Movies: New and Noteworthy

Boo 2! A Madea Halloween

The gang travels to a haunted campground and mayhem ensues.

The Florida Project A 6-year-old girl makes the most of life at a motel in the shadow of Disney World. Willem Dafoe stars as the motel manager.

Geostorm In the not-too-distant future, when a network of satellites created to control Earth's climate begins to attack the planet, a race to save humanity ensues.

Goodbye Christopher Robin Biopic on author A.A. Milne and what inspired him to create Winnie the Pooh.

Only the Brave A crew of firefighters battles a deadly wildfire in Arizona. Jeff Bridges, Jennifer Connelly, and Josh Brolin star.

The Snowman A detective investigates the death of a woman whose scarf is found wrapped around a sinister-looking snowman.

Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton Documentary on the big-wave surfer and his impact on the sport.

Reviewed by critics Tirdad Derakhshani (T.D.), Dan DeLuca (D.D.), Gary Thompson (G.T.), and Nick Vadala (N.V.). W.S. denotes a wire-service review.

Columbus Two lonely, lovely young strangers - part-time librarian Casey (Haley Lu Richardson) and stuck-in-town son of an ill father Jin (John Cho) - strike up a friendship over several days spent walking and talking around Columbus, Ind., long celebrated as an improbable architectural enclave of Midwestern modernism. 1 hr. 44 No MPAA rating - W.S.

The Big Sick

Based on comedian Kumail Nanjiani's life, a funny, touching comedy of a Pakistani American caught between his religious family and the American woman (Zoe Kazan) he loves. With Holly Hunter, Ray Romano. 1 hr. 59.

R

(sexual references) -

G.T.

Blade Runner 2049 An imaginative, visually stunning if overlong sequel from Denis Villeneuve that embraces and embellishes Ridley Scott's original 1982 dark vision of a future Los Angeles where police (Ryan Gosling) hunt down synthetic humans, even as the latter grow more like us. With Harrison Ford, Jared Leto, Ana de Armas and MacKenzie Davis. 2 hrs. 44 R (violence) - G.T.

Two Trains Runnin' Two groups of white blues nerds ventured, unbeknownst to each other, into Mississippi in the summer of 1964 hoping to locate and lure back into performing country blues legends Son House and Skip James. Interviews and music fill the film - including appearances by Gary Clark Jr., Buddy Guy, and Lucinda Williams - along with mesmerizing archival footage of House and James in their late phase of revitalized stardom. 1 hr. 22 No MPAA rating - W.S.

American Assassin *1/2

Dylan O'Brien as Mitch Rapp - trained for a special-ops commando unit under an ex-Navy SEAL (Michael Keaton) - comes across as a poor man's Jason Bourne in the first of what might or might not be a string of movies based on Vince Flynn's series of pulpy spy novels. 1 hr. 51 R (strong violence, some torture, crude language, brief nudity)

- W.S.

American Made *** Tom Cruise stars in this fun but heavily fictionalized portrait of Barry Seal, a drug smuggler who found himself at the intersection of drug cartels and CIA adventurism in Central and South America in the 1970s and 1980s. With Sarah Wright and Caleb Landry Jones. Directed by Doug Liman. 1 hr. 55 R (violence) - G.T.

Battle of the Sexes **1/2 Women's tennis champ Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and aging male star Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) square off in a publicity-stunt tennis match that ends up proving King's point about the value of female athletes. Some fun moments, but aside from the two leads, the movie given to caricature and some on-the-nose dialogue. With Andrea Riseborough, Sarah Silverman, and Bill Pullman. 2 hrs. 1 PG-13 (nudity) - G.T.

Brad's Status ** A man (Ben Stiller) takes his teen son (Austin Abrams) on a tour of a prestigious university, prompting comic introspection. A few laughs and some insights, but in the end it's a movie examining the problems of a man who really doesn't have any. With Jenna Fischer, Michael Sheen, Luke Wilson. Written and directed by Mike White. 1 hr. 40 R (language) - G.T.

Dina *** A locally filmed documentary that provides an affectionate and intimate look at the lives of an autistic couple, Dina Buno and Scott Levin, as they move in together in Glenside and prepare for their wedding. Co-directed by Dan Sickles. 1 hr. 41 No MPAA rating - G.T.

Flatliners (Not previewed) Medical students (including Ellen Page, Nina Dobrev, and Diego Luna) start to experience spooky, terrifying things after playing a game where they revive one another from near-death experiences. Based on the 1990 Joel Schumacher thriller. 1 hr. 48 PG-13 (violence, terror, sexual content, language, thematic material, some drug references)

Kingsman: Golden Circle **1/2 A blue-collar British lad (Taron Egerton) recruited to a posh spy service journeys to the U.S., where he links up with his American counterparts (Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges, Halle Berry) to pursue a cheerfully demented drug dealer (Julianne Moore). Has some of the wit and energy of the original, but has come down with a case of sequel-itis - it's too long and overstuffed with CGI and cameos. 2 hr. 20 R (language, sexuality) - G.T.

The Lego Ninjago Movie **1/2 This latest Lego installment maintains the silly and irreverent tone of The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie but isn't as thick with the verbal and visual gags that made them deliriously fun. 1 hr. 41 PG (some mild action and rude humor) - W.S.

Loving Vincent *** Each of the movie's 65,000 shimmering frames is a high-resolution photograph of an oil painting based on Vincent van Gogh's work in this speculative narrative attempting to penetrate the myth of the artist. 1 hr. 35 PG-13 (thematic elements, some violence, sexual material, smoking) - W.S.

Lucky *** Written as a starring role for the late character actor Harry Dean Stanton, who stars as a version of himself in this meandering, sometimes moving story of an elderly man contemplating the end of his life in a small desert town. With David Lynch, Tom Skerritt, and Ed Begley Jr. 1 hr. 29 No MPAA rating - G.T.

Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House ** Liam Neeson stars in this timely but tepid drama about the man better known as deep throat, an high-ranking FBI man who leaks information on the Watergate investigation to the press in order to combat the dangerous overreach of the Nixon administration. 1 hr. 43 PG-13 (language) - G.T.

Marshal *** Chadwick Boseman stars as a young Thurgood Marshall trying in 1940 trying to clear a black man (Sterling K. Brown) of rape charges in this fact-based courtroom drama. Featuring Josh Gad and Kate Hudson. 1 hr. 58 PG-13 (language) - G.T.

The Meyerwitz Stories (New and Selected) *** An amusing comedy from Noah Baumbach starring Dustin Hoffman as a New York patriarch whose selfishness continues to echo in the lives of his grown children (Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Grace Van Patten). With Emma Thompson. 1 hr. 50 No MPAA rating - G.T.

mother! *** Part psychological thriller, part anarchic horror flick, Darren Aronofsky's latest stars Jennifer Lawrence as the long-suffering muse of her husband, a writer's-blocked poet played by Javier Bardem. Their creepy old mansion fills inconveniently with guests who overstay their welcome as the movie becomes an all-out carnival of chaos. 2 hr. 1 R (disturbing violence, some sexuality, nudity, language) - N.V.

The Mountain Between Us *1/2 A strange lack of chemistry between leads Kate Winslet and Idris Elba in this story of two people stranded by a plane crash on a snowy mountain peak, hiking to safety. With Beau Bridges. 1 hr. 40 PG-13 (sexuality) - G.T.

My Little Pony: The Movie **1/2 Buttressed by strong voice talent and amusing bits of business amid the nonstop action and pony personality quirks, the movie lays on the sweet without too much of the sticky. Included are 13 songs, including "Rainbow" performed by Sia as a pony whose mane covers half her face, in a nod to the pop star's onstage persona. 1 hr. 39 PG (mild action) - W.S.

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women **1/2 Historical drama about William Marston (Luke Evans) who invented Wonder Woman, and had a secret three-way marriage to two women (Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcoat). The movie conventional trappings flatten out the life of an unconventional man. With Connie Britton, Oliver Platt. 1 hr. 48 R (sexuality) - G.T.

Stronger *** When a man (Jake Gyllenhaal) suffers the loss of his legs at the Boston Marathon terror bombing, his fiercely determined girlfriend (Tatiana Maslany) helps him become the hero the city wants him to be. Unusual spin on familiar themes, with top-notch performances by the two leads. Based on a true story, directed by David Gordon Green. 1 hr. 56 R (language, sexuality) – G.T.

Viceroy's House **1/2 Hugh Bonneville is Lord Louis Mountbatten, who as the last viceroy of India is entrusted to end British control in 1947 and partition the nation to create Pakistan, at the same time that violence between Muslims and Hindus escalated. The true story is more affecting than the fiction of this drama. 1 hr. 46 No MPAA rating (limited language, riots) - W.S

Victoria & Abdul *** Judi Dench stars as Queen Victoria, who late in life develops a rejuvenating friendship with an Indian servant (Ali Fazal) who teaches her about the customs of his native land, to her delight and to the consternation of her scandalized staff. With Eddie Izzard, Olivia Williams. Directed by Stephen Frears. 1 hr. 52 PG-13 (language) - G.T.

Wind River **1/2 Taylor Sheridan's screenplay has smart dialogue, likable neo-western heroes in cowboy hats, sudden open-carry shootouts, a capable woman navigating a man's world, and some searing social commentary, but, as a rookie director, Sheridan gets lost trying to assemble these elements into a tight package. 1 hr. 41 R (strong violence, disturbing images including a rape, language) - G.T.