Long before you ease back in your automatic reclining theater seat to watch the new animated film UglyDolls, you know by the movie’s title what message is coming. It’s a righteous message: Physical traits do not determine a person’s worth. Predictably, the film exalts self-esteem to inappropriate heights. What’s intriguing, though, is a pro-life perspective the film teases: Imagery and situations often seem to equate dolls with babies. I sat forward, ready for UglyDolls to make the case. Would it?

“Why do you think God chooses to save some and not others?” It’s an honest question, but not one a Christian middle-school teacher, even if recently widowed, should throw in the face of a boy who miraculously revived after falling into an icy lake and having no pulse for an hour. This candid confrontation is one of many elements that make the new film Breakthrough—dare I say it?—a breakthrough for the faith-film genre.

It’s so simple yet so marvelous: Spending time with someone can radically change your opinion of him or her—for the better! The new film The Best of Enemies is based on the true story of C.P. Ellis, a Ku Klux Klan chapter president, and Ann Atwater, an African American community organizer, who couldn’t stand each other until they sat down together.

The new movie Unplanned, based on the 2010 book by the same name, tells the gripping tale of former Planned Parenthood (PPFA) director Abby Johnson’s pro-life conversion. Although some of its elements don’t sit right, the film exposes anew the foul practices of the nation’s leading abortion business.

Former NFL quarterback turned minor league baseball player Tim Tebow and his brother, Robby, are the executive producers of the new Christian film Run the Race. Tebow told the Christian Post he wanted to make an “authentic” film because “the Christian life isn’t cookie cutter.” Well, it’s true some faith films convey simplistic resolutions to hard times. To be sure, Run the Race stays in its lane, but credible dialogue, convincing performances, and solid production make it one of the faith-film genre’s better moments.

A powerful teenage heroine, a male teen enamored with computerized female companionship, and a twisted view of deity: If you told me this tale was set in the mid-26th century, I’d say it sounds conspicuously present-day. But I’m game for futuristic sci-fi, as long as it’s more than cyborg combat and revved-up roller derby. Regrettably, the new film Alita: Battle Angel isn’t much more than that.

It’s safe to take the kids to see The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part: The PG-rated film has little bad language (“heck” twice), one instance of borderline innuendo, and a message (“You have to find your own way”) easily corrected. But ask your kids afterward what the movie was about, and they’ll probably only say, “It was cool!” A plot and a plot twist gradually emerge from the mania, but it takes a saint’s patience to piece it all together. Like those complicated Lego kits, I suppose.