GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOL.2

unconventional parent-child relationship. It executes all of these elements very well, with a distinct sense of wry sweetness throughout, thanks to director Marc Webb, known for “(500) Days of Summer.” Evans anchors the film as Frank, opposite the preternaturally talented Mckenna Grace, already an industry vet at age 10, as his niece Mary. When Frank sends Mary to school, Roberta throws a fit. She’s worried that Mary will be discovered, and taken away. Mary’s not a mutant, but a math genius, which the film presents as a genetic gift from her mother, Diane. After Diane’s unfortunate demise, Frank has taken it upon himself to give his niece a real childhood. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

GOING IN STYLE

PG-13, 96 minutes. Westbrook. Though Zach Braff’s intermittently jaunty “Going in Style” is primarily a comedy, you watch it with a wistful eye; the irresistible trio at its center can’t help but remind us that they won’t be here forever. Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin (Freeman, the youngest, turns 80 this summer) were all acting in movies and television long before director Braff (“Garden State”) was even born, and the old-pro breeze they create here is something to be treasured. There’s a scene, late in the film, where the three swagger drunkenly through a park singing, and you wish Braff could have held on to the moment just a bit longer — and that every movie could, if only for a minute, find this sort of uncomplicated joy. That’s not to say that “Going in Style” is a masterpiece, or even especially good: Based (quite loosely) on the 1979 George Burns/ Art Carney/Lee Strasberg film of the same title, it’s an agreeably generic mishmash of every old-guys-pull-onelast-heist movie you’ve ever seen. The plot — in which former steelworkers, longtime buddies and Brooklyn neighbors Willie (Freeman), Joe (Caine) and Al (Arkin) scheme to rob the bank that robbed them of their pension checks — is predictable from beginning to end, featuring at least one hole even deeper than Freeman’s famous voice. But Braff wisely makes the film short and snappy. — Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times

1/2 PG-13, 138 minutes. Through tonight only at Niantic. Still playing at Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. When the first “Guardians of the Galaxy” came out three years ago, it was a minor revelation. Here was a comic-book movie with characters few outside of rabid Marvel fandom knew about that had heart, humor and a cool soundtrack. What’s not to love? “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” feels less like a fresh discovery and is far more self-conscious about its quirkiness. Director/co-writer James Gunn returns with what’s essentially more of the same; there’s nothing particularly surprising and, at 15 minutes longer than its predecessor, it has moments that sag. Still, “GotG 2” at its best is a lot of fun, even if it now seems the “Galaxy” formula has been set for the many sequels surely to come. Much as with that other behemoth of a franchise starring Vin Diesel, “The Fast and the Furious,” “GotG” is all about misfits finding familial bonds with each other. This time around our reluctant hero from the last film, Peter Quill/Star Lord (Chris Pratt), is reunited with his father, Ego (Kurt Russell), who abandoned him many years before and Peter never knew why. Peter gets to put the missing puzzle pieces together as Ego re-enters his life, promising him things that just may be too good to be true. It turns out Ego can do pretty much whatever he pleases and even has an entire planet of his own where he lives with a female empath, Mantis (Pom Klementieff). — Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

THE LOVERS

1/2 R, 94 minutes. Starts Friday at Niantic. Still playing at Madison Art Cinemas. Azazel Jacobs’ “The Lovers” is a complex character study of longterm relationships that takes a clever premise — what if you were cheating on your lover, with your spouse? — and uses it to explore the nuances and ultimate truths of long term relationships. The film is anchored by a duo of powerhouse performances from Debra Winger and Tracy Letts, who play married couple Mary and Michael, with an arch sophistication mixed with genuine vulnerability. Mary and Michael have slipped into a marital mundanity, co-existing as cordial roommates who barely speak to each other, rarely listen, and seem more awkward around each other than anything else. We aren’t given much history to their relationship, but as we know it to be now, each spouse pours their energy into their extra-marital lover. For him, it’s a kooky, needy dancer, Lucy (Melora Walters), while she has a silver fox of a writer, Robert (Aiden Gillen). But even those relationships have hit the skids in some ways. Play has become work in their affairs, and their passionate, emotional lovers require a certain amount of upkeep that Mary and Michael don’t seem to be willing to give. Suddenly, the person they sleep next to becomes more and more appealing, and a wild, secretive affair is born, complete with lunchtime romps. “The Lovers” finds itself in its moments of detail, specificity and stillness. Long pauses punctuate the action and serve as punchlines for the often wordless visual humor. Both Letts and Winger expertly express their characters’ mental state physically, whether frazzled or downtrodden at their less-than-exciting jobs, fraught with uneasiness or comfortably tender with each other. There are times when it can feel a bit too mannered, too tight, and you wish for the film to cut loose a bit. When it does, during a visit with their son Joel (Tyler Ross) and his girlfriend Erin (Jessica Sula), the tension cracks in unexpected ways, though the break is a welcome relief. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

NORMAN: THE MODERATE RISE AND TRAGIC FALL OF A NEW YORK FIXER

R, 117 minutes. Through today only at Mystic Luxury Cinemas. Still playing at Madison Art Cinemas. Subtle, unsettling, slyly amusing, “Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer” takes some getting used to because it’s the kind of film we’re not used to seeing. Starring an unexpectedly persuasive Richard Gere and the first English-language film from top Israeli filmmaker Joseph Cedar, this delicate, novelistic character study is what more American independent films would be like if more were made by thoughtful grownups who gravitated toward nuance and complexity. The gifted Cedar, a writer-director whose last two works, “Beaufort” and “Footnote,” were Oscar nominated, never makes the same film twice. Here he’s come up with an entirely involving drama about means and ends, illusion and delusion and the price having your dreams come true can extract, all of it centering on a man named Norman. Norman’s last name, Oppenheimer, is Cedar’s acknowledged tribute to Joseph Suss Oppenheimer, an influential and ill-fated 18th century “court Jew” who was a banker and behind-the-scenes mover and shaker for a powerful German duke. Impeccably played by Gere, who has completely immersed himself in a very unlikely role, this Oppenheimer starts out without even a thimbleful