Chile Pages,
organization WCKD and acquire a cure for the Flare virus that has infected the Earth’s population. Rated PG-13. 142 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
PETER RABBIT
Beatrix Potter’s beloved 1902 literary creation gets a slick Hollywood update — which is to say that the pastoral story of Peter Rabbit’s attempts to steal vegetables from Mr. McGregor’s garden have been replaced by the tale of a sassy CGI rabbit (voiced by James Corden) who stages an all-out war against Mr. McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson) over his treatment of animals and battles him for the affections of the kindly neighborhood gardener Bea (Rose Byrne). Peter’s siblings Flopsy (Margot Robbie), Mopsy (Elizabeth Debicki), and Cotton-Tail (Daisy Ridley) join in on the series of ever-escalating pranks. Rated PG. 93 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
PHANTOM THREAD
In Paul Thomas Anderson’s new movie, many things hang from a slender thread — creativity, stability, reputation, love, even life itself. The slightest jolt could send things crashing down. Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel DayLewis) is a famous couturier in ‘50s London. At a country inn he meets a waitress, a lissome wench named Alma (Vicky Krieps), and before you can say Balenciaga, she has become his mistress, model, and muse. Alma recognizes that she is only the latest in Woodcock’s string of companions, but she is determined to also be the last. He’s an obsessive-compulsive tyrant; but, she discovers, he can be a sweet, cuddly lad when he’s under the weather. The love potion that she dreams up to keep him close adds the spice of intrigue and suspense to the film’s second half. The three stars are riveting. Day-Lewis in particular commands our attention every moment he’s on screen. Woodcock’s phantom signature device is to sew hidden messages into the hems and linings of his creations. The message we have from Day-Lewis is all too stark: This, he says, is his farewell to film. Say it ain’t so. The movie has received Oscar nominations that include Best Picture, Actor, and Director. Rated R. 130 minutes. Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
THE POST
This is the story of Katharine “Kay” Graham and her reluctant stewardship of her family newspaper, The Washington Post, following the suicide of her husband, Post publisher Philip Graham. Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Meryl Streep as Graham and Tom Hanks as
Post editor Ben Bradlee, the movie has two fish to fry. One is feminism. The other is the role of a free press in a democracy.
The Post arrives at a time when both of these issues resonate with a particular force. But it’s the press issue that must have galvanized Spielberg. The script landed on his desk last fall at a time of national shock and trauma, and the prospect of a movie celebrating honest, fearless, fact-based reporting must have seemed a moral mandate. Unfortunately, despite its powerhouse acting, the movie too often moves forward by the numbers. It’s not bad, but it lacks the power to grab you. Journalism movies in which we know the outcome of the story, like Spotlight and All the President’s Men, still manage to gin up inspired suspense. The Post aspires to this level but can’t quite pull it off. Academy Award-nominated for Best Picture and Best Actress (Streep). Rated PG-13. 105 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
THE SHAPE OF WATER
Elisa (a magical Sally Hawkins) is a mute janitor who works the night shift at a mysterious government facility where a heavily guarded package is delivered. It’s a tank containing a humanoid amphibian (Doug Jones) that Strickland (a malevolent Michael Shannon), the facility’s brutal head of security, has captured. Elisa finds herself drawn to the creature, and gradually her feelings ripen into a fullfledged Beauty and the Beast attraction. Meanwhile, Strickland decides to cut the creature up for study. This is resisted by one of the facility’s top scientists, Dr. Hoffstetler (a soulful Michael Stuhlbarg), who turns out to have secrets of his own. Del Toro has created a story that moves effortlessly forward through multiple genres, encompassing gothic romance, fairy tale, Cold War spy thriller, and fantasy, with other bits and pieces strewn in. The sumptuous visuals are dominated by water themes. By itself, water has no shape. It adapts itself to the contours of any vessel that it fills. The same is true of love. The film is up for 13 Oscars, including Best Picture, Actress (Hawkins), Supporting Actor (Richard Jenkins), Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer), and Director. Rated R. 123 minutes. Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
Filmmaker Martin McDonagh is like a mad chemist, throwing together elements that have no business being in the same pot except to fizz and explode. In this tale of revenge, violence and humor rub shoulders with tragedy and pathos like angry commuters at rush hour, knit together with the rawest of language and a script that scatters loose ends like birdseed. But it’s a tour de force, riveting from start to finish. Frances McDormand is extraordinary as the embittered Mildred, who hires three derelict billboards along a lonely road in a Burma-Shave-like sequence to protest the police’s inability to solve her daughter’s rape and murder. Woody Harrelson brings a gentle nobility to Chief Willoughby, and Sam Rockwell is a racist deputy with the subtlety and intellect of a blunt instrument. Like Tarantino at his best, McDonagh creates movie scenes that land like wild cinematic haymakers. The film has been nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress (McDormand), and Supporting Actor (Harrelson and Rockwell). Rated R. 115 minutes. Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
2018 OSCARNOMINATED ANIMATED SHORT FILMS
This year’s crop of Oscar-nominated animated shorts are all family friendly, aside from a few seconds of jarring footage in the otherwise lovely Garden Party. The best of the bunch is Negative Space, a clever short from France that plumbs depths beyond its six-minute running time. Pixar’s Lou, a story of a lost-and-found box come to life, is bizarre, clever, and among the best of Pixar’s estimable short films (it preceded Cars 3 in theaters last summer). Revolting Rhymes, based on author Roald Dahl’s offbeat take on fairy tales, doesn’t tread new ground but boasts fine production values and an easygoing tone. Only Dear Basketball, the beautifully hand-drawn ode to Kobe Bryant, feels somewhat trifling, but all five films are winsome. Not rated. 83 minutes. The Screen. (Robert Ker)
2018 OSCARNOMINATED LIVE ACTION SHORT FILMS
Extraordinary filmmaking abounds in this suite of Oscar-nominated shorts. Watu Wote/All of Us is a gripping tale of a young woman caught in the conflict between Muslims and Christians in Kenya. The empathetic DeKalb Elementary tackles the subjects of school shootings and mental illness.
My Nephew Emmett tells the story of an African-American man in 1950s Mississippi who must shield his nephew, Emmett Till, from local townspeople after he whistles at a white woman. These heavy themes are lightened with The Eleven O’Clock, a clever bit of British comedy in which a psychiatrist treats a patient who thinks he is a psychiatrist treating a patient. The program serves as a good excuse to see some stellar short films while filling out your Oscar scorecard. Not rated. 97 minutes. The Screen. (Robert Ker)
WINCHESTER
Helen Mirren takes the horror genre for a spin, playing Sarah Winchester, the wife of gun manufacturer William Winchester. Very loosely based on Sarah’s real life, this movie follows Sarah in the years after William’s death as she becomes increasingly convinced that the ghosts of those who were killed by Winchester weapons are haunting her. She builds a strange, sprawling house in San Jose, California — known today as the Winchester Mystery House — to escape the spirits. Rated PG-13. 99 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)