Local & Repertory
Legend Tom Cruise stars in Ridley Scott’s 1985 fantasy picture. Tim Curry memorably gives voice to the Lord of Darkness. (PG)
Central Cinema, $6-$8, June 7-10, 7 p.m.; Wed., June 12, 7 p.m.
Search and Rescue Various old shorts and archival finds are screened. (NR)
Northwest Film Forum, $6-$8, Tue., June 11, 8 p.m.
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Silent Movie Mondays
SEE THE WIRE, PAGE 53.
The Sprocket Society’s Fifth Anniver-salodeon The local film-appreciation group has programed two packages of shorts and rare cinematic items from the past. The first show promises comedy and the second art. (NR)
Northwest Film Forum, $6-$10, Wed., June 5, 7 & 9 p.m.
Starship Troopers Paul Verhoeven’s violent and sometimes on-target satire of U.S. military deployment in space dates to 1997. It’s neither his best nor his worst film; but who doesn’t enjoy blasting giant space bugs? The troopers don’t matter so much when squashed. (R)
Central Cinema, $6-$8, June 7-10, 9:30 p.m.; Wed., June 12, 9:30 p.m.
Ongoing
After Earth This movie wouldn’t exist had Will Smith not cooked it up as yet another star vehicle for his son, Jaden. This sci-fi adventure about a boy who must become a man to save himself and his wounded warrior father on a hostile world is a corny, generally humorless M. Night Shyamalan picture without his trademark surprises and twists. It’s a straightforward quest in which incapacitated Dad (Will) sends guilt-ridden, fearful teen son Kitai (Jaden) off to fetch a rescue beacon that broke free of the spaceship they just crashed in. There are various beasts and obstacles for Kitai to overcome, And every step of the way, Dad is sitting in front of holographic monitors, slowly bleeding out, “teaching” and leading his son every step of the way. The movie feels a lot more Karate Kid than Will Smith action picture. (PG-13) ROBERT HORTON Pacific Place, Ark Lodge, Cinebarre, Lincoln Square, Thornton Place, Sundance Cinemas, others
Fast & Furious 6 This is a big, dumb, breathless film, full of crazy stunts and cars blowing up. The locations include London, Spain, and the longest airport runway in the world, where a ludicrous climactic chase scene goes on and on. F&F6 continues the Ocean’s Eleven vibe from the previous movie, as the now-retired posse assembled by low-talking Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian (Paul Walker) team up again for a “this time it’s personal” job. Tyrese Gibson, Sung Yang, and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges also return to their roles, and like any long-running soap opera, F&F6 has the ability to bring back deceased characters. In this case it’s Letty, played by Michelle Rodriguez, who perished a couple of chapters ago. While director Justin Lin has no taste whatsoever, he does have a supercharged appetite for wild action, proved by a gung-ho sequence atop a divided freeway bridge in Spain. (PG-13) ROBERT HORTON Cinebarre, Cinerama, Kirkland Parkplace, Lincoln Square, Meridian, Thornton Place, Sundance, others
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Frances Ha Co-written by and starring Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach’s latest is an unabashed tribute to the actress’ distinctive charms. The outline of a typical indie picture is in place, as we follow 27-year-old Frances and her New York apartment-hopping over the course of a few months. In the early reels, we mark Frances’ closeness to her BFF Sophie (Mickey Sumner), a bond that will fray as Sophie gravitates toward her boyfriend. The appeal of Frances Ha comes from Gerwig’s pluck and the film’s sprightly sense of play. Many scenes last only a few seconds, and consist of the kind of overheard conversational snippets that capture the found poetry of random eavesdropping. These bits provide a sense of Frances’ life, and perhaps hint at its disconnectedness. Shot in cheap-looking black-and-white, the film also conjures up Baumbach’s love of the French New Wave, and his soundtrack is peppered with vintage ’60s music by Georges Delerue. Frances Ha succeeds on its genuinely inventive rat-a-tat rhythm and Gerwig’s unpredictable delivery. It builds to an ending that is righteously non-Hollywood. But it feels good just the same. (R) ROBERT HORTON Sundance, Meridian, Ark Lodge
The Great Gatsby In Baz Luhrmann’s lavish new 3-D adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short, classic novel, which runs all of 142 minutes, Leonardo DiCaprio plays another golden, doomed lover. Why 3-D, why Gatsby, why now? The movie feels five years too late, after the subprime bubble burst. Though we see our narrator, Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), making cold calls on Wall Street, this movie doesn’t look forward to the crash of 1929. The director is interested only in love, not money. And his Gatsby (DiCaprio) only uses money as glittering lure to attract his lost love Daisy (Carey Mulligan), which requires shady deals with the gangsters he fronts for. Luhrmann’s devotion to the novel is admirable, but he breaks its axles with such ardor. Quoting often from the source text, Luhrmann both tells too much and shows too much. He too-muches too much. (PG-13) BRIAN MILLER Pacific Place, Guild 45th, Kirkland Parkplace, others
The Iceman Like many a true-crime tale, the story of hit man Richard Kuklinski sounds like it would make an incredible movie. A dreary wallow in the mire, this one goes wrong almost from the start—save for the lead casting. The Iceman is carried on the formidable back of Michael Shannon, the Frankensteinian actor from Take Shelter and Boardwalk Empire. He brings the eerie focus of a man who could smite you down just for looking at him sideways—ideal for this role, though limiting for projects that don’t require the unsettling threat of immediate death. At some point Kuklinski becomes like Billy Bob Thornton’s Sling Blade guy—yes, maybe he’s a tad maladjusted, but surely we can understand his protectiveness of home and hearth. (R) ROBERT HORTON Varsity
Love Is All You Need Philip and Ida, who meet cute at their grown children’s wedding in Italy, are played by Pierce Brosnan and Trine Dyrholm. She’s a cancer survivor with a cheating husband; he’s a widowed, workaholic grouch. You can see where this is going. With kids and kin gathered for a wedding weekend at Philip’s Sorrento estate, Susanne Bier’s romantic comedy runs strictly according to plan. Hairdresser Ida begins to reveal the effects of her chemotherapy, goes swimming in the nude, and Philip politely averts his eyes. (Amid this nuptial confusion of three languages, with Danish and Italian being thrown at him, Brosnan invariably answers in English—like he’s got a Google-translate chip in his brain.) Bier is unapologetic about constructing this wishful midlife rom-com. And if her story is entirely predictable, it’s also filled with agreeable characters and genuine emotions. (R) BRIAN MILLER Varsity
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Mud Matthew McConaughey’s character, known only as Mud, is a ne’er-do-well Arkansas native, a fugitive and teller of tall tales, hiding on a sandbar island. His improbable refuge—a boat lifted into the trees by a recent flood—is discovered by two young teens who naturally idolize this tattooed, charismatic outcast. Mud has a neat treehouse; Mud has a hot girlfriend (Reese Witherspoon) and a gun; Mud is every 14-year-old’s idea of cool, like some dude from a cigarette ad come to life. Back home, reality is more complicated for Ellis (Tye Sheridan, one of Brad Pitt’s boys in The Tree of Life). Mud is his story, not Mud’s, as Ellis watches his parents’ marriage dissolve, has his first kiss, and begins to question the story Mud is feeding him. Mud is a big step up from indie-dom for writer/director Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter), but it’s also a step back to the classical. There are traces of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird—not because Nichols is borrowing, but because he’s plainly plowing that vein of Americana. (PG-13) BRIAN MILLER Varsity, others
Star Trek Into Darkness This is a well-tooled and smartly made movie, but it’s so self-conscious about its place in a pre-existing mythology that I’m afraid there’s no there there. Most of the cast is back from 2009’s reboot, led by Chris Pine as Capt. James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Mr. Spock. J.J. Abrams returns to the director’s chair for this one, another promising sign. And the villain is not only a favorite nemesis from the TV series and movies, but he’s played by one of the most exciting young actors around these days, Benedict Cumberbatch. The opening reels are a wonderfully fast-moving ride: prologue on a primitive planet, Kirk’s demotion after his misbehavior, and a massacre at Star Fleet command. There’s even a little romance, but Abrams is so skilled at giving fans the beats they expect that his film turns into a kind of Trekkie-convention highlights reel. Into Darkness is a big movie that plays as a giant reference to other things. Maybe the next one could forget the catchphrases and the hyperlinks back to Star Trek history, and just get on with creating its own five-year mission to boldly go where no one has gone before. (PG-13) ROBERT HORTON Pacific Place, Ark Lodge, Cinebarre, Kirkland Parkplace, Sundance, others
