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Movies: New and Noteworthy

COMING THIS WEEK By Steven Rea Before We Go "It's possible you could meet somebody who's perfect for you, even though you're committed to somebody else," says Alice Eve to Chris Evans, who could be her perfect somebody in this strangers-in-the-night New York City romantic adventure. PG-13

COMING THIS WEEK

By Steven Rea

Before We Go "It's possible you could meet somebody who's perfect for you, even though you're committed to somebody else," says Alice Eve to Chris Evans, who could be her perfect somebody in this strangers-in-the-night New York City romantic adventure. PG-13

Grandma Lily Tomlin has been winning accolades on the festival circuit for her performance as a solitary, ornery lesbian poet who helps her teenage granddaughter (Julia Garner) through a problem-plagued day in L.A. Paul Weitz (About a Boy) wrote and directed. R

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney examines the life, death, and deification of the Apple co-founder, whose products have changed the way people live, work, communicate. A good film to watch before the Danny Boyle-directed, Aaron Sorkin-scripted biopic starring Michael Fassbender as Jobs comes out in the fall. R

Also Opening This Week

Chloe and Theo An unlikely friendship develops between a homeless New Yorker (Dakota Johnson) and an Arctic Inuit man (Theo Ikummaq).

Jane Got a Gun A wife (Natalie Portman) desperately seeks help from her former boyfriend when her husband winds up in the crosshairs of a dangerous motorcycle gang.

Kitchen Sink The delicate balance among humans, vampires, and zombies is upset by the arrival of extraterrestrials in this horror spoof.

The Transporter Refueled The action series is rebooted with this prequel that stars Ed Skrein as Frank Martin.

Excellent (****)

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 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 shot on smartphones 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, adult themes) - S.R.

Listen to Me Marlon Brilliant documentary portrait of Marlon Brando, narrated by the actor himself - culled from more than 200 hours' worth of personal audiotapes in which the star reflected on his life and work. Lacerating, self-lacerating, full of insight and regret, Brando's commentary - and the amazing footage that goes with it - brings a career back into sharp focus. With clips from A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, The Godfather, and much more. Astounding. 1 hr. 42 No MPAA rating (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Mistress America A screwball comedy about female friendship, betrayal and theft, starring the crazily gesticulative Greta Gerwig as a know-it-all New Yorker who decides to mentor a lonely college freshman new to the big city, played by Lola Kirke. Noah Baumbach directs, from a screenplay he and Gerwig collaborated on, between breaks watching Howard Hawks and Preston Sturges. 1 hr. 24 R (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Very Good (***1/2)

The Diary of a Teenage Girl A 15-year-old girl in freewheeling '70s San Francisco has an affair with her mother's boyfriend in this honest, personal and unblurred examination of a tricky voyage into womanhood. It may sound scandalous, or exploitative, or deeply inappropriate, but the film - written and directed by Marielle Heller, adapted from Phoebe Gloeckner's graphic novel - is none of those things. Instead, it's a revelation. Bel Powley stars, with Kristin Wiig and Alexander Skarsgard. 1 hr. 41 R (sex, nudity, profanity, drugs, adult themes) - S.R.

The End of the Tour Infinite Jest author and literary star David Foster Wallace is interviewed by a writer for Rolling Stone, and the two men bat around ideas big and small for five days in this beautiful, brainy, funny, poignant road movie. Jason Segel stars as the grungy, self-deprecating Wallace; Jesse Eisenberg plays the New York journalist David Lipsky, whose memoir about his conversations with the late Wallace became a book - and now this film. 1 hr. 46 R (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

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.

Shaun the Sheep Shaun takes the day off and winds up with more action than he bargained for in this animated family feature. 1 hr. 25 PG (rude humor) - G.T.

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 has 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.

Also on screens

American Ultra **1/2 Stoner Mike (Jesse Eisenberg) is Bourne again when his deeply buried training as a CIA agent is activated. He becomes a killing machine when his girlfriend, Phoebe (Kristen Stewart), is kidnapped by a rogue agent (Topher Grace). The romance is played straight, which doesn't work when the violence is played for laughs. 1 hr. 37 R (violence) - G.T.

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) costar. Marvel Universe cameos galore. 1 hr. 57 PG-13 (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Best of Enemies *** William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal - righty and lefty intellectuals, respectively - square off as the 1968 Republican and Democratic National Conventions are going on. A bracing view of a pivotal time in politics, and in TV news, as Vietnam and race riots scarred a nation's soul, as the Establishment and the Counterculture exchanged epithets and blows. 1 hr. 27 R (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Digging for Fire *** Industrious microbudget moviemaker Joe Swanberg has assembled another impressive troupe - Jake Johnson, Rosemarie DeWitt, Brie Larson, Anna Kendrick, Sam Elliott, Orlando Bloom, among 'em - for another slice-o'-life shamble, his characters angsting about fidelity, commitment, sex, parenting, friendship and growing old. This time there are human bones, dug up in a garden, to worry about, too. 1 hr. 25 R (profanity, drugs, adult themes) - S.R.

Fantastic Four ** It's overstating things to say this Marvel Comics reboot stars Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell, because rarely has a group of actors appeared less invested in the movie they've signed up for. A long, tedious origin story, introducing the quartet of hangdog superheroes who work best together when they're not bickering, brooding, or running away to South America. 1 hr. 40 PG-13 (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

The Gift *** The lives of a happily married couple take a dark turn after a mysterious former acquaintance of the husband shows up. Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, and Joel Edgerton star. 1 hr. 48 R (Profanity) - G.T.

Hitman: Agent 47 **1/2 Rupert Friend has the title role as an inscrutable super-assassin on the hunt for a woman (Hannah Ware) who herself is trying to track down a mystery man while Zachary Quinto, wearing three-day stubble and not wearing his Spock ears, is another gun-toting dude who joins the chase. Body-count entertainment based on the Hitman video game. R (violence, adult themes) - S.R.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. **1/2 If looks could kill, this dashing reboot of the '60s spy series would be lethal. The perfectly tailored period piece (funny Eastern Bloc automobiles, bold French couture) stars a trio of exceedingly handsome actors - Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander - dashing and deadpanning their way around some exceedingly handsome locales. A lot of energy and effort has gone into the endeavor, and some of it is fun. But more of it, alas, is tedious. 1 hr. 56 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) - S.R.

Meru **1/2 Filmmaker Jimmy Chin documents his ascent - along with friends - to the top of Meru, a Himalayan mountain harder to climb than Everest. But the facts are a bit too wishy-washy for documentary standards. 1 hr. 27 R (profanity) - G.T.

Minions *** A spin-off of, and prequel to, the Despicable Me movies starring a trio of yellow, pill-shape pipsqueaks who speak in an indecipherable 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-slapping wackiness of a stoner comedy. 1 hr. 31 PG (cartoon mayhem, adult themes) - S.R.

No Escape *** A taut, violent thriller with a xenophobic bent, about an American family who show up in an unnamed Southeast Asian capital just as a bloody coup erupts. "Dad, are people trying to kill us?" wonders the cute little girl. Owen Wilson, as her pop, tries to answer that one. Lake Bell and Pierce Brosnan also star. 1 hr. 43 R (intense violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

The Prophet **1/2 Khalil Gibran's poetic essays come to life in this movie brought to the screen by Salma Hayek. The story is too weak to support the essays, but the animation is lovely. Running time: 1 hr. 27 PG (light violence and sensual imagery) - M.E.

Ricki and the Flash ** Finally - and the news should really come as a relief - here's a role Meryl Streep shouldn't have tried, in a movie that shouldn't have been made. As a rock-and-roller fronting a So-Cal bar band, the actress with the most Oscar nominations of anyone in history can carry a tune, but she can't carry the character of a tattooed, tart-tongued woman who long ago left her family behind in Indiana. When her ex (Kevin Kline) calls with bad news, Ricki has to return home, and seriocomic dysfunctional family melodrama ensues. Juno's Diablo Cody is to blame for the glib script, Jonathan Demme, who should've known better, directs. 1 hr. 42 PG-13 (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Rosenwald *** The remarkable story of Julius Rosenwald, a high school dropout and son of German Jews who became president of Sears and gave millions of his own money to help build schools for African Americans in the Jim Crow South of the early 20th century. A straight-ahead documentary tribute from Aviva Kempner (The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg). No MPAA rating (adult themes) - S.R.

Slow Learners *** Two nerds (Adam Pally and Sarah Burns) decide to change their personalities and up their cool factor to attract mates in this solid, locally shot rom-com. It's the first feature from noted local documentarians Sheena Joyce and Don Argott. 1 hr. 36 R (profanity) - G.T.

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.

Straight Outta Compton *** Legendary gangsta rappers N.W.A get the biopic treatment. The film follows Ice Cube (played by the real rapper's son, O'Shea Jackson Jr.), Dr. Dre, Eazy E, and crew as they come up in Compton - easily the movie's best part - through their record company-related woes, featuring Paul Giamatti wearing cinema's worst hairpiece. 2 hrs. 02 R (profanity) - G.T.

Z for Zachariah *** Ann (Margot Robbie) is living alone after a mysterious event has wiped out humanity, until John (Chiwetel Ejiofor) enters her quiet existence. They harmoniously (for the most part) live together, until a third, Caleb (Chris Pine) enters their mix. Director Craig Zobel examines how in extraordinary situations we still crave human contact, even if it will destroy us. 1 hr. 37 PG-13 (profanity, sexual situations) - M.E.