Chile Pages
MARY POPPINS RETURNS
Emily Blunt picks up the umbrella of Mary Poppins, the whimsical British nanny most famously portrayed by Julie Andrews in the 1964 Disney musical. In this sequel, Poppins returns to the Banks siblings, now adults played by Emily Mortimer and Ben Whishaw, and helps them through a rough patch to get them once more in tune with the magic of life. To accomplish this feat, she introduces them to a singing street lamplighter (Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton) and an eccentric cousin (Meryl Streep). The classic-style animation of the original returns, as does 1964 co-star Dick Van Dyke. Opens Wednesday, Dec. 14. Rated PG. 130 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
MORTAL ENGINES
The writing team behind the Lord of the Rings movies (Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens) adapts the first novel in Philip Reeve’s science-fiction series into this adventure film. Set in a post-apocalyptic future where London is a giant moving machine that is running out of resources, the story centers on Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar), a woman who attempts to kill the evil Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving) and is, along with a young man she encounters (Robert Sheehan), ousted from London. She meets some fellow rebels outside the city limits and they hatch a plan to take Valentine down. Rated PG-13. 128 minutes. Screens in 3D and 2D at Regal Stadium 14; in 2D only at Regal Santa Fe 6, Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
THE MULE
Clint Eastwood’s advanced age isn’t stopping him from directing and starring in movies. This time, he plays Leo Sharp, a World War II veteran who, in his late eighties, encounters financial difficulties and solves them by becoming a drug mule for the Sinaloa cartel. As his workload grows larger, he attracts the attention of a DEA agent (Bradley Cooper) who attempts to track him down. The story is based on true events, adapted from the New York Times article “The Sinaloa Cartel’s 90-Year-Old Drug Mule.” Dianne Wiest, Laurence Fishburne, and Michael Peña also star. Rated R. 116 minutes. Regal Santa Fe 6; Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
ROMA
The latest picture by director Alfonso Cuarón dials the scope back from sci-fi movies such as Gravity to the low-key indie fare similar to his 2001 breakthrough film Y Tu Mamá También. Filming in black and white, he tells the story of a maid named Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), who works in a middle-class household in 1970s Mexico City. Cleo manages the family’s four rambunctious kids and nurtures their mother Sofía (Marina De Tavira), who is experiencing a frayed marriage, while issues of class and race bubble just below the surface. Cuarón based the story on a housekeeper from his own upbringing. Rated R. 135 minutes. In Spanish with subtitles. Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
SPIDERMAN: INTO THE SPIDERVERSE
The latest film to star the wall-crawling superhero Spider-Man differs from the others in two major ways: It’s the first animated Spidey film to appear in theaters, and it centers on Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore), the young African-American version of Spider-Man, rather than the standard Peter Parker. Morales runs into Parker (Chris Pine), however, when he stumbles into the “Spider-Verse,” a range of Spider-Man-like characters from alternate dimensions, which include a woman version of Spider-Man (Hailee Steinfeld), a Depression-era pulp hero (Nicolas Cage), and a pig (John Mulaney). Together, they must stop the Kingpin (Liev Schreiber). Rated PG-13. 117 minutes. Screens in 3D and 2D at Regal Stadium 14; in 2D only at Regal Santa Fe 6; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
VOX LUX
Rated R. 110 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. See review, Page 38.
NOW IN THEATERS BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
In 1991, Queen frontman Freddie Mercury died from AIDS-related complications. With this biopic, 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 — as when guitarist Brian May (Gwilym Lee) informs nobody in particular that he wrote the solo in “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The results are grandiose, goofy, and largely entertaining. While a bit more energy would have gone a long way, the film dutifully hits the benchmarks of the band’s rise to fame 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 nearly family-friendly 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)
CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
Director Marielle Heller builds this true story of forger Lee Israel around a revelatory performance from Melissa McCarthy, who strips away any shred of comedic glamour to get inside the antisocial, acerbic writer who parlayed a talent for literary mimicry into a whimsical career faking
signed celebrity letters that enjoyed a successful, if increasingly stressful, run at the end of the past millennium. You can’t quite like Lee, but McCarthy makes her achingly human and touchingly real. Richard E. Grant provides the perfect foil as her gay sidekick Jack Hock, a flamboyant extrovert who matches her drink for drink and note for note. The fascination of Can You Ever
Forgive Me? (the title is from a forged Dorothy Parker letter) is the sense of dread it weaves upon the basic human fear of being found out. If it occasionally meanders toward the borders of sentimentality, McCarthy’s uncompromising crustiness keeps this criminal enterprise honest. Rated R. 105 minutes. Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
CREED II
The Rocky film franchise has perfected a formula of equal parts sports, melodrama, and romance. When the filmmakers lean heavily on one element, it throws the equilibrium off, but when they nail the balance, it couples with decades-long nostalgia and American mythmaking to produce something akin to blockbuster euphoria. This sequel to 2015’s Creed, which once more stars Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Creed, works well, even if it falls short of the surprises and lived-in vibe of the 2015 film. This time, Adonis is out to make his name and avenge his father Apollo Creed — who died at the hands of Soviet fighter Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) back in 1985’s Rocky IV — by defeating Ivan’s son Viktor (Florian Munteanu) in the ring. Along the way, he and his beau Bianca (Tessa Thompson) have a baby and reconsider their priorities, while a grandfatherly Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) hovers over everything, dispensing goofy charm and sage life advice. The acting is strong all around (Lundgren in particular delivers startling depth), and the boxing scenes excel. The film follows predictable beats and rehashes Cold War-era Athens-Sparta tropes to awkward effect, but it also delivers a strong left hook to the heartstrings, particularly for longtime fans. Rated PG-13. 117 minutes. Regal Santa Fe 6; Regal Stadium 14. (Robert Ker) FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD The more distance we travel from J.K. Rowling’s seven
Harry Potter books and their eight film adaptations, the more it becomes clear that Hogwarts was the true star of the series. The wizarding school bursts with wonder and teems with life, while both post-Potter films in the Fantastic Beasts series feel empty and lifeless. This point is driven home in this sequel to 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, when we briefly return to Hogwarts to spend time with a young Dumbledore (played by a dapper Jude Law) in scenes that rekindle Rowling’s old magic. In these scenes, Dumbledore tasks the magical zoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) with stopping the sinister Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) in his plot to have wizards take over the world. It’s a passable good versus evil story, yet the telling is bogged down by exposition, depictions of bureaucracy, and subplots involving characters we’re barely introduced to. Longtime franchise director David Yates supplies the predictably stellar visual effects, but never has he had worse material to work with. Rated PG-13. 134 minutes. Screens in 2D only at Regal Santa Fe 6; Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Robert Ker)
THE FAVOURITE
All politics is sexual in the court of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), in this ravishingly entertaining costume romp as imagined by director Yorgos Lanthimos
(The Lobster). Anne ruled England for a seven-year stretch in the early 18th century. Her closest advisor and confidante was Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. When that relationship soured, Sarah (Rachel Weisz) was replaced in Anne’s affections by Abigail Hill (Emma Stone), Sarah’s poor relation. Both were Ladies of the Bedchamber to the Queen, and in this movie’s deliciously bawdy take, they lived up to that title in more ways than one. Everything clicks in this darkly funny satire. The costumes are rich, as is the production design in which palace intrigue swirls and wars are alternately launched and halted, funded and starved, and ministers come and go. The humor is sometimes sophisticated, sometimes slapstick. All three women should be near the front of the line at Oscar time. Weisz and Stone duel for Anne’s affections with wit, charm, deceit, and other, more sinister weapons. And Colman is transcendent, creating a doughy, gouty, self-pitying egotist with occasionally glimpsed reserves of nobility and steel. Rated R. 119 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts; Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
GREEN BOOK
This “inspired by a true story” tale follows a wellworn formula: an odd-couple pairing of polar opposites who take a while to warm up to each other, but when they finally do, it’s as cozy as Christmas (where the movie ends). The mismatched pair is Tony Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen), a brawling goombah from a Bronx Italian neighborhood, and Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), a fastidious African-American concert pianist who lives high atop Carnegie Hall. The year is 1962. Dr. Shirley and his trio are embarking on a concert tour of the Deep South, and he requires a driver who can double as enforcer. Mortensen warms into the role after laying the boor on a bit thick in the establishing scenes. Ali, too, has to play through a stereotype, but he emerges triumphant, and he ices the deal with superb piano work. There is scarcely a scene that you don’t see coming, scarcely a button that is not pushed. Yet they are pushed and executed so winningly that in the end you’d be inclined to forgive the movie even if an angel got his wings. Rated PG-13. 130 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
THE GRINCH
When directors Chuck Jones and Ben Washam adapted Dr. Seuss’ book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! into a 1966 television special, they had to add songs and other silliness to pad the book’s length to a TV-friendly 26 minutes. To expand the story to feature-film length, you need a great deal of imagination and innovation. It’s a pity, then, that this task was given over to Illumination, the animation studio most famous for the mediocre Despicable Me series, and which botched Dr. Seuss’
The Lorax back in 2012. Pharrell Williams narrates, and Benedict Cumberbatch voices the Grinch in a nasally, American-sounding accent (which raises the question, why hire an actor if you don’t want him to use his real voice?). The results are pointless yet harmless. The running time is brisk, and younger kids should like it. To elongate the story, the filmmakers introduce a subplot about the attempts by Cindy-Lou Who (Cameron Seely) to thank Santa for being so good to her single mother (Rashida Jones). In a worse move, however, they also provide the Grinch’s childhood backstory to impart how he got so grouchy. Can’t the Grinch just be the Grinch? Rated PG. 90 minutes. Screens in 2D only at Regal Santa Fe 6; Regal Stadium 14. (Robert Ker)
INSTANT FAMILY
Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne play a couple who decide to adopt a child. While at the adoption center, they become enamored with a spunky teenager (Isabela Moner), who happens to be the oldest of three kids. They decide to adopt her and her two siblings at once and soon find themselves transitioning from being a childless couple to being the heads of a large family. Director and co-writer Sean Anders based this dramedy loosely on his own personal experiences. Rated PG-13. 119 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
MARIA BY CALLAS
The soprano Maria Callas was mostly revered by opera lovers — a reputation that continues in posterity — but in some quarters she was reviled, which adds spice to director Tom Volf’s bio-documentary Maria by Callas. The narrative is told predominantly through Callas’ interviews, letters, and diaries, which clarify the degree to which she considered herself an unjust victim of art and celebrity — no matter the adoring crowds and billowing bouquets. The film includes extended colorized clips of her performances from the 1950s and ’60s — warts and all, but ultimately affording glimpses of the dramatic commitment that earned Callas her stardom. Rated PG. 118 minutes. The Screen; Violet Crown. (James M. Keller)
MEOW WOLF: ORIGIN STORY
This documentary looks at the Santa Fe arts institution Meow Wolf, from its scrappy beginning as a makeshift alternative to the city’s more traditional Canyon Road arts scene to its current status as an internationally recognized organization that is in the process of expanding into Denver and Las Vegas. The film gets its local debut in the theater owned by George R.R. Martin, who also helped Meow Wolf grow its wings at a pivotal moment in its development and who is prominently featured in the film. Not rated. 88 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Not reviewed)
THE POSSESSION OF HANNAH GRACE
Shay Mitchell plays Megan Reed, a policewoman who takes on the graveyard shift at the hospital morgue. One night, the corpse of a young woman by the name of Hannah Grace (Kirby Johnson) comes in. It turns out that Hannah died in the middle of an exorcism, and as the evening at the morgue progresses, Megan realizes that the demon inside Hannah is still alive. Rated R. 85 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET
This sequel to the 2012 animated comedy Wreck-It
Ralph finds the video-game hero Ralph (John C. Reilly) and his buddy Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) venturing into the internet via a Wi-Fi router to try to save Vanellope’s game from destruction. They join a hardcore online game called Slaughter Race, where Vanellope finds a greater sense of purpose and a potential new bestie in Shank (Gal Gadot), one of the game’s drivers. Ralph grows concerned that he’s losing his friend, and his insecurities deliver what the film’s title promises. It’s a lot of plot for one animated film to handle, but there’s nothing to fault with the cast — playing the lovable bruiser is right in Reilly’s wheelhouse, and Silverman complements his lead efforts nicely with her own chirpy charm. The film includes many in-jokes about the internet and Disney films, but a prolonged game of “spot the reference” doesn’t add up to a totally satisfying experience. Fortunately, the two stars supply enough heart to carry the movie through its stilted patches. Rated PG. 112 minutes. Screens in 3D only at Violet Crown; in 2D only at Regal Stadium 14. (Robert Ker)
ROBIN HOOD
The character of Robin Hood exists in the public domain, giving all production companies access to this established property,
and there seems to be a new movie about him every few years. The latest adaptation imagines the fable as a high-octane adventure, in which Robin (Taron Egerton) and his sidekick John (Jamie Foxx) lead a revolt against the Sheriff of Nottingham (Ben Mendelsohn). As usual, the romantic story figures heavily into the plot, and Eve Hewson plays Marian here. Rated PG-13. 116 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
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 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, but for the most part the film is assured. 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. Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
WIDOWS
In this crackling heist movie from British director Steve McQueen
(12 Years a Slave), Veronica Rawlings (Viola Davis) is the widow of Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson), a high-stakes criminal and leader of a gang of crooks who get spectacularly blown up in the movie’s opening sequence. When she finds herself not only bereaved but in serious debt, she turns to crime as the solution to her immediate problem and recruits her fellow gang widows to pull off a $5 million heist. The movie’s idea comes via an old British TV series, processed through the fertile minds of McQueen and co-writer Gillian Flynn. The twists make up a satisfying stew of cleverness, violence, betrayal, a little sex, and a feminist stamp on the crime genre. McQueen is interested in more than just thrills, twists, and shocking violence. He blurs the line between good guys and bad and uses a drive through changing Chicago neighborhoods as a powerful commentary on race and class in America. Viola Davis commands the movie with fierce power. Rated R. 129 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Jonathan Richards)
WILDLIFE
This finely directed debut feature film by writer and director Paul Dano is a period piece set in 1960s Montana about fourteen-year-old Joe (Ed Oxenbould), who spends the fall watching his parents’ marriage disintegrate. Jeanette (Carey Mulligan) stops caring about conversational boundaries with her son after Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal) loses another gig as a golf pro and leaves the family to fight a wildfire. All of the performances are excellent, as is the cinematography by Diego Garcia. Rated PG-13. 104 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Jennifer Levin)