New and Noteworthy: Movies

OPENINGS TO LOOK FOR

By Steven Rea

Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day. From the beloved Judith Viorst children's book, with Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner as the parents and Ed Oxenbould in the title role, as a kid who wakes up and, well, things go wrong. PG

The Judge. Robert Downey Jr. is a slick city lawyer who returns to his Midwest hometown for his mother's funeral, only to find that his father - Robert Duvall, in the title role - has been charged with murder. Family dysfunction and voir dires ensue. R

The Two Faces of January. From the Patricia Highsmith novel, a 1960s period-piece suspenser set in Greece, where an easygoing American with a bit of the con artist in him meets a hustler of considerably more heft and heartlessness - and his beautiful wife, too. Oscar Isaac, Viggo Mortensen, and Kirsten Dunst star. R

Addicted A successful businesswoman, wife and mother (Sharon Leal) risks it all when she can't resist temptation.

 Dracula Untold This origin tale looks at the man who would become the legendary vampire.

The Guest The family of a deceased soldier takes in a guest who claims to have fought with their son in this thriller.

I Am Ali Documentary on the three-time heavyweight champion and cultural icon.

 Kill the Messenger A reporter's life heads into a tailspin after he exposes CIA secrets.

Lilting A Chinese mother living in London mourns the death of her son while dealing with the presence of a stranger.

Men, Women & Children High school students and their parents deal with the social changes brought on by our rapidly changing modes of communication and technology.

Nas: Time Is Illmatic This documentary looks at hip-hop artist Nas.

Pride British gay activists work in support of a national mine workers' strike during the mid-1980s.

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 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.

Gone Girl Filmmaker David Fincher pulls off a cannily crafted adaptation of Gillian Flynn's bestseller, a whodunit and a who-are-you-gonna-believe mystery about the diappearance of a wife (Rosamund Pike), and the husband (Ben Affleck) who becomes the prime suspect. With Tyler Perry, Kim Dickens, Neil Patrick Harris. 2 hrs. 29 R (violence, sex, nudity, 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.

Tracks Mia Wasikowska stars as the real-life Robyn Davidson, who, in 1977, embarked on a daunting 2,000-mile solo trek across the Australian outback - just her, four camels and a dog. A beautiful, soul-stirring film. 1 hr. 52 PG-13 (profanity, nudity, adult themes) - S.R.

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.

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.

Left Behind A mediocre, undwhelming disaster movie cut from the same cloth as 1970's Airport, Left Behind stars Nicolas Cage as an airline pilot whose jumbo jet experiences a supernatural event midway through a trans-Atlantic flight. 1 hr. 50 PG-13 (some violent scenes, brief drug use) - T.D.

The Maze Runner 1/2 The first installment in James Dashner's bestselling YA book series, transplanted to the screen with a surprising commitment to creep audiences out. A mix of Lord of the Flies fraternal feuding, Tarantula sci-fi menace, the Kafka-esque social order of the '60s cult series The Prisoner, and the garbage compactor scene from the first Star Wars - squared. 1 hr. 43 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) - S.R.

This Is Where I Leave You When their father dies, the four grown siblings at the center of Shawn Levy's blithely manipulative dysfunctional family comedy - a downer, really - bring their respective spouses, lovers and bags of woe back to their childhood home. 1 hr. 43 R (profanity, sex, nudity, adult themes) - S.R.