There's a lot happening in theaters for a February. In addition to all the Oscar movies you can catch up on (and there are quite a few worth catching up on this year), some intriguing series are getting underway. The Heights begins screening a selection of Don Siegel noirs this week, the Trylon offers "'80s Animated Sci-Fantasy," and the Valentine's Day romances commence.
Special Screenings
Thursday, February 5
Acts of Reparation (2024)
Capri Theater
A Black woman and white man travel south to explore their families’ histories. $5. 7 p.m. More info here.
Rogue One (2016)
Eagles 33
An event hosted by Cempazuchitl Collective to raise funds for rental assistance for East Siders. Presented by TriLingua Cinema. $25 donation requested. 7 p.m. More info here.
Something’s Gotta Give (2003)
Emagine Willow Creek
RIP Diane Keaton. $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Dinner in America (2020)
Grandview 1&2
Pandemic-era Sundance winner that's belatedly won a following. $14.44. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
The Killers (1964)
Heights Theater
The Reagan-punching movie I mentioned. $13. 7 p.m. More info here.
Titanic (1997)
Parkway Theater
Curse you, Billy Zane! $9/$12. Trivia at 7:30 p.m. Movie at 8 p.m. More info here.
Friday, February 6
Ciao! Manhattan (1972)
Alamo Drafthouse
Edie Sedgwick’s final film. $13.99. 7 p.m. More info here.
NBC’s Milan Cortina Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony
AMC Southdale 16
They're showing some of the games each day, too. Not gonna list it all here but you can find info on the AMC site. $11.19. 12:45 p.m. More info here.
25 Cats From Qatar (2025)
Heights Theater
That's too many cats. $12. 7 p.m. More info here.
Weapons (2025)
Heights Theater
Where'd them kids go? Full review here. $13. 6:45 p.m. Monday 4:15 p.m. Tuesday 7 p.m. More info here.
The Land Before Time (1988)
Marcus West End
Yes, but was there still Newsweek? $3. 12:55 p.m. Saturday-Sunday 12:30 p.m. More info here.
Scream It Off Screen
Parkway Theater
Hope you already got yer tix. Sold out. 8 p.m. More info here.
The Time Masters (1982)
Trylon
A French animated film about a boy trapped on a planet with killer hornets. $8. 7 p.m. Saturday 8:45 p.m. Sunday 3 p.m. More info here.
Son of the White Mare (1981)
Trylon
Three brothers must save the universe in this long-unseen Hungarian animated film. $8. 8:45 p.m. Saturday 7 p.m. Sunday 4:45 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, February 7
Twin Peaks: Episodes 28-30
Alamo Drafthouse
And with that, the original series concludes. See you in 25 years. $10.99. 11 a.m. & 6:45 p.m. Sunday 6:45 p.m. Monday 3 p.m. Wednesday 4:15 p.m. More info here.
Time Hoppers: The Silk Road (2025)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Marcus West End
Time-traveling kids must protect the history of science. Also Sunday. Showtimes, prices, and more info here.
Train Dreams (2025)
Heights Theater
Clint Bentley’s lovely, impressionistic adaptation of the Denis Johnson novella. Full review here. $16. 1:15 p.m. Monday 8 p.m. More info here.
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Heights Theater
Joe Bob Briggs hosts the V-Day slasher. $30. 6:30 & 9:30 p.m. More info here.
Do the Right Thing (1989)
The Hive Collective
Hasn’t aged a day. Presented by the Picturegoer Film Club. $15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Def by Temptation (1990)
Main Cinema
The Black horror classic. $11. 10 p.m. More info here.
GOAT (2026)
AMC Southdale
A goat plays sports. An advance screening. $15.19. 1 p.m. More info here.
KPop Demon Hunters (2025)
Riverview Theater
Let yer kids scream their heads off. $5. 12:30 p.m. Sunday 12:30 & 5 p.m. More info here.
Sunday, February 8
The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
Alamo Drafthouse
Craft while you watch a movie, if that’s what you’re into. $18. Noon. More info here.
Brief Encounter (1945)
Alamo Drafthouse
So much yearning. $10.99. 4 p.m. More info here.
The Kid (1921)
Crooners
The Chaplin classic, accompanied by Philip Shorey and the Curse of the Vampire band, and preceded by a performance by Maud Hixson. $37.89 and up. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Almost Famous (2000)
Edina Mann
This is exactly what being a music journalist is like. Also Wednesday. $12.12. 7 p.m. More info here.
Casablanca (1942)
Emagine Willow Creek
Claude Raines steals Humphrey Bogart from Ingrid Bergman. Also Wednesday. $11. 3:45 & 6:30 p.m. More info here.
Blade Runner (1982)
Grandview 1&2
This movie happened seven years ago. Also Thursday. $14.14. 9:45 p.m. More info here.
Labyrinth (1986)
Roxy’s Cabaret
Watch out, Jennifer Connelly—it’s David Bowie! Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
American Gigolo (1980)
Trylon
High-end escort Richard Gere is suspected of murder! $8. 6:45 p.m. Monday-Tuesday 7 & 9:30 p.m. More info here.
Monday, February 9
Crime 101 (2026)
AMC Southdale/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth, together again. (Without superpowers.) An advance screening. AMC: $13.19. 7 p.m. More info here. Emagine: $13. 7 p.m. More info here. Marcus: $10.50. 7 p.m. More info here.
AMC Screen Unseen
AMC Southdale
A mystery movie. $7. 7 p.m. More info here.
Flesh for Frankenstein (1974)
Emagine Willow Creek
As I write this, there is exactly one ticket left. $9. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, February 10
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
Alamo Drafthouse
Spike Lee collaborator Ernest Dickerson goes full gross-out. $10.99. 8 p.m. More info here.
Good Luck Have Fun Don’t Die (2026)
AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek/Main Cinema/Marcus West End
Sam Rockwell travels back in time to save the world. An advance screening. AMC: $18.99. 7 p.m. More info here. Emagine: $16. 7 p.m. More info here. Main: Free. 7 p.m. More info here. Marcus: $9.76. 7 p.m. More info here.
You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine (2026)
Parkway Theater
An all-star John Prine tribute. Also Wednesday. $15/$20. 7 p.m. More info here.
Wednesday, February 11
Repo Man (1984)
Alamo Drafthouse
Soundtrack changed my life. $13.99. 8 p.m. More info here.
Gale: Yellow Brick Road (2026)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Marcus West End
The Wizard of Oz's gritty reboot. Showtimes, prices and more info here.
Eric Church: Evangeline vs. The Machine Comes Alive
AMC Southdale
In case you missed him in St. Paul on Sunday. $20. 7 p.m. More info here.
Secret Movie Night
Emagine Willow Creek
A mystery movie chosen by a local notable. $12. 7 p.m. More info here.
Don Hertzfeldt’s Animation Mixtape (2025)
Main Cinema
The animation great presents a series of short films. $11. 7 p.m. More info here.
Pauline Black: A 2 Tone Story (2024)
Trylon
The story of the lead singer of the British ska revival band The Selecter. Presented by Sound Unseen. $13. 7 p.m. More info here.
Thursday, February 12
My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)
Alamo Drafthouse
Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz square off against each other. $20. 7:15 p.m. More info here.
Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Granada
A Taste the Movies event with, presumably, spaghetti. $169. 6 p.m. More info here.
The Verdict (1946)
Heights Theater
Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre—a classic duo. $13. 7 p.m. More info here.
Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Parkway Theater
Oh I guess Valentine’s Day is a-comin’ up, huh? $9/$12. Music from Diane at 7 p.m. Movie at 8 p.m. More info here.
Opening
Follow the links for showtimes.
Ali (2001)
Will Smith is The Greatest. Well, I should say "Will Smith plays The Greatest."
Dracula
Luc Besson’s take on the bloodsucker.
Euphoria
This Indian drama does not star Zendaya or Sydney Sweeney.
Glory (1989)
For Black History Month, the movie that made Denzel a star.
Magellan
Filipino director Lav Diaz tells the story of the Portuguese explorer.
The Moment
Guys, I don't think Charli is gonna pull this off.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Oscar-nominated doc about a school videographer secretly documenting Russian propaganda efforts.
Solo Mio
Left at the altar, Kevin James goes on a honeymoon alone to Rome, where he learns a little something about himself.
Still Hope
The latest "faith-based" movie is about a sex-trafficked woman.
The Strangers: Chapter 3
The Strangers saga continues!
Stray Kids: The Dominate Experience
What's the Stray Kids: The Dominate Experience? Well, if you have to ask.
Whistle
I don't know that Minnesota is in the mood for a horror movie about a whistle right now.
With Love
A breezy Indian romance.
Ongoing in Local Theaters
Follow the links for showtimes.
Arco
Arco is a boy from the distant future, where people live in fantastical homes on stilts, high above the Earth, and have developed the ability to travel through time. He’s too young for such a journey, so he steals his older sister’s rainbow cape and the gem that powers time travel and winds up in a less-distant future–about 50 years from now. Things have and haven’t changed—the world looks similar, except that domes go up around houses to protect them from extreme weather, and working parents communicate with their children via hologram while robots do the caretaking. Here Arco meets a lonely girl named Iris, and they develop a cute friendship; she sketches the world he describes to her while he tries to teach her the language of birds. But three weird brothers find Arco’s jewel, potentially leaving him stranded. While pleasant enough, this Ghibli-derivative toon from French illustrator Ugo Bienvenu never quite lives up to the promise of its intricate world-building. The human faces are oddly inexpressive and the dubbed voices—especially those of Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg, and Flea—don’t help any. Cute and thoughtful, but curiously inert. B
Avatar: Fire and Ash
There’s a silly ongoing online debate that no, I will not join, about whether the Avatar movies have any “cultural impact.” But I can say that watching the first 10 minutes of each new sequel is like seeing your in-laws’ extended family over the holidays: Everyone looks kind of familiar but damned if you can be expected to remember their names, let alone what their deal is. And you know what? I like that. When you’re not actually watching an Avatar movie, nobody expects you to think about Avatar at all, and what more can you ask from a talented megalomaniac’s misguided passion project? James Cameron still can’t plot for shit, and even more than its two predecessors, Avatar: Fire and Ash is just one damn thing after another. (It hardly fits his grandiose vision, but what Cameron is narratively suited for, with his cliffhangery series of captures and escapes, is an old-fashioned serial.) So… do those damn things still look cool? Sigh, yes, they still look cool. We’re introduced to the Mangkwan, a more vicious race of Na’vi who shoot flaming arrows and practice dark magic, ruled by the sinewy, feline Varang (Oona Chaplin, whose hissing skills rival even Zoe Saldana’s). There’s a billowy, translucent trading vessel that floats through the air. Nasty squids with pincers haunt the ocean depths. So while all the usual caveats apply— Cameron’s ideas about indigenous peoples remain ideologically suspect, the younger actors still sound like they’re doing voice work for a tepid Scooby-Doo reboot, the whole thing’s just too damn long—Avatar remains your best one-stop-shop for state-of-the-art ecotopian fantasy and the righteous desftruction of military hardware. B
Bugonia
Even when I like a Yorgos Lanthimos movie, I feel kinda played—there’s just something so smugly conniving about his glib riffs off our cultural moment, as though he’s figured out exactly how much nihilist grotesquerie titillates Americans without turning them off. But I can’t deny how thoroughly he rips a simple idea to shreds once his jaws clench down. Here, Lanthimos chomps on the paradox of how conspiracy theorists can acutely diagnose societal ills while veering so ludicrously off base when it comes to assigning blame. Jesse Plemons is Teddy Gatz, a beekeeper whose mother is in a coma because she participated in a clinical trial run by pharmaceutical behemoth Auxolith. Putting two and two together, Teddy arrives at the obvious conclusion that this is all part of an extraterrestrial plot to destroy humanity. With often reluctant help from his autistic cousin Don (Aidan Delbis, providing what little heart the movie has), Teddy kidnaps Auxolith’s glam girlboss, who is, of course, Emma Stone. Down as ever for whatever Yorgos flings at her, Stone particularly excels at the effortless doublespeak of the affluent, as she displayed in The Curse. I mean, rich people do sound like aliens when they talk to us. Bugonia succeeds primarily as a series of tense moments—Teddy’s interrogations of Michelle, a visit to Teddy’s home from a cop with a creepy past, Michelle’s attempts to turn Don against his cousin—but I appreciate how Lanthimos undercuts what could be an absurdist catharsis with a grim coda. And corporate queen Stone, head back, singing along to “Good Luck, Babe!” as her Range Rover cruises down the highway, is an indelible image of our age. A-
Clika—ends February 5
F1
Well of course this is Top Gun for race cars—you thought Joseph Kosinski was gonna go back to directing Tron movies and Halo ads? What matters is that F1’s on-track action is as gripping as Top Gun: Maverick’s mid-air feats, and there are moments that had me, a non-gasper, gasping. The acting bits are not entirely as bad as those TG:M’s Oscar-nominated screenplay made us endure. And if your attention may wander in these off-track moments, at least F1 (I am not calling it F1: The Movie—I got my own Google problems to worry about) leaves us at leisure to compare and contrast Tom Cruise’s smugness with Brad Pitt’s: eternal youth vs. staved-off decline, skill vs. savvy, unnerving intensity vs. indolent swagger. Yes, ideally, Pitt’s Sonny Hayes would learn as much from his younger colleagues as he teaches them, but instead it’s the wily old driver who touches the lives of everyone he encounters—he’s kind of a Magical Caucasian. Chastened hotshot Damson Idris learns not to showboat for the press. Kerry Condon overcomes his mistrust of Sonny’s arrogance long enough to bed him. And team owner Javier Bardem, who took a chance on Sonny, sees his long shot pay off, defeating the machinations of evil-as-ever Tobias Menzies. And they say Hollywood doesn’t make movies for aging white guys who feel like their talents have gone unacknowledged anymore. B-
Hamnet
There’s no reason this should work. Hamlet isn’t “about” the death of Shakespeare’s only son, and even if the play was his way of processing that calamity, what’s that to us? But while I feared the biographical fallacy would run amok through (cursed phrase incoming) Chloé Zhao’s first film since Eternals—movies have a tedious habit of treating works of art as riddles we decode to understand an artist’s life—Hamnet honors the complexity of human creativity. It helps that the central figure isn’t Shakespeare (Paul Mescal, here to make the girlies weep once more), but his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley), a “forest witch” (as the villagers say) who takes to motherhood intensely, with a protectiveness born out of her visions of dark foreboding. With the aid of DP Łukasz Żal’s muddy tones and chiaroscuro interiors, and an allusive yet plainspoken script co-written with Maggie O'Farrell (author of the novel that serves as source material), Zhao creates a credible Elizabethan world, and Buckley’s performance, ranging from the subtle flickers of a smile to wracked howls of grief, is all-encompassing. The final segment—the premiere of Hamlet itself—is the emotional equivalent of juggling chainsaws, yet Buckley’s commitment anchors a conceit that could as easily elicit snickers as sniffles. In her expression we watch as the stuff of life—mourning, family drama, the unworthiness we feel in the face of personal tragedy—is subsumed into something greater than its components. A
The Housemaid
Sydney Sweeney is Millie, an ex-con living out of her car who miraculously lands a job as a live-in maid for the wealthy Winchester family. Amanda Seyfried is Nora, the too-perfect wife. Brandon Sklenar is Andrew, a kind Barry Lyndon buff who’s built like an underwear model. There’s also a daughter who looks like she sees dead people. No sooner does Millie sign on than Nora becomes unpredictably moody and vicious. Mysteries abound! Does Nora have an ulterior motive for hiring a hottie with a killer rack? Why does Andrew stick around with his cuckoo wife? Just what is the deal with that dead-eyed kid? If Sydney Sweeney can act, why does she deliver every line in the same flat zoomer mutter, as though she’s just getting the words out of the way? Seyfried has a ball throughout, and Sweeney does wake up for the finale, but trash shouldn’t be this impressed with itself, and the twist—you knew there was one—is undermined by an extended period of explanatory voiceover. Cartoonish about class, which is fine, and about domestic abuse, which is less so, and overall just not enough fun. Next time you think, “They don’t make movies like that anymore,” be careful what you wish for: This is what happens when they try. C+
Infinite Icon: A Visual Memoir
Islands—ends February 5
The Lego Movie—ends February 5
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Marty Supreme
Josh Safie and Ronald Bronstein’s script brings the frenetic energy of postwar Jewish fiction to the story of an annoying little man who is very good at 1) ping pong and 2) getting people to do what he wants. In the course of two and a half hours, Marty Mauser robs his uncle, knocks up a married woman, bangs an aging movie star, opens for the Harlem Globetrotters, loses a mobster’s dog, swindles some Jersey rubes, and screws over anyone who gives him a break. The cast is uniformly great, even (grits teeth) Kevin O’Leary, but this is the Timothée Chalamet show, let’s be real. He gets that Marty’s ego and his willingness to be humiliated all come from the same place, that drive to succeed that either hollows you out or reveals your hollowness. Open wounds from the last war seep out all over this film via Jewish resentment, Holocaust survival, Japanese nationalism. And despite an anachronistic ’80s new wave/pop soundtrack blended with composer Daniel Lopatin’s audition to become this generation’s Giorgio Moroder, the production design is impeccable: No one in this movie looks like they’ve ever seen a cell phone. So smart and frantic and bracing that if you’re not careful you might even mistake its closing scene for a moment of heartwarming redemption. A-
Moses the Black—ends February 5
No Other Choice
Park Chan-wook sure knows how to end a damn movie—if at any point you find the macabre comedy of No Other Choice a bit unfocused, rest assured that it will end with as much bleak finality as Decision to Leave, though on a far less romantic note of doom. We begin with handsome paper-factory manager Man-Su (Squid Game album Lee Byung-hun) outside his gorgeous home, grilling eel to celebrate his pretty wife Mi-ri’s (Son Ye-jin) birthday. As they huddle together with daughter and son, and their two dogs dart between their legs in the lovely autumn light, you just know an ax is gonna fall. Sure enough, the new American owners toss Man-Su out on his ear, forcing him to endure a patronizing session where the newly unemployed are coached to chant that their firing is not their fault. But masculinity doesn’t untangle that easily. Battling guilt, jealousy, alcoholism, pride, and sheer purposelessness as he fails to find a new job, Man-Su decides he must murder his competition. Unlike Park’s usual protagonists, though, Man-su has a hard time acclimating to murder. He’s not just squeamish and inept, he’s hobbled by empathy—he might be able to kill these guys, but he can’t stand to see their feelings hurt. Working with cinematographer Woo-hyung Kim, Park’s technique dazzles with acrobatic unpredictability here, with tricky dissolves that wash us nimbly between scenes and perspectives. And by the time Man-Su gets his final reward Park’s kill-or-be-killed metaphor has left all subtlety behind, as it damn well should. A-
One Battle After Another
Paul Thomas Anderson’s universally lauded tragicomic revolutionary epic has a lot on its thematic plate. It’s a movie about rescuing your daughter that’s really about how you can’t protect your kids, about the contrast between the glamour of doomed revolutionary action and the quiet victories of everyday resistance, about a parallel United States that mirrors our police state already in progress. And to white folks (like me and maybe you and probably PTA himself) who just wonder when all this will all be over in the real world, Anderson offers his most self-explanatory movie title since There Will Be Blood. But aside from all that One Battle After Another is just plain engaging and immersive and entertaining the way too many movies that make much more money only pretend to be. As in Killers of the Flower Moon, Leonard DiCaprio is a dopey white guy outclassed by a woman of another race (glad he’s found his niche); his greasy top-knot and Arthur Dent bathrobe will be the stuff of hipster Halloween costumes. Teyana Taylor is iconic in the true sense of the word as insatiable revolutionary Perfida Beverly Hills. (I told you all to see A Thousand and One, but did you listen?) Supremely unruffled as a Latino karate instructor, Benicio Del Toro is the calm center of the film’s most remarkable sequence. As the spirited abductee, Chase Infiniti (who somehow was not herself named by Thomas Pynchon) slowly accrues an echo of Taylor’s screen intensity. And I regret to report that Sean Penn is as brilliant here as everyone says. His Steven Lockjaw is a swollen testicle of a man, incapable of properly fitting into any suit of clothes, a walking study of the psychosis of authoritarianism. Oh yeah, and that climactic car chase is totally boss. A
The Secret Agent
Kleber Mendonça Filho’s exhilarating new film is deceptively titled. Not only isn’t Marcelo, a.k.a. Armando (Wagner Moura), a spy, but The Secret Agent isn’t even exclusively about him. Mendonça follows Moura’s character, an academic whose clash with a bureaucrat has endangered his life under Brazil’s military dictatorship in the late ’70s, because this story brings us in contact with so many others. The gas station attendant who struggles for days to get the cops to retrieve a dead body. The chatty, energetic Dona Sebastiana (Tânia Maria), who knows everyone in town and helps those in need hide. The Angolan refugee Claudia (Hermila Guedes), hoping for true revolution in her homeland. If you’ve seen the film, each of these characters will live on in your imagination afterward, examples of the breadth of humanity that flourishes despite repression. Searching for some record of his mother, who he never met, Armando visits his son, who while living with his mother’s parents has become obsessed with Jaws. Meanwhile, Armando’s enemies find his location and target him for death. Coincidentally, a human leg is discovered in the jaws of a shark; soon urban legend has it that it’s become reanimated and is prowling the town For added chaos, this takes place during carnival. All this and Udo Kier’s final role too. A-
Send Help
Sam Raimi the schlock lover and gross-out king is back, and he hasn’t had this much fun since Drag Her to Hell—there are moments of eyeball-gouging here worth the price of admission alone. Rachel McAdams is nerdy office worker Linda, a spreadsheet wiz who’s been screwed over by her new boss, fratty nepo baby Bradley (Dylan O’Brien). En route to a Thailand business meeting, their plane crashes (an understatement—Raimi gleefully rips apart the aircraft and its occupants), with only Linda and Bradley surviving. Naturally, Linda, a Survivor fanatic, thrives in their new island home, while Bradley struggles. If that makes Send Help sound like a late entry in the eat-the-rich movie trend of a few years back, well, kinda, yes, but Raimi is less overwrought and, well, European about class conflict. McAdams is an underutilized comic actress who deserves more roles like this and O’Brien builds off his success in last year’s Twinless—if modern Hollywood wasn’t so inherently tedious he’d have Glen Powell’s career, though selfishly I’d rather have him making the movies he does. (It’s also the second movie in a row where he shows his butt.) Send Help is the best kind of horror comedy, where rather than fearing what awful thing might come next, you look forward to it. What you might dread instead is that the movie could stumble into opposites-attract territory, with Linda and Bradley learning a little something about each other and finding l-u-v. Rest easy. Raimi didn’t save up all his Dr. Strange money just to piss it away on a romcom. A-
Sinners
Ryan Coogler’s Jim Crow vampire flick is a truly rare thing: a wholly self-assured mess. Technically and narratively, Coogler knows exactly what he wants to do, whether or not you can keep up, and each of the performers are just as committed. You get Michael B. Jordan distinguishing the murderous twins Smoke and Stack without resorting to caricature, Delroy Lindo as an aged bluesman. Hailee Steinfeld as a seductive quadroon, Jack O'Connell as an undead banjoist, Wunmi Mosaku as a wise hoodoo woman, Saul Williams as a preacher with a new wave hairdo, and I could just keep going. They all populate a vividly simulated Clarksdale, Mississippi, to which Jordan’s gangsters have returned to open a juke joint soon targeted by bloodsuckers—you could call this August Wilson’s From Dusk to Dawn. There are visual moments that split the diff between cornball and visionary (I truly did not know cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw had this in her) and more ideas—about Black spirituality and its vexed relationship to Christianity, about the social role of music, about integration as a deal with the devil—than your average multiplex sees in a whole summer. And if Coogler never slows down to develop those ideas, they still pack a conceptual wallop that complements the film's lived-in texture. This world is so engrossing that by the time the vamps come calling, I almost wished Coogler would just let his people have their one night undisturbed. But America’s not really like that, is it? A-
The Testament of Ann Lee
Hard not to see Mona Fastvold’s telling of the story of Ann Lee, the woman who brought the Shaker movement to America, as a companion piece to her partner Brady Corbet’s more lauded The Brutalist, which was also built off a Fastvold-Corbet script. Both capture the tension between immigrant outsiders and the ethos of the land they’ve moved to. But Ann Lee is ambitious in a less conventional way, a way I hesitate to call “feminine” but is at least non-masculine, typified in how Ann Lee strives to create a community where Laszlo Toth constructed an accusatory and alienated landmark, and in the film’s flowing structure as well. Though there’s plenty of incident here, there’s not much drama: The “And then… and then…” mode of the religious text that the screenplay takes doesn’t lend itself to that. Fastvold captures the textures of 18th century Britain, the grubby toil and the joyless sex, reminding us that religious extremism once served as a route to agency for the oppressed, and her tone aims for the ecstatic austerity of the Shakers themselves. That’s undercut by a pop sweetness to the hymns and a choreographed precision to the dances that feels stagey; this is a movie musical as much as it’s a representation of the Shaker belief in worship through song. Then again, maybe that genre movie is Fastvold feminizing, even queering, the film epic? Regardless, Amanda Seyfried’s cult leader is both intensely physical and otherworldly; with her luminous eyes, beatifically parted lips, musical Mancunian drawl, and quiet presence, you can see why she has so many followers, despite her “no sex ever” rule. As I overheard one woman say on her way out of the theater, “If celibacy makes you sing like that…” B
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Just hours before I headed out to watch The Voice of Hind Rajab, I saw the latest photo of Liam, the five-year-old Minnesota boy who immigration thugs had shipped off to a Texas detention center, and learned that he’d been ill. So I was prepared for a movie about a six-year-old Palestinian girl trapped in a car with her dead family and surrounded by Israeli troops during the siege of Gaza to fully wreck me. But emotions are funny things, and Kaouther Ben Hania’s blend of the real and the re-created, so effective in her 2023 documentary Four Daughters, kept pushing me away here. The film takes place in a Red Crescent call center, where workers communicate with the trapped girl and struggle to coordinate, via the Red Cross and bureaucrats from both Israel and Palestine, a safe route for an ambulance to rescue her. While the Red Crescent employees are actors, we actually hear the recorded voice of Hind Rajab herself, a decision that not only makes everything around it seem a little phony, no matter how solid the performances, but raises distracting ethical questions unrelated to those the film centers on. Ben Hania wants us to feel the emotional strain that emergency workers undergo, the shame and guilt and helplessness their situations generate. But all I could keep thinking was “I’m listening to a dead girl’s voice.” Don’t get me wrong—I was still wrecked. But it was the few minutes of actual documentary footage that Ben Hania includes at the end that did it. B
