New movies showing in Minneapolis
By Wendy Schadewald (Rating system: 4=Don’t miss, 3=Good, 2=Worth a look, 1=Forget it)
“Indignation” (R) (3.5)
[Sexual content and some language.] — Terrific acting dominates this engaging, poignant, thought-provoking, realistic, 110-minuite film based on Philip Roth’s 2008 novel in which the studious, sexually awkward, Jewish student (Logan Lerman) leaves his kosher butcher father (Danny Burstein) and unhappy mother (Linda Marie Emond) in Newark to attend a religious college in Ohio in 1951 to avoid serving in the Korean War and ends up falling in love with a free-spirited, emotionally troubled classmate (Sarah Gadon) and butting heads with the conservative dean (Tracy Letts).
“Nerve” (PG-13) (2.5)
[Thematic material involving dangerous and risky behavior, some sexual content, language, drug content, drinking, and nudity—all involving teens.] — When a high school senior (Emma Roberts), who lives with her mother (Juliette Lewis) on Staten Island, ends up being pressured into playing a treacherous internet truth or dare game for money in this intriguing, well-paced, 96-minute thriller based on Jeanne Ryan’s novel, she is partnered with a mysterious stranger (Dave Franco) and are challenged with one increasing dangerous stunt after another.
“Suicide Squad” (PG-13) (3)
[Sequences of violence and action throughout, disturbing behavior, suggestive content, and language.] — A fast-paced, action-packed, entertaining, violent, star-dotted (Ben Affleck, Jared Leto, Scott Eastwood, Common, David Harbour, Isaac “Ike” Barinholtz, Ezra Matthew Miller, James McGowan, Jim Parrack, and Ted Whittall), 3D, 123-minute, sci-fi thriller based on the DC Comics in which a Pentagon official (Viola Davis) puts together an exceptionally skilled, powerful, secret team of super criminals (Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Adam Beach, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) to join an Army colonel (Joel Kinnanman) and a saber-wielding Asian widow (Karen Fukuhara) to defeat a power-hungry, immortal, ancient enchanting sorceress who has possessed the body of an archaeologist (Cara Delevingne) and her brother (Robin Atkin Downes) who are hell bent on destroying Earth.
On DVD
“Arctic Tale” (G) (3.5)
Queen Latifah narrates this candid, beautifully photographed, and hopefully inspirational 96-minute, 2007 documentary that follows twin polar bear cubs and a walrus calf facing new challenges due to harsh and changing climatic conditions as they grow up with their mothers in the Arctic.
“Death at a Funeral” (R) (3.5)
[Language and drug content.] Civilized decorum is thrown out the window and mayhem ensues in this wacky, hilarious, dark, 87-minute, 2007 British comedy when two rival brothers (Matthew Macfadyen and Rupert Graves) deal with an acid-tripping lawyer (Alan Tudyk), a blackmailing dwarf (Peter Dinklage), and a cantankerous wheelchair-bound uncle (Peter Vaughan) at their father’s funeral.
“Goya’s Ghosts” (R) (2.5)
[Violence, disturbing images, some sexual content, and nudity.] – The horrors and injustices of the Spanish Inquisition as seen through the eyes and paintings of famous Spanish painter Francisco Goya (Stellan Skarsgård) set the backdrop of this historically inspired, but fictional dark, tragic, uneven, 113-minute, 2006 Miloš Forman film about Spanish church officials (Michael Lonsdale, et al.) who falsely imprison Inés (Natalie Portman), the beautiful daughter of a wealthy Madrid merchant (José Luis Gómez), as a heretic in 1792, and the painter’s efforts to get his muse released by soliciting the help of an inquisition priest (Javier Bardem) who subsequently disgraces the Church, escapes to France, and triumphantly returns to Spain 16 years later after joining Napoleon’s army only to discover that Inés bore him a child while in prison.
“Manderlay” (NR) (1.5)
Snail-pacing and longwinded dialogue mar this somber, 139-minute, Lars von Trier 2005 sequel to “Dogville,” which is filmed like a stage play, in which a young woman (Byrce Dallas Howard) discovers a cotton plantation while driving through Louisiana in 1933 with her bigoted father (Willem Dafoe) and after the death of the plantation matriarch (Lauren Bacall), she decides to help the Negroes (Danny Glover, Isaach de Bankolé, et al.) who are still enslaved on the plantation 70 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
“Manufactured Landscapes” (NR) (3.5)
This mesmerizing, mind-boggling, and ultimately disturbing, 86-minute 2006 documentary stars Edward Burtynsky’s haunting, stark, striking, and amazing photography that brilliantly and unforgettably captures the eerie beauty in the ugliness of industrial waste produced in the industrial age and the altered and scarred landscapes manufactured by mankind, including an immense Chinese factory filled with thousands of workers, ravaged quarries, vast electronic (aka e-waste) recycling dumps, ship graveyards, fields of oil wells, and endless landfills of garbage.
“Rocket Science” (R) (3)
[Some sexual content and language.] — When a smart New Jersey high school student (Reece Daniel Thompson) with a pronounced stutter is recruited by a comely silver-tongued debater (Anna Kendrick) under false pretenses after her partner (Nicholas D’Agosto) freezes up during a debating competition in this delightfully quirky and charming, 101-minute, 2007 film, he tries desperately to overcome his speech impediment by joining the debate team while coping with his dysfunctional family, including his bullying brother (Vincent Piazza), his estranged dad (Denis O’Hare), and his neurotic mother (Lisbeth Bartlett).
“Skinwalkers” (PG-13) (1.5)
[Intense sequences of violence and action, some sexual material, and language.] — When four bloodthirsty werewolves (Jason Behr, Kim Coates, et al.) try to kill her half-bred, asthmatic son (Matthew Knight) on the eve of his 13th birthday in this uninspired, anemic, 110-minute, 2006 horror film, a small-town hardware store clerk (Rhona Mitra) and her family (Elias Koteas, Barbara Gordon, Sarah Carter, and Shawn Roberts) try to protect him.
“Stardust” (PG-13) (3.5)
[Some fantasy violence and risqué humor.] — Ian McKellen narrates this highly entertaining, original, imaginative, and humorous, 127-minute, 2007 fantasy fairytale that is suitable for all ages about an English shop clerk (Charlie Fox) who searches for a shooting star (Claire Danes) to give to the beautiful woman (Sienna Miller) he thinks he loves and when he crosses the mysterious wall like his father (Nathaniel Parker) once did into a magical kingdom, he encounters a flamboyant pirate (Robert DeNiro) flying with his motley crew, a dark witch (Michelle Pfeiffer) trying to regain her youth and beauty, and feuding brothers (Jason Flemyng, Rupert Everett, Mark Strong, Adam Buxton, et al.) looking for the heir to their father’s (Peter O’Toole) throne.
“Underdog” (PG) (2)
[Crude humor, mild language, and action.] — When a widowed security guard (Jim Belushi) brings home an English-speaking beagle (voiceover by Jason Lee) with superpowers to his school-skipping son (Alex Neuberger) in this family-friendly, 84-minute, 2007 comedy, a mad scientist (Peter Dinklage) and his lackey (Patrick Warburton) try desperately to find the mutt.
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©1986 through 2016 by Wendy Schadewald. The preceding films were reviewed by Wendy Schadewald, who has been a Twin Cities film critic since 1986. To see more of her film reviews, log on to 60-Second Film Reviews.
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