It’s a busy week, release-wise, but the only thing anyone expects to make money is Dumb & Dumber To; everything else is being served up as counterprogramming. Hey, it’s still a more interesting spread than next week’s lineup, which is basically the new Hunger Games movie and nothing else.
The Better Angels: In which A.J. Edwards answers a hypothetical question no one was asking: What if Terrence Malick made a movie about the early life of Abraham Lincoln? (Answer: It would almost certainly be better than this.)
Beyond the Lights: Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Nate Parker make the goo-goo eyes at one another while the world (and writer-director Gina Pryce-Bythewood) contrive to keep them apart in this charming — but limited — showbiz romance.
Dumb & Dumber To: Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels and the Farrelly brothers are back at it. I was unable to attend.
Emptying the Skies: Glenn really liked Douglas and Robert Kass’ documentary on endangered bird species being poached for food in Europe when it played Planet in Focus last year; now that it’s getting a commercial run, you might want to check it out too.
Goodbye to Language 3D: As a storyteller and polemicist, Jean-Luc Godard may be full of shit — and so is at least one of his characters — but his revolutionary approach to stereo cinematography makes this absolutely essential viewing for anyone who cares about film as art. Dammit.
Keep On Keepin’ On: Jose generally approves of Alan Hicks’ documentary about the legendary jazz trumpeter Clark Terry and his protege, blind pianist Justin Kauflin, though he finds it a little more conventional than its subjects.
Rosewater: Jon Stewart makes a very impressive filmmaking debut with the story of Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-born journalist (and Daily Show interviewee) who spent four months in prison in 2009. And no, you haven’t seen this movie before. Not exactly.
Wolves: David Hayter’s directorial debut is soooo bad. So very, very bad. And it’s not even bad in the fun way, where you can enjoy it. It’s just wretched. Leave it be.
So, to sum up, have a fun weekend. Please don’t see Wolves.