NEW YORK.  More than 20 years ago, Greek Canadian actress and author Nia Vardalos penned the script for a screen adaptation of a one-woman play she had written and performed exploring the mores and foibles of the immigrant community in which she had been raised. The result was a sleeper box-office hit that was also well received by critics.

NEW YORK.  The resilience of the indestructible loving family, in this case, a Mexican American clan, forms the heart and soul of “Blue Beetle” (PG-13, Warner Bros.). Even as the DC Comics-derived adventure occasionally lapses into cliches, moreover, this solid core endures — and helps to make the film built around it acceptable for a fairly broad audience.

NEW YORK. In a timely move, the folks behind the slick, vibrant espionage thriller “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” (PG-13, Paramount) have added an experimental Artificial Intelligence project run amok to their roster of villains. So if moviegoers weren’t afraid of AI before seeing the picture, they may well be afterward.

NEW YORK.  A pilgrimage to Lourdes provides the framework for the tender drama “The Miracle Club” (PG-13, Sony Classics). By turns humorous and touching, director Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s delicate film will appeal to grown-ups and perhaps mature teens. But it’s neither aimed at nor suitable for kids.

NEW YORK. Viewers may be misled by the title of director and co-writer Abel Ferrara’s historical drama “Padre Pio” (Gravitas). The film is less a profile of the titular saint, played passionately by Shia LaBeouf, than a portrait of San Giovanni Rotondo, the Apulian town of his Capuchin monastery, in the period immediately after World War I.