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
“American Sniper”
* * * R. Reviewed on 1C.
“Blackhat”R. Reviewed on 4C.
“Little Accidents”Not rated. Reviewed on 5C.
“Paddington”PG. Reviewed on 6C.
“The Wedding Ringer”R. Reviewed at denverpost.com/movies.
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). (Ronnie Scheib, Variety) 118 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. At the Sie FilmCenter. (Scott Foundas, Variety) 93 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
“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 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 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
“Inherent Vice” Stoner romp. R. Freely but faithfully adapted by Paul Thomas Anderson from Thomas Pynchon’s 2009 detective novel — the first of the legendary author’s works to reach the screen — Anderson’s seventh feature film is a groovy, richly funny stoner romp. The year is 1970 and the place Gordita Beach, a fragile ecosystem of surfers, psychics and sandal-clad shamuses in danger of disappearing from the map. Among the locals is Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix, sporting Groucho Marx eyebrows and Elvis sideburns), who runs his private-eye business out of a medical office and seems to spend considerably more time scoring grass than solving cases. (Scott Foundas, Variety) 148 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
“Mr. Turner” Biopic. R. English painting’s renowned master of light, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), gets a suitably illuminating screen biography in Mike Leigh’s “Mr. Turner,” an ecstatically beautiful and exquisitely detailed portrait of the artist as a cantankerous middle-aged man whose brilliance with the brush overshadows his sometimes appalling lack of social graces. Returning to the large-canvas period filmmaking of his 1999 Gilbert & Sullivan bio “Topsy-Turvy,” Leigh has made another highly personal study of art, commerce and the glacial progress of establishment tastes, built around a lead performance from longtime Leigh collaborator Timothy Spall that’s as majestic as one of Turner’s own swirling sunsets. At the Chez. (Scott Foundas, Variety) 149 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
“Predestination” Time travel. R. An entrancingly strange time-travel saga, “Predestination” succeeds in teasing the brain and touching the heart even when its twists and turns keep multiplying well past the point of narrative sustainability. Playfully and portentously examining themes of destiny, mutability and identity through the story of two strangers whose lives turn out to be intricately linked, sibling filmmakers Peter and Michael Spierig offer a skillful and atmospheric adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s 1960 short story ” — All You Zombies — ” and if it’s better in the intimate early stages than in the more grandiose later passages, all in all it’s the sort of boldly illogical head trip that gives preposterousness a good name. At the Sie FilmCenter. (Justin Chang, Variety) 97 minutes
“Selma” Civil rights drama. * * * * PG-13. This is a mini-review of “Selma” the movie, not “Selma” the historical document. The latter has come under fire for its portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s relationship. Some of the criticism is earned. Too much of it threatens to shift the focus away from a vital, stirring and significant movie about King and other civil rights leaders, as well as LBJ’s efforts to enfrachise black voters in Selma, Alabama. One of the many fine achievements of “Selma” is the way director Ava DuVernay makes a subtle but persistent point that a number of players lead the way forward. The film also presents King as game-changing leader but also doubting human. David Oyelowo brings modulated force to his portrayal. Carmen Ejogo gives a turn both luminous and shaded as Coretta Scott King. Still, parents be apprised: “Selma” does not blink in the face of violence — from unnerving images of chatty and doomed girls headed down a church staircase to the beating of white minister James Reeb.These and many more images of American terror and bigotry make for a hard PG-13 rating. (Kennedy) 125 minutes
“Taken 3” Action. PG-13. Running out of kidnapped relatives for Liam Neeson’s ex-CIA killing machine to rescue, screenwriters Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen turn him into a fugitive framed for murder in “Taken 3,” a mind-numbing, crash-bang misfire that abandons chic European capitals for the character’s own backyard. While family matters were kept short and sweet in the other two installments, “Taken 3” stretches out the kitchen-sink drama endlessly: Mills’ daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), who was 17 when she was first kidnapped, is now a college student facing serious adult problems. Equally troubled is Lenore, who seeks consolation as her marriage to filthy-rich Stuart (Dougray Scott) is on the rocks. The possibility of Lenore and Mills rekindling their relationship is put on hold, however, when he’s forced to go on the run for a crime he didn’t commit. (Maggie Lee, Variety) 118 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
“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
