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OPENING THIS WEEK
Neil Hamburger is a sad, sad monster in Entertainment!
Laurie Anderson's experimental Heart of a Dog has Lou Reed and a piano-playing terrier.
Chi-Raq
Spike Lee's newest mantra? "No peace, no piece." In this satire based on Aristophanes' play Lysistrata, the women of Chicago are sick of their city's violent unrest, so they decide to withhold sex until the fighting stops. Spike Lee's first feature since his dive into Kickstarter with last year's Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, Chi-Raq stars Teyonah Parris, Samuel L. Jackson, and Wesley Snipes. Screened too late for review. See wweek.com for Lauren Terry's review. R. Cinema 21.
Japanese Currents
Backed by Portland sister city Sapporo and the Japanese Consulate, the NW Film Center's annual showcase of Japanese features and shorts includes a wide range, from a road-trip romance starring a former pop idol from the group AKB48 (7 pm Friday, Dec. 4) to a compilation of shorts including an office lady and a prostitute on the mafia's payroll (2 pm Saturday, Dec. 5). Plus, the much-loved samurai cat is back (4:30 pm Saturday, Dec. 5). Japanese Currents runs through Dec. 13. See nwfilm.org for the full schedule. NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium.
STILL SHOWING
Ant-Man
B+ If it were a comic book, it wouldn't be the kind you put in a Mylar bag. It'd be one that you read with greasy fingers and childlike relish. PG-13. AP KRYZA. Vancouver, Valley.
Black Mass
A- Much like the city's other exports, Boston's gangster flicks vary in quality from genre-shattering genius (The Departed, most '90s bands, the people who invented America) to mind-numbing pantomimes of misogyny (The Boondock Saints, Boston sports fans, Mark Wahlberg). Scott Cooper's Black Mass is the latest cinematic try. It tells the story of Boston's most notorious criminal, James "Whitey" Bulger (Johnny Depp) and the deal he made with the FBI's John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) that ensured he could do whatever he wanted for decades. R. JAMES HELMSWORTH. Academy, Laurelhurst.
Bridge of Spies
B- Steven Spielberg was born to convey viewers through weird and wonderful alternate realities. Even though history is nearly as illusory as a dinosaur theme park, the director's gift just doesn't shine as brightly when he contends with humanity's past. Bridge of Spies, starring Tom Hanks as an insurance lawyer recruited by the U.S. government to negotiate a spy-for-spy trade with the Soviet Union, benefits from a caustic screenplay by the Coen brothers. While Spielberg is pretty good even when he's on auto-pilot, there is little here that doesn't feel perfunctory. PG-13. CHRIS STAMM. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Hollywood, Living Room Theaters, Bridgeport, Movies on TV, Tigard.
A Brilliant Young Mind
C+ The formula for genius moviemaking is "underdog – loving parent + conflicted mentor = successful public performance." Exhibit A: Step Up. The math in A Brilliant Young Mind may be more cerebral, but the movie isn't. Autistic genius Nathan (Asa Butterfield) struggles with expressing emotions. After losing his father, Nathan pairs up with his pot-smoking tutor, Mr. Humphreys (Rafe Spall), who's experiencing setbacks of his own—especially sexual—from living with multiple sclerosis. Witnessing Nathan's "special powers," as his dad called them, may give the film its spectacle, but its soul is in the relationships Nathan struggles to build. When Mind drops the whiz act and focuses on Nathan's fear of holding his mother's hand—that's when the figures check. AMY WOLFE. Living Room Theaters.
Brooklyn
A- Based on the novel by Irish author Colm Tóibín and adapted by Nick Hornby (High Fidelty, About a Boy), Brooklyn is just the sweetest thing. Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) makes an adorable couple with Emory Cohen (Smash), and Portlanders will especially love the more subtle message: Untold wonders await you if you leave your shitty small town and move to New York's coolest borough. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, CineMagic, Cinema 21, Bridgeport, Movies on TV, St. Johns Cinemas.
By the Sea
D The latest film from the pen and camera of Angelina Jolie-Pitt is a painfully slow drama about the dark subtleties of married life, but it's also a two-hour reminder that watching beautiful people be beautifully bored in beautiful southern France does not equal a real story. Set in the 1970s, Roland (Brad Pitt) is a writer who has run out of words, and his glamorous wife, Vanessa (Jolie), is a pill-popping parade of chiffon nightgowns and silent tears that rarely affect her makeup. Their dysfunctional relationship becomes slightly more interesting when they make a habit of peeping on the neighboring honeymooners through a hole in the wall, but that minor plot progression is eclipsed by the numerous scenes of Vanessa's trembling hands attempting to steady her cigarette. Jolie ultimately fails to create tension, relying on the breathtaking cinematography of Christian Berger to legitimize this artistic presentation of upper-class woes. R. LAUREN TERRY. Clackamas, Fox Tower.
Creed
A- Rocky is almost entirely a good movie. Most of the sequels are mostly good, while some of them are almost not bad. Creed—the seventh movie in the Rocky franchise—is more like the original Rocky than its sequels because it's mostly good, but also because it's almost entirely the same movie as Rocky. It feels more like an apology for the mediocre Rocky movies we've endured, more like a series reboot than a sequel, featuring a stronger young actor in Michael B. Jordan. And it does all this while still paying respect to its predecessors, even the bad ones. Sylvester Stallone's aging Rocky holds his own, returning the character to his charming, steak-faced mumblecore roots that went missing for a couple of decades. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
Crimson Peak
B+ There are all manner of ghosts in this gorgeous, tragic tale, but to call it a horror film is to completely mislabel Guillermo del Toro's meticulously crafted, old-fashioned tale of twisted souls and timeless longing. R. AP KRYZA. Eastport.
Everest
B+ In 1996, a stranded group of climbers, including New Zealand mountaineer Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) and writer Jon Krakauer (Michael Kelly), met a massive storm at the top of the world. Today's CGI and 3-D technology puts the viewer on the mountain in a visceral way. PG-13. LAUREN TERRY. Academy, Empirical, Laurelhurst, Mt. Hood, Vancouver, Valley.
The Good Dinosaur
B- Set among the breathtaking landscapes of the American frontier, The Good Dinosaur is a Little House on the Prairie-esque rendering of pioneer life, except, of course, all the characters are talking dinosaurs living in an alternate reality where a certain fateful asteroid never made impact. It's a movie we've all seen before, particularly from Disney, though its predictability doesn't hamper its charm. The runt among his siblings, Arlo is a young apatosaurus fearful of everything. When his father tries to teach him a lesson in bravery, things go foreseeably tragic in a scene ripped straight from The Lion King. Arlo finds himself far from home and all alone when he befriends a young Neanderthal boy named Spot who becomes both his pet and protector. Hijinks ensue, life lessons are learned, and a gonzo acid trip is thrown in for laughs (of which there are many). The reason to see this movie whether or not you have kids in tow (and to spring the extra cash for 3-D) is the truly stunning visuals, with landscapes so realistically rendered by Pixar's wizard technology that you could just as easily be watching a Planet Earth documentary, with dinosaurs. PG. PENELOPE BASS. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Cornelius, Edgefield, Lake Theater, Milwaukie, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Roseway, Sandy, St. Johns Theater.
Goosebumps
A- It's easy to be skeptical about a 2015 Goosebumps film in 3-D. Jack Black plays R.L. Stine, who joins forces with a couple of cute kids to fight every monster he's ever written about and save the town. PG. ALEX FALCONE. Academy, Avalon, Forest Theatre, Kennedy School, Laurelhurst, Division, Movies on TV.
Grandma
C+ Like a feminist companion piece to last year's Bill Murray feature St. Vincent, Paul Weitz's Grandma tells the tale of Elle (Lily Tomlin), who takes her neglected granddaughter (Julia Garner) under her wing when the teenager comes asking for money for an abortion. R. AP KRYZA. Academy, Laurelhurst.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2
B Mockingjay Part 2, the conclusion of the Hunger Games series, looks spectacular. The burned-out shells of future megacity the Capitol set a perfect mood, the costumes are inventive and cool, and the acting is almost too good since it results in many great actors having only a couple lines. And yet all that solid artistic work almost, but not entirely, distracts from the fact that MJP2 is a supremely goofy movie. Set during the conclusion of the revolution started in Catching Fire, Katniss Everdeen leads a group of rebels against the Capitol, which has been booby-trapped with hot oil, lasers and an army of lizard people. It's…silly. If you're on the fence about seeing Mockingjay 2, you'll just need to decide if you like great acting more than you hate lizard people. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Bagdad, Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Cornelius, Milwaukie, Moreland, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy, St. Johns Cinemas.
Inside Out
A- Pretty much everybody in the theater will sob. PG. ALEX FALCONE. Academy, Avalon, Empirical, Laurelhurst, Vancouver, Valley.
The Intern
B+ Nancy Meyers' latest film successfully tells a funny, intergenerational story without relying on health scare or a youthful makeover for Ben (Robert De Niro), an active widower and retiree in need of something to keep himself busy. PG-13. LAUREN TERRY. Lake Theater, Living Room Theaters.
The Last Witch Hunter
D- The Last Witch Hunter attempts a lot of twists and turns, and it all ends up rating lower than Vin Diesel's voice. PG-13. AMY WOLFE. Movies on TV.
Legend
B- They used to say a cup of tea could fix anything in England back in the 1960s, which is when racketeering brothers Ronnie and Reggie Kray (both played by Tom Hardy, who is hard not to enjoy) started ruling London's criminal underworld. Unfortunately, Earl Grey can't fix the scattered scenes and haphazard plot of the new feature written and directed by Academy Award-winner Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, A Knight's Tale). Hardy is its saving grace, valiantly dual acting in the roles of the very different twin brothers. He's perfectly conflicted as Ronnie and charming as Reggie. Helgeland might be known for building suspense, sure, but the two-hour wait for something climactic turns this movie into a ramble of thick East End accents and too many unrealized plotlines. We get Reggie's wife, Frances (Emily Browning), pushing him to drop the gangster act, the drama of Ronnie Kray being gay, the twins fighting to rule the London underworld while struggling to run multiple booze-filled nightclubs—it all offers some vibrant action, like when Reggie stabs a gangster repeatedly with a butter knife. But it's mainly loose ends the movie tries to tie up with some good old gangster violence. Sorry, Hardy. R. AMY WOLFE. Fox Tower.
The Martian
B- Take the buzz surrounding The Martian with a boulder of salt. It's just a pretty good sci-fi yarn based on Andy Weir's book that stumbles on its own ambition. When a massive storm hits the Martian exploration project and Watney's team leaves him for dead, the skilled botanist realizes that the only way to escape starvation and space madness is to "science the shit" out of his situation. As always, Scott's direction is spot-on. PG-13. AP KRYZA. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Cornelius, Forest Theatre, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood
Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation
A The newest installment in the Tom Cruise-led series is top-of-class for the genre. Sure, James Bond had his Walther P99 pistol-equipped surfboard, but Rogue Nation uses cool spy gadgets to perfection, like the sniper rifle built into a bassoon for all your opera-hall assassination needs. And Tom's aging actually plays well in the movie without becoming a huge deal. The only thing missing is the mushy, romancy stuff. But that's another appeal of the franchise. It's not sappy. It's a tight action movie focused on talented people working together for the good (or harm? You have no idea!) of the world. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Vancouver.
Pan
Director Joe Wright (Atonement, Hanna) remakes the iconic children's story as a modern-day action flick with Hugh Jackman and Rooney Mara. Screened after deadline. PG. Academy, Avalon, Kennedy School, Mt. Hood, Vancouver, Valley.
Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict
A In the tradition of Grey Gardens, filmmaker and fashion addict Lisa Immordino Vreeland throws viewers into the closeted, batshit world of the woman who imagined London's first modern art museum, slept with Samuel Beckett, commissioned Jackson Pollock's largest-ever work for her front entry, and once had an original Dalí delivered to her in bed. A black sheep of the world's most famous family of curators, Peggy Guggenheim was an oddball—she shaved her eyebrows at school just for the hell of it, chats nonchalantly in interviews about her dozens of abortions and was so notoriously cheap that she served shitty wine and old pasta to Picasso at her art parties. But the film captures her insanity with sympathy (and a bigger budget than most arthouse biopics). Even the most casual art users could easily be hooked by the story of this enfant terrible. NR. ENID SPITZ. Living Room Theaters.
The Peanuts Movie
A bald child named Charlie battles questionable fashion choices, impossible odds and burgeoning hormones. G. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville.
Room
B+ In this riveting adaptation of Emma Donoghue's novel, an abducted woman must raise her son in a confined space, To maintain a stimulating setting, Ma (Brie Larson) creates a social environment with anthropomorphized characters named Bed and Lamp. R. LAUREN TERRY. Fox Tower.
Rosenwald
B- Director Aviva Kempner dives right into the humanitarian work of Julius Rosenwald, who became known for creating Rosenwald schools. You can't help wishing this documentary was in Drunk History format for its East Coast accents and lively, detailed storytellers. It's jam-packed with all the philanthropy that the Jewish entrepreneur did for the African-American race he felt so much in common with. NR. AMY WOLFE. Cinema 21.
Secret in Their Eyes
C Ray (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is an earnest FBI investigator determined to convict the man who murdered the daughter of his colleague Jess (Julia Roberts). After initially failing to arrest the killer, Ray has spent the past 13 years poring through hundreds of mug shots in hopes of building a case, and he may have just found the killer. PG-13. LAUREN TERRY. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
Shaun the Sheep Movie
A- In a vibrant return to traditional clay animation, Shaun the Sheep Movie tells a fresh story with the familiar painstaking imagery that makes Aardman Studios the "English Pixar." Steeped in the tongue-in-cheek charm of the original Wallace & Gromit, parents will find as much in store for them as their children. PG. LAUREN TERRY. Laurelhurst.
Sicario
A Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada) is a talented FBI agent specially recruited into a task force fighting a brutal war against Mexican drug cartels. She spends the whole movie confused and on edge while taking orders from the mysterious Benicio Del Toro (Snatch), who manages to act without ever fully opening his eyes or mouth. As the real mission of the task force slowly takes shape, so do beautiful sweeping helicopter shots of the border zone and heartbreaking vignettes of all the people affected by drug war. R. ALEX FALCONE. Academy, Hollywood, Laurelhurst, Fox Tower.
Spectre
C+ How do you like your James Bond? Brooding and brutal, or breezily throwing out quips? Should he drink craft cocktails or Heineken? Spectre—the 26th Bond film—has it all, and more. The one thing it doesn't have is the ability to leave a lasting impression. We walk out of the theater neither shaken nor stirred. Following the impressive Skyfall, director Sam Mendes returns to the director's chair. Buildings crumble, helicopters do barrel rolls, and Daniel Craig nonchalantly causes millions in property damage. But from the minute Sam Smith's grating theme music starts, the movie slides downhill. Most disappointing is Christoph Waltz—so perfect in Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained—who just sneers, cackles and hunches. Sure, there's fun to be had—Bond drives a tricked-out ride through Rome's narrow streets and engages in an Alpine plane chase before the anticlimactic conclusion (extremely uncommon for the series) lands with a dull thud. Considering everybody who's involved in Spectre, the very last reaction anybody expected was "meh." PG-13. AP KRYZA. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
Spotlight
A- Spotlight inverts the usual comparison: It's a movie that feels like prestige television. Specifically, it feels like The Wire. (Director Tom McCarthy played the fabricating reporter Scott Templeton in season 5 of the HBO series.) An Oscar favorite recounting how a Boston Globe investigative team uncovered an epidemic of pederast priests abetted by the Archdiocese, Spotlight borrows the rhythms of a propulsive TV procedural. It resists the temptation for self-congratulation. Instead, there's a pall of communal guilt (much of it Catholic), an acknowledgement that a Pulitzer Prize won't erase decades of conniving at rape. Spotlight is endurable because the actors, a White Guys in Khakis hall of fame including Liev Schreiber, Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo, decline to grandstand. They convey through small gestures—a twitch, a sigh, a pause in scribbling notes—how each revelation presents both a horror and another puzzle to solve. The highest compliment I can pay Spotlight: I would watch this on TV. R. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Bridgeport, Evergreen, Fox Tower.
Steve Jobs
B This is the more high-profile and undoubtedly better of the two movies, with Danny Boyle at the helm and Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave) in the lead role instead of Ashton Kutcher (Dude, Where's My Car?). Never seeming quite human, Fassbender's Jobs oscillates between enthusiasm for his own ideas and outrage that the world can't keep up with him, in exactly the way that people close to the genius described him. R. ALEX FALCONE. Fox Tower.
Straight Outta Compton
C Telling the greatest story in the history of popular music—full of actual violence and sex and death and betrayal and redemption and brotherhood—wasn't going to be easy. R. MARTIN CIZMAR. Laurelhurst, Vancouver.
Suffragette
A- Working tirelessly in a laundry since the age of 7, Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan) finally puts her iron down and takes up political activism in Suffragette. The history flick hits silver screens this Friday, strategically timed to drill voters with its female-powered manifesto. PG-13. AMY WOLFE. Fox Tower.
Theeb
A- In the desert of the Ottoman Empire circa 1916, the young Theeb lives in a man's world—shooting guns, gambling and watching for enemy attacks. When a British guest comes to his village searching for a local guide and decides on Theeb's brother, the tiny, sad-eyed waif follows their perilous journey. The plot may be unsurprising—the travelers' lives are endangered, and Theeb fearlessly acts with wisdom beyond his years and saves the day—but this Bedouin Western is anything but boring beige, for all its sand-dune scenery. The desert is a stunning backdrop for the cast of unknowns, including Jacir Eid Al-Hwietat as Theeb. And with one look from his bottomless eyes, we believe that greatness can come in all shapes and sizes. NR. Living Room Theaters.
Trainwreck
C Amy Schumer stars as Amy, a version of herself as a magazine writer instead of a comedy writer. R. ALEX FALCONE. Laurelhurst.
Trumbo
C+ Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) is cooking up something other than meth in Trumbo. Cranston delivers a stellar performance as Dalton Trumbo, a rebellious screenwriter who despite being the highest-paid in the business in 1947, can't stay out of trouble. He and nine other artists are blacklisted and jailed for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee while conniving gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) fuels the media fire. With the glowing Diane Lane looking better than ever as Trumbo's wife, Cleo, and John Goodman adding comedy to the role of a questionable film producer, the pronounced cast tries their best through the sometimes vague, sometimes triumphant events that played out in big-screen history. The majority of the movie is spent wanting to like the film, the acting far surpassing the storyline that fails to deliver a memorable message. This may just be all the right ingredients, but a bad batch. R. AMY WOLFE. Clackamas, Hollywood Theatre, Bridgeport, City Center, Fox Tower, Movies on TV.
Victor Frankensein
C- Any time you watch a "reimagining" of a story in the public domain, you do so at your own peril. This retelling of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein answers the question, what if the main character was Igor, but with a straightened back, pretty hair and a girlfriend, and played by Daniel Radcliff? Harry Potter does a herculean job of making Igor interesting, and the steampunk world is fun to look at, but neither of these can overcome the absolutely bonkers plot. There are too many villains and conflicting themes, and the finale takes place over a five-story fire pit, for no apparent reason. It's almost as if (I'm sorry, I can't help it) the movie were a bunch of bad ideas sewn together so it can walk and talk but is never truly alive. Just remember, Frankenstein isn't the monster; 20th Century Fox making another movie about Frankenstein is the monster. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Cornelius, Living Room Theaters, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
The Visit
B- This entry into cheap-shaky horror movies doesn't add much to the genre. The Visit is told from the points of view of an unbelievably precocious 15-year-old who's making a documentary about her first trip to meet her estranged grandparents, and her 12-year-old brother, whose rapping is so bad it makes me want bad things to happen to him much faster than they do. The movie is packed full of jump scares and gross-outs (vomit, poop, old people naked) and a cast of people you've probably never heard of. The film's got some tense scenes, but the humor, even though it's unintentional, makes it hard to stay in the moment. "Little kid, will you climb into the oven please?" We'll give it to M. Night, he does make us feel trapped in an uncomfortable spot. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Vancouver.
Willamette Week