OPENING
Brahma Anandam (NR) This Telugu-language comedy stars Raja Goutham as a struggling actor who approaches his estranged grandfather (Brahmanandam) for financial help. Also with Vennela Kishore, Priya Vadlamani, Aishwarya Holakkal, Rajeev Kanakala, and Raghu Babu. (Opens Friday)
Bromance (NR) Arjun Ashokan stars in this Malayalam-language comedy as a man who has to work with his brother’s friends to save a wedding. Also with Mathew Thomas, Mahima Nambiar, Kalabhavan Shajohn, Binu Pappu, Shyam Mohan, and Sangeeth Prathap. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Chhaava (NR) This Indian historical epic stars Vicky Kaushal as the 17th-century Maratha king Sambhaji, who takes extreme measures to fight against Mughal rule. Also with Rashmika Mandanna, Akshaye Khanna, Ashutosh Rana, Divya Dutta, Vineet Kumar Singh, Diana Penty, Santosh Juvekar, and Neil Bhoopalam. (Opens Friday)
Daveed (NR) This Malayalam-language sports drama stars Antony Varghese as a boxer trying to fight his way through the ranks. Also with Lijomol Jose, Vijayaraghavan, Saiju Kurup, Kichu Tellus, Mo Ismail, Jess Kukku, and Aju Varghese. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Kid Snow (NR) This Australian sports drama stars Billy Howle as a boxer dealing with personal issues in the 1970s. Also with Tom Bateman, Phoebe Tonkin, Hunter Page-Lochard, Mark Cole Smith, and Nathan Phillips. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Laila (NR) Vishwak Sen stars in this Indian comedy as a barber who goes undercover as a female model. Also with Aakanksha Sharma, Ravi Mariya, Nagineedu, Harsha Vardhan, and Vennela Kishore. (Opens Friday)
Ne Zha 2 (NR) Already one of the highest grossing films in world history, the sequel to the 2019 Chinese animated film has our reincarnated heroes taking on dragon kings of the sea. Voices by Joseph, Han Mo, Chen Hao, Lü Qi, Lü Yanting, Yang Wei, and Zhang Jiaming. (Opens Friday)
Paddington in Peru (PG) Paul King left the series to work with Timothée Chalamet on the Willy Wonka movies, and he seems to have taken everything good with him. This brain-dead and unwatchable third installment has our marmalade-loving bear (voiced by Ben Whishaw) traveling with the Brown family to the Amazon jungle to locate his missing aunt (voiced by Imelda Staunton), only for the trip to turn into a quest to find El Dorado. The movie introduces Olivia Colman as a guitar-strumming nun and Antonio Banderas as a riverboat captain, and both of them are particularly badly served. The same goes for the Brown kids (Samuel Joslin and Madeleine Harris), who are now teenagers and much less interesting. The only time this movie even raises a laugh is during the post-credit sequence, when an uncredited Hugh Grant pops up. He only serves to remind you how much better the last movie was than this slog. Also with Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer, Carla Tous, Julie Walters, Joel Fry, Robbie Gee, Jim Broadbent, and Hayley Atwell. (Opens Friday)
Painkili (NR) The third Malayalam-language film opening this week stars Sajin Gopu as a prisoner who fakes insanity to escape the law only to fall in love. Also with Anaswara Rajan, Chandu Salimkumar, Lijo Jose Pellissery, Riyaz Khan, and Abu Salim. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
You, Me & Her (R) This comedy stars Graham Sibley and Selina Ringel as a married couple who consider the idea of a three-way to spice up their marriage. Also with Sydney Park, Anna Campbell, Ritesh Rajan, Marianna Burelli, and Fiorella Vescovi García. (Opens Friday)
NOW PLAYING
Becoming Led Zeppelin (PG-13) Bernard MacMahon’s documentary focuses on how the band got together and scored their initial successes in the 1960s. The film interviews the three surviving members of the group (Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones) and unearths audio footage of an interview by the press-shy John Bonham, who died in 1980. It also includes behind-the-scenes photographs that haven’t been published to date. The result is a movie that imparts some valuable information to newcomers, while fans of the seminal British rock band can hear the music through a movie theater’s speakers.
The Brutalist (R) The longest of all this year’s Oscar contenders is Brady Corbet’s epic starring Adrien Brody as a Hungarian Jewish architect who immigrates to Philadelphia after World War II. The first half of this movie rather cruises on the strength of its acting, writing, and direction, with Corbet generating some great visuals like the overhead shot of a trainwreck. The film only crystallizes, imperfectly but well enough, in its second half, when the protagonist’s benefactor (Guy Pearce) does something really horrible in the streets of Italy that makes us question everything we’ve come to know about the character. Pearce gives the performance of his career, and the film goes from being about an uncompromising artist into something unique. The film’s 3 hour and 35 minute running time includes a 15-minute intermission, which you will need. Also with Felicity Jones, Raffey Cassidy, Joe Alwyn, Stacy Martin, Isaach de Bankolé, Emma Laird, Ariane Labed, and Alessandro Nivola.
Companion (R) Clever, very clever. Sophie Thatcher portrays a realistic companion robot who goes to a remote mountain cabin with her boyfriend/owner (Jack Quaid) and some of his friends, but when their lecherous Russian host (Rupert Friend) tries to rape her, she kills him even though her programming isn’t supposed to let her do that. First-time filmmaker Drew Hancock botches the beginning and the ending of the story, but the plot revelations in the middle are well-placed and work within the logic of the story, and the boyfriend revealing to the robot that she isn’t a human is a splendid piece of cruelty. That and Thatcher’s performance in the lead make this a science-fiction revenge thriller to root for. Also with Lukas Gage, Harvey Guillén, Megan Suri, Marc Menchaca, Matt McCarthy, and Jaboukie Young-White.
A Complete Unknown (R) The Walk Hard version of Bob Dylan’s life stars Timothée Chalamet as the singer-songwriter during the years 1961-65. Chalamet does a worthy impression of the man whether he’s singing or acting like a jerk in pursuit of his art, and the movie has other terrific musical performances by Monica Barbaro (as Joan Baez), Edward Norton (as Pete Seeger), and Boyd Holbrook (as Johnny Cash). The movie’s depiction of Dylan’s electric performance at the Newport Folk Festival is well-captured as well, with the folk purists throwing garbage on the stage, but the movie can’t convince us in the 2020s that this is any more than a tempest in a teacup. Other movies have done better at puncturing folkie pretensions or the conventions of music biopics. You might as well buy a greatest-hits album or this movie’s soundtrack than buy a ticket. Also with Elle Fanning, Scoot McNairy, Eriko Hatsune, Dan Fogler, Joe Tippett, Andy Talen, P.J. Byrne, and Norbert Leo Butz.
Conclave (PG) They really should make more movies about electing a pope. Ralph Fiennes portrays a Catholic cardinal who’s tasked with running the election for a new pontiff after the previous one passes away. Director Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front) revels in the little details about this infrequent occasion, and the script pretty faithfully follows Robert Harris’ novel with its artfully placed bombshells. The supporting characters are nicely acted by the supporting cast, and Fiennes is in excellent form as a man full of private religious doubts while performing this administrative duty. The setting is so faithfully re-created that you’ll swear the filmmakers snuck the actors and cameras into the Vatican itself. This is the year’s best Christian film, and its best political thriller. Also with Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Lucian Msamati, Sergio Castellitto, Brían F. O’Byrne, Jacek Koman, Carlos Diehz, Merab Ninidze, and Isabella Rossellini. (Re-opens Friday)
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera (R) Like one of Michael Mann’s films, if everything about it sucked. Gerard Butler reprises his role as a cop who goes to Antwerp, ostensibly on vacation but really to hook up with the outlaw (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) who got away from him and a bunch of Serbs to rob the World Diamond Center of $800 million in stones. The heist itself and the aftermath of it take up the last half hour or so of the movie, but everything leading up to it is a slog as the would-be robbers case the joint and fabricate cover identities to get in. Writer-director Christian Gudegast mistakes heaviness and humorlessness for gravity. Also with Evin Ahmad, Salvatore Esposito, Orli Shuka, Nazmiye Oral, Cristian Solimeno, Mark Grosy, Dino Kelly, Fortunato Cerlino, and Stéphane Coulon.
Dog Man (PG) Dav Pilkey’s series of children’s books becomes this frenetic but unexpectedly moving animated film. Director Peter Hastings does the voice of a stupid cop and his genius dog whose lives are saved after a bombing when the dog’s head is glued onto the man’s body. Together, Dog Man aims to thwart a cat supervillain (voiced by Pete Davidson) with a lot of abandonment issues. Those lead the cat to ditch his cloned kitten self (voiced by Lucas Hopkins Calderon), and the movie has some sweet moments when Dog Man takes in the abandoned kitten. Some better writing and a bit of slacking off with the pace might have made this into a great movie. Additional voices by Lil Rel Howery, Isla Fisher, Poppy Liu, Billy Boyd, Maggie Wheeler, Laraine Newman, Cheri Oteri, and Stephen Root.
Flight Risk (R) Mel Gibson goes from historical epics to this pulpy thriller, and aside from a couple of laughable special-effects shots, it’s not half bad. Michelle Dockery plays a U.S. marshal who’s transporting a mob witness (Topher Grace) from the Alaskan wilderness when their single-engine pilot (Mark Wahlberg) turns out to be a mob hit man who’s been sent to kill the witness. Wahlberg has a high time, with his head shaved to look like a balding man and an overegged Texas accent. The film never gets the sort of claustrophobic vibe that the best movies of this type get or the concision that comes from having only three actors appear and speak on the screen, but the film does a good enough job and then gets down on the ground. Voices by Paul Ben-Victor, Maaz Ali, Eilise Guilfoyle, and Leah Remini.
Flow (PG) In this dialogue-free animated film from Latvia, an apocalyptic event has destroyed all human life, and a cat finds that it has to work with a Labrador retriever, a lemur, a capybara, and a secretary bird to survive. Never mind that these animals live in different parts of the world, we’re assuming that global warming has brought them together as well as creating the flood conditions that threaten all of them. I’m less convinced by the part where the animals figure out how to steer a boat through the rising waters. Director Gints Zilbalodis comes up with some breathtaking vistas as the animals make their way through the wreckage of human civilization, including a Roman-style mountain city whose streets the animals paddle through. For all that, I think The WIld Robot covered the same ground more effectively.
Heart Eyes (R) Using a horror movie to parody the tropes of romantic comedies is only a great idea if it works, and this just isn’t funny. Olivia Holt stars as a lovelorn advertising executive who meets her dream guy (Mason Gooding) a few days before Valentine’s Day, when a slasher whose mask has heart-shaped eye holes starts targeting couples in the Seattle area. The script does recognize the sort of coincidences that romcoms traffic in, but the jokes simply don’t land and the murders aren’t inventively staged. The leads are pretty flavorless, too. The current Companion does everything this movie is after and does it better. Also with Jordana Brewster, Devon Sawa, Gigi Zumbado, Ben Black, Lauren O’Hara, Chris Parker, and Michaela Watkins.
I’m Still Here (PG-13) The presumptive front runner for the Oscar for Best International Film is this Brazilian drama that connects intellectually without providing much excitement. Walter Salles (Central Station) adapts Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s memoir about his family and how the forced disappearance of his father (Selton Mello) in 1970 affected them. Fernanda Torres gives a quietly remarkable performance as the Paiva family’s mother, who is radicalized by being thrown in jail herself and has to learn how to manage her family’s finances while refusing to let her country’s military dictatorship rest regarding her husband’s whereabouts. The film effectively uses its tight focus on this one family to comment on living under a government that hires anonymous thugs to do its dirty work and gives them immunity for their crimes, but Salles’ social conscience prevents his movie from taking flight. It feels too much like a history lesson. Also with Valentina Herszage, Guilherme Silveira, Luiza Kosovski, Barbara Luz, Cora Mora, Pri Helena, Maeve Jinkings, Humberto Carrão, Caio Horowicz, Camila Márdila, and Fernanda Montenegro.
Love Hurts (R) But it’s not as painful as watching this. Everything is off about this movie that tries to be a Valentine’s Day romantic comedy and an action-thriller. Ke Huy Quan stars as a former mob hit man who has gone straight and become the top Realtor in Milwaukee, but then he’s tracked down by both his mob boss brother (Daniel Wu) and the mark (Ariana DeBose) whom he let go. Director Jonathan Eusebio can’t manage the balance between humor and action, and the action sequences themselves aren’t memorable. Quan is too nice to play a psychopath who has tamped down his condition to blend in with normal folks, and the subplot with his office assistant (Lio Tipton) falling in love with a contract killer on his trail (Mustafa Shakir) doesn’t pull its weight. This fails on every level. Also with Sean Astin, Cam Gigandet, Rhys Darby, André Eriksen, and Marshawn Lynch.
Moana 2 (PG) The backwash hits the Disney animated sequel pretty hard. Auli’i Cravalho returns as the voice of our Polynesian heroine, who’s sent back out on the ocean to reunite her scattered people and meet back up with Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson). She’s given a crew this time, but her interactions with them aren’t as interesting as you’d hope for. More grievously, Lin-Manuel Miranda has jumped ship, and new songwriters Emily Bear and Abigail Barlow appear to have been given the assignment too soon. Maui remains the best thing about this sequel, with The Rock getting to wisecrack irreverently and sing the movie’s musical highlight, “Can I Get a Chee Hoo?” The sequel shows flashes of some great ideas like a sea monster that looks like a mountainous island, but those can’t keep this from feeling rote. Additional voices by Temuera Morrison, Rachel House, Rose Matafeo, Hualālai Chung, David Fane, Awhimai Fraser, Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, Tofiga Fepulea’i, Alan Tudyk, Jemaine Clement, and Nicole Scherzinger.
Mufasa: The Lion King (PG-13) More interesting, though not necessarily better, than any of Disney’s recent live-action remakes. This prequel shows the young Mufasa (voiced by Aaron Pierre) being orphaned at an early age, taken in by a rival pride, then sent away as a bodyguard to the king’s son (voiced by Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who will betray him and become Scar. Much of the humor comes from the framing story, as Rafiki (voiced by John Kani) narrates the tale along with Timon and Pumbaa (voiced by Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen). We get to see Rafiki prove his mettle as a sage, and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s song for the villainous lion (voiced by Mads Mikkelsen) gratifyingly dings Mufasa’s circle-of-life philosophy. However, director Barry Jenkins seems miscast and uncomfortable with the big climax during an earthquake, and the romantic triangle that drives Mufasa and Scar apart doesn’t land. Still, this seems like a direction Disney should pursue, using these live-action films to continue the animated movies’ stories instead of remaking them. Additional voices by Tiffany Boone, Kagiso Lediga, Preston Nyman, Blue Ivy Carter, Thandiwe Newton, Lennie James, Braelyn Rankins, Theo Somolu, Donald Glover, and Beyoncé.
Nosferatu (R) Robert Eggers’ remake of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic is lustrously beautiful and faithful to a fault. Like the original, it takes place in a fictitious city on the Prussian seacoast in the early 19th century, where a real estate agent (Nicholas Hoult) is lured to Transylvania by a count (Bill Skarsgård) who wants to feast on the blood of the man’s wife (Lily-Rose Depp). The urban setting is new for Eggers’ horror films, and he and cinematographer Jarin Blaschke take full advantage of it for pictorial beauty, while composer Robin Carolan contributes a properly eerie score. Depp creates a scary scene when she starts to have full-body convulsions while somehow remaining lucid as she accuses her husband of prioritizing his career over her. Yet there’s too little of all of Eggers’ strengths as a horror filmmaker, and after more than 100 years of vampire lore, this movie doesn’t do enough that’s new. Also with Willem Dafoe, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Ineson, Emma Corrin, and Simon McBurney.
One of Them Days (R) Keke Palmer and SZA make a capable comedy team in this film that occasionally catches a groove. They portray two women in L.A. who are hard up when one’s boyfriend blows their rent money, so they have nine hours to come up with $1,500 or face eviction. Despite the clock that these characters are on, I really wish director Lawrence Lamont had generated a sense of the time crunch and increasing desperation as the hours go by. Still, the movie has a white woman (Maude Apatow) who moves into this Black apartment complex as part of the gentrification process, and when the women try to take out a payday loan, everything about the business is funny, from the 1,900 percent interest rate to the homeless man (Katt Williams) who begs customers not to take the loan. Also with Vanessa Bell Calloway, Patrick Cage, Joshua David Neal, Gabrielle Dennis, Janelle James, Amin Joseph, Aziza Scott, Dewayne Perkins, Rizi Timane, and Lil Rel Howery.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (PG) About what you’d expect, and not in a good way. When an evil superpowered hedgehog (voiced by Keanu Reeves) breaks out of his prison on Earth, Sonic and his friends (voiced by Ben Schwartz, Colleen O’Shaughnessey, and Idris Elba) have to do the unthinkable and team up with Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) to stop him. Unfortunately, the mad scientist betrays them when he’s reunited with his long-lost grandfather (also Carrey). The hedgehogs go to Tokyo and London as part of their fight, but the movie bogs down in so many platitudes about family that it could qualify as an installment in the Fast & Furious franchise. Even the movie’s left turn into a clone of The Shape of Water can’t save it. Also with James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Lee Majdoub, Adam Pally, Shemar Moore, Natasha Rothwell, Alyla Browne, Tom Butler, Jorma Taccone, and Krysten Ritter.
Thandel (NR) This thriller is about a group of Indian fishermen who create an international incident when they accidentally drift into Pakistani waters. Starring Naga Chaitanya, Sai Pallavi, Karunakaran, and Kalpa Latha.
Wicked (PG) Better than the Broadway hit in some spectacular ways. Cynthia Erivo portrays the future Wicked Witch of the West, who enrolls at a magical school and is forced to room with the future Good Witch of the North (Ariana Grande). This movie only covers the first half of the show and somehow comes off as maximalist rather than bloated. The vocal contributions come from many different places in the cast, with Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz and Jonathan Bailey showing some springy dance moves in “Dancing Through Life,” performed in front of a rotating bookcase. Grande nails the vibe of a princess with a bitchy “me first” streak, but even she can’t take the spotlight from Erivo. Her skillful handling of the reflective numbers keeps the movie from collapsing, and the climax of “Defying Gravity” blows out the lights in the Emerald City. She doesn’t just sing the showstopper, she is the showstopper. Also with Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, Andy Nyman, Keala Settle, Kristin Chenoweth, and Idina Menzel.
Wolf Man (R) Leigh Whannell’s follow-up to his remake of Invisible Man unfortunately falls short of that movie’s expectations. This film largely junks the original movie’s story in favor of one with Christopher Abbott portraying a San Francisco writer who brings his wife and daughter (Julia Garner and Matilda Firth) to his father’s remote cabin in the Oregon wilderness to go through his things, when the family are attacked — and scratched, in the father’s case — and the father starts transforming into a wild beast. The adult leads give their parts everything they have, but Whannell regrettably mixes up his metaphors, and the movie fails to become anything more than just another creature feature. Also with Benedict Hardie and Sam Jaeger.
Dallas Exclusives
Renner (NR) Not a movie about Jeremy Renner, this comedy stars Frankie Muniz as a computer programmer who creates an AI life coach to help him find love. Also with Marcia Gay Harden, Taylor Gray, and Violett Beane.
Vermiglio (R) Maura Delpero’s historical thriller is about an Italian soldier (Giuseppe de Domenico) who deserts the army during World War II and arrives in a remote Alpine village. Also with Tomasso Ragno, Martina Scrinzi, Roberta Rovelli, Carlotta Gamba, Orietta Notari, and Santiago Fondevila.
When I’m Ready (NR) Andrew Ortenberg and June Schreiner star in this romance as a couple who take a road trip while an asteroid threatens to wipe out life on Earth. Also with Dermot Mulroney, Dominique Benson, Thalia Besson, and Lauren Cohan.
