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
“About Elly” Not rated. Reviewed on 2C.
“Far from the Madding Crowd” PG-13. Reviewed on 2C.
“5 Flights Up” PG-13. Not reviewed.
“Hot Pursuit” PG-13. Reviewed on 4C.
“Ride” R. Reviewed on 8C.
“Roar” Not rated. Not reviewed.
“The D-Train” R. Reviewed on 2C.
“Welcome to Me” R. Reviewed on 2C.
continuing
Selected mini-reviews of films in theaters, listed alphabetically:
“The Age of Adeline” Aging drama. PG-13. Daisy Miller meets Dorian Gray — or perhaps “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” meets Nicholas Sparks — in this sensitively directed slab of romantic hokum that wrings an impressive amount of emotional conviction from a thoroughly ludicrous premise. A dab hand at invigorating conventional material with storytelling smarts and strong performances, director Lee Toland Krieger elicits a moving central turn from Blake Lively as a woman for whom eternal youth turns out to be a decidedly mixed blessing — one that plays out in ways both poignant and preposterous, sometimes simultaneously, over the course of her 100-plus years on Earth. Viewers seeking a pleasant alternative to the early-summer blockbuster barrage could do far worse than this genial high-concept romance. Michiel Huisman, Harrison Ford and Ellen Burstyn also star. (Justin Chang, Variety) 112 minutes
“Avengers: Age of Ultron” Comic book sequel. * * * ½ PG-13. The gang from 2012’s ridiculously entertain “Avengers” flick is all here. CUT THIS In the heroic hubris department, there’s Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans). A little less vain but pretty darn glorious are Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner).In a tormented class all his own resides Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). TO HERE IF TOO LONG Writer-director Joss Whedon continues to explore the challenges of teamwork and heroism, without losing a beat of action or a single quip. If anything, there’s more of each, done better. Heck, Eugene O’Neill gets a shoutout. Whedon is also attuned to the twisted roots of villainy. “Age of Ultron” provides a few versions: the ache for revenge, ye ol’ desire for world domination, and good technological intention gone terribly awry. That’s pretty much what happens when Tony Stark’s idea for a global “bouncer” creates the A.I. archvillain of the title. James Spader gives dark, wry voice to the sentient being who grows smarter and more dangerous with each passing moment. Aaron Johnson-Taylor, Elizabeth Olsen, Samuel L. Jackson also star. In 3-D, 2-D and IMAX. (Kennedy) 141 minutes
“Clouds of Sils Maria” Drama. * * *
R.
In this intimate, self-aware character drama from French writer and director Olivier Assayas set against the timeless Swiss Alps, Juliette Binoche stars as Maria Enders, an actress who keeps arriving at the intersection of past and present. Kristen Stewart won France’s top prize for a supporting actress for her role as Enders’ assistant and confidant while Chloë Grace Moretz sends up youth and early, easy fame.
At the Chez. (Dave Burdick, The Denver Post) 125 minutes
“Dior and I” Documentary. Not rated. Fashion documentaries often suffer from the preconception that pricey clothes are frivolous and therefore unworthy of serious attention, or they’re relegated to the “guilty pleasures” pile. Yet design is about creativity, and the dialogue that designers have between past and present is akin to painters’ influences: the process is intrinsically fascinating. Fast-rising director Frederic Tcheng brings out this element and much more in his beautifully crafted “Dior and I,” which follows Raf Simons as he launches his first haute couture collection for Christian Dior in spring 2012. At the Chez. (Jay Weissberg, Variety) 89 minutes
“Ex Machina” Sci-fi drama. * * *
R.
In writer-director Alex Garland’s absorbing sci-fi drama, a bright programmer at the world’s biggest search engine wins a contest and is helicoptered to company founder’s home. (Or is it compound?) There Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) learns from the protean, unpredictable Nathan (Oscar Isaac) his real mission: to administer a Turing Test to Ava, the robot Caleb has engineered. Strong, stylistically different performances by Gleeson, Isaac and Alicia Vikander as well as engaged ideas about the ethics of and advances in artificial intelligence infuse Garland’s exploration of authentic human ambitions and anxieties.
At the Mayan. (Lisa Kennedy, The Denver Post) 110 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
“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
“Little Boy” Drama. PG-13. God helps those who help not only themselves, but also the less fortunate in their midst — or so goes the tidy moral logic of this cloying and callous WWII-era parable about how faith can move mountains, overcome prejudice, and even rob death of its sting. Writer-director Alejandro Monteverde brings a sledgehammer touch to the story of a small-town runt who hopes that his string of good deeds will bring his beloved father home from the front lines. Michael Rapaport, Emily Watson and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa are among the cast. (Justin Chang, Variety) 106 minutes
“The Longest Ride” Drama. PG-13. As spring perennials go, a new Nicholas Sparks movie has come to seem as inevitable as tax day. Though the character names and faces may change, the place (coastal North Carolina) remains the same, as do the trials facing the star-crossed lovers who traverse its shores. “The Longest Ride” parallels the fates of two couples from different eras navigating the gauntlet of war, class relations, cataclysmic accidents and life-altering medical conditions. Scott Eastwood, Lolita Davidovich, Britt Robertson, Alan Alda and Oona Chaplin star.
(Foundas) 129 minutes
“Monkey Kingdom” Docu-fiction. G. The eighth entry in Disney’s eco-minded Disneynature series may well be its cheekiest, funniest and most purely entertaining. (Andrew Barker, Variety) 82 minutes
“Unfriended” Thriller. R. A victim of cyberbullying gets her revenge on the teens responsible for her suicide in “Unfriended” (originally titled “Cybernatural”), a horror movie distinguished by the device that everything takes place on one character’s computer screen. Simultaneously clever and exasperating, the film puts a novel spin on the genre Roger Ebert dubbed “the Dead Teenager Movie,” wherein frustratingly dim adolescents defy even the most obvious survival instincts, getting themselves eliminated in a series of creatively gory ways. Here, rather than shouting, “Don’t go up those stairs!” at the screen, audiences may find themselves screaming, “Don’t click that button!” Our vision is limited to whatever a character named Blaire (Shelley Hennig) sees on her Mac laptop.
(Peter Debruge, Variety) 82 minutes
“Woman in Gold” Art drama. PG-13. Director Simon Curtis’ “good taste” account of how a determined Jewish exile (played by Helen Mirren) sought the restitution of a Gustav Klimt painting seized by the Nazis. This compelling true story forbids any room for reasonable audiences to question Maria Altmann’s case, striking back at the anti-Semitism of the time with a oxious caricature of modern Austrians as law-bending, art-thieving monsters. At the Esquire. (Debruge) 111 minutes
