PLAYING NOW FILM the center of this film, but he’s presented as part of an increasingly diverse and populist campaign in this movie’s unusually clear and sophisticated narrative. Its one lapse is in exaggerating President Lyndon Johnson’s (Tom Wilkinson) resistance to sending a voting rights bill to Congress, which was actually based on his assessment of the timing and political opposition. With Cuba Gooding Jr., Tim Roth, Giovanni Ribisi, Carmen Ejogo, Martin Sheen, and Tom Wilkinson. -GS
The Tale of Princess Kaguya
STRANGE MAGIC—Assorted goblins, elves, fairies, and imps battle over a magic potion in this Disney animation advertised as being “From the mind of George Lucas,” in the apparent belief that that still means something. Directed by Gary Rydstrom. TAKEN 3—It may have the same star (Liam Neeson) and production team as previous Takens, but there’s no kidnapping this time. Instead, the story is lifted from The Fugitive: Retired CIA operative Bryan Mills scours Los Angeles for the men who framed him for murder while evading police detective Forest Whitaker (in the Tommy Lee Jones part, but without any of the snappy dialogue). There’s plenty of action, all filmed in a way likely to induce seizures—hand-held cameras, editing that cuts so much you can’t get a grip on what your seeing. Worse, there’s nothing in the by-the-numbers story that makes you in any way interested in what you’re seeing. It’s slickly made product ordered up by executives just because they need a third film in order to be able to market a Taken Trilogy DVD box set next Christmas. With Dougray Scott, Famke Janssen, and Maggie Grace. Directed by Olivier Megaton, a name that just dares reviews to make cracks about “megaton bombs.” -MF
increasingly wild proceedings. It’s certainly challenging, dynamic, and technically fluid. But it’s also erratic, lurching from scenes of banal domestic confrontation and confession to deliberate comic excess to surreal flights. In the end it’s too much structural complexity for one film to handle. Co-starring Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, and Andrea Riseborough. –GS
work finds the White Council (Gandalf, elf king Elrond, Lady Galadriel, wizard Saruman) on a parallel quest to solve the mystery of the Necromancer, setting up the reign of evil Sauron in Lord of the Rings. This padding out of The Hobbit’s relatively simple storyline is the equivalent of George Lucas’s Star Wars prequels, though fans are less likely to mind its inclusion. At the end of the day, Jackson and his army of collaborators have achieved something remarkable with this series, but I’m glad it’s over and Jackson can concentrate on other endeavors. This final entry feels like the last half hour of a traditional feature, stretched out to five times the length. Starring Martin Freeman, Orlando Bloom, Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchett, Ian McKellen, and Christopher Lee. -Greg Lamberson.
BLACK OR WHITE—As a story of a family dispute generated by racial differences—a mixed-race girl is fought over by her white (maternal) grandfather and black (paternal) grandmother, who both want custody—Black or White arrives at a perfect time to add something to the freshly simmering debate about race and civil rights in America. But it brings little to the table, either substantively or aesthetically. It’s a rather plodding, insufficiently focused effort, uninformed by real insight or narrative facility. It mostly resembles Kramer vs. Kramer, succumbing to a melodramatic conclusion that resolves nothing. Starring Kevin Costner, Octavia Spencer, Jennifer Ehle, Anthony Mackie, and Bill Burr. Directed by Mike Binder (Reign Over Me). -GS
THE IMITATION GAME—The story of English mathematician and logician Alan Turing, who was instrumental in breaking Germany’s Enigma code during World War II but was later driven to suicide for being gay. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Turing as a kind of comic but poignant genius in a clever and vivid performance. Britain’s stringent secrecy laws kept Turing’s role in the Allied victory a secret until the mid-1970s, since which point Turing has become both a hero of the code-breaking program and as a martyr of the oppressive, sometimes vicious treatment of homosexuals in the British Isles. Although the movie’s dramatic arc is consistently entertaining, it bears only a limited general resemblance to the more complicated story told in Andrew Hodge’s long, dense 1983 Turing biography, credited as a primary source. Exaggerating and invention are hardly uncommon in biopics, but the filmmakers choices here are dramatically conservative and audience-oriented. Co-starring Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Charles Dance, and Mark Strong. Directed by Morten Tyldum (Headhunters). -GS
THE BOY NEXT DOOR—Thriller starring Jennifer Lopez as a teacher who regrets a moment of passion with the neighbor kid (Ryan Guzman) when he turns out to be a psycho. With Kristin Chenoweth and John Corbett. Directed by Rob Cohen (Alex Cross). CAKE—Was Jennifer Aniston denied an Oscar nomination here because she campaigned too hard for one? Maybe, but the film as a whole seems crafted for the sole purpose of showing off her performance as a woman driven to consider suicide by chronic pain following the accident that killed her young son. The self-congratulatory screenplay parcels out hard evidence about her backstory as a way of simulating drama. It may be most notable for its parade of supporting roles and cameos by actors whose moments seem to have passed them by: Oscar nominees Felicity Huffman and Anna Kendrick (can you name the films they were nominated for without going to imdb. com?), Avatar’s Sam Worthington, and Chris Messina. Directed by Daniel Barnz (Won’t Back Down). -MF
THE LOFT—Remake of the 2008 Dutch drama (by the same director, Erik Van Looy) about a group of married men who share an apartment for extra-marital affairs, until a corpse turns up and they realize that one of them must be the killer. Starring Karl Urban, James Marsden, and Matthias Schoenaerts. MORTDECAI—The aspects of Kyril Bonfiglioli’s comic novels, about an aristocratic British art dealer and his occasional criminal escapades, that won them a cult following in the 1970s are also what made them unlikely to work as movies: the wordplay (openly indebted to P. G. Wodehouse) and the spur-of-the-moment plotting that seems leftover from faux psychedelic British films of the 1960s. With a Hercule Poirot moustache and a Terry-Thomas accent (and teeth to match), Johnny Depp works hard at this eccentric character. But the script is atrocious, weaving random elements from Bonfiglioli’s books into a bland Hollywood template. Disappointing but not surprising. Co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Olivia Munn, Ewan McGregor, Paul Bettany, Jeff Goldblum, and Ulrich Thomsen. Directed by David Koepp (Premium Rush). -MF A MOST VIOLENT YEAR—The new film from writer-director J. C. Chandor is a must see for fans of urban crime dramas from the likes of Sidney Lumet, David Mamet, or Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather films. That it has little in common with Chandor’s previous work—Margin Call, All Is Lost—only confirms that he is one of the most promising young filmmakers of our time. Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) stars as a Russian immigrant who has worked his way up to the head of a heating oil delivery business. The film (set in 1981, when New York City’s crime rate peaked) details his efforts to stem a series of hijackings as he is trying to expand his business and deal with a criminal prosecution for shady practices. Co-starring Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo, Alessandro Nivola, and Albert Brooks. –MF
INTERSTELLAR—That Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus, about the search for a planet capable of supporting human life, is the most argued-about movie PADDINGTON—The beloved “short but polite” talking of the year has less to do with reaction to its content bear of children’s books comes to the big screen in than with its inconsistency. Your own opinion likely a good-natured movie that will be beloved by Angloto hinge on what you most want in a movie, visual philes of all ages. Combining computer effects with effects, provocative ideas or fleshed-out drama. The animatronics and voiced by Ben Whishaw, Paddingideas are there, though whether they’re plausible or THE GAMBLER—Even if you haven’t seen the 1974 film ton’s story stays close to the books as he journeys merely fantastical is likely to be over the heads of on which this is based, this glossy remake is a facfrom “darkest Peru” to London in search of a home. most viewers. Nolan and his co-scripter brother Jonile waste of time, retaining most of the macho posFor dramatic structure the movie borrows from 101 athan alternately withhold information that you want turing from the original but none of the plausibility. Dalmations in the form of Nicole Kidman as a Cru(about the demise of our planet in the near future) Done up like a slumming rock star, Mark Wahlberg is ella De Vil-ish taxidermist in a snakeskin jumpsuit. It while rushing science at you too quickly to digest. hard to take seriously as a literature professor (his was co-written and directed by Paul King, but don’t Matthew McConaughey’s performance demonstrates self-aggrandizing lectures are hilarious) with a gamexpect anything as anarchic as The Mighty Boosh, the that it’s possible to overact quietly, though he’s still bling addiction that seems born of a death wish. The cult comedy show he’s best known for: Special effects effective in the occasional tear-jerking moments. It’s script by William Monahan (The Departed) is ripe with aside, it’s as traditional as a cup of hot chocolate. The worth seeing (if you have the patience for a threewriterly dialogue, much of which is entertaining, esincludes Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey’s Earl VISIT DAILYPUBLIC.COM FOR FILMbut LISTINGS REVIEWS >> as cast hour movie), don’t expect& anything as dazzling pecially as delivered by Michael Kenneth Williams andMORE of Grantham), Sally Hawkins, Peter Capaldi, Julie WalThe Dark Knight or Inception. With Anne Hathaway, John Goodman (who has a classic speech on earning ters, and Jim Broadbent, along with other faces you’ll Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Matt Damon, John the right to say “Fuck you” that is almost as good probably recognize if you’re a Britcom fan. -MF Lithgow, Casey Affleck, and Topher Grace. -MF as Monahan thinks it is). But director Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) gives it a superficial PROJECT ALMANAC—Michael Bay production about INTO THE WOODS—This long-anticipated adaptation of sheen that doesn’t make any sense. And its treatment time-traveling teens, originally known as Welcome to the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine musical paroof gambling is shameful—any virtues the film has are Yesterday when it was supposed to be released a year dying traditional fairy tales and their ancient themes negated by a bullshit ending. With Jessica Lange, Brie ago. Starring Jonny Weston, Sofia Black-D’Elia, and is likely to play best for the choir of the already conLarson, and George Kennedy. -MF Amy Landecker. Directed by Dean Israelite. verted. Sondheim’s work is as ever clever but not really mass market-friendly, a problem that director THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES—The last of SELMA—Detailing the events leading up to the 1965 DAILYPUBLIC.COM LISTINGS & REVIEWS Rob Marshall FOR (ChicagoMORE ) addressesFILM by amping up the Peter Jackson’s six J. R. R.VISIT Tolkien’s adaptations is the march from Selma to >> Montgomery, Alabama, the show’s periodic infusions of wise-guy show-business shortest but feels like the longest. After perfunctorily capital, to protest the denial of the vote to the great sass (sometimes at the expense of the generally darkdispensing with the dragon Smaug, the remainder of majority of the state’s African-American residents, er mood). But he keeps the turning, incurving plot the film becomes a sword and sorcery take on The director Ava DuVernay’s film ranks among the very moving gracefully, and the songs are almost always Treasure of Sierra Madre, with dwarf leader Thorin few respectable and involving American movie treatdelivered with verve and emotive skill, particularly by Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) refusing to share the ments of historical characters, forces, and events. Meryl Streep. Co-starring Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt, treasure with his now homeless Middle Earth neighMartin Luther King (David Oyelowo), both the great bors. A subplot inspired by references in other Tolkein Johnny Depp, Chris Pine, and Christine Baranski. -GS public leader and symbol and the private man, is at
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THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING—As an Oscar contender, this biography of Stephen Hawking, based on a memoir by his first wife Jane, is a model of restraint and inoffensiveness: it’s a shoo-in for the The King’s Speech voters. Hawking’s work takes a back seat to his slow debilitation from ALS and the history of his marriage. But while we go into the film knowing it will end in divorce, the factors driving the couple apart feel elided. It’s as if the filmmakers didn’t want to be disrespectful to a man who is considered one of the great scientific minds of our era. But in that case, why make the film at all? Even the irony that, as presented here, all that ended the marriage of a man so obsessed with the nature of time was time itself seems unintended. With fine but unostentatious performances by Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones as the Hawkings. Co-starring Harry Lloyd, David Thewlis, and Emily Watson. Directed by James Marsh, best known for documentaries like Man on Wire. -MF UNBROKEN—The true story of Olean native and Olympic athlete Louis Zamperini (adapted from Laura Hillenbrand’s 2010 book) focuses on the horrifying experiences of his young life: As a lieutenant in the Air Force during World War II, he spent 47 days adrift in the Pacific Ocean after his plane was shot down, only to wind up in a Japanese POW camp where for two years he was tortured by a corporal who became obsessed with him. These painful scenes may be unparalleled in a movie intended for a mass audience. And by ending with Zamperini’s rescue from the camp, the film oddly avoids terminates the more satisfying dramatic arc that would have been provided by the rest of his life. Director Angelina Jolie does fine work in the opening scenes of the plane being shot down, but at 137 minutes most audiences are likely to be very uncomfortable with the movie’s brutality. Starring Jack O’Connell, Finn Wittrock, Domhnall Gleeson, and Miyari. Joel and Ethan Coen were among the scriptwriters. –GS THE WEDDING RINGER—The ubiquitous Kevin Hart as an LA hustler who makes a good living hiring himself out as a hip best man to guys who have no real friends to turn to for their weddings. His skills are challenged when financial executive Josh Gad comes to him in need not just of a best man but seven groomsmen as well—and in 10 days. The directorial debut of Jeremy Garelick, who rushes through all the best material in his own script. (Maybe it was his way of not having to cut anything?) It’s not well tailored for Hart’s strengths, allowing Gad to steal most of their scenes. The humor isn’t as crude as other wedding comedies of recent years, which is a plus or a minus depending on your perspective. Nor is the bromantic aspect adequately fleshed out. It’s not an awful movie, but neither is it memorable. Co-starring Affion Crockett, Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, and Ken Howard. -MF WILD—Novelist Nick Hornby wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s memoir of her 1994 hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, which extends for 2,663 from Mexico to Canada. Strayed (played by Reese Witherspoon, who also co-produced the film, in an effective act of image-adjusting) was not an experienced hiker, and she doesn’t seem especially well prepared for such an arduous trek. But she undertakes it as an act of will and self-punishment, to confront and exorcise her demons. As unveiled in flashbacks, they don’t seem all that awful, especially when we compare the film to Into the Wild and 127 Hours, both recounting much more distressing wilderness journeys. Wild is at its best not when it’s trying to persuade us how bad Strayed’s life was but when it focuses on the alternately grim and dull slog of a three-month walk—now there’s a triumph. With Laura Dern, Thomas Sadoski, and Michiel Huisman. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club) -MF THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2: ANGEL OF DEATH—There’s no Daniel Radcliffe, nor anyone else you’re likely to have heard of in this sequel to the 2012 horror movie. The same secluded haunted house is used forty years later to house children and two schoolteachers escaping the World War II bombing of London, and the same trouble spirit causes more trouble. There are more shock moments than any one film should have, though in general it’s a relatively old-fashioned spook movie. But if you haven’t seen the original you’re going to be lost as to what’s going on. Starring Phoebe Fox, Helen McCrory, and Jeremy Irvine. Directed by Tom Harper (Peaky Blinders). -MF P
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