MOVIE STARS
Newest releases
Broadway Idiot The title is all too accurate, as this documentary about the stage adaptation of Green Day’s 2004 album, “American Idiot,” consists of a litany of gushy, self-congratulatory bromides from band leader Billie Joe Armstrong and director Michael Mayer. The show itself got good reviews, but you’d never know it from this PR barrage devoid of insight into the conflicts and triumphs of the creative process. (80 min., unrated) (Peter Keough)
Carrie What a disappointment. Director Kimberley Peirce (”Boys Don’t Cry”) and star Chloë Grace Moretz (”Kick-Ass,” “LetMe In”) fail to bring any new energy, resonances, or point to their remake of the classic 1976 Brian De Palma shriekfest. It’s a dispiriting retread that could have been directed by any
proficient Hollywood hack. With JulianneMoore. (100 min., R) (Ty Burr)
DrugWar Hong Kong action director Johnnie To teaches us about China’s zero-tolerance policy on meth manufacturing. Something else we get from the movie: another inkling of the style limitations perhaps most responsible for To’s lower visibility compared to, say, John Woo. Sun Honglei plays a cop hyper-vigilantly determined to keep narcotics out of his city. Louis Koo is an underworld player eager to dodge execution by turning informant. (107 min., R) (Tom Russo)
Escape Plan In their latest team-up, Sylvester Stallone plays a security consultant who infiltrates prisons, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is the fast friend he makes after being left to rot in a secret super-penitentiary. For the first half-hour, you start to think maybe it’s possible to recapture those ’80s popcorn-movie thrills. Trouble is, it’s all Sly’s show – Ahnold hasn’t even come into the picture yet. (116 min., R) (Tom Russo)
The Fifth Estate A slick, Hollywoodized retelling of the Wikileaks scandal, with Benedict Cumberbatch mesmerizing as a Julian Assange by way of Dr. Evil, and Daniel Brühl (”Rush”) as his more reasonable associate Daniel Domscheit-Berg. Wellmade and watchable, it’s itself the response of an entrenched information system toward something it barely comprehends. (128 min., R) (Ty Burr)
I Used to Be Darker A runaway drops in on her aunt and uncle, who are themselves undergoing a crisis. Even that simple summary of this oblique, elliptical film byMatthew Porterfield alone takes work by the viewer to figure out, which makes this family melodrama all the more powerful. Nuanced performances by the non-professional cast and a haunting soundtrack help fill in the deliberate narrative gaps. (90 minutes; not rated) (Peter Keough)
The Summit It might not be as insanely arduous as trying to scale the 28,000-foot Himalayan peak K2, but making a documentary
about the climb — specifically, about a 2008 expedition gone horrifically wrong— is incredibly ambitious in itself. First-time director Nick Ryan isn’t entirely up to the challenge, but he does deliver some dramatic and visual highs in the attempt. (99 min., R) (Tom Russo)
The Trials of Muhammad Ali The archival footage in Bill Siegel’s documentary is wondrous. How could it not be, featuring Ali. Though boxing figures in the film, its concern is with Ali in the realm of politics during the ‘60s and up to his vindication by the Supreme Court, in 1970. A real shortcoming is the documentary’s credulousness about Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. (94 min., unrated) (Mark Feeney)