NOW IN THEATERS

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Director Bill Condon seems to call on his collective experience directing Gods and Monsters, Dreamgirls, and some Twilight films to effectively imagine Disney’s 1991 animated fairy tale as a Gothic musical horror-

romance. Emma Watson steps into the role of the bookworm Belle, who is imprisoned by the Beast (Dan Stevens) in his castle. Unbeknownst to her, if she falls in love with him, she will release him and his friends from a curse. Luke Evans cuts a delicious villain as Gaston, and Emma Thompson, Ewan McGregor, and Ian McKellen voice some of the Beast’s magical knick-knacks. The story hews so closely to the animated original — which is more charming and concise — that this remake doesn’t fully validate its existence, aside from serving as a license for Disney to print money. This won’t matter to the core audience, however, who will adore the classic-Hollywood extravagance and the crowd-pleasing finale. Rated PG. 129 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at DreamCatcher. (Robert Ker)

BORN IN CHINA

The latest picture by Disneynature, the film imprint that takes often-incredible nature footage and conveys the lives of wild animals with kid-friendly narrative storytelling, returns for its annual release, which is usually scheduled around Earth Day. This time, the filmmakers head to China, where they look at several young animals — a panda bear cub, a two-year-old golden monkey, and a family of snow leopards — as they grow and make their way in the world. John Krasinski narrates. Rated G. 76 minutes. Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)

THE BOSS BABY

In this animated comedy, Alec Baldwin voices the title character, who is also the cutthroat CEO of the Baby Corporation. Boss Baby forms a reluctant alliance with his jealous older brother (Miles Christopher Bakshi) when they uncover a dastardly plot by Francis E. Francis (Steve Buscemi), the CEO of Puppy Co., to destabilize the balance of love in the world. Rated PG. 97 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)

CÉZANNE ET MOI

The friendship between Paul Cézanne and Émile Zola begins in their school days in Aix-en-Provence in 1852, and remains strong through good times and bad as the two men travel very different career paths. Zola starts out dirt-poor, but achieves early success with his writing, gradually drifting into the haute-bourgeoisie that he made his reputation by criticizing. Acceptance as a painter is painfully more elusive to Cézanne, who is not considered an equal by his peers. The movie, which jumps dizzyingly around in time, opens with Cézanne (Guillaume Gallienne) arriving for a visit, near Paris, at the comfortable home of Zola (Guillaume Canet). It soon becomes clear that Cézanne has been deeply wounded by his old friend’s latest book, Zola’s 1886 L’Oeuvre (The Masterpiece), whose central painter character is not always flatteringly built on Cézanne. He is difficult, obsessive, abrasive and foul-mouthed in polite company, and repeatedly characterized by Zola and others as incapable of love. Writer-director Danièle Thompson’s weakness for repetition weighs down an otherwise well-drawn and beautifully acted portrait of a fascinating friendship. Rated R. 117 minutes. The Screen. (Jonathan Richards)

THE CIRCLE

Based on the 2003 book by Dave Eggers, this adaptation stars Emma Watson as Mae, a young woman who lands a job at a major tech company. As she rises through the ranks, she discovers that their signature product — the “SeeChange,” a device that allows its users to be monitored around the clock, ostensibly for full transparency in public officials — may be overreaching into private lives. She must decide if she has enough courage and fight in her to stop a full-surveillance society. Tom Hanks, Patton Oswalt, and Bill Paxton, in his final film role, also star. Rated PG-13. 110 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)

CITIZEN JANE: BATTLE FOR THE CITY

Developer Robert Moses was one of the biggest and most controversial figures of 20th-century New York. He accrued enough power within city government that he could raze entire neighborhoods and replace them with expressways and housing projects, in the name of urban renewal. Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) was a journalist and author who disagreed with the modernist designers who saw cities as concepts rather than organic, functional places defined by the people who lived there. When Moses’ development encroached upon Washington Square Park and swaths of Jacobs’ West Village neighborhood, she shifted from writer to activist and successfully fought City Hall. This documentary traces both of their lives and their clash. It offers little new to those familiar with the city’s history and doesn’t really get cooking until the final third, when it tackles race and the highway system, but it’s a fascinating look at a struggle that persists in urban centers to this day. Not rated. 92 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Robert Ker)

THE COLORADO

This 2016 documentary about the Colorado River boasts a score of stunning vocal music with cinematograpy that is alternately awe-inspiring (the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and the Grand Canyon) and depressing (the dams, the Salton Sea, and the dried-up delta in Mexico). Mark Rylance narrates text written by Santa Fe author William deBuys and director Murat Eyuboglu. The film’s multidimensional portrait of the river includes spotlights on a 17th-century Jesuit mapmaker, a 19th-century explorer, and a 20th-century farmworker. The documentary offers an educational immersion in ecology and regional history, and it’s just a joy of an experience. Not rated. 91 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Paul Weideman)

DAVID LYNCH: THE ART LIFE

As fans of the enigmatic arthouse filmmaker David Lynch gear up for the big return of his television series Twin Peaks later this month, they can tide themselves over with this documentary. It focuses on his early years in life, as he describes some formative experiences and offers insight into how he gained his perspective on the world. The documentary focuses not only on Lynch’s work as a director but also on his painting and music-making. 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 17, only. Not rated. 90 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Not reviewed)

THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS

In the crew of his starship Enterprise, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry sought to represent the varied peoples of planet Earth, along with a few other life forms. A new microcosm of human diversity showed up in 2001 with The Fast

and the Furious, about a multi-cultural band of brothers and sisters united by their singular inability to drive fifty-five. The

Fast series’ casting department struck gold, particularly with the easy rapport between leads Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez, but the films’ scope has expanded to such an extent that the last few entries minimize street racing in favor of cockamamie claptrap about international terrorists and saving the world. The trend is particularly galling in this movie, which opens with an enjoyable romp in Cuba’s classic-car scene and then swerves with zero explanation into a national-security-related heist in Berlin. Did the projectionist skip a reel? By the time we’ve reached the finale, involving vehicular combat between cars and a submarine, it’s clear that the franchise has relegated its likable characters to the back seat. What matters isn’t what’s under the hood, it’s who’s behind the wheel, or so goes the wisdom of Dominic Toretto (Diesel). The Fast movies should take that sentiment to heart and focus more on people and less on things that go boom. Rated PG-13. 136 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Jeff Acker)

GIFTED

In this brief break between Marvel movies, Chris Evans puts down Captain America’s shield to play Frank Adler, a man tasked with raising his niece (Mckenna Grace), who is a child prodigy. He’s handling the responsibility as best he can, but when his mother (Lindsay Duncan) shows up at his door, she feels she could do a better job, so a custody battle ensues. Marc Webb (who also dabbled in superheroes with the Amazing Spider-Man films) directs, and Jenny Slate plays Frank’s love interest. Rated PG-13. 101 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)

GOING IN STYLE

A buddy-heist movie must deliver two things: good buddies and a good heist. Zach Braff’s remake of a 1979 geriatric caper flick comes through on the first count, bringing together three cinematic treasures — in Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Alan Arkin — who plot to rob a bank. Unfortunately, the caper itself falls flat. We want cleverness in our movie heists, and there’s not enough of that here to knock off a 7-Eleven, much less a bank. The script and direction never rise to the challenge, but the three old pros (plus AnnMargret) still make good on their hour and a half of screen time, displaying a couple of centuries worth of charm and acting chops to make this palatable. Rated PG-13. 96 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Jonathan Richards)

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2

The gang from the 2014 space opera returns: Chris Pratt as Star Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, and Dave Bautista as Drax, with Vin Diesel voicing the treelike Groot (in adorably miniaturized form this time around) and Bradley Cooper voicing the snarky raccoon Rocket. The plot is thoroughly uninvolving, but you won’t notice amid all the intergalactic fireworks and dazzling action sequences choreographed to the sounds of Fleetwood Mac, ELO, and Cheap Trick. The highlight is the rapid-fire zinger-laden dialogue, especially as delivered by Bautista, whose comic timing is impeccable. All the explosions get tiresome and the violence can be troubling, but at moments the movie plays like Seinfeld in space. Rated PG-13. 136 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. Screens in 2-D only DreamCatcher. (Jeff Acker)

HOW TO BE A LATIN LOVER

Mexican comedy star Eugenio Derbez gets his biggest shot to cross over into the United States yet. He plays Máximo, a man who has created a pampered life for himself by seducing wealthy older women. When he is humbled and must move in with his sister (Salma Hayek), he learns lessons about what is really important in life. Rob Lowe also stars. Rated PG-13. 115 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)

HUMAN

French filmmaker Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s monumental testament to humanity in its current state is a moving look at people from all walks of life and from all continents. With a team of 16 journalists, Arthus-Bertrand traveled the globe, visiting 60 countries and conducting countless interviews. He has one story to tell and allows it to be told through many voices: Syrian refugees, soldiers, survivors of the Khmer Rouge and the Rwandan genocide, people eking out a meager existence among mountains of trash in the despoiled regions of third world nations, nomads, and veterans, to name a few. They share their accounts of personal experience without added context or reporting; they don’t give their names; and the film combines these poignant interviews with poetic images of aerial and slow-motion photography. What emerges is a portrait of humanity that is diverse but shares in universal suffering, the search for a meaning to existence, and expressions of love. It’s a compelling and beautiful film with the power to move you to tears of sorrow and of joy. Not rated. 143 minutes. In multiple languages with subtitles. The Screen. (Michael Abatemarco)

KEDI

Director Ceyda Torun grew up surrounded by the street cats of Istanbul. “They were my friends and confidants,“she wrote, “and I missed their presence in all the other cities I ever lived in.” This warmhearted film, shot partly from human perspective and partly from cat height, is a love letter to the felines and the people who share her native city. “People who don’t love animals can’t love people either — I know that much,” observes one matter-of-fact fishmonger. Yet the film is not sappy, just generous and wise. By the end, you’ll feel as if a cat has been purring on your lap for 80 minutes. Not rated. 80 minutes. In Turkish with subtitles. Center for Contemporary Arts. (James Keller)

THE LOST CITY OF Z

Could there be anything more exotically romantic than a century-old real-life adventure down the uncharted wilderness of the Amazon? It’s a tale that seems ripped simultaneously from newspaper headlines and from the pages of Boy’s Own Magazine. And it’s all true. Or most of it. Or some of it. Col. Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) was an adventurer who made a number of expeditions down the Amazon in search of a rumored lost civilization near the turn of the 20th century. Fawcett’s adventures must have been incredibly challenging, dangerous, and exciting. Writer-director James Gray, adapting David Grann’s 2009 nonfiction bestseller, captures some of that, but he surrenders too often to the clichés of the movies. Rated R. 141 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)

NEITHER WOLF NOR DOG

In the 1990s, author Kent Nerburn was contacted by a Native American elder named Dan to help him write a book that conveyed Dan’s wisdom, political opinions, and social commentary. That collaboration became the 1995 book Neither Wolf Nor Dog, and now Nerburn has adapted the book into a screenplay about the journey the two men undertook. Christopher Sweeney plays Nerburn, and Dave Bald Eagle plays Dan, in this telling of how Nerburn accepted this responsibility while traversing Lakota country. 2:20 p.m. Tuesday, May 16, only. Not rated. 110 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Not reviewed)

RISK

Laura Poitras, who won an Oscar for Citizenfour, her 2014 documentary on Edward Snowden, returns with an inside look at the life and work of another controversial figure, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. It’s a conflicted portrait, both admiring and critical, as she gets intimate access to his discussions and his attitudes. Assange himself is a stew of contradictions, a champion of government transparency who is coolly guarded in his own life. Assange has been a virtual prisoner for the past five years in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy, where he was granted asylum to prevent his extradition to Sweden on 2010 charges of sexual assault. Poitras has recut the film since its 2016 Cannes showing, tempering her enthusiasm for her subject in the aftermath of the Trump victory and allegations of collusion between WikiLeaks and Russian government-backed hackers to sway that election. Not rated. 95 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Jonathan Richards)

THE SHACK

William P. Young’s 2007 self-published faith-based novel, which has sold millions of copies and dominated bestseller lists, comes to the big screen. Sam Worthington plays a man whose daughter is murdered in a shack on a camping trip. Struggling with grief, he returns to the shack and meets a woman named Papa (Octavia Spencer) and two other strangers, who ease him into a spiritual world where he reconnects with God and heals himself. 2 p.m. Thursday, May 11, only. Rated PG-13. 132 minutes. DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)

SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE

Anyone who has ever watched The Smurfs — either the 1980s cartoon series or the most recent films — has probably wondered why there is only one female in the village, the heels-wearing Smurfette (voiced here by Demi Lovato). This movie seeks to answer that question by sending a handful of Smurfs to a lost village, which is presumably where Smurfette came from. Julia Roberts, Rainn Wilson, and Mandy Patinkin also supply voicework. Rated PG. 89 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)

THEIR FINEST

By turns funny, romantic, moving, and harrowing, this movie about movies, war, and female empowerment hits every note with the exquisite ping of a fork struck to fine crystal. Gemma Arterton is Catrin Cole, a young woman who in blitz-ravaged London unexpectedly finds herself hired by the British Ministry of Information’s film division as a screenwriter to handle the “slop” (women’s dialogue) for propaganda movies. The assignment is to find real wartime human interest stories and turn them into morale-raising potboilers. The perfect casting includes Sam Claflin as her writing partner and perhaps more, Bill Nighy as an aging star, Eddie Marsden as his agent, plus Helen McCrory, Richard E. Grant, Jeremy Irons, and many more. To see Nighy raise an eyebrow, or sing an Irish air in a pub, is pure cinema magic. Impeccably directed by Danish filmmaker Lone Sherfig and adapted by Gaby Chiappe from Lissa Evans’s 2009 novel Their Finest Hour

and a Half (a title they should have kept), this is certainly one of the year’s finest to date. Rated R. 117 minutes. Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)

THE WAR AT HOME

In 1979, six years after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords, a young anti-war movement veteran named Glenn Silber (with co-director Barry Alexander Brown) made a documentary about the Vietnam anti-war protest movement as it unfolded on and around the University of Wisconsin in the decade from 1963 to the war’s end. It was nominated for an Academy Award. Silber, now a Santa Fean, traces the escalation from peaceful protest to confrontation with club-wielding police. The stakes rose with the chaos at the ’68 Democratic Convention in Chicago, and the subsequent election of Richard Nixon. It turned deadly with the National Guard’s killing of four students at Kent State and a bombing of the U.S. Army Mathematics Research Center on the Madison campus that killed a graduate student. The film is “not a nostalgic blast from the past,” Silber says. “It does connect. It’s almost like a cliff notes on how to resist.” The Jean Cocteau projects this as the first of a series called Films of Resistance, which Silber will help to curate. Not rated. 100 minutes. The Screen. (Jonathan Richards)