This is a good week for genre movies, with three new horror thrillers in movie theaters, all sure to elicit divisive reactions, plus a documentary, a surreal gothic-romance (of sorts), and a Pixar comedy that will appeal to eco-friendly adults.
We've added links to all our reviews below.
The Bride!
The film is now playing, only in movie theaters, via Warner Bros. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.
Official synopsis: "From Maggie Gyllenhaal (Academy Award-nominated writer/director of The Lost Daughter) and starring Academy Award nominee Jessie Buckley and Academy Award winner Christian Bale comes The Bride!, a bold, iconoclastic take on one of the world's most compelling stories.
"A lonely Frankenstein (Bale) travels to 1930s Chicago to ask groundbreaking scientist Dr. Euphronious (five-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening) to create a companion for him. The two revive a murdered young woman and The Bride (Buckley) is born. What ensues is beyond what either of them imagined: Murder! Possession! A wild and radical cultural movement! And outlaw lovers in a wild and combustible romance!"
Our review by Olga Artemyeva begins: "First things first: with her second directorial feature, The Bride!, Maggie Gyllenhaal achieves what she supposedly set out to do.
"In the current state of affairs, when almost everything moderately afflicts someone and almost nothing truly excites anyone, she managed to come out with a movie that seems to be destined to elicit some genuinely strong reaction and actually ruffle some feathers."
Dolly
The film is now playing, only in movie theaters, via Independent Film Company.
Official synopsis: "Macy fights for survival after being abducted by a deranged, monster-like figure who wants to raise her as their child."
Our review by J Hurtado concludes: "It all adds up to a less than stellar Chain Saw clone that feels closer to something like Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects, but with none of that film's pathos or interest in character. Clocking in well under eighty-five minutes, Dolly still manages to drag, mistaking atmosphere for story in many cases, and by the time it was over all I could think of was that I'd rather have watched Hooper's original than this pale imitation."
Heel
The film is now playing, in movie theaters and On Demand, via Magnolia Pictures. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.
Official synopsis: "From Academy Award® nominated director Jan Komasa, Heel is a twisted thriller that follows 19-year-old hooligan Tommy (Anson Boon), who revels in a life of drugs, parties, and violence. One night, on a bender with his reckless friends, he becomes separated from the group and is abducted by an unknown figure (Golden Globe® winner Stephen Graham).
"Though he is no stranger to inflicting violence, he is enraged and horrified when he wakes to find himself chained in the basement of the isolated suburban family home of Chris (Graham), his wife Kathryn (Academy Award® nominee Andrea Riseborough), and their young son Jonathan (Kit Rakusen). The family sets out to reform Tommy's unruly behavior, forcing him to comply with their relentless mind games or seek escape at any cost."
Our review by George and Josh Bate begins: "Many films daringly opt to make their lead characters somewhat unlikable, risking the audience's willingness to empathize with them and invest in their journey, but few films in recent memory feature a protagonist as detestable as Heel."
André Is An Idiot
The film is now playing, only in movie theaters, via Joint Venture. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.
Official synopsis: "A celebration of life filled with raw honesty, surreal bursts of imagination, and brazen irreverence, André Is An Idiot shows us what it really means to live happily, truthfully, and hilariously. In this Sundance award winning documentary, André Riccardi sets out to chronicle his final journey after receiving a diagnosis he could have prevented, through comedic vérité storytelling and fantastical stop-motion interludes."
Our review by Mel Valentin: "Shot over three years and in post-production for another year, André Is an Idiot follows the title character soon after he receives his diagnosis of stage-four colon cancer. Unwilling to go quietly into the good night, André imagines an entirely different choice for himself and his family."
I Live Here Now
The film is now playing, only in movie theaters, via Utopia. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.
Official synopsis: "In the surreal landscape of I Live Here Now, struggling actress Rose (Lucy Fry) finds her life upended by unexpected news. She's suddenly forced to confront a future she never thought possible, just as a major career opportunity with top agent Cindy Abrams (Cara Seymour) comes into view. Things spiral further when her casual boyfriend, Travis (Matt Rife) brings his overbearing mother (Sheryl Lee) into the fold, pushing Rose to the brink.
"She flees to The Crown Inn, a crumbling motel at the edge of nowhere, where time fractures and reality bends. Haunted by sleep paralysis, splintered memories, and eerie motel dwellers, especially the enigmatic Lillian (Madeline Brewer), Rose begins to unravel.
To move forward, she must confront the buried truth of her past that her body has never forgotten.
"Directed by Julie Pacino in her feature debut, I Live Here Now is a boldly haunting, surreal fever dream about identity, trauma, and the fragile line between memory and madness."
Our review by Kurt Halfyard: "A kind of gothic inner-romance, full of childhood trauma, body issues, and psychological keyholes. It is a saturated fairy tale of self-therapy-by-fire. The painful birth of a new-you, built out of the anxieties, projections, and flesh, of the old you."
Hoppers
The film is now playing, only in movie theaters, via Walt Disney Studio Pictures. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes -- must enter date of birth.
Official synopsis: "In Disney and Pixar's Hoppers, animal lover Mabel (voice of Piper Curda) seizes an opportunity to use a new technology to 'hop' her consciousness into a life-like robotic beaver and communicate directly with animals. As she uncovers mysteries in the animal world beyond anything she could have imagined, Mabel befriends charismatic beaver King George (voice of Bobby Moynihan) and must rally the entire animal kingdom to face a major, imminent human-threat: smooth-talking local mayor Jerry Generazzo (voice of Jon Hamm). The all-star voice ensemble also features Meryl Streep, Dave Franco and Kathy Najimy."
In the movie's opening scenes, Mabel is introduced as a young person with a primal desire to protect animals; her grandmother is only able to temper her fiery personality by taking her into the woods around their home town of Beaverton and encouraging her to quiet down and observe the wonders of nature, which emerge slowly.
The introductory sequence is beautifully handled, setting up the story's major themes, as well as creating a protagonist who is strong-willed and always ready to take action, balanced (sometimes) by her growing realization that actions have consequences, and that sometimes there is more than one way to deal with a problem, even if it's a huge that may involve much "squishing."
The official synopsis above and the trailer below tell the rest of the story, which is very, very funny, amazingly beautiful, environmentally conscious, and sneaky clever. It's not just for kids, though I'm sure they will enjoy it tremendously. (The kids at my afternoon screening were delighted.)
Now Playing celebrates the theatrical experience.