Tag: Movie Review

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Arts

Movie review: Fantastic Beasts weaves many stories into one

J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (starring Eddie Redmayne) takes wizardry to a new time and place. Courtesy Warner Bros.

The best and worst attributes of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them are one and the same: its ambition. The concept is a fun one—exploring J.K. Rowling’s world of wizardry and witchcraft at a different time and a location outside of Hogwarts with brand new characters—that opens up the door to endless possibilities. Magic is an accepted fact in this universe with a rich, well-documented history, and the idea that different countries would have their own approaches to legislation, vocabulary and social acceptance is exciting.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
PG-13, 130 minutes
Regal Stonefield and IMAX, Violet Crown Cinema

Fantastic Beasts is itself excited by the potential—so much so that it can’t decide what it should actually be about. As if it were hedging its bets on whether sequels would be made, Fantastic Beasts feels like five movies all happening at the same time, three of which are good. It certainly can be charming, but the lack of focus leaves the viewer wholly invested in one storyline while completely forgetting about a particular side plot until it returns and becomes the main storyline for far too long. Director David Yates tries to build an epic out of unrelated storylines, eager to advertise that Fantastic Beasts is more than a spin-off series. And it often works due to a great cast, Rowling’s intelligence and sensitivity, and the overall charm of the Potter-verse. It’s just too much all at once, the opposite of the Harry Potter series’ slow reveal of its many secrets.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them marks Rowling’s first foray into screenwriting, partially adapting her own compendium of the same name into a fully realized narrative. The story takes place in 1920s New York, where Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) arrives from England with a case full of magical creatures. Meanwhile, Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), a No-Maj (American dialect for Muggle) and a veteran of World War I, confuses his bag for Scamander’s on the street, resulting in the release of the titular beasts, which Scamander has been collecting for his book and has illegally smuggled. He is arrested by Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), a former investigator with the Magical Congress of the United States of America who is caught up in intrigue of her own. Meanwhile, sinister forces threaten the balance between the world of men and magic, with a puzzling connection to the so-called Second Salemers, an anti-magic organization.

Lots of plot, as you can see, and your enjoyment of the film will depend on your willingness to bounce between them and wait it out during the ones you don’t like. When you are invested, it’s great fun, and we can hope that future installments are in less of a hurry because there are many worthwhile moments here. That it feels the need to do so much in a single film is possibly the fault of the movie industry rather than the filmmakers, who seem to feel pressured to tell every story they can in case there is no sequel. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a fun, pretty distraction that is worth supporting so later entries can deliver on its potential.

Playing this week

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213
Bad Santa 2, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Moana, Nocturnal Animals

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000
Allied, The Handmaiden, Loving, Moana, Red, Rules Don’t Apply, White

Categories
Arts

Moonlight traces a powerful journey

Moonlight, with Alex Hibbert and Mahershala Ali, is a three-part story that follows the life of a Miami child through adolescence and into adulthood. Courtesy A24

Socially important and stylistically flawless, Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight is a beautiful film inside and out. Far more than a worthwhile message about LGBT visibility wrapped in a pretty package, Moonlight is a fully realized three-dimensional look at the evolution of a person from child to adult —changes that seem gradual are often direct threads visible to everyone but ourselves. This universal theme, specifically the lead character’s journey, is a significant social and artistic breakthrough for representation, both in front of and behind the camera.

Moonlight
R, 111 minutes
Violet Crown Cinema

Moonlight follows the life of Chiron, aka Little and Black, at three stages in his life: as a bullied child, an awkward teenager and the adult he becomes as a result of his formative years. Everyone knows he is different—his single mother, his classmates, his best friend, his adoptive mother and father figures, even himself. He is never fully “out” for some time, perhaps not even fully aware of what his feelings are, but he knows that something about him is worth protecting. Individual moments in Chiron’s life influence events far in the future, and the audience is there to witness it as both observer and participant.

Chiron is played by three different actors: as a child nicknamed Little (Alex Hibbert), as an adolescent going by his given name (Ashton Sanders) and as an adult who goes by Black (Trevante Rhodes). When we first meet Chiron he is running away from high school bullies, hiding out in an abandoned hotel used primarily for drugs. He is discovered there by Juan (Mahershala Ali), a dealer who tries to learn his name by showing sympathy, feeding him and finally taking him in. At home, Juan and his girlfriend, Teresa (Janelle Monáe), get him to open up and take him home, only to discover him back on their front porch, and the relationship becomes a form of mentorship. Juan becomes the most prominent male role model in Chiron’s life and is the first person who tells him that it’s okay to be gay but not to let people call him a faggot. Where the story goes from here is best left unspoiled, but it is fascinating to watch all of the characters for most of their lives, whether it’s his best friend Kevin or his main tormentor at school.

Writer-director Jenkins’ use of silence and pauses is remarkable. These are not mere dramatic pauses; in the same way we watch a human grow up in Moonlight, so do we watch ideas take root and emotions evolve in real time. He could have tackled the subject with the eye of a gritty realist and the message would still be potent, but he is concerned as much with the cyclical tragedy of poverty and drug addiction as with the human soul and how it is shaped by the outside world. Both as a work of art and a social statement, Moonlight is required viewing. It is easily one of the best films of 2016 and the most quietly powerful film in recent memory.

Playing this week

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

The Accountant, Almost Christmas, Arrival, Boo! A Madea Halloween, Dr. Strange, The Girl on the Train, Hacksaw Ridge, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Shut In, Trolls

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000
Arrival, Dr. Strange, The Girl on the Train, Hacksaw Ridge, Inferno, Tower, Trolls

Categories
Arts

Mel Gibson uses Hacksaw Ridge to revive faith

Based on a true story of faith, Hacksaw Ridge centers around conscientious objector Desmond T. Doss (Andrew Garfield) and his World War II heroics. Courtesy Summit Entertainment

Love him or hate him, personally or as a filmmaker, Mel Gibson has never made a movie halfway. Whether it’s reviving dead languages, plunging the camera into the heart of a bloody battle or crafting messianic imagery both metaphorical and literal, you can always trust that the image you’re seeing on the screen is precisely the one he intended.

So it is with Hacksaw Ridge, the first film Gibson has directed in 10 years. It tells the story of real-life hero Desmond T. Doss (Andrew Garfield), the only conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor for his bravery as a medic in the Battle of Okinawa. Doss, a devout Seventh-Day Adventist from Virginia, was determined to do his part in World War II, but refused to take up arms due to his religious beliefs and having witnessed the devastating emotional effects of violence on his father, a veteran of World War I. Harassed, penalized and ultimately court-martialed for disobeying a direct order to handle a rifle during basic training, Doss maintained his convictions and was permitted to go into battle without a weapon as a medic. When he finally saw combat, Doss single-handedly saved the lives of 75 soldiers left for dead without taking a single life.

Hacksaw Ridge
R, 130 minutes
Violet Crown Cinema and Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

This is an ideal story for Gibson’s directorial style as well as his brand of Catholicism—gritty, meditative, unflinchingly violent and stridently religious without demanding the audience share his devotion. Doss’ story carries an inherently pacifist message but not a reductionist one; Doss knows that his decision not to kill will not end the war and solve the world’s problems, but he also knows that it is not an obstacle to fulfilling his duty to his country. He also never proselytizes to his comrades or attempts to convert them to his beliefs, never denying or reducing the bravery of soldiers who did take up arms.

As Christian cinema, Hacksaw Ridge is far more resonant than the preaching-to-the-choir pandering associated with the genre. God’s Not Dead, for example, was just a bit of war-on-Christmas-style paranoia come to life that only sought to confirm the preconceived notions of its target demographic. As a testament of faith, Hacksaw Ridge is possibly even more powerful than Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, which though technically impeccable and clearly cathartic, was unlikely to convince any nonbelievers. Hacksaw Ridge shows a man struggling to remain true to his convictions in circumstances where others insist they don’t apply, when in fact they proved themselves more valuable than ever. Doss’ bravery is his own but is shown as inseparable from his belief; every time he rescues another wounded soldier, Doss asks God to allow him just one more, then one more and so on until 75 men are rescued. If your goal is to convince the world that faith is valuable not only to God but to your fellow man, this is the way to do it.

There are moments where the conviction bleeds into overt messianic metaphor. One moment in particular sees Doss covering himself in a dead body as Japanese soldiers bayonet any potential survivors remaining on the battlefield. The soldier stabs the body on top of Doss, then, when the coast is clear, he checks his right rib to check for any wounds, an overt reference to the Five Sacred Wounds. There is also the always-troubling reminder that the war was alarmingly racist, and the word “Jap” is featured prominently in the dialogue. This is of course historically accurate and to ignore it would be dishonest, but Gibson includes scenes featuring Japanese actors with no dialogue whose only purpose is to be cunning and vicious. It would be one thing to leave this facet of history unchallenged, but why confirm the prejudices of the characters?

Hacksaw Ridge is the first film Gibson has directed since 2006’s Apocalypto, which was arguably his creative high point before a massive downturn in both public perception and artistic output. Hacksaw Ridge sees the filmmaker reexamining his faith and determined to make a positive contribution to the world, while reminding us why we valued him in the first place.

Playing this week

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213
The Accountant, Boo! A Madea Halloween, Dr. Strange, The Girl on the Train, Inferno, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Keeping Up With the Joneses, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Storks, Trolls

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000
The Accountant, Denial, Dr. Strange, The Girl on the Train, Inferno, Jack Reacher, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Trolls

Categories
Arts

Jack Reacher sequel hits the wall

Tom Cruise returns in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, a lackluster sequel that fails to jumpstart the action flick franchise. Photo couresty of Paramount

No one expected a sequel to 2012’s Jack Reacher, a somewhat successful yet not terribly memorable franchise starter for Tom Cruise. Even more surprised by the announcement of a sequel, evidently, were the filmmakers and cast, leaving Jack Reacher: Never Go Back as one of the most rushed, slapdash, confusing and arguably unfinished movies with a cast of this caliber to receive such wide distribution in recent memory. There’s the beginning of a plot, a semblance of structure, a hint of chemistry between its characters and a faint suggestion of exciting action sequences. But despite a committed cast, there’s virtually nothing that differentiates Jack Reacher: Never Go Back from playing like a straight-to-DVD B movie mistakenly sent to multiplexes.

The story follows Reacher (Tom Cruise) as he risks everything to clear the name of Major Turner (Cobie Smulders), his former supervising officer who has been arrested for espionage. In addition to being fugitives from the law, they must also protect Samantha (Danika Yarosh), a teenage girl whose life is in danger because of an unresolved paternity suit claiming Reacher is her father, giving the villains leverage against him.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
PG-13, 118 minutes
Violet Crown Cinema and Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Jack Reacher was nobody’s favorite movie. We already got something of a follow-up when director Christopher McQuarrie took over on Mission: Impossible–Rogue Nation, bringing his knack for serious-but-silly spy shenanigans that only worked half of the time in Reacher. His flair is sorely missed in Never Go Back, with director Edward Zwick (Pawn Sacrifice, Defiance, Blood Diamond) seeming lost at the wheel of this Tom Cruise vehicle, utilizing none of the star’s famous stunts, sly grins and winking at the audience while still committed to the role. Instead, what we have is Cruise and company running and making phone calls. That’s really all that happens.

The rest of the cast does an admirable job with the material they’re given. Smulders breathes life into Major Turner, a character who, based on Zwick’s constant gawking and the dialogue’s unwarranted piggishness, was not written with her skills as a performer in mind. Yarosh is also terrific as Samantha, though the character feels lifted from an entirely different movie. The rest of the cast is filled with solid work from good actors—Aldis Hodge, Holt McCallany, Robert Knepper—whose characters are nevertheless poorly conceived and unconvincing.

Special mention must be given to what must be one of the worst disappointments of a villain in action movie history. In Jack Reacher, delightfully nihilist arthouse legend Werner Herzog played Zec Chelovek, a figure mysterious enough to inspire curiosity in an otherwise conventional action flick. Herzog is easily one of the first film’s selling points. Here, Patrick Heusinger plays the Hunter, a boring ex-soldier turned assassin for a shady private military contractor whose main character attribute is that he’s just really mean. That’s it. Zec’s personality was forged in forced labor camps, with a compelling yet creepy charm that only Herzog could deliver. The Hunter, meanwhile, just doesn’t much care for Reacher. It’s a massive step down that best encapsulates the entirety of this perfunctory sequel.

Contact Kristofer Jenson arts@c-ville.com.

Playing this week

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

The Accountant, Boo! A Madea Halloween, Deepwater Horizon, The Girl on the Train, I’m Not Ashamed, Keeping Up With the Joneses, Kevin Hart: What Now?, Max Steel, The Magnificent Seven, Masterminds, Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Storks, Sully

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

American Honey, The Birth of a Nation, Denial, The Girl on the Train, Keeping Up With the Joneses, Kevin Hart: What Now?, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Oasis: Supersonic, Storks, Sully

Categories
Arts

The Accountant banks on simpler times

Ben Affleck stars as Christian Wolff, a seemingly meek CPA with a mysterious past. Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Who knew a straightforward, predictable, high-concept action mystery starring Batman on his off-season would be just the palate cleanser we needed this year? Gavin O’Connor’s The Accountant harkens back to a simpler time in the film industry, before every member of every superhero team needed his own spin-off series, when the central idea behind an action movie wasn’t much more than “This guy is really good at fighting and shooting, except he’s [fill in the blank],” in this case he’s a high-functioning autistic.

The Accountant
R, 128 minutes
Violet Crown Cinema and Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

That may seem like a recipe for disaster, and the question of whether our hero’s condition is accurately represented is one better left to professionals than to film critics, but the premise is handled with extremely good taste and pays off in unexpected ways as the story progresses. The eponymous accountant is Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck), a seemingly meek CPA with a mysterious past and a highly illegal side business helping criminals, gangs and militias clean up their money trail. Treasury agent Ray King (J.K. Simmons), nearing retirement, enlists—read: blackmails—skillful analyst Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to track down this unnaturally talented money launderer, who is strangely difficult to identify and impossibly capable in combat.

Meanwhile, Wolff, in need of a lower profile and legally sound job, begins reviewing a robotics company founded by Lamar Black (John Lithgow) after a suspicious shortfall in the books is discovered by Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick). This puts Christian in conflict with Brax (Jon Bernthal), a ruthless security contractor. Brax will stop at nothing to protect his clients and their investments, while Christian cannot quit a task until it’s complete. They are polar opposites—and therefore perfect enemies.

This sounds preposterous, and it is, but O’Connor makes the right call in committing to the premise fully, embracing the silliness rather than winking at the audience in a bid for so-bad-it’s-good points. Christian is a one-man army in a way that is occasionally as satisfying as John Wick, even if the two films are not even close to comparable in terms of quality and craftsmanship. The plot twists are many and very obviously broadcasted, but after a certain point this also becomes engaging as we wait for the characters to figure out the big secret. Every 20 minutes or so, however, O’Connor and screenwriter Bill Dubuque apparently realize they neglected to advance the plot, leading to very long stretches of interminable exposition until the next set piece. It can be frustrating, but if you buckle down and let the people talk (and can tolerate the 128-minute runtime) you’ll probably end up forgiving that flaw.

O’Connor, Dubuque and Affleck have clearly done their homework on certain aspects of different types of autism and other characters elsewhere on the spectrum manifest in different ways, and are portrayed as individuals, never objects of pity. The film’s sense of humor is always in good fun and never targets anyone unfairly, neurotypical characters included.

The Accountant may not compare to the best older-guy-kicking-ass movies out there, but with Affleck still in his 40s and the star of legitimate action blockbusters, it may be a premature comparison. That said, the appeals are similar, and while The Accountant is too long, silly and very predictable, if you need something to tide you over until John Wick 2 later this year, you could do a lot worse.

Playing this week

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

The Birth of a Nation, Deepwater Horizon, The Girl on the Train, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: IMAX, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: IMAX, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: IMAX, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: IMAX, Kevin Hart: What Now?, Max Steel, The Magnificent Seven, Masterminds, Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Queen of Katwe, Storks, Sully

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week-—The Touring Years, The Birth of a Nation, Deepwater Horizon, The Girl on the Train, Hell or High Water, Kevin Hart: What Now?, The Magnificent Seven, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Storks, Sully

Categories
Arts

Movie review: ‘The Birth of a Nation’ carries two stories

Nate Parker’s "The Birth of a Nation" opens amid boycotts and questions over the star’s personal history. Image courtesy of Fox Searchlight 

A work of art is no more separate from the artist who created it than a historical event is from the individuals who shaped its outcome. To tell the story of the slave rebellion led by Nat Turner in 1831, you cannot ignore Turner’s upbringing, religious beliefs and the political and economic reality that put him at the center of events that still resonate today. The revolt is significant for reasons beyond Turner himself—the surprising early success followed by the brutal suppression and horrifying anti-black backlash—but any examination of these events is incomplete without an understanding of the man who led it.

Turner is the focus of co-writer-director-producer-star Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation, a passion project from Parker and his first turn behind the camera. Every aspect of the film is packed with righteous anger, from the energetic direction to the unapologetic depiction of retaliatory violence. Even the title is provocative, named after D.W. Griffith’s 1915 lionization of the Ku Klux Klan, perhaps a nod to Turner’s knack for turning biblical verses, used by slave owners as propaganda to instill servitude, into battle cries for emancipation. At times, the film feels worthy of the description Woodrow Wilson bestowed to Griffith’s, that “it is like writing history with lightning.”

The Birth of a Nation
R, 120 minutes
Violet Crown Cinema and Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Soon after the film’s opening at Sundance and purchase by Fox Searchlight, a disturbing fact from Parker’s past emerged, in which he and the film’s co-writer, Jean McGianni Celestin, then roommates at Pennsylvania State University, were charged with the rape of a fellow student, for which Celestin was convicted while Parker was acquitted (supposedly because the woman had consented with Parker in the past). In 2012, the woman committed suicide, and further details emerged of the public harassment and humiliation Parker and Celestin inflicted on her following the charges.

Just as the revolt led by Turner was about much more than his personal ambition, The Birth of a Nation is an indication of a deep desire among audiences and artists alike to see American history re-examined in film from the point of view of the dispossessed. Conversely, Turner’s personal history and strategic decisions unquestionably affected the events that followed, while the fact that Parker made this film with such actions in his past demands examination.

A key event in the film is the brutal violation of a woman, and the constant dehumanization witnessed by Turner on other plantations spurs him into action. Parker clearly views rape as one of the worst atrocities a person can commit, yet his recent comments in the press have been less than clarifying and often frustrating, a fact that led co-star Gabrielle Union—herself a rape survivor—to publicly discuss her complicated reaction to these revelations while appearing in a film she called “important and groundbreaking.”

Union is right, and with her brave words and layered understanding of the film’s significance, as well as the circumstances surrounding Parker, she should be the one attending Q&A sessions in the director’s place. This is an important moment in American film history, one we can learn from: a film that demands to be seen about a subject that ought to be deeply examined in schools, created by a man who is the least deserving to represent either.

To say that art is inseparable from the artist is not as one-dimensional as suggesting that one should never watch something made by bad people. If it makes you feel something or consider a different point of view from your own, it’s worth considering, but good art is not an automatic pardon for actions such as Parker’s and Celestin’s. You can boycott The Birth of a Nation if you must—and there is more than enough reason to do so—or you can see it and consider the implications of the fact that two men who committed such an act of degradation also made a film like The Birth of a Nation.

Contact Kristofer Jenson at arts@c-ville.com.

Playing this week

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

Bridget Jones’s Baby, Deepwater Horizon, The Girl on the Train, The Magnificent Seven, Masterminds, Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Queen of Katwe, Storks, Sully

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week-—The Touring Years, Deepwater Horizon, The Girl on the Train, Hell or High Water, Lo and Behold—Reveries of the Connected World, The Magnificent Seven, Masterminds, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Snowden, Starving the Beast, Storks, Sully

Categories
Arts

Deepwater Horizon is a gripping take on true disaster

Deepwater Horizon stars Mark Wahlberg as engineer Mike Williams in a depiction of the greatest natural disaster in U.S. history. Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

The ensuing oil spill following the explosion and sinking of semi-submersible Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit Deepwater Horizon in 2011 devastated states along the Gulf Coast for years to come. It was the worst natural disaster—and largest corporate settlement—in United States history. But before the constant media coverage, before the horrendously painful hearings in which BP CEO Tony Hayward complained, “I want my life back,” there was the incident itself, in which 11 workers lost their lives, 17 were injured and 94 were rescued in an accident that required quick thinking and heroism from ordinary people placed in an extraordinary situation.

Deepwater Horizon
PG-13, 107 minutes
Violet Crown Cinema and Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

This is the focus of Peter Berg’s Deepwater Horizon, an appropriately straightforward disaster film that puts the focus on the people who did their best in impossible circumstances to contain the damage and save one another’s lives. The film follows engineer Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg), head of safety Jimmy “Mr. Jimmy” Harrell (Kurt Russell) and navigation worker Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez). The crew, 43 days behind on their drill, arrives on the rig to find total disarray. Some key safety crew members have been sent home, shortcuts have been taken on vital security protocols, there are numerous structural and mechanical problems in need of immediate attention—even the phones are unreliable. Under pressure from executives at BP—led by an especially sleazy John Malkovich as Donald Vidrine—to begin drilling immediately, Mr. Jimmy is convinced by a strained yet plausible explanation for bad test results and leaves for his quarters to “wash the day away,” while the team proceeds in his absence.

It’s then that all hell breaks loose, simultaneously highlighting Deepwater Horizon’s best and worst attributes. The exact reasons why this accident occurred are often rushed and technical to the point of being incomprehensible, and in the ensuing melee, it’s often difficult to remember who is doing what and why. All we are left with for character development is “Mr. Jimmy good, Mr. Vidrine bad,” which turns out to be plenty, given the chief concern of the film on the moment-to-moment struggle to prevent a terrible accident from becoming a full-blown catastrophe. Berg certainly respects rig workers and paid detailed attention to the factual sequence of events, but anyone going into Deepwater Horizon with questions about what happened is unlikely to find clear answers.

On its own terms, Deepwater Horizon succeeds; it’s lean, it’s somehow exciting amid the confusion, it’s respectful of the victims and survivors, it does what it sets out to do while remaining steadfastly apolitical. It’s a satisfying depiction of real-world heroism and mankind’s capacity to rise to the occasion with no preparation or warning. The epilogue includes real footage of testimony from Williams, Harrell and Fleytas, which for a moment is as gripping as the film preceding it. If those moments are any indication, a documentary that clarifies some of the unresolved issues on a Blu-Ray release would be the ideal way to experience Deepwater Horizon.

Playing this week

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

Blair Witch, Bridget Jones’s Baby, Don’t Breathe, The Magnificent Seven, Masterminds, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Queen of Katwe, Snowden, Storks, Suicide Squad, Sully 

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week-— The Touring Years, Bridget Jones’s Baby, Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words, Hell or High Water, The Magnificent Seven, Masterminds, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Snowden, Starving the Beast, Storks, Sully