a&e | FILM & TV CONT’D frOM p. 69
(105 mins.; PG)
Movies always ought to be this good, but it’s been such a long drought that this one seems like a miracle. The special effects astound; they are so good you take them for granted. But that’s not the best part. Disney’s newest version of The Jungle Book has a grand narrative sweep that never lets us down. It’s thrilling, sad, scary, funny, and finally intelligent enough to make the simple Promethean quest feel profound. Great celebrity voices such as Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, and Christopher Walken intrude like unexpected delights, camping up the fun. (DJP)
Mother’s Day (118 mins., PG-13) Jennifer Anniston, Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson, Jason Sudeikis, and Timothy Olyphant head up the star-studded cast of this dramedy about three generations of a family who come together for Mother’s Day. Fairview/Paseo Nuevo Papa: Hemingway in Cuba (109 mins., R)
In 1950s Havana, Cuba, a Miami Herald journalist (Giovanni Ribisi) befriends an aging Ernest Hemingway (Adrian Sparks). It is the first Hollywood movie to be filmed in Cuba since the Revolution. Paseo Nuevo
Camino Real (2D)/Fiesta 5 (2D and 3D)
Keanu (98 mins., R) Comedy duo Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele have given up their rich television skit trove for the big screen, and the result is surprisingly okay. The story opens with assassins who have ripped off a drug lord and let loose an incredibly cute kitten that winds up
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Ratchet & Clank (94 mins., PG) In this animated feature, Ratchet and Clank are two unlikely heroes who try to stop an evil alien queen from destroying all of the planets in the galaxy. Fairview (2D)/Fiesta 5 (2D)
O Zootopia
Papa: Hemingway in Cuba
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Camino Real/Fiesta 5
(108 mins.; PG)
A wildly vibrant, joyfully clever romp with a serious heart, this wonderful movie is as marvelous and mature as computer-animated menageries get. The youngest mammals among us will delight in the adorable characters, but elder beasts will see it for its potently politic and inclusive 2016 themes. Disney here is planting seeds in young minds in the hopes of a better tomorrow. This is more than a kids’ movie — this is a statement. (RD)
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A Hologram for the King (97 mins., R) Tom Hanks is back on the big screen in this dramedy based on Dave Eggers’s novel of the same name about a businessman who travels to Saudi Arabia to
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Green Room (94 mins., R) If Alfred Hitchcock made a movie about punk rockers wandering into the Pacific Northwest’s unknown lands where nihilism blurs into militant skinhead racism, this would be it. The plot, which is a lot better than it needs to be, takes us to a chaotic backwoods bar with a surprisingly complicated web of evil underlying the headbanger surface. It’s not a horror film, but there’s a shocking quantity of blood and mayhem. In fact, there’s a surprise around every corner — just when you think sentimentality will out, you get poked. Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, and Patrick Stewart (you know, Captain Picard) star, but the rest of the cast is full-metal commitment. (DJP) Camino Real/Fairview/Metro 4
Residing in the same genre of bloated and heavy-hearted action-fantasy as The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones and borrowing their formulae, this sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman is another attempt at reviving an old Disney story with an updated air of maturity. Eric (Chris Hemsworth) and Freya (Emily Blunt) fight Ravenna (Charlize Theron) amid a swirl of dazzling effects and dour dwarves. The graphics are imaginative but unreal, the soundtrack swollen with undue portent, and the energy evoking wet snow, a coldly dull story of ice queens and wood spirits. At least Hemsworth is hot. (RD)
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The Huntsman: Winter’s War (114 mins., PG-13)
at the home of Peele’s character and becomes his obsession. When another drug gang steals the kitty (named Keanu), our heroes, stereotypical nerds, traverse the dark criminal underbelly to save their cat. Most of the humor results from the juxtaposition of cute and hostile, and the movie has a few funny moments, such as Peele’s character convincing a carload of thugs that George Michael ought to be their jam. (DJP)
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Riviera (Shows Fri.-Tue. only)
propose building a business complex in the middle of the desert. Plaza de Oro
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Francofonia (88 mins.; NR) An ode to the Louvre in Paris, this film tells of the Nazi occupation of the famed museum during WWII and meditates on the meaning of art.
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A Hologram for the King
Paseo Nuevo
RE Z
Eye in the Sky (102 mins.; R) Top military officials — Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) and Lieutenant General Frank Benson (Alan Rickman) — grapple with the ethical and logistical issues surrounding drone warfare. Eye in the Sky offers a taut storyline that touches on the immense power (and accompanying guilt and apprehension) that comes from being able to instigate acts of violence from the comfort of a boardroom. It also boasts one of Rickman’s final performances, in which he shines quietly. (NC)
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The above films are playing in Santa Barbara FRIDAY, May 6, through THURSDAY, MAY 12. Descriptions followed by initials — NC (Natalia Cohen), RD (Richie DeMaria), and DJP (D.J. Palladino) — have been taken from our critics’ reviews, which can be read in full at independent.com. The symbol O indicates the film is recommended.
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may 5, 2016
THE INDEPENDENT
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