Movies

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RECOMMENDED

FENCES

Grant Park, McGillivray. PG. 139 minutes.

Denzel Washington give a powerful, leonine performance and takes on directing duties as well for a film that was adapted by playwright August Wilson before he died in 2005. As a piece of cinema, Fences doesn’t swing for the go-for-broke limits suggested by the title. Stagy, speech-y and limited mostly to the scruffy backyard of a working-class house in 1950s Pittsburgh, it often feels confined. But the constricted atmosphere is precisely what is called for in a rich character study of a man bursting with pent-up resentment, thwarted potential and masculine pride. As his wife, Viola Davis is magnificent, rooted in stillness but bursting with passion and life. HHHH1/2 (Reviewed by Ann Hornaday, Washington Post)

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ASSASSIN’S CREED

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG. 116 minutes.

In Assassin’s Creed a death-row inmate (Michael Fassbender) is saved by a shadowy organization because they need him to unlock the memories of his 15th-century ancestor Aguilar to find the location of an apple that contains the genetic code to free will because Marion Cotillard wants to end violence… or something. Yes, Assassin’s Creed is attempting to give a serious narrative origin story to the popular video game, ostensibly setting up interest in possible future films. But it’s hard to even feign interest in this one, let alone what might come next. Director Justin Kurzel’s film embodies the worst tendencies of modern blockbusters to feel not like a full movie, but a tease for what’s to come — a television pilot on the big screen.

★½ (Reviewed by Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press)

COLLATERAL BEAUTY

Grant Park, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital. PG. 97 minutes.

Will Smith is a New York advertising exec who retreats from life following a personal tragedy, forcing his colleagues to devise an elaborate plan that might bring him back into the world. Co-starring Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren and Edward Norton, this movie should win some kind of award for Best Execution of a Truly Dreadful Concept. Stars and beautiful cinematography can’t save a misguided tale filled with armchair philosophizing and meaningless twists.

★½ (Reviewed by Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service)

DOCTOR STRANGE

Polo Park. PG. 115 minutes.

Marvel Comics’ most mystical hero finally arrives onscreen courtesy of Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of Stephen Strange, a brilliant surgeon who turns his attention to the mystical realm after a debilitating accident. With its trippy visuals, Doctor Strange qualifies as an engrossing, 21st-century iteration of a classic “head” movie. Plan accordingly if you happen to be averse to audience members gobbling popcorn and reeking of spilled bong water.

★★★★(Reviewed by Randall King)

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

Polo Park, St. Vital. PG. 133 minutes.

This prequel to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is set in the year 1926 when the zoologically minded wizard Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) is obliged to capture a case full of the titular creatures after they escape into New York City. David Yates, who directed four of the eight Potter films, employs the same language of visual effects and narrative devices to cue viewers that we’re in the Potter wizarding world. Still, Yates doesn’t have an easy time establishing a connection, partially because of Redmayne, who plays Newt as a socially inept misfit — a creature geek, if you will — with such pronounced eccentricity, it’s a bit of a task to relate to him. To employ an appropriate sports metaphor, this first film of five planned movies doesn’t exactly capture the Golden Snitch. But it puts some numbers on the Quidditch scoreboard, with the promise of better things to come.

★★★½ (Reviewed by Randall King)

LA LA LAND

Grant Park, Polo Park. PG. 128 minutes.

This wistful musical directed by Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as a jazz pianist and an actress who fall in love while struggling to find success in Los Angeles. It’s a slight, often affecting story that mixes the confusion of contemporary life with nostalgic yearning for a time when the whole boy-meets-girl thing was less complicated. Beautifully shot and elegantly choreographed, the film’s last perfect moments are a seamless swell of pure emotion.

★★★★ (Reviewed by Alison Gillmor)

LION

McGillivray. PG. 119 minutes.

A vulnerable boy becomes hopelessly lost when he is trapped on a train that transports him to the other side of India. When he is adopted by an Australian family, he grows up haunted by his previous life and becomes obsessed with tracking his journey via Google Earth. Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) gives a star-quality performance in this drama that embraces the good technology can do.

★★★½(Reviewed by Randall King)

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

Grant Park. 14A. 137 minutes.

This film by Kenneth Lonergan stars Casey Affleck as a Boston janitor obliged to return to his hometown when he unexpectedly finds himself given custody of the teen son of his recently deceased older brother. Lonergan’s third film as a writer-director, Manchester by the Sea is a difficult, delicate, almost unbearably affecting drama about men not talking about stuff. Lonergan’s approach to his characters is sensitive and sincere but never sentimental. These are suffering, inarticulate people who don’t suddenly find words for their pain or ways to overcome it just because some screenwriter wants them to.

★★★★½ (Reviewed by Alison Gillmor)

MOANA

Kildonan Place, Polo Park, Towne. G. 107 minutes.

This animated film centres on Moana Waialiki, a high-spirited 16-year-old who seeks the help of an almighty demigod (Dwayne Johnson) to help save her tribe from annihilation. This is a classic Disney pic to the core, bursting with stunning visuals, adventure, good-hearted humour and some truly catchy songs.

★★★½ (Reviewed by Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press)

OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY

Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A. 105 minutes.

T.J. Miller plays an affable boob who thinks the way to guarantee the survival of his sister’s company is to host a wild, blowout party. Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman and Kate McKinnon are among the comedically high-powered support staff of the delightfully debauched holiday desecration we need this year. Office Christmas Party delights in a grotesque carnival of the worst behaviour and still has its heart firmly in the right place.

★★★ (Reviewed by Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service)

PASSENGERS

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG. 116 minutes.

In Morten Tyldum’s Passengers, Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence are two of a few thousand people in suspended animation on a spiralling starship hurtling through space on autopilot, headed toward a distant colonized planet; they are woken from hibernation too soon. There’s room in the galaxy for less thoughtful forays into deep space, especially ones that pair such engaging actors. But what has ultimately self-destructed in Passengers is its central metaphor. It’s about how the act of falling in love dooms companions to a single fate, sentencing them, for better or worse, to a lifetime together. It’s a clever enough conceit, doomed by a bungled meet-cute.

★★½ (Jake Coyle, The Associated Press)

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG. 133 minutes.

For the geeks, this film by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) answers the question posed between the events of Star Wars Episode III (including the destruction of the Jedi Order) and the beginning of Episode IV: how did the Rebel Alliance get their hands on the plans for the Death Star? The answer involves a young rebel (Felicity Jones) with a personal connection to the Death Star’s architect. By the time it all plays out, Rogue One stands as a servicable entry in the Star Wars franchise, but it adds unexpected notes of maturity in taking on some of the less fantasy-based aspects of war.

★★★½ (Reviewed by Randall King)

SING

Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. G. 108 minutes.

In this animated feature set in a candy-coloured world populated by animals, koala Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) tries to save his crumbling theatre by staging a singing contest. A menagerie of contestants turn out, including Rosita the housewife pig (Reese Witherspoon), Mike the surly mouse (Seth MacFarlane) and Ash the punky porcupine (Scarlett Johansson). The film combines “Let’s put on a show” enthusiasm with an over-the-hill American Idol concept, but the result veers between manic and dull. The singing is on-key, but the animation is flat and the plot is tone-deaf.

★★ (Reviewed by Jill Wilson)

WHY HIM?

McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A. 111 minutes.

Bryan Cranston risks typecasting as a middle-class Everyman who loves his family. His daughter Stephanie (Zoey Deutch) is his jewel, so he is shocked when she announces that she will not be returning home for Christmas. Instead, she suggests the family fly out to meet Laird (James Franco), the tech mogul she’s dating. Despite flashes of brilliance, Why Him? is perfunctory and boorish; although family and acceptance are themes of the film, it’s not for all ages, with a steady stream of obscenities and gross-out gags that make the humour in Bad Santa 2 seem tame by comparison.

★ (Alan Zilberman, Washington Post)