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
“Can’t Stand Losing You” Not rated. Not reviewed.
“Kill Me Three Times” R. Reviewed on 6C
“Longest Ride”PG-13. Reviewed on 4C.
“Marfa Girl”Not rated. Reviewed on 6C
“While We’re Young” R. Reviewed on 6C
“White God”R. Reviewed on 6C.
continuing
Selected mini-reviews of films in theaters, listed alphabetically:
“Cinderella” Fairy tale. PG. In Disney’s new live-action “Cinderella,” director Kenneth Branagh reverently reimagines Charles Perrault’s fairy tale for a new generation.
(Peter Debruge, Variety) 105 minutes
“Danny Collins” Dramedy. * * *
R.
The beginning of the new Al Pacino flick has a familiarity that teases contempt. Oh no, please, not another aging rock-star saga, not another post-midlife-crisis tale. And while director-writer Dan Fogelman’s movie is in many ways just that, hang with Danny on his conscience-cleansing sojourn.
At the Mayan. (Kennedy) 105 minutes
“Furious 7” Action. PG-13. “Furious 7” provides both a satisfying chapter in the movies’ pre-eminent gearhead soap opera and a tactful, touching memorial to the late Paul Walker. (Scott Foundas, Variety) 137 minutes
“Get Hard” Comedy. * ½ R. Goofball Will Ferrell and the appealing, ascendant Kevin Hart are sure to survive the idiocy of this triple R-rated comedy about a fund manager sentenced to hard time who seeks out a black tutor in prison survival before he heads to the pen. Are there laughs? Some.
(Kennedy) 100 minutes
“Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem” Documentary. Not rated. In this expertly written, brilliantly acted film, Israeli Viviane Amsalem struggles against her passive-aggressive husband and the rabbinical judges to legally end her marriage (a “gett” is a divorce document, obtainable in Israel only by going through religious courts), but the process takes years, thanks to a bias that keeps women shackled to their husbands. At the Sie FilmCenter. (Jay Weissberg, Variety) 115 minutes
“Home” Children’s adventure. * * PG. In “Home,” the latest adventure from DreamWorks Animation, the misfit alien protagonist is called Oh (“The Big Bang Theory’s” Jim Parsons) simply because that’s the resigned reaction everyone has when he’s around.
(Lindsay Bahr, The Associated Press) 112 minutes
“Insurgent” Dystopian sequel. * * ½ PG-13.
While “The Divergent Series: Insurgent” is shorter than the original — which introduced us non-readers to Tris Prior, a Divergent in a five faction, post-cataclysmic world — it is not better. The essential thematic tensions remain. How does one understand oneself within society’s many hierarchies and then be true to that self?
In 2-D, 3-D, IMAX 3-D.
(Kennedy) 115 minutes
“It Follows” Horror. R. From the opening scene, a disoriented young woman stumbles out into the street of an otherwise peaceful tree-lined neighborhood trying to avoid a threat only she can see. The next morning, the girl’s corpse is found. As bogeymen go, Mitchell’s monster is both intuitive and impossible to comprehend. The film’s malevolent shape-shifter can take the form of anyone.
At the Sie FilmCenter. (Peter DeBruge, Variety) 107 minutes
“Kingsman: The Secret Service” Spy movie. R. “Kingsman: The Secret Service” brings the irreverence back to the British spy genre, offering a younger, streetwise variation on the 007 formula.
(Peter Debruge, Variety) 129 minutes
“The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” Aging comedy. * * *
PG.
Having established a winning communal vibe at the rundown, charming Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in Jaipur, India, young proprietor Sonny Kapoor (Dev Patel) wants to expand. Turns out the Brit pensioners that populate his hotel (and the 2012 sleeper hit) like it too much to leave.
At the Esquire. (Kennedy) 122 minutes
“Seymour: An Introduction” Documentary. PG. Although clearly designed as a reverent tribute from one artist to another, this first documentary directed by Ethan Hawke grants full expression to Seymour Bernstein’s wise and witty commentary on a craft that he’s spent decades honing. At the Chez. (Justin Chang, Variety) 81 minutes
“What We Do In the Shadows” Comedic horror. * * *
R. You’ve got to love a thing to skewer it as well Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement do in their delightfully silly vampire mockumentary. The film’s writers, directors and stars lovingly impale bloodsucker mythology with the sharpened stick of comedy.
At the Mayan. (Michael O’Sullivan, The Washington Post) 86 minutes
“Woman in Gold” Art drama. PG-13. Gustav Klimt may have been celebrated for his gilded portraits of elegant Austrian women, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the same approach suits “Woman in Gold,” director Simon Curtis’ “good taste” account of how a determined Jewish exile (played by Helen Mirren) sought the restitution of a Klimt painting seized by the Nazis. This compelling true story forbids any room for perfectly reasonable audiences to question Maria Altmann’s case, striking back at the anti-Semitism of the time with an equally noxious caricature of modern Austrians as law-bending, art-thieving monsters. (Peter Debruge, Variety) 111 minutes
“The Wrecking Crew” Rock documentary. PG. “The Wrecking Crew,” a nostalgia-drenched rockumentary, is a hugely entertaining treasure trove of witness-at-creation anecdotes and enduringly potent ’60s pop hits. Stuffed with samplings of golden oldies, the movie is an irresistible treat for viewers old enough to recall the era when acts like the Beach Boys, Sonny and Cher, the Association, Nancy Sinatra and the Monkees loomed large on AM playlists.
At the Chez. (Joe Leydon, Variety) 92 minutes
