CINEMA CLIPS NEW THIS WEEK
MOVIE TIMES AND LOCATIONS AT CITYWEEKLY.NET stays within mainstream limits, adeptly satirizing our modern SPECIAL SCREENINGS definition of fame with an ending that satirizes our modern BORN INTO BROTHELS At Main Library, Aug. 22, 7 p.m. (NR)
BRIGSBY BEAR BB.5 It’s possible that this filmed-in-Utah oddball comedy has something insightful to say about the unhealthy pull of nostalgia and kitsch; it feels equally possible that it celebrates those things. That’s the maddening inscrutability surrounding a great premise: 20-something James (Kyle Mooney, who also co-wrote), after living his entire life in a desert home, discovers that his “parents” (Mark Hamill and Jane Adams) kidnapped him as an infant, and that the kiddie fantasy show Brigsby Bear he’s always loved was created by his captors specifically for him. Mooney’s performance—as James tries to adjust to the outside world—manages the tightrope walk between the fanciful satire of Being There and the earnest drama of the similarly plotted Stockholm, Pennsylvania, while the script gets great mileage from the faux show’s absurd plots and tailor-made-for-James lessons (e.g. how frequently it’s appropriate to masturbate). But as Brigsby Bear videos become a viral sensation and James sets out to make a DIY Brigsby movie, the story somehow celebrates this device for manipulating him. Like The Brigsby Bear Show, the narrative here is goofy, surreal, awkwardly constructed and full of messages of questionable value. Opens Aug. 18 at Broadway Centre Cinemas. (R)—Scott Renshaw
LOGAN LUCKY BBB See review on p. 37. Opens Aug. 18 at theaters valleywide. (PG-13)
PAINT YOUR WAGON At Main Library, Aug. 23, 2 p.m. (NR)
STEP BBB.5 Witness the Platonic form of the crowd-pleasing Sundance documentary: part “underdog sports movie,” part “inspirational teacher movie,” part “seemingly-hopeless-people-get-a-shotat-success movie.” That might make for some narrative sprawl, but there’s still a satisfying payoff. Director Amanda Lipitz spends a year following the step-dancing team at Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women, a charter school focused on sending every one of its African-American female students to college. The focus is on the senior year of three of the team’s founding members, and Lipitz observes as they contend with the circumstances of their home lives while still trying to excel academically. Naturally, there’s a big performance at the end, one this team has never won before, and the percussive step routines are energetic and edited with a satisfying zip. It’s never entirely clear to what extent the experience of starting and participating on this team improves— or even occasionally distracts from—their chances of succeeding as students, but when it builds up to a slow-mo hero walk that you know these girls have earned, it’s hard to nit-pick. Opens Aug. 18 at Broadway Centre Cinemas. (PG)—SR
STREET FIGHTING MEN At Rose Wagner Center, Aug. 21, 7 p.m. (NR)
THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD [not yet reviewed] A special protection agent (Ryan Reynolds) escorts a notorious assassin (Samuel L. Jackson) scheduled to testify at the International Court of Justice. Opens Aug. 18 at theaters valleywide. (PG-13) INGRID GOES WEST BBB In this cautionary comedy about social-media fame, Aubrey Plaza plays an unstable woman named Ingrid, fresh out of the mental ward, who heads to California to stalk and befriend a minor Instagram celebrity, Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen), whose lifestyle looks appealing. Directed by first-timer Matt Spicer from a screenplay he co-wrote with David Branson Smith, the film plays Ingrid’s social awkwardness and Single White Female behavior for dark laughs, but it has a 21st-century twist, too. Taylor is a shallow L.A. phony who calls everything “amazing” and “the best”; her husband, Ezra (Wyatt Russell), calls her “exhausting.” Plaza shows range as she and Olsen give their characters more layers than expected, and O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Ice Cube’s son, last seen playing his dad in Straight Outta Compton) offers a pleasant counter-balance as Ingrid’s easy-going, Batman-obsessed landlord. Though the story turns grim (how could it not?), it
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idea of happiness. Opens Aug. 18 at Broadway Centre Cinemas. (R)—Eric D. Snider
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Information is correct at press time. Film release schedules are subject to change.
WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE At Tower Theatre, Aug. 18-19, 11 p.m.; Aug. 20, noon. (R) YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN At Park City Library, Aug. 17, 7 p.m. (PG)
CURRENT RELEASES
ANNABELLE: CREATION B The most unbelievable thing here is the suggestion that the creepy titular doll—first encountered in 2013’s The Conjuring— was created in the 1940s by a kindly dollmaker (Anthony LaPaglia), and that customers positively clamored for them. Only slightly less plausible is that the dollmaker and his wife (Miranda Otto) would open their home to a bunch of orphan girls when they know a demon has been hanging around. Now, everything is endless creaking floors, creepy scarecrows and, of course, the freaky doll in this collection of funhouse spooks telegraphed a mile out. This is so forgettably rote a “horror” movie that you’ll forget the scares even before they strike, and the most disturbing thing is the genre-ritual terrorization of female characters, who in this case are so young that it feels like a kind of perversion. Pedo-fear-lia? (PG-13)—MaryAnn Johanson
WIND RIVER BBB..5 Here is one of those rare thrillers that doesn’t kill its characters for kicks; it kills them to remind us that when people die, they’re dead, and their loved ones are forever haunted. So begins this moody, violent film as Natalie (Kelsey Asbille), a young Native American woman, runs through the snow, barefoot and scared out of her mind. The next morning, Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner), a U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent, discovers Natalie’s frozen body while tracking a mountain lion. Because the body is found on the Wind River reservation, homicide investigation belongs to the federal government, and the police chief (Graham Greene) calls the FBI. In pops Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen), straight from Las Vegas, ill-prepared for the deadly cold weather but pretty smart about everything else. Jane and Cory form a quick bond, and he’s soon helping Jane with her investigation. The whodunit goes in unexpected directions, with unexpected villains and at a refreshingly quick pace. Writer-director Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water) coaxes superb performances from the entire cast, especially Gil Birmingham as Natalie’s father. Don’t miss one of the best movies of the year. Opens Aug. 18 at theaters valleywide. (R)—David Riedel
THE GLASS CASTLE BBB It’s not hard to find gritty drama in dysfunctional childhood; it’s harder to tease out the complexity in a family dynamic that, while unhealthy, can’t be oversimplified. Director/co-writer Destin Daniel Cretton adapts Jeanette Walls’ memoir about her childhood with itinerant parents (Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts), and its psychological fallout on her life as an adult (Brie Larson). The narrative weaves effectively back and forth between its two time-frames, at times drifting into melodrama as Jeanette wrestles with her family legacy. But the flashback segments pack real emotional punch, finding the tangled interplay between her alcoholic father’s irresponsibility and the force of his visionary personality. Harrelson’s charismatic performance captures both sides of this troubled man in a story that understands how the people in your life can be bad for you and good for you at the same time. (PG-13)—SR
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