NOW PLAYING
Before I Fall Drama about a young woman who repeatedly relives the day of her death. Stars Zoey Deutch. Rated PG-13. 99 minutes.
Bitter Harvest The starvation of the Ukrainian kulaks during the regime of Joseph Stalin is the subject of this poorly made, badly acted film, about a romance set against a background of devastation. The subject is worthy, but that’s about all. Rated R. 103 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Collide Action thriller about an American backpacker abroad who becomes the driver for a drug gang. With Nicholas Hoult, Felicity Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Ben Kingsley. Not reviewed. Rated PG-13. 139 minutes.
A Cure for Wellness Big-screen misfires are rarely as bizarre or exquisite-looking as this Gore Verbinski-directed thriller, about a business executive who tries to retrieve his CEO from a cultish spa. But the Stanley Kubrick flourishes don’t work without a coherent story, and the lack of sympathetic characters becomes a drag. Rated R. 146 minutes.
— P. Hartlaub
A Dog’s Purpose An earnest but mediocre family film that heaps woe and blessings upon moviegoers who love pets, “Tuesdays With Morrie” and relationships that never get past first base. Director Lasse Hallstrom pulls the heart strings in the right places, but all the dying dogs have a bludgeoning effect. A real-life controversy about a “Purpose” stunt dog forced into a river looms over the production. Rated PG. 120 minutes. — P. Hartlaub
The Eagle Huntress A remarkable and entertaining documentary about a 13-year-old Kazakh girl
who trains to become the first female practitioner of the Mongolian art and sport of eagle hunting (that is, using an eagle as a hunting aid). More background information would have been helpful, but this is a very good first feature from Otto Bell. Rated G. 87 minutes.
— W. Addiego
Elle The latest from Paul Verhoeven (“Basic Instinct”), which is also France’s foreign film entry in the Oscar sweepstakes, provides a signature role for Isabelle Huppert as a woman who is brutally raped in the movie’s opening sequence and seems bizarrely unaffected. A genuinely perverse and arresting character study. Rated R. 130 minutes. In French with English subtitles. — M. LaSalle
Everybody Loves Somebody This bilingual romantic comedy, about a woman with commitment issues, breezily bounces back and forth from Baja to Los Angeles, and it’s a pleasant diversion, on both sides of the border. Rated PG-13. 102 minutes. In English and Spanish with English subtitles. — D. Lewis Fifty Shades Darker Despite the title, this second installment in the “Fifty Shades” saga is softer and more pleasant, with Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan playing lovers growing within and coming to terms with their relationship. The movie is silly, but weirdly appealing. Rated R. 120 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Fist Fight This supposed comedy, about two high school teachers (Ice Cube and Charlie Day) who come to blows, is a simple and not very funny story stretched and stretched to feature length. But the last 20 minutes have a certain bizarre integrity, as a nasty, harsh movie about courage in the face of economic adversity. Rated R. 91 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Get Out This first film from director Jordan Peele is very much a product of 2017, a comic horror film about a young black man (Daniel Kaluuya) who goes with his new girlfriend (Allison Williams) on a visit to her parents’ house. It’s a funny and unsettling mix of paranoia and a comic awareness of its own paranoia, and it’s irresistible. Rated R. 103 minutes.
— M. LaSalle The Great Wall This is a Chinese action/monster movie, somehow starring Matt Damon as an English mercenary. The narrative is clumsy, and the monster scenes are ridiculous, but not ridiculous enough to be funny, just ridiculous enough to be boring. It’s hard to care, and there’s no reason to try. Rated PG-13. 103 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Hidden Figures Hidden Figures: A by-the-books historical piece, about black women mathematicians working in NASA’s early days, the film is enlivened by the three principal actresses, Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monae and Octavia Spencer, and by Kevin Costner, who is the perfect vision of the early 1960s man. Rated PG. 127 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
I Am Not Your Negro James Baldwin’s writings on race (spoken by Samuel L. Jackson) are interspersed with footage of Baldwin making speeches and appearing on talk shows. The result demonstrates that Baldwin, who died 30 years ago, is as relevant today as was in the 1960s and ’70s. Rated PG-13. 95 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
John Wick: Chapter 2 An action movie that fails even on its own limited terms, it features Keanu Reeves as a one-man killing machine, but also as a hapless victim of circumstance. It’s an exercise in monotonous choreographed spectacle that doesn’t do justice to Reeves and ends up leaving the audience dispirited. Rated R. 122 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Pedro Almodovar delivers one of his best films, the story of a woman from age 25 to 56, as played by two actresses who really do seem to be inhabiting the same soul. It’s subtle, brilliantly acted and in touch with essential truths, a great film. Rated R. 99 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles.
— M. LaSalle
Kedi Documentary about the thousands of stray cats who have roamed Istanbul for hundreds of years, back to the beginnings of the Ottoman Empire, is gentle and observational, unfolding slowly and smoothly. No overarching drama here; just a slice of daily life. Not rated. 87 minutes. In Turkish with English subtitles.
— G. Allen Johnson
La La Land This modern musical takes the best of the old (rich color, extended shots for the dances) and weds it to new music and a contemporary story. The result is one of the best films of the year, with Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as a pair of strivers who meet in Los Angeles and try to help each other. Rated PG-13. 128 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Land of Mine The Germans left 2 million landmines under the sands of Denmark’s western coast, and so the British and the Danes, following the war, forced German POWs to clear them out — by hand. This is an intense and well-made drama
about that chapter in history. Not rated. 103 minutes. In Danish and German with English subtitles. — M. LaSalle
The Lego Batman Movie The animated comedy is less awesome than its predecessor, but it’s a clever, well-paced, selfaware and completely satisfying kind of less awesome. It takes the most entertaining secondary character from “The Lego Movie,” then builds 104 minutes around him with little fatigue. All inferior sequels should be as fun as this one. Rated PG. 104 minutes.
— P. Hartlaub
Logan The ninth appearance by Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in 17 years takes a massive tone shift from the relatively bloodless earlier X-Men films, going berserk in its own moody and ultra-violent direction. Jackman and director James Mangold create something great here, upsetting comic book norms without losing entertainment value. Rated R. 141 minutes. — P. Hartlaub
Manchester by the Sea Casey Affleck is magnificent in this portrait of a working class guy in Massachusetts, stumbling through life in the wake of personal tragedy. Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan. Rated R. 137 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Moonlight One of the best movies of the year, this Barry Jenkins film tells the story of a man, from childhood through young adulthood, and shows how environment can exert enormous changes on the spirit. Vigorously filmed and sensitively guided, this is beautiful work. Rated R. 110 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
My Life as a Zucchini This affecting and funny story about a group of unlucky but resilient children residing in a foster home makes outstanding use of the venerable stop-motion animation technique. The central figure is a boy nicknamed “Zucchini” by his late mother. The film is moving without being maudlin. (This French-language movie is being shown in two versions: matinees screenings are dubbed in English, with evening showings in French with English subtitles.) Rated PG-13. 66 minutes. — W. Addiego
Paterson Adam Driver stars as a New Jersey bus driver who writes documentary poetry on the side. But the film is much more than that: It becomes a thrilling elegy on chaos and order in life and art. Jim Jarmusch directs. Rated R. 118 minutes.
— D. Wiegand
Punching Henry Comedian-songwriter Henry Phillips plays himself in this gentle, low-energy comedy in which he is up for a TV show but a series of personal and professional crises move the finish line further away. J.K. Simmons is the producer pitching the show; Phillips friend and fan Sarah Silverman is a radio talk-show host whose interview of Phillips forms the spine of the film. Not rated. 95 minutes. — G. Allen Johnson
Rings Horror drama about a mysterious video that kills whoever watches it in seven days. With Vincent D’Onofrio, Laura Wiggins. Not reviewed. Rated PG-13. 102 minutes.
Rock Dog A sheepdog rebels from his destiny and tries to become a big city rock star, in this mediocre animated comedy that steals equally from “Kung-Fu Panda” and “Ratatouille.” Too lackluster to be praised highly, yet too benign to be excoriated, this is the perfect family film for a rainy day with no other options. Rated PG. 80 minutes.
— P. Hartlaub
The Salesman A husband and wife, actors
appearing in an Iranian production of “Death of Salesman,” have their lives thrown off balance when the woman is attacked by an intruder while taking a shower. It’s another perceptive and compulsively watchable examination of domestic life from Asghar Farhadi (“The Past”). Rated PG-13. 125 minutes. In Farsi with English subtitles.
— M. LaSalle
The Shack This adaptation of a Christian novel crafts a world without subtlety from the beginning, introducing Mack Phillips (Sam Worthington), a father who combats his inner demons in a magical shack where he can speak with God. For all its good intentions, this film feels like being dragged to church. Rated PG-13. 132 minutes.
— P. Hartlaub
Split M. Night Shyamalan’s latest surprise twist is his own career revival. This low-budget thriller about a criminal with multiple personalities is an entertaining original. James McAvoy is excellent playing more than a dozen roles. Even as the story begins to fester toward the end, it never stops being fun. Rated PG-13. 117 minutes.
— P. Hartlaub
Table 19 Misfits are put at a table at a wedding. They don’t want to be there, but neither does the audience, for this unfunny and often maudlin comedy. The cast is terrific — Anna Kendrick, Stephen Merchant, June Squibb, Craig Robinson and Lisa Kudrow — but the script is dead on arrival. Rated PG-13. 100 minutes. — M. LaSalle
20th Century Women Writer-director Mike Mills tells the story of a woman raising a teenage son in 1979, and of the young women, boarders in her house, who assisted in raising him. Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning star. Well-acted and evocative of the time, it’s a strong memory piece. Rated R. 118 minutes. — M. LaSalle
A United Kingdom The marriage between an African king and a white British woman and the subsequent international fallout is the subject of this true story, starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike. But the movie, though conscientious, ultimately fails to satisfy as either a love story or as a tale of mid-century politics. Rated PG-13. 111 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
You’re Killing Me Susana A soap-opera actor and philanderer gets his comeuppance in this Mexican romantic comedy that feels at times like a by-the-numbers exercise, but is partly redeemed by some decent jokes and an appealing performance by Gael GarcÃa Bernal. Rated R. 110 minutes. In Spanish and English with English subtitles.
— W. Addiego