Tag: Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

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Arts Culture

Fun house

Lady Gaga and Adam Driver star in Ridley Scott's House of Gucci. Photo: United Artists

House of Gucci, the second film released in the past two months from director Ridley Scott, is fun to watch. The movie isn’t great, and it isn’t terrible, but it’s full of eye candy. (Scott’s other recent film, The Last Duel, was delayed by the pandemic and released in October this year, and features Ben Affleck and Matt Damon sporting haircuts far less fashionable than the group in Gucci.)

House of Gucci follows the true story of Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) and his tumultuous marriage to Patrizia Gucci, née Reggiani (Lady Gaga). The story begins in 1978, when Patrizia meets Maurizio at a party and falls for him—even harder after learning the awkward, bespectacled Maurizio is a Gucci and an heir to the fashion family fortune.

Their relationship causes a rift in the Gucci family, but Maurizio follows his heart and risks losing his inheritance when he marries Patrizia. The couple settles into a blue-collar life—he becomes a truck driver, unthinkable for a man with his lineage. But when Patrizia becomes pregnant, she uses it as leverage to reconnect with the Gucci clan, and the pair is welcomed back into the fold. The film then dives in to a whirlwind of scandals, reconciliations, and murder.

The Gucci name is synonymous with luxury and extravagance, and it’s repeated over and over to frame the family’s societal reach. Gaga’s powerful performance is spotlighted as she fights to use the name, and to be accepted as a Gucci—usually while shoving her wedding rings in whomever’s face she thinks needs to see them.

The true joy of watching House of Gucci comes from the disjointed and endlessly entertaining performances. As Maurizio, Driver does his best to be warm and understated, a sheepish guy who is willing to do just about anything to make his lover happy. (This very well could be the film where Driver smiles the most.) Gaga, meanwhile, lays it on thick as a passionate but occasionally unbalanced Italian who speaks more with her hands than with her mouth.

Jared Leto, caked with cosmetics, plays cousin Paulo. He completely embodies the incompetent Paolo, to the point where it becomes a detriment to the film’s cohesion. Every single choice Leto makes is distracting, from his Mario Brothers accent to his cartoonish physicality.

Aside from a brief runway show with new designer Tom Ford (Reeve Carney), House of Gucci seems uninterested in fashion, a perplexing choice for a movie about fashion’s first family. There is discussion of the famous Gucci scarf design, and Paulo shows off his own questionable designs every time he’s on screen, but these sartorial inclusions are used more as framing devices than as an appreciation of clothes.

Even with the colorful performances and juicy source material, House of Gucci manages to be a little dull. Maurizio and Patrizia’s relationship spans decades, and Scott drags us through every bump and reconciliation. At two hours and 38 minutes, the film shuffles along at its own pace, but it’s still enough campy fun to earn our attention.

House of Gucci

R, 158 minutes

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Regal Stonefield & IMAX, Violet Crown Cinema

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Living

Pop secret: Which movie theater’s kernels are king?

By Sam Padgett

If anyone is seeking an excuse to shovel popcorn into their mouth, now is the time. October is National Popcorn Month, and in celebration of America’s favorite cinema snack, we sampled all of the popped corn that Charlottesville’s movie theaters have to offer. Here are our findings.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

Rating: 5 popcorns (scale of 1-5)

Appearance: Because the Alamo is both a movie theater and a restaurant, the popcorn here is served not in a bag or a bucket, but rather a metal bowl, elevating the snack to the level of a full-fledged appetizer.

Taste: While the regular buttered popcorn was delightfully delicate and perfectly salted and buttered, the truffled Parmesan buttered popcorn was a truly engaging culinary experience, lighting up both the salt and umami receptors on my tongue.

Overall: The popcorn here was made and presented not as a snack to be mindlessly consumed during a film, but rather a carefully constructed dish that can easily be enjoyed in individual bites—or a heaping, sloppy handful.

Violet Crown Cinema

Rating: Three popcorns

Appearance: Not only does Violet Crown smell overwhelmingly of butter, but the popcorn here was also shoveled out of a quintessential neon-lit popcorn machine, all of which creates a classic movie theater popcorn experience.

Taste: More so than every other location, this popcorn was merely dusted with both salt and butter, gliding right along the periphery of noticeable flavor.

Overall: Although Violet Crown’s popcorn was light on flavor, it could easily be consumed by the bucket without much notice.

Regal Stonefield Stadium 14 & IMAX

Rating: Four popcorns

Appearance: Behind a classically designed concession stand, the Regal’s gargantuan popcorn machine is visible, cluing in visitors that its popcorn has the authentic, rich buttery taste you’d expect from movie theater popcorn.

Taste: The popcorn was considerably heavy on both the butter and the salt, leaving both a delicious salty ring around my lips, and enough butter on my hands to stain whatever I touched.

Overall: When most people imagine a bucket of typical movie theater popcorn, this is exactly what they are thinking of.

Up for grabs

If you’re one of the many people who fondly remembers Flintstone’s Push-Up pops, then you are in luck. A new baking business called UpCakes combines the nostalgic frozen treat with cupcakes. Started by recent JMU grad and operating room nurse Megan Stolte, UpCakes offers custom push-pop cupcakes for any event. Besides evoking pleasant memories of summer treats, the push-pop design also allows for a totally portable and mess-free cake experience. And long gone are the days of flavors like Yabba Dabba Doo Orange: UpCakes offers unique flavors such as dunkaroos, one in a melon and puppy chow. Or you can special order any flavor, complete with a custom label, for events like anti-Valentine’s Day or National Wine Day. For more information, go to UpCakes Facebook page, or email eatupcakes@gmail.com. And if you want just a cake or two, look for UpCakes at the holiday City Market December 9.

Categories
Arts

Movie review: Stephen King’s IT balloons with big-screen scares

Coulrophobes beware! The movie version of Stephen King’s supernatural clown thriller "IT" is stylish, well-acted and super scary. Courtesy New Line Cinema

The film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel IT, long considered unfilmable, has finally reached the big screen, bringing new life and a modern sensibility to a story that is simultaneously nostalgic and damning of selective memory. The decades are swapped—our heroes are growing up in the late 1980s instead of King’s 1950s—but the coulrophobia has not dulled a bit in the update. IT does frontload most of its big scares and falls into a predictable rhythm, but with an impossibly talented cast, amazing visuals, and the sheer herculean effort to make the damn thing, IT will win most audiences over.

The story follows a group of teens growing up in the fictional town of Derry, Maine. Some are lifelong friends, some are newcomers, but all share the experience of being bullied, outcast or otherwise rejected and put down by their peers and family. Meanwhile, a terrible presence in the form of a demonic clown has been making itself known, first by horrifically devouring Georgie, the younger brother of the group’s leader, Bill (Jaeden Lieberher). A frightening amount of children have recently been killed or gone missing, when one of the Losers discovers a pattern in the town’s history where every few decades, a massive wave of disappearances and deaths hits the young population of Derry. They realize they are in the middle of one such wave, and as they work to combat Pennywise the Dancing Clown, they must also unite to confront their own deepest fears.

It
R, 135 minutes
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Regal Stonefield 14 & IMAX, Violet Crown Cinema

Every King story lives or dies by the quality of its characters; after all, we would neither care nor believe a story about a supernatural child-eating clown who lives in the sewer if we were not somehow invested in the survival of those affected. This is where the source material shines, as well as the 1990 miniseries, and in this regard, the 2017 iteration is a complete triumph. The cast is truly remarkable, believably capturing how 13-year-olds might react to such a situation, when they are still in the middle of becoming the people they will be for the rest of their lives—they are funny, endearing, sympathetic, and capture the full spectrum of small-town adolescence in doing so. Not a single performance within the Losers Club is wasted, particularly by Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Jack Dylan Grazer and “Stranger Things”’ Finn Wolfhard. Bill Skarsgård may be capturing headlines with his take on Pennywise—and it is a fresh one, free from the shadow of Tim Curry’s legendary turn—but we are either in a golden age of child actors or this is the cream of the crop.

Though both the novel and miniseries followed the protagonists both as teenagers and as adults, director Andy Muschietti (Mama) makes the decision to focus solely on the childhood years, with the second half of the story left to a potential sequel. This effectively focuses what has always been a sprawling narrative of interdimensional beings and nigh-Lovecraftian lore, that of best friends learning to trust themselves and one another while questioning the world as it has been presented to them. The flipside of this is that it leaves a frustrating amount of plot holes, such as what the non-“It” creatures are that we see peppered throughout. Supernatural horror films are often best left unexplained, but they ought never be unmotivated. The effect is not mystery, but preemptively dulling what should have been the massive scares that come later.

The special effects are jarring and there are legitimate moments of terror—reminiscent of Muschietti’s too-close-for-comfort stylings that we saw in Mama—but they are not sustained enough for it to be the masterpiece it wants to be. The film cannot shake echoes of the smash hit “Stranger Things,” but as King’s story provided some of the inspiration, it has every right to cover similar ground. IT is not a game-changer, but the mere fact that it exists, and is as good as it is, deserves recognition.

Playing this week

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
377 Merchant Walk Sq., 326-5056

Akira, Dunkirk, Home Again, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Ingrid Goes West, Logan Lucky, Selma 

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

 All Saints, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Despicable Me 3, Dunkirk, The Emoji Movie, Girls Trip, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Home Again, Leap!, Logan Lucky, Marvel’s Inhumans, The Nut Job: Nutty by Nature, Spider-man: Homecoming, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Wind River 

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

Apollo 13, The Big Sick, Dunkirk, The Glass Castle, Home Again, Logan Lucky, The Midwife, Terms of Endearment, The Trip to Spain, Tulip Fever, Wind River

Categories
Arts

Movie review: Disney’s live action Beauty and the Beast is a diverse reboot

The story old as time, Beauty and the Beast returns in a live-action format starring Emma Watson.

The idea of a live-action remake of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is no better or worse than any of the mouse’s many examples of mining its own vault for new material, yet from the moment it was announced, it was met with over-excitement and unnecessary scorn. The cast, the songs, the very concept were under massive scrutiny from supporters and detractors alike. There’s nothing being done to this story that hasn’t already been tried in Maleficent, Kenneth Branagh’s Sleeping Beauty and, no doubt, many more to come, yet this generated far more commotion, good and bad, than any Disney reboot in recent memory.

Beauty and the Beast
PG, 126 minutes
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX, Violet Crown Cinema

Now that it’s out, how does it hold up? Those who dislike the concept will find nothing to change their mind—a remake devoid of new substance other than an unnecessarily elaborate backstory, a cast with completely uneven singing ability and a series of notable decisions that feel more like calculated risks for maximum ticket sales than genuine inspiration. Fans, meanwhile, will probably have a new favorite movie, with likable lead actors, moments of genuine pathos and the first consciously inclusive fairy-tale blockbuster that makes a point of proving that LGBT characters and interracial romance are not box office poison. (If the enthusiastic and nonjudgmental reaction of the kids behind me is any indication, we have reason to be optimistic about the future.)

The film begins with a handsome yet self-centered prince (Dan Stevens) hosting a lavish ball, when an enchantress curses him, his castle and all of its inhabitants to teach him the meaning of inner beauty. (Of course she only does this after turning into a beautiful woman first, a trope Disney has not yet learned to avoid.) Cut to Belle (Emma Watson), a girl not entirely understood by her fellow “provincial” villagers. She lives with her father (Kevin Kline) and is constantly pursued by the egotistical Gaston (Luke Evans). You know the rest.

In the end, Beauty and the Beast is exactly what you think it will be plus exactly what Disney said would be different. Your kids will love it, you will probably forget it.

Director Bill Condon’s respect for his protagonists, as well as the audience, is apparent in the consistency of their characterizations. That she falls in love with the beast is not portrayed as her sacrificing her individuality or free will, and the romance has less of a Stockholm syndrome feel to it than the animated film (though not the sophistication of Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film, from which both borrowed many visual cues). Watson is a delight, bringing intelligence and depth to Belle even if her vocals and solo numbers don’t stand out. Stevens successfully finds the many levels to the beast as he struggles with the man he once was, though the CG makeup is a distraction rather than an improvement. The supporting cast as enchanted furniture (Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen, Audra Macdonald, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Emma Thompson and others) is uneven but mostly endearing. The only technical drawbacks are the staginess and being far too dark (literally, it’s difficult to see).

As for the social content-—Disney’s main selling point after the public rejected the original music—it’s there, it’s refreshing and it’s interestingly forgettable. For those who don’t follow movie news, the character of LeFou (Josh Gad) was announced to be “exclusively gay,” a strange choice of words but an accurate statement nonetheless. He is in love with Gaston, and it is not ambiguous. But it is also not as prominent as Disney made it seem, with occasional fleeting moments that are mostly silly. One groundbreaking aspect they have not advertised is possibly due to spoilers, but the diverse cast and mixed-race romances are accepted as a fact of life, an issue Disney has wrestled with and apparently decided to tackle with full force. It will be interesting to see how they incorporate this into future films.

In the end, Beauty and the Beast is exactly what you think it will be plus exactly what Disney said would be different. Your kids will love it, you will probably forget it. It’s not revolutionary, but trying to improve on-screen representation with dated source material is refreshing and the fact that the movie isn’t horrible is a nice bonus.

Playing this week

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213
Before I Fall, The Belko Experiment, Get Out, Hidden Figures, Kong: Skull Island, The Lego Batman Movie, Logan, The Shack  

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000
Get Out, Hidden Figures, I Am Not Your Negro, Kong: Skull Island, Logan, The Sense of An Ending

Categories
Arts

Manchester by the Sea sails on love and loss

Casey Affleck and Lucas Hedges star in Kenneth Lonergan’s powerful, Oscar-ready drama, Manchester by the Sea. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions

Tragedy and comedy are, in fact, bedfellows when both are taken very seriously, and rarely is this relationship captured as well as it is in Manchester by the Sea. Writer-director Kenneth Lonergan’s meditation on love, loss and moving on strikes this balance with ease, and it’s a masterpiece in its own right for its emotional depth, stylistic restraint and masterful navigation of a story that might have veered into cloying or mawkish territory in lesser hands.

Manchester by the Sea follows the story of Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck), who comes home to the North Shore of Massachusetts after the sudden death of his brother, Joe (Kyle Chandler), to look after Joe’s teenage son, Patrick (Lucas Hedges). Until then, Lee had been eking out a living as a janitor in Quincy, a suburb south of Boston and about as far away as a person can get from Manchester while remaining in culturally familiar territory. Between getting yelled at by tenants and fixing problems beyond his job description, he also resists friendly advances yet picks fights with strangers. We initially know little about Lee’s story, except that he has suffered a great loss and that the last place in the world he wants to be is back in Manchester, let alone taking custody of a 16-year-old he had no hand in raising.

Manchester by the Sea
R, 137 minutes
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX, Violet Crown Cinema

Lonergan is keenly aware of the link between location and memory, telling much of Lee’s story through flashback when it is most emotionally relevant and not a moment sooner. The names of many Massachusetts towns appear frequently, but not as a play for local credibility. Audiences won’t need a map to make sense of the emotional geography—Quincy is the place Lee went to escape his problems, Essex is the neighboring town that may as well be on another planet for its economic differences. Manchester is the place where no one forgets the past, which is great for Patrick, a hockey star with a local band and two girlfriends, but a nightmare for Lee.

Lonergan also pays very close attention to the ways people react to the things they can and cannot control. When the film opens, we see Lee in a series of situations where he has no choice but to suffer the abuse of his tenants. Later that night, he turns down an obvious advance from a woman in a bar because responding would mean opening up to someone—an unpredictable undertaking—while he has no problem fighting strangers because that situation follows a predetermined pattern. When Lee is given custody of Patrick, his first decision is to bring him back south to live in Boston, thereby uprooting his entire life. Any requests that might make Lee vulnerable are refused, but he has no problem being Patrick’s chauffeur, no matter how inconvenient. And as we learn the truth of why Lee left, we learn the underlying reason for his fear of powerlessness and resistance to leaving anything to chance.

Manchester by the Sea is a thoughtful, intelligent film with excellent performances and characters you will want to spend as much time with as Lonergan allows. It is funny in expected places and is easily one of the best films of the year, if not the decade.

Playing this week

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213
Allied, Almost Christmas, Arrival, Doctor Strange, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Hacksaw Ridge, Incarnate, Miss Sloane, Moana, Nocturnal Animals, Office Christmas Party, Trolls

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000
Allied, Arrival, Doctor Strange, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Loving, A Man Called Ove, Moonlight, Moana, Office Christmas Party

 

Categories
Arts

The rare quality of A Man Called Ove

Rolf Lassgård stars in the Swedish film A Man Called Ove, which is a thoughtful look at loss and rediscovery through a humorous lens. Music Box Films

Leave it to the Swedes to make a comedy-drama about an elderly widower’s unsuccessful attempts at suicide into the feel-good movie of 2016. A Man Called Ove strikes a rare balance between sardonicism and optimism, between hope and hilarious misanthropy, and succeeds thanks to excellent performances and a thoughtful story that would have drowned in sentimentality in less capable hands than writer-director Hannes Holm’s.

A Man Called Ove
PG-13, 116 minutes
Violet Crown Cinema

We meet Ove (Rolf Lassgård) as he argues with a checkout clerk over the meaning of a coupon to save money on flowers—flowers, as it turns out, that are meant to be left on his wife Sonja’s grave as part of his regular visits. He then unloads his frustration with the situation to Sonja as he sweetly confesses that he misses her, promising to be reunited with her soon. This is a perfect introduction to Ove, his worldview, what he values and how deeply he feels. The trouble comes when his inability to leave well enough alone collides with his desire to leave a world that seemingly has nothing more to offer him, when he sees his neighbor is incapable of backing a car with his trailer hitch at the exact moment he is attempting to hang himself.

Bit by bit, Ove becomes involved in his neighbors’ lives and problems, sometimes reluctantly but often out of frustration that they cannot follow the rules or complete household tasks themselves. Gradually, his suicide attempts become more infrequent as he becomes a steady part of their lives, particularly Parvaneh (Bahar Pars), an Iranian woman who both enjoys Ove’s company and refuses to relent to his stubbornness. A mother of two, soon to be three, and a caretaker of sorts to her less-than-handy husband, her tolerance for nonsense is even lower than Ove’s, but her enormous capacity to empathize motivates Ove to peel back the layers of his entrenched personality.

You can see how A Man Called Ove could have easily given way to sappiness, as the story of a rough but sensitive man from a previous generation whose defenses gradually get worn down. Where the film stands apart is in the way it explores how he became so closed off to begin with—giving the character more depth than if he had simply been an ornery old man. Ove revisits his past when he has a moment to reflect, usually as an attempt on his life nears success or when he’s feeling vulnerable with Parvaneh. She becomes something of a daughter to him, a fact that is significant as we learn about his relationship with his father, why he and Sonja never had children and the gradual way in which the young man with an enormous work ethic who married the woman of his dreams became the rules-obsessed, aggressive loner we see today.

Among the most remarkable aspects of A Man Called Ove is the way it balances all of the emotions of both its leading man and its diverse supporting cast. Laugh-out-loud moments bleed into near-tragic events without a drastic shift in style or tone, as director Holm tells the story in a mostly subdued manner that is befitting Ove himself. His suicide attempts are never stopped by cold feet or regret, but by an immediate reminder of his use in today’s world, and his portrayal by Lassgård is second to none. Sensitive, insightful, funny and intelligent, A Man Called Ove is a wonderful film that defies all expectations.

Playing this week

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213
Allied, Almost Christmas, Arrival, Bad Santa 2, Doctor Strange, The Edge of Seventeen, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Hacksaw Ridge, Incarnate, Moana, Rules Don’t Apply, Trolls

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000
Allied, Arrival, Bad Santa 2, Blue, Doctor Strange, Gimme Danger, The Handmaiden, Loving, Moana, Moonlight, Rules Don’t Apply

Categories
Arts

Warren Beatty takes on the legend of Howard Hughes

Warren Beatty puts the charm and challenge of the old Hollywood studio system on screen in Rules Don’t Apply. Courtesy of 20th century Fox

The great Warren Beatty returns after a 15-year hiatus with Rules Don’t Apply, a Howard Hughes-centered passion project that has existed in the Hollywood icon’s mind since the early 1970s. Beatty rarely commits to a project halfway, and his fascination with the subject, setting and era of the film is evident in both his performance as the infamous industrialist-engineer-film producer and his energetic direction that draws terrific performances from a remarkable cast. Beatty’s enthusiasm for the subject is palpable and occasionally infectious, but it is also the film’s greatest weakness—the final result rarely has an opportunity to breathe or develop a life of its own, resulting in a fun movie with a lot to say but lacking much of a point.

Rules Don’t Apply follows the intertwined lives of Hughes (Beatty), his personal assistant, Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich), and aspiring actress Marla Mabrey (Lily Collins). Marla arrives in Hollywood with her mother (Annette Bening) to live the life of a contract star in Hughes’ roster, though almost immediately the arrangement appears less glamorous than originally promised. There is a beautiful house, a guaranteed stipend regardless of work performed and Frank’s services as a personal chauffeur. But face-to-face meetings with Hughes are virtually nonexistent, contracts are lowered out of windows onto the street to be signed and no real film work ever appears to get done. Marla never receives a screen test until she complains, but it is quickly apparent there is no film on the horizon.

Rules Don’t Apply
PG-13, 126 minutes
Violet Crown Cinema and Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Frank, meanwhile, is an aspiring real estate developer who hopes to use his new position to gain Hughes’ trust and investment in a promising plot of land. The chemistry between Marla and Frank is palpable, but both are under contract to not engage in romantic relationships, as they are often reminded by coworker Levar (Matthew Broderick). It is Marla who writes a song inspired by Frank’s motivational words to her, “You’re an exception. The rules don’t apply to you.”

Hughes, the inspiration for the film and the man who brought these characters together, is largely absent for the first half hour or so of Rules Don’t Apply—fitting not only for his character but for the title, as he is a man who lives his life without the burden of any rules on behavior. A meeting between Hughes and Marla seems promising, but torn alliances and diverging ambitions complicate matters beyond repair. Beatty shows some affinity with the eccentric recluse, even if their biographies could not be more different. Discussions of legacy and immortality appear throughout, and it is only in these moments that the frenetic pace slows down and makes us listen instead of merely observing.

Rules Don’t Apply is an amiable and thoughtful look at the ways social and legal constraints can interfere with our ability to lead a happy, safe life, especially when they exist to do just the opposite. The lack of a central idea becomes apparent when the film veers between fiction and docudrama without committing to either, as whatever message Beatty wants to convey becomes muddled. Though not a full return to form, it is a return nonetheless, and a bad Beatty movie is still better than most. The rules don’t apply to him, either.

Playing this week

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213
Allied, Almost Christmas, Arrival, Bad Santa 2, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Doctor Strange, The Edge of Seventeen, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Hacksaw Ridge, Moana, Trolls

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000
Allied, Arrival, Bad Santa 2, Doctor Strange, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Hacksaw Ridge, The Handmaiden, Loving, Moana, Moonlight, White

Categories
Arts

The Innocents challenges the structure of faith

The Innocents considers what matters most to a group of nuns left traumatized by rape in the wake of World War II. Photo courtesy of Music Box Films

Director Anne Fontaine’s The Innocents takes place in Warsaw in December 1945, when much of the world was ecstatic at the conclusion of World War II, yet those most affected were too deeply traumatized to feel anything close to relief. And for many in the occupied territory of Poland, the horrors continued long after hostilities had technically ended.

Based on a true story, The Innocents follows a young French doctor working for the Red Cross, Mathilde (Lou de Laâge), who is asked by a nearby convent to assist them through a difficult ordeal. Many of the nuns are pregnant after having been raped by Soviet troops, and to add to their torment, they must keep this fact a secret for fear of being persecuted and having their convent closed. It falls on Mathilde to fulfill her duties to the Red Cross while secretly attending to these young women, which is unfortunately made more difficult by the convent’s authoritative, paranoid abbess.

Fontaine keeps the film’s horrific events, both described and depicted, and the broader message in equal focus at all times. As a story, The Innocents is a sensitive recounting of women’s hardship that reminds us that the wounds of war never fully heal, while as a film, it’s a thoughtful investigation into places where abstract notions and material reality intersect. If one is genuine in whatever it is she believes, how necessary is it to be obedient to the structure of that belief? The convent’s abbess is something of a terror, seemingly more concerned about avoiding scandal and maintaining devotion to her authority than to the physical and mental wellbeing of those in her care.

Mathilde faces her own struggle between ideals and implementation; she is a Communist—though not a card-carrying one, she is eager to point out—yet has no love for the Soviets, who are responsible for the horror at the convent and who nearly have their way with her at a roadblock. Her respect for the health and free will of the nuns is more valuable to her than her disagreement with their faith and her constant annoyance with the abbess. As much as possible, Fontaine makes each individual nun her own fully developed character where other filmmakers may have made them one-dimensional for the purpose of evoking sympathy. Some are fully committed to their vows, others would rather return to the outside world, while some are unsure of their faith yet cherish the structure of life in the convent.

As is often the case with historical films, it could be said that the ending of The Innocents is a little too convenient and loses some of the direction that propelled it beyond similarly themed period pieces. However, the characters and their struggle are so engrossing and beyond the standard pity-me tropes, one might not mind the tonal shift. The Innocents places intelligence, ideas and emotional solidarity on equal levels. Beliefs matter, structures designed to implement them matter, but establishing human connections in unlikely places and ensuring one another’s welfare matters more.

Playing this week 

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

Bad Moms, Ben-Hur, Don’t Breathe, Equity, Florence Foster Jenkins, Hands of Stone, Kubo and the Two Strings, Mechanic: Resurrection, Morgan, Nerve, Pete’s Dragon, Sausage Party, The Secret Life of Pets, Southside With You, Star Trek Beyond, Suicide Squad, War Dogs 

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

Don’t Breathe, Don’t Think Twice, Florence Foster Jenkins, Hell or High Water, Kubo and the Two Strings, The Light Between Oceans, Pete’s Dragon, Sausage Party, Southside With You, Suicide Squad, War Dogs