Wondering what else is in theaters this weekend? Here are six films recommended by The New York Sun’s critics that you can still catch around town.

CHILDREN OF MEN
R, 114 minutes

“Children of Men” depicts a dystopian society in the year 2027, when the human race has lost the ability to procreate. Caught between an extremist govern ment and increasing violence surrounding the growing immigrant population, Theo (Clive Owen) must escort the first pregnant woman in almost 20 years to safety if there is any hope for mankind.

There is a curious joy in watching cinematic projections of future societies, and director Alfonso Cuarón does not disappoint. Rather than the slick futurism of most sci-fi films, his setting is gritty and mildly decrepit. The omnipresence of streets bursting with barely contained brutality is countered nicely with enclaves of well-defended independence. But Mr. Cuarón is mostly concerned here with the power of hope in a world nearly devoid of it.

— Meghan Keane (December 22)

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
R, 141 minutes

Clint Eastwood’s Word War II epic, told I V from the Japanese perspective, dismantles many of the tried-and-true themes of war films. If much of the genre focuses on acts of heroism, the pain of sacrifice, and the horrors of the battlefield, here Mr. Eastwood focuses instead on how the depiction of war and the reality of war are contradictory. Almost antithetical to the mission of cinema, he suggests that we can never understand them, and no matter how many movies try to help us run a mile in the soldiers’ shoes, we will never be able to connect. After hope is all but lost for the Japanese on Iwo Jima, all that remains is their concept of heroism, which emphasizes dying with honor before considering the cowardly notion of capture or surrender.

— S. James Snyder (December 20)

THE PAINTED VEIL
PG-13, 125 minutes

“The Painted Veil” is a story of betrayal, vengeance, and cholera in 1920s China, but it is most eloquent in its portrayal of a marriage in distress. The film, which has been a pet project of Edward Norton’s for almost six years, opened less than a week after Steven Soderbergh’s retropic “The Good German,” and achieves what that film strove so desperately to attain — the lost romance of Hollywood’s golden era. Set in London, Shanghai, and rural China, the film follows the travails of one mismatched couple and traces how far they must go to match their expectations with their abilities. Based on the W. Somerset Maugham novel of the same name, this adaptation takes liberties that are similar to those taken in the 1934 Greta Garbo film interpretation.

— M.K. (December 20)

VENUS
R, 95 minutes

Peter O’Toole is all essence in “Venus,” a romantic comedy from the writer-director team of Hanif Kureishi and Roger Michell. He plays Maurice, who is basically a less-famous version of himself. Shuffling around Kentish Town, Maurice spends his fading days bantering with Ian (the splendid Leslie Phillips). They relive past glories, mourn the passing of friends noted in the Guardian, and swap medications at the corner diner, popping random handfuls of uppers, downers, whizzers, and bangers for their entertainment value. Inevitably, they nap a lot.

Maurice is entirely shameless and shines so brightly in his own self-regard that he can’t resist any temptation to swan about. When a bout of prostate cancer saps his manhood and underscores his mortality, the wobbly ladies’ man yearns for one final hurrah. The inspiration is the sudden arrival of Ian’s grandniece Jessie (Jodie Whittaker).

— Steve Dollar (December 21)

AUTOMATONS
Unrated, 83 minutes

“Automatons,” the unexpectedly mesmerizing, low-budget spectacle playing at the Pioneer Theater, is sure to be dismissed by some as just another campy robot fantasy. A story about a futuristic world, filmed on grainy black-and-white stock, composed almost entirely on one set, and featuring audio imperfectly dubbed over the action, the only thing more peculiar than the aesthetic is the physical movement of the movie’s stars — the robots. Seemingly constructed out of cardboard, they shuffle along at a snail’s pace, lumbering about as if trapped underwater.

Here’s a movie with ideas as big as any to be found in “War of the Worlds,” but with a budget that must have been a fraction of what Steven Spielberg spent on catering. It’s not a film of compromise but of sheer determination, refusing to be defined by its budget and liberated by a decision to overcome its bank account with sheer imagination.

— S.J.S. (December 13)

BLOOD DIAMOND
R, 138 minutes

Many people, when they see misery around them, want to know why. But Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), a smuggler who spends most of “Blood Diamond” racing through Sierra Leone’s civil war in pursuit of profit, has already got an explanation: “T.I.A.” It stands for “This Is Africa.” He abandoned all hope for this benighted part of the world long ago.

Many moviegoers these days reserve a similar, if markedly less tragic, cynicism for Hollywood: It will never make big, big-hearted pictures like it used to. “Blood Diamond,” however, offers reason to believe. Directed by Edward Zwick and written by Charles Leavitt, it very nearly achieves that perfect balance of humanity and big-screen spectacle that many believe left American movies decades ago.

— Darrell Hartman (December 8)