Interesting little event I almost missed: The two-day Iranian Film Festival at MCAD this weekend is called "Women’s Voices: Lifting the Veil of Confusion" and will feature the films of Rakhshan Banietemad, and Q&As with the filmmaker both days. And it's free.
And down below, I've got reviews of On Slow Horses and Sinners for ya.
Special Screenings
Thursday, April 24
Night Moves (1975)
Emagine Willow Creek
Neo-noir Gene Hackman. Need I say more? $11.60. 7 p.m. More info here.
Pink Floyd at Pompeii - MCMLXXII (1972)
Emagine Willow Creek
A new restoration of the classic/cornball Floyd concert flick. $16.60. 7 p.m. Sunday 1 p.m. More info here.
Sneak Peek Showcase
Emagine Willow Creek
Your guess is as good as mine. $4.60. 6 p.m. More info here.
Lost Highway (1997)
Grandview 1&2
Just about the ’90s-est cast imaginable. Also Sunday. $14.15. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Vertigo (1958)
Heights Theater
… to the polls! Sold out. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Friday, April 25
Le Consentement (2022)
Alliance Française
An adaptation of Vanessa Springora’s memoir about being sexually abused. Free. 6 p.m. More info here.
Miss Congeniality (2000)
Edina 4
Can an FBI agent walk in heels? $15.42. 7 p.m. More info here.
Airplane 2025 (2025)
Trylon
Tom Arnold is the pilot of a sex plane. $8. 12 p.m. More info here.
Demolition Man (1993)
Trylon
Snipes ‘n Stallone square off in the future. $8. Friday-Saturday 7 & 9:30 p.m. Sunday 3 & 5:30 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, April 26
The Keep (1983)
Alamo Drafthouse
Gene Siskel called it “one of the most inaudible movies ever made.” $8.95. 2:30 p.m. More info here.
Live at the Met: Le Nozze de Figaro
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
The Nose of Figaro? $26.05. 12 p.m. Wednesday 1 & 6:30 p.m. More info here.
National Theatre Live: Dr. Strangelove
Main Cinema
Steve Coogan does Peter Sellers. $20. 11 a.m. More info here.
We Are Half of Iran’s Population (2009)
MCAD
interviews with members of the Women Rights Activists of Iran in the runup to the 2009 elections. Free. 12:30 p.m. More info here.
The May Lady (1998)
MCAD
A divorced woman meets resistance from her teen son when she starts to date. Free. 2 p.m. More info here.
See You Tomorrow, Elina (2011)
MCAD
A documentary about how Iranian politics shapes a child’s life. Free. 4 p.m. More info here.
Ponyo (2008)
Parkway Theater
The Shape of Water for kids. $7-$10. 1 p.m. More info here.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)
Walker Art Center
Lives up to its title. $8. 2 p.m. More info here.
Sunday, April 27
Heartworn Highways (1976)
Alamo Drafthouse
A little-seen documentary about outlaw country. $8.95. 12:20 p.m. More info here.
Happy GIlmore (1996)
Emagine Willow Creek
To prep you for the upcoming sequel. $12.60. 4:15 & 6:45 p.m. Also Wednesday. More info here.
On the Go (2023)
Emagine Willow Creek
Three people—a young gay man, a woman who wants to get pregnant, and a girl who says she’s a mermaid—take a road trip. $11.60. 2 p.m. More info here.
Under the Skin of the City (2001)
MCAD
fAn Iranian family struggles to stay afloat financially. Free. 2 p.m. More info here.
A Move (2024)
MCAD
This short film from Iranian director Elahe Esmaili features a cross-generational discussion of women’s roles in society. Free. 4 p.m. More info here.
Chocolat (1988)
Trylon
Claire Denis’s debut, a study of postcolonial desire. $8. 8 p.m. Monday-Tuesday 7 & 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Monday, April 28
Suzume (2023)
Alamo Drafthouse
A Japanese teen must prevent a supernatural apocalypse. $11.95. 7 p.m. More info here.
Alison’s Birthday (1981)
Emagine Willow Creek
A horrible ritual will take place when she turns 19! $7.60. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, April 29
The Brides of Dracula (1960)
Alamo Drafthouse
Peter Cushing does battle with them. $8.95. 8 p.m. More info here.
Wednesday, April 30
Shrek (2001)
Alamo Drafthouse
That’s right, Shrek. $15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Born Innocent: The Red Kross Story (2023)
Cloudland
A celebration of the California rockers. $13. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Raid: Redemption (2011)
Emagine Willow Creek
A SWAT team gets pinned down by an Indonesian mobster’s minions. $7.60. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
La mujer salvaje (Wild Woman) (2023)
Main Cinema
Following a bloody fight, a woman searches for her son. Part of the Minnesota Cuban Film Festival. $12. 7 p.m. More info here.
Opening
Follow the links for showtimes.
The Accountant 2
Ben Affleck is back. And he’s still an accountant.
Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality
The life of “the first millennial saint.”
Cheech and Chong's Last Movie
I guess they deserve their victory lap now that everyone is stoned.
The Legend of Ochi
Children protect a monkey-like creature from Willem Dafoe.
Neighborhood Watch
I see we've decided to put Jack Quaid in all the movies now.
On Swift Horses
There’s too much happening in Daniel Minahan’s period melodrama to condense into a blurb, so let’s just say it’s about a quasi-love triangle in the 1950s between a stolid homeowner (Will Poulter), his restless wife (Daisy Edgar-Jones), and his queer brother (Jacob Elordi). Edgar-Jones starts winning at the track and explores her bisexuality in a dalliance with a freethinking neighbor (Sasha Calle). Elordi falls for a coworker (Diego Calva) while working at a casino in Vegas. An absolutely unnecessary horse plays an unnecessarily prominent role. I’ve seen reviews invoke Douglas Sirk, and while I’m tickled by the idea of Todd Haynes’s Euphoria, that’s just wishful criticking. There’s just something very YA about all this: Edgar-Jones in particular seems to be living a 21st century fantasy of how it felt to rebel in a closeted past. What a waste of a good cast. B-
The President’s Wife
Catherine Deneuve is Bernadette Chirac.
The Shrouds
In David Cronenberg’s latest (last?), a man learns to communicate with the dead.
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
Twenty years ago, we thought we could put Star Wars behind us.
Until Dawn
A slasher Groundhog Day.
Ongoing in Local Theaters
Follow the links for showtimes.
Captain America: Brave New World
The Captain America movies are where the MCU gets “serious,” where comic book idealism clashes with the dark side of U.S. history, where unfettered heroism encounters the restraining forces of bureaucracy. With Anthony Mackie inheriting the shield, Brave New World adds race to that equation. After shouldering endless Steve Rogers comparisons, Mackie's Sam Wilson gets a little speech where he wonders if he'll ever be enough, while for contrast we have Isaiah Bradley (Carl Bradley), an older Black super soldier who’d been imprisoned by the U.S. government. Meanwhile, President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) nearly gets us into a war with Japan (couldn’t be China—Disney needs that big overseas market) over adamantium, a new substa—ah, you know, don’t worry about it. Since in the real world, an authoritarian prez is seeking to purge the military (and everywhere else) of non-whites while saber-rattling with the nation’s historic allies, theoretically the film’s themes should resonate, at least in a half-assed pop culture thinkpiece kinda way. But this slapdash entry is more concerned with callbacks to the MCU D-list like the Eternals and 2008's The Incredible Hulk. Its one big reveal (unless you’re genuinely wondering, “Will Liv Tyler appear?”) was torpedoed by the need to fill seats: This would have been 10 times more fun if we didn’t know Ford was gonna Hulk out at the end, but the theaters would have been ten times emptier if the trailers didn’t spoil that. Brave New World is about one thing only: The MCU struggling to justify its continued existence. C
Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can't Sing—ends Thursday
One to One: John & Yoko—ends Thursday
Princess Mononoke—ends Thursday
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 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 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 Wedding Banquet
What all but tanks Andrew Ahn’s remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 international breakthrough is that in out ‘n’ proud 2025 everyone involved seems a little embarrassed by its wacky, recycled premise (gay man has to trick his traditional family into believing that a green card marriage is real). The film's attempts at a serious relationship drama are undercut by its screwball obligations. There are cute moments and a few laughs—especially from Joan Chen as a mother belatedly overcompensating for neglecting her daughter by going gangbusters with PFLAG—but it's a bummer to watch a terrific cast to shoehorn themselves into an unnecessary remake instead of telling an original story about queer 21st century people of color. B-
A Working Man
Suspecting that I underrated the silly-but-effective/effective-because-it’s-silly Jason Statham vehicle The Beekeeper last year, I went into the grim-visaged Brit’s latest vengeance romp determined not to not-get-fooled again. (It doesn’t help that they screen these things for a smattering of critics in the afternoon rather than plopping us into a rowdy crowd of comped civilians at night.) But sorry The Beekeeper fans—this is no The Beekeeper. In his new outing with director David Ayer, Statham is a black ops solider turned construction foreman whose name I’m not going to bother to look up; when the daughter of his kindly Latino bosses gets snatched, he reluctantly goes back to his old ways. As always, the baddies—tastelessly attired Russian gangsters, a bald Black meth kingpin who sits on an ornate metal throne in the back of a redneck bar—are colorfully sketched if never unforgettable. But if I can get with Statham belonging to an absurdly mysterious org (of beekeepers!) and uncovering an even wilder conspiracy, A Working Man is too grubby and self-righteous to be sheer dumb fun. Whenever someone asks him why he cares about the girl he’s rescuing, Statham mentions that he has a daughter of his own, and I couldn’t help shake that A Working Man believes that the worst thing about trafficking women is that it upsets girl dads. C+
