NEW IN TOWN
Blue Jasmine ★★★★ 14A Cate Blanchett hands in a crazily entertaining performance as a woman forced to rebuild her life after her husband (Alec Baldwin) is convicted of investment fraud. Desperation mingles with comedy thanks to the Oscar-winner’s ability to portray vulnerability with arrogance, while remaining sympathetic. The movie works as a fish-out-of water comedy, but director Woody Allen’s tone is far darker as he makes Blue Jasmine the heiress to Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche DuBois’s broken dreams. (Katherine Monk) Dirty Wars ★★★★ 14A Reporter Jeremy Scahill is the central subject in Rick Rowley’s documentary that explores the truth behind America’s presence in the Arab world, and alleges the existence of an entire campaign funded by the U.S. military that quietly kills women and children as part of its covert war on terror. Though it feels a little self-conscious and almost egotistical on first glance as a result of Scahill’s on-camera pondering, the reporter becomes our human litmus paper — and lets us see exactly how numb we’ve become to the everyday horrors carried out in the name of “national security.” (Katherine Monk) In a World … ★★★ 14A Lake Bell writes, directs and stars in this subtle but well-phrased comedy about a female vocal talent struggling to find her voice in a professional world dominated by male tones. Smart, funny and unafraid to make a little noise when it matters, this movie offers a surprisingly down-to-earth view of La La Land and its blowhard inhabitants. (Katherine Monk) The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones ★★ 1/2 PG This film seems like just another entry in the get-special-quick franchise of young adult fantasy, with a plot well trod enough to warrant a toll road. But touches of humour and self-deprecation help redeem it somewhat. (David Berry) The World’s End ★★★ 1/2 14A The new comedy from the team of director Edgar Wright and co-stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead) is about a group of friends who reunite 20 years later to finish a monumental pub-crawl. Things have changed — the apocalypse looms, for one thing — but the beer beckons in a very funny, if wearying, examination of the British drinking class life. (Jay Stone) You’re Next ★★★ 1/2 14A A home invasion thriller with a twist: as a dysfunctional family is being wiped out by masked villains armed with crossbows and hatchets, one victim (Sharni Vinson) emerges as a worthy opponent. The twists in Adam Wingard’s thriller eventually become silly, but there are plenty of thrills. (Jay Stone)