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

PAN’S LABYRINTH
R, 114 minutes

Since his sensational feature debut, 1993’s “Cronos,” Guillermo Del Toro has made a string of horror and fantasy films evincing a rich and capable visual imagination. “Hellboy,” Mr. Del Toro’s finely textured if overlong adaptation of Ron Mignola’s comic book series was one of the real surprises of the 2004 late winter dog days.

But “Pan’s Labyrinth,” which made its American debut at the New York Film Festival in September and is produced in the director’s native tongue by Mr. Del Toro and “Children of Men” director Alfonso Cuarón, has more on its mind than vampire hunters and love-struck devil-spawn secret agents. As in his last Spanish-language outing, “The Devil’s Backbone,” here Mr. Del Toro achieves and sustains a remarkable level of film savvy and visual sophistication.

Bruce Bennett (December 29)

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 government 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 welldefended 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 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 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)