Chile Pages
OPENING THIS WEEK
THE AMAZING NINA SIMONE
The life of incomparable singer, songwriter, and pianist Nina Simone is exhaustively explored in this documentary, with a focus on her role in the civil-rights movement. The film paints her as an artist full of passion and fury. This is the second Simone documentary to see release in the last six months. What Happened, Miss Simone? has a more dramatic narrative arc and is more polished and performancebased than this account. As a result, The Amazing Nina Simone is slightly less engaging, but it is still an important document of an often misunderstood musician. Not rated. 110 minutes. Jean
Cocteau Cinema. (Robert Ker)
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH
Nicolas Roeg is one of the U.K.’s bravest film directors, and David Bowie one of its brightest rock stars, yet their 1976 collaboration — much of which was shot throughout New Mexico — is more iconic than it is great. No matter: In the week after Bowie’s death, it is bittersweet and touching to see him alive and vibrant, in the Land of Enchantment in the prime of his career. Bowie plays Newton, an alien who travels to Earth in search of water, finds it in New Mexico (well, it is science fiction), and ends up drifting through the planet, growing wealthy and meeting a host of people. With his thin frame and dyed-strawberry-blond hair, Bowie cuts a figure that is dashing yet odd. These features, along with his own rock-star mythology, make him perfectly cast, but the movie itself, while often beautiful and surreal, does have its share of slow patches. All ticket sales for the 6:30 p.m. showing on Sunday, Jan. 17, will benefit the American Cancer Society, and after the film, at 9 p.m., the theater hosts a free tribute event with a Bowie singalong, live music, and karaoke. Rated R.
138 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Robert Ker)
THE MET LIVE IN HD: LES PEˆCHEURS DE PERLES
Diana Damrau stars in this staging of Bizet’s opera, which is broadcast live from the Met. The cast also includes Matthew Polenzani and Mariusz Kwiecien´ . Penny Woolcock, who made her Met debut staging John Adams’ Doctor Atomic, directed this new production. 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 16. Lensic Performing Arts Center. (Not reviewed)
MUSTANG
This familial drama by writer and director Deniz Gamze Ergüven is a nominee for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Oscars. Set in a remote Turkish village, the story centers on five sisters who play on a beach with some boys and are punished for what their family considers inappropriate contact with the opposite sex. They are slowly trained to be “suitable” for marriage, while rebelling against their conservative culture and abusive family. Rated PG-13. 97 minutes. In Turkish with subtitles. Regal DeVargas. (Not reviewed)
NORM OF THE NORTH
Rob Schneider voices Norm, a polar bear who must leave the Arctic Circle, and soon finds himself in New York City along with his best buds — three lemmings. After adjusting to his new surroundings, Norm finds a job as the mascot for a corporation. He begins to have doubts about the position when he learns the company is looking to completely destroy the climate of his home. Rated PG. 86 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
RIDE ALONG 2
The pairing of Ice Cube’s bad cop with Kevin Hart as the belligerent, often-annoying brother-in-law was such a hit that the duo is getting back into the squad car for a sequel. This time, the setting shifts to Miami, but the premise remains the same: There’s a bad guy to fight, a few action sequences, and lots of odd-couple comedy. Rated PG-13. 101 minutes. Regal DeVargas; Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)
ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS
Italian director Luchino Visconti is perhaps best known for his 1963 film The Leopard, an opulent look at the aristocracy in decline. Three years prior to that masterpiece, he released this film — now newly restored — which is similarly epic but with the camera trained on the lower class. With an approach steeped in Italian neorealism and a bit of classic Hollywood drama, Visconti tells the story of a poor family of brothers who move north to Milan with their mother in search of better fortune. All of the brothers get time in the spotlight, but the main narrative focuses on the rivalry between the magnanimous Rocco (Alain Delon) and the selfish Simone (Renato Salvatori), along with the woman caught between them (a show-stealing Annie Girardot). Nino Rota’s music lends the film levity and gravitas as needed, and the photography by Giuseppe Rotunno evocatively takes viewers from cathedrals to back alleys to boxing rings. The movie is engrossing and operatic, and with the Italian setting and fraternal feud (not to mention the Rota score), it’s easy to see this film as a forebear of
The Godfather. Not rated. 180 minutes. In Italian with subtitles. The Screen. (Robert Ker)
13 HOURS: THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI
Director Michael Bay takes a break from the Transformers series to bring his whiz-bang action sequences, oversaturated color, hyperkinetic editing, and jingoism to tell the story of the attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. Based on the book by Mitchell Zuckoff, this movie centers on six members of a security team who fought to defend the compound. A beefed-up John Krasinski leads the cast. Rated R. 144 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)
TROUBLEMAKERS: THE STORY OF LAND ART
Director James Crump appears at the 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 15, screening. Not rated. 75 minutes. Center or Contemporary Arts. See review, Page 40.
NOW IN THEATERS
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE ROAD CHIP
This is the fourth film in the current Alvin and the Chipmunks series, after the original, The Squeakquel, and Chipwrecked. Apparently, the movies will live as long as there are bad puns for the titles. In this one, the delightfully selfless Chipmunks try to prevent their friend Dave (Jason Lee) from getting married, out of fears that he’ll ditch them shortly after. Rated PG. 86 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)
THE BIG SHORT
Adam McKay’s Oscar-nominated movie (in the Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actor categories) is by turns funny, frightening, suspenseful, informative, and tragic. It examines the 2008 near-collapse of the world financial system from the perspectives of four analysts, or teams, who had the vision to recognize what nobody else saw coming: the rottenness of the system, the worthlessness of the packaged mortgages on which the economy was gliding, and the inevitable devastating crash when the bubble burst. They bet against the economy. They bet big. And they won. That McKay is able to explain the financial collapse that cost so many people their homes and savings — and make it entertaining — is a remarkable achievement. Terrific performances come from a cast that includes Academy Award-nominee Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, and Steve Carell. And McKay leaves us with a warning: It could happen again. Rated R. 130 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
BRIDGE OF SPIES
In this nominee for the Best Picture Academy Award, Steven Spielberg resurrects the fascinating tale of the Cold War prisoner exchange of Soviet spy Rudolf Abel and Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 pilot shot down over the Soviet Union. The story centers on James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks), a Brooklyn insurance lawyer and former Nuremberg prosecutor who is drafted to represent Abel and uphold the image of the American justice system. As he works with Abel (Mark Rylance, nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar), a bond of admiration forms between the two. The first half of the movie hums along nicely, despite an occasional Spielbergian weakness for movie cliché. The second half, which sets Donovan to work arranging the swap, has too many threads to follow and loses focus. Both Hanks and Rylance are terrific. Rated PG-13. 141 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Jonathan Richards)
BROOKLYN
In 1950s Ireland, the forward-thinking Rose (Fiona Glascott) has arranged for her younger sister Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) to go to Brooklyn out of necessity — Eilis can’t find a decent job, and there are few other prospects for her in Ireland. In New York, Eilis settles into a new life, living in a boardinghouse teeming with other, brasher young Irish women. She’s introverted and homesick, weeping over her sister’s letters — until she meets Tony (an adorable Emory Cohen), an Italian-American plumber who’s sweet on Irish girls and loves the Brooklyn Dodgers. Such a conventional plot would be slight in other hands, and though Nick Hornby’s screenplay is more sentimental than the Colm Tóibín novel it’s based on, the film — in the running for the Academy Award for Best Picture — never dips into treacly territory. The reason for that is Best Actress Oscar-nominee Ronan, whose steely, undemonstrative performance capably anchors the story.
Rated PG-13. 111 minutes. Violet Crown. (Molly Boyle)
CAROL
This is director Todd Haynes’ second 1950s-era melodrama, after the Douglas Sirk-influenced
Far From Heaven, in which Julianne Moore plays a suburban housewife with a closeted gay husband. This time — in a story adapted from a 1952 novel by Patricia Highsmith, which she published under a pseudonym due to its lesbian plotline — it’s glamorous New Jersey housewife Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett) who’s gay and nudging the closet door open. She’s going through a difficult separation and divorce from her husband, Harge (Kyle Chandler), during the holiday season when she meets Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), an ingénue working the counter at a New York City department store. The alchemy between Therese and Carol is instant, and glorious to behold, as the film centers on the remarkable performances of these two actresses, both nominated for Academy Awards. Every disparate element of the film adds to its virtuosity, from the period designs to the score. Rated R.
118 minutes. Violet Crown. (Molly Boyle)
CREED
This Rocky sequel takes the spotlight off Rocky Balboa and puts it on Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan), the son of Rocky’s rival and friend, Apollo Creed. Sick of living in the shadow of a father he never knew, Adonis heads to Philadelphia and seeks out Rocky (Sylvester Stallone, in an Oscar-nominated performance) to train him to fight. The film follows a satisfying, if predictable, sports-movie arc, but offers a strong romantic subplot (with Tessa Thompson), excellent
acting, and a wonderful, authentic feel for urban Philadelphia.
Rated PG-13. 132 minutes. DreamCatcher. (Robert Ker)
DADDY’S HOME
Will Ferrell effectively played the milquetoast to Mark Wahlberg’s tough guy in the 2010 buddy-cop romp The Other
Guys, and now they bring the same dynamic to a family comedy. Ferrell plays a mild-mannered executive who is trying to be the best father to his stepchildren that he can, until one day the real dad (Wahlberg) comes roaring in on his motorcycle and makes him look like a total square. Linda Cardellini plays the mom who is caught between them. Rated PG-13. 96 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)
THE DANISH GIRL
Eddie Redmayne, winner of last year’s best actor Academy Award for his portrayal of the ALSburdened physicist Stephen Hawking, tosses his hat in the ring again with another Oscar-nominated performance as Lili Elbe, née Einar Wegener, a Danish painter who in the early 1930s became a transgender pioneer. Perhaps even better is Alicia Vikander, who brings enormous sympathy to the role of Einar’s artist wife, Gerda, without the benefit of torment or confusion on which to hang her character. Director Tom Hooper has crafted a beautiful picture. But there’s a sense of emotional distance that the movie never quite manages to shake. Maybe it’s too tasteful, too careful. What Lili Elbe did was terrifyingly bold. The movie is elegant and safe. Rated R. 120 minutes. In French, German, and English with subtitles. Regal DeVargas. (Jonathan Richards)
THE FOREST
FLOWERS
Ane (Nagore Aranburu), a woman in a stale, childless marriage, begins to receive a weekly delivery of flowers from an anonymous sender. Week after week, no note accompanies the lovely bouquet. In order to not upset her husband, Ane hides the flowers and takes them to her office. One day, a coworker, Beñat (Josean Bengoetxea), dies in a car accident and the flower delivery stops. Was it Beñat who sent her the flowers? This could have been the central question in
Flowers, but thankfully it is not. Instead, the film powerfully explores the silent tensions that have a way of invading marriage and other family relationships. Not rated. 100 minutes. In Basque with English subtitles. The Screen. (Priyanka Kumar) The first horror movie of 2016 stars Natalie Dormer as Sara, a woman who senses that something is terribly wrong with her twin sister. She travels to Japan and searches for her sibling in a mysterious forest at the foot of Mount Fuji. Sara enters the woods, infamous as a place where suicides occur, on a rescue mission. When the sun goes down, she must rely on her survival instincts against all of those spooky ghosts. A Skype Q& A with Dormer follows the 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 16, screening at Jean Cocteau Cinema. Rated PG-13. 95 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema; Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)
THE HATEFUL EIGHT
Quentin Tarantino’s eighth film centers on a couple of bounty hunters bringing their scores into a little Wyoming town to collect their rewards. Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) hitches a ride on a stagecoach chartered by a colleague named John Ruth (Kurt Russell), who is handcuffed to a nasty piece of work called Daisy Domergue, played with venomous glee by the Oscar-nominated Jennifer Jason Leigh. Filling out the coach party is another hitchhiker, Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), who claims to be on his way to become the new sheriff of Red Rock. When they take shelter from a winter storm in a way station, they encounter a few more hateful characters, and the rest of the story unfolds in one room, like an Agatha Christie story, complete with mayhem, gore, foul language, and lots of blood. Leading the pack of swaggering, full-throated performances is Jackson, who is about as tough and smooth and vengeful as a man can be. And driving it all is Tarantino’s terrific screenplay, loaded with clever, nasty, exuberant dialogue and his love of movies. Rated R. 168 minutes, with a 15-minute intermission. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
HEART OF A DOG
Artist and performer Laurie Anderson’s experimental documentary uses the story of her dog Lolabelle to tie together several philosophical and autobiographical narratives. It’s a tender and impressionistic film, which was mostly shot using an iPhone. Anderson also uses home movies, animation, drawings, and photographs, describing moments in her own life as well as those of others: friends and family — as well as the nation itself. Throughout, she brings the narrative back to her dog, whom she treats with respect, dignity, and love. Anderson details the experiences of the dog’s life, death, and afterlife from the perspective of Tibetan Buddhist theology, musing on Lolabelle’s journey and the paths we take in our own lives. Not rated. 75 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Michael Abatemarco)
HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT
Director Kent Jones’ documentary is based on the historic Hollywood meeting between film giants François Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock in 1962. Alone with an interpreter, the two men discussed their careers over a week-long period, becoming fast friends. Truffaut, one of the French New Wave directors, helped establish Hitchcock as an auteur (Truffaut was the first to popularize the term in relation to filmmakers) rather than being a mere purveyor of “light” entertainment. The documentary presents insights into many of Hitchcock’s films and, less so, Truffaut’s. But it’s Truffaut’s arguments and thoughts about the “master of suspense” that drive the film. The documentary ends on a high note, showing one of Hitchcock’s most celebrated tracking shots, which reveals exactly why we still talk about him today. Rated PG-13. 79 minutes. In English, French, and Japanese with subtitles. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Michael Abatemarco)
JOY
David O. Russell’s latest venture with the returning cast of Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, and Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook) opens with the title card, “Inspired by the true stories of daring women. One in particular.” The film tells the story of Joy (Lawrence, up for a Best Actress Oscar), based on the real-life tale of Joy Mangano’s rise to home-shopping network success after she invented the self-wringing Miracle Mop while struggling to pay the bills as a single mother. Russell establishes a pleasantly screwball pace early on, and the narrative is entertaining for much of the film, carried along by the Lawrence’s radiant energy and De Niro’s wry comedic chops. But style ultimately trumps the movie’s fragmented substance, and after all the sassy lines, sunglasses, and sauntering are over, viewers may be left wondering what exactly the point was. Rated PG-13. 124 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Molly Boyle)
MACBETH
Australian Justin Kurzel’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s play-that-must-not-be-named (theatrical superstition forbids the uttering of the title inside a theater) is powerful, brutal, original, and sometimes almost incomprehensible. The more familiar you are with the language of the play, the better off you will be, because, as half-whispered in hoarse Scottish brogues throughout most of the movie, against an insistent score that is sometimes mournful, sometimes booming, much of the dialogue is lost. The cast, headed by Michael Fassbender in the title role, and the haunting, saucer-eyed Marion Cotillard as his lethal wife, is superb. The cinematography by Adam Arkapaw is majestic, and almost unremittingly dark. By the time Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane, the hell on earth that Macbeth’s misguided ambition has wrought has become tangible and terrifying. Rated R. 113 minutes. Center for Contemporary Art. (Jonathan Richards)
THE PEARL BUTTON
Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán creates a lyrical and wrenching essay on the watery beauties of his country, with its thousands of miles of coastline, its vanishing indigenous coastal tribes, and its other “disappeared”: the desaparecidos who vanished under Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship. The exquisite beauty of Katell Djian’s cinematography, the extraordinary ethnographic photographs of a disappearing people, the heart-rending recollections of a handful of surviving Kawésqar elders, and the reflections of a few contemporary poets and oceanographers and philosophers work together to weave an enchanting, exhilarating, and profoundly disturbing work of cinematic poetry. Not rated. 82 minutes. In Spanish and Kawésqar with subtitles. The Screen. (Jonathan Richards)
POINT BREAK
The 1991 thriller Point Break, which starred Patrick Swayze as a surfing bank robber and Keanu Reeves as an undercover FBI agent trying to catch him, was a big hit that enjoys a cult following to this day. It’s hard to imagine that the film’s fans ever wanted a remake, yet here one is, with Édgar Ramírez in the Swayze role and Luke Bracey playing Reeves’ part. Rated PG-13. 113 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)
THE REVENANT
The adventures of Hugh Glass, one of the legendary mountain men of the American frontier, make for spellbinding storytelling. Whether they make a spellbinding movie is most likely to be found in the eye of the beholder. The facts of this tale are grisly, and director Alejandro G. Iñárritu (last year’s Oscar-winner with Birdman) hews closely to them. Mauled by a bear and left to die by his companions, Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) incredibly survived, made it back over hundreds of miles of wilderness to civilization, and sought revenge on the men who had abandoned him. A man being attacked by a bear is riveting cinema; a man dragging himself over hundreds of miles of frozen landscape is not. The true story of Hugh Glass is a testament to man’s capacity for endurance. For better or for worse, so is the movie, which has nonetheless drawn 12 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Supporting Actor. Rated R. 158 minutes. In English, French, Pawnee, and Arikara with some subtitles. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Jonathan Richards)
ROOM
This adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s 2010 novel (with a screenplay by the author) from director Lenny Abrahamson is both suspenseful and deeply moving, — and in the running for several Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, and Actress. It’s the harrowing tale of a young woman (Brie Larson) and her son (Jacob Tremblay) who are being held captive in a grungy 11-by-11-foot garden shed. It’s no one’s idea of a feel-good story, and in less capable hands, it could easily have been dark, melodramatic, or sensationalist. Instead, Abrahamson has created a gripping tale of survival and a tender depiction of a mother and son who save each other. Rated R.
118 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Laurel Gladden)
SISTERS
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have been comedic partners from their early days in Chicago’s ImprovOlympic in the 1990s through Saturday Night Live in the 2000s and up to their recent run as co-hosts of the Golden Globe Awards. This film finds them using that chemistry to play sisters who throw one last party at their parents’ house before it is sold. Rated R. 118 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)
SPOTLIGHT
It’s not a religion that comes under the glare of
Spotlight, but an institution. In Tom McCarthy’s splendid, crackling ode to journalism, the “Spotlight” investigative team at The Boston Globe tackles pedophilia and its coverup within the Catholic Church. McCarthy is careful not to glamorize his reporters. They’re played as hardworking stiffs by a superb cast that includes Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, and Liev Schreiber. McCarthy keeps nibbling at the question of how this story could have remained buried for so long. Part of it has to do with the power of the church, and the shame of the victims. And some of it has to do with the cozy relationships among the city’s power institutions. At the end of the film, the truly staggering extent and reach of this scandal is revealed. The film is up for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actor and Actress.
Rated R. 128 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Jonathan Richards)
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
It has been more than 30 years since Return of the
Jedi (1983) but now the First Order has arisen from the Empire’s ashes, wanting control of the galaxy. With the help of Finn (John Boyega), a reformed Stormtrooper, the Resistance seeks the assistance of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), who some believe is only a legend. Finn joins Resistance fighter Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), the scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley), Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and Chewbacca while pursued by the First Order’s Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who’s bent on lighting up the cosmos with a Death Star-like weapon. Helmed by J.J. Abrams, this spirited seventh chapter in the saga is the Star Wars movie you’ve been waiting for — and nominated for several Oscars, including Best Visual Effects and Score. Applaud you will. Rated PG-13. 135 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. Screens in 2-D only at DreamCatcher. (Michael Abatemarco)
THEEB
Theeb (Jacir Eid Al-Hwietat) lives with his Bedouin tribe in the wilds of the Ottoman Empire in 1916. His father has died, so Theeb is learning life skills — how to shoot a gun, how to water the camels — from his older brother Hussein (Hussein Salameh Al-Sweilhiyeen). When Hussein is sent to guide a British officer to a secret location, Theeb follows them. This gorgeous film, nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, is told entirely from Theeb’s point of view and is at heart a little boy’s adventure tale — but this story is tied to how progress has changed the countryside and the livelihoods of the tribes that inhabit it. Plot and character details are finely wrought, with Al-Hwietat turning in a subtle, entrancing performance in which he conveys intimate comfort with heat and sand, the visceral relief of slaked thirst, and a fierce determination not to allow a mysterious stranger to further betray him. Not rated. 100 minutes. In Arabic with subtitles. The Screen. (Jennifer Levin)
THE WINTER’S TALE
Judi Dench stars as Paulina and Kenneth Branagh plays Leontes in this staging of Shakespeare’s play, which is co-directed by Branagh and Rob Ashford and performed by Branagh’s Londonbased theater company. This is Dench’s third time tackling a role in the play, having portrayed Hermione and Perdita in past productions. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Not reviewed)
YOUTH
In this latest homage to Fellini from Paolo Sorrentino
(The Great Beauty), two old friends contemplate life from opposite perspectives in a luxurious Alpine resort. Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine) is a celebrated composer/conductor who has turned his back on his past and his future and is wallowing in the present. Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel) is a celebrated film director, but the celebration is winding down. Sorrentino’s premise of characters gathered at a grand hotel is not a fresh one, but the top-notch cast and the lovely surroundings give us enough to enjoy a pleasant couple of hours. There are some striking scenes and moments. But Sorrentino is too much in thrall to the master, Fellini; he never seems to get an original feel for the material, and make it matter. Not rated. 118 minutes.
Regal DeVargas. (Jonathan Richards)