Movie critic Steven Rea's Weekend Selections

45 Years Charlotte Rampling, Oscar-nominated for her performance, and Tom Courtenay, pretty darn brilliant himself, star as a long-married couple whose comfortable, seemingly close relationship is challenged when news arrives from afar - and from far off in the past. A study in economy, in the beautiful symmetry of word, image and music, and of a marriage shaken to its core. R

Anomalisa From the mind of Charlie Kaufman, co-directing with Duke Johnson, a stop-motion animation tale of a sad, unsatisfied man who meets a woman on a business trip, takes her to his hotel room, and - well, yes, there is puppet sex. Midlife morass, regret, and mundanity, cut with the comically surreal. Eerie in its lifelike, and dreamlike, vision. With the voices of David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Tom Noonan. R

Youth Two old friends, played by Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel, ponder life, love, and loss while they wander a luxurious Swiss Alps spa. Paolo Sorrentino's follow-up to his Oscar-winning The Great Beauty is symphonic and cinematic, full of melancholy and hushed magic. With Rachel Weisz, Jane Fonda, and Paul Dano. R