New Releases

Reviews

Ratings:

**** Excellent

*** Good

** Fair

* Poor

Reviewers: S.R., Steven Rea; D.D., Dan DeLuca; T.D., Tirdad Derakhshani; M.E., Molly Eichel; G.T., Gary Thompson; W.S., Inquirer wire services.

Chloe and Theo See Steven Rea's review on Page 5.

Grandma See Steven Rea's review on Page 4.

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine See Steven Rea's review on Page 4.

The Transporter Refueled See Gary Thompson's review on Page 5.

A Walk In the Woods See Gary Thompson's review on Page 8.

American Ultra **1/2 Stoner Mike (Jesse Eisenberg) is Bourne again when his deeply buried training as a CIA agent is activated. He becomes a killing machine when his girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart) is kidnapped by a rogue agent (Topher Grace). The romance is played straight, which doesn't work when the violence is played for laughs. 1 hr. 37 R (violence) - G.T.

Amy An extraordinary documentary about Amy Winehouse, the British singer who died in 2011, at age 27, a victim of too much drink, too many drugs and too much fame. Soul-stirring, heartbreaking, the film uses a trove of archival film, much of it it shot on smart phones by friends, lovers, bandmates, roadies, record execs and fans, to trace the life and blazing career of the singer and songwriter with the trademark beehive, tats and fearsome talent. 2 hrs. 08 R (drugs, profanity, adfult themes) - S.R.

Ant-Man Paul Rudd, droll and deadpan, is a cat burglar with an electrical-engineering degree who puts on a weird, retro getup and can suddenly shrink himself to the size of an ant - and communicate with them, too. Clever bits emerge from long stretches of exposition and exploding stuff. Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, and Corey Stoll (as the villain Yellowjacket) co-star, plus some Marvel Cinematic Universe cameos. 1 hr. 57 PG-13 (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl 1/2 A 15-year-old girl in freewheeling '70s San Francisco has an affair with her mother's boyfriend in this honest and personal and unblurred examination of a tricky voyage into womanhood. It may sound scandalous, or exploitive, or deeply inappropiate, but the film - written and directed by Marielle Heller, adapted from Phoebe Gloeckner's graphic novel - is none of those things. Instead, it's a revelation. Bel Powley stars, with Kristin Wiig and Alexander Skarsgård. 1 hr. 41 R (sex, nudity, profanity, drugs, adult themes) - S.R.

The End of the Tour 1/2 Infinite Jest author and literary star David Foster Wallace is interviewed by a writer for Rolling Stone, and the two men bat around ideas big and small for five days in this beautiful, brainy, funny, poignant road movie. Jason Segel stars as the grungy, self-deprecating Wallace. Jesse Eisenberg plays the New York journalist David Lipsky, whose memoir about his conversations with the late Wallace became a book - and now this film. 1 hr. 46 R (profanity, adfult themes) - S.R.

Fantastic Four It's overstating things to say this Marvel Comics reboot stars Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell, because rarely has a group of actors appeared less invested in the movie they've signed up for. A long, tedious origin story, introducing the quartet of hangdog superheroes, who work best together when they're not bickering, brooding, or running away to South America. 1 hr. 40 PG-13 (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

The Gift The lives of a happily married couple take a dark turn after a mysterious former acquaintance of the husband shows up. Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, and Joel Edgerton star. 1 hr. 48 R (Profanity) - G.T.

Hitman: Agent 47 1/2 Rupert Friend has the title role as an inscrutable superassassin on the hunt for a woman (Hannah Ware) who herself is trying to track down a mystery man, while Zachary Quinto, wearing a three-day stubble and not wearing his Spock ears, is another gun-toting dude who joins the chase. A bodycount entertainment based on the Hitman video game. R (violence, adult themes) - S.R.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 1/2 If looks could kill, this dashing reboot of the '60s TV spy series would be lethal. The perfectly tailored period piece (funny Eastern Block automobiles, bold French couture) stars a trio of exceedingly handsome actors - Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander - dashing and deadpanning their way around some exceedingly handsome locales. A lot of energy and effort has gone into the endeavor, and some of it is fun. But more of it, alas, is tedious. 1 hr. 56 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) - S.R.

Meru **1/2 Filmmaker Jimmy Chin documents his ascent - along with friends Conrad Anker and Renan Ozturk - to the top of Meru, a Himalayan mountain range harder to climb than Everest. But the facts are a bit too wishy-washy for documentary standards. 1 hr. 27 R (profanity) - G.T.

Minions A spinoff of, and prequel to, the Despicable Me movies, starring a trio of yellow, pill-shaped pipsqueaks who speak in an undecipherable tongue and find themselves in the merry employ of a supervillain bent on usurping the British throne. It's 1968 (when else?) and mayhem rules the day. A hyperanimated animated farce with shades of Silent Era slapstick, Three Stooges slapfests, and the jaw-slapping wackiness of a stoner comedy. 1 hr. 31 PG (cartoon mayhem, adult themes) - S.R.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation 1/2 Not nearly as much fun as its 2011 predecessor, Ghost Protocol, which played like a live-action Road Runner movie, Rogue Nation nonetheless does the job of moving Tom Cruise's impossibly spry spy guy Ethan Hunt around the globe, putting him in the thick of one outlandish action set piece after another. With Simon Pegg as tech whiz Benji, Ving Rhames as hacker extraordinaire Luther, and Jeremy Renner as agent-with-bags-under-his-eyes Brandt. Swedish thespian Rebecca Ferguson joins Cruise for much of the high-speed huggermugger. 2 hrs. 11 PG-13 (intense action, violence, adult themes) - S.R.

Mistress America A screwball comedy about female friendship, betrayal, and theft, starring the crazily gesticulative Greta Gerwig as a know-it-all New Yorker who decides to mentor a lonely college freshman new to the big city, played by Lola Kirke. Noah Baumbach directs, from a screenplay he and Gerwig collaborated on, between breaks watching Howard Hawks and Preston Sturges. 1 hr. 24 R (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Mr. Holmes 1/2 Ian McKellen is brilliant as the aging Sherlock Holmes, retired to the countryside, where he keeps bees and tries to keep what's left of his memory from slipping away. A sad, lovely film, reuniting the star with his Gods and Monsters director, Bill Condon. 1 hr. 52 PG (adult themes) - S.R.

No Escape A taut, violent thriller with a xenophobic bent, about an American family who show up in an unnamed Southeast Asian capital just as a bloody coup erupts. "Dad, are people trying to kill us?" wonders the cute little girl. Owen Wilson, as her pop, tries to answer that one. Lake Bell and Pierce Brosnan also star. 1 hr. 43 R (intense violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Phoenix The formidable Nina Hoss stars in this post-Holocaust noir, playing a jazz singer, and a "Jewess," looking for her spouse in the rubble of Berlin. Hoss' Barbara collaborator, Christian Petzold, directs. 1 hr. 38 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) - S.R.

Pixels ** 1/2 Adam Sandler and buddies (including Frozen's Josh Gad, frequent collaborator Kevin James, and Game of Thrones' Peter Dinklage) band together to fight an alien race that has appropriated videogame characters to attack the human race. 1 hr. 46 PG-13 (language, suggestive comments) - W.S.

Ricki and the Flash Finally - and the news should really come as a relief - here's a role Meryl Streep shouldn't have tried, in a movie that shouldn't have been made. As a rock-and-roller fronting a So-Cal bar band, the actress with the most Oscar nominations of anyone in history can carry a tune, but she can't carry the character of a tattooed, tart-tongued woman who long ago left her family behind in Indiana. When her ex (Kevin Kline) calls with bad news, Ricki has to return home, and serio-comic dysfunctional-family melodrama ensues. Juno's Diablo Cody is to blame for the glib script, Jonathan Demme, who should've known better, directs. 1 hr. 42 PG-13 (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Rosenwald The remarkable story of Julius Rosenwald, a high school drop out, the son of German-Jews, who became the President of Sears and gave millions of hs own money to help build schools for ASfrican-Americans in the Jim Crow South of the easrly 20th century. A straight-ahead documentary tribute from Aviva Kempner (The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg) No MPAA rating (adult themes) - S.R.

Shaun the Sheep 1/2 Shaun takes the day off and winds up with more action than he bargained for in this Claymation family feature. 1 hr. 25 PG (rude humor) - G.T.

Southpaw Jake Gyllenhaal is fierce and muscular, in and out of the ring, in this shameless boxing melodrama about a champ who loses everything and then fights to get his everything back. With Rachel McAdams, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, and Oona Laurence. 2 hrs. 03 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Straight Outta Compton *** Legendary gangsta rappers N.W.A get the biopic treatment. The film follows Ice Cube (played by the real rapper's son, O'Shea Jackson Jr.), Dr. Dre, Eazy E, and crew as they come up in Compton - easily the movie's best part - through their record-company-related woes, featuring Paul Giamatti wearing cinema's worst hairpiece. 2 hrs. 02 R (profanity) - G.T.

Trainwreck 1/2 Amy Schumer stars in (and wrote) this deft Judd Apatow-directed comedy, about a commitment-phobic New York magazine writer who unexpectedly tumbles for a sports-medicine doc (Bill Hader) she has been assigned to profile. A showcase for Schumer's cutting brand of comedy, the film smoothly switches tracks from raunchy copulatory one-liners to compulsory rom-com schmaltz to emotionally raw business about relationships, family, self-image, and self-destructiveness. The stellar supporting cast includes Brie Larson, Tilda Swinton, Colin Quinn, and, yes, NBA superstar LeBron James. 2 hrs. 05 R (sex, profanity, drugs, adult themes) - S.R.

Vacation ** A crass remake of the beloved original features Ed Helms as Russ Griswold, taking over where Clark (Chevy Chase, who makes a cameo) left off, bringing his family to the storied Walley World. It's an unnecessary remake that has its laughs. 1 hr. 39 R (language, sexuality, brief graphic nudity) - M.E.

Z for Zachariah *** Ann (Margot Robbie) is living alone after a mysterious event has wiped out humanity, until John (Chiwetel Ejiofor) enters her quiet existence. They harmoniously (for the most part) live together, until a third, Caleb (Chris Pine), enters their mix. Director Craig Zobel examines how even in extraordrinary situations, we still crave human contact, even if it will destroy us. 1 hr. 37 PG-13 (profanity, sexual situations) - M.E.