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After the Storm The latest insightful family drama by Japanese master Hirokazu Kore-eda centers on a onetime prizewinning novelist who is divorced, broke and longing to reconcile with his ex-wife and son. He takes a job at a detective agency, and his surveillance subjects bear an uncomfortable similarity to his own quietly desperate circumstances. In Japanese with English subtitles. Not rated. 110 minutes.
— G. Allen Johnson
American Anarchist Documentary about William Powell, who wrote “The Anarchist Cookbook” in 1971, which contained information about making explosives and illicit drugs. Not reviewed. Not rated. 80 minutes.
Bokeh Sci-fi thriller about a young vacationing couple who wake up to find that everyone else on Earth has disappeared. Not reviewed. Not rated. 92 minutes.
The Boss Baby “Madagascar” director Tom McGrath returns with a satisfying animated comedy about a corporate baby (voiced by Alec Baldwin) making life miserable for a 7-year-old boy. But there are distracting side plots — and side plots to the side plots — that keep the movie from rising to greatness. Rated PG. 97 minutes. — P. Hartlaub
CHIPS Dax Shepard wrote, directed and stars in this coarsecomic remake of the popular (1977-83) TV action series, centering on the thrilling escapades of California highway patrolmen. The action movie element never catches fire, but the comedy works. Co-starring Michael Peña. Rated R. 100 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
For Here or to Go? This timely feature addresses immigration issues through the story of the visa problems faced by an Indian software engineer in Silicon Valley in 2008. The film, which has a rich comic strain, also deals with other cultureclash issues. The characters are likable, but the film tends to declare its issues rather than dramatize them. Rated R. 105 minutes. Frantz Director Francois Ozon reimagines Ernst Lubitsch’s 1932 antiwar film from the perspective of the young German woman (Paula Beer) who has lost her fiancee in World War I and meets a mysterious Frenchman. Beautifully filmed and acted. Rated PG. 113 minutes. In French and German with English subtitles.
— M. LaSalle
Get Out This first film from director Jordan Peele is very much a product of 2017, a comic horror film about a young black man (Daniel Kaluuya) who goes with his new girlfriend (Allison Williams) on a visit to her parents’ house. It’s a funny and unsettling mix of paranoia and a comic awareness of its own paranoia, and it’s irresistible. Rated R. 103 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Ghost in the Shell Action drama about a cyberenhanced soldier (Scarlett Johansson) who fights crime. Rated PG-13. 107 minutes.
Hidden Figures A by-the-books historical piece, about black female mathematicians
working in NASA’s early days, the film is enlivened by the three principal actresses, Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monae and Octavia Spencer, and by Kevin Costner, who is the perfect vision of the early 1960s man. Rated PG. 127 minutes. — M. LaSalle
I Am Not Your Negro James Baldwin’s writings on race (spoken by Samuel L. Jackson) are interspersed with footage of Baldwin making speeches and appearing on talk shows. The result demonstrates that Baldwin, who died 30 years ago, is as relevant today as he was in the 1960s and ’70s. Rated PG-13. 95 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
In Search of Israeli Cuisine This easily digestible documentary explores the diverse cultures of Israel with a food and travel tour. It’s not just a food-tasting expedition; it’s an education. Not rated. 97 minutes.
— D. Lewis
Kong: Skull Island King Kong never looked so good as in this well-directed, well-acted, imaginatively crafted and very respectably written revisit of the Kong story, this time on his native habitat of Skull Island. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson and Tom Hiddleston and directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts. Rated PG-13. 120 minutes. — M. LaSalle
La La Land This modern musical takes the best of the old (rich color, extended shots for the dances) and weds it to new music and a contemporary story. The result is one of the best films of the year, with Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as a pair of strivers who meet in Los Angeles and try to help each other. Rated PG-13. 128 minutes. — M. LaSalle The Last Word Shirley MacLaine is a difficult retired businesswoman and Amanda Seyfried is a newspaper obituary writer with poetic aspirations, in this slightly canned but satisfying story of two women becoming friends at opposite ends of their life. Rated R. 108 minutes. — M. LaSalle
The Lego Batman Movie The animated comedy is less awesome than its predecessor, but it’s a clever, well-paced, selfaware and completely satisfying kind of less awesome. It takes the most entertaining secondary character from “The Lego Movie,” then builds
104 minutes around him with little fatigue. All inferior sequels should be as fun as this one. Rated PG. 104 minutes.
— P. Hartlaub
Leonard Cohen: Bird on a
Wire Documentary about the singer-songwriter’s 1972 European tour. Not reviewed. Not rated. 106 minutes.
Life A squid-like Martian alien has landed on the International Space Station, but every ounce of self-preservation on this ship orbiting Earth seems to have been blown out the airlock. “Life” director Daniel Espinosa gets the technical parts right, but the performances are listless — and all of the fun characters die first. Rated R. 103 minutes. — P. Hartlaub
Logan The ninth appearance by Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in 17 years takes a massive tone shift from the relatively bloodless earlier X-Men films, going berserk in its own moody and ultra-violent direction. Jackman and director James Mangold create something great here, upsetting comic book norms without losing entertainment value. Rated R. 141 minutes. — P. Hartlaub
Love & Taxes Josh Kornbluth stars in this dramatic version of his stage monologue, about his adventures with the tax man, including not filing and dealing with a very expensive accountant. Kornbluth is an appealing actor, and the result is an engaging film. Not rated. 90 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Moonlight One of the best movies of the year, this Barry Jenkins film tells the story of a man, from childhood through young adulthood, and shows how environment can exert enormous changes on the spirit. Vigorously filmed and sensitively guided, this is beautiful work. Rated R. 110 minutes.
— M. LaSalle Personal Shopper Kristen Stewart strains to hold up the edifice of this awful Olivier Assayas mess, about a personal shopper to a celebrity (Stewart), who is also trying to communicate with the dead. Long, dull and structureless, it brings out the worst in Stewart, who has never seemed so mannered and inauthentic. Rated R. 105 minutes. — M. LaSalle
Power Rangers Smalltown teens gain superpowers just in time to try to stop Rita Repulsa from destroying Earth. This third film in the multimedia franchise has its pluses: strong characterizations, enjoyable action (though not enough of it), a few topical touches and a nutritious helping of fun. Stars Dacre Montgomery, RJ Cyler, Bryan Cranston and Elizabeth Banks. Rated PG-13. 121 minutes. — M. Ordoña
Raw Director Julia Ducournau understands coming-of-age fears as much as she gets scary movies, and she manages both near-perfectly in this graphic thriller about a cannibal college student. Not for the squeamish, but Ducournau’s expert hand should earn the respect of any cinephile who can handle the explicit content. Rated R. 99 minutes.
— P. Hartlaub
The Salesman A husband and wife, actors appearing in an Iranian production of “Death of Salesman,” have their lives thrown off balance when the woman is attacked by an intruder while taking a shower. It’s another perceptive and compulsively watchable examination of domestic life from Asghar Farhadi (“The Past”). Rated PG-13. 125 minutes. In Farsi with English subtitles. — M. LaSalle
The Sense of an
Ending Well-acted, understated and British to the core, this drama is based on Julian Barnes’ novel of the same title, charting what happens when the past abruptly catches up with an aging Londoner. Jim Broadbent does a fine job as a man who is old school but not a caricature. Good supporting work from Charlotte Rampling, Harriet Walker and Michelle Dockery. Directed by Ritesh Batra (“The Lunchbox”). Rated PG-13. 108 minutes. — W. Addiego
Song to Song Terrence Malick’s latest, about songwriters in Austin, is a huge entertainment, over two hours of wistful voiceover contemplation to the sight of various vague characters improvising in the most obvious and tiresome of ways. Starring Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara and Michael Fassbender. Rated R. 129 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
T2 Trainspotting The sequel to “Trainspotting,” the 1996 film about heroin addicts in Edinburgh, is a likable and sumptuously filmed comedy, delightful to watch from start to finish. Rated R. 113 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Tickling Giants This documentary about comedian Bassem Youssef, the Jon Stewart of Egypt, delivers a loud and clear message about repression anywhere in the world. Not rated. 111 minutes.
— L. Hertz
A United Kingdom The marriage between an African king and a white British woman and the subsequent international fallout is the subject of this true story, starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike. But the movie, though conscientious, ultimately fails to satisfy as either a love story or as a tale of mid-century politics. Rated PG-13. 111 minutes.
— M. LaSalle
Wilson This dark comedy, about a curmudgeonly hermit who tries to reconnect with the world, is loaded with funny characters and moments, even if it doesn’t add up to an emotionally satisfying whole. Rated R. 94 minutes. — D. Lewis The Zookeeper’s Wife Jessica Chastain and Flemish actor Johan Heldenbergh are brilliant as Antonina and Jan Zabinski, a Polish couple who used their zoo in Warsaw as a transit point for rescuing Polish Jews from the Warsaw ghetto. This is a humane and extremely well-made film from director Niki Caro. Rated PG-13. 124 minutes. — M. LaSalle