New and Noteworthy: Movies

Jupiter Ascending. Epic sci-fi opera from Matrix creators Andy and Lana Wachowski, with Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum and Theory of Everything Oscar nominee Eddie Redmayne (from Stephen Hawking to a regal alien nemesis - talk about range!).  PG-13 

Seventh Son. Adapted from the first installment in Joseph Delaney's YA fantasy series, The Last Apprentice (or The Wardstone Chronicles if you buy your books from Amazon UK), a tale of supernatural power, monsters and ghouls, and of Still Alice's Oscar-nominated star, Julianne Moore, as a blood witch, an evil crone who sucks the life out of her co-stars. Ben Barnes is the young farm-boy hero, Jeff Bridges his older, wiser mentor.  PG-13 

Song of the Sea. The animated feature from Ireland, based on the Celtic myth of the selkie, follows the adventures of two children who live in a lighthouse with their father, a widower. One of the Best Animated Feature nominees for the 2015 Academy Awards, from the team behind the gorgeous, also-Oscar-nominated 2010 title, The Secret of the Kells. PG

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water SpongeBob leaves his own dimension and goes out in search of a stolen recipe.

Reviewed by critics Steven Rea (S.R.), Tirdad Derakhshani (T.D.), Dan DeLuca (D.D.), and David Hiltbrand (D.H.). W.S. denotes a wire-service review.

Birdman Michael Keaton is a faded Hollywood star trying to reclaim his career by mounting a Broadway drama in Alejandro G. Iñárritu's fierce, funny, breathless dive into the head of a man in deep trouble. An exhilarating, out-of-the-blue masterwork that ranks as one of the best films of the year, the decade, the century. With Edward Norton, Emma Stone, and Naomi Watts. 1 hr. 59 R (profanity, violence, sex, adult themes) - S.R.

Foxcatcher Steve Carell, sporting an aquiline nose and a marionette's gait, morphs into Newtown Square multimillionaire John du Pont, a self-styled coach and sponsor of American wrestling. By inviting Olympic gold medalists Dave and Mark Schultz (Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum) to live and train on his estate, du Pont invited disaster, too. Bennett Miller directs this slow-burning, brilliant account of a real-life tragedy. 2 hrs. 14 R (violence, profanity, drugs, adult themes) - S.R.

Mr. Turner Mike Leigh's meticulously observed chronicle of the last quarter in the life of the British artist J.M.W. Turner, with Timothy Spall grunting, grimacing and deeply moving as the son of a London barber who becomes one of the great painters of his time. Of any time. 2 hrs. 30 R (sex, adult themes) - S.R.

Still Alice Shot through with piercing detail, and devoid of cheap sentimentality, the sad, beautifully realized story of a linguistics professor, a mother, a wife, diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. One of the defining performances of Julianne Moore's career, rightly nominated for an Academy Award. With Alec Baldwin, Kate Bosworth and Kristen Stewart. 1 hr. 53 PG-13 (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Selma A powerful, poignant restaging of a crucial time in American history, and the figure at its center: Martin Luther King, Jr. David Oyelowo brings the Civil Rights leader to life with nuance and grace, and if director Ava DuVernay's decision to portray LBJ (Tom Wilkinson) as an antagonistic force has drawn criticism and controversy, that's almost beside the point. What matters is the depiction of King, and the portrait of a country in the throes of racial conflict. 2 hrs. 07 R (violence, profanity, racial epithets, adult themes) - S.R.

The Theory of Everything The life, and loves, of British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking is given keen, poignant treatment in James Marsh's film, starring Eddie Redmayne as Hawking and Felicity Jones as Jane Wilde, the student he meets at Cambridge and falls for (and vice versa). Then, the challenge of the disease that cripples Hawking's body. 2 hrs. 03 PG-13 (adult themes) - S.R.

Two Days, One Night Marion Cotillard stars as a laid-off factory worker who can get her job back if she can persuade her colleagues to forgo a bonus. And so she goes knocking on doors, asking, entreating, begging. An almost biblical parable about compassion and community, from the Belgian kitchen sinkers, the Dardenne Brothers. 1 hr, 35 R (drugs, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

The Wedding Ringer In this riotous celebration of love and friendship, Josh Gad is a geeky and cuddly muckety-muck in international tax law who hires a professional best man (Kevin Hart) for his wedding to a narcissistic, manipulative, and bossy woman (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting). 1 hr. 41 R (profanity, nudity, sexual content, drugs) - T.D.

Whiplash Miles Teller (the student) and J.K. Simmons (the teacher) star in Damien Chazelle's propulsive drama about an aspiring jazz musician's torturous mentorship at a prestigious New York conservatory. It's a hyperventilated nightmare about artistic struggle and ambition - as much a horror movie as a keenly realized indie about jazz, about art, about what it takes to claim greatness. 1 hr. 46 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

American Sniper *** Bradley Cooper delivers a powerful turn as Chris Kyle, the real-life Navy SEAL credited with the most kills of any sniper in U.S. military history. Clint Eastwood directs this taut Iraq War-era drama, although the sequences with Kyle returning stateside are diminished by textbook scenarios of family dysfunction and discord. 2 hrs. 12 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Black Or White **1/2 Boldly sappy melodrama that plays on - and off of - racial stereotypes, with Kevin Costner as a griefstruck widower, now left to raise his impossibly cute grandchild on his own. The girl is African American, and the paternal grandmother - Octavia Spencer - fights for custody. Oh, the bathos! 2 hrs. 01 PG-13 (profanity, drugs, alcohol, adult themes) - S.R.

Black Sea *** Jude Law is a disgruntled marine salvage captain who plans revenge on the company that has just laid him off by organizing a submarine mission off the Crimean coast - to bring up two tons of gold said to be stored inside a long-sunk Nazi U-boat. Manning a mothballed Soviet sub, with a wary crew of Brits and Russians, they rumble into the depths, and everything that can go wrong does. Fist-clenchingly suspenseful and, at the same time, kind of dull. Dive! Dive! 1 hr. 55 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

The Boy Next Door * Jennifer Lopez knows it's wrong. But she gets it on with the neighbor's nephew (Ryan Guzman) and pays an unimaginable price in this thoroughly predictable thriller with a nasty finale. 1 hr. 31 R (violence, sex, adult themes, nudity, profanity) - D.H.

The Imitation Game *** A gripping story, a sad story, a true story, about British mathematician Alan Turing, who led the team of Brits during World War II trying to crack the German's daunting Enigma encryption machine. Secretly gay, this unsung hero's life was brought to a grievous conclusion. Benedict Cumberbatch stars (another remarkable performance), with Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, and Mark Strong. 1 hr. 54 PG-13 (sex, adult themes) - S.R.

The Loft Not previewed. Five married men share the rent on a downtown apartment to carry out hidden affairs. The body of an unknown woman is found there. R

Mommy *** Xavier Dolan's Cannes festival winner is a speedball love song to the bonds between mothers and sons - and to a particularly lunatic mother (an amazing Anne Dorval) and son (Antoine-Olivier Pilon) who carom around the suburbs of Quebec, leaving emotional and physical destruction in their wake. An immersive, insane Freudian fever dream. 2 hrs. 19 R (profanity, sex, violence, adult themes) - S.R.

Project Almanac ** High schoolers build a time machine. It's all fun and games until somebody breaks reality. A lively but flawed teen fantasy with Jonny Weston, Sofia Black-D'Elia and Sam Lerner. 1 hr. 46 PG-13 (language, sexual content) - D.H.

Taken 3 * Liam Neeson returns in this superfluous action sequel. But this time he has no one to rescue but himself. The Taken formula isn't the only thing that doesn't work in this noisesome (let us hope) finale. 1 hr. 49 PG-13 (violence, profanity) - D.H.