UGETSU. Set during the Japanese civil wars of the 16th century, Kenji Mizoguchi’s 1953 drama follows the story of two men hoping to get rich selling pottery, and the impact this plan has on their families. In Japanese, with subtitles. Nov. 24-28 and Nov. 30. Row House Cinema
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THE SOUND OF MUSIC. These hills are alive … with the sound of music. Julie Andrews stars in Robert Wise’s 1965 musical dramedy about the singing Von Trapp family. 10:30 a.m. Fri., Nov. 24 (sing-along version), and 10:30 a.m. Sat., Nov. 25. Tull Family Theater, Sewickley
COCO. We are in a period of reckoning like never before for Hollywood and its audience. Every day, there are new allegations of various degrees of heinousness against previously revered celebrities. Fortunately, this latest Disney-Pixar animated creation, directed by Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina, is the perfect antidote. Miguel (voice of Anthony Gonzalez), a young Mexican boy in a large family of shoemakers, dreams of being a musician like his hero (and Mexico’s most beloved singer), Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt). The only problem is that his family has completely banned music, going so far as to smash his guitar to smithereens. A little magic on Dia de los Muertos, and Miguel is transported to the land of the dead. There he meets his ancestors, along with de la Cruz, a man whose eccentric ego even spills into his afterlife stadium shows. But as Miguel soon learns, his idol is flawed in ways that cannot be forgiven. As befitting the genre, there are impressive musical numbers and digitally created colors so vibrant they make the real world look goth. Plus, Miguel has a floppy-dog sidekick. Coco is a heartwarming story, about not only the importance of family and following your dreams, but also whether a person’s mistakes are redeemable. In 3-D, in select theaters (Hannah Lynn)
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LAST FLAG FLYING. Since there have been wars, there have been old soldiers, gathering years later to kick around their shared glory days of combat as only they can. It’s a popular trope for narrative works, easily providing drama, pathos, nostalgia, comedy and, often, an historical critique. Richard Linklater’s new film inhabits this niche and takes stock of two wars: the ongoing Iraq war (the story is set in 2003) and the Vietnam war. (The film is offered as sort of a sequel/ re-work of Hal Ashby’s The Last Detail, from 1973.) Sal (Bryan Cranston) runs a bar in Norfolk, Va., and his old Vietnam buddy Doc (Steve Carell) surprises him there one night. They drive to Richmond, where they collect Mueller (Laurence Fishburne), the third musketeer and now a minister. But the reunion has a somber purpose: Doc’s son has been killed in Iraq, and he’d like his two old war pals to help with the burial. So, they set off for Delaware, and then on up the East Coast to Doc’s home in Portsmouth, N.H. (Some parts of the film were shot in Pittsburgh — you’ll recognize Bloomfield and the Amtrak station.) What unfolds is a buddy road movie, doled out in set pieces (Dover Air Force base, a night in New York City, a train ride). It mixes bawdy humor with gut-wrenching grief, guilt with shamelessness, and sentimentality with cynicism. The guys skirt the past, pondering their war, this war, all wars, as well as what it means to be a good soldier, hero or patriot. At times, this jumble works well; in other places, the seams show, or the emotional moments fail to land. There’s pleasure in watching these performers, even if they sometimes seem to be acting in different movies; Cranston is playing to the balcony, with non-stop motor-mouthing and broad gestures, while Fishburne does his patented quiet gravitas. Carell has wandered in from an indie film about some inscrutable fellow who barely talks, but this may be a choice designed to represent Doc’s trauma. (Fact: The military contains all sorts.) There are oblique references to things that went wrong for the trio in Vietnam — Doc spent time in the brig, and Mueller refers to it as “a dark period in my life.” It’s never explained, and, one guesses, is still unresolved. There is closure
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CLASS OF NUKE ’EM HIGH. In this Troma classic from 1986, some teens go weird after buying drugs from a worker at the nearby nuclear-power plant. Richard W. Haines directs. Midnight, Sat., Nov. 25. Row House Cinema HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE. Acclaimed Japanese anime director Hayao Miyazaki’s 2004 film is a magical mystery trip worth taking — and it’s back for two nights on the big screen. Featuring the vocal talents of Emily Mortimer, Lauren Bacall, Christian Bale, Jean Simons and Billy Crystal, the film tells of a young girl, Sophie, who is transformed into a 90-year-old woman and subsequently rescued by a rebellious wizard named Howl. Sophie must make her way through treachery, warfare and a deeply unpredictable cast of characters in order to restore herself and others to their rightful identities. Howl doesn’t have the sheer other-world weirdness of Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, yet with its nonlinear narrative jumps, odd creatures, complicated storyline and dazzling animation, it is always captivating and rewarding. Miyazaki’s two-dimensional images pulse, enchanting and intriguing us with unlikely physicality and their vivid inner lives, so we are willingly spirited away to into his dreamscape. 12:55 p.m. Sun., Nov. 26, and 7 p.m. Mon., Nov. 27. Cinemark North Hills, Pittsburgh Mills and Monroeville Mall (AH)
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Au Hasard Balthazar
Coco
Last Flag Flying
here, but it’s from moving forward, with one’s baggage packed neatly, rather than backward. (Al Hoff)
various humans, and his demise; his story is woven with that of humans. Bresson’s films are often called “austere,” and superficially that’s true of Balthazar: It’s shot crisply in black-and-white, with actors who underplay almost as much as does the lead donkey, music limited to a beautiful Schubert piano sonata, and a story pared to a series of vivid, telling yet elliptical (and occasionally baffling) episodes. But while Bresson’s view of human (and animal) suffering is unsentimental, it’s hardly detached: His thematic concerns are grace and predestination, responsibility and culpability, all with a mere donkey as mute, bridled, innocent witness. Balthazar is gorgeous cinema, a brilliantly shot and edited dance of images and sounds. It reveals a narrative filmmaker working at the highest levels of the art — with light, with motion, beyond words. In French, with subtitles. Nov. 24-26, Nov. 28 and Nov. 30. Row House Cinema (Bill O’Driscoll)
THE MAN WHO INVENTED CHRISTMAS. Dan Stevens and Christopher Plummer star in this tale of how author Charles Dickens was inspired to create the memorable characters for his now-classic novella, A Christmas Carol. Bharat Nalluri directs. PORTO. Gab Klinger’s drama follows a man and a woman who share a brief connection in the Portuguese city of Porto, and later, through memories, examine the encounter for more meaning. Anton Yelchin and Lucie Lucas star. Starts Thu., Nov. 30. Melwood ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ. Denzel Washington stars in this drama about a Los Angeles defense attorney who finds himself scrambling after the death of his boss and mentor, a civil-rights giant. Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) directs.
REPERTORY AU HASARD BALTHAZAR. Robert Bresson’s 1966 masterpiece is about a donkey. Of course, it’s not just about a donkey, nor is Balthazar just a donkey. The film follows Balthazar from his infancy through his acquisition by a family, his fated life of servitude and abuse — as well as a little love — from
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 11.22/11.29.2017
STALKER. In Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 sci-fi drama set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, two men and a guide search for a mysterious “room.” In Russian, with subtitles. Nov. 24-30. Row House Cinema COLOSSAL YOUTH. Pedro Costa’s 2006 drama follows an elderly Cape Verde immigrant as he wanders from place to place, after the Portuguese government destroys his slum home and relocates him to a housing project outside Lisbon. In Portuguese and Kabuverdianu, with subtitles. Nov. 24-30. Row House Cinema
CANALETTO AND THE ART OF VENICE. Giovanni Antonio Canal, known as Canaletto, is famous for his 18th-century artworks depicting Venice, including such well-known sites as the Rialto Bridge and the Piazza San Marco. This latest installment of Exhibition on Screen takes viewers on a documentary journey through Canaletto’s work and the city that inspired him. 2 p.m. Sat., Nov. 25, and 4:30 p.m. Sun., Nov. 26. Hollywood THE BEST OF 2017 EUROPEAN MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL. Randall Halle, director of University of Pittsburgh Film Studies Program, presents three films from this year’s forum of international media art, which showcase experimental films, performances, digital media and hybrid forms. Scheduled are: “Conversation With a Cactus,” from the Franco-German artist/filmmaker duo Elise Florenty and Marcel Türkowsky, and set in a Tokyo suburb; Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s “Rubber Coated Steel,” which employs many art forms (from photography to Islamic sermons) to explore the shooting of two teenagers in the occupied West Bank; and “Das Gestell,” Berlin-based Philip Widmann’s work examining how humans and the natural order co-exist. The films will be followed by a discussion. 6:30 p.m. Tue., Nov. 28. Melwood STRANGE BREW. Inasmuch as there is a sporadically funny movie about beer based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, this 1983 comedy from Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas would be it. The slacker brothers of SCTV’s “The Great White North” discover nefarious activities at the Elsinore Brewery, where the evil Max von Sydow is chewing scenery, mind-controlling hockey players and plotting to take over the world. It all mostly works because the film never takes itself too seriously: A prologue and epilogue both warn the viewer that the film isn’t worth the price of admission. 7:30 p.m. Wed., Nov. 29. AMC Loews Waterfront. $5 (AH)