now in theaters
A LA MALA This comedy from Mexico stars Aislinn Derbez as Maria Laura “Mala” Medina, an aspiring actress. She finds a second career testing the faithfulness of clients’ boyfriends — and then she falls for one of the suspects. Not rated. 99 minutes. In Spanish with subtitles. Regal Stadium 14 , Santa Fe. (Not reviewed)
AMERICAN SNIPER Based on the memoir by Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), the most prolific sniper in American military history, this is Clint Eastwood’s most commercially successful movie but far from his best artistically. Eastwood handles the action scenes powerfully but doesn’t thread them together with the kind of nuanced storytelling he’s capable of, and he leaves some loose ends dangling. The home-front scenes of Kyle with his wife (Sienna Miller) and family become a bore, but Cooper is excellent as a man increasingly addicted to combat and with no other thought than to protect his own. Rated R. 132 minutes. Regal Stadium 14 , Santa Fe; DreamCatcher , Española. ( Jonathan Richards)
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jean Cocteau’s first full-length feature is an enchanting fairy tale for the ages. A man plucks a rose from the garden of the Beast (Jean Marais), who means to kill him for the theft unless he sends one of his three daughters in his place. When Belle (Josette Day) comes to the Beast’s castle, he falls in love with her — and, in time, her fondness for him grows. Beauty and the Beast (La Belle
et la Bête) is a magical fantasy, full of the director’s signature trick photography and other in-camera effects that hold up as well today as they did in 1946. Not rated. 93 minutes. In French with subtitles. Jean Cocteau Cinema , Santa Fe. (Michael Abatemarco)
BIRDMAN OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE) In Alejandro González Iñárritu’s backstage satire, Michael Keaton dazzles with his brilliant dissection of a movie star, in artistic eclipse since he sold his soul to play a masked comic-book superhero, looking for redemption on the Broadway stage. Aided by a terrific supporting cast that includes Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, and Emma Stone and shot by the great Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman crackles with wit, fantasy, and penetrating insights about show business, cultural relevance, and the modern world. The film won four Oscars, including Best Picture. Rated R. 119 minutes. Regal DeVargas , Santa Fe. ( Jonathan Richards)
THE DUFF Teenage Bianca (Mae Whitman) discovers that she’s the DUFF of her clique — the designated ugly fat friend — and sets out to change her ways. She enlists the help of a jock (Robbie Amell) to give herself a makeover. Based on the young-adult novel by Kody Keplinger. Rated PG-13. 100 minutes. Regal Stadium 14 , Santa Fe; DreamCatcher , Española. (Not reviewed)
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY The erotic novel about a young woman, Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson), who falls in with billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) and his kinky preferences finally comes to the big screen. Some say that reading the book is an act of masochism — here’s hoping director Sam Taylor-Johnson has whipped the dialogue into shape. Rated R. 125 minutes. Regal Stadium 14 , Santa Fe; DreamCatcher , Española. (Not reviewed)
FOCUS Will Smith attempts a career comeback, playing a slick con man who meets a beautiful pickpocket (Margot Robbie) and falls in and out of love with her over the course of two jobs: one at the Superbowl in New Orleans and the other at an auto race in Buenos Aires. It’s usually fun to watch slick grifting of this nature, but there aren’t many surprises, the jokes never quite work, and the film is broken up like two episodes of a TV show. Aiming for The Sting , Focus ends up closer to The
Sting II . Rated R. 104 minutes. Regal Stadium 14 , Santa Fe; DreamCatcher , Española. (Robert Ker)
HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 2 If you could travel back to 2010, you probably would not guess that the comedy Hot Tub Time Machine would warrant a sequel. And yet, here we are in the future, and it has. John Cusack perhaps wisely stepped out of the bath, but Chevy Chase, Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry, and Clark Duke keep up the crazy adventures. Rated R. 93 minutes. DreamCatcher , Española. (Not reviewed)
THE IMITATION GAME This very entertaining movie could have been a lot more. Morten Tyldum has taken the engrossing story of Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch), the British war hero, computer pioneer, and homosexual martyr, and fit it into the familiar confines of a biopic stocked with Movie Moments, which never convince us that things really happened the way the film depicts them. Rated PG-13. 114 minutes. Regal DeVargas , Santa Fe. ( Jonathan Richards)
JUPITER ASCENDING In 1999, Andy and Lana Wachowski changed blockbuster filmmaking with the monster hit The Matrix . Since then, they’ve tried to reclaim that magic to little avail. Their latest effort stars Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis as two people in the distant future who attempt to overthrow a tyrannical reign. The effects look impressive, but the movie was bumped to February from last July, which is never a good sign. Rated PG-13. 127 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14 , Santa Fe. (Not reviewed)
KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE The spy movie shifts away from the gritty realism of Jason Bourne and Daniel Craig’s James Bond and back to the spirit of the 1960s secret-agent men in this colorful, overthe-top caper by director Matthew Vaughn. Taron Egerton plays an aimless kid who is recruited into an elite spy organization by Harry Hart (Colin Firth), and soon finds himself trying to stop a harebrained scheme by billionaire mastermind Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson). The action may get too violent for some, but this is a satisfying, energetic, irreverent romp that is full of ideas. The MVP award goes to costume designer Arianne Phillips. Rated R. 129 minutes. Regal Stadium 14 , Santa Fe. (Robert Ker)
THE LAZARUS EFFECT Olivia Wilde and Mark Duplass play two medical students who learn how to bring the dead back to life, starting with a dog and then moving on to humans. The film is directed by David Gelb, who seems to be changing things up after receiving acclaim for his foodie documentary
Jiro Dreams of Sushi . Rated PG-13. 83 minutes. Regal Stadium 14 , Santa Fe; DreamCatcher , Española. (Not reviewed)
LEVIATHAN Kolya (Aleksey Serebryakov) lives on a piece of land overlooking the spare but magnificent vista of an outpost on the northwest coast of Russia. That location has attracted the covetous eyes of the town’s corrupt mayor, Vadim (Roman Madianov). Vadim has set in motion the machinery of government to take away Kolya’s property. Kolya’s troubles continue to pile up, crushing him, and unlike the biblical Job, there is no God to set things right. The secular way of putting that is: You can’t fight city hall. Rated R. 141 minutes. In Russian with subtitles. Center for Contemporary Arts , Santa Fe. ( Jonathan Richards)
MAPS TO THE STARS Written by Bruce Wagner and directed by David Cronenberg,
Maps to the Stars is a dark, star-studded foray into the twisted hearts the Hollywood elite, where cynicism is the starting point. Themes include multiple forms of incest, abuse, and addiction, and no one has a chance at redemption. Performances by Julianne Moore and Mia Wasikowska are excellent, if overdirected, but the overwhelming nihilism of the screenplay has a deadening effect on the story it’s trying to tell. Rated R. 111 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts , Santa Fe. ( Jennifer Levin)
MCFARLAND, USA Kevin Costner, who knows his way around an inspirational sports movie, plays a crosscountry running coach in this film, which is based on true events. It’s 1987, and the coach finds himself working in a Latino community full of kids who have never been given a chance. He gets them to believe in themselves, overcome a variety of hurdles, and win a championship. Rated PG. 128 minutes. Regal Stadium 14 , Santa Fe; DreamCatcher , Española. (Not reviewed)
MR. TURNER Mike Leigh’s portrait of J.M.W. Turner is a warts-and-all impression of England’s greatest painter, constructed using the director’s process of improvisation, discussions with his actors to develop a script, and months of rehearsal. The result is a movie that is illuminating, beautifully performed, unimpeachably researched, and shot with an inspired Turneresque beauty by cinematographer Dick Pope. The film is perhaps a little long at two and a half hours, but that’s how long it takes. Rated R. 150 minutes. Regal DeVargas , Santa Fe. ( Jonathan Richards)
PADDINGTON The famous stuffed bear stars in a comedic caper in which he arrives in London, is taken in by a family (headed by Hugh Bonneville), and attempts to escape a nasty taxidermist (Nicole Kidman). Paul King directs with charm and inventiveness, and the humor is a near-perfect mix of cartoony silliness for the children and British wit for the adults. The second half may get too dark for smaller kids, but overall, it’s a delight. Rated PG. 95 minutes. Regal Stadium 14 , Santa Fe. (Robert Ker)
SEVENTH SON This fantasy adventure was first scheduled for release in February 2013, and after approximately the time it takes for the seventh son of a seventh son to be born, it has finally arrived in theaters. It stars Ben Barnes as the son of the title; he fights witches and monsters and all manner of evil spirits. Rated PG-13. 102 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14 , Santa Fe. (Not reviewed)
SONG OF THE SEA In this hand-drawn animated feature by Tomm Moore, little Saoirse grows up picked on by her older brother, Ben, who misses their mother, a mythical selkie who died in childbirth. When Saoirse, who has never spoken, develops an affinity for the water at age six, her still-grieving but well-intentioned father allows the children’s meddling grandmother to take them from their home in a lighthouse to live in Dublin, and it is up to Ben to lead his sister back to her birthright. Rated PG. 93 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts , Santa Fe. ( Jennifer Levin)
THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE OUT OF WATER Students in both preschool and college will love the latest SpongeBob SquarePants adventure, which is fast-paced, bizarre, psychedelic, and hilarious. The plot transforms Bikini Bottom into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, takes SpongeBob far into the future, features wacky musical interludes, and ends up with the whole gang swimming out of their cartoon world and into L.A., where they transform into superheroes (animated by CGI) and face off against a pirate (Antonio Banderas). Rated PG. 93 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14 , Santa Fe. Screens in 2-D only at DreamCatcher , Española. (Robert Ker)
STILL ALICE Get ready to add this film to your list of “hardest movies to watch.” A renowned author and linguistics professor, Alice (Oscar winner Julianne Moore for best actress) is in the middle of a lecture when she loses her train of thought. After visits to a neurologist, she is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Even the opening scenes have a sense of dread about them, and we watch Alice and her family endure the disease’s progression. The film can feel predictable and a little too neat, and many supporting parts feel sketchy, but it’s held aloft by Moore. Rated PG-13. 101 minutes. Regal DeVargas , Santa Fe. (Laurel Gladden)
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING A film about Stephen Hawking ought to be bursting with ideas. What director James Marsh came up with is a watchable but conventionally structured romantic biopic. Its secret weapon is Eddie Redmayne (who won the Academy Award for best actor), brilliant in his transformation into the Hawking we know, body confined to a wheelchair, voice produced by a machine. Rated PG-13. 123 minutes. Regal DeVargas , Santa Fe. ( Jonathan Richards)
TIMBUKTU In 2012, radical Islamists occupying the northern Mali town of Aguelhok executed an unmarried couple by public stoning. The incident prompted Abderrahmane Sissako, a Mauritanian filmmaker, to make this film about the imposition of Sharia law after the jihadist takeover of the legendary city at the edge of the Sahara Desert. For the most part, he leaves the violence implied, and the film manages to maintain some lightness, even humor, woven in with its darker strands. Not rated. 97 minutes. In English and various languages with subtitles. The Screen , Santa Fe. ( Jonathan Richards)
WHIPLASH Miles Teller plays teenage jazz drummer Andrew Neiman, whose dreams of becoming one of the greats hinge on surviving music instructor Terence Fletcher ( J.K. Simmons, who won the Oscar for best supporting actor), the sort of teacher who’s likely to throw a chair at his student’s head when requesting a drumroll. This indie-drama by Damien Chazelle compellingly explores the ways in which the power dynamics of a mentoring relationship can turn a teacher’s obsession into a student’s compulsion. Rated R. 107 minutes. Regal DeVargas , Santa Fe. (Loren Bienvenu)