Current Attractions
“Alien: Covenant”: In the franchise’s six film Ridley Scott, director of the 1979 original and the cerebral 2012 prequel “Prometheus,” delivers another prequel but this time mixes intellectual concerns with the gory thrills of the first film. Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston and Billy Crudup are among the stars. 2 ½ stars (Jake Coyle, Associated Press) R, 2:03 “Beauty and the Beast”: Emma Watson does a great job playing Belle, in this liveaction remake of the Disney animated classic. The rest of the cast is impressive, and the film does an admirable job of keeping up with the original. But make no mistake — Watson carries this film and makes it worth your time. 3 stars (Tony Hicks, Staff) PG, 2:09
“Born in China”: In Chuan Lu’s film, Disneynature continues its tradition of ascribing human traits and emotions to wild creatures. Yet the documentary does manage to elicit a viewer’s awe and touch the heart. The “stars” include an adorable panda cub bonding with her mom, a frisky adolescent monkey in need of friends and a snow leopard struggling to provide for her cubs. 2 stars (Jane Horwitz, Washington Post) G, 1:19
“Chuck”: Liev Schreiber stars as Chuck Wepner, the real-life heavyweight boxer who inspired Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky.” Although the film’s central match is effective, the drama outside the ring involving his wife (Elisabeth Moss) is less involving. 2 ½ stars (Pat Padua, Washington Post) R, 1:38 “The Circle”: This technological thriller stars Emma Watson as Mae, a young woman coming to terms with privacy, ethics and humanity while working at a Facebook-like company called The Circle. At first, Mae is dazzled by her new job and all it has to offer, but soon she is involved in a scheme that has devastating results. Tom Hanks also stars. 2 stars (Ann Hornaday, Washington Post) PG-13, 1:50 “Colossal”: Spanish filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo gives Ann Hathaway her liveliest role in years. Here she plays Gloria, a downon-her-luck drunk who stumbles on an unexpected road to recovery. Vigalondo has fashioned a sly, winking homage to Godzilla and hitched it, in ways both ridiculous and intuitive, to a story about a major American screw-up trying to get her life back on track. 2 ½ stars (Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times) R, 1:50
“The Dinner”: Based on the Dutch novel by Herman Koch, the set-up here is instantly intriguing. Two married couples are meeting for dinner to discuss something sensitive to do with their teenage sons. As each course comes out, a new layer is exposed in the complex tapestry of the diners. Richard Gere, Rebecca Hall, Steve Coogan and Laura Linney star in this genuinely suspenseful whodunit. 3 stars (Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press) 2:00
“Free Fire”: Filmmaker Ben Wheatley brings us an exercise in witty dialogue, cartoonish violence and aim just bad enough to leave its protagonists bloodied but alive. IRA gunrunners (Cillian Murphy and Michael Smiley) are working a deal with a South African arms dealer (Sharlto Copley) with the help of a go-between (Brie Larson). 2 stars (Ann Hornaday, Washington Post) R, 1:30
“Get Out”: There’s no escape from the real monster lurking in “Get Out.” Jordan Peele’s terrifying, socially charged thriller examines the ugly truths hiding beneath the lie of a post-racial America. Millennial waif Rose (Alison Williams), who is white, has no idea her pastoral hometown might be a hotbed of bigotry, or she’d never bring her black boyfriend Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) home to meet the parents, right? 4 stars (Karen D’Souza, Staff) R, 2:10 “Gifted”: Mary (Mckenna
Grace) is a little girl who has been raised by her uncle Frank (Chris Evans) after the death of her mother, Frank’s sister, a promising mathematician. Then Mary’s maternal grandmother (Lindsay Duncan), shows up. She’s unexpected and unwelcome, and so are her designs to wrench the girl away from the home she loves and place her in a school for the gifted. 2 ½ stars (Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post) PG13, 1:41 “Guardians of the Galaxy
Vol. 2”: Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and company find themselves in the middle of a potentially apocalyptic situation, again. While Vol. 2 has plenty of energy, a lot of jokes and oldies as ironically jaunty background music for slow-motion slaughter montages, but it’s a step down from the original. 2 ½ stars (Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune) PG-13, 2:18
“Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent”: Lydia Tenaglia offers a beautiful if fitful documentary about the famed chef who rose to dizzying heights only to all but disappear from view. The story is told through a mix of archival stills, interviews with other chefs and luminaries and some video footage. It is a banquet for foodies dying for the inside dish on the birth of new American cuisine. 3 stars (Karen D’Souza, Staff) R, 2:00 “King Arthur: Legend
of the Sword”: Though reasonably entertaining, it’s a stretch to call this CGI-laden nonsense from Guy Ritchie a King Arthur movie. It skates by on delicious scenery chewing by Jude Law as the uncle who has usurped Arthur’s birthright, the charisma of Charlie Humman in the title role and Ritchie hyperkinetic cinematic style. 2 stars (Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press.) PG-13, 2:06 “Like Crazy”: A vibrant, compelling look at friendship, freedom and the fine line between sanity and madness from director Paolo Virzi, who keeps the jam-packed film moving apace with a whirlwind of high-wire emotionality, memorable set pieces and vivid location work. Not reviewed. (Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times) Unrated 1:58
“Logan”: The clawed mutant Wolverine finally gets to slash through the constraints of a kid-friendly PG-13 rating, and the result is bloody, vicious fun. When asked to take Laura (Dafne Keen), a curious, quiet 11-year-old, to a safe haven, Logan refuses. Then some mean-looking dudes come looking for the girl, and the vaguely depressing movie suddenly roars to life. 3 stars (Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald) R, 2:15 “The Lost City of Z”: Charlie Hunnam plays Percy Fawcett in this adaptation of David Grann’s nonfiction
book. The year is 1906, and Fawcett is a British officer who craves action when he is assigned a map-making mission in the “blank spaces” of Bolivia. While Fawcett’s journey is grueling and frightful, he finds not madness in the jungle but wonder. 3 ½ stars (Jake Coyle, Associated Press) PG-13, 2:20
“The Lovers”: Azazel Jacobs’ exquisitely funny-sad romance stars a superbly matched Debra Winger and Tracy Letts as a long-married couple whose feelings for each other are rekindled at the most inconvenient possible moment. Not reviewed. (Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times) R, 1:34
“Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer”: This involving drama by Israeli director Joseph Cedar stars an exceptionally convincing Richard Gere in the title role. The film encourages us to see things from the point of view of its often irritating protagonist, who is a hustler and eternal searcher for the exploitable angle. 3 ½ stars (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times) R, 1:58
“Obit”: A fun, informative documentary with interviews of several of the New York Times’ most adept obituary writers, who show and tell how they go about bringing the dead to life. Not reviewed (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times.) Unrated, 1:33 “Paris Can Wait”: At
81, Eleanor Coppola has released her first fictional feature film, about a woman (Diane Lane) who goes on a sightseeing and gastronomical tour of France, guided by an associate (Arnaud Viard) of her filmmaker husband (Alec Baldwin), who is on a business trip to Eastern Europe. 3 ½ stars (Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service), PG, 1:32
“Sleight”: By day Bo (Jacob Latimore) is a street magician, wowing passersby with truly impressive sleight-of-hand illusions for tips. By night he sells party drugs in the clubs and on the streets of L. A. But 24⁄7, he’s the vigilant protector of his younger sister, Tina (Storm Reid). They’re orphaned siblings against the world. 3 stars (Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service) R, 1:30
“Snatched”: Screenwriter Katie Dippold (“The Heat,” “Ghostbusters”) strikes out with this mother-daughter kidnapping comedy starring Amy Schumer as a selfish, narcissistic woman whose boyfriend has dumped her, and Goldie Hawn as her mom, using non-refuncable tickets to make what was supposed to be a romantic excursion to Ecuador. 1 ½ stars (Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service) R, 1:31
“Their Finest”: Here is a World War II comedy that, despite its light hand, never compromises the grief and loss that lie at its core. Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) is recruited by the Ministry of Information to work with a group of screenwriters who create propaganda for the British war effort in the midst of the London blitz. Bill Nighy and Sam Claflin also star. 3 stars (Ann Hornaday, Washington Post) R, 1:57 “The Zookeeper’s Wife”: Jessica Chastain stars in this extraordinary true story based on the book by Diane Ackerman. In Germanoccupied Poland during the darkest days of World War II, a zookeeper (Johan Heldenbergh) and his wife (Chastain) managed to save the lives of hundreds of Jewish people by providing shelter and refuge for them on the zoo grounds. 3 stars (Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press) PG-13, 2:04