Movies: New and Noteworthy

COMING THIS WEEK

By Steven Rea

Keanu Comedy Central's Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele star in an action comedy about drug dealers, deadly gangs, and an impossibly cute kitty cat gone missing. R

Mother's Day Just in time for the greeting card and floral industries' favorite date, a star-studded ensemble salute to moms everywhere from the director of Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve, Garry "If it's a holiday I can make it into a movie" Marshall. PG-13

Ratchet & Clank Computer-animated sci-fi comedy adventure based on the video-game series about a mechanic and a robot trying to save their galaxy from anihilation. With the voices of Paul Giamatti, John Goodman, Bella Thorne, Rosario Dawson, and Sylvester Stallone. PG

Dough

When his Muslim apprentice's marijuana gets mixed in with the dough, an elderly Jewish baker's products begin flying off the shelves.

Green Room A punk rock band is thrust into a struggle for their lives after witnessing a murder.

Papa: Hemingway in Cuba A young journalist travels to Cuba to meet Ernest Hemingway amid the backdrop of the Cuban Revolution.

Rio, I Love You A series of shorts set in the Brazilian city.

Same Kind of Different As Me An international art dealer and a current-day slave are brought together by the most unlikely of women.

Reviewed by staff critics Steven Rea (S.R.), Tirdad Derakhshani (T.D.), and Molly Eichel (M.E.) and fashion columnist Elizabeth Wellington (E.W.). W.S. denotes a wire-service review.

Embrace of the Serpent Ciro Guerra's profoundly beautiful black-and-white film, set in the forests of Colombia, follows two explorers from the West: German ethnographer Theodor Koch-Grunberg in 1909 and American biologist Richard Evans Schultes in 1940 as each encounters the same shaman, the last of his tribe, in the quest for a rare and transformative plant. A nominee for best foreign-language film at this year's Academy Awards. 2 hrs. 05 No MPAA rating (violence, nudity, adult themes) - S.R.

April and the Extraordinary World

Adapted from the steampunk graphic novel by Tardi (

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec

), this astonishing, imaginative animated epic set in an alternative version of Paris will delight kids and fascinate adults. 1 hr. 45

PG

(action/peril including gunplay, some thematic elements and rude humor) -

T.D.

My Golden Days Childhood, adolescence, and all-consuming first love are at the heart of Arnaud Desplechin's rightly lauded prequel to the terrific French pic My Sex Life . . . Or How I Got Into an Argument. (Not necessary to see the 1996 release to get what's going on here.) Mathieu Amalric reprises his role as the soul-searching protagonist, but it is a pair of newcomers - Quentin Dolmaire and Lou Roy-Lecollinet - who bring their characters to life, who make the love story feel whole and real. 2 hrs. 03 R (sex, nudity, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Sing Street John Carney, writer and director of Once, the little Irish movie that could, and did (and then did again as a hit stage musical), is back at the top of his game with this coming-of-age charmer. A shy 14-year-old Dubliner falls for an older girl and goes about trying to impress her by forming a band. It's the mid-'80s, and the music of Duran Duran and the Cure are big, and so is the hair. 1 hr. 46 PG-13 (profanity, violence, adult themes) - S.R.

Barbershop: The Next Cut ***

Ice Cube leads a terrific ensemble cast in a new installment of the wildly successful comedy that mixes hilarity with heartfelt discussions about the challenges faced by African American communities. Costars include Eve, Common, Nicki Minaj, Cedric the Entertainer and Regina Hall. 1 hr. 52

PG-13

(sexual material and profanity) -

T.D.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice *** A booming, brooding pair-up between the DC Comics superhero icons, with Ben Affleck as a Gloomy Gus Bruce Wayne, aka you-know-who, and Henry Cavill as Clark Kent, aka the Kryptonian with the S on his chest. Jesse Eisenberg, acting nutty and quoting from The Wizard of Oz, is the megalomaniacal Lex Luthor, and Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, and Jeremy Irons are in on the action, too. Finally, in the climactic half-hour of this epic affair, Gal Gadot whips up her magic lasso and strikes a few supermodely superhero poses as Wonder Woman. 2 hrs. 33 PG-13 (violence, intense action, adult themes) - S.R.

The Boss **1/2 Melissa McCarthy plays Michelle Darnell, a business shark who falls from grace after a small insider-trading scandal. Fresh out of prison, she moves in with her ex-assistant (Kristen Bell) and daughter (Ella Anderson) and tries to restart her life. McCarthy is her usual comedic powerhouse, even if the flimsy movie can't handle what an amazing performer she is. 1 hr. 39 R (language, violence, sexual situations) - M.E.

Criminal *1/2 Kevin Costner is a career convict and certified sociopath who undergoes a radical new surgery that gives him the memories and emotions of a dead CIA agent. Gal Gadot, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Oldman, and Ryan Reynolds costar in this egregiously silly, generic espionage thriller. R (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Demolition **1/2 Jake Gyllenhaal plays a grief-stricken yuppie in a jumpy, jarring tale from director Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club, Wild) set in New York and tracking the literally destructive moves of an investment banker. After his wife dies in a car crash, he writes a sheaf of complaint letters to a vending company and then begins a relationship with the woman (Naomi Watts) who reads them. With Chris Cooper and kid actor Judah Lewis. 1 hr. 40 R (profanity, violence, adult themes) - S.R.

The Divergent Series: Allegiant - Part 1 ** The worn and weathered third installment in the four-part film adaptation of Veronica Roth's post-apocalyptic dystopian YA books, with Shailene Woodley back as Tris, the nonconformist heroine and hope for humankind. Naomi Watts and Jeff Daniels are authoritarian figures with conflicting hidden agendas. No one can be trusted, except maybe hunky Four (Theo James), who sticks as close to Tris' side as he can. Divergent fatigue, anyone? 1 hr. 46 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) - S.R.

Elvis & Nixon *** One of the odder footnotes in presidential history - the Dec. 21, 1970, Oval Office meeting between Richard Milhous Nixon and Elvis Aron Presley - has been turned into an odd, diverting footnote of a film. Michael Shannon is Elvis, although he doesn't really resemble the King in any way (but he does get the whooshy karate hand chops down). Kevin Spacey, a master of mimicry, is the commander-in-chief. A faux time-capsule affair that imagines the conversation that took place as two American icons collided. 1 hr. 26 R (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Eye in the Sky *** How many phone calls does it take to justify an innocent young girl's life as collateral damage in a war on terror? How many government officials need to clear her potential death? Helen Mirren leads a strong ensemble cast (including the late Alan Rickman and Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul) in Gavin Hood's tense film exploring modern warfare, where drones are the weapon of choice. 1 hr. 42 R (violence and language) - M.E.

The First Monday in May **1/2 The annual Costume Institute Gala at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art gets the documentary treatment from director Andrew Rossi, who raises the question: Can fashion really be considered art in a space where paintings, sculpture, and pottery are revered? We see the yearlong planning for the 2015 event by Vogue editor Anna Wintour, who has chaired the Met Gala since 1995, and fashion curator Andrew Bolton that results in what has become the Super Bowl of the fashion industry, usurping the Academy Awards. PG-13 (brief strong language, Kardashians) - E.W.

God's Not Dead (Not reviewed) A high school teacher (Melissa Joan Hart) lands in the middle of a fierce legal battle when she answers a question about Jesus from a student. 2 hrs. 1 PG (some thematic elements)

Hardcore Henry *1/2 A dazzling technical achievement that has the cameraman wear a digicam as a mask, this ultra-violent sci-fi action film plays like a first-person shooter video game writ large. Without much of a plot, the film gives you a frenetic high for the first 90 seconds before boring you to sleep. 1 hr. 36 R (nonstop bloody brutal violence and mayhem, language throughout, sexual content/nudity, drug use) - T.D.

A Hologram for the King ** 1/2 Tom Hanks, in trusty Everyman mode, stars as an American businessman trying to turn his downward-arcing career around with a sales pitch to the Saudi king, who is building a new city in the desert. Tom Tykwer's adaptation of the Dave Eggers' novel is faithful to the text, less so to its emotional and psychological underpinnings. The stranger-in-a-strange-land tale also stars the splendid Sarita Choudhury.1 hr. 37 R (profanity, nudity, adult themes) - S.R.

The Huntsman: Winter's Warrior *** Sampling Tolkien, Disney, and Grimm, this prequel (turned sequel?) to 2012's Snow White and the Huntsman lays on the pastiche in slabs, but no one is slouching here. It's also, despite its title, decidedly femme-centric, with Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain and Charlize Theron all in on the fairy tale action. 1 hr. 54 PG-13 (fairy tale violence, adult themes) - S.R.

The Jungle Book *** Rudyard Kipling's classic collection of short stories gets live-action adaptation from Jon Favreau (Elf, Iron Man). The movie itself is a mishmash of the 1967 Disney version and Kipling's work, with some famous voices (Bill Murray as Baloo the sloth bear is particularly wonderful) thrown into the mix. The real reason to shell out money for the tickets is Favreau's breathtaking visuals. 1 hr. 45 PG (sequences of scary action and peril) - M.E.

Louder Than Bombs ** Joachim Trier has established himself as a bold stylist with his first two features, Reprise and Oslo, August 31st, poetic dramas that balance experimentation with stirring emotions. His English-language debut is a ponderous, disappointing exploration of how the death of a wife and mother (Isabelle Huppert) affects her husband (Gabriel Byrne) and their sons. 1 hr. 49 R (profanity, some sexual content, nudity, violent images) - T.D.

Miles Ahead *** Don Cheadle stars in and directs this impressionistic take on Miles Davis, zooming in on the years in the latter half of the 1970s when the great jazz trumpeter and composer went AWOL, stopping the concert tours and pretty much stopping recording, too. Ewan McGregor plays a hustling journalist determined to find out what's up. The movie tries hard to jettison the usual music biopic format, the usual clichés, and doesn't entirely succeed, but Cheadle is mesmerizing. R (profanity, violence, sex, nudity, adult themes) - S.R.

Miracles from Heaven **1/2 Jennifer Garner stars in this fact-based Christian film as a Texas woman whose chronically ill daughter is healed in what appears to be a miracle. Appealing subject matter and good performances aren't enough to make up for the sappy story or its cloying tone. 1 hr. 49 PG (thematic material, including accident and medical images) - T.D.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 *1/2 The cast of Nia Vardalos' 2002 hit romcom reunites for this tired, predictable follow-up. A new wedding is in the offing when Toula's (Vardalos) parents (Lainie Kazan and Michael Constantine) discover their 40-year-old marriage certificate was never signed. 1 hr. 41 PG-12 (some suggestive material) - T.D.

My Big Night *** A gloriously absurd, over-the-top absurdist comedy worthy of Pedro Almodóvar's best work, Álex de la Iglesia's showbiz satire is about the backstage antics at the taping of a New Year's TV special. 1 hr. 40 No MPAA rating (nudity, sexuality, drug use, profanity, smoking) - T.D.

Remember (Not previewed) In Atom Egoyan's latest, one able-bodied Auschwitz survivor with dementia (Christopher Plummer) joins another survivor, who's mentally sharp and uses a wheelchair (Martin Landau), to track down the person responsible for the death of their families. 1 hr. 35 R (sequence of violence and language)

Nina ** Biopic about the trials and travails of Nina Simone has come under fire for its casting, with light-skinned Zoe Saldana playing the "Young, Gifted and Black" pianist and eloquent voice against injustice. And that's just one problem among many in this listless and oddly constructed head-scratcher, which focuses on the star's late years and neglects her greatness. 1 hr. 53 No MPAA rating (violence, profanity, adult themes) - D.D.

10 Cloverfied Lane *** From producer J.J. Abrams and Philly native Dan Trachtenberg, a wickedly clever nightmare entertainment (and a spiritual successor to 2008's Cloverfield), with Mary Elizabeth Winstead as a woman who wakes up shackled in some weird survivalist's bunker. John Goodman is that guy, John Gallagher Jr. is a fellow houseguest, and the world outside the airlocked lair ain't what it used to be. 1 hr. 45 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) - S.R.

Zootopia *** A colorful Disney 'toon about a seemingly idyllic town where all the different mammals get along - until a sinister conspiracy intrudes. The heroine of the tale is a plucky bunny who joins the police force (the first bunny cop!) and quickly gets caught up in a noirish missing otter case. There otter be a law. With the voices of Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, and Idris Elba. 1 hr. 48 PG (some scares, adult themes) - S.R.