AT THE MOVIES
NEW IN TOWN
Cannes International Advertising Festival 2014: Judges of the annual festival screened more than 4,000 commercials and narrowed them down to about 90 prize winners. Plays at the ByTowne. (Melissa Hank) Not rated Felix & Meira: See review on, F2. ★★★★ Fifty Shades of Grey: See review, F1 ★ 1/2 Kingsman: See review, F2.
★ ★ 1/2 R100: This Japanese dramedy from director Hitoshi Matsumoto centres on Takafumi (Nao mori), a businessman who signs a contract with BDSM club that sends dominatrixes to attack and humiliate their clients in public. Things seem to go well, but soon the club’s activities invade his home life and Takafumi must fight to protect his family. (Melissa Hank) Not rated
STILL IN TOWN
American Sniper: Bradley Cooper stars as Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history with more than 250 recorded kills. Director Clint Eastwood wants to turn Kyle’s story into standard hero archetype, but his movie feels like it’s forcing old-fashioned values into a modern vessel. (Katherine Monk)
★★ ★ 1/2 Annie: Director Will Gluck has something of a winking Hollywood self-awareness, thus this new version of Annie bristles with self-ridicule, gently mocking the requisite indulgences of the genre. And the film is considerably richer for it. But, the film is at its worst when it’s at its most cloying. (Calum Marsh)
★★ ★ 1/2 Big Hero 6: Disney’s latest combines the look of Japanese anime and the heart of American tradition to tell the tale of an inflatable robot designed to help people, and a young boy who must decide to use his powers for good or evil. It never pushes the limits too hard, but it does ask some tougher questions. (Katherine Monk)
★★ ★ 1/2 Black or White: This film would love to be thought of as a nuanced drama about race in the 21st century. But the story of a man (Kevin Costner) fighting for custody of his biracial granddaughter (Jillian Estelle) falls flat. (David Berry)
★ ★ The Boy Next Door: Jennifer Lopez and Ryan Guzman give it their all but can’t save this dreary stalker-thriller about a young man obsessed with a high school teacher. It’s like a Nicholas Sparks adaptation where everything went wrong. (Chris Knight)
★ 1/2 Cake: Jennifer Aniston plays a lawyer suffering from survival guilt in this well-played drama about a wife and mother struggling with personal loss. Claire (Aniston) is not a nice person, but when she starts seeing the ghost of a dead friend, she finds enough distance from her self-loathing to stir things up and make a change. (Katherine Monk)
★★ ★ 1/2 The Hobbit The Battle of the Five Armies: Martin Freeman returns as Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who embarks on a journey to help a group of elves recapture their kingdom. The story resonates, but it feels like one long battle sequence. (Katherine Monk)
★★ ★ 1/2 The Hunger Games Mockingjay — Part 1: Now hiding with a rebel group, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) is tapped to become the face of revolution, but with Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) begging her to lay down her quiver, Katniss must decide what’s more important: one friendship, or the future of humanity. (Katherine Monk)
★★ ★ ★ The Imitation Game: Benedict Cumberbatch stars as real-life mathematician Alan Turing, a genius who became instrumental in decrypting Nazi codes. This beautifully shot period piece explores Turing’s days at Bletchley, where he and a handful of other smart people invented the computer. (Katherine Monk)
★★★★ Into the Woods: Meryl Streep heads the cast as the witch in this version of the Stephen Sondheim musical, but Emily Blunt and James Corden are magnetic as childless bakers who make a deal with the witch in hopes of conceiving. (Katherine Monk)
★★ ★ 1/2 Jupiter Ascending: In the latest from the Wachowski siblings, Mila Kunis is Jupiter Jones, who learns from an intergalactic mercenary (Channing Tatum) that she’s the ruler of the Earth. Beautiful to look at, painful to comprehend. (Chris Knight)
★★ 1/2 A Most Violent Year: J.C. Chandor directs Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain in this period drama. The film circles a moral vacuum that keeps the viewer guessing about everyone’s guilt or innocence. (Katherine Monk)
★★★ 1/2 Night at the Museum Secret of the Tomb: Ben Stiller returns as night watchman Larry, keeper of a magical golden tablet that brings museum exhibits to life. This third chapter of the series moves the action to the British Museum, but the plot is more of the same. (Chris Knight)
★ ★ 1/2 Paddington: Cuter than kittens and sweeter than honey, this mix of live-action and computer animation conjures all the magic you want from a kids’ movie, especially one based on Paddington Bear. (Katherine Monk)
★★ ★ 1/2 Penguins of Madagascar: The cute, cuddly sidekicks from the Madagascar movies get their own film, and it’s 92 minutes of zaniness. If you watched the James Bond franchise while bingeing on sugary cereal, you could probably write something like this. (Chris Knight)
★★ ★ 1/2 Project Almanac: In this shakily shot found-footage science-fiction thriller, a high-school genius finds his late dad’s time-machine blueprints in the basement and constructs the device, falling in love with a classmate in the process. It flirts with paradoxes but seems not to care about them much. (Chris Knight)
★ ★ 1/2 Selma: Ava DuVernay directs this powerful but understated piece that zeros in on the weeks surrounding three attempts by Martin Luther King Jr. at marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to protest racist voting laws. (Katherine Monk)
★★ ★ ★ Seventh Son: Seventh Son has castles and ogres and dragons and Jeff Bridges in the role of a revered wizard-type at war with a fire-breathing witch-dragon (Julianne Moore). It seems less like a Tolkienesque feast and more like warmed-over fantasy leftovers. (Calum Marsh)
★ 1/2 The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water: The film begins in SpongeBob’s undersea home but then moves to the beach, where a pirate (Antonio Banderas) has appropriated the recipe for a prized Bikini Bottom burger. SpongeBob and his crew then become brawny 3D superheroes. (Calum Marsh)
★ Still Alice: Julianne Moore stars as Alice Howland, a professor diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in this poignant drama. Taking us through the slow mental descent through the eyes of those around her, Still Alice is more than a dramatization of a medical condition. (Katherine Monk)
★★ ★ 1/2 Strange Magic: Want to know what’s on George Lucas’s iPod? That might be the only reason to check out this animated jukebox musical about faeries who fall in love in an enchanted wood, and sing about it in tunes familiar to Boomers. (Chris Knight)
★ ★ Taken 3: Liam Neeson reprises his role as Bryan Mills, owner of a “particular set of skills” that help him when someone is taken and he is framed for the crime. Possibly the least violent of the series, though that isn’t saying much. (Chris Knight)
★ ★ 1/2 The Theory of Everything: Eddie Redmayne stars as Stephen Hawking in this upscale and beautifully executed biopic that focuses on Hawking’s first marriage. (Katherine Monk)
★★ ★ ★ The Wedding Ringer: This movie about a desperate groom (Josh Gad) hiring a manic best man (Kevin Hart) packs in all the thin, broad humour it can, and wraps it in a smarmy little saccharine bow. (David Berry)
★ ★ Wild: Reese Witherspoon stars in this adaptation of the bestselling account of a 1,000-mile journey along the Pacific Crest Trail. It’s a much-needed exhibit in the hall of female experience. (Katherine Monk)
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