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to a god. As told almost exclusively through profane rap songs. It’s an overly long hot mess that dares you to stop watching: virtually no plot; confusing characters; sexual vulgarity; and, perhaps most critical for a “hip-hopera,” a slew of actors who can’t rap very well. But the actors give it their all, and a lot of costume- and set-designers made out like bandits on this project. Plus it’s so garish, over-the-top and openly derisive of its own wannabe-cultish bad self that you gotta stick it out. In Japanese, with subtitles. 7 p.m. Fri., March 18. Row House Cinema. $15 (includes snacks) (AH)
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NEW THIS WEEK THE BRONZE. The media generally depicts Olympic-caliber female gymnasts as plucky sprites, all sparkle, smiles and American flags. That’s why it’s a hoot to catch up with 2004 bronze medalist Hope Annabelle Greggory (Big Bang Theory’s Melissa Rauch), who stomps around her small Ohio town in a cloud of bitterness, delusion and profanity. But Hope’s life of drugging and freeloading gets interrupted with an offer: If she coaches the town’s up-andcoming teen gymnast to a nationals victory, she can earn half-a-million dollars. Bryan Buckley’s raunchy comedy unfolds just as you’d expect from this standard setup, but it never does lose its bite: It remains dark, angry and, if you’re up for its brand of humor, hilarious. Its analog in both plot and style is Eastbound and Down, with its tales of a washed-up big-leaguer who can’t let go. But we expect male baseball players to be boorish; that Rauch, who co-wrote the script with her husband, blows chunks all over America’s perkiest sweethearts is just straight-up awesome. You go, girl. Starts Fri., March 18 (Al Hoff)
Only Yesterday
REPERTORY PSYCHO-PASS. This new feature film from Katsuyuki Motohiro and Naoyoshi Shiotani adapts and continues the popular anime sci-fi TV series. 7:30 Wed., March 16. Hollywood THE PRINCESS BRIDE. Rob Reiner’s 1987 film is that rare bird — a film to delight children and adults alike, an upbeat fairy tale with romance, comedy, swordplay, deliciously quotable lines and a great cast. 7:30 p.m. Wed., March 16. AMC Waterfront. $5
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THE BROTHERS GRIMSBY. Louis Leterrier directs this comedy about two long-lost English brothers who reunite: One is a top spy (Mark Strong), the other a football hooligan (Sacha Baron Cohen). THE CONFIRMATION. The marketing material for this debut by writer-director Bob Nelson suggests it might be one of those stealth religious films. But despite the odd church scene, this low-key dramedy about a fractured family winds up in some darker places, and even suggests that sometimes the best course of action is committing sins. Walt (Clive Owen) is a down-on-his-luck carpenter who is set to spend the weekend with his estranged son, Anthony (Jaeden Lieberher). Plans go awry when Walt’s hand tools are stolen — tools he needs to complete a job, or he loses everything. The search takes the pair on a tour of Kent, Wash.’s gloomier spots: bars, pawn shops, the trailer home where a helpful meth head (Patton Oswalt) lives. (Intentionally or not, the plot is a contemporary update of the neorealist classic he Confirmation isn’t The Bicycle Thief, though The nearly as bleak.) Owen is good — he physically d Lieberher, who seems deflated here — and h Bill Murray, starred in St. Vincent with effectively reprises his role as kid-whoppropriatelearns-from-somewhat-inappropriatementor. Starts Fri., March 18. AMC Waterfront (AH)
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that David uses his new glasses for inappropriate virtual-sex stuff that spills over into his “real” life, you’d be right. Shot in wide screen, Control is stylish, but it veers from clever to obvious to irritating enough to miss the mark. Starts Fri., March 18. Hollywood
catches up with Perrier, the bell may have finally tolled: The desire for haute cuisine served in brocaded and chandeliered dining rooms has faded; America’s palate has shifted to new fusion flavors; and Perrier, who still works every day, is older and wearier. Still, the fierce Perrier, a quintessential cranky teddy bear who nimbly shifts between jokes, shouted insults and Gallic shrugs, perseveres, casting his lot with a new and younger chef to run Le BecFin. The film is a celebration o of Perrier’s longevity in a notoriously brutal business, as well as an elegy of sorts for a style of fine dining that is now gone. The loo great, but it’s hard food served at Le Bec-Fin looks atmos to argue for the stuffy atmosphere. And so it’s relbu not before we mark egated to the history books, but t its passage and appreciate this once-critical spot fo of America’s ever-evolving food scene. Starts Fri., March 18. Manor (AH)
THE DIVERGENT SERIES: ALLEGIANT. The saga of those different from the others continues, in Robert Schwentke’s adaptation of Veronica Roth’s dystopian young adult novels. Shailene Wood young-adult Woodley stars. Starts Fri., March 18 KING GEORGES. For decades, Le Bec-Fin, in Philadelphia, was regarded as one of the country’s very best French restaurants. Its owner and chef, Georges Perrier, trained as a saucierr in France, and through myriad restaurant trends and food fads, remained committed to classic French cuisine. (The sauce, Perrier reminds us, is the basis of all French cooking.) But as director Erika Frankel
jamin DickinCREATIVE CONTROL. Benjamin ack-and-white son’s dark comedy is the black-and-white love child of Black Mirror and Mad Men. In the very near future, a worker at a hip advertising and branding agency gets a g new “augnew assignment — testing mented reality” glasses forr a client. ort of These glasses enable a sort hybrid of video recording and et playback, assorted Internet functions and the ability to alter experiences visually. The new toy comes at an opportune time for David (Dickinson), who is bored with his yogateacher girlfriend, and obsessing over his best bro’s girl. If you guessed
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TROUBLEMAKERS. James Crump’s new documentary looks at the “land art” movement of the late 1960s and early ’70s, wherein artists eschewed traditional art media and spaces and created supersized earthworks in the desert Southwest. The film includes footage and interviews with artists including Robert Smithson (“Spiral Jetty”), Walter De Maria (“The Lightning Field”) and Michael Heizer (“Double Negative”). Fri., March 18, through Sun., March 20. Melwood
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SHATTERED FRAMES. As part of the Iranian Film and Video Festival presented by Conflict Kitchen, a selection of recent short video work from more than a dozen Iranian filmmakers will screen. Sohrab Kashani, an interdisciplinary artist and independent curator based in Tehran, will lead a discussion after the screening. 6 p.m. Thu., March 17. Carnegie Museum of Art, Oakland. $5. www.conflictkitchen.org/events THE BIRDS. Lest you forget that birds have a darker side … there’s Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 domestic-horror classic. Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren hope to spend a quiet weekend in the country, but as soon as they arrive, the local birds start acting nasty. The romantic getaway becomes a nightmare, especially as more and more birds go on the attack. Some of the many “trick” shots Hitchcock used to depict rampaging birds have grown dated, but still
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KNIGHT OF CUPS. Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett Te and Natalie Portman star in Terence Malick’s drama screenwr about a disillusioned screenwriter looking for meaning by indulging in seedy adve adventures in Los Angeles Marc 18 and Las Vegas. Starts Fri., March Tak ONLY YESTERDAY. Isao Takahata’s 1991 drama, from famed Japanese animatio animation house Studio Ghibli, is only now being officially released in the United appro States. In it, a woman approaching her 30th birthday reflects on her childhood during a visit to the country. Starts Fri., March 18. R Row House Cinema TOKYO TRIBE. This new film from Sion Sono (Why Don’t You Play in Hell?) is an exuberant tale of highly stylized Tokyo street gangs who e engage in battles with each other and with a cannibalistic gan gangster, who is in hock
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Creative Control (2016) 3/18 @ 7:30pm & 10:00pm, 3/19 @ 9:30pm, 3/20 @ 7:00pm, 3/23 @ 7:30pm A man uses a pair of virtual-reality glasses to have an affair with a hologram of his buddy’s girlfriend. Smart, funny and wonderfully filmed.
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Silents, Please! Haxan (1922) 3/20 @ 3:00pm A hybrid of documentary and fiction, this classic Swedish silent film explores the history of witchcraft and demonology. With live electronic musical accompaniment by Richard Nicol of Pittsburgh Modular Synthesizers.
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