This week’s dollop of Oscar-bait is a well intentioned account of the marriage and subsequent incarceration of an interracial couple in 1958 that led to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn state laws prohibiting mixed marriage. With the fact-based outcome predetermined, it’s up to the storyteller to make the journey through the details as narratively compelling as possible. Directors make movies, not issues, and while Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud) has a proven track record of summoning southern atmospherics, when it was over, my watch said two hours and my butt screamed Gone With the Wind. A pair of solemn, unostentatious performances by Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton help to raise the bar just slightly higher than the one set by a benignly routine Lifetime movie. And in case you don’t know how to react, there’s an overbearing score by David Wingo to telegraph every smile and tear. With Nick Kroll and Will Dalton (2016) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.