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NEW MOVIES By Steven Rea Capital A twisty thriller set in the world of global finance, with Gabriel Byrne and Gad Elmaleh, from director Costa-Gavras. R

Gad Elmaleh and Gabriel Byrne star in "Capital."
Gad Elmaleh and Gabriel Byrne star in "Capital."Read more

NEW MOVIES

By Steven Rea

Capital A twisty thriller set in the world of global finance, with Gabriel Byrne and Gad Elmaleh, from director Costa-Gavras. R

Thor: The Dark World Ancient darkness strikes the world, and only the Norse God of Thunder, that Marvel superhero with the long tresses and the mighty mallet, can set things right. Maybe, if his evil sib Loki agrees to lend a hand. Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, and Natalie Portman star. PG-13

The Wicker Man - The Final Cut "Come, it is time to keep your appointment with the Wicker Man." So says Christopher Lee, who looks spryer than ever in the newly restored, director-approved rerelease of the 1973 British horror cult classic. Pagans, unite! R

Also Opening This Week

After Tiller This documentary looks at the difficulties faced by the few remaining doctors who are willing to perform late-term abortions following the 2009 murder of Dr. George Tiller.

 Kill Your Darlings Beat generation poets Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe), Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs are drawn together as young adults by a 1944 murder.

Kids Like You and Me Atlanta rock band Black Lips are shown during their 2012 tour of the Middle East in this documentary. Opens Wednesday

Spinning Plates Documentary about three radically different restaurants and the people who make them special.

Excellent (****)

Reviewed by critics Steven Rea (S.R.) and David Hiltbrand (D.H.). W.S. denotes a wire-service review.

All Is Lost Robert Redford delivers the performance of his career in J.C. Chandor's majestic, melancholy film about a solo mariner, stranded on his sailboat in the Indian Ocean. There is incredible tension in this ordeal, this man's efforts to survive, to find rescue, and Redford - an icon of the American movie experience for more than half a century now - makes that tension deeply palpable. 1 hr. 46 PG-13 (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Blue Is the Warmest Color Yes, there is a lot of sex. Graphic sex between two young women. But that's only part of what this extraordinary film is about. This three-hour portrait of a French high school student (an amazing Adèle Exarchopoulos) is shot with a close-up intensity that brings the character out from the screen and into your heart. It's emotional 3-D! 2 hrs. 59 NC-17 (graphic sex, nudity, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Captain Phillips Based on the real-life story of a U.S.-flagged cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates, with Tom Hanks in the title role as a steady-as-she-

goes veteran forced to face his own mortality. Paul Greengrass (the second and third Bourne films, United 93) masterfully orchestrates the intense, suspenseful drama. 2 hrs. 14 PG-13 (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Enough Said Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini (in his final leading role) are divorced parents, each with a college-bound daughter, who meet, date, and take a real liking to each other. And then the trouble begins. A smart, funny movie for grown-ups from the hugely talented writer director Nicole Holofcener. 1 hr. 33 PG-13 (sex, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Gravity A transcendent, zero-g tale of survival, with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as orbiting astronauts caught in a debris storm, quite literally at the end of their tether. A technological marvel, and an emotional, spiritual, and physical voyage of stratospheric suspense. 1 hr. 30 PG-13 (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

12 Years a Slave The remarkable, essential story of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was was abducted and sold into slavery in the pre-Civil War South. The British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor gives body and soul in the lead, and Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano, and Brad Pitt are part of a superb supporting cast. 2 hrs. 13 R (violence, nudity, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Very Good (***1/2)

About Time A young man travels back in time with the purpose of improving his life by finding a girlfriend. The task turns out to be more difficult than expected. Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams star. 2 hrs. 03 R (obscenity and some sexual content) - W.S.

Rush Ron Howard's epic and exhilarating race-car movie about the legendary rivalry between 1970s Formula One champions James Hunt, a swaggering Brit, and Niki Lauda, a rigorously fussy Austrian. It's a ride. 2 hrs. 03 R (sex, nudity, violence, profanity, intense medical scenes, adult themes) - S.R.

Wadjda A charming first feature from female Saudi director Haifaa al-Mansour about a rascally 10-year-old who covets a bicycle, even though girls are not supposed to ride bicycles - it's undignified and inappropriate in conservative Islamic culture, which is the culture all around her. PG (adult themes) - S.R.

Also on Screens

Diana ** Naomi Watts bravely, if misguidedly, assumes the title role of the Princess of Wales, in the tumultuous window of time between her separation from Charles and her death on a Paris roadway, when she carried on a deeply secret, deeply romantic affair with a Pakistani heart surgeon (Naveen Andrews). TV movie all the way, in the pre-HBO, network-schlock sense of the term. 1 hr. 53 PG-13 (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Ender's Game 1/2 A space adventure adapted from Orson Scott Card's 1985 sci-fi novel about a bunch of smarty-pants kids recruited for battle against an alien invasion. Harrison Ford and Viola Davis are the military parental units in charge. Asa Butterfield, thin and nerdy and awesomely earnest, is "the One" chosen to lead the fight, if only he can overcome the bullying from his fellow junior cadets. 1 hr. 54 PG-13 (violence, intense action, adult themes) - S.R.

Free Birds ** Turkeys in a time machine? That's the rather desperate premise of this flaccid animated film that sends a couple of gobblers back to the first Thanksgiving. Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson, and Amy Poehler do the voices. 1 hr. 31 PG (crude humor) - D.H.

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa ** MTV reality star Johnny Knoxville eighty-sixes himself - that is, he puts on old-age makeup, a wig and pretends he's 86 - in this R-rated road pic in which his obnoxious octogenarian travels the land in the company of his 8-year-old grandson. Stuff happens. 1 hr. 32 R (strong crude and sexual content throughout, profanity, graphic nudity, drug use) - W.S.

Last Vegas 1/2 Four aging lifelong friends attempt to relive their youth in Las Vegas in celebration of one's engagement. Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Robert DeNiro, and Kevin Kline star. 1 hr. 45 PG-13 (profanity, partial nudity, sexual situations, hemorrhoid jokes) - T.D.

Prisoners *** In this grim and unsettling film, a father (Hugh Jackman) becomes convinced that a detective (Jake Gyllenhaal) isn't doing enough to solve his daughter's abduction. Powerful but not for the faint of heart. 2 hrs. 26 R (disturbing violence, profanity) - D.H.

Theater

Reviewed by Wendy Rosenfield (W.R.), Jim Rutter (J.R.), David Patrick Stearns (D.P.S.), and Toby Zinman (T.Z.) .

New This Week

17 Border Crossings (FringeArts) Thaddeus Stevens takes us on another of his magical journeys. Opens Wednesday.

Elf (Walnut Street Theatre) Buddy is large for an elf - and large of Christmas spirit, too. Previews Tuesday-Nov. 12, opens Nov. 13.

I Am My Own Wife (Theatre Horizon) The Pulitzer-winning true saga of an East German transvestite who lived an amazing life. In previews, opens Thursday.

Continuing

4000 Miles (Philadelphia Theatre Company) A directionless young man and his reclusive grandmother help each other out in Amy Herzog's tender, Obie-winning play. Through next Sunday.

The Brothers Size (Simpatico Theater Project) Yoruba storytelling meets bayou rhythms in this haunting production of the first play in Tarell Alvin McCraney's "Brothers/Sisters Trilogy." Ends Sunday. - T.Z.

A Clockwork Orange (Luna Theatre) Anthony Burgess' dystopian story of teenage violence in a near-future Britain. Ends Saturday.

Cock (Theater Exile) A funny, sensitive production of Mike Bartlett's play about a dithering guy caught in a bisexual love triangle. Through next Sunday. - W.R.

The Convert (Wilma Theater) A girl in 1895 southern Africa finds Christianity, then confusion, in this drama by Danai Gurira. Through next Sunday.

The Devil's Music (People's Light and Theatre) Fans will love this Bessie Smith bioshow, but those unfamiliar will find few touchstones to care about. Through Nov. 24. - J.R.

Emma (Lantern Theater Company) Jane Austen's fetching little busybody just doesn't know when to stop. Ends Sunday.

Lend Me a Tenor (Delaware Theatre Company) "Il Stupendo" can't go on, and the Cleveland Grand Opera Company is in trouble! Ends Sunday.

Macbeth (Hedgerow Theatre) The "Scottish play" is given a post-World War I setting in this terrific, terrifying production. Through Nov. 17. - J.R.

Marcus: or the Secret of Sweet (Plays and Players) A young man seeks his identity in the last of Tarell Alvin McCraney's "Brother/Sister" trilogy. Ends Sunday.

Once (Academy of Music) Guy and Girl meet, sing, fall in love. Winner of eight Tony Awards. Through Nov. 10.

Parade (Arden Theatre) Brimful of glorious voices, this musical drama gives us a theatrically exhilarating but politically somber night in the theater. Ends Sunday. - T.Z.

Pride and Prejudice (Bristol Riverside Theatre) It's the 200th birthday of Jane Austen's masterpiece. Through Nov. 24.

RFK (New City Stage) This one-man show about the last years of Robert Kennedy's life returns. Through Nov. 24.

She Stoops to Conquer (Quintessence Theatre Group) She's high-born, playing low-born, and he's in her sights, in Oliver Goldsmith's comedy. Through Nov. 24.

Spamalot (Media Theatre) This Monty Python homage won the best-musical Tony. Ends Sunday.

Stick Fly (Arden Theatre) A well-to-do African American family gets together and begins coming apart in Lydia Diamond's contemporary drawing-room play. It works. Through Dec. 22. - D.P.S.

We Are Proud to Present . . . (InterAct Theatre Company) This play, about actors creating a play about an African genocide, first numbs, then stuns with its ferocity. Through next Sunday. - D.P.S.

The Woman in Black (Act II Playhouse) This two-character ghost story twists and turns. Previews Tuesday-Thursday, opens Friday. Through Nov. 24.

You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up (Penn's Landing Playhouse) And this critic seconds that. Through Nov. 24. - W.R.

Video

Parkland ** 1/2 A reconstruction of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and its aftermath, from the hospital the President was rushed to, to the Dallas offices of the FBI where agents bungled and obfuscated. There are no heroes here, and no inspiration to be found. It's history as existential despair. 1 hr. 33 PG-13 (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Philadelphia Orchestra on the Radio

Sunday at 1 p.m. on WRTI (90.1 FM), Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7, influenced by the composer's awareness that Wagner, whom he revered, was near death. This rebroadcast of a January 2013 concert also includes Wagner's tender Siegfried Idyll.EndText