AMERICAN MADE
AMERICAN ASSASSIN
H1/2 R, 111 minutes. Lisbon. What role does emotion play in violence? This is the rather high-minded philosophical question at the core of the rather schlocky spy picture “American Assassin,” though the film itself doesn’t offer any clear answers on that. It’s difficult to puzzle out any morals about what motivates violence and how trauma manifests when the film just leans into more and more numbingly graphic images of human destruction. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service
1/2 R, 115 min. Through tonight only at Niantic. Still playing at Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. As soon as the Universal logo flickers and switches to its retro 1970s look and the disco music starts to play, jazzing up Jimmy Carter speeches and old news footage, we know what we’re in for with the cocaine-smuggling adventure “American Made.” This is a romp and a half. Maybe even three. Director Doug Liman has never been a minimalist filmmaker, and “American Made” just might be his most maximalist film yet. There’s a breezy sunniness to this film, which looks like a faded snapshot reclaimed from a 1980s photo album. VHS lines and time stamps crackle effervescently. “American Made” casts a nostalgic golden filter on what was a rather dark and dramatic period in U.S. history. Drug cartel-related violence plagued the Southeast while the first lady urged everyone to “just say no.” Meanwhile the American government was essentially allowing the illegal import of cocaine while providing guns to the rebels fighting the Communist Sandinista army in Central America. This is all told through the true life story of pilot, drug smuggler and informant Barry Seal (Tom Cruise). — Rafer Guzman, Newsday
THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES
PG-13, 121 minutes. Through tonight only at Lisbon. Still playing at Niantic, Madison Art Cinemas, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Stonington, Westbrook. “Battle of the Sexes” shares its title with a headline-grabbing 1973 tennis match between 29-year-old women’s champion Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and 55-year-old former star Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell). It’s an excellent example of hyperbolic branding that reinforced men’s fears of emasculation at the hands of some imagined bogeywoman — when really, as Stone’s King tells a smug tennis official (Bill Pullman), “We just want a little bit of what you’ve got. That’s
what you can’t stand.” “Battle of the Sexes,” directed by spouses Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton (“Little Miss Sunshine”), feels like the right movie at the right time: an upbeat, great-looking and beautifully acted piece of entertainment that also works as a simple request for respect and equal treatment in American society. It makes its case without too much preaching or demonizing (though there is a bit of gloating), and it never forgets that what we’re really here to see is a sports movie, with all the drama and suspense that entails. On all counts, “Battle of the Sexes” delivers. — Rafer Guzman, Newsday
BLADE RUNNER 2049
legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins. To belabor story details is to miss the bigger picture of “Blade Runner 2049.” The style is rich, the themes are complex, but the story is a simple, classically cinematic tale. A man is faced with an existential quandary through which he reckons with his own soul and identity in the face of incredible dehumanization. As LAPD officer K, searching out illegal replicants, Ryan Gosling is perfectly cast as a successor to Deckard (Harrison Ford). His nonchalance reflects the uneasy, distrustful daily existence in this dystopian, isolated future. He is riveting when K’s spirit tries to break through the studiously placid surface. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content Agency
FLATLINERS
that writer/director Nancy Meyers has perfected (“Something’s Gotta Give,” “The Holiday,” “It’s Complicated”). Her daughter, Hallie Meyers-Shyer, keeps that legacy alive with her directorial debut, “Home Again.” And though “Home Again” clearly shares DNA with her mother’s work, the sharp screenplay, written by Meyers-Shyer, is modern and sly, universally relatable and poignant at times too. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content Agency
IT
R, 135 minutes. Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. Here’s the good news: Pennywise is as creepy as ever in the new “It.” Thanks to a bigger budget and some improved special effects some 27 years later he really gets the chance to spook the kids of Derry, Maine. Bill Skarsgard (son of Stellan, brother of Alexander) has infused Stephen King’s killer clown with a pathological menace that’s more reminiscent of Heath Ledger’s Joker than Tim Curry’s goofily sadistic take on the character in the 1990s miniseries adaptation. It helps that he’s gotten an upgraded makeup job and a more antiquated (and scarier) costume of 17th century ruffs and muted whites. His teeth are bigger, his hair is less cartoonish, his eyes are more yellow and his mobility has become terrifyingly kinetic. Indeed, the new “It” goes all-out with the horror in Part One of the story, which is focused on the plight of a group of children in the 1980s who are haunted and hunted by a clown only they can see. Things that the miniseries only alluded to are depicted with merciless glee. Did you want to see a gang of bullies cutting a kid’s stomach? “It” has that. Or witness a father looking lustily at his pre-teen daughter? “It” has that too. The bad news is that “It” still doesn’t add up to much. — Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press
KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE
R, 141 minutes. Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. “Kingsman: The Secret Service” caught many by surprise when it was released in 2014. On the surface, it’s an updated, cheekier riff on Bond — the British gentleman spy gets an upgrade when a lower-class Cockney lad gets recruited into their ranks, utilizing his street smarts and brute force. It was shockingly violent, soundtracked to classic pop hits, and the one-two punch of director Matthew Vaughn’s dizzying camera work and star Taron Egerton’s crinkly-eyed charm pummeled audiences into thinking it was all “fun.” However, the sequel, “Kingsman: The Golden Circle,” really shows the seams on this franchise. In upping the ante we can see that this whole affair is just a truly cynical, painfully retrograde pastiche of meaningless pop nostalgia wrapped around a nonsensical plot, sprinkled with a dusting of repulsive sexism. Fun. In “Golden Circle,” Kingsman agent Eggsy (Egerton) seemingly has it all together as a gentleman spy, before it all falls apart at the hands of a kooky entrepreneur villain much like it did in the first film. This time, our disruptor of industry is Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore), an intrepid drug lord. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content Agency
LEAP!
PG, 89 minutes. Westbrook. This Canadian production, originally titled, “Ballerina,” finally hits U.S. theaters equipped with a Carly Rae Jepsen summer jam, “Cut to the Feeling.” But you’ll spend an hour and 27 minutes waiting for the film to cut to that tune because the ramshackle storytelling leaves much to be desired in this tale of a young girl finding passion and purpose through dance. We’re plunged into the drama right away, as dreamers Félicie (Ellie Fanning) and Victor (Nat Wolff) bid “bye bye” to their draconian orphanage in the French countryside and hitch a ride to Paris. She wants to be a dancer, and he wants to be an inventor. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service