Below, find new short reviews of His Three Daughters, Speak No Evil, and Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice—none of which I can fully recommend, sorry. Hate being such a grump, so I'm hoping things pick up a bit this fall.
Special Screenings
Thursday, September 12
Ninja Scroll (1994)
Emagine Willow Creek
The 30th anniversary of the celebrated anime. $12.50. 6 p.m. Sunday 3 p.m. More info here.
Jaws (1975)
Grandview 1&2
Sharks are so scary, I'm glad they're not real. Also Sunday. $12. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Big Eyes (2014)
Mia
A biopic of the artist Margaret Keane. Free. 8 p.m. More info here.
The Edge of Daybreak (2021)
Trylon
Thailand's history is refracted through the chronicle of a single family. Free. 7 p.m. More info here.
Friday, September 13
Encanto (2021)
AMC Southdale 16
Can we talk about Bruno yet? All week. 4:45 p.m. More info here.
¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! (2024)
Main Cinema
A documentary about Colorado's "Disneyland of Mexican restaurants." $11. Friday-Saturday 7 p.m. Sunday 4 p.m. More info here.
Seconds (1966)
Trylon
An unhappy man gets to start his life over as Rock Hudson. $8. Friday-Saturday 7 & 9:15 p.m. Sunday 3 & 5:15 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, September 14
Canelo vs. Berlanga
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16
Live punchin', at the movies. $27.09. 7 p.m. More info here.
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King—Extended (2003)
Emagine Willow Creek
Destroy that ring, little guys! Also Sunday & Wednesday. $9. 12 & 5:30 p.m. More info here.
Riyadh Season Noche UFC: O'Malley vs. Dvalishvili
Emagine Willow Creek
More punchin'. $25. 9 p.m. More info here.
Lee (2023)
Main Cinema
Kate Winslet plays war photographer Lee Miller, who was mentioned prominently, you might recall, in Civil War. Free for MSP Film Society members. 11 a.m. More info here.
Splash (1984)
Parkway Theater
That lady is a mermaid! $5-$10. 1 p.m. More info here.
Cu Li Never Cries (2024)
Trylon
A meditation on Vietnamese history, focused on the lives of two women. Free. 1 p.m. Find more info here.
Sunday, September 15
Blazing Saddles (1974)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek
You couldn't make Blazing Saddles today because—INSERT PUNCH LINE HERE. $16.26. 4 & 7 p.m. Monday 7 p.m. More info here.
Ken (1964)
Trylon
Kenji Misumi's adaptation of the Mishima story about a man who cannot adjust to modern society. $8. 7:30 p.m. Monday-Tuesday 7 & 9 p.m. More info here.
Monday, September 16
Long Weekend (1978)
Emagine Willow Creek
Nature fights back against a vacationing Australian couple. $10. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
The Heights
Wes Anderson, doin' his thing. $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Excalibur (1981)
Parkway Theater
If there was one thing I knew about this movie in middle school, it's that there were boobs. $9/$12. Pre-movie trivia at 7:30 p.m. Movie at 8 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, September 17
Watershed (2023)
Main Cinema
The story of Paralympic swimming medalist Mallory Weggemann and her struggle to start a family via IVF. Weggemann and co-director Jay Snyder will attend. $11. 7:15 p.m. More info here.
Wednesday, September 18
Jurassic Park (1993)
Grandview 1&2
Dinosaurs are so scary, I'm glad they're not real. $12. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Borderland (2024)
Main Cinema
A doc about the lives of immigrants in the U.S. $11. 7 p.m. More info here.
Best in Show (2000)
North Loop Green
Dog people are just crazy. Free. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Hentai Kamen Aka Hk: Forbidden Super Hero (2013)
Trylon
Yep, it's Trash Film Debauchery all right. $5. 7 p.m. More info here.
Opening This Week
Follow the links for showtimes.
Am I Racist?
Yes, Matt Walsh, you are.
The Critic
Not to be confused with the movie Tarantino decided not to make.
Dan Da Dan: First Encounter
Teens run across supernatural forces.
Look Into My Eyes
A documentary look at the world of psychics.
Killer's Game
A hit man's plan to off himself goes awry.
Mathu Valadara 2
An Indian crime comedy.
Merchant Ivory
Jerks like me were meaner to these guys back in the day than maybe we should have been.
Speak No Evil
Nope, haven’t seen the 2022 Danish original, despite hearing good things about it, and yet I could tell this Blumhouse photocopy was missing something even before I checked the former’s plot synopsis. Uptight Americans Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy meet rowdy Brits James McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi while vacationing in Italy and for some reason agree to come visit their country home. The hosts begin testing the guests’ limits, and the Yanks are such ninnies they go uncomfortably with the flow until, yes, it’s too late to turn back. McAvoy does have a ball as the rural psycho, but the film never builds any real tension. And it just isn’t nasty enough, we’re allowed to identify with the victims rather than taking any pleasure in their discomfort. It’s Straw Dogs with straw men, and what fun is that? C+
Usher: Rendezvous in Paris
A concert film from the consummate '90s R&B star.
Will & Harper
Will Farrell takes a roadtrip with a longtime pal, who has just come out as trans.
Ongoing in Local Theaters
Follow the links for showtimes.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
It’s nice to be pandered to occasionally, so in the run up to the release of this redundant sequel I’ve enjoyed hearing how Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega geeked out on set about their shared love of Soy Cuba, as well as the Letterboxd promo where Ortega tried to sell Catherine O’Hara on The Passion of Joan of Arc. But then there were the CarMax, Denny’s, and Progressive ads reminding us the real reason why beloved films of the past can never die: $$$. And the movie itself? Well, with Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin’s quaint Maitlands having moved on via an unexplained “loophole,” the Deetz clan—Ryder's Lydia (now a famed ghost hunter), O'Hara's Delia (now an established NYC artist), and Ortega as Lydia’s sullen daughter Astrid—reunites for the funeral of its patriarch Charles (l’affair de Jeffrey Jones is navigated around cleverly). From the re-maniacal Michael Keaton and Ryder’s unstable goth mom to newcomers Justin Theroux as Lydia’s weaselly beau and current Burton gf Monica Bellucci as a soul-sucking spook, everyone here is game, and yes, there is involuntary singing and goopy mayhem. But while this silly little romp through a familiar world consistently errs on the side of goofball exuberance, the storylines race around frantically in search of a reason to happen. As for Ortega, she was good enough in the 2021 school shooting film The Fallout that I hope she frees herself from the afterlife of 20th century IP at some point and shows us what she's got. And I couldn’t help but be haunted by the fact that if he’d made the original a few years later, Burton would probably have cast Johnny Depp instead of Keaton. B-
Between the Temples
The setup is a little too much like a movie pitch: Jason Schwartzman is a cantor unable to get over his wife’s death; Carol Kane is his old music teacher, who demands that he prep her for a late-life bat mitzvah. But though these two characters do indeed, you know, “learn a little about each other—and themselves—along the way,” Nathan Silver’s understated little comedy (co-written with C. Mason Wells) is unconventional in a lived, everyday sort of way rather than willfully quirky. (It’s also a welcome peek into a middle-class community of Jews who for once aren’t depicted as screaming neurotics.) Great cast, for sure: Cantor Ben’s two moms are noodgy Dolly de Leon (even better here than in Ghostlight) and matronly Caroline Aaron (you’ll recognize that gravelly voice), while Robert Smigel is an easygoing rabbi and Madeline Weinstein is his daughter, who everyone wants Ben to marry. But it’s Schwartzman and Kane, both wizards of cadence, who carry the film, their relationship developing along a comic, conversational rhythm that’s complemented by MVP Sean Price Williams’s trademark handheld verite style. I wasn’t convinced the conclusion was true to the film’s non-confrontational spirit, but I was willing to be persuaded. A-
Blink Twice
There’s probably no way to discuss Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut, which she also co-wrote, without spilling the beans, so the spoiler-averse might just wanna clamp those eyes tight. In this Cinderella story turned nightmare, Channing Tatum is a tech titan who, following an undisclosed scandal and an apology tour, professes that therapy has made him a new man. He invites caterer Naomi Ackie and her more skeptical buddy Alia Shawkat (along with some other ladies and assorted hangers on) to his private island. Here the guests lounge around during the day and, by night, indulge in hallucinogenic larks that are quick-edited to conceal any details from us. As you’ve maybe heard, Blink Twice begins with a trigger warning regarding “depictions of violence—including sexual violence,” but the rape here is more implied than shown, unlike the orgy of vengeance it leads to. Kravitz’s glib one-liners and cartoonish characterizations are a mismatch for her big ideas about repressed trauma and gaslighting and abuse. The audience I saw kept laughing even when shit got grim—I don’t know if that’s what Kravitz wanted, but she certainly provided the opportunity. Loved the Yoko needle drop though. C
His Three Daughters
Sometimes, great acting is all a movie needs. Sometimes, great acting is more than a movie can handle. What writer/director Azazel Jacobs’s story of three sisters waiting for their dad to die in home hospice gets right about families under stress is how each member falls back into her familiar role. Carrie Coon’s Katie, the eldest, busies herself frantically with tasks, frustrated that no one wants to share the responsibilities she’s imposed on herself. Natasha Lyonne’s adopted Rachel just wants to withdraw until it’s all over and get high in her room. Elizabeth Olsen’s spacey peacemaker Christina wafts between the two, doing yoga and missing her daughter and trying to convince everyone (including herself) that everything will be all right. There are wonderful moments between the three, but there are also too many easy epiphanies, too many neat understandings reached, too many moments where a touch of restraint could balance out heightened emotion with the tedium that accompanies a death watch. And if there were more films offering actresses of this caliber the roles they deserve, maybe I wouldn't be tempted to overrate this one. B
Inside Out 2
Inside Out’s model of the human psyche was something only Pixar could have dreamt up (derogatory): Your brain is an office staffed with project managers jockeying for control of your emotional responses. Despite the corporatized determinism at its core, the 2015 movie worked dramatically because its story of a Minnesota girl named Riley played off adult sympathies for distressed children in the sort of pitiless, heart-wrenching way that only Pixar can (complimentary, I think?). In this noisy, chaotic follow up, Riley enters adolescence and a new emotion, Anxiety, shows up to the job. The upstart feeling stages a coup, literally bottles up Joy and other inconvenient emotions, and constructs Riley’s sense of self based wholly on the perception of others. There’s so much focus on the internal conflict here that Riley becomes a puppet yanked too and fro, and the emotional dynamics make no sense even on their own terms. C+
Strange Darling
I’m resistant to the mystique of serial killers, but I’ll say this for writer/director JT Mollner’s much-praised, supposedly script-flipping new feature—it annoyed me in new and wholly unexpected ways. The film centers on a battle of wits (and eventually weapons) between Willa Fitzgerald (ID’d solely as “The Lady”) and Kyle Gallner (aka “The Demon”) as a one night stand turns into a life-or-death chase. Both leads give strong physical performances while doing what they can with Mollner’s dialogue, and there’s a fun interlude with Ed Begley Jr. and Barbara Hershey as “old hippies” living an idyllic life in the mountains. But Strange Darling’s non-linear storytelling ostentatiously hides its secrets from us; rather than intriguing and surprising us through creative misdirection, Mollner is just evasive. As for first-time cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi, he’s got some style. But the opening onscreen boast about being shot on 35mm is a perfect introduction to a movie that’s so overly impressed with itself. C
Twisters
Twister may not be quite the summer classic that anyone who wasn’t old enough to vote in 1996 thinks it is, but it knew what it was and what it was supposed to do. This not-really-a-sequel (unless every movie about a shark is a Jaws sequel) is a bigger mess than a small Oklahoma town after an EF5. It can't really be about climate change because blockbusters have to be carefully nonpartisan, but it can’t not be about climate change because why else (as everyone in this movie is constantly saying) are there more tornadoes than ever. The goofiest part is that the chasers keep abandoning storms to instead rush into threatened towns to "help," i.e. telling everyone to get away from windows and get into the basement, which, sorry, but if you live in tornado alley and don't already know that you deserve to get swooped up into the sky. As Normal People and Hit Man showed, both Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell are better actors than they are movie stars. He needs to find another auteur to cast him against type instead of passing off his permasquint and smackably handsome grin as charisma; she needs to star in a Jane Austen adaptation or a Paddington sequel or something because I don’t believe she could find Oklahoma on a map. This will make enough money that neither of those things will ever happen, and I bet director Lee Isaac Chung never makes another Minari either. Meanwhile we’ll probably lose the National Weather Service. C+
