Film Shorts

Anomalisa (R) This stop-motion animated movie is remarkable, even if its depressive brilliance remains a closed book to you. David Thewlis portrays a British expat and corporate consultant who travels to Cincinnati in 2005 for a presentation. Adapted by Charlie Kaufman from his own stage play, the movie’s great inspired touch is having everyone in the main character’s life have the same face and voice (Tom Noonan’s) except for the woman (Jennifer Jason Leigh) he falls in love with. Some comic nightmare business doesn’t work, and the main character is a drag, but Leigh gives affecting luminescence to a damaged, lonely woman and the film features the most realistic sex scene in all of 2015’s movies. Whatever its flaws, this is unique. (Re-opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)

Hail, Caesar! (PG-13) The Coen brothers’ Hollywood satire stars Josh Brolin as a 1950s studio fixer who tries to solve the kidnapping of an A-list star (George Clooney). Also with Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, Dolph Lundgren, Clancy Brown, David Krumholtz, Alison Pill, Christopher Lambert, Fisher Stevens, Alden Ehrenreich, Alex Karpovsky, and Frances McDormand. (Opens Friday)

The Lady in the Van (PG-13) Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings star in this movie based on Alan Bennett’s memoir about the homeless woman who lived in his driveway for several months. Also with Jim Broadbent, Roger Allam, Richard Griffiths, Dominic Cooper, Frances de la Tour, Claire Foy, Stephen Campbell Moore, and James Corden. (Opens Friday in Dallas)

Misconduct (R) Josh Duhamel stars in this thriller as a lawyer who finds himself enmeshed in corruption while trying to take on a big pharmaceutical company. Also with Al Pacino, Alice Eve, Julia Stiles, Malin Akerman, Lee Byung-hun, Chris Marquette, and Anthony Hopkins. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)

The Monkey King 2 (NR) Gong Li stars in this continuation of the saga based on the ancient Chinese folk tale. Also with Aaron Kwok, Feng Shaofeng, Kelly Chen, Xiao Shen-Yang, and Kris Phillips. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (PG-13) Lily James (Cinderella) stars in this adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s postmodern patch on Jane Austen’s novel. Also with Sam Riley, Bella Heathcote, Suki Waterhouse, Ellie Bamber, Millie Brady, Matt Smith, Aisling Loftus, Dolly Wells, Emma Greenwell, Charles Dance, and Lena Headey. (Opens Friday)

600 Miles (R) Kristyan Ferrer stars as a Mexican weapons smuggler who befriends an ATF agent (Tim Roth) after kidnapping him. Also with Mónica del Carmen, Noé Hernández, Harris Kendall, Greg Lutz, and Julian Sedgwick. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)

Southbound (R) This five-part anthology horror film takes place along the same deserted stretch of highway. Starring Larry Fessenden, Hannah Marks, Maria Olsen, Justin Welborn, Kate Beahan, and Chad Villella. (Opens Friday in Dallas)

The Big Short (R) Manages to be a fun movie about a subject that isn’t fun, the 2008 housing crash and recession. The film tracks the crisis through the viewpoints of several characters, including an eccentric money manager (Christian Bale), a perpetually angry hedge-fund guy (Steve Carell), and a smarmy investment banker (Ryan Gosling). Director Adam McKay (Anchorman) interpolates a number of interludes using celebrities like Margot Robbie and Selena Gomez to explain complicated financial concepts in layman’s terms. He’s less good at depicting the financial pain that the downturn caused, but he illuminates the stupidity and incestuous relationships among the major players in a way that the popcorn crowd can grasp. Also with Marisa Tomei, John Magaro, Finn Wittrock, Rafe Spall, Hamish Linklater, Jeremy Strong, Tracy Letts, Karen Gillan, Max Greenfield, Billy Magnussen, Melissa Leo, and Brad Pitt.

The Boy (PG-13) Much less than it promises. This horror movie stars Lauren Cohan as an American nanny who’s hired by an elderly British couple (Jim Norton and Diana Hardcastle) to take care of the life-size porcelain doll that they treat as their son. Left alone with the doll, the nanny starts to hear strange noises when she fails to follow the couple’s instructions about feeding and dressing it. From this setup, director William Brent Bell (The Devil Inside) fails to generate anything scary, and when the movie finally reveals its cards, the results are truly laughable. The kid’s name is Brahms — you’d think the filmmakers would find something inventive to do with the music by the composer of the same name. Also with Rupert Evans, James Russell, and Ben Robson.

Creed (PG-13) Michael B. Jordan will make you believe in this sequel to the Rocky films. He plays the orphaned son of Apollo Creed who seeks training from his dad’s nemesis and friend Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) in Philadelphia. Director/co-writer Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station) sticks to the template of boxing movies, and his plot developments are strictly predictable. However, the big fight in the middle is filmed in a single take and will make you wonder how the filmmakers did that. Coogler captures the blood and sweat of the ring, and Jordan vibrates with his character’s anger, abandonment issues, and will to win. The future of this series looks in capable hands. Also with Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Tony Bellew, Ritchie Coster, Gabe Rosado, and Graham MacTavish.

Daddy’s Home (PG-13) A rather uninspired outing for Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. Ferrell is a milquetoasty stepdad who’s struggling for acceptance from his wife’s kids when their alpha-male biological dad (Wahlberg) re-enters the picture. A few clever gags dot this thing, one with Ferrell getting drunk at an NBA game and trying to hit a halfcourt shot. Still, the material isn’t there, and director Sean Anders (Horrible Bosses 2) can’t find a rhythm here. The whole thing passes over without making all that much of an impression. Also with Linda Cardellini, Scarlett Estevez, Owen Vaccaro, Thomas Haden Church, Hannibal Buress, Bobby Cannavale, and John Cena.

Dirty Grandpa (R) Unclean! Unclean! Zac Efron stars in this putrid comedy as a preppy douche who’s forced to drive his recently widowed grandfather (Robert De Niro) to Florida for spring break. I’m not sure what’s more grotesque: Efron as a henpecked corporate straight-arrow, De Niro as an oversexed party animal, or the relentless parade of unfunny sexist and homophobic jokes that run by with depressing regularity. Despite the presence of some nice comic actors, this is a disgrace to everyone involved. Also with Zoey Deutch, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Mantzoukas, Julianne Hough, Dermot Mulroney, and Danny Glover.

Everything About Her (NR) Vilma Santos stars in this drama as a Filipino movie star who must reassess her relationships when she becomes seriously ill. Also with Xian Lim, Angel Locsin, Michael De Mesa, Noni Buencamino, and Khalil Ramos.

The 5th Wave (PG-13) The latest YA apocalyptic thriller stars Chloë Grace Moretz as a teenager trying to save her younger brother (Zackary Arthur) after an alien invasion wipes out most of the world’s population. This might have been okay if the filmmakers had stuck with their heroine, but instead the story (based on Rick Yancey’s novel) splits up into too many tangents, the coincidences pile up near the end, and Moretz is miscast as a girl who has become inured to horror and death. The failure here is fairly comprehensive. Also with Ron Livingston, Maggie Siff, Liev Schreiber, Nick Robinson, Alex Roe, Tony Revolori, Maika Monroe, and Maria Bello.

The Finest Hours (PG-13) The best in the narrow field of movies about the U.S. Coast Guard, though that’s not saying much. Chris Pine stars in this Disney drama based on the real-life rescue of 32 sailors trapped aboard a wrecked oil tanker during a nor’easter off the Massachusetts coast in 1952. Once the weather turns, the movie does well at depicting the scale of the storm and the frantic maneuvers made by the sailors and their rescuers to keep themselves alive. Unfortunately, the human beings in this movie are all made of cardboard, and the hero’s fiancée (Holliday Grainger) is only there to shed pretty tears at her man’s bravery. Director Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) has become completely subsumed by the Disney house style. Also with Ben Foster, Casey Affleck, Kyle Gallner, John Magaro, Graham McTavish, Beau Knapp, Josh Stewart, Abraham Benrubi, John Ortiz, Keiynan Lonsdale, and Eric Bana.

Fifty Shades of Black (R) The whole Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon presents a huge target for satire, and yet this parody somehow contrives to miss it. Kali Hawk plays a dowdy geek journalist who interviews a hugely successful businessman (Marlon Wayans) with a kinky side. The thing devolves into predictable sex jokes that you could have gotten from any other comedy. There’s also a Whiplash parody embedded in here for reasons that pass understanding. The movie that this is spoofing is funnier than the actual spoof. Also with Jane Seymour, Mike Epps, Affion Crockett, and Fred Willard.

The Forest (PG-13) An intriguing premise and lead actress are completely wasted in this woefully uncreative horror movie that stars Natalie Dormer as an American who travels to Japan after her twin sister disappears in a real-life forest near Mt. Fuji where people sometimes go to kill themselves. Director Jason Zada can’t conjure any scares from either the forest or the angry spirits said to be dwelling within, and Dormer flails around as both the troubled twin and the determined heroine. The movie is padded out with lots of closeups of the wildlife — if lichens and snails scare you, you’re welcome to this movie. Also with Taylor Kinney, Yukiyoshi Ozawa, Ibuki Kaneda, and Eoin Macken.

The Good Dinosaur (PG) All visuals, no story. Set in a world where dinosaurs didn’t go extinct, Pixar’s latest film is about a young apatosaurus (voiced by Raymond Ochoa) who gets separated from his family and has to make his own way back with the help of a human boy (voiced by Jack Bright). The animation looks fantastic rendering flash floods and a dinosaur stampede, but the cutesy characters are something you’d find in a Disney movie from the 1960s, and the only flash of real wit is when the hero meets an anxiety-ridden dinosaur (voiced by the director, Peter Sohn) who enlists furry woodland creatures as his guardians. An unimpressive outing from the studio. Additional voices by Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand, Steve Zahn, Sam Elliott, Anna Paquin, and John Ratzenberger.

The Hateful Eight (R) Lesser Quentin Tarantino but still a lot of fun. Kurt Russell stars in this Western as a bounty hunter who’s stranded with his prisoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh) by a snowstorm in a remote store filled with killers. Tarantino’s too much in love with his own nasty dialogue in the first third of this epic, but the plot machinery that kicks in during the second half is quite clever. We also get tasty performances from a gleefully unhinged Leigh as well as Walton Goggins as a racist sheriff who’s smart enough to know when someone’s trying to play on his prejudices. The three-hour running time does include an intermission so you can stretch out. Also with Samuel L. Jackson, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, James Parks, and Channing Tatum.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (PG-13) This last installment of the dystopian saga is pretty ramshackle, but Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen makes sure you follow it to the end. She and the rebels launch a final attack on the Capitol and the dictator of Panem (Donald Sutherland). The narrative too often stops dead here for tedious discussions about Katniss’ feelings, but this final installment puts lots of tough women around Katniss, and Lawrence continues to excel in this role. This series would have fallen apart without her sharp edges and soft center. Also with Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Willow Shields, Sam Claflin, Mahershala Ali, Jena Malone, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, Natalie Dormer, Michelle Forbes, Gwendoline Christie, Elden Henson, Patina Miller, Paula Malcolmson, and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Ip Man 3 (PG-13) The third chapter in the biography of the legendary kung fu master finds him (Donnie Yen) in Hong Kong in the 1950s trying to keep gangsters and crooked land developers from pushing out honest, hard-working folk. The movie goes softer on the xenophobia than the first two installments, but Yen can’t handle the dramatics when Ip Man loses his wife (Lynn Hung) to cancer. The martial-arts action isn’t up to the preceding films, though at least Yen gets to square off with an American gangster (Mike Tyson) and a popping final showdown with a would-be Wing Chun usurper (Zhang Jin). The action sequences don’t quite make up for the dramatic failures here. Also with Patrick Tam, Kent Cheng, Karena Ng, Leung Ka-Yan, and Chan Kwok-Kwan.

Jane Got a Gun (R) Beset by production troubles that delayed it for years, this Western finally makes it to the screen, and it’s mostly dull except for a really bad final plot twist. Natalie Portman plays a woman in post-Civil War New Mexico who has to enlist the help of her war veteran ex-fiancé (Joel Edgerton) after her husband (Noah Emmerich) is badly wounded by a vicious gang that’s now coming after her. Portman’s too polished by half to portray a frontierswoman, but her emotional outbursts are the only thing that liven up this too-close-to-the-vest romance. Gavin O’Connor (Miracle) directs uninspiredly, though at least he showed up to the set on time. Also with Rodrigo Santoro, Boyd Holbrook, and Ewan McGregor.

Kung Fu Panda 3 (PG) Better than Kung Fu Panda 2. Jack Black reprises his role as the roly-poly animated panda who must battle another villain (voiced by J.K. Simmons) while figuring out where he fits after his long-lost biological father (voiced by Bryan Cranston) turns up. The latter is handled deftly and with a gratifying lack of syrup, and the movie comes up with some neat slapstick as the hero tries to train his fellow pandas in kung fu. Sadly, the villain is boring and the martial-arts action isn’t as inspired as it was in the original. Still, it’s a nice little treat for Chinese New Year. Additional voices by Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, David Cross, James Hong, Randall Duk Kim, Wayne Knight, Jean-Claude van Damme, and Kate Hudson.

The Revenant (R) It looks amazing, but looks can be deceiving. Leonardo DiCaprio stars in this Western based on the real-life story of a fur trapper in 1823 who gets mauled by a bear and left for dead by a colleague (Tom Hardy, upstaging the star as a murderous malcontent) before walking 200 miles through the wilderness in the dead of winter to get revenge. Cinematographer Emanuel Lubezki photographs the natural setting so that it makes a menacing backdrop, and director Alejandro González Iñárritu does great with the action sequences, especially the bear attack. Still, this can’t avoid the curdling self-importance that infects all of Iñárritu’s films. He seems to think he’s bringing these movies down from a mountaintop on stone tablets. This is a terrific 120-minute Western stuck in the body of a 150-minute epic. Also with Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter, Forrest Goodluck, Duane Howard, and Lukas Haas.

Ride Along 2 (PG-13) A movie that gives not one but two major roles to Asian-American actors, even if one of them is playing a Latina. That’s pretty much the only mark of distinction for this lame sequel that features Ice Cube and Kevin Hart as Atlanta cops and soon-to-be brothers-in-law who travel to Miami to help a narcotics detective (Olivia Munn) and a computer hacker (Ken Jeong) take down a drug lord (Benjamin Bratt). The crime plot actually isn’t bad, but the movie stubbornly refuses to raise a laugh despite the frantic efforts of Hart and Jeong. Also with Tika Sumpter, Bruce McGill, Michael Rose, Nadine Velazquez, Sherri Shepherd, and Tyrese Gibson.

Room (R) Brie Larson dominates the year’s best prison movie as a woman who tells her 5-year-old son (Jacob Tremblay) that the 120 square-foot room that they live in is the whole world, when actually she’s been imprisoned there for his whole life by a rapist. Like the Emma Donoghue novel that this is based on, this does a wondrous job of telling the story from the boy’s point of view, and director Lenny Abrahamson eschews flourishes in the room’s cramped space while capturing the slow flow of time in captivity. Tremblay holds up well in a demanding role, but it’s Larson who brings great warmth and kindness to the showy part of a mother who’s always on the verge of snapping both before and after she gets free. Despite their extraordinary circumstances, these characters are remarkably similar to other mothers and sons in their devotion to each other. Also with Sean Bridgers, Cas Anvar, Tom McCamus, William H. Macy, and Joan Allen.

Sisters (R) Tina Fey and Amy Poehler may be crushing it in real life, but they continue to underwhelm as a comedy team in movies. They portray middle-aged siblings who decide to throw one last party at their parents’ house before it’s sold. The stars are too good at ad-libbing not to hit the mark on a few stray jokes, but casting Fey as the wild sister and Poehler as the straightedge proves to be the wrong move, and director Jason Moore (Pitch Perfect) can’t build up any momentum. These two need better help coming from behind the camera. Also with Maya Rudolph, Ike Barinholtz, James Brolin, Dianne Wiest, John Cena, John Leguizamo, Bobby Moynihan, Brian D’Arcy James, Heather Matarazzo, Rachel Dratch, Samantha Bee, and Kate McKinnon.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (PG-13) J.J. Abrams carries George Lucas’ legacy forward better than Lucas could have ever done. Picking up the saga some decades later, this seventh installment sees the disappearance of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) bring together an ace pilot (Oscar Isaac), a defecting stormtrooper (John Boyega), and a local scavenger (Daisy Ridley) together on a desert planet. Abrams slips into Lucas’ narrative rhythms, restores the breezy sense of fun that made the first trilogy such hits, and writes far better dialogue than Lucas. No wonder Harrison Ford seems energized reprising his role as Han Solo. The younger cast members are up for this, and the plentiful callbacks for older fans don’t get in the way of the story’s forward movement. The Force is with J.J. Abrams. Also with Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Simon Pegg, Greg Grunberg, and Max von Sydow.

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (R) Michael Bay tries to make Zero Dark Thirty. It doesn’t work. His account of six private security contractors who try to fight back during the 2012 attack on the temporary diplomatic facility in Libya degenerates into a squalid exercise in white guys mowing down faceless hordes of Arabs. The action sequences aren’t that good, the movie expends no thoughts on America’s role in the Middle East (or much of anything else), anyone who doesn’t carry a gun is worthless here, and the patriotic sentimentality that Bay wraps these American characters in is like a dollop of rancid whipped cream on top of this foul concoction. Starring John Krasinski, Pablo Schreiber, Toby Stephens, Max Martini, James Badge Dale, David Denman, David Costabile, Dominic Fumusa, Matt Letscher, and Peyman Moaadi.

45 Years (R) Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay star in this drama about a longtime married couple who receive life-changing news shortly before their anniversary. Also with Geraldine James and Dolly Wells.

Greater (PG) Christopher Severio stars in this biography of Brandon Burlsworth, a walk-on who made college football history at the University of Arkansas. Also with Neal McDonough, Leslie Easterbrook, Michael Parks, Nick Searcy, Quinton Aaron, and M.C. Gainey.

Lazer Team (R) Burnie Burns, Michael Jones, Gavin Free, and Alan Ritchson star in this comedy as four idiots who must save the Earth after stumbling across a UFO crash site. Also with Colton Dunn, Allie DeBerry, Gus Sorola, and Joel Heyman.

Son of Saul (R) Nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, László Nemes’ film is about a Hungarian Jew (Géza Röhrig) who tries to give a boy a proper burial while working in a Nazi concentration camp helping to exterminate other Jews. Also with Levente Molnár, Urs Rechn, Jerzy Walczak, Sándor Zsótér, Marcin Czarnik, Kamil Dobrowolski, and Mihály Kormos.