Chile Pages
BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE
Filmmaker Drew Goddard (Cabin in the Woods) offers a film noir fable with an enviable cast that includes Jeff Bridges, Jon Hamm, Chris Hemsworth, Dakota Johnson, Nick Offerman, and others. The ensemble plays a disparate group of strangers in 1969, each of whom harbors a dark secret from the past. They all check into the El Royale hotel at Lake Tahoe, and discover that the hotel has a mysterious past, too. Soon, a variety of crimes are committed and the game is afoot. Rated R. 141 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
COLETTE
When French author and publisher Willy plucked the plucky Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette from an idyllic girlhood in Burgundy and whisked her off to Paris in 1893, he had no idea he was marrying the literary wunderkind who is still regarded as one of the finest French writers of the 20th century. This uneven biopic directed by Wash Westmoreland (Still Alice) stars Keira Knightley as the budding novelist who pens stories about her naughty schoolgirl exploits to support her husband’s business. Published under the name of Willy (Dominic West), the sensual Claudine series sells like hot crêpes, but Colette chafes against her husband’s dominance, pursuing a theater career along with risqué affairs with other women, especially the androgynous Marquise de Belbeuf (Denise Gough), with whom she shares the stage and scandalizes Paris. Knightley is a capable and occasionally captivating Colette, baring her teeth in lusty defiance of the societal yoke that is placed upon her. But the movie fails to flesh out any single character or contextualize the heady intellectual libertinism of fin-de-siècle Paris. Its plot runs thin, sagging in the middle and never fully picking up steam — something Colette herself would never have allowed. Rated R. 111 minutes. Violet Crown. (Molly Boyle)
FIRST MAN
Ryan Gosling reteams with La La Land director Damien Chazelle to play Neil Armstrong in this biopic, which primarily covers the years leading up to the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing mission and the myriad risks, challenges, and tragedies that the crew at NASA faced while preparing for that event. Claire Foy plays Janet Shearon, Armstrong’s wife at the time, and Corey Stoll plays Buzz Aldrin. Based on the book First Man: The Life of Neil
A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen. Rated PG-13. 141 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
FREE SOLO
Not rated. 100 minutes. Violet Crown. See review, Page 57.
HAL
Hal Ashby made a string of movies in the 1970s that constitute as impressive a body of work as you’re likely to find from that breakout decade of movies, which produced celebrated directors like Scorsese, Spielberg, Coppola, and Altman. Ashby’s ‘70s titles make a great suggested viewing list — The Landlord, Harold and Maude, The
Last Detail, Shampoo, Bound for Glory, Coming Home, and Being There will keep you busy and happy in your streaming time. And then came the ‘80s. With studios beginning to rein in the freedom directors had seized in the previous decade, Ashby delivered a run of flops. He also contracted pancreatic cancer and died before the decade was out. Director Amy Scott’s admiring profile shows us what drove Ashby, the personal passions and demons that found their way into his greatest films, and the enduring friendships that sustained him. She makes a good case for the inclusion of Hal Ashby in the pantheon of revered directors from that glorious period when Hollywood shed the shackles of the studio system and exploded with an exuberance of young talent. Not rated. 85 minutes. The Screen. (Jonathan Richards)
GOOSEBUMPS 2: HAUNTED HALLOWEEN
Jack Black returns as author R.L. Stine for another movie full of family-friendly frights. This time, Black voices Slappy, a creepy ventriloquist dummy. When two boys (Jeremy Ray Taylor and Caleel Harris) sneak into Stine’s former house on Halloween, they accidentally set Slappy and the hordes of monsters from Stine’s books free, and must then prevent the Halloween apocalypse from happening. With Wendi McLendon-Covey. Rated PG. 90 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN
Rated PG-13. 93 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts; Violet Crown. See review, Page 56.
QUEERCORE: HOW TO PUNK A REVOLUTION
In the 1980s, LGBTQ people formed a more inclusive offshoot of the punk movement called Queercore. Over the next few decades, this network of bands, venues, and zines became a community where youth who had previously felt ostracized could find a new sense of belonging. This documentary examines the context and importance of this movement and many of the artists involved. With John Waters, Kim Gordon, Kathleen Hanna, and other punk rock veterans. Not rated. 83 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Not reviewed)
SANTA FE INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL
Opens Thursday, Oct. 18, at venues throughout the city. See coverage beginning on Page 38.
THE SISTERS BROTHERS
In this violent Western set during the California Gold Rush, John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix play the hitmen brothers Eli and Charlie Sisters. They are assigned to track down a chemist (Riz Ahmed) with a lucrative formula for prospecting gold, even as another detective (Jake Gyllenhaal) is also on his trail. When they meet, they decide they’d rather join the chemist than kill him. Based on the cult hit novel by Patrick deWitt, this is the first English-language film by renowned French director Jacques Audiard (The Beat That My Heart Skipped). Rated R. 121 minutes. Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
TEA WITH THE DAMES
This documentary invites viewers to enjoy a spot of tea with four of the United Kingdom’s most esteemed actresses: Dames Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, and Maggie Smith. The four longtime friends sit together and casually shoot the breeze, make jokes, reminisce on old times, and share insights into their crafts and careers. Audiences can enjoy an intimate glimpse of this conversation courtesy of director Roger Michell (Notting Hill). Not rated. 84 minutes. The Screen. (Not reviewed)
NOW IN THEATERS HELL FEST
In this horror movie, young people pour into a themed amusement park known as Hell Fest, which comes complete with rides, funhouses, thrills, and chills. Unfortunately, on this evening, it also comes with an actual masked killer who picks the park-goers off one by one, and they can’t tell if he’s part of the attraction or a murderer until it’s too late. Rated R. 120 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS
Filmmaker Eli Roth rose to prominence with punishing horror movies such as Hostel. Here, he tries his hand at catering to the Goosebumps crowd, adapting the 1973 novel by John Bellairs into a movie about a young orphan named Lewis (Owen Vaccaro) who moves in with his uncle Jonathan (Jack Black), only to find that his uncle is a warlock and his house has a ticking clock in its walls. When it counts down to zero, something wicked this way comes. Unsurprisingly, Roth has a good feel for the frights, even with the PG rating. He has less of a handle on the humor and scenes that convey the characters’ emotional arcs. What hurts matters is that while Vaccaro excels and Cate Blanchett is reliably exquisite as the witch who lives next door, Black is oddly cast and never quite hits the right chord between whimsy and gravity. Rated PG. 104 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Robert Ker)
KUSAMA: INFINITY
Director Heather Lenz’s documentary on Japanborn artist Kusama grapples with a multitude of topics in its expert telling of the sculptor and installation artist’s life and works. The film chronicles Kusama’s abuse at the hands of her mother, her determination to make a name for herself in New York’s thriving art scene, her embrace of the ’60s counterculture and the happenings she staged in opposition to the Vietnam War, her glorious, exuberantly colored installations filled with her signature polka dots, and her rise to prominence in a male-dominated art world, which included her ideas being appropriated by other artists. Filmed when the artist was approaching ninety, Kusama: Infinity is a story of bold determination despite the odds. Kusama suffered debilitating mental illness, made several attempts at suicide, and was in and out of hospitals throughout her life, only to emerge triumphant. Lenz presents the material in a straightforward manner. The portrait that emerges is one of inner turmoil countered by outward exuberance. Not rated. 80 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Michael Abatemarco)
LOVE, GILDA
Gilda Radner always seemed to be having so much fun. That was the secret to her meteoric rise as one of the first breakout stars of Saturday Night Live. Her exuberant silliness was contagious and irresistible. Lisa D’Apolito’s Love, Gilda captures some of this spirit while sketching in a brief biography of the woman who set the bar for female comics in the ’70s, and then left the world a poorer place when she succumbed to cancer in 1989, at the age of forty-two. There are the SNL years, where Gilda was the first cast member chosen. There’s her foray onto Broadway with a one-woman show and her name in lights. And her brief movie
Chile Pages,
career was distinguished mainly by meeting and falling in love with Gene Wilder, whom she married. We also get a glimpse of what it’s like to maintain that inspired exuberance when the anonymity is gone, the childhood dreams have been reached and surpassed, and there’s the rest of your life to deal with. For Gilda, it was all too short. Not rated. 89 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Jonathan Richards)
NIGHT SCHOOL THE NUN
Tiffany Haddish reunites with Girls Trip director Malcolm D. Lee for another comedy, this time set in school. When a gifted salesman (Kevin Hart) is courted for a job as a stockbroker, provided he gets his GED, he enrolls in night school. He and the scoundrels and troublemakers in the class butt heads with the teacher (Haddish), and chaos ensues. Rated PG-13. 111 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed) The popular Conjuring franchise hasn’t produced a classic horror film, but several of its entries have offered some reliable scares and solid filmmaking. The Nun, a prequel based around the creepy nun who has periodically appeared in other installments, is not one of those films. It takes us back to a convent in 1950s Romania, where Father Burke (Demián Bichir) and Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga, sister of series star Vera Farmiga) travel to investigate the apparent suicide of a young nun. They don’t find many people there, but soon discover that something evil is afoot and the demon Valak is responsible. Director Corin Hardy tries to pack the movie with scares for the full running time, whereas most good horror movies let viewers spend much of the time in the normal world while slowly introducing the awful into the everyday. A whole film of two people wandering a dark, empty monastery with a jump scare thrown in every couple of minutes gets boring very quickly. Rated R. 96 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Robert Ker) THE PREDATOR Filmmaker Shane Black returns to his roots with the
Predator franchise (he got one of his big breaks playing a role in the original 1987 film), co-writing and directing a story about a military sniper (Boyd Holbrook) who encounters a spaceship with a predator alien. When he mails some of the extraterrestrial tech back to his kid (Jacob Tremblay), the two discover that more predators are coming, and that they’ve evolved to become even more dangerous. Despite the fact that Black’s trademark humor and devil-may-care characters are all in place, his plot tries to do far too much, attempting to expand the hokey mythology about the Predator aliens and giving the players so much to do that their motivations aren’t clear. The franchise’s whole concept is in the title: Aliens try to kill humans, and humans try to survive. The more thought you put into a Predator movie, the worse it will end up. Black put a lot of thought into this movie. Rated R. 107 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Robert Ker)
SMALLFOOT A SIMPLE FAVOR
Director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) turns his lens from comedy to this thriller based on Darcey Bell’s novel. When Stephanie (Anna Kendrick), a widowed mommy vlogger, meets Emily (Blake Lively) at their sons’ elementary school in the Connecticut suburbs, sparks of instafriendship fly. To Stephanie, Emily seems to have it all — a top job as PR head for a Tom Ford-esque designer, a bestselling novelist husband, Sean (Henry Golding), and a beautiful home. When Emily suddenly goes missing, Stephanie plays detective, suspecting Sean of foul play even as she finds herself becoming intimate with him. There’s plenty to like about this campy and byzantine plot, and both actresses clearly have a ball, with Lively mostly reprising her “Gossip Girl” role as a rich bitch with a black heart and Kendrick overplaying the role of the seemingly mousy best friend. But the movie has a genre identity crisis, never fully committing to either dark comedy or semi-cheesy psychological thrills. As we delve deeper into the question of just who Emily actually is, the film begins to feel dumber than it should, given the compelling material and the cast’s talents. It’s a fun ride, to be sure, and never dull, but A Simple Favor feels overshadowed by missed opportunities. Rated R. 117 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Molly Boyle) The Bigfoot legend is turned on its head in this animated story about a Yeti scientist (voiced by Channing Tatum) who becomes convinced that humans, known to the Yeti clan as the mythical “Smallfoot,” are real. His suspicions are confirmed when he encounters a Smallfoot in the form of a former TV personality (James Corden), and he attempts to present evidence of his discovery to the Smallfoot Evidentiary Society (led by a scientist voiced by Zendaya). Danny DeVito, Common, and LeBron James also provide voicework. Rated PG. 96 minutes. Screens in 2D and 3D at Regal Stadium 14; in 2D at Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
A STAR IS BORN
Big, gorgeous, packed with terrific music and charismatic star power, this fourth edition of one of Hollywood’s most enduring origin stories starts off so well that its momentum almost carries it through a somewhat more labored finish. Lady Gaga rediscovers her inner Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in creating the title character Ally, a bighearted aspiring singer who catches the eye, and then the heart, of Jackson Maine, a country-rock superstar played soulfully with endearing notes of Jeff Bridges by Bradley Cooper (who also co-wrote and directed). The tale, best remembered in the classic 1950 Judy Garland version, is familiar, tracking the opposite trajectories of the two stars, one blazing upward, one blazing out. Cooper’s pacing gets a little choppy, as if he’s afraid of being caught in a linear narrative, but for the most part the film is assured and effective. The supporting cast is stocked with sometimes surprising choices, like Andrew Dice Clay as Ally’s dad, and Dave Chappelle as Jackson’s friend. Sam Elliott is reliably gravelly as Jackson’s much older brother. But the revelation is Lady Gaga, who nails the wide-eyed kid drawn into the world of superstardom, finding love and tragedy along the way. Rated PG. 96 minutes. Screens in 2D at Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
VENOM
Spider-Man’s nemesis Venom is a ridiculous, if popular, character: a super-strong, bulletproof version of Spidey with large eyes, a long tongue, and an appetite for live flesh. It seems silly to center a film around such a cartoonish villain, but director Ruben Fleischer offers a surprisingly well-crafted B-movie, and actors Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams class the joint up. Hardy plays Eddie Brock, a journalist who investigates the suspicious research going on at the Life Foundation. When the company’s founder (Riz Ahmed) strikes back, Brock loses his job and girlfriend (Williams). He learns that the Foundation is experimenting on an alien, which grafts itself to his body, granting him superpowers and a nasty disposition. From there, he must satiate the alien’s appetite, get revenge, and somehow also save the world. The action and effects are well done, but the movie works best when it leans into absurdist humor, which is reminiscent of the 1980s work of John Carpenter and Sam Raimi. You won’t be hearing the name Venom on Oscar night, but if you want to see Tom Hardy jump into a restaurant’s lobster tank and begin biting the heads off its occupants, then you won’t be disappointed. Rated PG-13. 112 minutes. Screens in 2D and 3D at Regal Stadium 14; in 2D at Violet Crown. (Robert Ker)