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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.
“9”
Animated sci-fi. **. PG-13. The animated sci-fi film “9,” not to be confused with the non-animated sci-fi “District 9,” or the non-animated non-sci-fi musical “Nine” – is a perfect example of a thin idea stuffed with filler until it loses much of its charm. Shane Acker’s film is built on his 2005 short animation of the same title, an almost magical and mysterious little movie about animated rag dolls in a post-apocalyptic future struggling to “survive” the terrors of their ruined world. (Roger Moore, The Orlando Sentinel) 77 minutes
“Amreeka”
Drama. *** 1/2. PG-13. This is a pointed, emotional story of a divorced Palestinian woman and her son who immigrate to the U.S. just after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, a story that benefits from Dabis’ background as a child growing up in the Midwest during the Gulf War as the daughter of a Palestinian father and a Jordanian mother. “Amreeka” moves back and forth between what happens to Muna in her life and the difficulties her son faces in his. (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times) 96 minutes
“The Boys Are Back”
Drama. ***. PG-13. Clive Owen tries on a very different role and it fits quite nicely. John Warr is a sportwriter and single father of two boys from two marriages in this masculine weepy based on Simon Carr’s novel about the death of his wife and the raising of his sons. Scott Hicks directs. (Kennedy) 90 minutes
“Bright Star”
Poetic Drama. ***. PG. In 1818, poet John Keats was smitten by neighbor Fanny Brawne. Writer-director Jane Campion casts their aching love as a cinematically stunning “story poem” full of potent silences and deft cadences. It stars Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish. (Kennedy) 119 minutes
“Capitalism: A Love Story”
Documentary. **. R. Michael Moore stars in a Michael Moore doc about the wages of capitalism. Having just marked the anniversary of the $700 bailout of Wall Street, the timing is spot on. But overly familiar jests (showing up at the AIG headquarters blowhorn in hand demanding our money back) and jousts (talking to a Wall Street Journal columnist who values the free market over democracy) don’t make Moore’s assault on greed as informative or entertaining as his own works. Moore’s the pity. (Kennedy) 127 minutes
“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”
Animation. *** 1/2. PG. This is a delicious farce and a backhanded slap at America the Obese, it may be the funniest animated film of the year. “Meatballs” is about fathers and sons, daring to be smart and the price of gluttony. And in between the Jell-O mold diving, ice-cream sledding and the derivative, overdone action finale, the movie deliverS a biting message that parents should love — celebrate smartness and ease up on the “easy” (junk) food before it kills you. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 81 minutes
“Coco Before Chanel”
Bio-pic. ***. PG-13. Director Anne Fontaine takes seriously the life and talents of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel without ever sacrificing the film’s refreshing elan. Audrey Tautou is soft-eyed and tough-minded as the orphan whose rough upbringing shaped her inventive designs. Benoît Poelvoorde brings enjoyble frisson as Étienne Balsan, Coco’s patron and pragmatic paramour. Also featured: Emmanuelle Devos and Alessandro Nivola as the man called “Boy.” (Kennedy) 110 minutes
“Couples Retreat”
Comedy. ** 1/2. PG-13. Four couples land on an island that doesn’t indulge their fantasies but challenges them to work on their relationships. Perhaps that sounds unfunny. But in the midst of marriage fatigue stars Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau (cowriters along with Dana Fox) find plenty of comedy, some of it buoyant, some of it unexpectedly insightful. Jason Bateman, Faizon Love, Kristin Bell, Kristin Davis and Malin Akerman round out the pairs. Jean Reno plays New Agey relationship guru Marcel. (Kennedy) 113 minutes
“Crude”
Documentary. *** 1/2. Not Rated. Joe Berlinger’s “Crude,” a thorough and impassioned new documentary, focuses its gaze on oil’s production rather than consumption. The film, which follows the fitful progress of a class-action lawsuit undertaken on behalf of the people of the Ecuadorean Amazon, is not about the unintended consequences of using petroleum. Instead, it examines the terrible, frequently unacknowledged costs of extracting oil from the ground. “Crude,” in other words, investigates the local manifestations — cancer, contaminated water, cultural degradation — of a global problem. (A. O. Scott, New York Times) 105 minutes
“The Informant!”
Crime Comedy. *** 1/2. R. A smart, silly corporate-crime comedy. It’s an absurd but true story. Matt Damon plays Mark Whitacre who was a star executive at agri-giant Archer Daniels Midland who tattled on the company’s vast international price-fixing scheme. He smuggled a wire into hundreds of meetings in the 1990s, securing the kind of direct evidence of white-collar conspiracy that prosecutors dream about. (Colin Covert, Star Tribune (Minneapolis) ) 108 minutes
“The Invention of Lying”
Comedy. *** 1/2. PG-13. “The Invention of Lying” is a remarkably radical comedy. It opens with a series of funny, relentlessly logical episodes in a world where everyone always tells the truth, and then slips in the implication that religion is possible only in a world that has the ability to lie. Then it wraps all of this into a sweet love story. Ricky Gervais plays a pudgy everyman named Mark, whose secretary, Tina Fey, tells him she has loathed every day she worked for him. (Roger Ebert) 99 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
“Law Abiding Citizen”
Revenge. * 1/2. R. This is a glib, brutal and preposterous revenge fantasy, a take-the-law-in-your-own-hands rabble rouser that taps into a lot of fears and genuine gripes about the American legal system. A man survives the slaughter of his family by thugs and sets out to get even, and then some. Gerard Butler has the title role as Clyde Shelton, a “tinkerer” who is stabbed during a home invasion. Jamie Foxx is the politically ambitious Philadelphia prosecutor who lets one of the killers get off easy so the other will be executed. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 107 minutes
“Love Happens”
Comedy. * 1/2. PG-13. “Love Happens” is a comedy in mourning, a romance so sad that even Jennifer Aniston at her most engaging can’t save it. Aaron Eckhart is Burke Ryan, the prototypical lonely man in need of love. He’s a motivational speaker, a guy getting rich running self-help get-over-grief seminars. Jennifer Aniston is the quirky girl who can make him love again. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 107 minutes
“More than a Game”
Documentary. *** 1/2. PG. Destined against its will to be known as “the LeBron James movie,” it is all that, and a good deal more. As much as anything, “More Than a Game” is a sincere but unsentimental tribute to the value sports can have in people’s lives, how, with the help of the right adults, athletics can in a very real and tangible way rescue kids from dead-end adversity and give purpose and meaning to what they do. Really. (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times) 102 minutes
“A Serious Man”
Period Drama. ** 1/2. R. Joel and Ethan Coen’s quietly amusing, philosophically rich tale about a beset family man is set in a Minnesota suburb 1967, a time when the Coens themselves were coming of age outside Minneapolis. Michael Stuhlbarg is Larry Gopnick. The physics professor isn’t Job. These days it doesn’t take as much to send a man of faith reeling. But he does embark on a journey to understand God’s will leads him to three rabbis and one divorce lawyer. The ensemble is pitch perfect: especially Richard Kind as Larry’s beleaguered Gopnick brother and Fred Melamed as his wife’s lover. (Kennedy) 105 minutes
“Still Walking”
Family Drama. ****. Not Rated. A dozen years ago, the prized possession of this family was Junpei, the eldest son, doted on by his parents and admired by his younger brother and sister. But Junpei drowned while saving a life, and every year the family gathers to visit his grave. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times) 114 minutes
“Where the Wild Things Are”
Children’s Classic. *** 1/2. PG. Spike Jonze adapted Maurice Sendak’s beloved kids book about a boy named Max who journeys to a place inhabited by creatures that declare him king. Jonze not only finds his inner “rumpus,” to borrow a word, he goes wild. Dave Eggers cowrote this artful celebration of the unruly. Flush with its own peculiar energy, the movie stars the voice talents of James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara, Lauren Ambrose, Chris Cooper to name a few, as the wild things. Max Records impresses as sweet, impossible, hurting, creative Max. Catherine Keener plays his mother. (Kennedy) 101 minutes
“Whip It”
Sports Comedy. ***. PG-13. Bliss Cavender follows her bliss in Drew Barrymore’s rousing, bright directorial debut about a potentional pageant contestent bent on trading in a tiara for roller skates. Ellen Page is Bliss. Marcia Gay Harden is terrific as her disapproving but complicated in her own rights mom. As teammates and rivals Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis and Eve all take spins and deliver blows in the rink. (Kennedy) 111 minutes
“Zombieland”
Zombie Comedy. ***. R. We pity the foolish zombie who tries to take a bite out of Tallahassee in this comedy that values the prey over the predators. Woody Harrelson is the gun-toting zombie slayer. Jesse Eisenberg endears as Columbus, the guy who proves flight might be just as effective as fight. Abigail Breslin and Emma Stone are sister survivors Little Rock and Wichita the women they meet on the road. In a world in which loved ones (or the cute girl next door) turn ravenous, trust is an issue. (Kennedy) 81 minutes
