60 San Diego Reader April 20, 2017


MOVIES


eventually, everyone comes ‘round to his lofty ideas about destiny and illumination. (Maybe he was right about the excellence of native wisdom.) There is an unexploit- ative, unsensational grounding to the whole affair that lends it dignity, but that doesn’t quite justify the 140-minute runtime. 2017 —M.L. ★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)


The Lure (Córki dancingu) — The promise of a Polish musical adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s tenebrous fairy tale The Little Mermaid, set against the backdrop of a happening ‘80s strip club, proved too good to be true. Director Agnieszka Smoczynska acknowledges a side of the author that Disney dare not touch — “Mommy, how does Ariel make a baby?” — but goes too far in the opposite direction by turning a pair of myrgyrls — Golden (Michalina Olszańska) and Silver (Marta Mazurek) — into sure-fire telekinetic flesh-eating zombies. As for the music, what is the point of asking actors who can’t carry a tune to talk-sing lyrics that fail to advance the plot (and that audi- ences will never remember)? Smoczynska apparently finds it easier to exploit than explore, and derails her psychological thriller in favor of camping things up. A nod to politically correct species reassign- ment surgery livens the third act, but the film eventually sinks under the weight of its own silly excess. 2015. — S.M. ★★ (DIGITAL GYM CINEMA)


Mr. Gaga — Writer-director Tomer Hey- mann’s documentary about modern dance luminary and Batsheva Dance Company artistic director Ohad Naharin. Review forthcoming at sandiegoreader.com. 2015 (DIGITAL GYM)


Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer — Writer-director Joseph Cedar puts Richard Gere through his paces as a small-time operator who suddenly gains a powerful friend. (ANGELIKA CARMEL MOUN- TAIN, LANDMARK HILLCREST)


The Promise — Reviewed this issue. 2016 —S.M. ★★★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)


T2: Trainspotting — Unless the entire cast suddenly found it hard to make their mortgage payments, file this one under


CENTRAL


AMC Fashion Valley 7037 Friars Rd (888-262-4386)


AMC La Jolla 8657 Villa La Jolla Dr (888-262-4386)


MOVIE THEATERS EAST COUNTY


Vintage Village Theater 820 Orange Ave, Coronado (619-437-6161)


AMC Mission Valley 1640 Camino Del Rio North (888-262-4386)


ArcLight La Jolla 4425 La Jolla Village Dr (858-768-7770


Digital Gym Cinema 2921 El Cajon Blvd ((619) 230-1938)


Landmark Hillcrest 3965 Fifth Ave (619-298-2904)


Landmark Ken 4061 Adams Ave (619-283-3227)


The LOT La Jolla 7611 Fay Ave (858-777-0069)


The LOT Liberty Station 2620 Thruxton Rd (619-566-0069)


Reading Town Square 4665 Clairemont Dr (858-274-9994)


Regal Horton Plaza Horton Plaza (844-462-7342)


Reuben H. Fleet Science Center 1875 El Prado, Balboa Park (619-238-1233)


San Diego Natural History Museum - Kaplan Theater 1788 El Prado, Balboa Park (619-232-3821)


UltraStar Mission Valley 7510 Hazard Center Dr #100 (619-574-8684)


United Artists Horton Plaza 475 Horton Plaza (844-462-7342)


Reading Grossmont 5500 Grossmont Ctr Dr (619-465-3040)


Regal Parkway Plaza 405 Parkway Plaza (619-462-7342)


Regal Rancho San Diego 2951 Jamacha Rd (844-462-7342)


Santee Drive In 10990 Woodside Ave (619-448-7447)


SOUTH BAY


AMC Chula Vista 555 Broadway #2050 (619-371-9105)


AMC Otay Ranch Otay Ranch Town Center (619-216-7545)


AMC Palm Promenade 770 Dennery Rd (619-662-2698)


AMC Plaza Bonita 3050 Plaza Bonita Rd (619-475-2200)


Regal Rancho Del Rey 1025 Tierra del Rey (844-462-7342)


South Bay Drive In 2170 Coronado Ave (619-423-2727)


NORTH INLAND


Digiplex Poway 13475 Poway Rd ((858) 679-3887)


Digiplex River Village 5256 Mission Road, Bonsall (760-945-1365)


Digiplex Temecula Tower Cinemas 27531 Ynez Rd (951-699-2205)


Krikorian Vista Village Highway 78 at Vista Village Dr (760-945-7469)


Angelika Carmel Mountain 11620 Carmel Mntn Rd (858-207-2606)


Regal Escondido 350 West Valley Parkway (844-462-7342)


Regal Mira Mesa 10733 Westview Parkway (844-462-7342)


Regal San Marcos 1180 W. San Marcos Blvd (844-462-7342)


NORTH COASTAL


Cinépolis Del Mar 12905 El Camino Real (858-794-4045)


Cinépolis La Costa 6941 El Camino Real (760-827-6700)


Digiplex Mission Marketplace 431 College Blvd (760-631-5700)


La Paloma 471 South Coast Highway 101 (760-436-7469)


Regal Oceanside 401 Mission Avenue (844-462-7342)


Regal Carlsbad 2501 El Camino Real (760-720-5392)


GET SHOWTIMES


& TRAILERS: SDREADER.COM/MOVIES


blur and the melodrama slips off the screen and into Arterton’s heart. Bill Nighy comes nigh unto stealing the show as an aging actor who makes the most of his bit as a drunken uncle. 2016. — M.L. ★★ (AMC LA JOLLA; CINÉPOLIS DEL MAR; LANDMARK HILLCREST)


Tommy’s Honour — Ben Hogan once quipped, “The only thing a golfer needs is more daylight.” Director Jason Connery knows precisely how to apportion the right amounts of sunshine and gloom to mute the Scottish skies with a singularly overcast variant on twilight time. Old Tommy (a never-better Peter Mullan) was a modest greens-keeper who became the founding father of the modern game. Young Tommy (Jack Lowden) laughed in the face of those who cautioned against swinging above one’s station in life. To this day, the 17-year- old holds the title of the youngest Major Champion of all time. Seven years after winning the acclaim, he was dead. Con- nery’s reverential recognition of the father and son team who, after the game had been around for over 500 years, changed the rules and came up with the modern version, wisely spends time away from the links and in the company of women, in par- ticular, one with a shocking secret to hide (Ophelia Lovibond). A surprisingly better- than-average sports biopic with standout performances. 2016. — S.M. ★★★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)


“unnecessary sequels.” The passage of 23 years finds Begbie (Robert Carlyle) on the lam, Spud (Ewen Bremner) a suicidal junkie, and Simon (Jonny Lee Miller) man- aging a questionable extortion ring — when he’s not tending bar and snorting coke. The brains of the organization (Ewan Mac- Gregor) is still running, only this time it’s at a health club. The opening gag involving a stalled treadmill flashes a warning sign that a lightweight comedy reunion lies ahead. As a courtesy to its forerunner, screenwriter John Hodge works in a few gross-out jokes. The least offensive crudity involves a sparkling porcelain commode, a reverse reference to the original’s most memorable


moment. Director Danny Boyle (Millions, Slumdog Millionaire) is simply too nice a guy to work against his minions. Following closely in the footsteps of its predeces- sor, T2 is the second sweetest film ever made about a caboodle of heroin addicts. 2017. — S.M. ★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)


Their Finest — Lone Scherfig’s adapta- tion of Lissa Evans’ better-titled novel Their Finest Hour and a Half, set in London during the early days of World War II, is as polite, charming, and English as its star Gemma Arterton, who sails through the chaos and calamity with the good sense, pluck, and grace of a motherly


angel. (The bomb blasts are muffled, so as not to distract from the delicate register of emotions, and a gauzy haze tends to obscure the various bodies.) The sly wit of the story is there from the first, as our heroine enters the man’s world of wartime screenwriting by stepping her way through a maze of swollen fire hoses. Once there, she snags a gig writing women’s dialogue — “slop,” in the parlance of her embittered but empathetic boss Buckley (Sam Claflin) — for a ginned-up account of twin sisters taking part in the evacuation of Dunkirk. The story sails along without a ripple, even as relationships fray and peripheral characters die — until art and life start to


Truman — If the doc’s assessment is cor- rect, Julián (Ricardo Darin) is the first of Tomás’ (Javier Cámara) close friends who he is 100% certain to outlive. Traveling from Canada to Madrid to pay a surprise visit, Tomás spends the next four days bearing witness to one of the hardest, most intimate decisions his cancer-ravaged friend (or any of us) will ever have to make. Director and co-writer Cesc Gay renders a realistically carpentered cinematic hospice of sorts, a place vitalized and cultivated that is, not unlike its believably contrasting leads, simultaneously gentle and powerful. It wouldn’t work without the smashing gallows humor and unhesitating irony — colleagues enter a restaurant, “smell death,” and avert their gaze, while the guy whose life Julián practically ruined walks up to the table and expresses sincere regret. Gay proves a skilled messenger of both. Not your typical cancer drama anchored in grief; instead, a clear-sighted journey that makes demands on the viewer’s emotions


in the most unlikely ways. 2015 —S.M. ★★★★ (ANGELIKA CARMEL MOUN- TAIN, DIGITAL GYM)


MOVIE SHOWTIMES & TRAILERS AT SDREADER.COM/MOVIES


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100