Let Us Create Your
a&e | film & TV ConT’d fRom p. 53 An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (99 mins., PG) Eleven years have passed since Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth premiered, sparking a serious global discussion about climate change. This documentary follows Gore through the years as he speaks with world leaders, hoping to persuade them to get on board with saving the planet.
and publicity the event inspired back home in Great Britain, Nolan keeps the lens on those who participated on land, by air, and at sea. The result is a surreal and poignant film that not only tells of Operation Dynamo and the civilian efforts to bring a country’s troops home, but also explores what it means to be defeated and stranded, and how people retain humanity during wartime. (JT)
The Hitchcock (formerly Plaza de Oro) (Opens Thu., Aug. 3)
Camino Real/The Hitchcock (formerly Plaza de Oro)/Paseo Nuevo
Kidnap (94 mins., R) Halle Berry plays a mom who, when her son is kidnapped from a carnival, will do anything to get her boy back.
Girls Trip (122 mins., R) The good times roll in this comedy when four lifelong friends (Tiffany Haddish, Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, and Jada Pinkett Smith) hit the Big Easy for the annual Essence Festival, where wild times and romantic adventures ensue.
Fairview/Fiesta 5 (Opens Thu., Aug. 3)
Lady Macbeth (89 mins., R) This film, which takes place in 1865 England, tells the story of Katherine, a young woman in a loveless marriage to a man twice her age. When her husband and his controlling father both leave the estate to go on business, Katherine begins an affair with a local worker. Things will never be the same again.
Camino Real/Fiesta 5
Paseo Nuevo
Lost in Paris (83 mins., NR) A Canadian librarian, Fiona, visits Paris to see her ailing aunt, only to find her aunt has disappeared. Twists, turns, and mayhem ensue when Fiona meets Dom, a charming tramp who won’t leave her alone. This is the latest film from husband-and-wife writer/director team Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel. Fiesta 5
nOW SHOWing ➤ O Baby Driver
(113 mins., R)
Writer and director Edgar Wright has added Baby Driver to his list of films headed for cult status. It’s not just the confluence of an A-list cast — the likes of Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey, and Jon Hamm — with the fresh faces of Ansel Elgort and Lily James that entrances. Wright has taken music and film to heights never imagined by La La Land and added a terrific riff on the importance of the playlist. Who knew a Subaru could corner like that? (JY) Fairview/Paseo Nuevo
The Big Sick (119 mins., R) This film, based on the true story of writer/actor Kumail Nanjiani’s relationship with his now-wife Emily Gordon (Zoe Kazan), is a romantic comedy about the tensions that arose within their families when Nanjiani, a Pakistani Muslim, and Gordon, a Caucasian American, started dating. Holly Hunter and Ray Romano also star. The Hitchcock (formerly Plaza de Oro)/ Paseo Nuevo
Despicable Me 3 (90 mins., PG) Gru, Lucy, and their adopted girls are back for more fun. This time Steve Carell is doing double duty as Gru and his twin brother Dru, who wants to team up for one last heist — stealing the diamond previously stolen by Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker). Fiesta 5
➤ O Dunkirk
(107 mins., PG-13)
This year has seen the release of not one but two films about the 1940 evacuation at Dunkirk: Lone Scherfig’s Their Finest and now Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk. While Scherfig focuses on the morale
O Spider-Man: Homecoming (133 mins., PG-13)
This film is not another origin story, nor a foray into the darkest of Spider-Man lore, but a coming-of-age tale blending the superhero and school comedy genres. The setup is simple: Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is a hero, but ultimately he’s a kid who’s getting too big for his britches. Adrian Toomes/Vulture (Michael Keaton) is a licensed scavenger disenfranchised by the government and Tony Stark. Inevitably, as these two go down their respective paths, bonded by their relationship to Stark, they clash. It’s here in the conflict that Spider-Man: Homecoming really shines. The film is exactly the revitalization that the SpiderMan cinematic franchise needed. It isn’t wholly unpredictable or impressively moving, but it has all the good marks of a good Marvel movie, and it revamps the Spider-Man lore without throwing out what it means to be New York’s friendly neighborhood hero. There’s one big hole in the movie, though — no mention of spidey sense? Inquiring minds need to know. (JT) Camino Real /Metro 4
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (137 mins., PG-13) In this film based on French comic series Valérian and Laureline, intergalactic space operatives Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are sent on a mission to Alpha to connect with species from across the galaxy. When a dark and mysterious force threatens to disturb the peace, the two must help to protect the City of a Thousand Planets and the entire universe from evil. Arlington (2D and 3D)/Fairview (2D)
War for the Planet of the Apes (140 mins., PG-13)
The running time for War for the Planet of the Apes, the third installment in the
reprise of the monkey movies, clocks in at two hours and 20 minutes. In that time, director Matt Reeves has concocted some genuinely riveting and poetically epic images that will make anyone’s eyeballs pop. But somewhere along the way, Reeves forgot that less is more, and by the time the credits roll, the audience has been pulverized into a state of sodden exhaustion. Not content merely to hit a home run, Reeves strives mightily for the grand slam. Just as mightily, I’m sorry to report, he flails and fails. It’s all too epic, too grandiose, too Wagnerian, too cinemascope, too too too — yet strangely, at the same time, not enough. For all the nostril heaving and hyperventilating that occurs as great apes prepare to wage great war, the film lacks much humanity, or even simian-ity, if such a word exists. Yes, apes also have their dark sides, which is an interesting angle. But do we really need to see Woody Harrelson impersonate Marlon Brando doing Colonel Kurtz from Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now? And we got the joke — ApePocalypse Now — before it shows up as graffiti scrawled on the walls on yet another dismally dystopian tableau of wrack and ruin. Perhaps the problem is the conspicuous lack of female apes in this movie; maybe ape estrogen would have leavened the loaf. Instead, the only female character throughout the whole ordeal is a mute human preteen, whom the good apes kindly opt not to kill just to show they are good. She rides appealingly along — eyes wide in perpetual wonder — on the back of several simian types, but adds very little to balance the film’s pedal-to-the-metal testosterone. For a big fan of the first Planet of the Apes remake, this one disappoints. (NW) Camino Real/Fiesta 5
O Wonder Woman
(141 mins., PG-13)
In the first live-action movie to depict the origin story of Wonder Woman, actress Gal Gadot does not disappoint in her fiery and dynamic portrayal of Princess Diana of the Amazons. Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins, offers a compelling tale of Diana’s evolution from a naïve warrior to a courageous heroine after she feels compelled to leave her island and follow U.S. spy Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) into the outside world, where war rages. With a shield, a sword, and the Lasso of Truth in hand, Diana fights her way through World War I–besieged England and Belgium in hopes of ending the conflict. While Pine’s character has some cringeworthy dialogue and the plot relies on a few common superhero tropes, Gadot’s Diana — at no time is she actually referred to as Wonder Woman — makes for a refreshing and optimistic story in the otherwise grim DC Extended Universe. Diana is never reduced to a damsel in distress, as she is the one to save herself and the other male characters time and time again. But the movie also doesn’t downplay her femininity and ensures that she is admired for her ability to lead with compassion and love in addition to her impressive skills in combat. This makes her an authentic heroine with whom many women can identify. Wonder Woman’s passionate spirit and epic fight scenes make the movie well worth seeing. (SMcG) Metro 4
The above films are playing in Santa Barbara FRIDAY, July 28, through THURSDAY, August 3. Our critics’ reviews are followed by initials — SMcG (Sabrina McGraw), JT (Jordon Thompson), NW (Nick Welsh), and JY (Jean Yamamura). The symbol O indicates the film is recommended. The symbol ➤ indicates a new review. (NOTE: The Riviera Theatre is closed for renovations.)
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