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Reviews of movies showing in theaters or streaming online
‘ENCANTO’: The latest Disney Animation film, “Encanto,” sweeps audiences away to a colorful, enchanted world of Colombian magical realism, introducing the Madrigal family, who have each been granted extraordinary gifts, except one, our heroine, Mirabel (Stefanie Beatriz), who has yet to discover her own personal magic. The Madrigal family magic was borne out of extreme trauma and pain, when matriarch Abuela Alma (Maria Cecilia Botero) lost her husband while fleeing violence in their village. In desperation, she cried out for protection for herself and her infant triplets, and a magical candle raised mountains around a charmed casita, where she’s raised her family since. Each Madrigal receives their gift in a coming-of-age ceremony, whether it’s super strength, high-powered hearing, talking to animals, spinning flowers out of thin air, shape-shifting, future divining, weather controlling or food healing. The only exception to the magical rule so far is the sweet, smart Mirabel, who never received her gift, and has since felt like the family outcast, bending over backward to earn her place among them. As she starts to see cracks in the foundation of their beloved casita, Mirabel probes deeper in to the family’s magic, and ultimately realizes that all of her family members are caught in the trap of perfectionism. 1:39. 3 stars.
— Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service
‘THE KING’S MAN’: How English is “The King’s Man”? So English that the biggest musical flourish in the score is reserved for a scene in which someone decides whether to have a cup of tea. It’s a prequel to the “Kingsman” movies that starred Taron Egerton and Samuel L. Jackson, but it’s best to forget about them since this one takes place more than half a century earlier. It purports to chart the development of the secret spy agency depicted in the gleefully bloody London-set “Kingsman” films, connecting early-20th-century events such as the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Russian reign of terror of Rasputin and trench warfare in World War I. 2:11. 2 stars. — Chris Hewitt, Star Tribune ‘LICORICE PIZZA’: Gary Valentine is almost famous. This enterprising hustler parlays his demi-fame into a kind of accidentalon-purpose mystique, that of a 15-year-old LA whiz kid, with one foot in the Industry as a child actor and the other in whatever he’s cooking up at the moment. “Licorice Pizza,” writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s gloriously hazy hangout of a movie, starts from the premise of this San Fernando Valley high schooler putting his idea of “the moves” on 25-yearold Alana. She works as a photographer’s assistant. He first spies her when he’s in line for picture day. Their queasy age difference makes Gary’s ardor, in Alana’s eyes, a foolish delusion. Yet Alana — as played, indelibly, by Alana Haim of the Grammy-nominated sisters band Haim — finds herself weirdly charmed by this boy/man. 2:13. 3 ½ stars. — Michael Phillips
‘THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS’:
When the Wachowski siblings, Lana and Lilly, changed the film landscape (and popular culture) forever with 1999’s “The Matrix,” a philosophical sci-fi film starring Keanu Reeves that questioned the very nature of existence itself, it was no surprise that the studio behind the movie, Warner Bros., asked them to make
a few more. They obliged in 2003, with “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Matrix Revolutions,” though the sequels effectively killed off the idea that we’d ever hang with Neo and Trinity again. But the powers that be will always want more, and so a sequel to the trilogy, “The Matrix Resurrections,” arrives 18 years later. But this isn’t just another rehash. Rather, the film asks us to question the utility of sequels, reboots and the constant churn of intellectual property, especially when the original lesson of “The Matrix” was to awaken oneself to the system and then bring the whole thing crashing down. 2:28. 3 stars. In theaters and streaming on HBO Max. — Katie Walsh ‘SING 2’: The turning point in “Sing 2” happens about 45 minutes in, when a porcupine croons a wistful version of U2’s “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of.” Up until that scene, “Sing 2” has been all too much like its predecessor, a weirdly disjointed animated comedy that was sort of like if karaoke were performed by stuffed animals. A bunch of cuddly
creatures, including that porcupine (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) and a koala (Matthew McConaughey), are involved in a musical competition where blandly competent singers perform versions of songs that make you wish you could hear the original performers instead. Writer/ director Garth Jennings keeps making the musical numbers bigger and bigger, including a version of space travel, and we get to hear Johansson’s moody take on another U2 song, “With or Without You.” 1:52. 2 ½ stars. — Katie Walsh
‘SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME’:
Casting Tom Holland as Peter Parker was one of the sharper decisions to emerge from the ever-present, oxygen-sucking Marvel Cinematic Universe. These movies are designed to never, ever end. Always another intramural sequel or spinoff option. It can get a little wearying, and I say that with the knowledge that, for millions, there is no weariness, only rapture and delight. I’m happy for those people. We all need something. Holland provides the glue and the webbing
for the latest Spidey outing, “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” Director Jon Watts and screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers deliver an extremely busy, generally entertaining venture into the MCU multiverse of alternate timelines, competing versions of the same character and swirling trippiness. If you caught the animated and extremely deft 2018 “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” you’ll get the idea. This film has little of that film’s visual invention but a good deal of its verbal wit. 2:28. 3 stars. — Michael Phillips
‘THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH’:
The early 17th century potboiler “The Tragedy of Macbeth” is the shortest of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Director and adapter Joel Coen, working here without brother Ethan, took on this film version with his wife, Frances McDormand, committed — fully, as if that needed saying — to Lady Macbeth, opposite Denzel Washington as the ruthless warrior who lusts for the crown and goes blood simple in the process. Stripping “Macbeth” for parts, keeping the focus on the main narrative lines of political assassination and what Macbeth himself refers to as “supernatural soliciting,” Coen turns out to be ideally suited to a straight-ahead, let’s-get-on-with-it rendition. Shot on an LA soundstage, in tight, boxy 4:3 and black and white, this 105-minute trot through a charismatic power couple’s rise and fall is ripping stuff — largely because it dwells in a shadow realm where theatrical methods meet cinematic expression. In the best way, we never quite know where we are here. 1:45. 3 ½ stars. —
‘WEST SIDE STORY’:
Purists can relax, and put their smelling salts away. The vibrant new “West Side Story” hasn’t been updated, or relocated. It’s still a resident of Upper West Side Manhattan in the late 1950s, in the vicinity of what used to be called Lincoln Square and San Juan Hill. But director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner have made sharp, often arresting sense of original librettist Arthur Laurents’ material, born on Broadway in 1957. Jerome Robbins’ dances helped make the Broadway musical a prestige success; the score by Leonard Bernstein and a newcomer named Stephen Sondheim didn’t hurt, either. The 1961 movie, dutiful, square and pretty dull as cinema though full of performance felicities, took care of the smash-hit part of the show’s reputation. Whatever this new adaptation’s popular reception, it’s five times the movie the ’61 movie was. 2:36. 3 ½ stars.
RATINGS: The movies listed are rated according to the following key: 4 stars, excellent; 3 stars, good; 2 stars, fair; 1 star, poor.