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Alive Inside This documentary is at its best in powerful scenes showing the effect of music on elderly dementia patients, who come alive at the sound of their favorite tunes. The film is less impressive when it broadens out to examine larger issues in the nursinghome industry. Not rated. 73 minutes. — W. Addiego
And So It Goes This is rare, a comic romance about people in their late 60s. Starring Diane Keaton and Michael Douglas, the film is generally too corny and its humor too silly to endorse fully, but the actors are appealing. Rated PG-13. 94 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Begin Again It’s not perfect, but this is a charming and well-acted musical drama, with Mark Ruffalo as a washed-up record company founder and Keira Knightley as a singer at the end of her rope. They come together professionally, in search of a last chance. Written and directed by the creator of “Once,” it’s quirky and surprising enough to stay ahead of the audience. Rated R. 104 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Boyhood Richard Linklater’s instant classic, filmed over 12 years, tells the fictional story of a boy growing up in Texas, whose parents (Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, both magnificent) are divorced. It’s just life flowing one day and one year into the next, and it’s fascinating — 166 minutes that go by in a flash. It’s probably the best American movie of the decade, so far. Rated R. 166 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Calvary strange drama and a rare intelligent film about Catholicism, this stars Brendan Gleeson as a priest in an Irish village who is told that he will be murdered in a week. The key to appreciating and understanding the movie is realizing that the histrionic villagers are not merely eccentric, and they’re not over-written. They are demon possessed, though it’s up to you to decide whether that possession as literal or figurative.. Rated R. 100 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Chef One of the best movies so far this year, with writer-director Jon Favreau as a chef going through a crisis. It’s really the portrait of an artist, told in a free-flowing style, full of warm moments, good comedy and effectively written scenes. Rated R. 115 minutes. — M. LaSalle Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Slow as an action film and not serious enough to be taken seriously, this second chapter of the franchise’s reboot doesn’t quite satisfy, but the set decoration and visual effects are extraordinary in their rendering of a postapocalyptic San Francisco and Marin County. Rated PG-13. 130 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Earth to Echo This is a poorly acted children’s film, with its premise taken from “E.T.” and a filmmaking gimmick that makes it borderline unwatchable. The whole thing is filmed and cut together as though from footage captured on the characters’ cell phones. Bad idea. It tells the story of teenagers who befriend an alien and try to help him go home, of all places. Rated PG. 91 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Edge of Tomorrow Tom Cruise stars in this imaginative, propulsive and often funny science-fiction film in which a soldier, killed in battle in his first day of combat (against invading space aliens, of course), falls into some time loop where he gets to relive the same day — and improve
his combat performance. Co-starring Emily Blunt, the film is directed with wit by Doug Liman (“The Bourne Identity”), who rightly depends on Cruise to bring home the comedy. Rated PG-13. 113 minutes. — M. LaSalle
A Five Star Life This is an agreeable enough Italian film about a hotel critic who is so caught up in her work that her life away from the job warrants only a one- to two-star ranking. Yet this romantic dramedy sometimes wastes its storytelling potential and could use a little room service. In Italian with English subtitles. Not rated. 85 minutes.
— D. Lewis
The Fluffy Movie A comedy concert film focusing on the success story and onstage antics of Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias. Not reviewed. Rated PG-13. 101 minutes.
Get on Up This biopic of the life of James Brown has a lot to recommend it — a winning performance by Chadwick Boseman in the title role, estimable musical sequences and a free-floating narrative that zigzags through the Godfather of Soul’s life in imaginative ways. But nothing the movie does can distract from the inevitable realization that Brown was basically artistically irrelevant for the last 30 years of his life and that he made no important emotional connections. It’s hard to make drama out of emptiness. Rated PG-13. 138 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Guardians of the Galaxy A combination of comedy without wit, action without drama and elaborate visuals that are nothing much to look at, this action movie, based on the Marvel comic books, is the story of four misfits who set out to save the galaxy from a powerful evil entity that wants to wreck just about everything. Not bad, but not good either. Rated PG-13. 121 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Happy Christmas The latest from Joe Swanberg stars Anna Kendrick as the irresponsible sister of a Chicago filmmaker who comes to visit her brother and his wife and exerts an unexpected influence on their lives. Though the film meanders, lacks tension and suffers from the presence of a very irritating Lena Dunham in a supporting role, Swanberg captures natural moments between people that elude other filmmakers. Rated R. 78 minutes. — M. LaSalle Heli This brutally stark, but evocative Neorealist film centers on the quiet desperation of a family caught up in Mexico’s gruesome drug war. In one of the most harrowing scenes of the year, the title character and his sister’s boyfriend are tortured, as bored kids sit nearby. In Spanish with English subtitles. Not rated. 105 minutes. — D. Lewis
How to Train Your Dragon 2 Hiccup and his dragon Toothless explore new lands and do battle with a bloodthirsty, dragontrapping tyrant. This DreamWorks Animation-produced sequel is darker in tone and more layered than its popular predecessor, but that’s definitely a good thing. Like the original “Star Wars” trilogy and “Toy Story” series, the makers of this franchise are allowing the films to grow up alongside loyal young viewers. Directed by “Lilo & Stitch” co-director Dean DeBlois. Rated PG. 102 minutes. — P. Hartlaub The Hundred-Foot Journey The story of an Indian family that relocates to Europe and opens a restaurant in rural France, this is an appealing film about different food cultures, with fine performances by Helen Mirren (as a formidable French restaurateur), the humane and likable Om Puri (as the Indian family’s patriarch) and Manish Dayal (as a young cook with talent). It’s beautifully directed, in a meticulous and unforced way, by Lasse Hallstrom.
PG. 122 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
I Origins Mike Cahill writes and directs this notbad science-based drama, starring Michael Pitt as a researcher trying to disprove God’s existence, Brit Marling as his research partner and Astrid Berges-Frisbey as a young mystery woman. When the movie concentrates on the people, it’s interesting, but in the last half hour it focuses on the warmed-over science and derails. Rated R. 113 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Into the Storm It’s all about the tornadoes. The characters are there just to stand around and watch, occasionally to be swept up in it. The appeal is pretty basic, but it’s undeniable. This contains some of the best weather disaster effects ever in a movie. To top this, someone will have to figure out how to re-create 200 mile-per-hour winds in a theater and make spectators fly out of their seats. PG-13. 78 minutes. — M. LaSalle
The Kill Team The level of apathy is shocking in this documentary account of the alleged participants in the Maywand District murders, a cluster of killings by American soldiers who executed innocent Afghanistan civilians and took photos of the trophy slayings. Director Dan Krauss keeps an often frustratingly narrow focus, with a sympathetic feel for one of the accused soldiers, who says he initially tried to turn in the perpetrators. But even with a limited view, the interviews with the accused soldiers are gripping. Not rated. 79 minutes.
— P. Hartlaub
Land Ho! In this serviceable but ultimately inconsequential indie drama, Colin (Paul Eenhoorn) and Mitch (Earl Lynn Hanson) are friends and former brothers-in-law who travel to Iceland. The two call to mind Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, only a lot less funny. Call them “Mildly Annoyed Old Men.”
— T. Lee Le Chef A temperamental three-star chef (Jean Reno) and his overly opinionated apprentice (Michael Youn) join forces to fight a corporate CEO in this
delightful French comedy whose ingredients produce just the right amount of light fare. Rated PG-13. 84 minutes. In French with English subtitles.
— L. Hertz
Life Itself This affectionate documentary by Steve James (“Hoop Dreams”) mixes footage shot during the difficult last four months of Roger Ebert’s life with material tracing his rise to become the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize. There’s much testimony from noted filmmakers, friends and fellow critics. While admiring, the film is no whitewash, and there’s no attempt to hide the ravages of Ebert’s cancer. Toward the end, he lost most of his jaw and his ability to eat or speak, but for much of the time stayed remarkably goodhumored. Rated R. 118 minutes.
— W. Addiego Lucy Like some demented combination of “Taken” and “Tree of Life,” this latest from Luc Besson is a full-out action movie, set against a background of international crime, as well as an investigation into the nature of human existence. Scarlett Johansson plays a woman who is forced to become a drug mule and ends up — as a result of drugs seeping into her system — using an enormous portion of her cerebral capacity to become a dangerous genius, as lethal as Liam Neeson (“Taken”) and the smartest person in the world, too. Rated R. 90 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Magic in the Moonlight Slightly better than middling Woody Allen — not only for people who enjoy an annual visit to the Allen universe — this is the story of an arrogant magician (Colin Firth) who goes to France to uncover an allegedly fake medium (Emma Stone). It’s a meditation on spirituality and longing, with echoes of “Pygmalion.” Rated PG-13. 97 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Mood Indigo This tedious fantasy dramedy, about a bumbling Parisian whose wife gets sick, bombards us with special effects that overwhelm the characters — and the audience. There is great creativity in the art direction, but everything else about this
film is a misfire. In French with English subtitles. Not rated. 94 minutes. — D. Lewis
A Most Wanted Man Philip Seymour Hoffman may be reason enough to see this adaptation of a John le Carre novel, set in Germany, but this is a very slow-going film, more about the bureaucracy and the boredom of espionage than the thrills or uses of it. Rated R. 121 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Obvious Child This comedy, centering on an unintentional and inconvenient pregnancy, is something of a breakthrough in dealing with the subject of abortion — skillfully handled by director Gillian Robespierre and acted with considerable charm by Jenny Slate, in her screen breakthrough. Rated R. 83 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Planes: Fire Rescue The sequel to “Planes” has star Dusty Crophopper reinventing himself as part of a forest fire suppression team. The film is at its best in the aerial firefighting scenes, which have a storybook feel, while maintaining a
disaster movie-style momentum. The dialogue is hit and miss, with too much sincerity and little attempt at nuance in the plot — which includes yet another mentor figure with a mysterious past. Unlike its distant Pixar cousins, this is definitely a better movie for the kids. Rated PG. 83 minutes. — P. Hartlaub
The Purge: Anarchy This sequel to last year’s “The Purge” uses the same cockeyed premise: For one 12-hour period a year, Americans are allowed to commit any crime, no matter how cruel or bloody. The new film pokes heavy-handed fun at extreme conservatives and has a “power to the people” sub-theme, but it’s full of ultra-violence and is dragged down by standard scare tactics, thin characters and the absurdities of the premise. Rated R. 103 minutes.
— W. Addiego Sex Tape A couple Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel) accidentally send a sex tape to the cloud and frantically try to keep it from being seen. Some laughs, but
the brilliant setup is for a joke that never happens. Rated R. 94 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Snowpiercer This is a rumination in the nature of society disguised as an action film, with Chris Evans as the leader of a lowerclass rebellion, onboard a high-tech train that contains the only human survivors of the apocalypse. It’s an interesting mix of hard-hitting violence and social satire. Rated R. 135 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Step Up: All In : The fifth movie in the “Step Up” dance
film series involves stars from the previous outings competing in Las Vegas. Not reviewed. PG-13. 112 minutes.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles It’s not just the steroidal-looking title characters — the whole movie is over-inflated. It’s like watching an otherwise tolerable music video stretched out to 101 minutes. The visual effects are solid, especially the computergenerated turtles, who are believable as flesh-and-blood characters. But the narrative is a mess, and the overlong action sequences are easily
forgotten. PG-13. 101 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Transformer Age of Extinction At this point, four movies into the series, making a new Transformers film is like an arms race taking place in an 11-year-old’s imagination. Meanwhile, the prospect of story coherence and pacing are already long gone, swallowed up by the skyscrapereating metal vacuum cleaner that seems to threaten the good guys in all of director Michael Bay’s films. Mark Wahlberg is an upgrade over Shia LaBeouf, especially in the
early scenes. Rated PG-13. 165 minutes. — P. Hartlaub
22 Jump Street Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill are back as undercover cops in this consistently inventive, laugh-out-loudfunny sequel to “21 Jump Street.” There’s just a bit of an energy dip about 20 minutes before the end; otherwise, this is a terrific comedy. Rated R. 112 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Venus in Fur Roman Polanski directs his wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, as a mystery woman who comes to audition for a writerdirector (Mathieu Amalric) in
this faithful French adaptation of playwright David Ives’ entertaining Broadway twohander. Not rated. 95 minutes. In French with English subtitles. — M. LaSalle
What If This is a charming romantic comedy, set in Toronto, about a young man and woman with a natural rapport who are stuck in the “friend zone,” because the woman is in a relationship. The film marks Daniel Radcliffe’s complete emergence as an adult actor, and Zoe Kazan is radiant. PG-13. 102 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Wish I Was Here Zach Braff’s second film as director — a decade after “Garden State” — is a winning comedy-drama starring Braff as a failing actor, Kate Hudson as his wife, the breadwinner, and Mandy Patinkin as Braff’s dad, who is dying of cancer. A mostly well-written take on the challenge of strengthening family relationships without giving up career dreams, the film would be a natural double bill with Jon Favreau’s “Chef. Rated R. 106 minutes.
— G. Allen Johnson