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Reviews of movies showing in theaters or streaming online
‘THE ADDAMS FAMILY 2’: The 2019 animated feature “The Addams Family” was a cute refresh of the classic Addams Family characters for a new, younger audience. The first film struck at the heart of what makes the Addams family unique: the way they embrace being different is actually more inclusive and loving than whatever usually passes for “normal.” That sentiment is repeated in the sequel, “The Addams Family 2,” but the whole endeavor unfortunately delivers diminishing returns. Lacking in narrative rigor, “The Addams Family 2” is merely a series of loose vignettes knit together by a family road trip format. Patriarch Gomez (Oscar Isaac) is inspired to take the whole crew on a vacation in order to encourage family bonding after Wednesday (Chloe Grace Moretz) starts to feel alienated from the rest of the Addamses, embarrassed by their overbearing affections at her school science fair. The suggestion, perpetrated by a persistent lawyer (Wallace Shawn) in hot pursuit, that Wednesday may have been switched at birth, has her questioning everything. Soon it comes to light that this lawyer has been hired by mysterious mogul Cyrus Strange (Bill Hader), but his conviction that Wednesday is his true progeny could be hiding a far more nefarious agenda. 1:33. 1 ½ stars.
— Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service
‘DEAR EVAN HANSEN’:
At his therapist’s urging, high school senior Evan, dealing with social anxiety disorder and a harsh self-image, writes letters of reassurance and encouragement to himself. After a tense encounter at school, one of these letters ends up in the hands of another troubled senior, a boy Evan hardly knows even though Evan has been nursing a crush on the boy’s sister for what feels to Evan like forever. The boy, Connor, commits suicide very early in “Dear Evan Hansen.” His grieving parents assume Evan’s letter to himself, found in their late son’s possession, was written by Connor to Evan, and that the boys were supportive, understanding friends. The lie spirals. Evan doesn’t have the heart or the nerve to correct Connor’s family’s reading of the situation. Then the hash-tagged phenomenon #TheConnorProject, designed to help all sorts of kids in crisis and in need, goes viral, far beyond the intensely clique-y high school. Evan’s dodgy act of atonement builds up his own social capital. For most of the musical, which premiered on Broadway in 2016, we watch Evan as he’s singing, dodging, aching, riding for the inevitable fall. 2:17. 2 stars.
— Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
‘HAWLLOWEEN KILLS’:
O Haddonfield! My Haddonfield! Why, in the name of fictitious Illinois towns, have you resorted to hapless mob violence, like the pitchfork crowd in “Frankenstein” or the January Sixers that came along after “Halloween Kills” was filmed? And why is “Halloween Kills” such a drag, as well as a clear step down from director and co-writer David Gordon Green’s 2018 “Halloween” reboot? Three years ago, that reboot made for a pretty good, hugely profitable reminder that Jamie Lee Curtis can open a movie, and serial killer Michael Meyers can still clog up a small town’s drainage system with the blood of his victims. The new movie picks up right after teenage babysitter-turned-crazed-survivalist grandmother Laurie Strode (Curtis); her daughter Karen (Judy Greer); and her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) stabbed, burned and dispatched Haddonfield’s masked nemesis for good/ whoops/not dead yet. The movie served as a solid showcase for Curtis, and it delivered in its climax, even if wobbled some en route. The new film’s a comparative mess — jaded, structurally awkward and overpacked. 1:46. 1 ½ stars. In theaters and streaming on Peacock. — Michael Phillips
‘INTRODUCING, SELMA BLAIR’: As an actress,
Selma Blair has never been the lead of a movie. Until now, that is. The actress takes center stage in “Introducing, Selma Blair,” a genuinely touching and unflinching look at her ongoing bout with multiple sclerosis. Blair was diagnosed with MS in August 2018. She announced it to the public a few months later the way we all share things these days: on Instagram. “Introducing” picks up from there, documenting Blair’s experimental stem cell treatment and following her through the COVID-19 pandemic and the loss of her mother. 1:30.
3 stars. In theaters now and streaming on Discovery+ Oct. 22.
— Adam Graham, The Detroit News
‘THE LAST DUEL’: One way to tackle a difficult, challenging, taboo or otherwise complicated subject on film is to set the story in a period far, far away from our recognizable present, which often allows screenwriters to be that much more frank about the topic at hand. In “The Last Duel,” directed by Ridley Scott, a 14th century setting offers screenwriters Nicole Holofcener, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, adapting a book by Eric Jager, the opportunity to unpack the hypocrisy of modern rape culture via the gender politics of medieval France, demonstrating not how modern these issues were, but how regressive many current viewpoints remain. 2:32. 3 ½ stars. — Katie Walsh
‘THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK’:
“I try to be good,” says Tony Soprano, Catholic high school slacker, numbers-racket enthusiast and future mob boss in “The Many Saints
of Newark.” Does he mean it? How hard is he trying? Does anyone in his world, his family, his middle-class gangster society, see much value beyond appearances in trying? These questions, among many, made the six seasons of “The Sopranos” all it was. An exquisite character dissection of a killer in torment; a richly comic nightmare of domesticity amid underworld morality; a gangster classic embracing the rewards and the costs of “my way” American entrepreneurship; and a worthy addition to the pantheon occupied, by force and violence, by the original “Scarface,” the first two “Godfather” pictures, “Goodfellas” and a fistful of others. The movie is a prequel, looking at the formation and destiny of young Tony, played by Michael Gandolfini, son of the late James Gandolfini. 2:00. 3 stars. Streaming on HBO Max. — Michael Phillips
‘NO TIME TO DIE’: As
Robert Graves wrote when he was ridding himself of stultifying English conventions, a generation before Sir Ian Fleming created James Bond: Goodbye to all that. Watching the final Daniel Craig iteration of 007 settle his affairs and get right with his emotions in “No Time to Die,” the most plainly divided of all the Bond movies — nostalgic-retro, depressive-ashen, frisky-jokey, apocalyptic-sentimental — one can’t help but think a dozen hyphenated things at once. Let’s start with: Good-great job, Mr. Craig. As bittersweet farewells go, this one’s quite good. 2:43. 3 stars. — Michael Phillips
‘VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE’: In 2018, a delightful surprise was smuggled inside what would otherwise appear to be just another rote comic book movie. It was Tom Hardy’s performance in “Venom,” playing a journalist, Eddie Brock, who becomes the host body for an alien symbiote affectionately known as Venom. As the possessed Eddie and the voice of Venom, Hardy’s funny, freewheeling and frequently unhinged performance felt like an alien parasite inside a Marvel movie itself. As a result, “Venom” was that much more entertaining, anarchic and frankly punk rock than any other comic book movie going. Watching Hardy splash around in a lobster tanks, ferociously chomping crustaceans, felt like we were getting away with murder, because in a sea of crushing sameness, Hardy dared to grab the wheel and steer “Venom” straight into the land of weird. The sequel, “Venom: There Will Be Carnage,” is directed by Andy Serkis, and now, host and alien have achieved symbiosis. The person quite obviously steering the ship is Hardy. 1:30. 2 ½ stars. — Katie Walsh
RATINGS: The movies listed are rated according to the following key: 4 stars, excellent; 3 stars, good; 2 stars, fair; 1 star, poor.