TRANSFORMERS: LAST KNIGHT
much younger than Lee. The movie isn’t particularly interested in its supporting characters, particularly Charlotte, whose complexities are mostly just hinted at. Instead, it plants its gaze on Lee — and on Elliott, who takes “The Hero” in his hands and makes something quietly moving from it. The burnished darkness of the voice is, of course, at the forefront, but what’s lovely in this performance is often Elliott’s silences. Writer/director Brett Haley lets the actor take his time, and so we watch Elliott thoughtfully listening, being changed by what he hears, finding poetry in quiet gaze. “Movies are other people’s dreams,” Lee says at one point; this one, it seems, was Haley’s dream of showcasing Elliott as the leading man he so rarely has been allowed to be. You wish the movie surrounding him was a little more memorable, but it doesn’t matter; that barbecue sauce — and the actor possessing it — makes “The Hero” delicious. — Moira MacDonald, Tribune News Service
THE HOUSE
R, 88 minutes. Through tonight only at Niantic, Lisbon, Stonington. Still playing at Waterford, Westbrook. After blowing their daughter’s college fund, husband and wife Scott (Will Ferrell) and Kate (Amy Poehler) open an illegal casino in a neighbor’s basement to recoup the money.
SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING
PG-13, 133 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Stonington, Waterford, Westbrook and Lisbon. Few movies have as much riding on them as “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” This isn’t just another blockbuster hoping to recoup its sizable budget, it’s a referendum on the cinematic future of one of the most popular superheroes in the pantheon. After a long custody battle over the Marvel family — Sony got Spidey while Disney got nearly everyone else — “Spider-Man: Homecoming” must not only restore its hero to his rightful place in the Avengers’ universe, but win over audiences still soured by a fizzled reboot just a few years ago. Good news: “Spider-Man: Homecoming” admirably riseas to the occasion. It delivers all the flash and bang we expect from today’s Marvel movies, but it also has the sweet, youthful spirit we remember from Sam Raimi’s trilogy with a baby-faced Tobey Maguire. “Homecoming” immediately drops Peter Parker (Tom Holland) into our favorite part of his story: The shrimpy high-school sophomore who must keep his superpowers a secret. Parker now lives in a Marvel world. As we saw in last year’s “Captain America: Civil War,” he aspires to join the Avengers the way young techies aspire to join Google. (Robert Downey, Jr., pops in and out as billionaire Tony Stark, aka Iron Man.) Peter also lives in a multiethnic world — his nerdy pal Ned (Jacob Batalon), his frenemy Flash Thompson (Tony Revolori) and his secret crush, Liz (Laura Harrier), provide the color spectrum you’d expect in Peter’s native borough of Queens. Director Jon Watts nicely handles the scenes of adolescent banter and awkwardness; if anything, they’re more engaging than the action sequences. Overall, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” is a welcome return for a superhero we’ve sorely missed. — Rafer Guzmán, Newsday PG-13, 150 minutes. Through tonight only at Stonington, Westbrook. Still playing at Waterford, Lisbon. Michael Bay’s previous film was a cranked-up, little-seen dramatization of the 2012 Benghazi tragedy called “13 Hours.” By sheer coincidence — or, for all I know, by diabolical design — that title also sums up how long it would take you to watch all five of Bay’s