New Releases for the Week of June 5, 2015

INSIDIOUS CHAPTER III

(Gramercy) Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Lin Shaye, Tate Berney, Michael Reid MacKay, Steve Coulter. Directed by Leigh Whannell

The third installment in the popular horror series is a prequel, focusing on psychic Elise Rainier and her reluctant entry into the spirit world in order to help a family and in particular an innocent teen girl in grave mortal peril from angry spirits from the other side, detailing her first steps into the otherworld known as The Further.

See the trailer, clips, interviews, a featurette and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard (opens Thursday)
Genre: Horror
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG-13 (for violence, frightening images, some language and thematic elements)

Barely Lethal

(A24) Hailee Steinfeld, Sophie Turner, Samuel L. Jackson, Jessica Alba. A young girl trained from childhood to be a deadly assassin has already tired of the life and yearns for a more normal adolescence. Determined to leave the life she never asked for, she fakes her own death and enrolls in a suburban high school. Her ex-handler and current nemesis discovers the ruse and sends an operative in to fetch her, which as you can guess the young lady in question isn’t planning to allow, particularly when her new friends and social circle are put in mortal danger.

See the trailer and stream the full movie from Amazon here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Spy Comedy
Now Playing: AMC Lake Square Leesburg
Rating: PG-13 (for sexual material, teen drinking, language, drug references and some action violence)

Entourage

(Warner Brothers) Kevin Connolly, Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon, Jeremy Piven.  Vincent Chase, a bona fide movie star surrounded by his friends from when he was young, is living the good life. Ari Gold, agent-turned-studio head who has a movie for his former protégé but Vincent isn’t biting – unless he can direct. The acclaimed HBO series/Hollywood satire hits the big screen in a move that is likely to skewer a few egos that need skewering.

See the trailer, interviews, a promo and fan video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard (opened Wednesday)
Genre: Comedy
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for pervasive language, strong sexual content, nudity and some drug use)

Love and Mercy

(Roadside Attractions) John Cusack, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Elizabeth Banks. Brian Wilson was the genius behind the Beach Boys sound and success. One of the most gifted composers and arrangers of his time, he was beset by demons of an abusive childhood and exacerbated by drug abuse. After a complete mental breakdown, he comes under the care of psychologist Dr. Eugene Landy whose motivations and methods become suspect. Emotionally fragile, he meets a courageous woman who helps him emerge from the darkness and back into his music.

See the trailer, clips and a featurette here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Music Biography
Now Playing: Regal Winter Park Village, AMC Downtown Disney, Cinemark Artegon Marketplace
Rating: PG-13 (for thematic elements, drug content and language)

Saint Laurent

(Sony Classics) Gaspard Ulliel, Jeremie Renier, Louis Garrel, Lea Seydoux. Designer Yves Saint Laurent was one of the iconic figures in fashion during the 60s and 70s. His couture changed the idea of fashion permanently and his ideas reverberate in the industry today; his lifestyle and personal problems kept the tabloids busy. He has been the subject of several films as of late; this is the most recent and features a performance by Ulliel that has been attracting some attention.

See the trailer and clips here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Fashion Biography
Now Playing: Regal Winter Park Village
Rating: R (for graphic nudity/strong sexual situations, substance abuse throughout and some language)

Spy

(20th Century Fox) Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Jude Law, Rose Byrne. A CIA analyst with dreams of field work gets her chance when a ruthless arms dealer threatens world peace and because they are familiar with all of the field agents in the Agency, someone who isn’t known to them must infiltrate their organization and stop a global disaster from occurring.

See the trailer, clips, interviews and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard (opens Thursday)
Genre: Spy Comedy
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for language throughout, violence, and some sexual content including brief graphic nudity)

Unfreedom

(Dark Frames) Victor Banerjee, Adil Hussein, Bhanu Uday, Preeti Gupta. In New Delhi, a woman is placed in an arranged marriage that she doesn’t want to undertake because she’s in love with someone else; another woman, in fact. In New York City, a fundamentalist Muslim kidnaps a liberal Muslim scholar who has outspoken views about his religion. All four will come face to face with gruesome acts of violence that will affect their views on religion, sexual identity and family.

See the trailer and stream the full movie from Amazon here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Drama
Now Playing: Fashion Square Premiere Cinema
Rating: NR

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Pick of the Litter – May 2015

BLOCKBUSTER OF THE MONTH

Avengers: Age of Ultron
(Disney/Marvel) Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, James Spader, Chris Hemsworth. Marvel’s merry march through the box office will undoubtedly continue as they kick off the summer blockbuster with a sequel to the team-up that remains their biggest box office smash to date. As the Phase II of the cinematic universe comes to a close, the newest Avengers film will kick off the Civil War storyline that will no doubt dominate Marvel’s big screen – and small screen – properties for the next couple of years. This is likely to be the biggest box office success of the summer, although to be honest there are a few contenders who may knock it off its presumed throne. Nonetheless this will be one movie all the fanboys will turn out to see in droves. May 1

INDEPENDENT PICKS

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
(Music Box) Robert Gustafsson, Iwar Wiklander, David Wiberg, Mia Skaringer. Every so often a comedy comes along that doesn’t try to push boundaries or reinvent the wheel; it’s just plain funny. This Florida Film Festival favorite concerns a man who, on his 100th birthday, climbs out of the window of the retirement home he’s been placed in and goes on an adventure that involves a suitcase full of drug money, an elephant, the world’s most indecisive man, bikers, drug lords, bohemians, police detectives and Stalin. It’s absurd, yes, but I dare you to watch this one without laughing out loud at least once. May 1

In the Name of My Daughter
(Cohen Media Group) Catherine Deneuve, Guillaume Canet, Adéle Haenel, Judith Chemia. Based on real life events, this is the latest from master director André Téchiné of France. In the 1970s, a powerful casino owner on the French Riviera welcomes her daughter home after a failed marriage. However, corrupt forces led by Mafiosi Jean-Dominique Fratoni, wish to take over her casino which has become vulnerable after professional gamblers have taken it for five million francs in a single night. Her daughter, angered that she hasn’t received her inheritance from her father that she feels she is entitled to, hooks up with her mother’s lawyer, an ambitious sort who manipulates her into voting against her mother at a board meeting which gives control of the casino to Fratoni and ruins her mother financially. Soon thereafter, the daughter disappears and is presumed murdered. Her mother takes up a 20 year crusade to find the murderer and bring him to justice. It’s a gripping story, one which most American audiences are unfamiliar with but should resonate here for those willing to take a chance on it. May 8

Animals
(Oscilloscope) David Dasmalchian, Kim Shaw, John Heard, John Hoogenakker. Winner of the Special Jury Award for Narrative Features at the most recent SXSW Festival, this searing drama looks at two homeless drug addicts; their dreams, their love and the damage done. Written by lead actor David Dasmalchian, this New York City-set drama has a bittersweet quality to it as the lovers look in the windows of other lives and see their hopes for a future together, one which is compromised by their addictions. The film seems to pull no punches, showing how the addiction fuels the decisions that they make not all of which are beneficial to them as a couple. It also shows how society views them as less than human. Definitely one which should be on your VOD list and your wish list for local theatrical release.. May 15

 Good Kill
(IFC) Ethan Hawke, January Jones, Bruce Greenwood, Zoe Kravitz. Inspired by actual incidents, the latest film from New Zealand-born writer-director Andrew Niccol looks at the human cost of technology as Niccol is reunited with Gattaca star Hawke as a former fighter pilot who know remote controls drones as they take out targets half a world away. As he begins to question the morality of what he’s doing, the doubt takes a toll on his career, his family and his psyche. When we wage war like the way we play video games, does our moral compass go out the window? How do we differentiate the innocent from the foe? And when does collateral damage become unacceptable, and who determines that line? These are questions that the modern military grapples with every day and they are questions that we need to be thinking about as well. May 15

Time Lapse
(XLRator) Danielle Panabaker, Matt O’Leary, George Finn, John Rhys-Davies. An extremely intriguing sci-fi concept involves a group of friends who discover their neighbor in the apartment next door has invented a camera that can take pictures 24 hours into the future. At first they use it to make bets on the horse races, the results of which they post in their window for them to see in the photo the previous day. However, this attracts them the kind of attention that they don’t want. While the movie looks like it has the potential to be really interesting, it also has the potential to be a rote thriller. Either way, it could be quite the ride if the filmmakers did this right. May 15

Unfreedom
(Dark Frames/Film Buff) Victor Banerjee, Adil Hussein, Bhanu Uday, Preeti Gupta. Religious extremism is a global issue and this movie examines it from the perspectives of two stories occurring simultaneously in Delhi and New York, one the story of an Indian woman chafing at the idea of an arranged marriage and the other of the kidnapping of a progressive Muslim professor by Islamic terrorists who want to silence his ideas. The movie was banned in India where the concern was that it would inflame religious tensions as well as insult the religious. From what I could tell from the trailer, it looks like the filmmakers want you to make up your own mind. May 29