New movies showing in Minneapolis
By Wendy Schadewald (Rating system: 4=Don’t miss, 3=Good, 2=Worth a look, 1=Forget it)
“The Birth of a Nation” (R) (4)
[Disturbing violent content, and some brief nudity.] — A powerful, gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, thought-provoking, factually based, well-acted, star-studded (Gabrielle Union, Penelope Ann Miller, and Jackie Earle Haley), 2-hour remake of the 1915 classic film that follows an African-American slave (Tony Espinosa) from 1809 as he grows up in the cotton fields of Virginia, becomes a literate preacher (Nat Parker) and marries a beautiful house slave (Aja Naomi King), and eventually leads a slave (Colman Domingo, Dwight Henry, et al.) revolt against their cruel, sadistic masters (Armie Hammer, et al.) in which more than 60 white people were killed and many more slaves murdered in retaliation.
“Denial” (PG-13) (3.5)
[Thematic material and brief strong language.] — When racist British historian David Irving (Timothy Spall), who believes that the Holocaust never happened, sues Atlanta professor and lecturer Deborah E. Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz) for libel in this powerful, well-written, well-acted, gut-wrenching, factually based, 110-minute film based on the critically acclaimed novel “History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier,” she hires a group of English barristers (Tom Wilkinson, Andrew Scott, et al.) in 1998 to prove that the historian has purposely lied during a four-month trial in 2000 in London in front of a presiding Royal Court Justice Sir Charles Gray.
“The Girl on the Train” (R) (3)
[Violence, sexual content, language, and nudity.] — When a pregnant nanny (Haley Bennett), who is married to a controlling, jealous husband (Luke Evans), goes missing in this intense, taut, well-acted, star-dotted (Lisa Kudrow and Edgar Ramirez), 112-minute thriller based on Paula Hawkins bestselling novel, an alcoholic former public relations executive (Emily Blunt), who is experiencing blackouts and is obsessed with her ex-husband (Justin Theroux) and his new wife (Rebecca Ferguson) while riding past his home every day on the train to New York City, ends up being questioned by a detective (Allison Janney) in her disappearance.
“Masterminds” (PG-13) (2.5)
[Crude and sexual humor, some language, and violence.] — A funny, surprising, wacky, well-paced, factually inspired, star-dotted (Leslie Jones, Ken Marino, Jon Daly, and Mary Elizabeth Ellis), 94-minute comedy about the largest heist in U.S. history in which gullible, nerdy, smitten armored truck driver David Ghantt (Zach Galifianakis), who has a dimwit fiancée (Kate McKinnon), in the South agrees to steal $17 million from his job’s vault with a former coworker (Kristen Wiig) and her greedy friends (Owen Wilson, et al.) and ends up in Mexico on the run from a hit man (Jason Sudeikis) and the Mexican police.
“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” (PG-13) (3)
[Intense sequences of fantasy action/violence and peril.] — An imaginative, quirky, engaging, 3D, star-studded (Judi Dench, Rupert Everett, Allison Janney, and Kim Dicken), 127-minute, Tim Burton film based on Ransom Riggs’s bestselling novel in which a distraught Florida teenager (Asa Butterfield) heads to a Welsh island with his father (Chris O’Dowd) after the mysterious death of his grandfather (Terence Stamp) where he meets a group of strange orphans (Ella Purnell, Cameron King, Thomas and Joseph Odwell, Finlay MacMillan, Lauren McCrostie, Pixie Davies, Hayden Keeler-Stone, Milo Parker, Raffiella Chapman, and Georgia Pemberton) with various unusual powers who are stuck in a “Groundhog Day” time loop repeating Sept. 3, 1943, and finds himself trying to save them from eyeball-eating monster (Samuel L. Jackson, et al.) and their pipe-smoking, shape-shifting, longtime guardian (Eva Green).
“Queen of Katwe” (PG) (3)
[Thematic elements, an accident scene, and some suggestive material.] — An inspirational, factually based, well-acted, 124-minute film in which a smart Ugandan girl (Madina Nalwanga), who lives with her impoverished, widowed mother (Lupita Nyong’o) and siblings in the slums of Kampala, is tutored by an enthusiastic chess player (David Oyelowo) to play chess and eventually becomes a master champion.
On DVD
“Almanac of Fall” (NR) (2.5)
[Subtitled] [DVD only] — A bleak, claustrophobic, raw, 119-minute 1984 Béla Tarr film splashed with intense colors of red, green, and blue as the camera invades the miserable lives of an elderly Hungarian woman (Hédi Temessy), her greedy son (János Derzsi), her unhappy nurse (Erika Bodnár) and lover (Miklós Székely B.), and a teacher (Pál Hetényi) as they all haggle over financial concerns and their need for love while coexisting in the same stifling apartment.
“The Brave One” (R) (2)
[Strong violence, language, and some sexuality.] [DVD only] — After a New York City radio essayist (Jodie Foster) is viciously attacked and her fiancé (Naveen Andrews) is senselessly murdered in this heavy-handed, unrealistic, dark, and gritty, 122-minute, 2007 rehashing of “Death Wish,” she stays one step ahead of an astute detective (Terrence Howard) when her rage and bitterness lead her to commit a series of vigilante revenge killings.
“Cries and Whispers” (NR) (3.5)
[Subtitled] [DVD only] — When two Swedish sisters (Liv Ullmann and Ingrid Thulin) rally around their terminally ill sister (Harriet Andersson) and her live-in caretaker (Kari Sylwan) in the late 1800s in Ingmar Berman’s somber, black-and-white, award-winning, 91-minute, 1972 film, their repressed emotions of aversion and hatred come bubbling to the surface.
“In the Valley of Elah” (R) (3.5)
[Violent and disturbing content, language, and some sexuality/nudity.] [DVD only] — When a driven, meticulous former Army sergeant (Tommy Lee Jones) and his distraught wife (Susan Sarandon) in Tennessee learn that their only surviving son (Jonathan Tucker) is missing from Fort Rudd after returning from a tour in Iraq with his buddies (Wes Chatham, Jake McLaughlin, Mehcad Brooks, et al) in this taut, suspenseful, compelling, 121-minute, 2007 film, he elicits the aid of a local greenhorn detective (Charlize Theron) to help him find his son.
“Live-in Maid” (NR) (3)
[Subtitled] [DVD only] — When an aging, middle-class, Argentinean divorcee (Norma Aleandro) finds herself in severe financial trouble and must resort to pawning her household items in Buenos Aires in this well-crafted, heartbreaking, award-winning, 83-minute, 2004 film, her 28-year relationship with her loyal maid (Norma Argentina) takes a surprising turn.
“Quiet City” (NR) (2)
[DVD only] — Beautiful cinematography punctuates this languid, quirky, 78-minute, 2007 film about the budding relationship that develops when an unemployed Brooklyn man (Chris Lankeneau) befriends a restaurant employee (Erin Fisher) visiting from Atlanta after she gets lost in the subway, and they spend 24 hours together while she waits for a callback from a friend.
“The Prefab People” (NR) (3)
[Subtitled] [DVD only] — An intense, dark, gut-wrenching, black-and-white, 102-minute, Béla Tarr 1982 film that dissects the dissolution of a tumultuous marriage of a Hungarian couple (Judit Pogány and Róbert Koltai) when the unsympathetic, beer-guzzling, blue-collar husband wants to leave his depressed, stressed-out, and bored wife and two children for a 2-year job in Romania.
“The Seventh Seal” (NR) (3.5)
[Subtitled] [DVD only] — Ingmar Bergman’s awarding-winning, black-and-white, 96-minute, 1957 film that explores the existence of God and the meaning of life through the eyes of a disheartened Swedish knight (Max von Sydow) who returns to Sweden with his squire (Gunnar Björnstrand) in the 14th century after 10 years in the Holy Land fighting in the Crusades only to discover people dying of the Black Plague while Death (Bengt Ekerot) and his steadfast wife (Inga Landgré) wait for him.
“Sydney White” (PG-13) (2)
[Some language, sexual humor, and partying.] [DVD only] — After the comic-book-loving, tomboyish daughter (Amanda Bynes) of a widowed plumber (John Schneider) is not allowed to join her mother’s sorority by the spoiled, manipulative, narcissist, pretentious president (Sara Paxton) in this predictable, fish-out-of-water, 108-minute, 2007 comedy geared for teenage girls and based on the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” classic, the immensely popular and likable student retaliates by befriending seven dorky, lovable guys (Samm Levine, Danny Strong, Jack Carpenter, Adam Hendershott, Jeremy Howard, Arnie Pantoja, and Donté Bonner) and by grabbing the attention of her rival’s former boyfriend (Matt Long).
“Through a Glass Darkly” (NR) (3.5)
[Subtitled] [DVD only] — Bergman’s intense Oscar-winning, black-and-white, 89-minute, 1961 film that explores the existence of God through the eyes of a mentally ill Swedish woman (Harriet Andersson) who slips back into madness while vacationing with her emotionally distant and dysfunctional family, including her husband (Max von Sydow), her suicidal widowed father (Gunnar Björnstrand), and her 17-year-old misogynistic brother (Lars Passgård), on the family’s remote island getaway.
©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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