I FEEL PRETTY

night on July 18. With him was 28-yearold Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign worker for Bobby (played by Kate Mara in the film), who died underwater. Kennedy escaped from the car, submerged in eight feet of water. Whatever his efforts were to free Kopechne, they were futile. It took him 10 hours to report the incident to the police. Kennedy attributed the delay to a concussion and exhaustion. Chappaquiddick has long loomed in the political imagination as a kind of definitive yet murky scandal. Curran’s film — a profile in cowardice, you might call it — is principally an effort to visualize and understand that evening. — Jake Coyle, Associated Press

DEADPOOL 2

H1/2 R, 119 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook and Lisbon. “Deadpool 2” is annoying and bad. That’s all you really need to know, but criticism requires argumentation and examples, and it just so happens that the sequel to the shocking (and shockingly successful) superhero satire is rife with evidence for just how annoying, and yes, also bad it is. Point the first: As portrayed by Ryan Reynolds, the character of Deadpool, also known as Wade Wilson, has always been annoying. The sarcastic, quippy, red-suited burn victim who can’t die is one of those guys who substitutes movie references for a personality and thinks he’s a lot funnier than he actually is. It’s just that way back in 2016, under the crushing weight of all those endless, self-serious superhero movies, the snarky, silly sendup of “Deadpool” was a refreshing tonic — essentially the “Scary Movie” of superhero movies. Now, all our superhero movies are funny and self-referential, lessening the unique value proposition at stake for “Deadpool 2.” As our super-antihero opines in an opening sequence, with all these R-rated comic book movies on his tail, he’s got to up the ante. But then for some reason the movie just doesn’t up a single ante. “Deadpool 2” is a whole lot more of the same, but to extremely diminishing returns. It’s a thin facsimile of the original film, eschewing storytelling for disorganized bits of hyperviolent cheekiness. Deadpool doesn’t assemble his team until almost an hour into the film. The main villain’s motivation isn’t articulated until an hour and 20 minutes. Until then, it’s just a chaotic mess of bland fights and sarcastic one-liners. That’s just incredibly sloppy screenwriting, something that writers Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and star Reynolds think they can get away with by having Deadpool deadpan “lazy screenwriting,” directly into camera. They’re aware of it, so it’s OK! The thing is, for all of its self-awareness, the film isn’t even aware of its own overreliance on tired tropes, such as The Dead Wife — there are so many Dead Women Motivating Men to action in “Deadpool 2,” it could have been a Christopher Nolan movie. Now, there’s a ripe opportunity to parody the overused cliche, but that just happens to be the one thing “Deadpool 2” takes completely seriously. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content Agency PG-13, 110 minutes. Westbrook. The Amy Schumer vehicle “I Feel Pretty” tackles a very real epidemic — the crisis of confidence. Low self-esteem is part of the human condition for people of any age, gender or race, but it’s particularly virulent and destructive in the young female population, resulting in eating disorders, imposter syndrome, plastic surgery, billions of dollars spent on beauty products, diets, shapewear and generally a serious failure to thrive. Writing/directing duo Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein take on this issue in a high-concept comedy with the notion that it’s all in your head. “Change your mind, change your life,” chants a SoulCycle instructor, Luna (Angela M. Davis, a real-life celeb instructor whose motivational speeches have inspired Beyoncé and Oprah on the bike). What if we all just woke up one day and decided to be confident? Renee (Schumer) is crippled by low self-esteem. She’s obsessed with beauty — and her own perceived lack of it. When she takes a tumble from her SoulCycle bike, the head injury makes her think she’s hot stuff. She scores her dream job and gets the guy, thanks to a simple attitude adjustment. It’s a powerful depiction of just what that kind of mentality shift can do. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content Agency

LITTLE PINK HOUSE

Not rated, 98 minutes. Niantic. “Little Pink House” is the story about a nurse, Susette Kelo, and the battle to save her and her neighbors’ homes from eminent domain in the Fort Trumbull section of New London. The fight went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005. The movie stars Catherine Keener as Kelo.

LIFE OF THE PARTY

H1/2 PG-13, 115 minutes. Through tonight only at Waterford. Still playing at Niantic, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. Few movie stars of the moment are as likable on screen as Melissa McCarthy. She has Tom Hanks’ innate niceness, John Belushi’s physicality, Robin Williams’ ability to switch from laughter