Weekend Movie Selections

St. Vincent. Bill Murray owns the title role as a curmudgeon whose world is upended when a single mom (Melissa McCarthy) and her 12-year-old (a terrific Jaeden Lieberher) move in next door. The kid needs a caretaker, and Vincent needs cash. Life lessons, and inappropriate behavior, ensue. PG-13

Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance.) Michael Keaton is a faded Hollywood star trying to reclaim his career by mounting a Broadway drama in Alejandro G. Iñárritu's fierce, funny, breathless dive inside the head of a man in deep trouble. R

Whiplash. Miles Teller (the student) and J.K. Simmons (the teacher) star in Damien Chazelle's propulsive drama about an aspiring jazz musician's torturous mentorship at a New York conservatory. It's a hyperventilated nightmare about artistic struggle and ambition - as much a horror movie as it is a keenly realized indie about jazz, about art, about what it takes to claim greatness. R