NOW IN THEATERS
ANNIHILATION
Filmmaker Alex Garland follows his directorial debut Ex Machina (2014) with another terrific science-fiction story, this time adapting the first book of the popular trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. Garland eschews the more obtuse approach of VanderMeer’s prose, yet still creates a rich, thoughtful acid trip of an adventure that meditates on heavy themes of life, personal identity, and the link between destruction and evolution. Oscar Isaac plays Kane, a soldier who enters
an environmental disaster zone known as the Shimmer and emerges as the only survivor in his troupe. His wife, Lena (Natalie Portman), a biologist, volunteers to join a team of women scientists heading into the area to find out what happened, soon discovering that the DNA of the wildlife has been drastically altered by the incident. Before long, they realize their own DNA is not exempt. Their encounters with the flora and fauna range from beautiful to unsettling to downright disturbing, but like the movie itself, they never lack for imagination. Rated R. 120 minutes. Violet Crown. (Robert Ker)
BLACK PANTHER
Marvel Studios continues its run of superhero movies, this time focusing on T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), aka Black Panther. The real star, however, is not the Black Panther but his homeland of Wakanda, a futuristic African country that director Ryan Coogler impressively imbues with detail and world-building. T’Challa returns to this land to rule as king after his father’s death, and soon finds himself battling enemies old (an arms dealer played by Andy Serkis) and new (a usurper to the throne played by Michael B. Jordan), while confronting concerns about Wakanda’s isolationism. It’s bracing to see a diverse, utopian society portrayed on screen, and not only does the cast feature an incredible array of people of color, but the women are powerful and brilliant, led by Letitia Wright as an inventor, and Lupita Nyong’o as a member of a Wakanda all-women special forces unit. Some typical Marvel problems muddy the waters (dodgy CGI and a cluttered climax), but the studio has never made a picture that feels this fresh. Rated PG-13. 134 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Robert Ker)
DEATH WISH
Apparently, the time is right for a remake of Death Wish, the 1974 revenge movie in which Charles Bronson becomes a vigilante after his wife is killed and his daughter sexually assaulted. This time, the plot remains more or less the same, but expect the violence to be considerably ramped up courtesy of director Eli Roth (Hostel). Bruce Willis steps into Bronson’s role, and Vincent D’Onofrio and Elisabeth Shue also star. Rated R. 107 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
A FANTASTIC WOMAN
The Chilean Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, directed by Sebastián Lelio, is about Marina’s (Daniela Vega) ordeal in the days following her boyfriend Orlando’s (Francisco Reyes) death, during which she faces the scorn and prejudice of his family as well as the suspicion and condescension of law enforcement. Everyone has a hard time accepting the relationship between the fiftyseven-year-old businessman, and the comely trans woman — but the audience knows that Orlando was deeply in love with her. A Fantastic Woman often feels like magical realism, a quality that comes not from the movie’s content but from its tone and style — a sensual, noir-like pacing set to a score that is part opera and part Fantasy Island at the disco. Rated R. 104 minutes. In Spanish with subtitles. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Jennifer Levin)
GAME NIGHT
In this dark comedy, a group of friends get together regularly for “game night.” One week, they decide to play an elaborate murder-mystery game that gets kicked up a notch when the organizer (Kyle Chandler) is kidnapped. The remaining players assume it’s a game and play along, growing increasingly uncertain as to whether or not an actual murder needs to be solved. As the plot twists pile up, the friends — including those played by Rachel McAdams, Jason Bateman, and Michael C. Hall — attempt to figure out what’s real, what’s play, and who among them can be trusted. Rated R. 100 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
GRINGO
David Oyelowo plays Harold, a man who works for a company that has developed a powerful marijuana pill. To oversee the manufacturing of the product, he is sent to Mexico, where he is kidnapped by the local drug cartel. His bosses hire a shady professional (Sharlto Copley) to spring him, and the two men get into a string of adventures. Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, and Thandie Newton also star. Rated R. 110 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
I CAN ONLY IMAGINE
The rock band MercyMe’s 1999 hit song “I Can Only Imagine” crossed over from Christian radio stations and became a mainstream hit in the early 2000s. In this retelling of that story, J. Michael Finley plays MercyMe singer Bart Millard, who wrote the song in honor of his father (Dennis Quaid), who passed away when he was eighteen. Rated PG. 110 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
This sequel to the 1995 Robin Williams-led adventure film Jumanji finds the board game of the original transformed into a video game for modern audiences. Four teenagers stumble upon the game while serving detention, and when they press “start,” they’re sucked into its world. Now finding themselves embodied by the avatars they selected (played by Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan), they must find a way to survive the dangers of the jungle and return to their normal lives. Whereas the 1995 film stacked disparate perils and goofy jokes atop each other to whip up a frenzy of cartoonish chaos, this update escorts viewers from one action sequence to the next at a sluggish pace. The cast is lively, charismatic, and ideal for the scenes of bonding and blossoming romances, but these moments are not
staged with enough zip to keep up with the actors’ wit. Rated PG-13. 119 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14. (Robert Ker)
LIVES WELL LIVED
Award-winning photographer Sky Bergman undertook this project as an homage to her then-ninety-nine-year-old Italian grandmother, who had been an inspiration through her example of a life well lived — filled with family, cooking, and nuggets of wisdom. Bergman then expanded her scope, interviewing dozens of other elderly people. They range in age from the disconcertingly young (seventy-five) to the impressively ancient (over 100). This pleasant movie offers few revealing insights, but a lot of spiritual comfort food. It covers some of the questions you may wish you’d thought to ask your parents and grandparents when you still had the chance. There are family histories, old film footage, survival stories, and a lot of “Live every day to the fullest” and “Age is only a number” observations from a spry gallery of cooking, loving, dancing, painting, exercising elders. Not rated. 71 minutes. The Screen. (Jonathan Richards)
LOVE, SIMON
Nick Robinson plays Simon, a teenager who hides the fact that he is gay from his friends and family. Through an anonymous online correspondence, he develops a crush on a classmate who is similarly in the closet. As Simon tries to figure out the identity of this potential paramour, another student (Logan Miller) discovers his secret and attempts to blackmail him. This coming-of-age (and coming out) romance is based on Becky Albertalli’s young adult novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. Rated PG-13. 109 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
OH LUCY!
With that exclamation point in the title, you expect a documentary about Lucille Ball. Instead, it’s a dark Japanese comedy-drama about Setsuko (Shinobu Terajima) a
middle-aged single woman in a dead-end Tokyo office job who unexpectedly finds romance and adventure when she takes over her niece’s place in an English class. Her instructor is John (Josh Hartnett), a handsome Californian who speaks little or no Japanese, and conducts the class only in American English. The students are given wigs and American names — Setsuko is dubbed Lucy. When John abruptly disappears, and Setsuko/ Lucy discovers her niece has run away with him to LA, she follows. What happens there eventually leads this movie into darker waters. Still, there’s plenty to smile and even laugh at, and Terajima anchors the movie with a complex and moving performance. Rated R. 95 minutes. In Japanese and English with subtitles. The Screen. (Jonathan Richards)
PETER RABBIT
Beatrix Potter’s beloved 1902 literary creation gets a slick Hollywood update — which is to say that the pastoral story of Peter Rabbit’s attempts to steal vegetables from Mr. McGregor’s garden have been replaced by the tale of a sassy CGI rabbit (voiced by James Corden) who stages an all-out war against Mr. McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson) over his treatment of animals and battles him for the affections of the kindly neighborhood gardener Bea (Rose Byrne). Peter’s siblings Flopsy (Margot Robbie), Mopsy (Elizabeth Debicki), and Cotton-Tail (Daisy Ridley) join in on the series of pranks. Rated PG. 93 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
RED SPARROW
Jennifer Lawrence stars as Dominika Egorova, a Russian ballerina who is recruited and trained as a spy. Soon after embarking on her new career, she encounters a handsome CIA agent (Joel Edgerton) and falls for him. She then considers becoming a double agent to be with him, but as these things go, it becomes unclear who is double-crossing whom. Rated R. 139 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
7 DAYS IN ENTEBBE
In 1976, an Air France plane with 248 passengers was hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The flight was diverted from Paris to Entebbe, Uganda, where the Ugandan government under Idi Amin hoped to trade the hostages for imprisoned Palestine militants. After a week of planning, Israel Defense Forces sent in commandos, who successfully freed most of the hostages in a violent rescue mission. This movie tells the story from both sides’ point of view, with Rosamund Pike headlining the cast as one of the militants. Rated PG-13. 106 minutes. Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT
This sequel to 2008’s The Strangers is not so much a continuation of the story but a reworking of many of its plot points. Once more, some people in a remote residence receive a mysterious knock on the front door. When they open it, the stranger on the other side initiates an evening of terror, and men and women in masks attempt to hunt down, emotionally torture, and murder everyone. This time, a family on a road trip stops to visit relatives in a trailer park only to find the whole park abandoned. They enter one of the trailers, and that’s when the knock comes. Christina Hendricks stars. Rated R. 85 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
TEHRAN TABOO
This evocative animated feature explores the social, financial, romantic, and sexual repression of women in Iran by following the intersecting lives of three women: Pari (Elmira Rafizadeh), a prostitute with a mute son; Sara (Zahra Amir Ebrahimi), a newly pregnant would-be teacher who is married to a banker; and Donya (Negar Mona Alizadeh), whose quick tryst in a bar bathroom with aspiring musician Babak (Arash Marandi) leads the pair to spend the movie looking for a way to restore her virginity so that her hulking fiancé doesn’t kill him. Tehran Taboo features superb acting and a plot with plenty of surprises, exposing the deep hypocrisy and dark undercurrents that are built into Iranian society. Not rated. 90 minutes. In Persian with subtitles. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Jennifer Levin)
TOMB RAIDER
Alicia Vikander dons the tank top once worn by Angelina Jolie, playing the gun-toting Lara Croft in this reboot of the videogame-adapted franchise. This time out, Croft searches for her father (Dominic West) once more, traveling to the island of Yamatai, where he disappeared while looking for treasure. Once there, she encounters a shadowy group called the Trinity, along with one of her father’s rivals (Walton Goggins). She proceeds to kick butt, dodge traps, and raid tombs. Rated PG-13. 118 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14. Screens in 2-D only at Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
A WRINKLE IN TIME
Only the fumes of Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved 1962 fantasy novel remain in Ava DuVernay’s embarrassingly insipid adaptation. Though the outline of the plot remains, in which a teenage girl hops about the universe with her brother on a rescue mission to save their father — the magic, mystery, and darkness that define the book have been stripped out in favor of a story that cheers on tweens who might be enduring family struggles, being teased in school, or just feeling different from the crowd. An oppressive score introduces each plot twist, eliminating any potentially authentic emotional reactions to character development (which is limited at best). The movie has the feel of an extended commercial where the moral of the story is “love conquers all.” Skip it and read the excellent book. Rated PG. 109 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Jennifer Levin)