New Releases for the Week of September 30, 2016

DEEPWATER HORIZON

(Summit) Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Dylan O’Brien, Gina Rodriguez, Kate Hudson, Ethan Suplee, Joe Chrest, J.D. Evermore. Directed by Peter Berg

When an offshore oil drilling platform explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, it results in the worst oil spill in history, a spill whose effects continue to be felt all up and down the Gulf coast. What many people don’t know however is the story of the men and women who were on that platform when all hell broke loose. This is their story, one of heroism and sacrifice and of lives saved and lives lost.

See the trailer and clips here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: True Life Drama
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG-13 (for prolonged intense disaster sequences and related disturbing images, and brief strong language)

The Dressmaker

(Broad Green/Amazon) Kate Winslet, Liam Hemsworth, Hugo Weaving, Judy Davis. A haute couture dress designer returns to her small Australian hometown to discover the truth behind how her reputation was made to be notorious. The longer she stays, the more she discovers that not everything in the town is what it appears to be and that the people of the town have skeletons of their own hiding in hidden closets.

See the trailer, clips, interviews, featurettes and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Drama
Now Playing: AMC Altamonte Mall, Regal Winter Park Village
Rating: R (for brief language and a scene of violence)

Harry and Snowman

(FilmRise) Harry DeLeyer, Harriet DeLeyer, Andre DeLeyer, Marty DeLeyer. After the end of World War II, Dutch immigrant Harry DeLeyer wandered into a horse auction and on the spur of the moment bought a plow horse for $80 that was bound for the glue factory. Instead, within two years, he’d won the triple crown of Show Jumping, beating horses from blue blood estates with distinctive bloodlines. He tells the story of how that plow horse, whom Harry named Snowman, redeemed him.

See the trailer here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Documentary
Now Playing: AMC Loew’s Universal Cineplex
Rating: PG-13 (for brief language and some thematic material)

M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

(Fox Star) Sushant Singh Rajput, Kiara Advani, Disha Patani, Ram Charan. One of the greatest stars in the international sport of cricket is M.S. Dhoni. From the humble background of being a ticket taker at a stadium to being one of the greatest stars in it, his rise to captain of the Indian national team is the stuff of legend.

See the trailer here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Biographical Drama
Now Playing: AMC Loew’s Universal Cineplex
Rating: NR

Masterminds

(Relativity) Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis. A bored armored car driver, falling for the flirtations of a work crush, becomes embroiled in a scheme put together by a group of half-baked criminals whose plan is flawed to say the least. Nonetheless against all odds he gets away with $17 million only to discover that he has been set up as the fall guy in this ludicrous scheme. Evading the cops and an incompetent hit man, he must find away to turn the tables on these guys before he falls in even further than he already is.

See the trailer here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Comedy
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG-13 (for crude and sexual humor, some language and violence)

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

(20^th Century Fox) Asa Butterfield, Eva Green, Samuel L. Jackson, Judi Dench.  A young boy discovers a mystery involving alternate realities, the nature of time and the existence of children with amazing powers who have been put into a place where they are protected – but that safety is an illusion. The boy will have to find his own special and peculiar ability and protect the kids or lose them to a dark, sinister being. Tim Burton is the director.

See the trailer, clips, interviews and a featurette here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Fantasy
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of fantasy action/violence and peril)

Morris from America

(A24) Craig Robinson, Markees Christmas, Carla Juri, Patrick Goldenberg. A young boy is torn away from everything he knows when his father accepts a job in Germany, putting the boy’s burgeoning hip-hop stardom plans on hold. However, he finds that life in Germany is much different than he expected – and his dreams of being a rap star are much closer than he realizes. A hit at both the Sundance and Florida Film Festivals earlier this year.

See the trailer and clips here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Dramedy
Now Playing: Enzian Theater
Rating: R (for teen drug use and partying, sexual material, brief nudity and language throughout)

Queen of Katwe

(Disney) David Oyelowo, Lupita Nyong’o, Madina Nalwanga, Martin Kabanza. Phiona Mutesi, a ten-year-old living in the slum of Katwe in the Ugandan city of Kampala, has really no expectations for a life different than the one she’s always known. However, when she shows a natural aptitude for chess, it may prove to be the ticket out of poverty for her and her family – if she can master the discipline of being a grand master, that is.

See the trailer, interviews and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Biographical Drama
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG (for thematic elements, an accident scene and some suggestive material)

Train to Busan

(Well-Go) Yoo Gong, Soo-an Sim, Yu-mi Jeong, Dong-seok Ma. A businessman takes a train with his young daughter to see her mother, but a virus breaks out on the train, turning peaceful passengers into ravening zombies. The father teams up with some of the other survivors to protect his daughter and survive the trip to Busan.

See the trailer and a clip here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Horror
Now Playing: Enzian Theater
Rating: NR

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Pick of the Litter – August 2016

BLOCKBUSTER OF THE MONTH

Suicide Squad

(Warner Brothers) Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Jai Courtney. The DC Cinematic Universe got off to a rocky start with Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice even though the movie did well at the box office. The hope is that this movie will get the franchise moving in the right direction after fan and critic dissatisfaction with the bloated DoJ entry. With director David Ayer at the helm, this film brings together a group of super-criminals tasked to take on an impossible mission that either they succeed or die…literally. With a terrific cast, an appearance by Batman himself and a couple of trailers that serve notice this is going to be different than every other superhero film we’ve ever seen, hope springs eternal even for the hard-to-please fanboy contingent. August 5

INDEPENDENT PICKS

Front Cover

(Strand) Jake Choi, James Chen, Jennifer Neala Page, Elizabeth Sung. An up-and-coming Chinese actor comes to the United States to promote his film with a photo shoot; assigned to him is a gay American fashion stylist who has turned his back on his own Asian heritage. The two men who couldn’t be further apart in temperament and cultural appreciation start out detesting one another. However, in the grand tradition of American romance films, they begin falling for each other which could mean the end of the acting career if word gets out. August 5

 My King (Mon Roi)

(Film Movement) Vincent Cassel, Emmanuelle Bercot, Louis Garrel, Isild Le Besco. A woman is admitted to a rehab facility after a terrifying skiing accident. Addicted to pain killers, completely dependent on the medical staff, she begins to reminisce about her tumultuous relationship with a mercurial restaurateur. She considers how good it all was to begin with and how it inexorably turned bad over the years until she wondered how she got into that situation to begin with. Bercot won the Jury Best Actress award at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival for her performance here. August 12

Imperium

(Grindstone) Daniel Radcliffe, Toni Collette, Burn Gorman, Tracy Letts. A young FBI behavioral analyst with no field experience is thrust into the role of an undercover informant in the very dangerous world of white supremacist terrorists. The young agent must find a way to compromise his closely held beliefs while maintaining the identity that may help put away some dangerous men and save lives. This is inspired by an actual incident which means that what really happened is vastly different than what appears here, but if this is as good a thriller as it looks to be, who cares?. August 19

Ixcanul

(Kino Lorber) Maria Mercedes Coroy, Maria Telón, Manuel Antún, Justo Lorenzo. For the Kaqchikel tribe living on the slopes of an active volcano in Guatemala, life continues on much the way as it has for a thousand years. For Maria, a daughter of two tribesmen, her life is about to change when a marriage is arranged for her by her parents. When her suitor must spend several months working in the city, she finds herself in a world she can’t understand. August 19

Morris from America

(A24) Craig Robinson, Carla Juri, Lina Keller, Markees Christmas. A young wanna-be rapper has his world turned inside out when his father moves him to Germany. Young Morris is none too happy about the way things are turning out until he meets a young German girl who encourages him to find his voice as a rapper and perform in public. This was one of the most acclaimed movies to come out of Sundance and also played the Florida Film Festival this year. August 19

A Man Called Ove

(Music Box) Rolf Lassgård, Bahar Pars, Jerker Fahlström, Sofie Gallerspång. Deposed as the president of his condominium society, 59-year-old Swedish widower Ove is out to end it all, in the meantime ruling over the condo complex with an iron fist. A chance meeting with a new neighbor leads to something different…maybe even a reason to live. Director Hannes Holm, who has been at the helm for several of Sweden’s most side-splitting comedies, also wrote this based on a bestselling novel. August 26

In Order of Disappearance

(Magnet) Stellan Skarsgård, Bruno Ganz, Jakob Oftebro, Brigitte Hjort Sørensen. Scandinavia has recently turned out some really fine movies and this Norwegian black comedy is the latest in a long line of cinematic excellence. Skarsgård stars as a small town snowplow driver grieving the death of his son and in the process, getting caught in the middle of a drug war between local drug dealers and Serbian gangsters looking to take over the territory. It’s a little bit Coen Brothers in tone, which is all I needed to hear. August 26