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Here are selected minireviews of films in theaters, listed alphabetically.
Some reviews originate at other newspapers that do not award star ratings.
“(500) Days of Summer”
Romantic comedy. ****. PG-13. Boy meets girl. It seems so simple. Even so in director Marc Webb’s super debut (wondrous screenplay by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Webber), it’s 500 days of joy and disaster as Tom and Summer prove how love can be a figment of yearning and utterly real — sometimes at the same moment. Joseph Gordon-Levitt continues to trace the arc of subtle but true stardom. Zooey Deschanel is all eyes and smart talk as she rebuffs romantic nonsense at every turn. (Kennedy) 96 minutes
“Adam”
Romantic Drama. ***. PG-13. A sensitive film of much charm, “Adam” stars Hugh Dancy in the title role as a brilliant young electronic engineer. He’s nice-looking but awfully uptight. Not long after the death of his father, with whom he shared a Manhattan apartment, Adam meets new neighbor Beth (Rose Byrne), who’s beautiful and outgoing. Beth gradually attempts to break through his perplexing shell. In time, she gains Adam’s trust and he at last explains that he has Asperger’s syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism. (Kevin Thomas. Los Angeles Times) 99 minutes
“Bandslam”
Teen Angst. **. PG. “Bandslam,” feels like it was conceived with a checklist of high-school clichés in hand. You get the likable nerd, the pretty, quiet girl and the popular blond bombshell, Charlotte, whom all the boys love. (Rene Rodriguez, McClatchy Newspapers) 115 minutes
“District 9”
Sci-fi. *** 1/2. R. “Go home E.T. Quick!” Might have been the message in this aliens among us ride. Neill Blomkamp’s visceral film follows Wikus van de Merwe (Shartlo Copley), in the days after the bureaucrat was exposed to alien DNA while evicting non-human refugees from a vast shanty town. With its mashup of visual styles (documentary, news reel, straight on action) and its fearless tussle with hot-button issues, “District 9” has the acrid tang of a classic. Time will settle that. But already, newcomer Blomkamp is a director to be reckoned with. (Kennedy) 115 minutes
“Funny People”
Comedy. ***. R. Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen star as a comic with a terminal diagnosis and the aspiring stand-up comedian he hires in this thoughtful (if at times self-serving) movie about comedy, celebrity and the toll they take on comics who are — but also aren’t — mere mortals. Written and directed by Judd Apatow, this is a morality tale with a mortality setup. What happens when a funny guy (Sandler) stands on the brink? And what does he learn as he takes a step back from that long drop? Is it funny? Yes. Is it riotous, ribald yet empty? Absolutely not. (Kennedy) 146 minutes
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
Magical Adventure. *** 1/2 PG. Love and menace are in the air. And both get their unnerving due as Harry James Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), dear friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, as well as rival Draco Malfoy, return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Director David Yates writer Steve Kloves approach the sixth installment of J.K. Rowling’s page-turners with an appreciation of shadow and light, grief and hope, that makes these adaptations joyous and weighty. New to the gifted cast: Jim Broadbent as a former Hogwart’s professor. Horace Slughorn may hold the clue to the mystery of Thomas Riddle, the student who became “He who must not be named.” (Kennedy) 153 minutes
“Humpday”
Comedy. ***. R. In Lynn Shelton’s whip-smart, low-budget comedy, friends Ben (wonderful Mark Duplass) and Andrew (winning Joshua Leonard) find themselves in quite a fix when they agree to make a short film for Seattle’s alternative erotic film fest. Their skin flick probably wouldn’t be so awkward if they weren’t straight. Ben’s wife, Anna (Alycia Delmore) isn’t amused. Is this understaking mere macho brinksmanship? We’re not telling. But Shelton — this year’s winner of Independent Spirit Awards’ Someone to Watch prize — has made a film both funny and wise. At the Regency Theatres Tamarac Square. BTW: the theater was honorable enough to mention the print has a scratch. (Kennedy) 95 minutes
“The Hurt Locker”
Psychological Thriller. *** 1/2. R. “The Hurt Locker,” directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, is the most intense and jarring experience of the summer thus far. War films have not done particularly well theatrically during our long years in Afghanistan and Iraq, a fact that makes kind of sorry sense. Yet, “The Hurt Locker” deserves and earns our edgy attention. The action is taut, intelligent. The performances, in particular Jeremy Renner’s as a maverick detonation expert, are wounded, credible and riveting. Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty also star. (Kennedy) 130 minutes
“Inglourious Basterds”
Hebrew Revenge Fantasy. *** 1/2. PG. An inventive, outrageous film of the year, a Hebrew revenge fantasy in which Jewish commandos bring World War II to an abrupt end by targeting the German high command. The misspelled “basterds” of the title are a unit of Jewish GIs recruited by taskmaster Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) for a special job. They’ll parachute into Europe and terrorize the enemy by killing without mercy and scalping the dead. (Robert W. Butler, McClatchy Newspapers) 152 minutes
“Julie & Julia”
Comedy. *** 1/2. PG-13. What a celebration of appetite and marriage Nora Ephron has cooked up using Julia Child’s “My Life in France” and Julie Powell’s cooking memoir “Julie & Julia.” Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci delight as Julia and husband Paul. As Julie and Eric Powell, Amy Adams and Chris Messina capture the pleasures and challenges of being stressed young marrieds living in Queens in 2002. (Kennedy) 123 minutes
“The Orphan”
Horror. ***. R. The movie hinges on a classic thriller device: The heroine knows the truth and insists on it even though everyone is convinced she’s mad. You want a good horror film about a child from hell, you got one. Do not, under any circumstances, take children to see this. Take my word on this. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times) 101 minutes
“Ponyo”
Animated. *** 1/2. G. Boy meets goldfish in animation master Hayao Miyazaki’s charming fable of nature and the nurturing love of a little boy named Sosuke (Frankie Jonas) and a fish named Ponyo (Noah Cyrus). The cast, including Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett and Tina Fey, do swimmingly. (Kennedy) 103 minutes
“Post Grad”
Romantic Comedy. * 1/2. PG-13. A retro romantic comedy about looking for love and career fulfillment the minute you get out of college. Ryden Malby (Alexis Bledel) finishes college, expects to start work at a prestigious L.A. publishing house, get her own apartment and experience life finally – while searching everywhere for Mr. Right. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 87 minutes
“Seraphine”
Drama. ****. Not Rated. Seraphine is a bulky, work-worn housecleaner who gets down on her knees in a roomy print dress and fiercely scrubs the floor. She slips away from work to steal supplies to paint in secret, covering panels with fruits and flowers. Seraphine de Senlis, who died in a French mental institution in 1942, today has her paintings in many museums. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times) 126 minutes
“Shorts”
Kids Fantasy. ** 1/2. PG. It’s a connected collection of “shorts” — short films about kids (and adults) who encounter a magical wishing rock deep in the heart of Texas. It mocks America’s Crackberry (and iPhone, etc.) epidemic in a kid-friendly farce about being careful what you wish for. Along the way, parents learn to be a team, a megalomaniac learns that ruling the world isn’t a worthy goal, and kids learn to only wish for the important things in life — world peace, an end to global warming and “a limitless supply of candy bars.” (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 87 minutes
“Taking Woodstock”
Period comedy. ***. R. Comedy Central’s Demetri Martin plays Elliot Tiber, the guy who offered his parent’s ramshackle motel to a bunch of longhairs (and their attorneys) for a little gathering called Woodstock. In Ang Lee anthropological comedy, Elliot observes more than he participates and the gently celebratory vies with Borscht Belt shtick. Amusing turn: Liev Schreiber as an uncompromising, cross-dressing former Marine. Breakout performance: Jonathan Groff as concert promoter Michael Lang. (Kennedy) 120 minutes
“Thirst”
Vampire Tale. ***. R. Not your traditional vampire horror film. Director Park has created a rumination on morality and mortality that is not at all deadly, but funny and profound and at times intensely erotic. A brooding young priest whose efforts at self-sacrifice lead him into a high-risk experimental medical program. A tainted blood transfusion turns out to be lifesaving in ways he never imagined. (Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times) 133 minutes
“The Time Traveler’s Wife”
Love Story. ** 1/2. PG-13. Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana play their roles straight and seriously, have a pleasant chemistry, and sort of involved me in spite of myself. They’re just so nice. He’s a time traveler and disappears when you and he least expect it. You have to suspend belief over a lot of the details but all in all it’s a sweet movie. (Roger Ebert) 107 minutes
“The Ugly Truth”
Romantic Comedy. **. PG-13. Abby’s a capable morning news producer who turns dumb and desperate when it comes to men. Mike’s a dispenser of testosterone truths — have an otherwise. In other words, “sparks!” The truths of this lesser rom-com, starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler, are as homely as they are familiar: borrowing screwball comedy’s battle-of-the-sexes gestures and gussying them up with R-rated language is a sorry commentary on the genre: women writers (there were three) can serve up empty calories to undernourished female audiences just as cynically as their counterparts. (Kennedy) 96 minutes
