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Thelma, directed by Joachim Trier (not rated, 1 hour, 56 minutes)
You’d never know from watching the opening moments of Thelma that you’re about to get caught up in a weirdly compelling supernatural thriller. This isn’t your obvious smack-you-over-thehead American-style thriller. It moves slowly, stealthily, then shocks viewers when they least expect it.
It starts out with an odd, unsettling demonstration of the emotional dynamic between 8-year-old Thelma and her dad while they traipse through the Norwegian woods on a snowy day. Leaving the audience on its own to ponder the meaning of the scene, Thelma moves on to observe our heroine, now a teenager, as she moves from her mega-Christian home to Oslo to pursue a college education.
That’s where otherwise healthy Thelma (Eili Harboe) starts experiencing troublesome seizures and visions, while trying to figure out how to deal with her increasingly strong feelings toward fellow student Anja (Kaya Wilkins). In time, she discovers that the violence of the seizures are in response to the unnerving development of superhuman traits she now embodies.
What’s it all mean? Can’t say. Decide for yourself. With Henrik Rafaelsen, Ludvig Algeback, Ellen Dorrit Petersen. Subtitled.
Basmati Blues (not rated, 1 hour, 46 minutes) A hopeful but under-achieving and ultimately failed musical comedy (think Bollywood, but not nearly as entertaining) that stars 2016 Oscar winner Brie Larson (best actress, Room) as American food scientist Linda Watt, a loner who finds it necessary to travel to India to test a genetically modified rice she has developed. There’s no getting around Indian culture, so she’s forced to try to fit in. Romantic complications ensue.With Donald Sutherland, Lakshmi Manchu, Tyne Daly, Scott Bakula; directed by Dan Baron.
Looking Glass (R, 1 hour, 43 minutes) A mediocre thriller, which is about all Nicolas Cage appears in anymore. (Remember when he was terrific in films such as 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas?) This time, following the death of their daughter, Ray (Cage) and Maggie (Robin Tunney) buy a motel in the middle of the desert to escape their memories and start over. But the motel proves to be a magnet for mystery. Warning: Stay out of crawl spaces. With Marc Blucas; directed by Tim Hunter.
Permanent (PG-13, 1 hour, 33 minutes) An appealing if thinly plotted family-dynamic comedy in which preteen Aurelie (Kira McLean) is trying to fit in at a new school in the South, where all the girls flaunt Farrah Fawcett hairstyles. She begs her mother Jeanne (Patricia Arquette) to allow her to get a permanent, which results in a cost-saving visit to a beauty school — with disastrous results. The fun follows as various styles of coping are revealed. With Rainn Wilson; directed by Colette Burson.
Sweet Virginia (R, 1 hour, 33 minutes) A gloomy, tense and skillfully assembled suspense thriller in which a past-his-prime rodeo star and a violent young drifter find that their fates have collided in the wake of a triple murder in a small Alaska town. With Jon Bernthal, Imogen Poots, Rosemarie DeWitt, Christopher Abbott; directed by Jamie M. Dagg.