MOVIE STARS
New releases
★★ 2 Guns DenzelWashington andMarkWahlberg are relaxed and very funny as a pair of drug dealers who, unbeknownst to each other, are both undercover cops. The film itself is busy, bullet-riddled, and more than a little mean, director Baltasar Kormákur piling on the quadruple-crosses and macho smackdowns with style but not enough sense. With Bill Paxton and Paula Patton. (109 min., R) (Ty Burr)
★★★★ The Act of Killing An extraordinary movie, and maybe the craziest filmmaking concept you’ll ever encounter. It’s the brainchild of director Joshua Oppenheimer, who spent eight years in Indonesia recording the stories of death-squad leaders. Instead of just interviewing them, Oppenheimer has them dramatize their thoughts and actions as cinema, employing their favorite techniques and genre tropes. The result compelled Errol Morris and Werner Herzog to sign on as executive producers. In Indonesian and English, with subtitles. (122 min., unrated) (Janice Page)
★★ ½ Andre Gregory: Before and After Dinner A fond, overindulgent documentary of the 79-yearold actor-stage director, best known to the arthouse masses for 1981’s “My Dinner With Andre” but still a creator of theatrical mysteries. Charming and affecting, if directed with more than a touch of TMI by Gregory’s wife, Cindy Kleine. With Wallace Shawn, obviously. (108 min., unrated) (Ty Burr)
★★★ Crystal Fairy An obnoxious American in Chile, along with three local friends, seeks to expand his mind with a taste of an indigenous hallucinogenic cactus. Along the way he makes the acquaintance of the title flower child, who complicates the mission. There must be something magical in that cactus juice or in Sebastián Silva’s direction, because this is Michael Cera’s best performance to date. In English and Spanish, with subtitles. (98 min.; unrated) (Peter Keough)
★★ ½ The Look of Love Director Michael Winterbottom and comic Steve Coogan have teamed up for some hilarious looks into the seamy side of British pop culture, but this isn’t one of them. Smut and real estate impresario Paul Raymond built an empire making him the richest man in England. But Raymond learns nothing from his personal failings and tragedies, and neither does the viewer. (101 min., unrated) (Peter Keough)
★★ ½ Still Mine Michael McGowan makes the personal political in this true story about an octogenarian who tries to build a new house for his dementia-afflicted spouse despite officious government interference. The director’s argument against bureaucraticmyopia resonates, but at the expense of a compelling depiction of a tragic disease and a touching love story beautifully acted by James Cromwell and Geneviève Bujold. (103 min., PG-13) (Peter Keough)
★★ The Smurfs 2 This 3-D sequel to the 2011 film (based on the ’80s TV series) brings back evil sorcerer Gargamel (Hank Azaria) and most of the rest of the human and voice-over cast. This time, the mushroom-dwelling blue creatures head to Paris to rescue Smurfette (Katy Perry) from Gargamel’s lair. The film’s mix of live action and animation is at times entertaining, but too calculatingly commercial for the likably low-grade Smurfs. (100 min., PG) (Loren King)