Now playing
PG, 1:53, animated
Featuring songs by “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, the animated musical adventure “Moana” is bright, busy, enjoyable and progressive without being insufferable. Moana, voiced by Hawaiian actress Auli'i Cravalho, is the daughter of a Pacific Islands chieftain. She must get in touch with her seafaring ancestry and leave her island, Motunui, on a long journey. After a brush with death, she washes ashore on a small island where she meets the Polynesian demigod Maui, voiced by Dwayne Johnson. The score's signature power ballad, “How Far I'll Go,” may well take its rightful place alongside “Frozen's” big hit, “Let It Go,” in the female-empowerment earworm department. I prefer Miranda's contribution; like the rest of “Moana,” it works.
PG-13, 2:13, action/adventure
In handsome, generally diverting fashion, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” directed by Potter alum David Yates and adapted by J. K. Rowling from her 2001 book, takes us not to Hogwarts but to 1920s America. Eddie Redmayne plays shy, sweet Newt Scamander, a “magizoologist” by training and a Hogwarts-bred wizard who devotes his life to the collection, care and feeding of a wide variety of beasties. Potter fans will likely enjoy this first of a planned quintet of “Fantastic Beasts” outings.
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. For an effects-laden franchise launch it's light on its feet, pretty stylish, and full of tasty, classy performers enlivening the dull bits. I wish Rachel McAdams had a couple more 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.”
R, 2:04, drama
In the swank but waxy World War II-era Robert Zemeckis film “Allied,” starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, we're in the land of patently artificial intrigue, as opposed to fakery trying to be, in any sense, real. The two pose as French wife and husband, infiltrating Vichy high society. Mission: to kill a top-ranking German ambassador and then go their separate ways. The Casablanca rooftop conversations between Max (Pitt) and Marianne (Cotillard) lay the groundwork for a slow-burning romance. But the matches are damp: Pitt does not hold up his 50 percent.
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 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. “Arrival” will cast a spell on some while merely discombobulating others.
PREVIOUS ARTICLE
