Chile Pages,
directors, confirm Mifune’s lasting legacy as a screen icon, and the film is worth it for their insights and anecdotes about Mifune. But the movie’s take on the actor is superficial, and mainly as the embodiment of the characters he played. Not rated. 80 minutes. In English and Japanese with subtitles. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Michael Abatemarco)
MOANA
Disney Animation’s latest is a crowd-pleasing take on Polynesian mythology. Moana (Auli’i Cravalho), the daughter of a Pacific Islands chieftain, is chosen to save her people, and with the burly demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson), she sets sail to return a mystical stone to a volcano-like villain. Lively music, in part by Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton fame, buoys the film’s first half, while imaginative adventure sequences pepper the voyage’s back end. The film’s running time is fattened by an overlong first act and excessive bickering between Moana and Maui, but it’s a winsome bit of escapism and another strong effort by the studio to stick a pin in the Disney princess stereotype. Rated PG. 113 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Robert Ker)
MOONLIGHT
Writer-director Barry Jenkins has crafted a powerful Oscar contender with his story of an African-American boy growing up sensitive and sexually uncertain in the macho jungle of a Miami slum. We see his central character, Chiron, as a child (Alex Hibbert), a teenager (Ashton Sanders), and a man (Trevante Rhodes). He has a drug-addicted mother (Naomie Harris), no father, a crack-dealing mentor (Mahershala Ali), a gang of tormenting bullies, and one friend, Kevin, played in succession by Jaden Piner, Jharrel Jerome, and André Holland. With up-close visuals and handheld camera work, Jenkins enhances the sense of a claustrophobic existence with no escape. He gets great work from his team of actors as Chiron moves from childhood to the adult world. It’s a sensitive, moving story of growing up, coming out, and selfrealization in a desperate macho world. Rated R. 110 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts; Regal DeVargas; Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
A MONSTER CALLS
Lonely, hollow-eyed twelve-year-old Conor O’Malley (Lewis MacDougall) is “too old to be a kid, too young to be a man.” The same conundrum holds true for this haunted, impressively crafted tale from director J.A. Bayona, told in fantastic CGI special effects, animation, and live drama. Who is it for? Conor is bullied at school, but his life’s real tragedy is the cancer that is killing his beloved mother (Felicity Jones) and throwing him together with his authoritarian grandmother (Sigourney Weaver). His absentee father (Toby Kebbell) shows up to help, but he has a new family in LA. The monster, a giant animated tree (voiced by Liam Neeson) manifests itself to Conor in nightmarish appearances and growls three Dickensian stories designed to help him understand what’s happening in his life. In return, Conor must tell the monster his own story — about his darkest fears. The screenplay by Patrick Ness, who created a prizewinning novel from an idea begun by a dying friend, is complex and moving, with insights about mortality and survival, and the visuals are striking. But this one is not for the Frozen crowd. Rated PG-13. 108 minutes. Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
NOCTURNAL ANIMALS
Tom Ford’s sophomore feature (his first was 2009’s
A Single Man) is gripping, sweet, bitter, and violent. The story unfolds in layers. The first is the present, where Susan (Amy Adams) lives unhappily in her gilded world, which is replete with a handsome husband, a gorgeous house, and an upscale LA art gallery job. A package arrives. It’s the manuscript of a novel from her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal), and it plunges us into the next layer — a nightmare of a story. Susan begins to read into the novel’s vicious events a commentary on their marriage and its wrenching breakup. Enter Detective Bobby Andes (a superb Michael Shannon), and the endgame of revenge and retribution is on. Despite his occasional fondness for hitting the nail on the head, Ford has constructed a complex and engrossing movie and assembled a cast that delivers superbly, from cameos to relative unknowns to the terrific trio of Adams, Gyllenhaal, and Shannon that tops the bill. Rated R. 116 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Jonathan Richards)
ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY
The first sideline story in the Star Wars franchise since it came under the helm of Walt Disney Studios, Rogue One follows the efforts of a desperate group of heroes on a mission to infiltrate an imperial base and steal the plans for the Death Star. Felicity Jones plays Jyn Erso, the daughter of a scientist who has been forced to work with the Empire on the construction of their secret weapon. Her hope is to free her father, but Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) has other plans for the scientist, who he thinks is a traitor. It’s more downbeat than The Force Awakens, but tells its story with the requisite humor and bravura. It’s a chess game in space as the Rogue One crew match their wits against imperial baddies Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) and Darth Vader (voiced again by James Earl Jones), in a brief but unforgettable appearance. The second half boasts some of the most thrilling action of any Star Wars film, and with it, much sacrifice. Rated PG-13. 133 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Michael Abatemarco) SING In this animated comedy, a koala bear named Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey) runs a failing theater. He hatches an idea to host a singing competition in which his animal friends sing popular songs, bringing the community together and allowing some of his friends to show off their exhibitionist sides. Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, and Seth MacFarlane provide voices for some of the contestants. Rated PG. 108 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14. Screens in 2-D only at Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed) UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS The Underworld film series, about an eternal war between vampires and a race of werewolves known as the Lycans, is somehow now up to its fifth installment since its debut in 2003. This time, the gun-toting, vampire “death dealer” Selene (Kate Beckinsale once more) strives to end the war once and for all. Rated R. 91 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14. Screens in 2-D only at DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed) WHY HIM? When mild-mannered family man Ned Fleming (Bryan Cranston) meets brash internet billionaire Laird Mayhew (James Franco), the boyfriend of his daughter Stephanie (Zoey Deutch), he is appalled. With his childlike impulsiveness and lack of a filter, Laird offends Ned every bit as much as he charms the rest of the Flemings. After it’s made clear that Laird must secure Ned’s blessing in order to propose to Stephanie, a comedic duel commences. Rated R. 111 minutes. Regal DeVargas; Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)