WORTH SEEING
Which Movies to Watch This Weekend
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail: “Hoop Dreams” director Steve James profiles the Sung family, a group of Chinese bankers in New York targeted by the government in the wake of the recent mortgage crash. The trial itself is filled with drama, but the resourcefulness and loyalty of the family is the centerpiece. Charged with a crime that could destroy them, their defense feels like a piece of the American dream. Not rated. 88 minutes
— Peter Hartlaub Letters From Baghdad: Absorbing documentary about Gertrude Bell, often called the female Lawrence of Arabia, and her role in the making of the modern Middle East. Taken from actual correspondence and journals by Bell and her friends and colleagues, with Tilda Swinton as the voice of Bell, and filled with archival photographs and film footage, directors Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum intimately evoke Baghdad, Syria and London in the first two decades of the 20th century. Not rated. 95 minutes.
— G. Allen Johnson Like Crazy: Paolo Virzi wrote and directed this Italian best picture winner, with a brilliant Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Micaela Ramazzotti as a pair of mentally ill women who escape a sanitarium and go on a life-changing road trip. Not rated. 118 minutes. In Italian with English subtitles.
— Mick LaSalle My Cousin Rachel: Based on the Daphne du Maurier novel, this is the story of a young man who becomes obsessed and baffled by his guardian’s widow, a charming but mysterious woman (played by Rachel Weisz). It’s a fascinating and well-made film directed by Roger Michell that seems to be a morality tale but is something more complicated. PG-13. 106 minutes.