NOW IN THEATERS
AGNES MARTIN: BEFORE THE GRID
Artist and filmmaker Kathleen Brennan explores the early years of painter Agnes Martin through a series of interviews with friends and colleagues. Martin spent time in Taos in the 1950s creating figurative compositions and
biomorphic abstractions before moving to the minimalist grid paintings she’s known for. Co-produced by Brennan and Jina Brenneman, former director of exhibitions at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, Agnes Martin: Before the Grid looks at circumstances surrounding her drive to make art despite a lifelong struggle with schizophrenia, her long-term relationship with artist Mildred Pierce, and the challenging relationship she had with her own work, some of which she destroyed. It’s an informative film that offers some insights into her need for order and precision but follows a staid talking-head format that drags it down. Not rated. 55 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Michael Abatemarco)
ALL EYEZ ON ME
Straight Outta Compton, a film that tells the story of rap group NWA, was a runaway success last summer. This biopic about another West Coast rap legend, Tupac Shakur (Demetrius Shipp Jr.), hopes to repeat that success. Shakur’s life certainly offers grist for the mill: Raised by a single mother (Danai Gurira) who was an activist with the Black Panthers, the young boy showed prodigious talent across all the performing arts before settling on hip-hop. He rose to prominence, courted controversy, and became a martyr figure when he was murdered in a feud with, among others, New York City rapper Biggie Smalls (Jamal Woolard). Rated R. 140 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
THE BABUSHKAS OF CHERNOBYL
After the meltdown of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986, a radioactive dead zone was established and it became illegal for people to return to their homes. In defiance of this, about 1,200 people went back. Over the years the men have died off, and now just a few hundred people, mostly women, are left to farm, eating fish and game that have been declared deadly by the Ukrainian government. Co-directed by Holly Morris and Anne Bogart, this documentary about the women subsisting in the region is sad yet uplifting. It is illegal to live in the Exclusion Zone, but the Ukrainian government still sends in doctors, scientists, and aid workers to provide the women with medical care, pension funds, and other services. The women, as isolated as they are in the forest, have been friends since childhood. Though one woman lacks a thyroid due to radiation-induced cancer and another complains of body pain, they are active and basically happy — attitudes that seem to be keeping them alive. The film also follows the ongoing efforts to contain the radioactive dust that has been blowing around Chernobyl for almost 30 years. Not rated. 72 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Jennifer Levin)
BABY DRIVER
From the moment Baby (Ansel Elgort), the getaway driver of the film’s title, executes a jawdropping chase sequence choreographed to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s propulsive “Bellbottoms,” it’s clear the doors of cinematic possibility have been kicked wide open for this fast-paced, rhythmic action movie. Writer-director Edgar Wright marries classic Hollywood musicals to The Fast and the Furious with electric verve. At its core is a sweet romance between Baby and a diner waitress named Debora (Lily James), which is put in jeopardy because of Baby’s debt to a crime lord (Kevin Spacey) and his entanglements with the eccentric sociopaths in that circle (Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx). Though the editing might be the movie’s star, the script isn’t too shabby, and the cast is strong enough across the board that you won’t feel the movie is simply a stylistic exercise. Rather, it’s the kind of exhilarating, startling romp that betrays how conservative most blockbuster movies are. Rated R. 113 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; Dream Catcher. (Robert Ker)
CARS 3 BEATRIZ AT DINNER
Salma Hayek stars as the title character, a bodyworker who winds up as an impromptu dinner guest in the home of wealthy clients, where she encounters and then stands up to the obnoxious race and class biases of real estate mogul Doug Strutt (John Lithgow). Performances are uniformly superb in this complicated, often uncomfortable literary character study that concludes in ambiguity so startling it is bound to leave viewers divided. As the story moves beyond hostile comments about Beatriz’s immigration status and into deeper waters of personal ideology and themes of mortality and ecology, the guests do not know what to make of someone who is not beholden to their status as important businesspeople — and their mockery drives Beatriz to desperation. Rated R. 83 minutes. Violet Crown. (Jennifer Levin)
THE BEGUILED
Sofia Coppola’s latest, which won her the Best Director award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is a moody period piece reconfigured from the 1971 film, which starred Clint Eastwood and was based on a novel by Thomas P. Cullinan. In Civil War-torn Virginia, a wounded Union corporal (Colin Farrell) is brought to convalesce at a nearby girls’ boarding school presided over by Miss Martha Farnsworth (Nicole Kidman). Though the sheltered pupils and their teacher (an understated and lovely Kirsten Dunst) are at first suspicious of the enemy soldier, they come to dote on him, fascinated by his masculine energy, which threatens to upend the order of the school. Coppola’s mission to invert director Don Siegel’s lurid and male-dominated perspective from the original infuses the remake with her trademark thoughtful female gaze. The decisions she makes in the service of this goal are subtle and engrossing, though her choice to cut a key slave character from the original narrative stands out as a missed opportunity for further complexity. Bolstered by the performances of Kidman, Dunst, Farrell, and a delightfully oversexed Elle Fanning, the update is a tour-de-force of gauzy, cloistered femininity — as with Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette, the dresses are not to be missed — combined with the candlelit black magic of a Southern gothic psychological thriller. Rated R. 93 minutes. Violet Crown. (Molly Boyle) Pixar’s Cars franchise is officially running on fumes, as Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), now with his odometer getting up there in numbers, sets out for a comeback against a new breed of racecar that is capable of going much faster than he can. This plot is old hat for Pixar Animation, which has featured characters being made obsolete by new technology since 1995’s Toy Story. As McQueen gradually shifts gears from denial to anger to acceptance with the help of a younger trainer voiced by Cristela Alonzo, his whole arc isn’t unpleasant — it’s just boring and about 20 minutes too long. Larry the Cable Guy’s tow truck Mater remains an acquired taste, the look of the characters still feels off, and the world itself remains weird — why do these talking cars live in a world designed for humans? For the tykes who wear Lightning McQueen pajamas to bed, this installment will probably be a passable new addition to their DVD shelf. For the rest of us, the movie offers an action-packed scene in a demolition derby and not much else. Rated G. 109 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Robert Ker)
THE COLORADO
This 2016 documentary about the Colorado River boasts a score of stunning vocal music with cinematography 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 a joy of an experience. Not rated. 91 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Paul Weideman)
DESPICABLE ME 3
With two movies and a Minions spinoff now under its belt, this animated comedy series has its hero, Gru — the dastardly mastermind with a heart of gold — meeting his long-lost brother, Dru. In voicing both characters, Steve Carell manages once more to convey a surprising amount of personality for someone shouting in a weird Eastern European accent, but the real stars are once more the yellow, one-eyed Minions, as well as the villain — a 1980s-obsessed rogue voiced by South
Park’s Trey Parker. The story unfurls in a lively enough fashion, but the movie has too many unrelated subplots for a relatively scant running time, suggesting that the franchise is running low on ideas and simply cobbling together whatever they’ve got. Rated PG. 90 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14. Screens in 2-D only at Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Robert Ker)
THE EXCEPTION
This World War II drama is set primarily in a castle in the Netherlands, where Kaiser Wilhelm (Christopher Plummer) lives in exile. Jai Courtney (Suicide Squad) plays a young German soldier who is tasked with finding out if the Dutch resistance has planted a spy to watch over Wilhelm. His mission becomes complicated, however, when he falls for a Jewish maid (Lily James) at the estate. Rated R. 107 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Not reviewed)
47 METERS DOWN
The latest shark-attack movie stars Mandy Moore and Claire Holt as two sisters vacationing and adventure-seeking in Mexico. While on a boat, they are talked into getting into a metal cage that is then lowered into the ocean, where they can experience what it’s like to swim with the great whites. It’s good, scary fun at first, but then the cable snaps, sending the cage and their limited oxygen supply down to the ocean floor. Rated PG-13. 89 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)
THE HERO
This movie rides the lean shoulders, the droopy mustache, and the deep, drawling baritone of Sam Elliott with a loping gait, as writer-director Brett Haley steers us through a collection of clichés so familiar they could have sprung from a software program. Lee Hayden (Elliott) is a grizzled old actor down on his luck, estranged from his family with a terminal diagnosis, a last lusty fling with a younger woman, and endless melancholy walks along the California coastline as the surf rolls in. The bet is that Elliott’s charm will hold it all together, and the bet pays off. The good supporting cast
includes Lee’s ex-wife (Katharine Ross), his daughter (Krysten Ritter), his pothead friend (Nick Offerman), and the beautiful woman half his age (Laura Prepon) who finds him irresistible.
The Hero is an unabashedly self-referential movie, and a nice tribute to a veteran character actor getting his turn in the spotlight. Rated R. 96 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts; Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
THE HOUSE
Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler play a suburban couple who discover they have accidentally destroyed their daughter’s entire college fund shortly before she is scheduled to leave. To make the money back, they let a friend (Jason Mantzoukas) convince them to open an illegal casino in their basement — complete with strippers, DJs, and “fight night.” It doesn’t take them long before they discover they enjoy the criminal life. Rated R. 88 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; Dream Catcher. (Not reviewed)
ICAROS: A VISION
Angelina (Ana Cecilia Stieglitz) has come to the Peruvian Amazon to face her fear of death by taking ayahuasca, a blend of psychotropic plants used in healing and spiritual ceremonies. She stays with a family of shamans in a bare-bones jungle retreat, along with a handful of others on similar personal journeys. In this highly visual, dreamlike movie, dialogue is minimal and the storyline is a scaffolding for viewer projection and extrapolation. The tone is set by opening stretches of nature imagery and poetic voice-overs from an old woman who gathers the plants, gently exhorting viewers to listen to the sounds of the forest. Screens at 3 p.m. Saturday, July 8, only. Not rated. 91 minutes. The Screen. (Jennifer Levin)
MALI BLUES
Mali, a landlocked African nation engulfed by the Sahara, undergoes rancorous turmoil as radical Islamists terrorize the cities in the northern desert, notably Timbuktu. This documentary introduces a diverse group of musicians who oppose the terrorists and still give colorful, passionate concerts in the southern capital city of Bamako. We never come to understand what motivates the unseen terrorists, who are destroying instruments and threatening performers. But the music is quite enthralling, featuring pop singer Fatoumata Diawara (previously introduced in Timbuktu), rapper Master Soumy, Tuareg desert guitarist Ahmed Ag Kaedi, and Mali’s national treasure, Bassékou Kouyaté, whose griot songmanship closely resembles that of the American blues tradition. Not rated. 93 minutes. In French with subtitles. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Jon Bowman)
THE MUMMY
Universal Studios once had a royal flush of monster movies starring the fearsome likes of the Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, and more. Now they’re bringing the monsters back, attempting to weave them into a shared universe like the Marvel superheroes. It all kicks off in the desert, where a fortune hunter (Tom Cruise) trying to retrieve a treasure winds up awakening the Mummy (Sofia Boutella). Rated PG-13. 110 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES
Johnny Depp applies Jack Sparrow’s eyeliner for one more turn at the helm of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, this time as he seeks out the trident of Poseidon. Unfortunately for Sparrow, an old enemy (Javier Bardem) has escaped from the Devil’s Triangle and is hot in pursuit with revenge in mind. Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley also return. Rated PG-13. 129 minutes. Screens in 2-D at Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
SACRED
While some atheists describe God as “an invisible sky monster” and many Christian and Islamic fundamentalists wish to impose their own strict doctrines on others, people all over the world experience faith as primary to their cultural identity and basic existence. In Sacred, directed by Thomas Lennon, more than 40 filmmaking teams traveled the globe to document an array of religious observances, including the birth, death, marriage, and mourning rituals of Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and other faiths. The movie is largely visual with no guiding narrative; individual people speak about their faith as it affects their daily lives and the way they consider the future. Loss of faith is explored through the devastation wrought by the Ebola virus in Africa, while at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, God can serve as a ray of hope for those who are locked up for life. Not rated. 87 minutes. The Screen. (Jennifer Levin)
TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT
The new entry in the Transformers franchise inexplicably features King Arthur (Liam Garrigan) and the Knights of the Round Table, who are among the first to come into a Transformers-made talisman that now spells doom for planet Earth — unless Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) can save the day. The supporting cast is a veritable Sundance Film Festival of talent, including Anthony Hopkins, Stanley Tucci, and John Turturro as well as the voices of Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, and Ken Watanabe — none of whom seem to be enjoying themselves all that much. By the time the credits roll, exhausted audiences might feel the same way. Rated PG-13. 149 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Robert Ker)
WONDER WOMAN
With the pairing of charismatic star Gal Gadot and savvy director Patty Jenkins, Hollywood has finally produced a superhero franchise to root for and not groan over. Wonder Woman’s thrilling first act details the origin story of Diana, the superpowered princess of an admirable race of strong, capable Amazons created by the gods to protect humankind against the wrath of Ares, the god of war. When Allied spy Steve Trevor (Chris Pine, in fine form) crash-lands on Diana’s remote island, he convinces the young warrior to help him halt the development of a deadly mustard gas. Diana — who considers it her destiny to stop Ares, whom she believes to be the mastermind of World War I — leaves the Amazonian outpost for the ordinary world, where plenty of fish-out-ofwater feminist hijinks occur. The sweet chemistry between Trevor and the princess is palpable, the movie’s plot sallies forth at a good clip, and Gadot proves as formidable a fighter as she is a beauty. Rated PG-13. 141 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Molly Boyle)