Openingnight
New movies this week
CIVIL WAR R, 169 minutes. Starts tonight at Mystic, Waterford, Westbrook, Lisbon, Madison, United Westerly.
The United States is crumbling in Alex Garland’s sharp new film “Civil War,” a bellowing and haunting big screen experience. The country has been at war with itself for years by the time we’re invited in, through the gaze of a few journalists documenting the chaos on the front lines and chasing an impossible interview with the president. Garland, the writer-director of “Annihilation” and “Ex Machina,” always seems to have an eye on the ugliest sides of humanity and our capacity for self-destruction. His themes are profound and his exploration of them sincere in films that are imbued with strange and haunting images that rattle around in your subconscious for far too long. In “Civil War,” starring Kirsten Dunst as a veteran war photographer named Lee, Garland is challenging his audience once again by not making the film about what everyone thinks it will, or should, be about. Yes, it’s a politically divided country. Yes, the President (Nick Offerman) is a blustery, rising despot who has given himself a third term, taken to attacking his citizens and shut himself off from the press. Yes, there is one terrifying character played by Jesse Plemons who has some pretty hard lines about who is and isn’t a real American. But that trailer that had everyone talking is not the story. All we really know is that the so-called Western Forces of Texas and California have seceded from the country and are closing in to overthrow the government. We don’t know what they want or why, or what the other side wants or why and you start to realize that many of the characters don’t seem to really know, or care, either. This choice might be frustrating to some audiences, but it’s also the only one that makes sense in a film focused on the kinds of journalists who put themselves in harm’s way to tell the story of violent conflicts and unrest.
— Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press
ARCADIAN
R, 91 minutes. Starts tonight at Lisbon.
In the near future on a decimated Earth, Paul (Nicolas Cage) and his twin sons find tranquility by day but terror by night when ferocious creatures awaken and consume all living souls in their path. A review wasn’t available.
ART THIEF
Not rated, 94 minutes. Starts Friday at Mystic.
After stealing a painting from a local museum, a passionate-but-untalented
DON'T TELL MOM THE BABYSITTER'S DEAD
R, 99 minutes. Starts Friday at Lisbon.
Tanya finds her summer plans cancelled when her mum jets off for a last-minute retreat and the elderly babysitter unexpectedly passes away. A review wasn’t available. artist is thrust into the midst of the biggest art theft in modern history. Inspired by true events. A review wasn’t available.