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 TODAY
“Actress” Not rated. Reviewed on 4C
“The Captive” R. Reviewed above
“The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death”PG-13. Not reviewed.
continuing
Selected mini-reviews of films in theaters, listed alphabetically:
“Annie” Musical. PG.
While there are several possible good reasons to remake the Depression-set musical “Annie” in 2014, Will Gluck’s treatment serves as more of a facelift than an update. Quvenzhané Walli is cast in the title role and lives with other girls not in an orphanage but in a Harlem foster home run by bitter, alcoholic Colleen Hannigan (Cameron Diaz). Racing through the streets for her dog, Sandy, Annie careens into the film’s reincarnation of Daddy Warbucks, aka Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx), a cellphone billionaire who saves her from an oncoming car. When a video of the rescue goes viral, Stacks’ campaign manager (Bobby Cannavale) arranges a photo session with the moppet, which Annie parlays into room and board. (Ronnie Scheib, Variety) 118 minutes
“Antarctica: A Year on Ice” Documentary. * * * PG. “What makes this film unusual is that it focuses not on wildlife, despite a few requisite scenes of penguins, but on people.
At the Chez. (Michael O’Sullivan, The Washington Post) 91 minutes
“The Babadook” Horror. Not rated. “The Babadook” offers a wonderfully hand-crafted spin on a tale oft told, of parent and child in an old, dark house where things go bump in the night. It manages to deliver real, seat-grabbing jolts. The movie takes place nearly seven years after the fatal car accident that killed Oskar (Ben Winspear) as he was rushing his pregnant wife, Amelia (Essie Davis) to the delivery room. Mother and child survived the crash, and as its seventh anniversary approaches, they still live very much in the grip of that trauma. At the Sie FilmCenter. (Scott Foundas, Variety) 93 minutes
“Big Eyes” Drama. PG-13. The eyes may be the windows to the soul, but they wind up revealing far too little in this unpersuasive, paint-by-numbers account of the fraud perpetrated by Walter Keane, who succeeded in fooling the public and amassing a fortune by passing off his wife Margaret’s paintings as his own. (Justin Chang, Variety) 106 minutes
“Birdman” Dark comedy. * * * *
R. In this dark, soaring, fantastical comedy, director Alejandro G. Iñárrituhe finds no shortage of the damaged. Michael Keaton nakedly embodies Riggan Thomson, a former superhero franchise star angling for an artistic triumph on Broadway. Thomson tries to mount, direct and star in an adaptation — his own! — of a Raymond Carver short story. Edward Norton plays Mike Shiner, the brilliant thespian Thomson hires, who becomes in many ways a necessary arch-enemy. (Kennedy) 119 minutes
“Exodus: Gods and Kings” Drama. PG-13.
Like “Noah,” the year’s other nonconformist Judeo-Christian blockbuster, this is an uncommonly intelligent, respectful but far-from-reverent outsider’s take on Scripture, although “Exodus” is less madly eccentric and more firmly grounded in the sword-and-sandal tradition than Darren Aronofsky’s film, and will almost certainly prove less polarizing among believers.
(Justin Chang, Variety) 150 minutes
“Force Majeure” Drama. * * * *
Not rated. Swedish filmmaker Ruben Ostlund puts marriage under a squirm-inducing microscope in this thoughtful, spectacularly conceived movie that delivers on the promises made by the far more glib and superficial “Gone Girl.”
At the Sie FilmCenter. (Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post) 118 minutes
“Foxcatcher” Drama. * * * ½ R. Movies seldom achieve the meticulous vision of director Bennett Miller’s drama about the fraught relationship of scion John du Pont, a wrestling coach wannabe, and Olympic gold medalist Mark Schultz. Even so, some have found the brooding tale a cold outing, its mindful craft beside the point.
At the Mayan. (Kennedy) 134 minutes
“The Gambler” Drama. R. There’s enough swaggering cynicism for three pictures but barely enough soul to sustain even one in Rupert Wyatt’s “The Gambler,” a stylish, energetic but disappointingly glib remake of Karel Reisz’s still-potent 1974 drama of the same title. Mark Wahlberg tears into one of his meatiest roles as an English professor drowning in a sea of blackjack debts and self-destructive impulses, a born risk-taker who’s aptly described as “the kind of guy that likes to lose.” (Justin Chang, Variety) 111 minutes
“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” Action-fantasy. * * ½ PG-13. The final installment of “Hobbit” movies opens with a tense, spectacular battle against fearsome dragon Smaug. Unfortunately, after our heroes fell the beast, the film loses its steely focus. (John Wenzel, The Denver Post) 144 minutes
“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1” Drama. * * ½ PG-13. At the conclusion of “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” Katniss’ (Jennifer Lawrence) force-field shattering arrow left the society in turmoil. Thus, revolution is on the horizon in the franchise’s third installment.
(Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press) 123 minutes
“The Imitation Game” Drama. * * * ½ PG-13. Benedict Cumberbatch brings intelligence and anguish to this story about Alan Turing and his war-altering work to crack Germany’s Enigma code. Directed by Morten Tyldum and written by Graham Moore, “Imitation” is loosely based on Andrew Hodges’ 1983 tome, “Alan Turing: The Enigma.” There are flashbacks to Turing’s boyhood and leaps forward that tease out the mathematician’s biography”The Imitation Game” captures a lesser-known chapter in WWII even as it engages, through a more contemporary lens, issues of discrimination. Turing was gay at a time when that was a legal offence. The film serves as a reminder of what a toxic cocktail national suspicion mixed with bigotry could make. (Kennedy) 114 minutes
“Interstellar” Sci-fi adventure. * * * * PG-13. Earth is down to its final crop — corn — when reluctant farmer and former astronaut Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and young daughter Murph learn that NASA still exists. And that Professor Brand (Nolan vet Michael Caine) is working to get humans through a newly discovered wormhole. If — and it’s the biggest “if” of all — Brand and a crew of astronauts can find a sustaining home.
(Kennedy) 168 minutes
“The Interview” Farce. * * *
R. “The Interview” will go down as the satire that provoked an authoritarian dictatorship, roiled Sony Pictures in a massive hacking attack and prompted new questions of cyber warfare, corporate self-censorship and comedic audacity. The movie is already assured of cinematic infamy, regardless of its merits. But is it any good? Though “The Interview,” directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, never quite manages the duo’s calibrated blend of sincerity and over-the-top crudeness, it nevertheless usually pulses with an unpredictable absurdity and can-you-believe-we’re-doing-this glee.
(Jake Coyle, Associated Press) 112 minutes
“Into the Woods” Musical. * * * ½ PG. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s 1987’s Broadway musical assembled quite the collection of fairy-tale all-stars: Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, the Baker and his Wife, Rapunzel, and Jack of bean stalk fame. Then it sent them on their merry (or not) ways singing of wishes for princes, infants and a respite from a hardscrabble life. Director Rob Marshall’s cast in this dark, wry, smart adaptation is nearly as impressive. It features Meryl Streep as Witch, a disquieting, scene-gnawing Johnny Depp as the Wolf as well as Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick and Chris Pine. The weight of the tale falls on the shoulders of the Baker.
(Kennedy) 126 minutes
“Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb” Adventure. PG. The past may be immortal, but not so the reanimating magic that turns New York’s American Museum of Natural History into a dusk-to-dawn happy hour. Such is the dilemma this motley crew (once more under the leadership of Ben Stiller’s harried night watchman) faces in this enjoyable capper to director Shawn Levy and producer Chris Columbus’ cheerfully silly and sneakily smart family-entertainment juggernaut.
(Scott Foundas, Variety) 97 minutes
“The Theory of Everything” Romantic biopic. * * * *
PG-13.
Oscar-winner James Marsh’s drama about theoretical astrophysicist Stephen Hawking and mate Jane Hawking, née Wilde, tussles with quantum physics and Einstein’s theory of relativity. But its intellectual-emotional force also comes from being simultaneously being a stirring romance.
(Kennedy) 123 minutes
“Top Five” Comedy. * * * R. For his third and undeniably best film yet as a director, writer-actor Chris Rock assembled a fine crew of fellow comics who surely know the ins and out of the world of Andre Allen (Rock), a stand-up comic turned film star.
(Kennedy) 102 minutes
“Unbroken” Biographical drama. * * ½ PG-13. While admirable, director Angelia Jolie’s sophomore feature about the remarkable life of Louis “Louie” Zamperini, does not come close to the humane epiphanies of its source: Laura Hillenbrand’s 2010 best-seller: “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.” And it touches on Zamperini’s spiritual awakening only slightly: a coda attempts to make quick work of the “redemption” part of things. Of course, this and more is captured in Hillenbrand’s book, along with Zamperini’s more piquant zest for life and his vital will to forgive.
(Kennedy) 137 minutes
“Whiplash” Drama. * * *
½ R. Go figure. Writer-director Damien Chazelle’s harrowing and elegant tale of an ambitious young jazz drummer and his bullying teacher is not a terrific jazz music film. And yet, the film is one of the best of 2014. At the Chez. (Kennedy) 106 minutes
“Wild” Drama. * * *
½ R. No doubt, there are hikers who have taken on the challenges and wonders of the Pacific Crest Trail better prepared than Cheryl Strayed was for her 1,100-mile trek from the Mojave Desert to Washington state. Yet it was this grieving, reeling young woman who penned one of the finest books about loss and recovery. Reese Witherspoon gives a committed, true turn as Strayed in director Jean-Marc Vallée and writer Nick Hornby’s beautifully layered adaptation. At the Esquire. (Kennedy) 106 minutes
