Modest Delights

Two gargantuan franchise monsters land at the megaplex to duke it out for your entertainment dollars, but the best thing going is a goofy action comedy. Read on.

Alice Through the Looking Glass: I said everything I’m going to say about this atrocity in my review, except for this: Who the hell watches Back to the Future Part II and thinks Biff Tannen is the hero?

Almost Holy: Steve Hoover’s documentary about a Ukrainian pastor who saves homeless children by literally abducting them from the street is thorny with moral questions, and all the better for it.

The Boy and the Beast: Mamoru Hosoda’s animated fantasy about a young Tokyo boy who becomes the apprentice of a beastly samurai overreaches in its second half, but that first hour is a total charmer.

Love & Friendship: Whit Stillman tackles Jane Austen, and Tom Bennett is their love child. Wait, that came out wrong. (But the movie didn’t.)

Mr. Right: Character actor MVPs Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick are perfectly mismatched in this giddy action-comedy about an assassin blindsided by true love. Very dopey, but in the best possible way.

Sour Grapes: Rad really enjoyed this Hot Docs premiere about wine enthusiasts whose culture was shaken by a massive fraud. I’m hoping to catch up to it soon.

X-Men: Apocalypse: Those mighty Marvel mutants battle their way through 1983 in a fun but distinctly slight entry in the ever-expanding franchise. Hell of a cast, though.

… so, really, see Mr. Right. Or catch the X-Men movie if you’re a fan, it’s fine. But Mr. Right is way more fun.

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