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Reviews of movies showing in theaters or streaming online
‘ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE’:
“They talk about magic, but I never believed in it until Dante.” That sentence, and sentiment, is simple but sneakily powerful, evoking the kind of epic, all-consuming feelings of teenagers and the way they approach love, life, and friendship during that heady transitional time. The year is 1987, the place is El Paso, Texas, and the person who has just discovered Dante (Reese Gonzales) is Aristotle (Max Pelayo). This is “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe,” a coming-of-age drama based on the young adult novel by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe,” the movie, is written and directed by Aitch Alberto, who has transposed Sáenz’s emotional and intimate prose to the screen. It’s a traditional teenage growing up story, filled with angst and crushes and family discord as lonely Aristotle grapples with his identity in relationship to others. But it is unique in its setting, the people within it and the issues that it takes on. 1:37. 3 stars. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service
‘BLUE BEETLE’: For Jaime Reyes — the Blue Beetle — being a superhero is a family affair. While most superheroes shield their identities from loved ones, in “Blue Beetle,” the first DC Comics movie to feature a Latino superhero, it’s a group project. When recent college graduate Jaime (Xolo Maridueña) unknowingly brings home an alien scarab in a fastfood box handed to him by industrial heiress Jenny
Kord (Bruna Marquezine), which she spirited away from the headquarters of the family business, he’s egged on by his sister Milagro (Belissa Escobedo) and Uncle
Rudy (George Lopez) to check it out. The scarab quickly responds to him, his entire family watching in horror as the critter fuses onto his spine, forming a symbiotic relationship that affords Jaime the powers of a sentient battle suit complete with a Siri-style intelligence, Khaji-Da (voiced by Becky G). The alien suit may be nifty, allowing him to fly and fight and conjure weapons out of thin air, but Jaime derives his strength and drive from the tight-knit Reyes clan. His family is a crucial component in the comic books, lovingly transferred to the screen by director Angel Manuel Soto and writer Gareth DunnetAlcocer. The first Latino superhero movie is a true reflection of Latino culture, including the food, the music, the history and the focus on family, first and foremost. 2:07. 2 ½ stars.
— Katie Walsh
‘BOTTOMS’: The wide, bright, satiric world of “Bottoms,” director and co-writer Emma Seligman’s second feature, expands and contracts as needed. One minute it’s a sincere portrait of a teen friendship between the equally uncool and marginalized PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri). They’re queer, witty and a little heartbreaking, and not only because they refer to themselves as “ugly” and “losers” when they’re plainly not. Then, on a dime, Seligman and co-writer Sennott change the key and start tossing whole chunks of “Fight
Club” and “Heathers” into a mini-Ninja blender, along with the entirety of John Hughes’ canon of heteromale high school ’80s cool. The result — peppy, bloody and swift — is very different from Seligman’s 2021 sublimely nerve-wracking debut film, the deft comedy of lesbian Jewish mortification “Shiva Baby.” This one tries more, every which way and largely successfully. Arch? Glib? Yes and yes. But I laughed a lot, all the more so because the payoffs in “Bottoms” have a way of delivering in stealth mode. 1:30. 3 stars.
— Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
‘THE EQUALIZER 3’: The blood flows like wine in “The Equalizer 3,” as dark as Chianti, seeping into cobblestone streets, splattering onto stained glass and statuary. Yes, star Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua have used the third installment of this trilogy as the opportunity for an Italian vacay, with vigilante hero
Robert McCall (Washington) leaving Boston behind to follow a spate of movie sequels, TV productions and Instagram influencers to the old country for a taste of “la dolce vita.”
But Robert has to take care of business before he can truly enjoy retirement on the Amalfi Coast, which means ridding this charming village of pesky mafiosi. We don’t come to “The Equalizer” movies for plot, and this third installment privileges performance and visceral, dramatic imagery over everything else. The appeal of this film is just watching Washington do what he does best, and he’s having a lot of fun here, quietly threatening bad guys, flashing toothy grins, pontificating about good and evil and the necessity to do evil in order to be good, putting the hurt on swaggering psychos. 1:49. 2 ½ stars. — Katie Walsh
‘THE GOOD MOTHER’:
The title of Miles JorisPeyrafitte’s “The Good Mother” is initially a bit
ironic. Marissa (Hilary Swank) is a hard-boozing mom who has hardened herself against the reality of her grown sons’ lives. Michael is an opioid addict and a criminal, dabbling in drug trafficking, while her other son, Toby (Jack Reynor) exists on the other side of the law and order line — he’s a cop. It’s Toby who shows up at work, interrupting an editorial meeting at the Times Union newspaper, where Marissa is an editor, to inform her that Michael has been murdered, shot in what may have been a drug deal gone wrong. Their acceptance of his death indicates that they have long grieved for their son and brother. But there’s another mother in “The Good Mother,” which Marissa discovers at Michael’s funeral, much to her shock and sadness. It’s Paige (Olivia Cooke), Michael’s girlfriend, her belly swollen. Marissa wallops Paige across the face before she can even get the happy news out, furious at her for her role in Michael’s demise. But Paige is resilient. She bounces back, and into Marissa’s life, without bitterness. She simply wants to know what happened to her boyfriend, the father of her child, with whom she was building a future. 1:30. 2 stars. — Katie Walsh
‘THE NUN II’: How about another round of religious trauma, the movie? Five years after “The Conjuring” Cinematic Universe spinoff “The Nun” glowered her way to boffo box-office numbers (the highest grossing in the successful franchise), the imposing sister is back in “The Nun II,” this time directed by Michael Chaves, who helmed the latest CCU installments “The Curse of La Llorona” (2019) and “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” (2021). In “The Nun,” set in 1952, a young novitiate, Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) travels to Romania to battle the demon Valak at Saint Cartha’s monastery, in Romania. Director Corin Hardy and cinematographer Maxime Alexandre brought an operatic Gothic horror style to the movie, which was light on story but heavy on jump-scares. In “The Nun II,” set four years later in 1956, Sister Irene tangles with the demon again, this time at a French boarding school. Chaves and cinematographer Tristan Nyby bring some cool visuals again, but the film is sorely lacking in scares and suspense — it’s an utter snooze. 1:50. 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.