Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

New and Noteworthy: Movies

OPENINGS TO LOOK FOR By Steven Rea Tracks. Mia Wasikowska stars as Robyn Davidson, a restless soul who in 1977 took four camels and a dog on a 2,000-mile trek across the Australian outback. Based on Davidson's memoir, it's the first of two features - Reese Witherspoon's Wild is the other - in which women go off on soul-searching solo journeys, trying to eke inner peace from the rugged landscapes. PG-13

Mia Wasikowska is Robyn Davidson in "Tracks," the story of a young woman who makes a solo trek through almost 2,000 miles of the Australian desert. (The Weinstein Company)
Mia Wasikowska is Robyn Davidson in "Tracks," the story of a young woman who makes a solo trek through almost 2,000 miles of the Australian desert. (The Weinstein Company)Read more

OPENINGS TO LOOK FOR

By Steven Rea

Tracks. Mia Wasikowska stars as Robyn Davidson, a restless soul who in 1977 took four camels and a dog on a 2,000-mile trek across the Australian outback. Based on Davidson's memoir, it's the first of two features - Reese Witherspoon's Wild is the other - in which women go off on soul-searching solo journeys, trying to eke inner peace from the rugged landscapes. PG-13

Annabelle. A vintage doll in a long white dress - the perfect present for a couple expecting their first child. But then a demonic force attaches itself to the object, and the Jiffy Pop on the stove bursts into flames. The horror, the horror. R

Left Behind. Nicolas Cage is a jumbo-jet pilot who takes off just as the rapture begins - passengers disappearing from their seats, people everywhere in the world plucked into the sky. It's the End Times, and Cage has to figure out where his daughter went. A reboot of the faith-based 2005 hit of the same name. Apocalyptic. PG-13

Also Opening This Week

Gone Girl Ben Affleck stars as a husband who becomes a suspect after his wife disappears.

 Take Me to the River This documentary follows the recording of a new album by legendary Memphis blues musicians.

Excellent (****)

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

Read complete reviews at www.inquirer.com/movies.

Boyhood Richard Linklater's unassuming masterpiece follows a Texas kid (newcomer Ellar Coltrane) from grade school to college dorm, reconvening cast and crew (including Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke as the parents) a few weeks every year for 12 years, and its carefully observed series of small moments take on quiet, metaphoric power. The faces and features of the actors, children and adults, change, and good stuff, bad stuff, the funny, the sad, the transformative, the banal, all happen in real time. Because, for once in the movies, time is real. 2 hrs. 46 R (profanity, sex, adult themes) - S.R.

Calvary Brendan Gleeson stars as a good priest in a bad world - in the beautiful west country of Ireland - in John Michael McDonagh's stormy whodunit. A furious, darkly funny look at the nature of faith, and the nature of man. 1 hr. 40 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

The Last Days of Vietnam The fall of Saigon and the agonizing decisions faced by American soldiers who were ordered to evacuate only Americans are examined in this documentary. 1 hr. 38 No MPAA rating - T.D.

Very Good (***1/2)

The Drop Tense, evocative neo-noir expanded from a Dennis Lehane short story, with Tom Hardy as a Brooklyn barkeep and Noomi Rapace as the woman who walks into his life - and into a mess of trouble when the bar is robbed by masked gunmen. With James Gandolfini, in his swan-song role, and a pit bull pup that figures prominently. 1 hr. 46 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

The Green Prince This documentary on the son of a Hamas founder who becomes a spy for Israel is an extraordinary achievement. It has all the suspense of a great espionage yarn, but also manages to be a powerful moral document that calls into question the tactics of terrorism. 1 hr. 35 PG-13 (adult subjects, some violent, disturbing images) - T.D.

Love is Strange John Lithgow and Alfred Molina are a longtime couple whose modest, comfortable New York City life is upended when they decide to take advantage of the new gay marriage laws and officially get hitched. Hassles and heartbreak ensue. 1 hr. 34 R (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

A Most Wanted Man One of Philip Seymour Hoffman's last performances is also one of his greatest - as the rumpled, chain-smoking chief of a covert antiterrorist unit in modern-day Hamburg. The actor lives and breathes the role. A taut thriller, adapted from John le Carré's 2008 novel, full of tradecraft and moments of quiet terror, with a stellar supporting cast. 2 hrs. R (profanity, violence, adult themes) - S.R.

Also on Screens

The Boxtrolls *** Antic, stop-motion animation from the company behind Coraline and ParaNorman, about a Victorian-era fairy-tale town where the titular creatures come and go, creating a fuss, but not a fuss worthy of their extermination, which is what one malevolent soul (voiced by Ben Kingsley) claims he wants to do. Adapted from the Alan Snow picture book Here Be Monsters! PG (cartoon violence) - S.R.

Dolphin Story 2 **1/2 Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd return for this sequel. Their team must again rescue Winter after her surrogate mother dies. 1 hr. 47 PG (mild action sequences, one intense scene of animals in peril) - T.D.

The Equalizer *** Denzel Washington stars in this moody, noir-ish rethink of the 1980s TV series, about an ex-secret ops guy who comes to the rescue of the meek and mistreated. When a teenage prostitute (Chloë Grace Moretz) gets roughed up by her Russian mob pimp, our hero comes out of retirement to retire the bad guys - for good. Directed  by Antoine Fuqua. R (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Guardians of the Galaxy *** Chris Pratt rounds up a team of outer-space misfits. Their mission: Does it matter? This breezy comic-book adaptation is the first sci-fi movie to spoof itself. 2 hrs. 2 PG-13 (violence, profanity) - D.H.

Hector and the Search for Happiness * Few comics can portray a man-child as well as Simon Pegg, whose oeuvre is a delightful testament to good writing and solid comic acting. But Pegg throws it all away with his first attempt at a (purportedly) grown-up story – a rancid, insulting, and cynical dramedy about a man who travels around the world to reconnect with his soul. With Rosamund Pike and Toni Collette. R (profanity, brief nudity) - T.D.

If I Stay **1/2 Chloë Grace Moretz stars as a high school girl, a cello prodigy with a hot new boyfriend and a chance to go to Juilliard, when a family drive turns tragic. In a coma, she flashes back on key moments in her childhood and adolescence, and considers whether to fight for her life or move on. From Gayle Forman's top-selling Y.A. novel. 1 hr. 43 PG-13 (profanity, sex, adult themes) - S.R.

Jimi: All Is By My Side *** OutKast's André Benjamin channels '60s rock god Jimi Hendrix in John Ridley's doc-style, fly-on-the-wall dramatization of the not-yet-a-legend's pivotal trip to London, where he met a girl, a manager, and the two Afro-ed English guys who would become his band. With Imogen Poots and Hayley Atwell, and with a wealth of '60s rock and R&B. R (sex, drugs, violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

The Notebook *** This bleak, despairing testament to the cruelty of war - a thinly disguised story about the Nazi occupation of Hungary - focuses on the fate of a pair of 13-year-old twin boys (real-life twins László and András Gyémánt) who are evacuated to the countryside when the capital comes under attack. The boys soon learn the world of adults is a world of hatred, malice, and lust. R (disturbing violent and sexual content including rape, profanity) - T.D.

Plastic *1/2 Identity theft and credit-card fraud never looked as exciting or sexy as in this frothy little heist movie from Britain that starts off with great promise only to devolve midway into an empty derivative shell of a film. With Ed Speleers and Emma Rigby. R (strong violence, nudity, profanity, some drug use) - T.D.

The Skeleton Twins *** Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig play estranged siblings who rediscover their commonality, and the melancholy at their core, in this odd, oddly appealing study of damaged people doing stuff that's at once funny and sad. With Ty Burrell and Luke Wilson. R (profanity, sex, drugs, adult themes) - S.R.

Tusk ** A Canadian podcaster goes missing while out to conduct an interview. Revolting, tasteless, and sure to be a cult favorite among fans of director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mall Rats), Tusk is a schizoid horror comedy with an identity crisis, shifting uncomfortably between shocking body horror and puerile cringe humor. 1 hr. 42 R (profanity, gore, violence, some nudity and sexual content) - T.D.

20,000 Days on Earth *** A memoir-ish, meta-documentary about Nick Cave, the Australian- born, Britain-based singer/ songwriter, novelist, screenwriter, and occasional thespian. His persona is grave, his songs full of doom, but the film is actually quite fun. No MPAA rating (adult themes) - S.R.

Two Night Stand ** Max Nichols (son of Mike) directs a clever if uneven romcom that features strong dialogue and terrific performances but that falls apart with a lame, conventional ending. With Miles Teller and Analeigh Tipton as a Generation Y couple snowed in after a hook-up. R (sexual situations, profanity, some drug use) - T.D.