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Reviews of movies showing in theaters or streaming online
‘ALINE’: There’s an episode of “30 Rock” that features the character Jenna Maroney announcing she’s been cast in an unauthorized Janis Joplin biopic, but since the filmmakers don’t have the rights to Joplin’s life, Maroney is playing a Joplin-like character named “Jackie Jormp-Jomp.” But what was a silly gag for the NBC comedy has now become real, in the form of “Aline,” the unauthorized biopic “inspired by” the life of French Canadian singing superstar Celine Dion. The film follows the life of Aline Dieu, the youngest of 13 children, a child prodigy who takes the world by storm with her powerful voice, falls in love with and marries her much older manager, sings the most famous movie song in the world, and takes up a residency in Vegas, while mothering her three boys, including twins, and reckoning with the mortality of her older husband. It’s the Celine Dion story, with a few names changed, and a couple of snippets of her most famous songs — fairly standard biopic fare. In French with English subtitles. 2:08. 2 ½ stars. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service
‘ALL THE OLD KNIVES’:
In “All the Old Knives,” ex-lovers and spies Henry and Celia meet for dinner in an upscale California beach town. They reminisce, haltingly, but this is no ordinary get-together. Celia (Thandiwe Newton) left the job years ago and shed her ties to the CIA in favor of marriage and children; Henry (Chris Pine) is still on the job and he has been tasked with investigating a deadly airline hijacking from nearly a decade back, when they were both based out of Vienna. Turns out, there was a leak that sabotaged their efforts for a better outcome. Over sips of wine, fine dining and subtle mutual interrogation, this reunion is meant to shed light on the mole’s identity. Who doublecrossed whom? 1:41. 1 ½ stars. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video. — Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune
‘FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE’: The third installment in the “Harry Potter” prequel franchise, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” arrives four years after the second film, “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.” The plot concerns Grindelwald’s grasps at power in the magical world because he essentially wants to start a race war with the muggles (humans). Set in the 1930s (or thereabouts), the fascist vibes are thick in the air as the motley crew of Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), Newt’s brother Theseus (Callum Turner), Hogwarts professor Lally Hicks (Jessica Williams), and muggle baker Jacob (Dan Fogler) set out to foil Grindelwald’s plans by confusing his visions of the future. Does the plan work? Not really, but honestly, who’s to say? After all the running around they still end up at some rigged election in Bhutan in which a magical creature will select the “pure of heart” to lead the magical world, if anyone still cares. There is nothing of consequence that occurs in this movie, as everyone involved seems to be going through the motions in order to cash a check and fulfill their obligations. 2:22. 1 ½ stars. — Katie Walsh
‘FATHER STU’: “Father Stu”?
He’s not a regular priest, he’s a cool priest. A priest who swears, a priest with a history of boozing and boxing. That’s the story told, at least by the film’s poster, which features a diptych of star Mark Wahlberg, looking rough and rueful in a mug shot, and then beatific in Catholic clergy apparel. The journey between the two photos is the dominion of “Father Stu,” the directorial debut of Rosalind Ross, who also wrote the screenplay, though there’s more to the story of Catholic priest Stuart Long. There is a profound grace to be found in “Father Stu,” when everyone gets out of the way to let the message of suffering as spirituality just breathe. But one can’t help but feel like that comes too little and too late to have any significant impact. 2:04. 2 stars. — Katie Walsh
‘THE NORTHMAN’: In
1982, “Conan the Barbarian” enticed audiences with a poster promising four phases of a rough man’s rough life: “Thief. Warrior. Gladiator. King.” “The Northman,” which wanders narratively but, as cinema, basically eats “Conan” for breakfast, follows what might be considered a similar career path: Prince, followed by Slave, then Viking Marauder, and finally Newly Sensitized Lover and Potential Family Man. Alexander Skarsgard takes the title role, as well as taking a fair bit of on-screen punishment en route to a climactic battle at the Gates of
Hel (one “l” in this hell, for the record). There, at Hel, Amleth, played by Skarsgard, wields his mighty sword against his kingdom-usurping uncle (Claes Bang) surrounded by rivers of flaming molten lava. They’re nude, discreetly silhouetted, and as in much of “The Northman” the scene’s melding of digital and practical effects and design strategies doesn’t lead to the usual fantasy generica. Robert Eggers creates worlds that used to be, or never were, but thanks to his chosen medium, there they are, vivid and alive. 2:16. 3 stars. — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
‘SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2’: Based on the Sega video game franchise about a speedy blue creature, “Sonic the Hedgehog” raced into theaters in 2020. A mix of live-action and digital animation, “Sonic” was a reasonably fun family friendly adventure that benefited from a wonderful voice performance from Ben Schwartz as the heroic Sonic and generally enjoyable cartoonish shenanigans from Jim Carrey as his nemesis, the villainous Dr. Robotnik. With “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” we get a sequel that is, of course, bigger. And, unfortunately, longer. In the movie’s production notes, producer Toby
Ascher speaks of efforts to create “a Sonic cinematic universe,” because, we can only assume, the world has too few cinematic universes at this point. Well, guys, if we are to see more of Blue Justice and his buddies, a little less may prove to be a bit more next time. 2:02. 2 stars. — Mark Meszoros, Willoughby News-Herald
‘THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT’:
Now 58, with nearly 100 film credits since he was “Brad’s bud” in
“Fast Times at Ridgemont High” in 1982, Nicolas Cage has handled a lion’s share of money grabs in a career distinguished by a gratifying number of movies worth seeing, often just for him. Good material, bad material, big-budget studio clangers, low-budget indies on wry: The man does not coast. The central gag in the occasionally funny action-comedy “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” imagines Cage, playing a variation on himself named Nick
Cage at a career impasse. Divorced, with a tenuous, tetchy relationship with a
(fictional) teenage daughter played by Lily Mo Sheen, the movie’s version of Cage has run up a $600,000 tab at a fancy Los Angeles hotel and needs a job. His agent, Fink (Neil Patrick Harris), comes through with a prospect:
For a cool, gallingly easy million, his client is to attend a super rich Cage fan’s birthday party on the island of Mallorca, Spain. There Cage will be the special guest star, required only to small-talk about his career, get some sun and sweat his future. Through it all, Cage gives his all, which hardly needed saying. He takes on two roles, plus a cameo, playing “himself ”; a pushy, digitally de-aged ’90s version of himself, named “Nicky”; and a peppy, aged Italian crime boss with terrible fashion sense. Cage never stops trying things, whether its eccentric physical details or idiosyncratically timed punchlines. 1:47. 2 stars.
RATINGS: The movies listed are rated according to the following key: 4 stars, excellent; 3 stars, good; 2 stars, fair; 1 star, poor.