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PG-13, 1:55, action/adventure
“Doctor Strange,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch as a neurosurgeon who learns to bend time, space and his workaholic, narcissistic ways, can't escape all its Marvel Universe corporate imperatives and generic third-act battles for control of the planet. But you know? This latest in the ever-broadening Marvel movie landscape is fun. I wish Rachel McAdams had a couple of additional scenes as Strange's fellow doctor, but some of her screen time, no doubt, went instead to sight gags featuring the Cloak of Levitation. That cloak is a pleasure, a supporting player of wit and distinction, emblematic of the best of “Doctor Strange.”
PG-13, 1:32, animated
Branch (Justin Timberlake), a misanthropic and maudlin troll, just doesn't fit in with his dancing, singing troll brethren. It's easy to see where he's coming from. His foil, Princess Poppy (Anna Kendrick), bursts with a weaponized sense of joy, forcing her subjects into an oppressive regime of colorful, glittery glee. When Branch and Poppy team up to save some of their troll friends captured by the evil bergen Chef (Christine Baranski), they have to meet in the middle. Once these two get on the same level, the joy outbursts become far more tolerable and a lot less grating. When “Trolls” finds its balance, universal if simple truths abound.
PG-13, 1:56, sci-fi
The alien spacecraft in “Arrival” arrive by the dozen, looking like the latest in KitchenAid gadgetry writ large. Director Denis Villeneuve is one sleek craftsman: every subtle camera crawl, each darkness-shrouded visual composition in “Arrival” conspires to unsettle us and hold us in a state of dread or wonder, without being cheap about it. Louise (Amy Adams), a linguistics professor, is brought in to translate the otherworldly beeps and pops and guttural somethings emitted by the inhabitants of the spacecraft. Shot under gray skies and in artful shadows by cinematographer Bradford Young, “Arrival” will cast a spell on some while merely discombobulating others.
PG-13, 1:52, comedy
If there is any reason, besides an annual craving for cinematic Christmas cheer, to see “Almost Christmas,” that reason is Mo'Nique. The film is a bit scattered, jumping from comic set piece to comic set piece that seem to come standard issue in the holiday movie genre. Someone falls off the roof fixing decorations? Check. Church spectacle? Check. Christmas dinner debacle? Check. But for all the over-the-top operatic moments, there's something about the wild tonal shifts and chaos of “Almost Christmas” that rings true about the holiday season.
R, 2:18, action/adventure
“Hacksaw Ridge” takes its name from a forbidding 350-foot cliff on the island of Okinawa, the 1945 scene of some of the worst carnage of World War II. The script creates a solemn, extraordinarily bloody account of the trials by fire met by real-life Medal of Honor recipient Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), a Seventh-day Adventist and medic who was the first conscientious objector to receive that honor. The limitation of “Hacksaw Ridge,” for all its gut-punch viscera, comes from director Mel Gibson treating Doss not as exceptional, but as a messiah.
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