New Releases for the Week of July 20, 2018

MAMMA MIA: HERE WE GO AGAIN

(Universal) Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Lily James, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Dominic Cooper, Christine Baranski, Cher, Julie Walters. Directed by Ol Parker

As darling Sophie has become pregnant, she is naturally curious about her mother’s experiences with pregnancy and motherhood. Given the magic of the Greek islands and the music of ABBA, breaking into song is inevitable, which in Pierce Brosnan’s case may well be a violation of the Geneva Convention.

See the trailer, clips, interviews, a video featurette and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard, DBOX, Dolby, IMAX, RPX, XD
Genre: Musical
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG-13 (for some suggestive material)

The Equalizer 2

(Columbia) Denzel Washington, Bill Pullman, Melissa Leo, Pedro Pascal. Robert McCall makes a living driving a cab but it is his passion to help bring justice for those who deserve it but have been denied it. When one of his closest friends is murdered, it might be justice but there will be more than a hint of vengeance involved.

See the trailer and interviews here.
For more on the movie this is the website
Release Formats: Standard, DBOX, Dolby, IMAX, RPX
Genre: Action
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for brutal violence throughout, language, and some drug content)

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

(Eleven Arts) Starring the voices of Manaka Iwami, Miyu Irino, Yuki Kaji, Hiroaki Hirata. An immortal girl befriends a mortal boy, a forbidden act among those who live forever. She will protect and nurture that friendship through the years and whatever the cost.

See the trailer here.
For more on the movie this is the website
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Animé
Now Playing: Cinemark Artegon Marketplace, Regal Pavilion Port Orange, Regal Winter Park Village
Rating: NR

Three Identical Strangers

(Neon) David Kellman, Robert Shafran, Eddy Galland, Ron Guttman. It started out as twins, separated at birth, reuniting. From there the story gets weirder. If you want to read the review, you can always check it out on the link below under Scheduled for Review but trust Cinema365 – the less you know going in, the more you’ll like the movie.

See the trailer here.
For more on the movie this is the website
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Documentary
Now Playing: AMC Disney Springs, Regal Waterford Lakes
Rating: PG-13 (for some mature thematic material)

Unfriended: Dark Web

(BH Tilt) Rebecca Rittenhouse, Betty Gabriel, Chelsea Alden, Andrew Lees. When a teen comes into the possession of a new laptop, he doesn’t realize that the previous owner has been watching him and will do anything to get the machine back. When the teen discovers some files that indicate that the laptop is connected to the Dark Web, he understands why.

See the trailer, video featurettes and a clip here.
For more on the movie this is the website
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Horror
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for some disturbing violence, language and sexual references)

ALSO OPENING IN ORLANDO/DAYTONA:

Broken Star
Dhadak
I Love You, Hater

ALSO OPENING IN MIAMI/FT. LAUDERDALE:

Custody
Dhadak
Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot
Eating Animals
Lover
My Story

ALSO OPENING IN TAMPA/ST. PETERSBURG:

Aatagadharaa Siva
Dhadak
My Story
Occupation
Vijetha

ALSO OPENING IN JACKSONVILLE/ST. AUGUSTINE:

Dhadak
I Love You, Hater
Lover
 

SCHEDULED FOR REVIEW:

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot
Eating Animals
The Equalizer 2
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again
Three Identical Strangers
Unfriended: Dark Web

FILM FESTIVALS TAKING PLACE IN FLORIDA:

Mindie Film Festival, Miami FL

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Three Identical Strangers

Bros in triplicate.

(2018) Documentary (Neon/CNN) David Kellman, Robert Shafran, Eddy Galland, Ron Guttman, Silvi Alzetta-Reali, Adrian Lichter, Andrew Lovesey, Michael Domnitz, Howard Schneider, Ellen Cervone, Alan Luchs, Hedy Page, Elliott Galland, Alice Shafran, Ilene Shafran, Justine Wise Polier, Mort Shafran, Janet Kellman, Brenda Galland, Lawrence Wright, Paula Bernstein, Elyse Schein, Rachel VanDuzer. Directed by Tim Wardle

The maxim goes “Truth is stranger than fiction” and while that isn’t always the case, it certainly was in this story. Some of you who lived in the New York area around 1980 might remember some of it.

Bobby Shafran was attending a community college for the first time and knew nobody there – but a lot of people seemed to know him. They seemed to have a case of mistaken identity; they identified him as Eddy Galland. With a close friend of Eddy’s, he decided to meet this guy and was shocked to find out that they looked identical and like him, Eddy Galland was adopted. It turned out that they were twins who had been separated at birth.

But the story gets weirder. Their story appears in Newsday, the Long Island paper of record and is seen by David Kellman who is shocked to see two other guys who look exactly like him. It turns out that they were identical triplets, an incredibly rare occurrence to begin with. The three guys all had the same taste in girls, all smoked the same brand of cigarettes, all had the same bright smile.

As it turned out, the three boys had been placed into three completely different environments; one in an upper class home, another in a middle class home, a third in a working class home. One of the fathers was a disciplinarian, a second more laid-back, a third somewhere in between. Despite all the similarities between the boys (which would indicate that in nature versus nurture, the former trumped the latter) they grew up to be different individually speaking. So that nature versus nurture thing (a big theme in the film) may not be quite so settled after all.

The three young men became inseparable, moving in together in New York City and opening up their own restaurant, Triplets, in SoHo. They were regulars on the downtown club scene, and made the talk show rounds on such shows as Phil Donahue and the Today show. At first glance this might be one of those “whatever happened to” kinds of documentaries but then the story turned yet even weirder…and darker.

More than this I will not tell you. This is a story that will seem at first like a trip down memory lane for a feel-good story that grabbed the attention of New Yorkers in the early 80s but it will take you in a completely different and unexpected direction and it works best if you don’t know what comes next. Suffice it to say that you will leave the theater completely blown away.

The actual format of the documentary isn’t particularly different than most; lots of talking heads, lots of archival footage with the occasional re-enactment of scenes to heighten the drama. Nothing new here but the story itself is so compelling, so riveting that you won’t be able to look away let alone notice that the style isn’t particularly innovative. And you probably won’t notice that things slow down a little bit in the final third of the film, although I did. However the movie will come at you like a gut punch and leave you breathless as you leave the theater. It’s only playing in a few cities at the moment following a run on the festival circuit but you should pester your local art house to book this one; it’s easily one of the best documentaries of the year.

REASONS TO GO: The story gets more bizarre as you go along. The movie you think you’re going to see is not the movie you actually see. Nature versus nurture is a large part of the story. This is the kind of movie that will blow you away.
REASONS TO STAY: The movie drags a little bit in the final third.
FAMILY VALUES: There is some profanity.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The movie made its debut at Sundance earlier this year.
CRITICAL MASS: As of 7/1/18: Rotten Tomatoes: 94% positive reviews: Metacritic: 79/100.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Catfish
FINAL RATING: 9.5/10
NEXT: This is Congo