Film Focus: Week of Dec. 13-19, 2024
11 mins read

Film Focus: Week of Dec. 13-19, 2024

The Editor0Tagged , ,

By M. Faust

OPENING THIS WEEK: 

THE END (NR) Documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing) makes his fiction debut with this post-apocalyptic musical about a rich family living in an underground bunker. Starring Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, George MacKay and Moses Ingram. Read M. Faust’s review here. North Park

KRAVEN THE HUNTER (R) This looks like standard action movie fare, but it gets at least some cred for being directed by J.C. Chandor, who has some very good films to his credit—All is Lost, Margin Call, A Most Violent Year. Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBosek, Alessandro Nivola and Russell Crowe. AMC Maple Ridge, AMC Market Arcade, Dipson Capitol, Dipson Flix, Dunkirk Multiplex, Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (PG-13) Animated prequel. With the voices of Brian Cox, Gaia Wise, Miranda Otto and Luca Pasqualino. Directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 the Last Human). AMC Maple Ridge, AMC Market Arcade, Dipson Capitol, Dipson Flix, Dunkirk Multiplex, Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

THE MAN IN THE WHITE VAN (PG-13) Horror film about a teen girl stalked by the titular menace and her inability to get her family to believe her. Starring Madison Wolfe, Bred Bassinger, Sean Astin and Ali Larter. Directed by Warren Skeels. Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

QUEER (R) Adaptation of William S. Burroughs early autobiographical about his salad days living in Mexico City. Starring Daniel Craig, Daan de Wit, and Jason Schwartzman. Directed by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name). Dipson Amherst

NOW PLAYING:

A REAL PAIN (R) Comedy-drama starring Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg (who also wrote and directed) as odd-couple cousins taking a trip to Poland to visit the home of their late grandmother and maybe work out their personal problems. With Will Sharpe, Jennifer Grey, and Kurt Egyiawan. Dipson Amherst Read M. Faust’s review here 

BONHOEFFER: PASTOR. SPY. ASSASSIN. (PG-13) Biographical drama about the German theologian who wrestled with his pacifist beliefs to oppose fascism during WWII. Starring Jonas Dassler, August Diehl, David Jonsson, Flula Borg. Directed by Todd Komarnicki (Resistance). Regal Transit

CONCLAVE (PG) Adaptation of the best-selling novel set during the Catholic Church’s secretive process to elect a new Pope. Starring Ralph Fiennes, Jacek Koman, Lucian Msamati, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini. Directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front). Spotlight Theater of Warsaw Read M. Faust’s review here.

FLOW (PG) Critically acclaimed animated movie about a cat and diverse other animals trying to survive on a sailboat after an apocalyptic flood. Directed by Gints Zilbalodis (Away). Regal Quaker Read M. Faust’s review here.

GET AWAY (R) British comedian Nick Frost wrote and stars in this horror comedy about a family who vacation on a remote Swedish island where the residents are about to commemorate the time when their ancestors were forced to resort to cannibalism. Co-staring Aisling Bea, Sebastian Croft and Maisie Ayres. Directed by Steffen Haars. Regal Quaker Read M. Faust’s review here.

GLADIATOR II (R) Sequel. Starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen and Derek Jacobi. Directed by Ridley Scott (Napoleon). AMC Maple Ridge, AMC Market Arcade, Dipson Capitol, Dipson Flix, Dunkirk Multiplex, Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria, Spotlight Theater of Warsaw Read M. Faust’s review here

INTERSTELLAR (PG-13) IMAX re-release of Christopher Nolan’s 2014 science fiction film about the search for a planet capable of supporting human life after Earth has finally been exhausted. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Matt Damon, John Lithgow, Casey Affleck, and Topher Grace. Regal Transit

MOANA 2 (PG) Animated sequel. With the voices of Auli’i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Tudyk, and Nicole Scherzinger. Directed by David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller. AMC Maple Ridge, AMC Market Arcade, Dipson Capitol, Dipson Flix, Dipson McKinley, Dunkirk Multiplex, Hamburg Palace, Joylan, Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria, Spotlight Theater of Warsaw

PUSHPA 2: THE RULE (NR) Telugu language about a sandalwood smuggling empire. Starring Allu Arjun Rashmika Mandanna, and Fahadh Faasil. Directed by Sukumar. Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria,

RED ONE (PG-13) Big-budget CGI holiday movie starring Dwayne Johnson as a North Pole security agent tracking a kidnapped Santa Claus (J. K. Simmons). Co-starring Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, Bonnie Hunt, and Nick Kroll. Directed by Jake Kasdan (Jumanji: The Next Level). AMC Maple Ridge, AMC Market Arcade, Dipson Capitol, Dipson Flix, Dipson McKinley, Dunkirk Multiplex, Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria Read M. Faust’s review here

THE ORDER (R) Jude Law stars as an FBI agent investigating the Idaho neo-Nazi group that robbed banks in the northwest in the early 1980s. With Nicholas Hoult, Jurnee Smollett and Tye Sheridan.. Directed by Justin Kurzel (Assassin’s Creed). Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit Read M. Faust’s review here.

VENOM: THE LAST DANCE (PG-13) MCU stuff. Starring Tom Hardy, Juno Temple, Alanna Ubach, Stephen Graham, Rhys Ifans and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Directed by Kelly Marcel. Regal Walden Galleria

WEREWOLVES (R) No, it’s not the new Greg Lamberson movie. Starring Frank Grillo, Katrina Law, Ilfenesh Hadera and Lou Diamond Phillips. Directed by Steven C. Miller (Line of Duty). AMC Market Arcade, Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker

WICKED (PG) Adaptation of the long running musical that tells the story of The Wizard of Oz from the point of view of the Wicked Witch. N.B.: This is only part one. Starring Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, and Peter Dinklage. Directed by John M. Chu (G.I. Joe: Retaliation). AMC Maple Ridge, AMC Market Arcade, Aurora, Dipson Amherst, Dipson Capitol, Dipson Flix, Dunkirk Multiplex, Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria, Spotlight Theater of Warsaw Read the review by Mia Ciechalski here

Y2K (R) Nostalgia for the yeqr 1999, when some people thought that everything computerized would fail when the date changed to 2000. I guess you had to be there. Starring Rachel Zegler, Jaeden Martell, Julian Dennison. The directorial debut of former SNL cast member Kyle Mooney. AMC Maple Ridge, AMC Market Arcade, Dunkirk Multiplex, Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

ETC.

IT’S A COP THING 2: THE LAST LAUGH (2022)—From Cheboygan, Michigan, an independent slapstick cop comedy in the spirit of Airplane. Starring and directed by Matt Kwiatkowski. Mon 7 pm. Joylan

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)—Jimmy Stewart gets to see what life for his friends and community would have been like had he never lived in Frank Capra’s holiday classic. Co-starring Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas, Henry Travers, Beulah Bondi, Frank Faylen, Ward Bond, Gloria Grahame, H.B. Warner, Frank Albertson, Sheldon Leonard, and Charles Lane. Sat 7:30 pm, Sun 1 pm, Tues 7 pm, Fri Dec 20 7:30 pm Screening Room

REAR WINDOW (1954)—Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller starring James Stewart as a photographer, confined to a wheelchair by a broken leg, who spies on his neighbors from the window of his Greenwich Village apartment and discovers that one of them has committed a murder. The mystery is less interesting than Hitchcock’s exploration of the perverse pleasures of voyeurism. With Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr, and Thelma Ritter. Sat 4:30 pm. Screening Room

SCROOGE (England, 1951)—Most people who’ve seen it consider this the best film version of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, with Alistair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge. Look for Patrick Macnee, “The Avengers’” John Steed, as the young Jacob Marley. Also starring Kathleen Harrison, Mervyn Johns, Hermione Baddeley, Michael Hordern, Miles Malleson, Ernest Thesiger, and Hattie Jacques. Tues 5 pm. Screening Room

THE ROOM (2004)—If you thought that James Franco’s portrayal of Tommy Wiseau in The Disaster Artist was unbelievably over the top, wait until you see the real thing. This berserk melodrama by the multi-untalented Wiseau is the best so-bad-it’s good film since the heyday of Edward D. Wood Jr. It has its dull patches, but by no means should you leave before the ending. Wiseau will be on hand to present the film, along with his newest effort, Big Shark. Fri-Sat 7 pm. North Park

WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954)—It’s hasn’t aged terribly well, the mawkishness of the plot is mitigated only by the film’s failure to pay much attention to it, and the title song (first used a dozen years earlier in Holiday Inn) is framed with the reverence of a visit from the Pope. But the urge to wallow in it is undeniable, at least if you’re of a certain age. Starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, and Dean Jagger. Directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca). Sunday only—see individual theater websites for showtimes. Dunkirk Multiplex, Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria, Spotlight Theater of Warsaw 

THEATER LOCATIONS AND WEBSITES

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts