THE SEAGULL
the-dots disaster — the don’s greatest hits, so to speak — without discernible theme or cohesive narrative. — Frank Lovece, Newsday
INCREDIBLES 2
PG, 118 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. After his highly successful feature film “The Incredibles” picked up the Oscar for best animated film in 2004, director/writer Brad Bird 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. — Rick Bentley, Tribune Content Agency
JURASSIC PARK: FALLEN KINGDOM
1/2 PG-13, 128 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. The best thing “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” has going for it is director J.A. Bayona, who takes a mediocre script by Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow and directs the living daylights out of it. This installment may have merely shallow ideas, but it’s easy to be distracted in the moment by the verve and style “The Orphanage” auteur brings to the beloved dino franchise. It just won’t stick with — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content Agency
LITTLE PINK HOUSE
Not rated, 98 minutes. Starts Friday at Lisbon. This drama focuses on Susette Kelo’s real-life fight to save her Fort Trumbull home in New London from eminent domain.
OCEAN’S 8
PG-13, 110 minutes. Through tonight only at Niantic. Still playing at Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. Some movies are more about parallel play than actual playground interaction, and despite a screenful of terrifically skillful talents, “Ocean’s 8” never quite gets its ensemble act together. It’s smooth, and far from inept. But it isn’t much fun. That’s all you want from a certain kind of heist picture, isn’t it? Fun? — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
1/2 PG-13, 98 minutes. Through tonight only at Madison Art Cinemas. When Anton Chekhov’s debut play “The Seagull” debuted on the stage in 1896, its revolutionary naturalism rattled audiences and critics. It was considered a disaster until Konstantin Stanislavsky directed and performed a version of it two years later. With the help of playwright and screenwriter Stephen Karam, director Michael Mayer has brought a new cinematic adaptation to the screen, imbuing the tale of complicated family dynamics, creation and heartbreak with an unprecedented sense of intimacy. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content
SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO
R, 122 minutes. Through today only at Waterford, Westbrook, Lisbon. Still playing at Stonington. Actor Taylor Sheridan made a name for himself as a screenwriter with 2015’s “Sicario,” a twisted tale about the U.S. government’s complicated relationship with Mexico, the southern border and
drug cartels. The morally bleak “Sicario” was a unique example of modern political noir. Sheridan has returned for the sequel, “Sicario: Day of the Soldado,” with Italian director Stefano Sollima taking over directing duties from Denis Villeneuve. The world expands in this follow-up, but it’s just as cynical and hopeless as we remember. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content
SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY
PG-13, 143 min. Westbrook, Lisbon. The grouchy but somehow sexy curmudgeon that Harrison Ford created in the 1977 film and its sequels is shown here as a young man. As rendered by the moodily attractive Alden Ehrenreich, this Solo bears only a glancing resemblance to the gruff, irreverent flyboy Ford portrayed so winningly. — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
TAG
R, 100 minutes. Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. “Tag,” a genial comedy about best buds who have been playing the same game of tag for 30 years, is about arrested adolescence at its core. And it has a scattershot, digressive energy. — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
UNCLE DREW
PG-13, 103 minutes. Lisbon. Highly entertaining and even more endearing, this elderly basketball romp is the surprise comedy of the summer. The film, which features NBA stars under layers of old-age makeup and a lead character developed for a series of Pepsi web videos, is just so strange its genuine humor and heart catch you off guard with the underdog story around the character of Uncle Drew, a septuagenarian street baller. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content
WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?
1/2 PG-13, 93 minutes. Starts tonight at Westbrook. Through tonight only at Niantic. Still playing at Madison Art Cinemas, Mystic Luxury Cinemas. Morgan Neville’s admiring portrait of public television pioneer Fred Rogers feels reverse-engineered to soothe the rapidly fraying nerves of a country mired in political and pop-culture food fights. Revisiting Rogers’ signature TV show, “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” and the kind but steadfastly enigmatic man behind it, Neville has created a film that operates both as a dewy-eyed nostalgia trip and stirring appeal for civility. In 1967, when “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” begins, Fred Rogers had been working in Pittsburgh television and had attended the Presbyterian seminary when he began to conceptualize children’s programming that spoke thoughtfully and usefully to the emotional needs of a young audience. This film leaves viewers contemplating our own commitment to the unconditional love and acceptance that Rogers championed so passionately. — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post