INCREDIBLES 2

PG, 118 minutes. Starts Friday at Niantic. Starts tonight at Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Westbrook, Lisbon. After his highly successful feature film “The Incredibles” picked up the Oscar for best animated film in 2004, director/writer Brad Bird (“Iron Giant”) said he would make a sequel once he had the right idea. It’s been 14 years, and Bird finally has hatched an idea that resulted in the follow-up to the tale of the superhero family. Bird should have spent a little less time pondering what to do with the Parr family. Because while “Incredibles 2” is a fun family film, the multiple storylines Bird has woven through the production often get tangled. A little more simplicity would have lifted “Incredibles 2” from good to the incredible status of the first film. The central story that should have been the focus picks up immediately after the end of the first movie. Those with superpowers are living in a world where they are forbidden by law to use their skills. But that hasn’t stopped the mom and dad team of Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) and Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), plus their children Violet (Sarah Vowell) and Dash (Huck Milner) from fighting crime. The only thing slowing them down is baby Jack-Jack, who needs constant attention. Things might be changing, as the family is approached by a fast-talking Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk) who — with the help of his tech-minded sister, Evelyn (Catherine Keener) — wants to change the way people look at superheroes. His plan is a well-planned publicity campaign that will feature Elastigirl. How Elastigirl handles the pressure of being in the spotlight and the strain her being away puts on the family are strong enough building blocks to carry the movie. But the central strength of the family dynamic gets pushed down by less interesting plot threads of young love gone wrong, a cautionary tale of technology, sibling rivalries and a bevy of new characters with superpowers. The only one of the new characters that is developed enough to be interesting is Voyd (Sophia Bush), whose kryptonite is teen angst. The one additional story thread that works has to do with Jack-Jack’s budding powers. Whether it be a training session with the haute couture designer Edna (voiced by Bird) or the standout battle between the laser-shooting, dimension-hopping, fire-throwing baby and a raccoon, Jack-Jack steals the show. That’s partly because the baby is funny and interesting enough to command his own movie, and partly because the rest of the script has gaping holes that scream out for a savior like Jack-Jack. — Rick Bentley, Tribune Content Agency

HEARTS BEAT LOUD

PG-13, 97 minutes. Starts Friday at Madison Art Cinemas. Dreams — at least the waking kind — seem to hold a fascination for filmmaker Brett Haley, who explored the subject in his 2015 breakout “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” about the search for love, late in life. Dreams were also the subtext of last year’s “The Hero,” which featured Sam Elliott as a washed-up cowboy actor struggling to get by in a Hollywood that no longer cares about Westerns. “Movies,” Elliott’s character opined laconically, “are other people’s dreams.” The theme of longing fulfilled and denied again comes to the fore in “Hearts Beat Loud,” Haley’s third — and most deeply satisfying — feature collaboration with screenwriting partner Mark Basch. Reuniting the director with Nick Offerman, who played a supporting role in “The Hero,” and “Dreams” star Blythe Danner, the new movie centers on Frank (Offerman), a widower and former musician who is coming to terms with the decline of both his livelihood - represented by the struggling, vinyl-only record store that he runs in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood - and his mother (Danner). As the film opens, we watch the increasingly confused woman almost get arrested for shoplifting, as Frank is forced to confront whether it’s time to have Mom move in with him and his teenage daughter, Sam (Kiersey Clemons). It’s father and daughter, not mother and son, whose relationship is the central driver of this charming and multilayered tale. Although Haley has previously demonstrated a gift for evoking the complex web of interpersonal, intergenerational connections that alternately bedevil and nourish us, “Hearts” zeroes in on the bittersweet nature of Frank’s special bond with Sam, who has inherited his love of, and affinity for, music. When the two, on a whim, spend a chunk of daddy-daughter time noodling on instruments and scribbling down lyrics, they manage — much to their own surprise — to write a half-decent song. This leads Frank to rekindle his aspirations of rock stardom, and Sam, who is preparing to begin premed studies at UCLA in the fall, to question whether she has the heart to crush her father’s dreams as she pursues her own. Adding layers of nuance and emotion is a supporting cast that includes Toni Collette, as Frank’s landlord and is-she-or-isn’tshe love interest, and Sasha Lane, who plays a young artist who develops a crush on Sam. Lane, who made such an auspicious debut in 2016’s “American Honey,” brings a sensual warmth to this tale, transforming it from what might otherwise have been a conventional family drama into a touching, bittersweet tale of tentative first love, and letting go. — Michael O’Sullivan, The Washington Post

SUPERFLY

R, 114 minutes. Started Wednesday at Westbrook, Lisbon. Gangster movies are an incredibly useful media artifact for examining the fraught relationship between historically marginalized groups and the myth of the American dream. 1972’s super cool blaxploitation picture “Super Fly” was a groundbreaking entry into the gangster genre, a bold depiction lionizing the