New and noteworthy movies

By Steven Rea

Julieta Pedro Almodovar's 20th feature adapts three connected Alice Munro stories about a woman at different stages in her life. Actresses Adriana Ugarte and Emma Suarez share the title role, and the Spanish filmmaker returns to themes he revels in: mothers and daughters, loss, grief, love, guilt - all in blazing Almodovarian hues. R

Paterson Adam Driver stars as an NJ Transit bus driver who writes poetry in his downtime in Jim Jarmusch's low-key and loping meditation on art, marriage, the simple pleasures, and thorny problems of life. And what to do with the dog when you stop into the corner bar. R

Sleepless Jamie Foxx is a Las Vegas homicide detective with some serious ethical issues - and with a son who's been abducted by a drug lord - in a remake of the gritty 2011 French thriller Sleepless Night. Michelle Monaghan is the no-nonsense internal affairs investigator. Dermot Mulroney and Gabrielle Union also star. R

The Bye Bye Man College students move into an off-campus house that possesses an evil spirit.

Live by Night Ben Affleck stars as the son of a Boston cop who becomes a gangster during the Prohibition era.

Monster Trucks A young man attempts to escape his small-town surroundings with the help of a self-made monster truck and a strange creature.

Patriots Day A police detective (Mark Wahlberg) hunts the brothers responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing.

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

La La Land Some kind of transcendent magic happens in Damien Chazelle's starry-eyed musical, with one foot (in tap shoes) firmly planted in the past, and the other (in taps, too, of course) planted in a me-first, modern-day world. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are the struggling Los Angelenos who fall in love despite a mutual wariness, walking and talking, singing and dancing, amid a swirl of classic Hollywood references. Not quite perfect, but its imperfections, and its embrace of passion over cynicism, are part of the charm. 2 hr. 8 PG-13 (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Moonlight A true American masterpiece, the sophomore feature from Barry Jenkins (Medicine for Melancholy) is a heady mix of brutal social realism and poetry as it tells the coming-of-age story of a young black gay man from a Miami ghetto. Divided into three parts, it tells the story of Chiron as a 10-year-old, a high school student, and a 20-something professional as he wrestles with external forces he can't control, including poverty and drug crime and internal desires he cannot ignore. Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, and Trevante Rhodes give memorable performances as Chiron. With André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Naomie Harris, and Mahershala Ali.1 hr. 50 R (some sexuality, drug use, brief violence, and profanity throughout) - T.D.

The Eagle Huntress Remarkable documentary follows wildly charismatic 13-year-old girl from nomadic family in Mongolia as she captures and trains an eagle. The story is mythic, the scenery jaw-dropping, the tone often surprisingly fun. And young Aisholpan Nurgaiv is a born star. 1 hr. 27 G (contains nothing objectionable) - W.S.

Elle Paul Verhoeven's most daring exploration of sexual politics features a stunning performance by Isabelle Huppert as a successful business executive and single mother who is violently raped by a masked assailant. Refusing to become a victim or to seek revenge, she tries to understand the dynamics of rape, going as far as to befriend and seduce her attacker. 2 hrs. 10 R (violence involving sexual assault, disturbing sexual content, some grisly images, brief graphic nudity, and profanity) - T.D.

Fences August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece about a working-class African American family in the 1950s is transformed into a compelling, searing film in the hands of producer, director, and star Denzel Washington. He plays a charismatic, funny, energetic but embittered Pittsburgh garbage collector who derides anyone - including his wife, Rose (Viola Davis), and his best friend (Stephen Henderson) - who suggests life has improved for African Americans since the Civil War. Once a star baseball player forced by segregation to play in the Negro League, the aging patriarch is harshest on his sons (Russell Hornsby, Jovan Adepo), whose optimism disturbs him deeply. 2 hrs. 18 PG-13 (thematic elements, profanity, and some suggestive references) - T.D.

Hacksaw Ridge One of Mel Gibson's greatest achievements as director, this incredibly violent, gory WWII epic tells the true story of U.S. Army medic Desmond Doss (a remarkable Andrew Garfield), who became one of the most decorated soldiers of the Pacific Theater without firing a single shot. A conscientious objector, he single-handedly saved more than 75 wounded men during the Battle of Okinawa. The first-rate ensemble cast includes Hugo Weaving, Sam Worthington, Rachel Griffiths, and Teresa Palmer. 2 hrs. 11 R (intense prolonged graphic sequences of war violence, including grisly bloody images) - T.D.

The Handmaiden Based on Sarah Water's novel The Fingersmith, this breathtaking, clever, funny, sexy - and sexually graphic - romantic thriller from Oldboy director Park Chan-wook is about a lesbian romance that develops between an impoverished confidence trickster and an isolated, naïve heiress. Set during the 1930s, when Korea was a vassal state of Japan, the film cleverly addresses a range of themes about power, economic exploitation, and sexuality.2 hrs. 24 No MPAA rating (nudity and graphic sexual situations throughout, profanity, smoking, violence) - T.D.

Manchester by the Sea Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count on Me, Margaret) proves once again he's one of America's finest dramatists with this working-class drama about loss, grief, and family obligations. Casey Affleck is sensational in an Oscar-worthy performance as a self-hating melancholic who has lived a miserable life as a janitor since an accident. When his older brother (Kyle Chandler) dies, he must return to his tiny hometown and assume responsibility for his teenage nephew (Lucas Hedges). Costars Michelle Williams, Matthew Broderick, and Gretchen Mol.2 hrs. 17 R (profanity throughout and some sexual content) - T.D.

Moana This delightful, lyrical, and deeply moving 3D computer-animated family picture is a semicomic adventure story featuring the first truly feminist heroine to grace Walt Disney's animated features. Based in part on Polynesian myths, it's about a teenage princess (15-year-old Hawaii-born singer Auli'i Cravalho) who goes on an arduous journey to restore the creative powers of the fecund earth mother who created the world. Co-starring Dwayne Johnson as a macho demigod, the film is fueled by a wondrous ecofeminist point of view. 1 hr. 53 PG (peril, some scary images and brief thematic elements) - T.D.

Allied ** Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump) pays tribute to classic Hollywood films with this subpar romantic WWII spy yarn starring Brad Pitt as a commando who parachutes into Casablanca to help an agent from the French Resistance (Marion Cotillard). The derivative story is so far-fetched and the romance so tepid the film lacks any real vitality. That's especially true of the latter half, which has the now-married couple entangled in a spy hunt in London. The thriller elements are too thin to be taken seriously and the romance is far too sentimentalized. 2 hrs. 04 R (violence, some sexuality/nudity, profanity, and brief drug use) - T.D.

Assassin's Creed **1/2 Director Justin Kurzel reunites with his Macbeth stars Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard for this hard-hitting, violent, fast-paced fantasy action thriller based on the video game franchise. It's about a centuries-long conflict between two secret societies - the Knights Templar, who want to eradicate human will, and the Assassins, a line of anarchist social libertarians. The film stages two conflicts between the sides, one in 1492 and one in today's world. 1 hr. 55 PG-13 (intense sequences of violence and action, thematic elements, and brief strong profanity) - T.D.

Bad Santa 2 **1/2 In this long-in-coming sequel to the 2003 hit, safecracking Santa Billy Bob Thornton and elfin sidekick Tony Cox try to knock over a Chicago charity. Kathy Bates is here, too, and the cast is in fine form – but the rehashed jokes feel way past their prime. 1 hr. 32 R (crude sexual content and language throughout, some graphic nudity) - W.S.

Bleed for This **1/2 By-the-numbers boxing biopic tells the story of world champion boxer Vinny "the Pazmanian Devil" Paz as he attempts to recover from a head-on car wreck and fight again. If you've seen The Fighter, you've kind of seen this, too. Miles Teller plays the Rhode Island boxer. 1 hr. 56 R (language, sexuality/nudity, some accident images) - W.S.

The Brand New Testament *** In the grand satirical tradition of Monty Python and Kevin Smith, Belgian writer-director Jaco Van Dormael takes gleeful yet genial aim at the god of the Judeo-Christian universe - reimagined as an angry, foul-mouthed schlub in flannel pajamas and played with an unflattering sneer by Benoit Poelvoorde. Yolande Moreau and Pili Groyne are terrific, too. French with English subtitles. 1 hr. 55 No MPAA rating (nudity, sexuality, strong language, and some violence) - W.S.

Collateral Beauty *1/2 This overly earnest movie misses its mark by a mile, stranding an impressive cast (Will Smith, Kate Winslet, Edward Norton, Helen Mirren). Smith is a grieving ad man whose young daughter died two years before; he spends his time at the office playing dominoes and writing letters to Love, Time, and Death. His supposed pals at work hire actors to follow him around and pretend to be them. 1 hr. 34 PG-13 (thematic elements and brief strong language) - W.S.

The Edge of Seventeen *** A teen's (Hailee Steinfeld) life takes a turn for the worse when her best friend begins dating her brother. It works because it's not a candy- coated version of teenagedom. It's harsh, awkward, and funny, just like being a teenager. 1 hr. 30 R (sexual content, language, and some drinking) - M.E.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them *** Harry Potter spin-off scripted by J.K. Rowling brings the wizarding world across the pond to our side. Set in 1920s Manhattan, with Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Colin Farrell. 2 hrs. 13 PG-13 (some fantasy-action violence) - T.D.

Hidden Figures *** Taraji P. Henson, Octavio Spencer and Janelle Monáe are terrific in this feel-good family movie about a group of black female mathematicians who worked at NASA during the 1960s. The true story is about overqualified scientists who could only get jobs crunching numbers for their white male bosses, but who overcame prejudice to make their own mark on the space program. Where it lacks as serious history, the film makes up for with an empowering social message. The ensemble casts includes Kevin Costner, Glen Powell, Mahershala Ali and Aldis Hodge. 2 hr. 7 PG (thematic elements and some profanity) - T.D.

Jackie *** Natalie Portman, intense, focused, transfiguring, stars as Jacqueline Kennedy in a daring fever dream of a biopic, wheeling around the events before, during, and after the assassination of JFK. Not every element of Chilean director Pablo Larrain's film works, but its star is unforgettable, and the images - historic and imagined - imbue this psychological portrait with a haunting resonance. 1 hr. 40 R (brief strong language and some violence) - S.R.

Lion *** Australian TV director Garth Davis (Top of the Lake) makes his feature debut with this heartbreaking, if sometimes maudlin, true story told in two parts. In the first, a 5-year-old boy in India becomes separated from his impoverished family and ends up adopted by an Australian couple (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham). In the second part, the boy has grown up to be a young man (Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire) who goes back in search of his lost family. 1 hr. 48 PG-13 (thematic material and some sensuality) - T.D.

Loving *** True story of an interracial couple who were jailed for getting married in 1950s Virginia. Their case led to the Supreme Court decision invalidating race-related marriage laws. 2 hrs. 3 PG-13 (thematic elements, some profanity) - T.D.

A Monster Calls *** Adapted by children's author Patrick Ness from his 2011 bestseller, this dark tween fantasy features a remarkable turn by Lewis MacDougall as a 12-year-old boy who uses his wild artistic imagination to cope with his single mother's potentially fatal illness. Felicity Jones (Rogue One) is haunting as his mom, while Liam Neeson is wonderful as the monster the boy befriends. Director J. A. Bayona (The Orphanage) infuses the film with just the right amount of gothic darkness, but he is less successful when it comes to the story's lighter animated fairy tale sequences. 2 hrs. 08 PG-13 (thematic content and some scary images) - T.D.

Nocturnal Animals *** In this intense, haunting, convoluted movie - and movie-within-a-movie - Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal star as a divorced couple whose relationship takes a dark turn after he writes a novel. With Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Isla Fisher, Armie Hammer, Laura Linney, Michael Sheen. Written and directed by Tom Ford, based on the novel Tony and Susan by Austin Wright. 1 hr. 56 R (violence, obscenity, and graphic nudity) - W.S.

Office Christmas Party **1/2 Coworkers have one last hope of hanging on to their jobs: Throw a wild Yuletide bash that will win over a potential client. Jennifer Aniston is the cutthroat corporate boss looking to slash the payroll. Jason Bateman, Kate McKinnon, and T.J. Miller are the office goofballs. Courtney Vance is the target of their party-hearty tomfoolery. 1 hr. 45 R (crude sexual content, language, drug use, graphic nudity) - W.S.

Passengers ** 1/2 Norwegian director Morten Tyldum follows up his brilliant features Headhunter and The Imitation Game with a disappointing entry that tries to graft a solid love story onto a weak, badly conceived sci-fi adventure. Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt have great chemistry as two passengers on a 120-year intergalactic flight whose hypersleep pods malfunction. The only two people awake on a ship of 5,000, they embark on a troubled romance that gets all wonky when they have to save the ship from blowing up. 1 hr. 56 PG-13 (sexuality, nudity, and action/peril) - T.D.

Rules Don't Apply * Warren Beatty stars as famously reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes in what is essentially a love story between a starry-eyed ingenue (Lily Collins) signed to Hughes' stable of aspiring actresses and a young, ambitious Hughes employee (Alden Ehrenreich). Beatty wrote, produced, and directed – his first behind-the-camera job since 1998's Bulworth - this hot, frantic mess. 2 hr. 6 PG-13 (sexual material, including brief strong language, thematic elements, drug references) - W.S.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. ** Director Gareth Edwards (Monsters) delivers a passable minor prequel to 1977's Star Wars featuring Felicity Jones as a reluctant rebel hero who takes on the Empire to save her scientist dad (Mads Mikkelsen), who happens to be the guy who built the Death Star from the 1977 masterpiece. Costarring Forest Whitaker, Diego Luna, and Donnie Yen, this would have been a fun, effective diversion were it not for its absurd sense of self-importance - nowhere more apparent than in composer Michael Giacchino's bombastic, over-the-top John Williamsesque score that swells and crescendos in every scene. 2 hrs. 13 PG-13 (extended sequences of sci-fi violence and action) - T.D.

Silence *** Martin Scorsese's third film about religion after The Last Temptation of Christ and Kundun is a magnificently beautiful if uneven and overlong adaptation of Japanese Catholic author Shûsaku Endô's 1966 masterpiece. Andrew Garfield delivers a feverish turn as a young Jesuit missionary who arrives in Japan in 1670 when Christianity had been outlawed and witnesses the brutal repression of Japanese converts. Liam Neeson is good as an older Jesuit who tries to guide him while Issey Ogata is both hilarious and terrifying as the dreaded inquisitor in charge of stamping out the religion in Japan. 2 hrs. 41 R (some disturbing violent content) - T.D.

Sing **1/2 The team behind Minions brings you an animal-populated reality singing competition – a Zootopia Idol, if you will. Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Nick Kroll, Seth MacFarlane, and John C. Reilly are among the celebs who voice the song-and-dance menagerie. Peppy, good-natured, and full of good tunes. 1 hr. 48 PG (some rude humor and mild peril) - W.S.

Trolls ** DreamWorks Animation's mediocre animated 3D musical family adventure is the first big-screen story spun from the Good Luck Troll line of toys introduced in 1959. Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick voice the two leads and sing a couple of nice duets. Timberlake, who produced the music, does a great job, but the film has no magic, no real luster. 1 hr. 32 PG (some mild rude humor) - T.D.

Underworld: Blood Wars (Not Previewed) Kate Beckinsale returns as the leather-and-latex- clad vampire Death Dealer Selene in the fifth installment of the vamps-vs.-wolves saga. But gone is Scott Speedman, who played her lover in the first four films, the wolf-vamp hybrid Michael. The story? Selene continues her crusade against the wolves and the corrupt vamp faction that betrayed her. 1 hr. 31 R (strong bloody violence and some sexuality).

Why Him **1/2 James Franco burns up the screen with surreal weirdness in a madcap take on Meet the Parents co-starring Zoey Deutch as his younger lover and Brian Cranston and Megan Mullally as her straight-laced Midwestern parents. Franco plays Laird, an eccentric, four-letter-word loving, heavily tattooed Silicon Valley gazillionaire with a heart of gold who hosts his gal's family at his gorgeous mansion for a weekend filled with wordplay, sight gags, crazy stunts, and a bit of sex. Keegan-Michael Key is brilliant as Laird's friend, employee, and martial arts teacher. Franco lays it on heavy here and dominates every scene, so those allergic to him might want to keep away. His fans will lap it up. 1 hr. 51 R (strong profanity and sexual material) - T.D.