Chile Pages
CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
Rated R. 105 minutes. Violet Crown. See review, Page 38.
THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB
The popular Swedish computer hacker Lisbeth Salander comes to life once more in this thriller, which is at once an adaptation of David Lagercrantz’s 2015 novel (the first book not penned by Stieg Larsson), a sequel to director David Fincher’s 2011 adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and a soft reboot of the whole film franchise. Claire Foy steps into the lead role as Salander, who, along with her journalist buddy Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason), becomes entangled with a criminal organization of spies and hackers known as the “Spider Society.” Rated R. 117 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
THE GRINCH
Dr. Seuss’ 1957 book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! gets another adaptation, this time by the animation studio most famous for the Despicable Me series. Benedict Cumberbatch voices the Grinch, who so despises the Yuletide joy of the Whos of Whoville that he attempts to steal everything associated with Christmas. To pad the story out, directors Yarrow Cheney and Scott Mosier give us the Grinch’s backstory, show more of his everyday life, and introduce a story about the attempts by Cindy Lou Who (Cameron Seely) to thank Santa for being so good to her single mother (Rashida Jones). Rated PG. 90 minutes. Screens in 3D and 2D at Regal Stadium 14; 2D only at Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
OPUNTIA
Director David Fenster’s experimental documentary is a thought-provoking, ultimately moving depiction of the director’s own spiritual odyssey. Ostensibly about the 16th century Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Fenster’s film follows the route the conquistador took through the Americas, drawing stark parallels and contrasts between the places he visited, as described in historic writings, and those places as they exist today. Fenster locates the spirit of de Vaca in the opuntia, a prickly pear cactus plant, a strange turn of events the filmmaker treats with tacit acceptance and wonder. De Vaca (voiced by David Verdaguer) became renowned for his gifts as a healer, and narrates the story as the opuntia, whose recurring image throughout the film becomes a metaphor for symbiosis and survival. Divided into two parts, “The Land of the Living” and “The Land of the Dead,” Opuntia is an honest and affecting inquiry into the ephemerality of life. Fenster and the film’s composer Peter Bo Rappmund introduce the film at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 10. Not rated. 60 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Michael Abatemarco)
OVERLORD
In the middle of World War II, a group of American paratroopers (headed by soldiers played by Jovan Adepo and Wyatt Russell) find themselves behind enemy lines. They find a castle where the Nazis have been performing nefarious experiments, and as they dig deeper into the mystery, they soon find themselves fighting for survival against a supernatural evil. J.J. Abrams produced this wartime horror film for his Bad Robot Productions. Julius Avery directs. Rated R. 109 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE
Filmmaker Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the
Woods) embarks upon another locked-room mystery with this Tarantino-esque noir caper set in 1969. A group of strangers converges at the El Royale, a Lake Tahoe resort that has seen better days. Secrets abound for each of the guests: a priest (Jeff Bridges), a traveling salesman (Jon Hamm), a backup singer (Cynthia Erivo), and a hippie chick (Dakota Johnson). The mysteries unravel in stylish chapters as the death toll mounts, and the endgame is anyone’s guess. The film is hip, innovative, and a lot of fun, with genuine surprises and scares, and it’s briskly paced until the final act, when things begin to drag. Bridges capably carries the weight of the labyrinthine plot, but the real revelation here is Erivo, whose mesmerizing face conveys a steely dignity. With Nick Offerman, Chris Hemsworth, and a soundtrack filled with oldies gold, including the Mamas and the Papas’ little-used “Twelve Thirty” and the Four Tops’ “Bernadette.” Rated R. 141 minutes. Violet Crown. (Molly Boyle)
BEAUTIFUL BOY
In the last decade, David and Nic Sheff (a father and son, respectively) each published memoirs detailing Nic’s addiction to methamphetamines and the difficulties that the family encountered in helping him through the recovery process. Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet play father and son, respectively, in this adaptation of both books. The film explores their relationship at various points in their lives. Amy Ryan plays Vicki, the mother in the family. Rated R. 120 minutes. Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
In 1991, Queen singer Freddie Mercury died due to complications with AIDS. With this biopic, much like 2015’s N.W.A. film Straight Outta Compton, the band’s surviving members attempt to do right by his legacy while also watering it down, settling petty scores with former management, and reminding the public that they were there and contributed a great deal, too. At times in this film, the latter element can feel comically over the top, as when guitarist Brian May (Gwilym Lee) informs nobody in particular that he wrote the solo in “Bohemian Rhapsody” or when we witness bassist John Deacon (Joseph Mazzello) wowing his mates with his freshly composed bassline to “Another One Bites the Dust.” While a bit more energy would have gone a long way, directors Bryan Singer (who was fired in the final weeks of shooting) and Dexter Fletcher hit the checkmarks of the band’s rise to fame dutifully, without fussing too much over details, and Rami
Malek embodies the larger-than-life lead singer Mercury with particular relish. Concerns from the gay community about the surface-level treatment devoted to Mercury’s sexuality are well noted, but for what the film is — a frivolous, nearly familyfriendly overview of Queen’s career — it delivers crowd-pleasing results. More importantly, the filmmakers also know when to foreground Queen’s eternally vibrant music and just get out of the way. Rated PG-13. 134 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Robert Ker)
FIRST MAN
Director Damien Chazelle reteams with his La La
Land star Ryan Gosling on this Neil Armstrong biopic, which shrugs off the lionization that the subject invites. Instead, it uses the 1962 death of Armstrong’s two-year-old daughter as the launchpad to look at his psyche and also focuses on his wife, Janet (Claire Foy), and the courage she summons while confined within domestic spaces. Chazelle keeps the cameras tightly trained on the faces of Gosling and Foy, inviting audiences to read deeply into their expressions to discover the emotional depth of the story. The actors reward this trust with subtle, sublime performances. While this approach leads to some overly sentimental moments that don’t feel authentic, it doesn’t diminish the power of witnessing that decade as those two people might have. The scenes involving the space program are crafted with exceptional filmmaking and are, by turns, horrifying and bracing. Chazelle’s affection for music permeates the film; however, he shelves his love for jazz in favor of a strident, military-style march that builds suspense as the
Apollo 11 mission draws near, making the moon landing into an awe-inspiring sequence of arthouse cinema. Rated PG-13. 141 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Robert Ker)
FREE SOLO
Few people would ever think of climbing steep rock faces without a rope, supports, a helmet, or anchors — “free soloing,” as the practice is known. And yet that’s what thirty-three-year-old Alex Honnold has done in more than 1,000 solo climbs around the world. “I feel like anyone could conceivably die on any given day,” Honnold says, which could explain the risks he takes. According to this documentary, fewer than 1 percent of climbers attempt these feats. Produced by National Geographic Documentary Films and directed by E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, the film chronicles Honnold’s 2017 ascent of mighty El Capitan at Yosemite National Park. With all the peaks in the film itself — watching Honnold’s dexterity, the sheer artistry of his free-solo climb, and the vertigo-inducing images of the thousand-plusfoot drops — most viewers of Free Solo will experience fear in a way that Honnold appears not to. The final 20 minutes will leave you speechless. It’s wonderful to see how far one man has gone to live on the edge, where one false move could mean game over. He never bats an eyelash. Not rated. 100 minutes. Violet Crown. (Thomas M. Hill)
GOOSEBUMPS 2: HAUNTED HALLOWEEN
In the second movie based on the young-adult horror novels of R.L. Stine, two boys (Jeremy Ray Taylor and Caleel Harris) sneak into Stine’s former house on Halloween, where they find a creepy ventriloquist dummy named Slappy (voiced by Jack Black, who also plays Stine in both films). When the boys bring Slappy to life, the doll summons monsters to wreak havoc on the neighborhood. The movie takes a long time getting to that point, however, and when it does it’s not nearly as fun as it could have been; one delightful sequence, in which the boys face off against an army of Gummi Bears brought to life, is the exception that proves the rule. When Black finally appears to steal the show with a glorified cameo, it only proves how desperate the film is for anyone with a spark of charisma, energy, or ideas. Rated PG. 90 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Robert Ker)
HALLOWEEN
This isn’t the first time the Halloween franchise has taken up the probable PTSD of grown-up babysitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), who has fought off countless murder attempts by masked psychopath Michael Myers since John Carpenter’s first Halloween in 1978 (he’s an executive producer this time around). But given the #MeToo moment, this one’s got zeitgeisty momentum behind it — and it’s pretty good, too. David Gordon Green teams with Danny McBride and others on a script that focuses on how Laurie, now grey-blond and grim-faced, lives an agoraphobic life as a self-described “basket case” who compulsively fantasizes about getting her revenge on Myers (James Jude Courtney). When an opportune bus accident occurs during the prisoner’s transfer, she seizes her chance — and must rope in her reluctant daughter (Judy Greer) and wide-eyed granddaughter (Andi Matichak) to attain the requisite multigenerational girl power necessary to stop Myers’ killing sprees for good. The fight scenes are clever and heart-pounding, the teen-drama subplot is mildly absorbing, and most crucially, Curtis is compellingly relentless. Rated R. 106 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Molly Boyle)
THE HAPPY PRINCE
Written and directed by Rupert Everett, The Happy
Prince is dense with atmosphere and a little dizzy when it comes to continuity, as it skips about to scatter flashbacks along the road to ruin trod by the great writer Oscar Wilde after his release from prison for “gross indecency” (homosexuality). The story picks up Wilde at his lowest, and final, ebb. But it’s as an actor that Everett truly dazzles. We discover the hulking, shambling figure of the great writer stumbling through the streets of Paris, deep into the gathering pestilence of poverty and disease, the heaviness of body and spirit, that shaped Wilde (here with the help of some expert prosthetic makeup) as he lumbered toward death. Through it all, his indomitable wit and sardonic brilliance pierce the fog. The movie is a worthy tribute to one of the greats of English literature, and a timely, cautionary reminder of the devastating effects of bigotry on an individual, and a culture. Rated R. 105 minutes. English and some French with subtitles. Center for Contemporary Arts; Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
THE HATE U GIVE
Attending an affluent high school in a white neighborhood is already complicated enough for Starr (Amandla Stenberg). When her friend Khalil (Algee Smith) is shot by a police officer in front of her, it gets a lot harder. She decides to protest on Khalil’s behalf, and it sets off events that threaten not only her community but her own future. Regina Hall plays her mother, while Anthony Mackie (Falcon in the Marvel films) plays a local drug dealer. George Tillman Jr. (Notorious) directs. Rated PG-13. 133 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
HUNTER KILLER
In the latest entry into the submarine-based thriller genre, Gerard Butler plays Capt. Joe Glass of the USS Omaha. When the Russian president (Alexander Diachenko) is captured by his own defense minister (Mikhail Gorevoy) in an attempted coup, it’s up to Glass and a group of Navy SEALs to enter Russian waters, rescue the president, and prevent World War III. Gary Oldman and Common also star. Rated R. 121 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
NOBODY’S FOOL
Everything seems to be going well for Danica (Tika Sumpter), who is falling in love with a man she met on the internet and is about to be the first African American woman to be named vice president at the company she works for. All of this changes when her coarse, brash sister Tanya (Tiffany Haddish) gets out of jail and upturns her life. At first, this reunion is annoying. When they find out that Danica’s potential beau is catfishing her, Tanya becomes an asset. Tyler Perry wrote and directs, and Whoopi Goldberg plays the sisters’ mom. Rated R. 110 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS
The Nutcracker fable, best known from Tchaikovsky’s ballet (based on E.T.A. Hoffmann’s novella) gets the Disney treatment with this film by directors Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston. Less of an adaptation than a new story set in the same world, it centers on a girl named Clara (Mackenzie Foy), who enters the fantasy world of rats and fairies in search of a key, meets a soldier named Phillip (Jayden Fowora-Knight), and must fight the sinister Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren) to save what’s known as the Fourth Realm. Keira Knightley co-stars as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Rated PG. 99 minutes. Screens in 2D only at Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN
Robert Redford plays Forrest Tucker, a man who has devoted his life to the art of robbing banks. His story is mostly true (adapted by writer-director David Lowery from a New Yorker article). Redford shares the screen with Sissy Spacek, and they have a chemistry that could light the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. She plays Jewel, a widowed rancher, and when these two sit and banter in a coffee shop booth, you could watch and listen to them all day. But you can’t, because there are banks to rob. Forrest sometimes works with a couple of geriatric buddies, played by Danny Glover and Tom Waits, and the trio becomes known as the Over-the-Hill Gang. In dogged pursuit is an affable cop (Casey Affleck), who comes to admire the man he’s tracking. If this in fact proves to be Robert Redford’s farewell to movies, as he has indicated, it’s a lovely way to go. But the door is always open, Bob, and we’ll leave a light on in the window. Rated PG-13. 93 minutes. The Screen; Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
A STAR IS BORN
Big, gorgeous, and packed with terrific music and charismatic star power, this fourth edition of one of Hollywood’s most enduring origin stories starts off so well that its momentum almost carries it through a somewhat more labored finish. Lady Gaga rediscovers her inner Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in creating the title character, Ally, a big-hearted aspiring singer who captures the heart of Jackson Maine, a country-rock superstar played soulfully by Bradley Cooper (who also co-wrote and directed). The tale, best remembered in the classic 1950 Judy Garland version, is familiar, tracking the opposite trajectories of the two stars — one blazing upward, one blazing out. Cooper’s pacing gets a little choppy, as if he’s afraid of being caught in a linear narrative, but for the most part the film is assured and effective. The supporting cast is stocked with
sometimes-surprising choices, like Andrew Dice Clay as Ally’s dad and Dave Chappelle as Jackson’s friend. Sam Elliott is reliably gravelly as Jackson’s much older brother. But the revelation is Lady Gaga, who nails the wide-eyed kid drawn into the world of superstardom, finding love and tragedy along the way. Rated PG. 96 minutes. Screens in 2D at Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
SUSPIRIA
Adapting only rudimentary aspects of the 1977 Dario Argento original,
Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria trades the vibrant, psychedelic schlock of its forebear for a somber story of slow, creeping horror. Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) joins the Helena Markos Dance Company, run by Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton), head instructor at the academy whose founder, Markos (also Swinton), a disease-ridden old witch, is kept squirreled away in the basement. The school is a front for a coven of witches, and Susie is the intended vessel for bringing forth Mother Suspiria, one of a triumvirate of cosmic forces. Guadagnino’s epic-length film is a nightmarish look at how supernatural and profane evil corrupts its adherents, and builds to a phantasmagoric, bloody conclusion in Grand Guignol style. Its excesses and its themes will divide fans of the genre, but it offers some memorable set pieces and intriguing ideas about unresolved shame. Rated R. 152 minutes. In English, German, and French with subtitles. Violet Crown. (Michael Abatemarco)
VENOM
Spider-Man’s nemesis Venom is a bulletproof version of Spidey with a long tongue and an appetite for live flesh. But director Ruben Fleischer offers a surprisingly well-crafted B-movie, and actors Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams class the joint up. Hardy plays Eddie Brock, a journalist who investigates the research going on at the Life Foundation. When the company’s founder (Riz Ahmed) strikes back, Brock loses his job and girlfriend (Williams). He learns that the foundation is experimenting on an alien, which grafts itself to his body, granting him superpowers and a nasty disposition. From there, he must satiate the alien’s appetite, get revenge, and somehow also save the world. The action and effects are well done, but the movie works best when it leans into absurdist humor reminiscent of the 1980s work of John Carpenter and Sam Raimi. Rated PG-13. 112 minutes. Screens in 2D at Regal Stadium 14. (Robert Ker)