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
“The Drop Box”
Not rated. Not reviewed.
“Focus”
* * ½ R. Reviewed on 6C.
“The Lazarus Effect”
PG-13. Reviewed at .
“Leviathan”* * * *R. Reviewed on this page.
“Maps to the Stars”R. Reviewed on this page.
“What We Do In The Shadows”* * * Not rated. Reviewed on this page.
continuing
Selected mini-reviews of films in theaters, listed alphabetically:
“American Sniper” War memoir. * * *
R.
“American Sniper” is not director Clint Eastwood’s best film — not by a long shot. But this adaptation of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle’s 2012 best-selling autobiography is arguably his most significant. The Oscar contender has made history at the box office, suggesting that the nation is hungering to engage the invisible wounds of U.S. combat soldiers — even one’s as clear-eyed as Kyle was about duty — as they return home. A beefed-up Bradley Cooper brings psychological heft and laser focus to his portrayal of Kyle, who did four tours in Iraq and is credited with 160 confirmed kills. “American Sniper” is not about war so much as it is about a warrior as he tries to make peace with the persistent tug of war and the often muted call of home.
(Kennedy) 132 minutes
“Birdman” Dark comedy. * * * *
R. In this dark, soaring, fantastical comedy, director Alejandro G. Iñárritu 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. At the Esquire. (Kennedy) 119 minutes
“Black or White” Drama. * * *
PG-13. Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer butt heads as grandparents of a biracial wonder named Eloise in writer-director Mike Binder’s L.A.-set drama. When Elliott’s wife dies unexpectedly, he’s left as sole guardian of his 7-year-old granddaughter. As loving as he is, he’s not entirely prepared for the responsibility. When he rebuffs Rowena’s suggestion of shared custody, things turn increasingly hostile. Anthony Mackie portrays Rowena’s brother and ace attorney who takes on his sister’s cause as a test case on race and culture. “Black or White” is more nimble about affairs of the heart and cultural conflicts than that setup or the movie’s title suggest. Star-driven, mildly melodramatic, optimistic — there’s much here that’s old-fashioned and just as much achingly contemporary. (Kennedy) 122 minutes
“The Duff” Teen rom-com.
PG-13. Based on Kody Keplinger’s young adult novel, this high school rom-com is tricked out in rhetoric of independence and self-discovery that give it a pseudo-feminist sheen. But between its grating heroine, strident speechifying, derivative plot and draggy tone and tempo, it’s like the redheaded stepchild of “Mean Girls” and “Freaky Friday.” Bianca Piper (Mae Whitman) plays a plucky high school senior with a taste for zombie movies and overalls. She is perfectly content with her place in the teenage pecking order, including playing third banana to her gorgeous best friends, Casey and Jess (Bianca A. Santos and Skyler Samuels), and remaining largely invisible to the class queen bee, Madison (Bella Thorne).(Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post) 104 minutes
“Fifty Shades of Grey” Erotic romance. R. If the problem with too many literary adaptations is a failure to capture the author’s voice, then that shortcoming turns out to be the single greatest virtue of “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the hotly anticipated first film inspired by E.L. James’ best-selling assault on sexual mores, good taste and the English language. In telling the story of a shy young virgin (played by Dakota Johnson) and the broodingly handsome billionaire (Jamie Dornan) who invites her into his wonderful world of hanky-spanky, director Sam Taylor-Johnson and screenwriter Kelly Marcel have brought out a welcome element of cheeky, knowing humor that gradually recedes as the action plunges into darker, kinkier territory. (Justin Chang, Variety) 125 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 offense. At the Mayan. (Kennedy) 114 minutes
“Jupiter Ascending” Fantasy. * ½ PG-13. Oh, woe are we when contemplating the hole siblings Lana and Andy Wachowski seem to have dug for themselves with this tale of reincarnation starring Mila Kunis as a Chicago housecleaner who learns she’s the ultra rare “recurrence” of Seraphi Abrasax, the matriarch of a long-lived dynasty. Channing Tatum plays Caine Wise, the genetically engineered “splice” sent to retrieve her but thinks otherwise. Galactic millennia before there was a guy named Machiavelli, Seraphi and her children — Balem (Eddie Redmayne), Kalique (Tuppence Middleton) and Titus (Douglas Booth) — were practiced at the art of scheming and betraying, wholesale colonizing of planets and worse. In 2-D, 3-D IMAX. (Kennedy) 127 minutes
“Kingsman: The Secret Service” Spy movie. R. For those who think James Bond has gotten a little too serious in his old age, “Kingsman: The Secret Service” brings the irreverence back to the British spy genre, offering a younger, streetwise variation on the 007 formula. Based on Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons’ 2012 comic-book series, Fox’s franchise-ready one-off at first poses as a more teen-friendly option, before taking a hard turn. But the film also reserves the right to go gonzo in its final stretch, and while there’s sure to be an outcry from some corners over the turning-point scene, no one can contest that the finale distinguishes it from other spy-movie knockoffs. (Peter Debruge, Variety) 129 minutes
“McFarland, USA” Sports drama. * * *
PG. Set in 1987 in California’s central valley, this heartening sports flick recounts (with some dramatic tweaks) the story of coach Jim White and his impact on the young men who comprise the agricultural town’s first-ever high school cross country track team. Kevin Costner and an appealing crew of young actors (Rafael Martinez, Ramiro Rodriguez, Michael Aguero, Carlos Pratts, Hector Duran, Sergio Avelar and Johnny Ortiz) portray the fish-out-water coach and his migrant charges who compete against the state’s wealthier schools. Director Niki Caro finds a nice pace to make the drama’s two-hour runtime a pleasing jaunt. “McFarland” is an easy-to-embrace if familiar story of an individual transforming a community but also being transformed by that community.(Kennedy) 128 minutes
“Seventh Son” Fantasy. PG-13. Legend has it that the seventh son of a seventh son is born with certain special powers, which, in Joseph Delaney’s “Wardstone Chronicles” fantasy-lit series, include the ability to see supernatural beings and, potentially, to kill witches. But given the unusually long gestation period for Universal’s film adaptation, one shouldn’t be all that surprised to discover some pretty significant birth defects, among them a tired plot, some very unspecial effects, and a pair of grotesquely uneven performances from Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore. (Peter Debruge, Variety) 102 minutes
“Song of the Sea” Animated tale. * * *
½ PG. Irish director Tomm Moore’s Oscar-nominated beauty tells the sort of story that makes you crave the flickering of firelight or wish for the warmth of a blanket pulled up to your chin while mom or dad reads a bedtime tale. There is much that soothes and thrills in this folklore-steeped story of a Ben, sister Saoirse and their mission to protect vital magical beings, in particular a Selkie, from a witch owl, who looks a lot like their interloping grandmother. A Scottish/Irish folkloric staple, the Selkie has the shape of a seal in the ocean and a human on land.At the Chez. (Kennedy) 93 minutes
“The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” Animated. PG. “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” is alternately inspired, exhausting, clever, stupid and about as meta as any kidpic this side of “Duck Amuck.” Though the film’s marketing materials make the most of its characters’ expansion into three-dimensional CG, most of the first two acts take the more familiar form of Stephen Hillenburg’s TV toon, interspersed with live-action narration from an irritable pirate (Antonio Banderas) relating the tale to a flock of talking seagulls. (Andrew Barker, Variety) 92 minutes
“Still Alice” Drama. * * * ½ PG-13. Julianne Moore is likely to get an Oscar for her portrayal of Alice Howland, a Columbia University linguistics professor who at 50 is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. The award part of that is hardly news. The Alzheimer’s mention is hardly a spoiler. Fearing from the get-go the devastation Alice and her family face in “Still Alice” adds to directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland’s affecting drama, based on the novel by Lisa Genova, a neurologist. Alec Baldwin plays steadfast husband John. Kate Bosworth, Kristen Stewart and Hunter Parrish portray their very different but present children. Directed with delicate appreciation for the more quotidian rhythms of life by indie stalwarts Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, “Still Alice” also teases horror flick gestures. As if to ask — rightly — what could be scarier than the aggressive erosion of the identity each of us builds with our memories? At the Chez. (Kennedy) 101 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 simultaneously being a stirring romance.
(Kennedy) 123 minutes
“Two Days, One Night” Drama. * * * ½ PG-13. Consider Marion Cotillard’s Oscar-nominated performance in “Two Days, One Night” a tour de nuance. Yes, her portrayal of a woman who, at the end of a medical leave of absence learns she is to be laid off from her factory job, is a triumph. But something stripped-down takes place in this hushed but engrossing drama about despair and dignity, worker solidarity and its unraveling. Cotillard and Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne lay bare Sandra’s vulnerability. We learn early on, her depression isn’t simply economic but also emotional. As she sets out to convince the 16 coworkers who voted to keep their bonuses rather than have her return to the small Solwal solar panel factory, she must balance humility with persuasion, while calming cresting waves of anxiety. Sandra may feel alone at times with her task but the star never is.At the Sie FilmCenter. (Kennedy) 95 minutes
“Whiplash” Drama. * * *
½ R. 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, yet, the film is one of the year’s best. At the Mayan. (Kennedy) 107 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 young woman who penned one of the finest books about loss and recovery. At the Esquire. (Kennedy) 106 minutes
