23-year-old blind piano prodigy. The pair is aiming for a jazz competition, but each is beset with challenges that he works through. The film is co-presented by Sembène —The Film & Art Festival. 7 p.m. Wed., Jan. 18. Alphabet City, 40 W. North Ave., North Side. Free; RSVP at www.alphabetcity.org.
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THE THING. A bunch of feckless pot-smokers holed up in some Antarctic “research” facility are visited by a bad alien in John Carpenter’s 1982 remake of the 1951 sci-fi classic. 7:30 p.m. Wed., Jan. 18. AMC Loews Waterfront. $5
ELLE. Provocative Dutch director Paul Verhoeven’s latest film opens with a rape in progress, as a middle-aged woman is attacked in her own home by a ski-masked assailant. After the assault, the woman, Michele (Isabelle Huppert), reacts rather sanguinely; she goes on with her day-to-day life, sorting through various domestic and work issues. Verhoeven keeps the focus on Michele, and the folks who weave through her life, gradually illuminating but not totally explaining Michele’s character and her response to the rape. The film is a hybrid: part slow-burn revenge thriller as Michele seeks her rapist, and part potboiler incorporating several standard melodramas. Even if you’re fine with the tricky subject matter, Elle suffers from too many subplots, and runs on 15 minutes too long. But the work is a real showcase for Huppert, who is intense and utterly compelling. Michele is not likable in the standard sense — she is flinty, even cruel — but Huppert makes her somebody you can’t look away from. There’s a fair amount of pulpy nonsense and borderline exploitative material that swirls around, but Huppert grounds most of it. (See www.pghcitypaper.com for longer review.) In French, with subtitles. Starts Fri., Jan. 20. Regent Square (Al Hoff) LIVE BY NIGHT. Ben Affleck stars as a gangster in this crime drama, adapted from a Dennis Lehane novel, set during Prohibition. Affleck, who also directed, portrays Joe Coughlin, an Irish kid from Boston who, during the World War, “left a soldier, came back an outlaw.” After some trouble in Beantown, Coughlin winds up in Ybor City (described here as “the Harlem of Tampa”), where he sets up a number of lucrative boozerunning deals for the Italian mob back in Boston. You know the drill: Things go good, then they go bad, a lot of people get shot, and somebody turns into a tent preacher. OK, that last plot point is unusual, and while interesting, it was a moody bit of side business that felt out of step with the rote pulp-fiction aspect of the whole. Live By Night’s primary takeaway is how dull it is; there are a lot of players and set-up, and what action does transpire is wholly expected. It’s an ensemble piece — that also just happens to feature the uninspiring Affleck in every scene — with plenty of good actors wasted along the way. I’d give this bootleg hooch a pass, and wait for the real deal to roll back around. (AH) PATERSON. Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, this low-key observational film spends a week in the life of Paterson (Adam Driver), a bus driver who lives and works in Paterson, N.J. His daily life is defined by routine — the same breakfast, bus route, lunch stop (at the town’s scenic waterfalls), and dog walk ending at the same bar. When not driving the bus, Paterson enjoys a quiet home life with his wife, Laura (Golshifteh Farahani) and writes poetry in a notebook. Truthfully, not much happens, except life’s small moments roll on. Despite (or because of) his routine, Paterson is keenly observant and open to each day’s gifts, be they a particularly amusing conversation overheard on the bus, or, as in the poem that opens the film, the layers of loveliness contained in a simple box of matches. The film is a celebration of “everyday poetry,” and those who take the time to find it. There is a whimsical quality to the film, particularly in the couple’s relationship — a partnership of creative souls, tucked cozily in their oddly decorated home. Laura is exuber-
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TRAPPED. Dawn Porter’s new documentary looks at the implementation of TRAP laws (“Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers”) over the last few years, and the detrimental impact the legislation has had on women’s health care. The film also highlights the medical professionals, attorneys and activists fighting back. The film screens as part of an ongoing series of social-justice films. 6:30 p.m. Thu., Jan. 19. Eddy Theater, Chatham campus, Shadyside. Free. www.justfilmspgh.org
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THE WANDERERS. Philip Kaufman’s 1979 film takes us into the slightly funny, slighty sad world of New York City hoodlum youth, circa 1963. The film, with lots of nostalgic rock ’n’ roll tunes, is adapted from an early Richard Price novel. Jan. 20-21 and Jan. 23-26. Hollywood EDWARD SCISSORHANDS. Johnny Depp stars as the decidedly different boy-next-door (he has scissors for hands) in Tim Burton’s funny-sweet 1990 film. Jan. 2026. Row House Cinema THE FAULT IN OUR STARS. Two teenage lovebirds, each with cancer, become obsessed with a novel, and travel to Amsterdam to track down its elusive author. Josh Boone directs this 2014 dramedy. Jan. 20-26. Row House Cinema
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antly open about her artistic practices and ambitions, while Paterson is reserved, refusing even to share his poems with her, despite her effusive, unconditional support. (A photo of Paterson in a Marine uniform suggests other possibilities for his adherence to a routine.) Besides Paterson’s prescribed days, the film also offers other motifs of repetition, from the patterns Laura paints to sightings of twins. Among the film’s bits of deadpan humor are the nods to the city itself — from the wall of Paterson memorabilia at the bar and discussion of William Carlos Williams, who wrote an epic poem about Paterson called Paterson, to a recitation of perhaps the most famous words ever to come from a Patersonian, Lou Costello’s “who’s on first.” Starts Fri., Jan. 20. AMC Loews Waterfront (AH)
the inspired-by treatment in this ensemble dramedy. It’s 1979, and in Santa Barbara, Calif., single mom Dorothea (Annette Bening) presides over a large Victorian boarding house; like most of its inhabitants, the house has good bones, but without some TLC is in danger of falling apart. There’s her teenage son, Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann); resident handyman William (Billy Crudup); punkish photographer Abbie (Greta Gerwig); and Jamie’s buddy, Julie (Elle Fanning), who sleeps over a lot. Sensing she is losing touch with her son, Dorothea recruits Abbie and Julie to help forge new connections. (Spoiler alert: Everybody here needs new and improved connections.) That’s the set-up for a shaggy tale about family (actual and created), growing up, friendship, love, claiming the right to be angry/sad/happy/bored, and the million messy ways people support each other. In the lazier, hazier days before tech, there’s simply a lot of hanging out. Fortunately, these are people you’d want to chill with, especially Bening’s Dorothea, who is imperfectly marvelous. It’s a warm, wise and funny movie that is heartwarming without being sappy. Starts Fri., Jan. 20. Manor (AH)
SAILOR MOON R: THE MOVIE. In a re-release, fans of the Japanese schoolgirl manga can check out a remastered version of the original 1993 film, directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara. (A 2000 version of the film released in the U.S. was titled Sailor Moon R: The Movie: The Promise of the Rose.) Dubbed, unless noted. 7 p.m. Sat., Jan. 21; 4:30 p.m. Sun., Jan. 22; 7 p.m. Tue., Jan. 24; and 9:30 p.m. Wed., Jan. 25 (subtitled version). Hollywood SPLIT. Three girls are kidnapped by a man with multiple personalities, some of whom might help them escape. James McAvoy stars in this thriller written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Starts Fri., Jan. 20 20TH CENTURY WOMEN. Five years ago, Mike Mills made Beginners, a film loosely based on his dad’s late-in-life decision to come out as gay. Now the women in his life, particularly his mother, get
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 01.18/01.25.2017
XXX: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE. You thought this bad-ass agent was dead, but he’s back to take down yet another global conspiracy. Vin Diesel and Donnie Yen star in this actioner; D.J. Caruso directs. Starts Fri., Jan. 20
REPERTORY KEEP ON KEEPIN’ ON. Alan Hicks’ 2014 documentary profiles the friendship of music legend Clark Terry, who, at age 89, takes on a student, Justin Kauflin, a
OCEAN WAVES. A young man recalls his high school days and, in particular, one girl, a transfer student from the big city. This is a new digital restoration of Tomomi Mochizuki’s 1993 anime. Screens in two versions: dubbed and in Japanese, with subtitles. Jan. 20-26. Row House Cinema MERCHANTS OF DOUBT. Robert Kenner’s documentary looks at the rise of corporate disinformation and various PR strategies designed to counter potentially damaging research. To be followed by a discussion. 7 p.m. Fri., Jan. 20. Phipps Conservatory, Schenley Park, Oakland. Free with regular admission. phipps.conservatory.org FREEDOM TO MARRY. Eddie Rosenstein’s recent documentary charts the decades-long fight to win marriage rights for gay couples, culminating in the recent landmark Supreme Court decision that guaranteed same-sex marriage. It illuminates the hard work of keep-it-steady lawyers who help craft and deliver the winning argument, as well as stories of gay couples whose fates depend on this decision. 7 p.m. Fri., Jan. 20. Alphabet City, 40 W. North Ave., North Side. Free; RSVP at www.alphabetcity.org. HARD DAY’S NIGHT. Those boots, those suits! The Beatles romp and smirk and sing their way through Richard Lester’s exuberant 1964 film. The slimmest of backstage plots simply provides a hook from which to dangle sight gags, visual riffs, four adorable leads and a dozen hit songs. Lester and his offbeat style catch Beatlemania lightning in a bottle: In this first heat of their incredible media celebrity, the lads — and indeed the whole generation they’ll come to represent — just sparkle with youth, enthusiasm and plenty of infectious, mildly anarchic fun. 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Sun., Jan. 22. Hollywood (AH)
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RESIDENT EVIL. Milla Jovovich stars in Paul W.S. Anderson’s 2002 sci-fi actioner about a crew that fights a bunch of folks turned into monsters by a virus. 7:30 p.m. Jan. 25. AMC Loews Waterfront. $5