“Pan’s Labyrinth”
**** Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro exercises his gift with fantasy to tell a fabulist saga in which horror is all too human and fantastical beings might provide, if not a cure, at least some way to combat the evil. When young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) follows a dragonfly fairy to the lair where the magnificent faun Pan lives, the scene carries the rush of the new and the comforting aura of the ancient. The film, set shortly after Francisco Franco’s Nationalists seized control of Spain, centers on Ofelia and Pan. Doug Jones (“Hellboy”) captures this satyr’s complicated charms. Possessing a trickster’s way with language, he comforts but also taunts and challenges. |R|112 minutes|Released today|Lisa Kennedy
“Arthur and the Invisibles”
** A part-live-action/part-animated adventure tale from director Luc Besson, based on his own children’s book. Freddie Highmore stars as Arthur, who hunts for hidden treasure on his grandparents’ farm and finds the animated mini-kingdom of the Minimoys. But the story’s many disjointedly derivative elements make for a big mini- mess. |PG|94 minutes|Released today |Teresa Budasi, Chicago Sun-Times
“Stomp the Yard”
** The last shot of Sylvain White’s energetic film about DJ – an L.A.-to-Atlanta transplant – transformed when he starts step-dancing with an African-American fraternity suggests the deeper ambitions of “Stomp the Yard.” The director wants to celebrate the vibrancy of the step-dancing competitions while imparting a lesson in the importance of African- American Greek organizations at historically black colleges. White’s sharp instincts about just how thrilling this history can be is blunted some by the rote gestures movies pitched to younger audiences fall back on. Columbus Short keeps DJ appealing even at his most stubborn and boneheaded. But the filmmaker can’t quite shake his fondness for images of male volatility. If you’re wondering is he critiquing or celebrating – well, so will youngsters.|PG-13|115 minutes|Released today|Lisa Kennedy
“The Painted Veil”
** 1/2 “Contempt in the Time of Cholera” could be another title for director John Curran’s adaptation of M. Somerset Maugham’s 1925 novel. When wife Kitty cheats on him, bacteriologist Walter Fane (Edward Norton) takes her from Shanghai to the Chinese outback as an epidemic rages. Suggestive of vintage adventure romances and literature that wasn’t particularly savvy about the lives of ethnic others, “The Painted Veil” has the appeal of a hothouse orchid. It’s lovely to look at. With Naomi Watts and Norton as the simmering couple, it’s well-acted. It is also somewhat precious. A student of Chinese history, Norton hoped to bring that nation into the foreground. But shooting on location and weaving in historical facts hasn’t diluted the material’s colonial odor or pulled the Chinese from the background. It has just embroidered that background with finer details. |PG-13|125 minutes|Released May 8|Lisa Kennedy
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2. Déjà Vu
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1. Night at the Museum
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4. Smokin’ Aces
5. The Pursuit Of Happyness
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