Clowns, romance and Packers
Week’s movie releases offer a variety of topics
rated R for language, some sexuality/nudity and violence. It runs for 99 minutes.
‘It’
Stephen King sends in the clowns — actually, just one, but he’s the horror-meister’s scariest one ever — again in “It.”
Based on King’s bestselling novel, the movie centers on a town in Maine terrorized by a sinister clown that has been snatching and killing kids for generations. A group of local youth, including one whose brother was snatched — decides to put a stop to it.
Bill Skarsgård plays Pennywise, the creepy killer clown.
“It” is rated R for violence, gore and language. It runs for 135 minutes.
‘Home Again’
When her marriage sours, Alice (Reese Witherspoon) heads home to L.A. with her two daughters to start over.
After a night out celebrating her 40th birthday, she agrees to let a trio of twenty-something filmmaking dudes stay in her guest house. Things get complicated when she begins a relationship with one of the dudes (Pico Alexander), and has to contend with her disapproving mother (Candice Bergen) and the return of her ex (Michael Sheen).
The feature-film debut of writer-director Hallie Meyers-Shyer (daughter of romantic-comedy directors Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer), “Home Again” is getting so-so reviews. Variety critic Owen Gleiberman called it “a lifestyle comedy with a soupçon of pain.”
“Home Again” is rated PG-13 for some thematic and sexual material. It runs for 96 minutes.
‘The 60 Yard Line’
If you’re ready for some football, you won’t have to wait until Sunday.
Filmed in Green Bay, “The 60 Yard Line” is about a Packers fan (played by Ryan Churchill, who also wrote the movie) and his best friend, a Bears fan (Nick Greco), who buy a house in the parking lot at Lambeau Field just in time for the start of the 2009 season — the year Brett Favre joined the Minnesota Vikings.
That’s not the only drama: Turns out Churchill’s fiancé (Kim Crossman) isn’t too happy with the new address.
“The 60 Yard Line” is not rated. It runs for 90 minutes.
‘Menashe’
“Menashe” is a different kind of family drama, on almost every level, than you’re used to seeing in Milwaukee theaters.
Filmed in New York’s ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jewish community, the movie centers on the title character, a grocery store clerk whose wife has died. Compounding his sorrow, tradition prohibits him from raising his son without a woman in the house.
Desperate to get his son back, Menashe is granted one week with his boy before the memorial for his wife marks the youth’s departure.
“It’s a story that feels absolutely real and never gets in the way of itself, unfolding at a natural pace that recalls real life,” Detroit News reviewer Adam Graham wrote, giving “Menashe” a B.
“Menashe,” mostly in Yiddish with English subtitles, is rated PG for thematic elements. It runs for 82 minutes.
‘Crown Heights’
Based on a true story, “Crown Heights” recounts the efforts of Carl “KC” King to obtain the freedom of his childhood friend, Colin Warner, after the latter is wrongly convicted of murder.
King (Nnamdi Asomugha) is a one-man Innocence Project, doing whatever it takes to get justice for Warner (Lakeith Stanfield) — even if it takes (as it turned out it did) 21 years.
In her 3-star review, Washington Post critic Ann Hornaday wrote that “Crown Heights” “takes a more low-key, measured tone” to a subject treated more viscerally in this summer’s injustice drama, “Detroit.”
“Crown Heights” is
‘Viceroy’s House’
In 1947, Lord Mountbatten (Hugh Bonneville) and his wife (Gillian Anderson) arrive in India to oversee the country’s transition to independence, just as sharp religious and cultural divides threaten to tear India apart.
Directed by Gurinder Chadha (”Bend It Like Beckham”), “Viceroy’s House” is a costume epic depicting the difficult beginnings of India and Pakistan, and the end of the British Empire.
“These are classy ingredients, but not enough to save Chadha’s polite period pageant from sinking into soggy soap opera,” Hollywood Reporter reviewer Stephen Dalton wrote.
“Viceroy’s House” is not rated. It runs for 106 minutes.
‘Rememory’
Peter Dinklage battles his demons instead of white walkers and siblings in “Rememory.”
After he’s “rescued” by having his repressed memories revived, Dinklage sets out to solve the murder of the man whose high-tech system did the rescuing. Along the way, he discovers why some memories shouldn’t be brought back.
Julia Ormond, Henry Ian Cusick and the late Anton Yelchin co-star.
Critics haven’t loved “Rememory”; Variety critic Guy Lodge called the sci-fi/detective drama “a bit of a trudge, despite Dinklage’s committed and empathetic performance.”
“Rememory” is rated PG-13 for gory images, some violence, thematic material and brief language. It runs for 111 minutes.