Robocop — all to the wild embrace of the neighborhood, who start to pitch in with the productions. Michel Gondry’s 2008 comedy is a cheerful thumb in the eye of all those mega-budget, perfectly rendered but soulless films that clog up the multiplexes. 5:20 p.m. Thu., March 23. Row House Cinema (Al Hoff)
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NEW CHIPS. The 1970s TV show about California Highway Patrol motorcycle cops gets a comedic big-screen re-do, with all the boner jokes and gay panic that was missing from the original. Starring Michael Pena and Dax Shepherd, who also directs. Starts Fri., March 24
IMMORTAL BELOVED. Bernard Rose directs this 1994 biographical drama about German composer Ludwig van Beethoven and the women he loved. Gary Oldman and Isabella Rossellini star. 7 p.m. Thu., March 23. Melwood
THE LAST WORD. Shirley MacLaine and Amanda Seyfried star in this dramedy about a retired but still controlling businesswoman who teams up with a journalist to pre-write her obituary. Mark Pellington directs. Starts Fri., March 24. AMC Loews Waterfront
HERMITAGE REVEALED. Margy Kinmonth’s 2004 documentary examines the history of Russia’s famed Hermitage art collection, among the world’s largest, on its 250th anniversary. Beautiful art in a beautiful building, once an imperial palace. 7 p.m. Thu., March 23. Tull Family Theater, 418 Walnut St., Sewickley. www.thetullfamilytheater.org
LIFE. In Daniel Espinosa’s sci-fi drama, a group of space travelers discovers a microscopic lifeform on Mars. But transporting it back to Earth proves to be a bad idea. Rebecca Ferguson, Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds star. Starts Fri., March 24
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MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI. In this animated family comedy from last year (now receiving its Pittsburgh premiere), a young orphaned boy named Courgette is sent to a foster home where he meets new friends and learns new things. Claude Barras directs this film, which was a nominee for Best Foreign Film at the 2017 Oscars. Starts Fri., March 24. Row House Cinema POWER RANGERS. Dean Israelite directs this actioner (based on the 1990s TV-show franchise) about a group of teenagers who, after being jolted with super powers, turn their skills toward saving the world. Starts Fri., March 24 THE SENSE OF AN ENDING. Ritesh Batra directs this adaptation of the Julian Barnes novel in which Tony (Jim Broadbent) is enjoying a comfortable retirement. He’s a bit of a curmudgeon, but perhaps he’s earned it. Then he receives notice that he has inherited a diary, from the estate of the mother of his college love. This prompts him to recount those long-ago days to his ex-wife (Harriet Walter), even as he deals with his impending grandfatherhood. Needless to say, it’s often dangerous to look back, particularly with additional sources of information, as Tony also re-establishes contact with his former girlfriend (Charlotte Rampling). It turns out that things weren’t as he assumed, and now Tony must confront how his role in the collective history of friends and lovers wasn’t as blameless as he long assumed. Batra’s film shifts between the past and the present, as both Tony and viewers sort out what happened. Sense is a certain sort of familiar British drama, in which urbane selfabsorbed older sorts ponder over earlier significant days at tony universities and weekends at country houses; the melodrama is low-key, and evasion is a natural component of any conversation. That said, this is a prime example of such works, well produced and finely acted. (Al Hoff)
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WILSON. Wilson (Woody Harrelson) is a grumpy middle-aged guy stuck in a decades-old rut. He lives alone in a messy apartment, and bemoans the failing state of civilization. He is annoyed that people aren’t as social as they should be, but he’s about the most alienating conversationalist on the block; he has no filter and his honest appraisals are socially horrifying. Then he discovers that his ex-wife, Pippi (Laura Dern), has moved back to town, and even more remarkably, the pair learn of their baby, given up for adoption years ago, who is now a
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FANTASTIC MR. FOX. Wes Anderson’s 2009 adaptation of Roald Dahl’s story fondly recalls the herkyjerky stop-motion puppet animation of decades ago. Its hero is the titular Mr. Fox, a charmingly scruffy vulpine (voiced by George Clooney), who leads a robbery of a nearby farm. This is primarily a caper film, complete with snappy dialogue, a ragtag crew of field creatures and a worthy adversary — the meanest of the farmers. (It’s a rompish movie aimed more at adults than kids, though most younger viewers should find it fun.) Fans of Anderson’s dysfunctional-family dramedies should be satisfied with familiar characterizations. Fox is a typical Anderson patriarch — magnetic, persuasive, his easy glibness intentionally distancing. Add Bill Murray as the voice of a badger, a few artificially gorgeous sunsets and a handful of quirky pop tunes, and it’s a bona fide Wes Anderson joint by way of glassyeyed, stuffed animals. Conversely, those who despise Anderson’s detached, self-conscious style and winkwink coolness might want to give this foxhole a miss. March 24-28. Row House Cinema (AH) MARY AND MAX. This 2009 Claymation feature from Adam Elliott depicts the 20-year pen-pal friendship between two unlikely, but equally lonely and marginalized, souls: an 8-year-old girl in Australia (voiced by Toni Collette) and a 44-year-old Jewish man in New York City with Asperger’s syndrome (voiced by Philip Seymour Hoffman). The story is heartfelt, but not mushy; it’s unafraid to be dark, albeit with a wry touch. The film also has a keen eye for the details of ordinary life, and should delight fans of broodier, more thoughtful animated stories. March 24-27 and March 29-30. Row House Cinema (AH)
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My Life as a Zucchini
The Sense of an Ending
local teenager. It all has the effect of re-invigorating Wilson, and perhaps finally propelling him to pull his head out of his own ass and behave better toward those around him. OK, maybe, but not before he takes some ill-advised paths to self-discovery. Craig Johnson’s dark comedy is adapted from Daniel Clowes’ graphic novel, and it keeps some of the author’s deadpan tone. (Johnson helmed 2014’s The Skeleton Twins, and Wilson has a similar vibe.) But Harrelson and Dern, even when portraying total screw-ups, are such winning actors they bring a fair amount of effervescence to the work. As do a number of other notable actors, such as Margo Martindale and Cheryl Hines, who turn up in small roles and cameos. Starts Fri., March 24. Regent Square (AH)
Pennsylvania minor-league hockey team. The Charlestown Chiefs have got a cranky, profane coach (Paul Newman) and an on-ice assault known as the Hanson brothers. Set amid the gloomy winter of mid-1970s economic malaise, this film should resonate with today’s depressed audiences, yet still provide some much-needed belly laughs. 7:30 p.m. Wed., March 22. AMC Loews Waterfront. $5 (AH)
REPERTORY THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP. In Michel Gondry’s quirky 2006 dramedy, Gael Garcia Bernal plays Stéphane, a young man who has a hard time distinguishing fantasy from reality. It won’t take you long to figure out this peripatetic movie: Life sucks, so sometimes the only way to survive is to invent a world of your own. Science is best when Gondry slows down for those moments of intimacy that let us glimpse, in some realistic proportion, Stéphane’s suffering at this transitional moment in his life. In English, and French and Spanish, with subtitles. 5 p.m. Wed., March 22. Row House Cinema (Harry Kloman) Greatest movie ever about hockey. CP SLAPSHOT. George Roy Hill’s rough-and-tumble 1977 comedy follows the travails of a struggling Western
PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 03.22/03.29.2017
MOOD INDIGO. Michel Gondry’s 2013 film is a quirky, whimsical romantic comedy, in which the story, however sweet, feels secondary to the endlessly unfolding visual tricks and fantastical sets. Viewers aren’t obligated to ferret out deeper themes beyond the love story; however oddball, it’s still the standard disbursement of joy, comfort, upheaval and pain. In French, with subtitles. 7:30 p.m. Wed., March 22, and 9:45 p.m. Thu., March 23. Row House Cinema (AH) ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND. This 2004 Michel Gondry movie is mildly entertaining until you catch on to its looping double helix of a plot, at which point it becomes somewhat trite and dull despite its deft playing. When a relationship ends, the couple partakes of a process that wipes your mind of memories that you want to forget. One procedure doesn’t go as well. 9:30 p.m. Wed., March 22, and 7:30 p.m. Thu., March 23. Row House Cinema (Harry Kloman) BE KIND REWIND. After a store’s videotapes are erased, two buddies (Jack Black and Mos Def) take to making their own “sweded” versions of popular rentals such as Ghostbusters and
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THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Tim Burton directs this 1993 stop-animation neo-classic comedy about the king of Halloweentown who tries to get the skeletons, goblins and other spooky folk in town to embrace the Christmas holiday. Things go … oddly. March 24-26 and March 28-30. Row House Cinema HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS. It’s back to Hogwarts for Harry and his magical compatriots, despite a warning that terrible things are going to happen. Chris Columbus directs this 2002 film, starring Daniel Radcliffe. 11 a.m. Sat., March 25. Tull Family Theater, 418 Walnut St., Sewickley. www.thetullfamilytheater.org FLASHDANCE. In this heartfelt 1983 drama from Adrian Lyne, plucky Pittsburgh welder and performance artiste Alex (Jennifer Beals) won’t let any of life’s roadblocks keep her from her dream of dancing for the ballet. Or, in this howlingly funny camp classic, a disco-driven gal gyrates her wet-T-shirted way out of South Side titty bars and changes classical ballet forever with her bump-and-grind routine. What a feeling! 7:30 p.m. Wed., March 29. AMC Loews Waterfront. $5