Films This Week
Check out the movies playing around town.
With: Reviews,
Movie Times click here.
Santa Cruz area movie theaters >
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
New This Week
ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATED SHORT FILMS, 2015 Where are the next generation of filmmakers and animators coming from? Find out in these two complete, separate programs of this year’s Oscar-nominated short films from around the world (five live-action and five animated), offered for theatrical release in advance of the Academy Awards on Feb. 22. Astound your friends with your knowledge of these categories at your Oscar party! Animated program: (Not rated) 77 minutes. Live-Action: (Not rated) 117 minutes. Starts Friday.
BLACK OR WHITE Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer star as dueling grandparents embroiled in a custody battle over the little granddaughter (Jillian Estell) Costner’s character has raised in this drama about race, family, and good intentions. Mike Binder (The Upside of Anger) directs. (PG-13) 121 minutes. Starts Friday.
BLACK SEA Jude Law stars as a submarine captain who accepts a dubious job trolling the Black Sea for a lost sub supposedly full of gold in this drama of class warfare, corporate greed, and the pernicious influence of private wealth. Scoot McNairy, David Threlfall, and Ben Mendelsohn co-star for director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland). (R) 114 minutes. Starts Friday.
THE LOFT Karl Urban and James Marsden star in this paranoia thriller about five married men who co-rent a penthouse loft in the city for their extramarital affairs—until murder throws their friendship and their secret fantasy lives into chaos. Erik Van Looy directs. (R) Starts Friday.
A MOST VIOLENT YEAR Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain star in this crime thriller set in New York City in 1981, where a successful immigrant family will stop at nothing to save their business and preserve their hefty share of the American Dream. David Oyelowo (Selma) and Albert Brooks co-star for director J. C. Chandor (All Is Lost). (R) 125 minutes. Starts Friday.
PROJECT ALMANAC A group of high school pals build a time machine that threatens to wreak havoc with history in this sci-fi thriller from director Dean Israelite. Amy Landecker, Jonny Weston, and Sofia Black-D’Elia star. (PG-13) Starts Friday.
TWO DAYS ONE NIGHT Reviewed this issue. (PG-13) 95 minutes. (In French with English subtitles.) (***)—Lisa Jensen. Starts Friday.
Film Events
LET’S TALK ABOUT THE MOVIES This informal movie discussion group meets in downtown Santa Cruz. Movie junkies are invited to join in on Wednesday nights to pursue the elusive and ineffable meanings of cinema. This week (Jan. 28): MR. TURNER Tonight only meeting at Erik’s DeliCafe 155 Walnut Ave., Santa Cruz. Discussion begins at 7 p.m. and admission is free. For more information visit groups.google.com/group/LTATM.
Movie Times click here.
Now Playing
AMERICAN SNIPER Bradley Cooper is excellent as the conflicted protagonist in this harrowing war drama based on the memoir by Navy SEAL sharpshooter Chris Kyle about his four tours of duty in Iraq. With muscular direction by Clint Eastwood, the film plunges viewers relentlessly into the chaos of post-9/11 U.S. military ops in the desert war zone and never lets up. Eastwood captures the complex realities of modern warfare and focuses attention on a horrendous war no one wants to acknowledge, but sitting through this movie is grueling, from war-porn battle scenes to the empty pomp of military ceremony. (R) 132 minutes.(**1/2)—Lisa Jensen.
THE BOY NEXT DOOR Jennifer Lopez stars as a recent divorcee whose affair with a much-younger neighbor leads to his sinister obsession with her in this psychological thriller from Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious). Ryan Guzman, John Corbett and Kristin Chenoweth co-star. (R)
CAKE Jennifer Aniston ditches make-up and her comedienne persona in this drama about a woman battling chronic pain and her own demons who becomes obsessed with another woman’s suicide. Adriana Barraza and Anna Kendrick co-star for director Daniel Barnz. (R) 91 minutes.
MORTDECAI! It’s Johnny Depp in burlesque comedy mode as a roguish art dealer on an international hunt to locate a stolen painting that might be the key to a treasure trove of Nazi gold. Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Olivia Munn, Jeff Goldblum, and Paul Bettany co-star for director David Koepp. (R) 106 minutes.
MR. TURNER Timothy Spall stars as the famed English Romantic-era painter J. M. W. Turner, whose life was as tumultuous as his wild, stormy landscapes, in this biographical drama from filmmaker Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies, Another Year). (R) 149 minutes.
STRANGE MAGIC George Lucas came up with the story for this animated family adventure populated by fairies, elves, and a Bog King (voice of Alan Cumming). Evan Rachel Wood, Kristin Chenoweth, and Maya Rudolph provide additional voices. Gary Rydstrom directs. (PG) 99 minutes.
