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Lean on Pete, directed by Andrew Haigh (R, 2 hours, 1 minute) British director Andrew Haigh, known for spare, compelling movies that involve the viewer, takes a fresh approach to the story of a boy and a horse. Following the outline of Willy Vlautin’s novel, Lean on Pete concerns 15-year-old Charley (Charlie Plummer) and his sad dad (Travis Fimmel), who live a shabby existence near a down-and-out-horse track in Oregon.
That’s where Charley earns a few dollars here and there by helping a trainer named Del (Steve Buscemi). The horses there are forced to follow the mantra of “if you don’t come home a winner, you don’t come home,” and losers often end up being sent to a farm in Mexico, which doesn’t exactly mean what it says.
Charley fears that fate awaits a 5-year-old quarter horse named Lean on Pete owned by Del, and concocts an outlandish and expensive plan to save his newfound equine pal that evolves into a search for Charley’s long-lost loving aunt.
It’s not an upbeat scenario, but Haigh finds something redeeming about his characters, even if Charley can be, well, adolescent, and Del underhanded.
Moments of beauty in unlikely places add to a satisfying resolution — not optimistic, but not hopeless — that in this world, simply getting through life is a form of victory. With Chloe Sevigny, Steve Zahn. The home entertainment release includes the “Searching for Home: Making Lean on Pete” featurette.
Krystal (R, 1 hour, 30 minutes) An illogical, artificial and muddled comedic drama about Taylor (Nick Robinson), a sheltered man with an uncommon heart condition who, after meeting Krystal (Rosario Dawson), an ex-addict with a 16-year-old son, pretends to be in AA in order to pursue a romantic relationship with her. With Felicity Huffman, William Fichtner, Kathy Bates; directed by William H. Macy.
Chappaquiddick (PG-13, 1 hour, 46 minutes) This detailed, suspenseful thriller, based on historical events and aided by a competent cast, examines the 1969 death of campaign strategist Mary Jo Kopechne, who drowned when the car she was riding in with U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy drove off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts. Moral and legal complexities follow. With Jason Clarke, Kate Mara, Bruce Dern, Jim Gaffigan, Ed Helms; directed by John Curran. Blu-ray special features include two featurettes.
A Ciambra (not rated, 1 hour, 59 minutes) A lively, smartly conceived and realistic documentary-like drama in which 14-year-old Pio (Pio Amato), who is cagey and streetwise enough to fit seamlessly into his scrappy southern Italian port city’s disparate Italian, African and Romani populations, is intent on showing his maturity by taking over the petty-crime functions of his beyond-thelaw older brother Cosimo, who has disappeared. With Damiano Amato, Iolanda Amato (all members of a real-life Roma family); directed by Jonas Carpignano. In Italian with English subtitles.
A Quiet Place (PG-13, 1 hour, 30 minutes) A taut, lowkey, truly frightening modern horror thriller in which a family of four is surrounded with fearful creatures that hunt their prey by sound, which means the family must exist in absolute silence in order to survive. With Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Noah Jupe, Cade Woodward, Millicent Simmonds; directed by Krasinski.
The Leisure Seeker (R, 1 hour, 52 minutes) Not as compelling as it ought to be considering the star power of Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren, this clunky comedy-drama concerns an aging couple who head out for one last cross-country road trip from Boston to Key West in an aging RV. Adventures, plausible and otherwise, ensue. With Joshua Mikel, Christian McKay; directed by Paolo Virzi.
Beirut (R, 1 hour, 49 minutes) Set against the backdrop of the Lebanese Civil War, Beirut opens in 1972, where Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm) is a dashing up-and-coming deputy cultural attache assigned to the American embassy. He and his wife have adopted Karim, a 13-year-old Palestinian. Life in the diplomatic corps is good, and it’s clear that Skiles loves the city, his family, his vantage point on history.
So all that has to be swept away by a rough but not entirely incredible gesture by the Mossad.
Flash forward a decade later, and Skiles is ruined: a car-sleeping drunk who, through the sheer dint of his talent, has hung on to a job as a labor negotiator operating out of Boston. He still has skills, but no hope or society outside the anonymous bars he seeks out every night.
Then there’s an incident back in Beirut and his name gets mentioned. A man is dispatched to the bar where Skiles is loitering. He’s requested to return. He reluctantly agrees.
This is no longer the Paris of the Middle East but, like Skiles, a ravaged husk. “You missed quite the civil war,” an old friend tells him, though the war is far from over. He discovers that he has been called back because another old colleague has been kidnapped for ransom, and asked that Skiles negotiate for his life.
Those in place don’t believe he’s up to it — he doesn’t either. But it’s not a cup he can refuse. So the CIA station chief (Shea Whigham, in yet another great character turn), the White House man in country (Breaking Bad’s Dean Norris) and the competent U.S. ambassador (old master Larry Pine) seek to keep him on a short leash. The only one who believes Skiles might have a chance is Sandy Crowder (Rosamund Pike), the CIA minder (she mockingly adopts Skiles’ characterization of her as “the skirt”) assigned to shadow him.
Hamm and Pike are quite comfortable with scriptwriter Tony Gilroy’s keen dialogue. Hamm is surprisingly good in quiet moments, lending Skiles a real sense of tragedy. This is not a movie where any of the characters change in dramatic ways, and it’s not about the ultimate redemption of Mason Skiles. Through the film he remains shattered, fragile, underestimated and gifted.
This is a smart and substantive film, well worth the attention of fans of John le Carre and Graham Greene.
You Were Never Really Here (R, 1 hour, 29 minutes) Violent, disturbing and challenging, this haunting thriller concerns a traumatized yet fearless veteran (Joaquin Phoenix) who tracks down missing girls for a living. When a job spins out of control, his nightmares overtake him as a conspiracy is uncovered, leading to what may be his death trip or his awakening. With Ekaterina Samsonov, Alessandro Nivola, Judith Roberts; directed and written by Lynne Ramsay and based on a novella by Jonathan Ames.
Blockers (R, 1 hour, 42 minutes) Parental overreach is explored in this refreshingly female-focused teen comedy. When three parents stumble upon their daughters’ pact to lose their virginity at their prom, they launch a covert one-night operation to stop the teenagers from sealing the deal. With Leslie Mann, Kathryn Newton, John Cena; directed by Kay Cannon.