Movies

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This article was published 11/08/2016 (3681 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RECOMMENDED

INDIGNATION

Grant Park. 14A. 112 minutes.

Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman) is a self-described “nice boy” from Newark, N.J., who has studied his straight-A way to a scholarship at a middle American college in Ohio where he comes in conflict with the dean (Tracy Letts) over compulsory chapel attendance and his sexual obsession with Olivia (Sarah Gadon), an upper-class WASP whose blond poise and privilege cover a damaged past. Mature, meticulous and faithful in its own fashion, this is the best of the Philip Roth adaptations that have come out in the last 15 years. While revisiting the familiar Roth territory of crazy-making family dynamics, frustrated lust and mid-century puritanism and prejudice, the film is really obsessed with the timeless themes of choice and chance. Starts tomorrow. ★★★★1/2 (Reviewed by Alison Gillmor)

 

 

STARTING FRIDAY, AUG. 12

ANTHROPOID

Polo Park. 14A. 121 minutes.

Set in 1941, this espionage thriller focuses on two Czechoslovakian operatives (Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan) assigned the dangerous task of assassinating SS officer Reinhard Heydrich, the main architect of the Final Solution.

 

FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS

Grant Park, Polo Park. PG. 111 minutes.

A wealthy heiress (Meryl Streep), labouring under the delusion she can sing, employs her affectionate husband (Hugh Grant) and a reluctant pianist (Simon Helberg) to launch her late-in-life debut as an opera singer.

 

PETE’S DRAGON

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG. 103 minutes.

In the wilds of the Pacific Northwest, an orphan boy named Pete (Oakes Fegley) emerges from having lived for years in the forest, saying he was supported by his friendship with a furry dragon named Elliot. A forest ranger (Bryce Dallas Howard) and her father (Robert Redford) take it upon themselves to investigate Pete’s claim in this remake of the half-animated Disney film from 1977.

 

SAUSAGE PARTY

Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 18A. 89 minutes.

Seth Rogen stars as a wiener who learns some inconvenient truths about his lot in life when his fellow groceries exit the supermarket and fall victim to a housewife in this dark animated comedy aimed strictly at adults. (Note the 18A rating.)

 

 

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BAD MOMS

McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital. 14A. 101 minutes.

Juggling a career and a perfect family proves too much for Amy (Mila Kunis), who snaps in a big way, joining forces with a couple of other stressed-out moms (Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn) to party their way to freedom, in defiance of PTA princess Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate) and her icy matriarchal minions. This desperate comedy wants to be like The Hangover for moms. But it’s tough to get comically reckless while simultaneously being calculating. Ironically, this moms-gone-wild raunch-fest works way too hard at pandering to ever loosen up and have fun. ★★ (Reviewed by Alison Gillmor)

 

CAFÉ SOCIETY

Towne. PG. 97 minutes.

Woody Allen’s romantic drama set in the 1930s stars Jesse Eisenberg as a Bronx lad caught up in love and intrigue both in New York and Hollywood — where he finds work with his Uncle Phil (Steve Carell), a high-powered agent, and love with Phil’s assistant (Kristen Stewart). The story just feels awash in nostalgia for an imagined and insular 1930s. Allen returns to many of his favourite themes — choice and chance, youth and age, love and death — though these feel less like fully developed ideas and more like intellectual status symbols, tossed around the same way Uncle Phil throws out the names of Joan Crawford or Gary Cooper. ★★★ (Reviewed by Alison Gillmor)

 

FINDING DORY

Polo Park, St. Vital. G. 97 minutes.

This sequel to the 2003 Pixar hit Finding Nemo sees clownfish Marlon and Nemo accompanying forgetful blue tang Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) on her own journey to track down her forgotten parents. The plot is a tad redundant, but there’s lots of fun to be had courtesy of Dory’s friendship with a grumpy octopus (Ed O’Neill) committed to his own mission to move to a nice, safe Cleveland aquarium. The animation is gorgeous, of course, which compensates for a plot turn that too frequently tips the fish scales into melodrama. ★★★1/2 (Reviewed by Randall King)

 

GHOSTBUSTERS

Polo Park. PG. 117 minutes.

This reboot of the ‘80s supernatural comedy skews feminine with the team consisting of Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon taking on a plague of ghosts haunting New York City. Remove the much-discussed gender controversy and you’ll see director Paul Feig has actually made a few improvements to the original, such as dynamic ghost-vs.-Ghostbuster fight scenes, a more organic justification for the inclusion of a black, non-scientist member of the team (Jones is emphatically not inclined to play it straight), and a thoughtful backstory regarding Wiig and McCarthy’s characters. Cameo notwithstanding, it doesn’t have Bill Murray, not really. Nor does it have the calm comic centre the late Harold Ramis provided in the original — Egon Spengler was really the funniest character in the original film — although McKinnon is amusingly nuts. ★★★ (Reviewed by Randall King)

 

ICE AGE: COLLISION COURSE

Polo Park. G. 95 minutes.

In this world of ancient animals — woolly mammoths, sabre-toothed tigers, flying dino-birds — facing apocalyptic, era-shifting, asteroid-borne problems, it feels profoundly odd that the emotional stakes of the film are centred around the wedding of Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie’s (Queen Latifah) daughter Peaches (Keke Palmer). Not to get too nitpicky about a fantastical film for children where a group of animals blow up a bunch of crystals in a volcano to set an asteroid off course, but the concept of marriage is decidedly anachronistic here. Also, they’re animals. Hence, this fifth instalment in the franchise makes for a perfunctory, watered-down entry in the series that feels like it should have been released on home video. ★1/2 (Reviewed by Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service)

 

JASON BOURNE

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A. 123 minutes.

Matt Damon returns to the role of the amnesiac superspy, his first since The Bourne Ultimatum in 2007, seeking more answers in the wake of learning about his true identity in the last film, much to the consternation of a CIA chief (Tommy Lee Jones) hiding some nasty secrets. Director Paul Greengrass choreographs action scenes that are both big and disconcertingly realistic, delivering the beats and beatdowns fans expect. But without the story arc of the original trilogy, it all feels gratuitous and ingratiating; in short: Bourne-ographic. ★★ (Reviewed by Randall King)

 

LIGHTS OUT

Polo Park, St. Vital. 14A. 81 minutes.

A woman with commitment issues, Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) is obliged to intervene when her younger half-brother Martin (Gabriel Bateman) is plagued by the same nightmarish, light-averse spectre that haunted her childhood, a spirit somehow bound to Rebecca’s unbalanced mother (Maria Bello). Based on a chilling horror short of the same title (do check it out on YouTube), this thriller by director David Sandberg disputes the parental wisdom that says there’s nothing lurking in the darkness that isn’t there in the light. Somehow not as scary as the short film, it nevertheless works modestly well to induce some gratifying chills in the hottest weeks of summer, with the central concept working as a metaphor for the familial challenges of mental illness. ★★★ (Reviewed by Randall King)

 

NERVE

Polo Park. PG. 96 minutes.

Chronically timid high school student Venus (Emma Roberts), forced to prove her bravery, signs onto an online game where she is required to participate in escalatingly dangerous tasks alongside seasoned player Ian (Dave Franco). The movie has a jittery, camera-phone untidiness to its cinematography and its editing, but the attempt at esthetic spontaneity largely goes to waste as the film veers deeper into ludicrous conspiracy territory. And there is only one thing to say to the presumption we should care about these thinly sketched characters: Some nerve. ★★ (Reviewed by Randall King)

 

NINE LIVES

Kildonan Place, Polo Park, Towne. G. 87 minutes.

In this kid-targeted fantasy, Kevin Spacey plays a callous billionaire who gets turned into a cat and will stay a feline unless he can prove his love for his neglected daughter. (Not reviewed.)

 

THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. G. 86 minutes.

This animated comedy examines what goes on among the pet population when the humans aren’t looking. Basically a pet version of Toy Story, this animated adventure from some of the Despicable Me and Minions crew is not particularly original. Its broad comedy and hyperactive pacing don’t leave much room for Pixar-style pathos, and the animation is an aggressive hodgepodge of stylized characters and realistic environments. But boring it ain’t. ★★★ (Reviewed by Alison Gillmor)

 

STAR TREK BEYOND

Grant Park, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG. 122 minutes.

A fitting 50th birthday tribute to Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty and the rest of the Enterprise crew, this third entry in the rebooted movie series takes the crew on perhaps the ship’s most dangerous mission ever, while at the same time allowing these beloved characters to spend some quality time together as they try to stop an alien warlord named Krall from destroying the galaxy. While it would be wildly inaccurate to say Star Trek Beyond boldly goes where no Trek feature has gone before, its destination — a familiar intersection where the simple charms of the original TV series meet the spectacular action and special effects that are required elements in every big-budget summer blockbuster — will surely leave fans feeling the franchise is exactly where it needs to be at this stage of its revived existence. ★★★★ (Reviewed by Brad Oswald)

 

SUICIDE SQUAD

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG. 123 minutes.

In a comic book-style take on The Dirty Dozen, this David Ayer movie sees a gaggle of reprobates from the DC universe — including Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Deadshot (Will Smith) and Slipknot (Adam Beach) — to do the bidding of a ruthless government agent (Viola Davis) to fight a supernatural menace. Director David Ayer (End of Watch) wasn’t a bad choice to de-bombast the DC comic universe in the wake of Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman, but he is still weighed down by the job of juggling too many characters through too much plot. Another problem: Jared Leto’s much-hyped performance as Joker is a major letdown. Required by Quinn’s presence to imbue the character with a sexual dimension to his unhinged menace, Leto acts more like a tweaking drag queen. ★★1/2 (Reviewed by Randall King)