HOME MOVIES
Aniara,
directed by Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja
(R, 1 hour, 46 minutes)
What happens to a desperate group of refugees when they realize they have nothing to live for?
That’s the premise in this smartly executed philosophical fantasy about a spaceship, one of many carrying the destroyed Earth’s remaining population to a new settlement on Mars, that is knocked off course by interstellar trash — which means its passengers will never be able to arrive at their new home or retreat to where they came from.
Fans of fatalism will be forgiving on the sometimes awkward script in favor of focusing on the film’s scope, ambition and complexity.
With Emelie Jonsson, Bianca Cruzeiro, Arvin Kananian
Brightburn (R, 1 hour, 30 minutes) Get past the cheap thrills and get rewarded now and then with a halfway decent and occasionally frightening horror thriller concerning a child from another world who crash-lands on Earth, with bad intentions. With Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Matt Jones; directed by David Yarovesky.
The Hustle (PG-13, 1 hour, 33 minutes) It should be funny, but despite brave efforts by its energized leading ladies, it’s not. Two con artists — one a sexy and calculating Brit, the other a freerange Australian — ply their trade with varying degrees of success. With Rebel Wilson, Anne Hathaway; directed by Chris Addison.
A Dog’s Journey (PG, 1 hour, 49 minutes) Continuing the sentimental preaching-to-the-choir
melodrama that started with 2017’s A Dog’s Purpose, Bailey (voiced by Josh Gad) is at the inevitable stage of canine existence when he must leave his earthly existence and move on to other realms. With Marg Helgenberger, Betty Gilpin, Henry Lau, Kathryn Prescott, Dennis Quaid; directed by Gail Mancuso.
I Trapped the Devil (not rated, 1 hour, 22 minutes) And you thought your family was dysfunctional? Consider the tense and slow-building horror story of Matt (AJ Bowen) and wife Karen (Susan Burke), who make an unplanned Christmas visit to the home of his estranged brother Steve (Scott Poythress), they discover there’s a man trapped in Steve’s basement. Could that man be the devil? With Jocelin Donahue,
Chris Sullivan; directed by Josh Lobo.
The Brink (not rated, 1 hour, 31 minutes) A sometimes disturbing documentary that presents an unattractive and forbidding picture of Steve Bannon through the 2018 midterm elections in the United States, illustrating his efforts to mobilize and unify far-right parties in order to win seats in the May 2019 European Parliamentary elections. Directed by Alison Klayman.
The Wild Pear Tree (not rated, 3 hours, 8 minutes) This lengthy, deliberately paced and idealistically revealing epic follows an aspiring writer who returns home to Turkey, hoping to publish his first novel, where his ambitious dreams crash up against the reality of the surroundings that made him who he is. With Bennu Yildirimlar, Hazar Ergiuclu; directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Subtitled.