NOW PLAYING
Reviews of movies showing in theaters or streaming online
‘BELFAST’: Halfway through “Belfast,” Sir Kenneth Branagh’s deeply personal cinematic memoir of growing up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, Branagh’s child avatar, Buddy (newcomer Jude Hill) receives some words of reassurance from his grandfather, Pop (Ciarán Hinds). He tells him, “You’re Buddy, from Belfast 15, and you’ll always be Buddy from Belfast 15. That’s the truth. It’ll keep you safe, and it’ll keep you happy.” With “Belfast,” Branagh, the lauded actor and director known for his Shakespearean adaptations, reconnects with Buddy from Belfast 15, remembering who that boy was, what he wanted, whom he loved and what his hopes and dreams were. It’s an emotional and intimate film, a childhood remembrance steeped in nostalgia and heartbreak; a love letter to a hometown written from the soul. 1:38. 3 stars. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service
‘THE BETA TEST’: Jim Cummings gives a gloriously unglued performance in “The Beta Test,” a satirical comic-thriller that he also co-wrote and co-directed with actor PJ McCabe. He plays a Hollywood agent who is crumbling on the inside and struggling to keep it together on the outside, resulting in scene after scene of hilariously escalating meltdowns. Cummings is Jordan Hines, whose validation comes from his job at an LA talent agency. He walks with swagger and confidence but he’s an insecure, jealous, petty mess, a climber always looking for the next rung and worried it will be taken from him. He’s engaged to be married in less than two months (Virginia Newcomb plays his fiancee) but he doesn’t let that stop him from answering a letter he receives calling for an anonymous sexual encounter with an unnamed admirer. He meets with the mystery woman in a hotel room, they never remove their masks, and after enjoying one another’s company they both go their separate ways. But he’s torn apart by, well, not guilt, but questions: Who was she? Who sent the letter? And who knows about their rendezvous? Jordan needs answers and he goes on a quest to find them, bumbling his way through pseudo-interrogations he can barely fake his way through. 1:33. 3 stars. Now available on demand. — Adam Graham, Detroit News
‘CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG’:
Back in 1963, the character of Clifford (the big red dog) came into the world when a children’s book editor suggested cartoonist and illustrator Norman Bridwell come up with a story to go along with one of his drawings. Taking inspiration from his wife and daughter, the adventures of Clifford and his faithful companion Emily Elizabeth have endured through a long-running series of children’s books and a spinoff animated PBS series, and now, the long-gestating live-action version finally gallops into town. This is a film that’s so guileless and well-intentioned that beating up on it would feel like, well, kicking a puppy. 1:37. 2 ½ stars. — Katie Walsh ‘DUNE’: On screen, Frank Herbert’s Baron Harkonnen-sized 1965 novel “Dune” best suits a director operating in a pre-“Star Wars” mode of storytelling. The patient, densely embroidered narrative invests heavily in themes of environmental, ecological and colonialist exploitation. Earnest sentiments such as “When you take a life, you take your own” go against the grain of most successful Hollywood-financed science-fiction forays. Even in a post“Star Wars” smash such as “Avatar,” still the biggest hit in the universe, the point — setting aside the anguish over genocidal imperialist conquerors — is how many enemies a noble warrior can kill under pressure, in a hurry, so that we feel good and (per “Star Wars”) wouldn’t mind putting quarters in the same game again right away. “Dune” defies all that. So does its latest screen adaptation, a lot of which I love. 2:35. 3 stars. Streaming on HBO Max. — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune ‘ETERNALS’: “Eternals” introduces a slew of Marvel Cinematic Universe firsts. First same-sex kiss. First tender love scene between two hetero superheroes — discreet, brief but enough to remind you how much of the comic book genre is about looking good, alone, instead of quality time in pairs. Unfortunately, another first: “Eternals” is co-writer and director Chloe Zhao’s first dull movie. After “Songs My Brother Taught Me” (2015), the sublime neo-Western
“The Rider” (2017) and her Oscar-winning “Nomadland” (2020), nearly as good as “The Rider,” this movie is more risk-prone than the majority of Marvel titles. Yet it frustrates, even beyond a screenplay full of self-competing interests. And as far as MCU fatigue goes — well, at this point, it goes pretty far. On the other hand: There’s a series waiting to be built around Lauren Ridloff ’s superspeedy cyclone-generator Makkari. Like Ridloff, this female iteration of the male character introduced in the 1976-78 “Eternals” comic books is deaf. In a packed ensemble, in which even Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek struggle for some real estate, Ridloff emerges as the poetic lifeline. Zhao clearly responds to both the performer and the character, taking the extra beats to establish Makkari’s presence in this paradox: a leisurely scrum. 2:37. 2 stars. — Michael Phillips
‘THE FRENCH DISPATCH’: The great Hollywood film composer David Raksin said it: “None of my music should ever be played for the first time, since it only confuses people.” I’ve read
several colleagues say something similar about Wes Anderson’s new film, “The French Dispatch” — that it doesn’t benefit from a second viewing, it requires one, so elaborate is its visual construction and production detail. That’s another way of saying there’s a lot going on, and you won’t catch it all the first time. But in his fastidious, exacting, extraordinarily blinkered creation, writer-director Anderson this time has driven straight into a cul-de-sac, stranding every sort of good and great actor in the cinematic equivalent of a design meeting. 1:48. 2 stars. — Michael Phillips ‘PASSING’: The closing shot of “Passing,” Rebecca Hall’s sleek and transfixing adaptation of Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel, peers down from a great height at a courtyard on a cold December night, a vision partially obscured by falling snow and set to the graceful tinkling of piano chords. The image has a hushed, frozen-in-time loveliness that feels faintly unreal. You almost expect the camera to pull back and reveal that this piercingly sad story has been unfolding inside a snow globe, trapping its characters in exquisite clothes, repetitive motions and the slow-shifting mores of a society that has left them scant room to breathe. That society is 1920s New York, a world that Larsen rendered in deft, economical strokes but which emerges here in a blur of cloche hats and flapper dresses, and also in the blasts of jazz and snatches of gossip swirling around a crowded dance floor. Against this backdrop, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and her doctor husband, Brian (Andre Holland), are the very picture of Black uppermiddle-class propriety. They have two young sons, a stately Harlem brownstone and a stable marriage, though not too stable to be knocked off-balance by Clare Bellew (Ruth Negga), an old friend whose sudden reappearance in Irene’s life dredges up long-hidden anxieties and closely guarded secrets. 1:38. Not ranked. Streaming on Netflix. — Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
‘SPENCER’: “Spencer” labels itself “a fable from a true tragedy,” which means it’s a biopic unafraid of acknowledging its speculative inventions. Director Pablo Larrain’s coolly compelling chamber drama — dominated by royal chambers perpetually in need of better heating — tips you off at the start as to its central tragedian’s frame of mind, and spirit. Lady Diana Spencer is played by Kristen Stewart in a performance surprising in its precision and quality only to those who’ve underestimated her since “Into the Wild.” 1:51. 3 stars.
RATINGS: The movies listed are rated according to the following key: 4 stars, excellent; 3 stars, good; 2 stars, fair; 1 star, poor.