Dawn,” $3.8 million.

6. “The Amateur,” $1.8 million.

7. “The King of Kings,” $1.7 million.

8. “Warfare,” $1.3 million.

9. “Hit: The Third Case,” $869,667.

10. “The Surfer,” $674,560.

Brand, 49, did not enter a plea. He previously denied the allegations made against him.

He was swarmed by photographers as he arrived at Westminster Magistrates’ Court for his first hearing since he was charged last month with one count each of rape, indecent assault and oral rape, as well as two counts of sexual assault.

Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring told Brand to present himself at the Central Criminal Court, commonly known as the Old Bailey, in central London on May 30 and granted him bail on condition he keeps the court informed of where he is staying, either in the U.K. or in the U.S. He currently lives in Florida but is obliged to attend all future court appearances. If he doesn’t abide by the conditions, he faces being remanded in custody.

The comedian, author and “Get Him To The Greek” actor, who wore an open shirt and jeans, listened intently to the details of the charges as he sat in the dock. He spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth, address and that he understood his bail conditions.

The alleged offenses took place between 1999 and 2005 — one in the English seaside town of Bournemouth and the other three in the Westminster area of central London. The accusers have not been identified.

Brand has been interviewed by police about the allegations, which he denies. Brand has denied engaging in “non-consensual activity.” In a video posted on X after he was charged, Brand said he welcomed the opportunity to prove his innocence.

Brand is alleged to have raped a woman in 1999 at a hotel room in Bournemouth when she attended a Labour Party conference in the town. It is alleged that while the woman went to the bathroom, Brand removed some of his clothing and later pushed her on the bed, removed her underwear and raped her.

A second woman accuses Brand of grabbing her by the forearm and attempting to drag her into a male toilet at a television station in London in 2001.

A third accuser was a television worker Brand met in Soho, central London, in 2004. He is accused of grabbing her breasts before allegedly pulling her into a toilet and orally raping her.

The final complainant is a radio station worker who met Brand while he was working for Channel 4 on a spin-off of the “Big Brother” reality television program between 2004 and 2005. Brand is alleged to have grabbed her by the face with both hands, pushed her against a wall and kissed her before grabbing her breasts and buttocks.

The charges follow a September 2023 joint investigation by British media outlets Channel 4 and the Sunday Times.

Known for his unbridled and risqué standup routines, Brand hosted shows on radio and television and wrote memoirs charting his battles with drugs and alcohol. He has appeared in several Hollywood movies and was briefly married to pop star Katy Perry between 2010 and 2012.

In recent years, Brand has largely disappeared from mainstream media but has built up a large following online with videos mixing wellness and conspiracy theories. He recently said he had moved to the United States.

With its adorable little asterisk in the title, “Thunderbolts*” goes further than most Marvels in its focus on psychological torment, mental health and, more broadly, a shared search for self-worth among a half-dozen also-rans who learn what it takes to be an A-team. Their sense of shame isn’t played for laughs, though there are some. Mostly it’s sincere. And it’s more effective that way.

“A” stands for Avengers, among other things, and with the legendary Avengers AWOL for now (hence the asterisk in the title), there’s a vacuum in need of filling.  Targeted for elimination, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus returning for duty as U.S. intelligence weasel Valentina, the combatants of the title have their work cut out for them. Who can they trust? If not Valentina, taking a more central role this time, then who?

Joining forces are Yelena/Black Widow (top-billed Florence Pugh); her gone-to-seed father Alexei/Red Guardian (David Harbour); the tetchy John Walker/Captain America (Wyatt Russell); Antonia/Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko); the quicksilver invisible Ava/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen); and the Winter Soldier himself, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), whose entry into the “Thunderbolts*” storyline is most welcome. Their mission: To neutralize as well as rehabilitate the all-too-human lab experiment known as Bob, aka The Sentry, aka The Void, played by Robert Pullman. He’s Valentina’s little project, more dangerous than anyone knows.

The misfits scenario guiding “Thunderbolts*” is nothing new. “Suicide Squad” did it, “Guardians of the Galaxy” does it, and this motley crew keeps the tradition alive. It works, even when the material’s routine, because Pugh’s forceful yet subtle characterization of a heavy-hearted killing machine with an awful childhood feels like something’s at stake. She and the reliably witty Harbour work well together, and while there’s a certain generic-ness at work in the character roster — these insecure egotists are meant to be placeholders, with something to prove to themselves and the world — the actors keep the movie reasonably engaging before the effects take over.

Even those are better than usual, for the record. That sounds weird when you’re dealing with another $200 million production budget commodity. Shouldn’t they all look good, preferably in wildly different ways?

It’s a matter of simplicity and selectivity, not assault tactics. The poor, tormented newbie Bob has a superhero guise (The Sentry, fearsomely powerful, essentially all Avengers packed into one fella). but SuperBob has a dark side. When The Void takes over, it’s insidious psychological warfare, with The Void’s victims suddenly, quieting disappearing into a massive black handprint. His targets must relive the worst guilt and shame they have known, whoever they are, wherever that shadow of anguish and rage may lead them.

Sounds heavy, and it is. But at its best, the visualization of this part of “Thunderbolts*” feels like something relatively new and vivid. And there you have it. The 36th MCU movie, if you’re interested. It’s the most pretty-good one in a while.

“Thunderbolts*” — 3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG-13 (for strong violence, language, thematic elements, and some suggestive and drug references)

Running time: 2:06

How to watch: Premieres in theaters May 1

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

The report documents the 95-year-old actor’s poor heart health, noting he had experienced congestive heart failure, an aortic valve replacement and an irregular heart beat. He was given a pacemaker in April 2019.

Hackman’s carbon monoxide concentration was less than 5% saturation, which is within the normal range. He tested negative for the hantavirus, which is a rare but potentially fatal disease spread by infected rodent droppings.

Authorities have said Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, likely died Feb. 11 at home from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. Her autopsy report hasn’t yet been released.

A toxicology report says Hackman tested negative for alcohol and intoxicating drugs, but that he had a low concentration of acetone in his system that indicates prolonged fasting.

Hackman appeared to have outlived Arakawa at home by about a week, possibly unaware of his wife’s death. Hackman’s pacemaker showed an abnormal heart rhythm on Feb. 18 — the day he likely died, according to the state’s chief medical examiner.

Records released earlier in the investigation showed Arakawa made phone calls and internet searches as she scoured for information on flu-like symptoms and breathing techniques.

Recently released videos outline the scope of the investigation into the deaths of Hackman and Arakawa.

Before they understood how Hackman and Arakawa died, authorities recorded themselves conducting interviews with workers and returning to Hackman’s home to search for more evidence. Detectives searched the home in early March for Arakawa’s laptop and other clues.

Billeaud reported from Phoenix.

In its second weekend in theaters, “Sinners” earned $45 million in ticket sales from theaters in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates Sunday. That’s down a miniscule 6% from its Easter holiday launch, the smallest drop in any genre since “Avatar” in 2009. Worldwide, “Sinners” has now made $161.6 million.

For the industry, the showing proves the film’s reach has broadened beyond horror fans to mainstream audiences wanting to see what the hype is about. Last weekend, men made up 56% of the audience. This weekend, the gender divide narrowed to 50/50. Premium large format showings, like the 70mm IMAX screens, are also a big draw. IMAX screens worldwide accounted for some 21% of the second weekend globally, a nearly 9% increase from last weekend.

The original ensemble movie, starring Michael B. Jordan as twins, rode into theaters on a wave of great reviews. And, to be fair, “Sinners” isn’t simply a horror film: It blends elements of drama, action and musical into its southern gothic milieu.

“That’s one of the lowest second weekend holds for an overperforming wide release ever,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “It’s an absolute phenomenon.”

Hollywood expects significant drop off in a movie’s second week of release. Even a 50% dip is considered a solid number, baked into the movie math. When it’s anything less than that, it’s notable.

“You can buy a great opening weekend with marketing, but if a movie doesn’t have the goods, it’ll drop off,” Dergarabedian said. “There’s no greater barometer of success than a second weekend hold like this.”

The film was produced by Coogler’s Proximity Media and Warner Bros., which handled the theatrical release. After some disappointments earlier in the year, it’s the second major win for the studio after “A Minecraft Movie” helped energize the box office earlier this month.

“Sinners” easily topped the biggest new competition this week: “The Accountant 2,” a sequel starring Ben Affleck and released by Amazon MGM Studios, which opened in third place with an estimated $24.5 million in its first weekend. Gavin O’Connor directed the film, which played in 3,610 theaters in North America. Audiences gave it a promising A- CinemaScore.

The film that beat “The Accountant 2” for second place was a 20-year-old Star Wars movie: “Revenge of the Sith.” The anniversary re-release took in an estimated $25.2 million over the weekend, with many sellouts reported, more than doubling last year’s release of “The Phantom Menace.” Internationally, it earned $17 million from 34 territories, giving it a $42.2 million global weekend. It’s one of the top grossing re-releases ever.

“A Minecraft Movie” landed in fourth place with $22.7 million, bringing its domestic total to around $380 million.

The scary video game adaptation “Until Dawn” also opened this weekend to an estimated $8 million, rounding out the top five. Sony Pictures released the film, starring Ella Rubin and Michael Cimino, which has earned $18.1 million globally.

The “Minecraft” and “Sinners” wins have meant a huge boost for the April box office, which is up 102% from April 2024. The annual box office is also up over 10% from last year after running at a double-digit deficit in March. And this is all happening right before the industry’s summer movie season kicks off on May 2 with Disney’s “Thunderbolts*.”

“There cannot be a better opening act for the summer movie season than this weekend,” Dergarabedian said.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures due Monday, the following list factors in estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1. “Sinners,” $45 million.

2. “Revenge of the Sith,” $25.2 million.

3. “The Accountant 2,” $24.5 million.

4. “A Minecraft Movie,” $22.7 million.

5. “Until Dawn,” $8 million.

6. “The King of Kings,” $4 million.

7. “The Amateur,” $3.8 million.

8. “Warfare,” $2.7 million.

9. “Pink Floyd at Pompeii — MCMLXXII,” $2.6 million.

10. “The Legend of Ochi,” $1.4 million.

At the center of it all was Francis Ford Coppola, who on Saturday received the AFI Life Achievement Award at a ceremony at Dolby Theatre that brought together legendary stars from a seemingly bygone era of cinema.

A founding AFI trustee, Coppola’s recognition from the organization was a kind of full circle moment for the “Apocalypse Now” director.

“When I was a kid there was the Oscars and that was it. Now they’re going to have an award show for the best award show,” the 86-year-old said on the red carpet ahead of the show. “But this is a little different because it’s a personal recognition of the people that you’ve known all your life and your colleagues over many years, so it’s like a homecoming in a way.”

“You, sir, are peerless. You have taken what came before and redefined the canon of American film,” Spielberg said.

Coppola sat between Spielberg and George Lucas, as actors and fellow filmmakers like Spike Lee, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino and Morgan Freeman took turns gushing over the Oscar winner.

“Dreamer of dreams on a dime, teller of tales that cost and lost millions. But tonight, (expletive) the bankers and the bank,” Freeman said to laughs and cheers.

Lucas, Coppola’s longtime friend and colleague, presented him with the award. The pair have known each other for decades and cofounded their own production company, American Zoetrope, in 1969.

“You rounded up a bunch of young film students, gathered us together. We moved to San Francisco, hoping to beat the system. And we did. Like the filmmakers from the dawn of the art form, we had no rules. We wrote them, and you were holding the pen,” Lucas said.

Coppola was mostly stoic throughout the ceremony as Hollywood sang his praises — until he accepted the award at the end of the night. He beamed as he approached the stage and thanked the room, which was filled with some of his family members as well as multigenerational A-listers.

“Now I understand here, this place that created me, my home, isn’t really a place at all, but you — friends, colleagues, teachers, playmates, family, neighbors, all the beautiful faces are welcoming me back,” he said. “I am and will always be nothing more than one of you.”

Coppola was the 50th recipient of the award first handed out to John Ford in 1973.

Guests were served wine from the Francis Ford Coppola Winery and after dinner — true to his Italian heritage — a trio of cannolis. Actors who have worked with Coppola painted a unified picture of him as a director, reminiscing on how they were invited to participate and educated about film in a way that empowered them.

“He’s very professorial. He talks about history and things and even older movies in the scene he’s inspired by,” said “The Godfather III” star Andy Garcia. “You go into working with him in a movie, and you go in seeking an associate’s degree and you would walk out with a master’s.”

Coppola last year released his long-in development “Megalopolis,” a Roman epic set in a modern New York. The film drew mixed reviews from critics and flopped with audiences. Coppola, though, has maintained he was compelled to make “Megalopolis” as an artist, not as a businessman. He self-financed the film.

“For a year in our culture when the importance of the arts is minimized, and our industry is seemingly out in the open that the only metric to judge a film’s success is by how much money it makes, I hang on to individuals like Francis for inspiration, who live through their convictions,” said Adam Driver, who starred in the film.

Last year’s AFI honoree was Nicole Kidman. Other recent recipients include John Williams, Mel Brooks, Denzel Washington and Julie Andrews.

The writer-director Isaiah Saxon, making a strong feature debut here, knows this and proves it. While “The Legend of Ochi” mixes digital effects, robotics, puppetry and a host of practical, non-digital design and manipulation for the creatures of the title, Saxon goes easy on the digital ingredients. An art school grad, he hand-painted 200 or so  matte paintings, the digital background illusions of an earlier filmmaking time, as part of the overall geographic imaginings.

On the mountainous island of Carpathia, somewhere in the Black Sea, the teenage Yuri (Helena Zengel) is being raised by her father Maxim (Willem Dafoe), a credulous, lonely man who lives to hunt the ochi. These predators, the people say, have been killing sheep and even a human or two. Maxim leads a group of young boys on their first hunt, including his adopted son, Petro (Finn Wolfhard of “Stranger Things”), with Yuri in tow, in the film’s nighttime prologue.

Yuri’s instincts tell her this is all wrong. Also, she’s had it with being stuck in the gendered margins of how boys and girls are prioritized in her corner of the world. Driven by a longing to find her mother (Emily Watson), who fled the family years earlier, the pensive, ever-watchful girl runs away. Long story short: girl meets ochi; frees ochi from a nasty metal trap set by humans; and the film becomes a sweet, sad, fraught and well-tested friendship across species, as Yuri comes to learn the ochi’s sung (or, rather, chirped) language, an emotion-based mode of communication.

Filmed in the Transylvanian mountains of Romania, Saxon and company capture a pretty stunning array of valleys, caves, rivers and urban areas. The movie is tightly packed with incident, maybe overpacked, but Saxon’s fairy tale is an intense, lived-in experience, its centuries-old folkloric atmosphere dotted with all the usual intrusive elements of progress: cars, grunge metal, supermarkets (in one memorable scene, Yuri makes an eventful trip to the grocery store with her newfound ochi hiding in her backpack).

There are clear bits and ideas derived from 1970s and ’80s titles, chiefly “E.T.,” “Gremlins” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Writer-director Saxon acknoweldges another influence: the great, undervalued “The Black Stallion.” There’s an unusually fine musical score from David Longstreth, as eccentric in its woodwind-forward instrumentation as it is effective. And as Yuri, longing for a family unit to call her own, Zengel couldn’t be better.  When Dafoe’s foolish, preoccupied father mutters a line from his runaway daughter’s note — “I am strong and cool / I don’t believe what you say about anything / Don’t look for me, OK? / Thanks, bye” — we hear Dafoe, of course, but also the shadow voice of Zengel. A terrific talent, she’s a key reason why “The Legend of Ochi” takes us somewhere worth the trip.

“The Legend of Ochi” — 3.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG (for violent content, a bloody image, smoking, thematic elements and some language)

Running time: 1:35

How to watch: Premieres in theaters April 25

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

A 10-film showcase can do only so much, yet Doc10 does a lot each year, taking the pulse of our world as seen through the cameras of mavericks on a mission.

In this year’s crop, one film was shot under fire in Ukraine after the Russian invasion (“2000 Meters to Andriivka”), while another follows the nerve-wracking trail of a whistleblower targeted for assassination (“Antidote”). Closer to home, you’ll find a cautionary tale of a Florida woman who’s both perpetrator and, in her eyes, victim (“The Perfect Neighbor”).

Doc10’s home base remains the Davis Theater in Lincoln Square and, for two screenings on May 4, the Gene Siskel Film Center. Preceding the main lineup, several free community screenings pop up this week around Chicago. Doc10 is presented once again by the nonprofit documentary funding and producing organization Chicago Media Project. And head programmer Anthony Kaufman is responsible for what you’ll be seeing.

The New York City native is also a senior programmer at the Chicago International Film Festival; an adjunct professor at DePaul University specializing in documentary film; and a longtime film critic and journalist, focusing on nonfiction work. In recent years, Kaufman, 53, has written for Indiewire and other outlets about the stiff headwinds nonfiction filmmakers face. Netflix, Hulu and others now favor a fatty, low-protein diet of true crime and celebrity profile quickies. In the public sector, meantime, the Trump administration has targeted the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for elimination.

“It’s hard, and maybe not sustainable,” Kaufman told me in our conversation the other day, on his back patio near Northwestern University. He’s married to associate professor Ariel Rogers, who teaches in the Northwestern School of Communication’s Radio/Television/Film department. On the other hand, Kaufman says: “It’s never been sustainable. Yet these filmmakers somehow find a way.”

The following has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: At a pretty bizarre time in American life and politics, and with stories of global conflicts with no endings in sight, what can the documentary genre give us?

A: One thing documentaries can do, I think, especially documentaries about current crises, is give us the long view. Or the deep view, the one we’re not getting from sound bites, or YouTube videos, or the administration’s statements. When you see a film like “2000 Meters to Andriivka” that puts you on the front line, in Ukraine, you understand what’s happening. You understand the stakes. You get a deeper, more substantive view that is not manipulate-able by propaganda. In this case, the filmmaker (Mstyslav Chernov, who will introduce the May 4 screening at the Siskel Film Center) was on the front lines with the soldiers, in the middle of firefights, risking his life.

With Doc10, over the last decade, we’ve built an audience that’s passionate about so many issues. And they’re eager to hear the filmmakers come and talk about them.

Q: Is it my imagination, or are we living in a moment when every single day, there’s another five potential subjects for a full-length documentary, crying out to be made?

A: That’s how it feels, all right. There’s a major event that happens, like the Luigi Mangione assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and two weeks later, you see the documentary on Hulu. Maybe terrible and certainly sensational, but there it is.

Q. Of the 10 documentaries you picked this year, who’s working in more unconventional storytelling form? 

A: I’d say two, in different ways. One is “Mistress Dispeller,” made by the Chinese American filmmaker Elizabeth Lo, who we’re bringing in (for the May 4 screening). In the film, she goes to China and tells the story of these people who are hired to break up husbands cheating on their wives with their mistresses. Nothing is fiction, nothing is staged, but the film puts us in real time with the mistress dispeller, working with this husband and wife. She’s been hired by the wife to bring her husband back, to convince him to end this affair. And she’s also working on the mistress to convince her to leave this married man. So it feels like a drama, a fiction film.

The other one is called “Ghost Boy,” by the director of “Room 237,” Rodney Ascher, who works with a really innovative use of reenactments. It’s about a 12-year-old who fell into a coma for three years and woke up with “locked-in syndrome.” He couldn’t communicate with the outside world, but he was fully conscious. And with these surreal visual reenactments, the film puts you in his headspace during that time. It’s using fictional storytelling techniques to tell this guy’s story.

Q: When a documentary hits a moment right, is it just lucky timing or something more?

A: It can be both. You remember “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”, the Morgan Neville doc (from 2018, a huge hit) about Fred Rogers? That could’ve been made any time, or released any time, but it came out in the middle of the first Trump administration, at a point when America really needed the reminder that goodness and compassion were good things. Through sheer coincidence of timing, it was exactly the right moment.

This year, it may be “The Perfect Neighbor” (picked up for streaming rights by Netflix) that does something similar. It cuts to the bone of the current racial conflicts and questions, battles, really, over diversity, equity and inclusion, but in an indirect way.

Q: What are documentary filmmakers up against now that they weren’t a few years ago, in terms of getting their work out into the world?

A: Filmmakers and documentary producers I’ve talked to started to worry about shifts a year or two ago. Before that shift, it was a kind of golden age, when a lot of streamers put a lot of money into documentaries. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon. It was a kind of golden age, right during COVID.

Then the streaming companies realized what was doing well, according to their algorithms. True crime and celebrities. That’s what got the eyeballs. And now, virtually all of the attention is on that. And everything else, they leave out. This has not helped documentary filmmakers who don’t want to make a movie about Katy Perry in space.

So that’s been a struggle. And now we have the gutting of the NEA and the NEH, which a lot of filmmakers and funders relied on for making their work. The threat to public media, to PBS, is a threat to both the financing and the release of documentary filmmaking. It’ll be catastrophic for independent documentaries and independent media, period, across the country.

Q: As someone whose life’s work is so tied to this art form, do you ever give up hope?

A: The whole ecosystem is changing, and it’s hard. And maybe not sustainable. But I take heart from two things. One is, it’s never been sustainable (laughs). And the second thing is: Artists create, no matter what. Someone told me — maybe it’s a famous quote, I’m not sure — that optimism is a political tool. (Futurist Alex Steffen said something like it: “Choosing and voicing optimism is a powerful political action.”) I think we need to take heart from that. It’s disadvantageous for us to absorb defeatism.

Think of all the great art, the great films, that came out of crisis and political oppression. Film and art find a way. And documentary filmmakers are not a privileged bunch. They’ve never needed much. Unlike the fiction film industry, which is far more capital intensive, documentary filmmakers are, by nature, scrappy and determined and not really pressured by the market. They tell stories because they feel like they have to. And as you said, every day, there’s another incredible documentary subject, waiting for the right filmmaker.

We’ll see what we see, a year or two from now.

Doc10 film festival runs through May 4 at the Davis Theater, 4614 Lincoln Ave., and Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St.; more information at Doc10.org

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

The makers of the sequel to the 2016 film, both directed with slick assurance by Gavin O’Connor, might argue with that interpretation. The new one offers a bigger, more brutal string of kill-shots and corpses, either morally justified as part of the story or, at one point, treated as a throwaway gag illustrating what Bernthal’s Braxton actually does for a living.

Screenwriter Bill Dubuque also wrote the first movie and, in better form, worked on “Ozark.” His many narrative tracks in “The Accountant 2” send the band of brothers to save terrified child prisoners of a cartel-run compound in Juárez, Mexico, from a mass grave being dug not far away. That climax may be spatially difficult to follow — for a while you can’t tell where the boys are in relation to all the anonymous cartel goons they’re killing — but storywise it’s icing on the cake for Chris, an underworld accountant and mathematical phenom on the autism spectrum, and brother Brax, a European-based wiseacre super-assassin.

The cake: A fiendish, cartel-run human trafficking ring, with claws deep inside the United States. A prologue set in and outside of a Los Angeles nightclub brings J.K. Simmons back from the original “Accountant” as the now semi-retired U.S. Treasury Department honcho and onetime adversary of Chris, currently on the hunt for one of the children who have been disappeared. The boy, now a teenager, had an El Salvadoran father, affiliated with the MS-13 criminal gang, who crossed the border into America. This particular detail, in light of the erroneously deported Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, comes under the heading of “accidental topicality.”

Given its premise, you wouldn’t expect “The Accountant 2” to go for quite so much buddy comedy, but life is full of surprises. Screenwriter Dubuque clearly enjoyed writing reams of banter for Affleck and Bernthal, though the results have a way of tossing a wrench in the film’s pacing. A second super-assassin and surveillance genius, played by Daniella Pineda, slinks through the movie with a hidden agenda and a sharpshooter’s eye. Her sights eventually are set on the U.S. Treasury deputy director (Cynthia Addai-Robinson, very good) who teams up with the bros, against her ethical principles, to bust the trafficking ring. Meantime, at the neurological institute, a friendly black-ops group of teen surveillance and hacking all-stars aid and abet our heroes’ activities.

“Challenging” is the word director O’Connor used in a recent ScreenRant interview, describing the task of “handling such heavy subject matter as human trafficking and then trying to make a fun, entertaining film.” He’s hardly the first. Last month, Jason Statham took out similar human-trafficking trash in “A Working Man.” Championed by conservatives, the solemn yet pulpy anti-trafficking biopic “Sound of Freedom” in 2023 scored a quarter-billion at the box office. And there’s “Taken,” the franchise built on Liam Neeson, for which many real-life anti-trafficking activists have no love.

If there’s a third “Accountant” outing for what has been laid out as a trilogy, O’Connor has indicated it’ll be more about heart and brotherly love and odd-couple comedy, with a side order of killing. If so, I hope Addai-Robinson returns in a bigger role; here, she’s stuck being the annoying advocate for rule of law and due process (“We have no right to detain anyone!”) in a bro’s world where, as John Wayne said in “The Green Berets,” “due process is a bullet.”

“The Accountant 2” — 2 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for strong violence, and language throughout)

Running time: 2:05

How to watch: Premieres in theaters April 24

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.