Another Iranian movie steeped in humanity, with nuances that accentuate the virtues of a tight budget. A teen girl doesn’t want her parents to split, but Islamic and sexist issues intervene, as does grandfatherly Alzheimer’s. The cast is splendid (Sareh Bayat especially, as a scared caregiver), the direction deft and …
A sermon written on a golf scorecard. Young pro Luke (Lucas Black) messes up, his rage fueled by his demanding dad. But in Utopia, Texas, he finds ex-golfer Johnny (Robert Duvall), whose wise week of lessons includes fishing, painting, horses, rodeo, even a delightful lass (Deborah Ann Woll). Duvall, in …
More a tournament of effects. In this franchise, the great sleuth has become a 19th-century Bond empowered by 21st-century pyrotechnics and whiz-by editing. The clues come so fast we’d need a computer to grasp them, as Guy Ritchie puts Sherlock (“Sherley” to his brother) through hectic paces including mad chases, …
Joseph Dorman’s wonderful documentary uses a stunning harvest of photos and film clips to examine the life, art, and context of the man born Solomon Rabinovich, whose stories made literature of Yiddish, inspiring his people and (no minor thing) Fiddler on the Roof. Humor was his central tool for understanding …
Spain’s wizard of chic effrontery, Pedro Almodóvar, again wraps his elegant style around desperate, sexy, ruthless people. But there isn’t the motor of female emotion (and perverse fun) that the gay director often finds in his leading women. Instead, Antonio Banderas is a statuesque plastic surgeon who uses a lithe …
Two women in Shanghai are laotong sisters (bonded chums for life). As one of them researches another laotong pair in 19th-century China, the film opts for long, almost lacquered flashbacks. Wayne Wang’s bland feminist reverie is a scroll of pretty views and stilted acting, with enough big issues (foot-binding, male …
Digitalized but not dim-witted fairy tale, with a heavy dose of gothic gloom and hard action. A few lumbering stretches in Rupert Sanders’s fantasy are not a burden, effects (notably dwarves partly inhabited by famous, funny British actors) are good, and the atmosphere is intense. As chief hunk, Chris Hemsworth …
Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin, like a pocket-issue Marlo Thomas) is the best friend of Darcy (Kate Hudson, still a junior issue of her mother, Goldie Hawn), who plans to marry Dex (Colin Egglesfield, a streamlined issue of Tom Cruise). Loads of old history curl into new plot twists as the women …
He is a pasty, sullen, smoking ex-con in a Norwegian town defined by dirty snow and fishy food. He works as a mechanic and has mechanical sex with two drably available women. He begins to shrug off his criminal instincts, even feeling a nagging pull of loyalty. He is acted …
Director Sofia Coppola explores the nuances of luxurious lassitude, as in Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette. Her new hub of comfy ennui is L.A.’s Chateau Marmont, retro-nest hotel for the rich and cool. That includes young movie star Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff), who can plink Bach on the lobby …
The pale, otherworldly beauty and charisma of Brit Marling give this wispy oddity a center, almost a soul. She is a mysterious cult leader “from the future,” with a secret agenda. Two amateur filmmakers want to expose her as a fraud, but they feel her power. Zal Batmanglij’s direction imposes …
A sci-fi thriller, but not scientific and not thrilling. Chicago glows like Oz as semi-dead war hero Jake Gyllenhaal wakes up on a commuter train in another man’s body. He is a time-tripping projection of the Source Code project run by chill dorks (Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright). Michelle Monaghan is …
Wildly imaginative Welsh teen Oliver (Craig Roberts) plots to lose his virginity to a sly, morose girl (Yasmin Paige) and frets about his nerdy dad (Noah Taylor) and pinched, resentful mom (Sally Hawkins). Submarine has mood fluency and neat observations, but director-writer Richard Ayoade often falls back on flashy technique. …
Animation is colorfully giddy in fantasy sections about a world-web takeover by a toy villain, Love Machine (not a salute to Jacqueline Susann’s once-famed novel). Mamoru Hosoda’s cartoon vision also has bland hero teens, sub-Miyazaki naturalism (trees, clouds, water), sub-Ozu celebration of family values, miserably generic American voiceovers, even a …