Now Showing
Some reviews originate at newspapers that do not award star ratings; some movies are not screened in advance for critics. Ratings range from zero to four stars.
OPENING THIS WEEKEND
“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” 2.5 stars
“Craft” Not reviewed
“Ernest & Celestine” 4 stars
“Jinn” Not reviewed
“Le Week-End” 3.5 stars
“Nymphomaniac Vol. 2” Not reviewed
“Rob the Mob”
Selected mini-reviews of films in theaters, listed alphabetically:
“Bad Words” Comedy. R. Jason Bateman plays Guy Trilby, a hyperarticulate 40-year-old misanthrope who wriggles his way into a national spelling bee, crushing the dreams of hard-working children and parents alike. An exuberantly foul-mouthed and mean-spirited comedy. (Justin Chang, Variety) 89 minutes
“César Chávez” Biography. * * * PG-13. César Chávez’s life and the famous — and ultimately effective — grape boycott may seem a bit muted, a bit too gentle. It was the volatile 1960s, after all. Yet this is very much part of the film’s tender tug. Michael Peña brings a centered beauty to the title character that manages to speak to Chávez’s nonviolent approach without becoming hagiographic. . (Lisa Kennedy, The Denver Post) 101 minutes
“Divergent” Sci-fi adventure. * * * PG-13. A dystopian sci-fi tome gets a big-screen close-up in Veronica Roth’s best-selling “Divergent,” set in a future Chicago where citizens are divided into five factions based on their personalities. (Kennedy) 140 minutes
“Enemy” Psycho-thriller. * * R. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Adam, a withdrawn, socially awkward college professor who discovers upon renting a movie that there’s a bit-playing actor out there who is his exact physical double. At the Sie FilmCenter. (Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post) 90 minutes “The Grand Budapest Hotel” Fable. * * * ½ R. A wildly imaginative caper unfolds between the two world wars in the fantasy realm of the Republic of Zubrowka. Writer-director Wes Anderson’s elegantly zany fable about concierge Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes), his protégé Zero (Tony Revolori) and the murder of a countess. (Kennedy) 100 minutes
“The Lunchbox” Drama. * * * ½ PG. Irrfan Khan bestows his soulful aura on Saajan, a dutiful Mumbai clerk nearing retirement. Ill (Nimrat Kaur) sends lunchto her uninterested husband via the dabbawalla delivery men. The meal lands on the wrong desk. Or does it? In Hindi with English subtitles. At the Chez. (Kennedy) 104 minutes
“Mr. Peabody & Sherman” Animated. PG. Swift and peppy DreamWorks’ animated film updates the zany adventures of the time-traveling dog-and-his-boy sideshow from ’60s TV series “Rocky and Bullwinkle.” (Guy Lodge, Variety) 91 minutes
“Muppets Most Wanted” Puppet action. * * * PG. Would-be road manager Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais) lavishes the Muppets with promises of sold-out continental venues and stardom while a suspicious Kermit reluctantly goes along. (Hornaday) 112 minutes
“Need for Speed” Action. * * * PG-13. An adrenaline-fueled stunt fest, based on the hit racing game, an unequivocal thrill that deserves to be seen on the big screen. (Jessica Herndon, Associated Press) 130 minutes
“Noah” Epic. * * PG-13. The special-effect laden “Noah” shares more DNA with “Jason and the Argonauts” than “The Ten Commandments. Watching Cecil B. DeMille’s Old Testament epic on a loop would be more enjoyable and edifying than sitting through this bloated outing again. (Kennedy) 134 minutes
“Non-Stop” Thriller. PG-13. Liam Neeson’s back in this doomed-airliner thriller. He spends most of the time trying to convince people that he is a federal air marshal trying to root out a hijacker, as opposed to being the hijacker. (Scott Foundas, Variety) 106 minutes
“Nymphomaniac: Vol. 1” Drama. Not rated. Shia LaBeouf stars along with Stacy Martin, Christian Slater and Uma Thurman in this sexually explicit tale about a woman’s “lifelong search for sensation” down there. At the Mayan. (Foundas) 118 minutes
“Particle Fever” Documentary. Not rated. The film follows six physicists from the scheduled startup of the CERN Large Hadron Collider to the discovery of the Higgs boson (or “God particle”). (Ronnie Scheib, Variety) 97 minutes
“Sabotage” Action. * ½ R. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a drug enforcement agent who leads his team of elite commandos in a bloody assault on a drug dealer’s compound. (Michael O’Sullivan, The Washington Post) 110 minutes
“300: Rise of an Empire” Battle film. R. Eva Green commands the screen, and a large Persian naval fleet, in the highly entertaining not-quite sequel to Zack Snyder’s “300.” (Foundas) 102 minutes
