Just kidding, of course. There's gonna be so much Elf in these listings over the next four weeks. As for new releases, I covered Wicked and Gladiator II here.
Special Screenings
Thursday, November 21
Carol (2015)
Grandview 1&2
We're starting with the Christmas movies already? Also Sunday. $12. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
MSPIFF Conversation with Roger and James Deakins
Main Cinema
A pre-taped appearance from the acclaimed cinematographer and his collaborator. Multiple donation levels available. 7:15 p.m. More info here.
Sun Dogs: Filmmaker and Composer Pairings
Northrop
Films by the likes of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Josephine Decker, and Mati Diop with music from the likes of Devonté Hynes and Arooj Aftab. Part of the Liquid Music series. $30-$50. 7 p.m. More info here.
Daruma (2023)
Trylon
A man tries to be a dad once he discovers he has a daughter. $11. 3:30 p.m. More info here.
Friday, November 22
Mon légionnaire (2021)
Alliance Française
A Ukrainian woman joins her boyfriend at a Corsican military camp. Free. 6 p.m. More info here.
Soieil Ô (1970)
Trylon
The stylistically inventive story of a West African immigrant in Paris. $8. Friday-Saturday 7 & 9 p.m. Sunday 3 & 5 p.m. More info here.
Our Winnipeg, Ourselves
Walker Art Center
This is all I know about Winnipeg. $12/$15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, November 23
Live from the Met: Tosca
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
Opera! $26.01. 12 p.m. More info here.
Dhalinyaro (2018) + Laan (2018)
Main Cinema
Two films From Djibouti-Canadian filmmaker Lula Ali Ismaïl. $11. 4 p.m. More info here.
Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Parkway Theater
Literally have no idea what happens in this movie except that they eat spaghetti. $5-$10. 1 p.m. More info here.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Parkway Theater
Will you people keep it down? I'm trying to watch the movie. $10/$15. 12 a.m. More info here.
Hare Krishna!: The Mantra, the Movement, and the Swami Who Started It All (2017)
Trylon
Why is this free? It feels like a trap. Free. 4 p.m. More info here.
Sunday, November 24
Pom Poko (1994)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16
Leave those raccoon dogs alone! $16.28. 3 & 7 p.m. Tuesday 7 p.m. More info here.
Elf (2003)
Alamo Drafthouse/Emagine Willow Creek
Hide your cats! Everyone’s favorite visitor from Melmac is back and—oh, sorry, it’s Elf. Alamo: $10. 11:40 a.m. More info here. Emagine: $11. 1 & 6 p.m. More info here.
King of Chinatown (1937)
Trylon
Anna May Wong must decide whether to operate on a wounded gangster. $8. 7 p.m. Monday-Tuesday 7 & 8:30. More info here.
Monday, November 25
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2014)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16
Gorgeous Studio Ghibli adaptation of a 10th-century Japanese story. $16.26. More info here.
Curtains (1983)
Emagine Willow Creek
Someone is killing starlets! $6. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, November 26
Chicago (2002)
Pilllar Forum
Note from management: "Bring your own comfy seating." Free. 6:30 p.m. More info here.
Opening This Week
Follow the links for showtimes.
Bonhoeffer
A drama about the anti-Nazi theologian.
Gladiator II
Read our full review here.
Juror #2
Will I be able to follow this if I haven't seen Juror #1?
Wicked
Read our full review here.
Ongoing in Local Theaters
Andrea Bocelli 30: The Celebration
Anora
From Kitana Kiki Rodriguez’s enraged trans sex worker in Tangerine to Simon Rex’s washed-up porn star in Red Rocket, Sean Baker knows how to let a character loose upon a movie, and Mikey Madison’s Ani may be the most fully realized of Baker’s high-powered, self-deluded survivors. A stripper and occasional escort whose charm and sheer self-determination haven’t failed her yet, she’s eking out a life in Brooklyn’s least glamorous southern reaches. (Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach, and Coney Island are captured in all their drab, offseason outer-borough-ness.) Her life changes after a dance for a Russian oligarch’s son parlays into a paid fuck, which in turn goes so well he hires her for an extended stint. Baker captures their whirlwind spree through all forms of excess, ending with a Vegas wedding, as an audiovisual sugar rush that makes Pretty Woman’s shopping montage look like amateur hour. But when Ivan’s parents find out, they sic his handlers on him; he runs off like the spoiled little fuckboy we always knew he was and Ani is left to unleash her rage on the hired muscle as they hunt for him. Madison can be as subtle here as she was on Pamela Adlon’s Better Things and even more furious than she was in Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood before Tarantino thought it’d be a hoot to immolate her with a flamethrower. This decade, we’ve seen plenty of commoners enter the worlds of the wealthy, often ending with fantasies of vengeance. Anora’s trip through the looking glass ends on a far more ambiguous note. A
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Blitz
With his short-film anthology Small Axe, Steve McQueen captured the grain of life in Britain’s West Indian immigrant society while undercutting the clichés that are the hallmarks of too much historical drama. He continues that project here, though less successfully. Elliot Heffernan is George, a mixed-race boy whose mum Rita (Saoirse Ronan) reluctantly sends him off to the country for safety as the Nazi obliterate London from the skies. But the lad goes AWOL and journeys back home, encountering perils along the way, even as Rita and her mates struggle at the factory where she works. At its best, Blitz chips away at the U.K.’s cherished national myth that this was solely a time of unity and bravery. Racism is as rampant as ever, as is cowardice and crime—in the film’s most forcedly Dickensian segment, George falls in with a gang who plunder the homes and shops of the recently deceased. But though Heffernan and Ronan are terrific, and there are some horrifically spectacular moments (a tube station flood, the bombing of a glitzy nightclub), Blitz rarely feels less authentically lived in. B
Conclave
Edward Berger may think he’s cooked up something more substantial than a chewy Vatican potboiler here—a meditation on faith in the modern era, or some other middlebrow (papal) bull. Who knows and who cares? The crowd I saw it with thought Berger’s flamboyant pope opera was funny as hell (pardon the expression, Father) and they were right. Watching old guys from around the world in funny clothes politic, gossip, and backstab is just solid entertainment. Cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine milks everything he can from the ornate setting and bright costumery, and this cast knows how to project an ominous seriousness that’s forever camp adjacent. We’re talking Ralph Fiennes working his timeworn visage of existential indigestion, John Lithgow looking more like Donald Rumsfield than ever, Sergio Castellitto as a gregarious bear who wants to repeal Vatican II, Isabella Rossellini as a mysterious nun, and, for the ladies, a little Stanley Tucci. You’ll guess most of the twists, groan at some, and even get blindsided by a few. Still, without giving too much away, it’s hard not to notice that none of the scandals here are as horrific as those the Catholic Church has covered up in real life. B+
The Wild Robot
What happens when an all-purpose droid designed to perform just about every utilitarian task crash lands on a human-free island? Short answer: She learns intuition and love from the wild animals around her. Longer answer: After she accidentally smooshes a family of geese, ROZZUM Unit 7134 (aka Roz) makes it her task to raise the sole survivor, a runt. Lotsa nice messages about motherhood and such here and the animation has a brisk sense of physical comedy. Lupita Nyong'o is fun as Roz, and so’s the rest of the all-star voice cast—Pedro Pascal as a wily fox (is there any other kind?), Catherine O’Hara as a hedgehog mom who keeps losing count of her progeny. But I was so impressed with how casually Lilo & Stitch creator Chris Sanders captured the everyday, no-big-deal, unsentimental brutality of the animal world in the first part of the film that I was a little bummed when the critters all learned to get along in order to survive. Sorry, I’m just an “overwhelming indifference of nature” guy, what can I say? B
