Movies

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This article was published 19/05/2016 (3474 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RECOMMENDED

SING STREET

Grant Park. PG. 106 minutes.

In an attempt to impress a girl, a young Dublin lad (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) asks her to play a role in his rock group’s video, necessitating that he quickly form a band when she assents. At its best, this musical by Irish writer-director John Carney (Once), is an absolute darling of a movie, offering a tender and rueful look at the intensity of youth, when love and music are practically inseparable. ★★★ 1/2 (Reviewed by Alison Gillmor)

https://youtu.be/C_YqJ_aimkM

 

NEW IN TOWN

SUNSET SONG

Cinematheque. 14A. 136 minutes.

In Terence Davies’ adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s iconic 1932 novel, a young farm girl, Chris Guthrie (Agyness Deyn), attempts to find her place in the world even as the traditional Scottish ways are overwhelmed by modernity and a looming war. Though sensitively observed and beautifully photographed, the drama never quite coalesces, with Davies (The House of Mirth, The Deep Blue Sea) failing to find an equivalent to Grassic Gibbon’s vivid Scots dialect. ★★★ 

 

STARTING FRIDAY

THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. G. 97 minutes.

In this animated feature based on the video game, a temperamental bird named Red (voiced by Jason Sudeikis) investigates when his island home is invaded by mysterious green pigs.

 

NEIGHBORS 2: SORORITY RISING

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, McGillivray VIP, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A. 93 minutes.

Expecting their second child, Mac and Kelly (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) are trying to sell their embattled home when a party-hearty sorority led by Shelby (Chloe Grace Moretz) moves in next door, forcing the couple to draft their former frat boy-nemesis (Zac Efron) to aid in the ensuing battle.

 

THE NICE GUYS

Grant Park, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital. 14A. 116 minutes.

A shamus (Ryan Gosling) and a strong-arm enforcer (Russell Crowe) team up in ‘70s-era Los Angeles to solve the seemingly unrelated cases of a missing girl and a dead porn star. From writer-director Shane Black, who explored similar L.A. noir turf in the Robert Downey comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

 

 

NOW PLAYING

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

Polo Park, Towne. 14A. 152 minutes.

DC heroes Batman (Ben Affleck) and Superman (Henry Cavill) take the first step to opening the DC supergroup realm of the Justice League. But the first step is a problematic one as the Gotham City vigilante views Superman as a dangerous illegal alien, a point of view exacerbated by reckless genius Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg). Unlike the Avengers, alas, this movie by Zack Snyder is big, bombastic and humourless — a hot, narrative mess of weird dream scenes, elaborate fights and weepy melodrama. Where the character of Lex Luthor has been reliably entertaining in past films, Eisenberg renders him as a major irritant, babbling paranoid, stream-of-consciousness gobbledegook like Sarah Palin in man-drag. ★★ (Reviewed by Randall King)

THE BOSS

McGillivray, Polo Park. 14A. 99 minutes.

Melissa McCarthy is an obnoxious millionaire wheeler-dealer who loses her fortune following an insider-trading scandal and imposes on her single-mom assistant (Kristen Bell) to reboot her career once she gets out of prison. The structure of The Boss doesn’t quite work, and the transitions between acts are wonky as all get-out, but there are nuggets of hilarity to be found. ★★★ (Reviewed by Katie Walsh, Tribune News Services)

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, McGillivray VIP, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne, 14A. 148 minutes.

In this latest instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, members of the Avengers disassemble into two factions led by Captain America (Chris Evans) on one side and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) over the issue of submitting to regulation of their oft-cataclysmic operations. It’s refreshing that, in a universe where audiences can’t get enough massive destruction, directors Joe and Anthony Russo actually hit the pause button on the franchise to consider the deeper implications of “collateral damage,” while still delivering the impressive action we’ve come to expect from the Marvel franchise in general and the Captain America movies in particular. ★★★/2 (Reviewed by Randall King)

THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER’S WAR

Kildonan Place. PG. 114 minutes.

The ads suggest Snow White’s evil queen versus Frozen’s frosty princess, but this prequel/sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman is ultimately just a cash-in. As a sequel, it’s only comparable to The Godfather II in that it takes us both before and after the events of the first movie, pitting Chris Hemsworth’s hunky hatchetman and his warrior lover Sara (Jessica Chastain) against the love-denying sorceress Freya (Emily Blunt), sister to the fiendish evil Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron). Like a glamorous zombie, Theron returns from the dead to chew up scenery. Efforts to match the oft-startling nature imagery of the first film are half-hearted and random, but then so is this entire movie. ★★ (Reviewed by Randall King)

THE JUNGLE BOOK

Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. G. 106 minutes.

In this new adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling story, a boy named Mowgli (Neel Sethi) is raised in the jungle with the help of various helpful animals, including the panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) and the lovable bear Baloo (Bill Murray). It’s hard to love any movie dominated by ultra-crisp photorealistic animation designed to look real. That said, this movie is pretty good. ★★★/2 (Reviewed by Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune)

THE MEDDLER

Grant Park. PG. 104 minutes.

Susan Sarandon stars as the recently widowed Marnie Minervini, who fills the void in her life by invading the L.A. space of her daughter Lori (Rose Byrne) until Marnie’s chance encounter with a new man (J.K. Simmons) provides her with a potentially lasting diversion. Sarandon adds feeling depth to the character, portraying Marnie as a lifelong nurturer, so concerned with the feelings of others she has lost sight of her own. But in the end, The Meddler provokes mixed reactions. Should we be thankful a wonderful older woman gets a rare starring role? Or should we be miffed that the role comes in a mostly mediocre movie? ★★★ (Reviewed by Alison Gillmor)

MONEY MONSTER

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A. 99 minutes.

George Clooney is a TV entertainer whose slipshod guides to money management cause a financially devastated man (Jack O’Connell) to take over the TV studio at gunpoint. Clooney is great as a narcissistic antihero, and director Jodie Foster carries the story across multiple hairpin turns as accusations of dishonesty trigger investigations into stock manipulation, high-tech detective work and the appearance of a billionaire tycoon with an agenda of his own. ★★★ 1/2 (Reviewed by Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune)

MOTHER’S DAY

Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG. 118 minutes.

In the vein of his past films, Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve, comes Garry Marshall’s Hallmark-themed, multi-plotted homage to moms starring romcom trifecta Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson and Jennifer Aniston. But despite an army of appealing actors, this is a startlingly unappealing room-com. Clumsily edited and culturally tone-deaf, it’s more obsessed with the titular holiday than even most mothers would find reasonable. ★1/2 (Reviewed by Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post)

MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART

Cinematheque. PG. 125 minutes.

Chinese director Jia Zhangke creates an intimate epic story beginning with a love triangle in which a singer, Shen Tao, must choose between a gas-station owner and a coal miner. It presents a fascinating picture of a culture undergoing massive fundamental shifts, but its odd structure, strange tonal mix and flawed final act display an ambitious experiment rather than a polished final product. ★★★ 1/2 (Reviewed by Alison Gillmor) 

ZOOTOPIA

McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital. G. 109 minutes.

This Disney animated feature is a weird hybrid of anthropomorphic cartoon hullabaloo and police procedural telling the story of a rookie bunny cop (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) paired with a con-artist fox (Jason Bateman) to get to the bottom of a missing-mammal mystery. It’s lavishly animated and very funny, but its subtext on the subject of prejudice and racial profiling is both sophisticated and, in an American election year, surprisingly pertinent. ★★★★ (Reviewed by Randall King)