NOW IN THEATERS
BEL CANTO
Paul Weitz’s film adaptation of the Ann Patchett bestseller opens with a lavish dinner party in an unnamed South American country. The after-dinner entertainment is Roxane Coss (Julianne Moore), a celebrated operatic soprano (think Renée Fleming, who supplies the voice). The guests are a glittering assembly of politicians, diplomats, and business heavies, including Katsumi Hosokawa (Ken Watanabe), a wealthy Japanese industrialist. As Roxane is singing, gunwielding guerrillas break into the mansion and take everybody hostage. The crisis goes on for weeks and romances blossom, including one between Coss and Hosokawa. We come to see the strengths and weaknesses of captors and captives and we are shown the underlying humanity of these gun-toting terrorists, though we can never forget that their upper hand is based on their willingness to slaughter innocent people to achieve their goals. The more human and friendly and sympathetic everyone gets, the more certain we become that this is a standoff that cannot end well. Not rated. 102 minutes. In English, Spanish, French, and Japanese with subtitles. Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
BLACKKKLANSMAN
Director Spike Lee’s career is full of peaks and valleys, and his latest film finds him reaching crowd-pleasing heights once more. It’s a dramedy based on the true story of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), an African-American detective in 1970s Colorado Springs who goes undercover to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan. Using the phone most of the time — and sending a proxy (Adam Driver) when face time is required — Stallworth does such a good job that he becomes close with national Grand Wizard David Duke (an oddly cast Topher Grace). Because it’s a Spike Lee joint, all of the filmmaker’s strengths and weaknesses are on display. There are bold creative choices and excellent work by supporting cast members (watch for Harry Belafonte’s powerhouse turn), yet an excessive amount of cuts make even simple scenes feel busy. Lee’s toolbox is full of nothing but blunt objects, so don’t go in expecting subtlety; however, it’s refreshing to see racial divisions in America addressed so directly. The plot is gripping and there are funny jokes, but brace yourself for the gut-punch connection to modern times that closes the film. Rated R. 135 minutes. Violet Crown. (Robert Ker)
BLAZE
Unlike most musician biopics you’ve seen, director Ethan Hawke’s movie about singer/ songwriter Blaze Foley is not about a successful, well-known hitmaker. The songs of Foley, who died nearly 30 years ago, have been recorded by Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, John Prine, and Lyle Lovett, and Lucinda Williams and his friend Townes Van Zandt paid tribute to him in original compositions. But, like so many rough-hewn geniuses, his life was a mess. A self-destructive alcoholic, he was essentially homeless during the last months of his life, sleeping under pool tables at bars. He died virtually penniless. Foley is portrayed by Ben Dickey, an actor who, at least up to now, probably is even less famous than Foley himself. He captures Foley’s lumbering presence, his menacing scowl, his mumble, and his vulnerability underneath a thick beard and oversized cowboy hat. Also notable are Texas guitar slinger Charlie Sexton as Van Zandt and Alia Shawkat as Foley’s long-suffering girlfriend Sybil Rosen. Rated R. 129 minutes. Violet Crown. (Steve Terrell)
CRAZY RICH ASIANS
Based on the bestselling novel by Kevin Kwan,
Crazy Rich Asians crosses a classic fish-out-ofwater romantic comedy with a fun millennial sensibility. NYU economics professor Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) is head over heels in love with her dashing boyfriend Nick Young (Henry Golding), who has been hiding a very big secret — he’s the filthy rich scion of a Singapore real estate dynasty. When Nick invites her to accompany him to the lavish wedding of his best friend in Singapore, Chu is thrust into a glaring spotlight, scrutinized by Nick’s snobby mother (Michelle Yeoh), grandmother (Lisa Lu), and a passel of jealous onlookers, none of whom think an ordinary Asian-American girl is good enough for the Prince Harry of Singapore. Using all her charm and wit — as well as the support of her wisecracking college roommate (Awkwafina) — Rachel does her best to win over Nick’s family and friends, with mostly disastrous and hilarious results. Chockablock with breakout performances, the film is a dizzying, madcap cultural immersion. It should serve as a reminder to Hollywood that when it’s executed with a sense of ingenuity and an emphasis on diversity, the old-school rom-com marriage plot always makes for a damn fine movie. Rated PG-13. 120 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Molly Boyle)
FAHRENHEIT 11/9
With a Republican president in the White House after eight years of Obama, it’s time for Michael Moore to surface with a documentary that pokes and prods him. His latest documentary references several of Moore’s pet topics: He calls back to
Fahrenheit 9/11 with the title (taken for 11/9/16, the day Trump’s electoral college victory was announced), revisits the gun control debate of Bowling for Columbine by tracking the schoolshooting survivors-turned-activists David Hogg and Emma González, and returns to his Michigan hometown setting of
Roger & Me by exploring Flint’s current water crisis. Rated R. 125 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
HELL FEST
In this horror movie, young people pour into a themed amusement park known as Hell Fest, which comes complete with rides, funhouses, thrills, and chills. Unfortunately, on this evening, it also comes with an actual masked killer who picks the park-goers off one by one, and they can’t tell if he’s part of the attraction or a murderer until it’s too late. Rated R. 120 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS
Filmmaker Eli Roth rose to prominence with punishing horror movies such as Hostel. Here, he tries his hand at catering to the Goosebumps crowd, adapting the 1973 novel by John Bellairs into a movie about a young orphan named Lewis (Owen Vaccaro) who moves in with his uncle Jonathan (Jack Black), only to find that his uncle is a warlock and his house has a ticking clock in its walls. When it counts down to zero, something wicked this way comes. Unsurprisingly, Roth has a good feel for the frights, even with the PG rating. He has less of a handle on the humor and scenes that convey the characters’ emotional arcs. What hurts matters is that while Vaccaro excels and Cate Blanchett is reliably exquisite as the witch who lives next door, Black is oddly cast and never quite hits the right chord between whimsy and gravity. Rated PG. 104 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Robert Ker)
KUSAMA: INFINITY
Director Heather Lenz’s documentary on Japanborn artist Kusama grapples with a multitude of topics in its expert telling of the sculptor and installation artist’s life and works. The film chronicles Kusama’s abuse at the hands of her mother, her determination to make a name for herself in New York’s thriving art scene, her embrace of the ’60s counterculture and the happenings she staged in opposition to the Vietnam War, her glorious, exuberantly-colored installations filled with her signature polka dots, and her rise to prominence in a male-dominated art world, which included her ideas being appropriated by other artists. Filmed when the artist was approaching ninety, Kusama: Infinity is a story of bold determination despite the odds. Kusama suffered debilitating mental illness, made several attempts at suicide, and was in and out of hospitals throughout her life, only to emerge triumphant. Lenz presents the material in a straightforward manner. The portrait that emerges is one of inner turmoil countered by outward exuberance. Not rated. 80 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Michael Abatemarco)
LITTLE WOMEN
On the 150th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel, director Clare Niederpruem offers a modern update on the sprawling drama of the March sisters, who come of age, fall in love, face tragedy, and attempt to support their family with their father away in the Civil War. Sarah Davenport plays Jo, the aspiring writer and central protagonist; Melanie Stone is Meg, the teacher who marries and becomes a mother. Amy and Beth, the younger two, are played by Elise Jones and Allie Jennings, respectively. Lea Thompson portrays their mother. Rated PG-13. 112 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
LOVE, GILDA
Gilda Radner always seemed to be having so much fun. That was the secret to her meteoric rise as one of the first breakout stars of Saturday Night Live. Her exuberant silliness was contagious and irresistible. Lisa D’Apolito’s Love, Gilda captures some of this spirit while sketching in a brief biography of the woman who set the bar for female comics in the ’70s, and then left the world a poorer place when she succumbed to cancer in 1989, at the age of forty-two. There are the SNL years, where Gilda was the first cast member chosen. There’s her foray onto Broadway with a one-woman show and her name in lights. And her brief movie career was distinguished mainly by meeting and falling in love with Gene Wilder, whom she married. We also get a glimpse of what it’s like to maintain that inspired exuberance when the anonymity is gone, the childhood dreams have been reached and surpassed, and there’s the rest of your life to deal with. For Gilda, it was all too short. Not rated. 89 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Jonathan Richards)
NIGHT SCHOOL
Tiffany Haddish reunites with Girls Trip director Malcolm D. Lee for another comedy, this time set in school. When a gifted salesman (Kevin Hart) is courted for a job as a stockbroker, provided he gets his GED, he enrolls in night school. He and the scoundrels and troublemakers in the class butt heads with the teacher (Haddish), and chaos ensues. Rated PG-13. 111 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
THE NUN
The popular Conjuring franchise hasn’t produced a classic horror film, but several of its entries have offered some reliable scares and solid filmmaking. The Nun, a prequel based around the creepy nun who has periodically appeared in other installments, is not one of those films. It takes us back to a convent in 1950s Romania, where Father Burke (Demián Bichir) and Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga, sister of series star Vera Farmiga) travel to investigate the apparent suicide of a young nun. They don’t find many people there, but soon discover that something evil is afoot and the demon Valak is responsible. Director Corin Hardy tries to pack the movie with scares for the full running time, whereas most good horror movies let viewers spend much of the time in the normal world while slowly introducing the awful into the everyday. A whole film of two people wandering a dark, empty monastery with a jump scare thrown in every couple of minutes gets boring very quickly. Rated R. 96 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Robert Ker)
PEPPERMINT
In 2008, Taken reinvigorated the action genre by applying a well-known middle-aged actor (Liam Neeson) to a hardcore action movie. This formula has since been replicated many times, but rarely by the Taken director, Pierre Morel, himself. Here, Morel tells a revenge story about a woman (Jennifer Garner) whose family is murdered by gang members. When a corrupt legal system refuses to give her justice, she takes it into her own hands, disappearing for years and re-emerging as a highly trained killing force. Rated R. 102 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
THE PREDATOR
Filmmaker Shane Black returns to his roots with the
Predator franchise (he got one of his big breaks playing a role in the original 1987 film), co-writing and directing a story about a military sniper (Boyd Holbrook) who encounters a spaceship with a predator alien. When he mails some of the extraterrestrial tech back to his kid (Jacob Tremblay), the two discover that more predators are coming, and that they’ve evolved to become even more dangerous. Despite the fact that Black’s trademark humor and devil-may-care characters are all in place, his plot tries to do far too much, attempting to expand the hokey mythology about the Predator aliens and giving the players so much to do that their motivations aren’t clear. The franchise’s whole concept is in the title: Aliens try to kill humans, and humans try to survive. The more thought you put into a Predator movie, the worse it will end up. Black put a lot of thought into this movie. Rated R. 107 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Robert Ker)
A SIMPLE FAVOR
Director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) turns his lens from comedy to this thriller based on Darcey Bell’s novel. When Stephanie (Anna Kendrick), a widowed mommy vlogger, meets Emily (Blake Lively) at their sons’ elementary school in the Connecticut suburbs, sparks of insta-friendship fly. To Stephanie, Emily seems to have it all — a top job as PR head for a Tom Ford-esque designer, a bestselling novelist husband, Sean (Henry Golding), and a beautiful home. When Emily suddenly goes missing, Stephanie plays detective, suspecting Sean of foul play even as she finds herself becoming intimate with him. There’s plenty to like about this campy and byzantine plot, and both actresses clearly have a ball, with Lively mostly reprising her “Gossip Girl” role as a rich bitch with a black heart and Kendrick overplaying the role of the seemingly mousy best friend. But the movie has a genre identity crisis, never fully committing to either dark comedy or semi-cheesy psychological thrills. As we delve deeper into the question of just who Emily actually is, the film begins to feel dumber than it should, given the compelling material and the cast’s talents. It’s a fun ride, to be sure, and never dull, but A Simple Favor feels overshadowed by missed opportunities. Rated R. 117 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Molly Boyle)
SMALLFOOT
The Bigfoot legend is turned on its head in this animated story about a Yeti scientist (voiced by Channing Tatum) who becomes convinced that humans, known to the Yeti clan as the mythical “Smallfoot,” are real. His suspicions are confirmed when he encounters a Smallfoot in the form of a former TV personality (James Corden), and he attempts to present evidence of his discovery to the Smallfoot Evidentiary Society (led by a scientist voiced by Zendaya). Danny DeVito, Common, and LeBron James also provide voicework. Rated PG. 96 minutes. Screens in 2D and 3D at Regal Stadium 14; in 2D at Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
THE SUN AT MIDNIGHT
This fable filmed at the Arctic Circle centers on Lia (Devery Jacobs), a teenager who is forced to spend the summer with her Gwich’in grandmother (Sarah Jerome) in a remote town in Canada’s Northwest Territories after her mother’s death. When she tries to flee, she becomes lost until she runs into Alfred (Duane Howard), a Gwich’in hunter. The two reluctantly bond, and Lia grows closer to her ancestral heritage — and soon, it is Alfred who must rely on her to survive. Not rated. 93 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Not reviewed)
THE WIFE
The family dynamic is evident from the start. Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce), a world-famous novelist who has just won the Nobel Prize, is boyish, vain, impulsive. Joan (Glenn Close), his wife of forty years, is mature, self-effacing, long-suffering, and wise. A lot of this melodrama, directed by Björn Runge, is both heavy of hand and puzzlingly unconvincing as regards its insights into a writer’s life. Its main thrust is the lack of respect and opportunity for a woman in the writing field, and Joan’s sublimation of her own talent to the role of the Great Man’s Wife. Its three leads lift this story from a self-pitying potboiler to a film to be reckoned with. Pryce, along with Christian Slater as Joe’s would-be biographer, turn in nuanced and excellent performances. But it’s Close’s picture, and the close-ups of her face reveal many-chaptered novels of hidden emotion playing out beneath a carefully composed surface as she endures her husband’s peccadilloes and his fawning tributes. It’s a career performance, and one that’s already generating Oscar buzz for this six-time nominee who’s never landed the prize. The film may not be worthy of her, but she makes it worth our while. Rated R. 100 minutes. Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)