Movies: New and Noteworthy

COMING THIS WEEK

By Steven Rea

Vacation (Opens Wednesday) Second-generation road-trip buffoonery, as little Rusty Griswold from the original National Lampoon's Vacation is now grown-up Russell Griswold (Ed Helms), on a summer getaway with his wife (Christina Applegate) and their two sons. Destination: Walley World. Supporting cast: Chris Hemsworth, Leslie Mann and a cameo appearance from Chevy Chase himself. R

Irrational Man Woody Allen's latest finds Joaquin Phoenix as an angst-ridden philosophy prof who falls into a relationship with one of his students, played by Emma ..Stone. Parker Posey looks on, not amused. R

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation The fifth installment in the Tom Cruise action franchise based on the 1960s TV show. In this one, Ethan and his team have to prove the existence of a shadowy group of rogue ops and bring them down - before the IMF (no, not the International Monetary Fund) is closed down for good. With Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Ving Rhames - and Alec Baldwin, barking commands. PG-13

A LEGO Brickumentary The popular toy building blocks and their global appeal are examined.

The Look of Silence Survivors of the Indonesian genocide of the mid-1960s confront the man who killed their brother in this documentary.

Stanford Prison Experiment Students are divided into prisoners and guards for a psychology experiment that goes further than anyone imagined in proving the dangers of absolute power.

Reviewed by critics Steven Rea (S.R.), Tirdad Derakhshani (T.D.), Dan DeLuca (D.D.), Molly Eichel (M.E.), and Gary Thompson (G.T.). W.S. denotes a wire-service review.

Amy An extraordinary documentary about Amy Winehouse, the British singer who died in 2011, at age 27, a victim of too much drink, too many drugs, and too much fame. Soul-stirring, heartbreaking, the film uses a trove of archival film, much of it it shot on smart phones by friends, lovers, bandmates, roadies, record execs and fans, to trace the life and blazing career of the singer and songwriter with the trademark beehive, the tats and the fearsome talent. 2 hrs. 08 R (drugs, profanity, adfult themes) - S.R.

Inside Out The central characters in Pixar's propulsively inventive animated adventure aren't talking toys or cars. They're emotions: Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Sadness, jockeying for control in the mind of a preteen girl. The first psychological thriller that's fun for the whole family. Really psychological. And really fun. From the director of Up, with the voice talents of Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, and Bill Hader. 1 hr. 34 PG (scary corners of the mind, adult themes) - S.R.

Jimmy's Hall The life and times of the Irish Communist James "Jimmy" Gralton, in a stirring saga full of soapbox socialism and lush green country scapes, from the sure hand of the prolific British filmmaker Ken Loach. 1 hr. 49 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) - S.R.

Love & Mercy Breathtaking psychological biopic of Brian Wilson, the songwriting savant behind the Beach Boys, toggling back and forth between the mid-'60s and the band's landmark Pet Sounds album and the'80s, when Brian, wrongly diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, was under the despotic care of psychologist Eugene Landy. Paul Dano is brilliant as the young Brian; John Cusack brings the middle-age and broken Brian to life. Elizabeth Banks and Paul Giamatti co-star. 1 hr. 52 PG-13 (drugs, violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl The title characters are high school boys who make impish movie shorts that riff on the film classics they watch during lunch so they don't have to hang out with other kids (some of their masterworks: Eyes Wide Butt, Senior Citizen Kane). They are forced to befriend a girl dying of leukemia in this gut-punch of a film that avoids cliche. 1 hr. 44 PG-13 (sexual content, drug material, profanity, and some thematic elements) - G.T.

Mr. Holmes Ian McKellen is brilliant as the aging Sherlock Holmes, retired to the countryside, where he keeps bees and tries to keep what's left of his memory from slipping away. A sad, lovely film, reuniting the star with his Gods and Monsters director, Bill Condon. 1 hr. 52 PG (adult themes) - S.R.

Spy The unabashed and unapologetic Melissa McCarthy stars as a desk-bound CIA officer unexpectedly sent into the field - Paris, Rome, Budapest - in this lunatic cloak-and-dagger farce directed by Bridesmaids' Paul Feig. Allison Janney, Miranda Hart, Jude Law, and a very funny Jason Statham also star, with Rose Byrne and her piles of hair as the villain of the tale. 2 hrs. R (profanity, raunch, violence, adult themes) - S.R.

Tangerine A heartwarming tale of humanity punctuated by the clack of prostitutes' heels, by screaming matches in divy motels and the admonishments of a donut shop owner threatening to call the police. Sean Baker's iPhone 5-shot film dives into the world of transgender sex workers on the streets of L.A., following two friends - played by newcomers Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor - looking for their pimp. Kind of funny, and then kind of not. 1 hr. 27 R (profanity, nudity, sex, adult themes) - S.R.

Trainwreck Amy Schumer stars in (and wrote) this deft Judd Apatow-directed comedy, about a commitment-phobic New York magazine writer who unexpectedly tumbles for a sports medicine doc (Bill Hader) she's been assigned to profile. A showcase for Schumer's cutting brand of comedy, the film smoothly switches tracks from raunchy copulatory one-liners to compulsory rom-com schmaltz to emotionally raw business about relationships, family, self-image, and self-destructiveness. The stellar supporting cast includes Brie Larson, Tilda Swinton, Colin Quinn and, yes, NBA superstar LeBron James. 2 hrs. 05 R (sex, profanity, drugs, adult themes) - S.R.

Ant-Man *** Paul Rudd, droll and deadpan, is a cat burglar with an electrical engineering degree who puts on a weird, retro getup and can suddenly shrink himself to the size of an ant-and communicate with the ants, too. Clever bits emerge from long stretches of exposition and exploding stuff. Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly and Corey Stoll (the villain) co-star. Marvel Universe cameos galore. 1 hr. 57 PG-13 (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Boulevard *** Directed by rocker, author, and filmmaker Dito Montiel (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints), this modest, moving indie picture features a carefully controlled, implosive performance by Robin Williams, in his final film, as a melancholy, self-effacing 60-year- old closeted gay man who re-evaluates his loving, if passionless, 35-year marriage to Joy (Kathy Baker) when he falls for a male hustler (Roberto Aguire). 1 hr. 27 R (profanity, adult themes, sexuality) - T.D.

Do I Sound Gay? *** Writer David Thorpe looks at the linguistic properties and cultural constructions that have created a "gay voice." Ultimately, he turns the camera on himself, asking why he sees his own gay sound as a problem to begin with. 1 hr. 17 No MPAA rating - W.S.

The Gallows 1/2* This addition to the growing refuse pile of dreadful found-footage horror pics labors under the delusion that shaking, bumping, dropping, sliding, throwing, pitching, and kicking handheld cameras and minicams while 20-something actors run around on an ill-lit sound stage amounts to an experience of terror. It does not. 1 hr. 21 R (violence, profanity) - T.D.

Hippocrates: Diary of a French Doctor **1/2 Feel good hospital dramedy from France is about an overconfident, narcissistic new intern (Vincent Lacoste) at a run-down hospital hit hard by budget cuts who learns a little about medicine and a lot about compassion from an older Algerian doctor (Reda Kateb). 1 hr. 42 No MPAA rating (Profanity, smoking) - T.D.

Infinitely Polar Bear *** Deeply personal and filled with love, Maya Forbes' directing debut is drawn from her experiences growing up with a father diagnosed with manic depression. The film throws a memoir-ish lasso around late-1970s, Cambridge, Mass., with Mark Ruffalo as the careening dad, Zoe Saldana as the mom trying to pursue a career and Imogene Wolodarsky (Forbes' real-life daughter) and Ashley Aufderheide as the young girls caught in the throes. A movie seen through a child's viewfinder and the filter of memory; as adults, obseving from a distance, the landscape of mental illness looks more troubling. 1 hr. 28 R (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Jurassic World *** The genetically spliced mega-beast that runs amok in the third Jurassic Park sequel is trumpeted by its theme-park creators as "bigger, scarier, cooler." The movie is bigger and it is pretty scary. But it's not cooler, or smarter, than the original. Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt lead a cast whose main job is to run for their lives. A lot of them don't make it. 2 hrs. 04 PG-13 (intense action, dino violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Max ** A dog returns from war to the family of the deceased soldier who used to care for him. Family-style sentimentality ensues between hero dog Max and troubled Justin (Josh Wiggins). Max goes off the rails when he goes from canine to James Bond-style foiler of crimes. 1 hr. 51 PG (action violence, peril, brief language)

- M.E.

Minions *** A spinoff of, and prequel to, the Despicable Me movies, starring a trio of yellow, pill-shaped pipsqueaks who speak in an undecipherable tongue and find themselves in the merry employ of a supervillain bent on usurping the British throne. It's 1968 (when else?) and mayhem rules the day. A hyperanimated animated farce with shades of Silent Era slapstick, Three Stooges slapfests, and the jaw-slappping wackiness of a stoner comedy. 1 hr. 31 PG (cartoon mayhem, adult themes) - S.R.

Paper Towns ** A road-trip teen-romance and scavenger-hunt of a movie adapted from John Green's YA novel of the same name. Green wrote The Fault In Our Stars, which was made into a tearjerking hit. This one isn't a tearjerker, and isn't likely to be a hit, either. It name-drops a lot of cool stuff, but the essence of the story and the cardboard characters inhabiting it are as mundane as can be. 1 hr. 49 PG-13 (adolescent themes) - S.R.

Pitch Perfect 2 *** The Barden Bellas are underdogs once more in the sequel to the 2012 sleeper hit. After a humiliating incident in front of the president, the all-female a cappella powerhouses attempt to make their way to the world championships. It's pretty much the same movie as the first, but that's not a bad thing. PG-13 (innuendo and language). - M.E.

Pixels **1/2 Adam Sandler and buddies (including Frozen's Josh Gad, frequent collaborator Kevin James, and Game of Thrones' Peter Dinklage) band together to fight an alien race that has appropriated video games characters to attack the human race. 1 hr. 46 PG-13 (language, suggestive comments) - W.S.

Self/less ** Ben Kingsley is a dying kabillionaire who undergoes a radical, and radically expensive, experimental procedure, having his consciousness transplanted into the brain and body of a strapping thirtysomething played by Ryan Reynolds. Suddenly, Gandhi looks like Green Lantern. Disturbing. 1 hr. 56 PG-13 (violence, sex, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Southpaw *** Jake Gyllenhaal is fierce and muscular, in and out of the ring, in this shameless boxing melodrama about a champ who loses everything and then fights to get his everything back. With Rachel McAdams, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and Oona Laurence. 2 hrs. 03 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Ted 2 **1/2 Seth MacFarlane's talking bear returns to smoke a lot of weed, hang on the couch with his buddy John (Mark Wahlberg), and fight the power by reimagining the Dred Scott decision so that his wife can have a baby. 1 hr. 55 R (language) - G.T.

Unexpected **1/2 Cobie Smulders actually was pregnant while shooting this gentle, thoughtful, if sometimes naive drama about a 30-year-old Chicago public-school teacher who goes through her first pregnancy with the help and love of a teenage student who also has become pregnant (Gail Bean). The chemistry between them is simply terrific. Their performances almost save the film from its earnest, if bumbling, attempts to make a statement about the social, economic, and racial differences that divide the two characters. 1 hr. 25 R (profanity, sexuality) - T.D.