Films This Week
Check out the movies playing around town.
With: Reviews
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Santa Cruz area movie theaters >
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New This Week
THE AGE OF ADALINE Blake Lively stars in this fantasy drama as a woman who has remained 29 years old for nearly a century who risks her isolated existence when she falls in love with a charismatic man (Michiel Huisman). Harrison Ford, Kathy Baker, and Ellen Burstyn co-star. Lee Toland Krieger directs. (PG-13) 110 minutes. Starts Friday.
EX MACHINA A smart programmer at a huge Internet research giant wins a contest to spend a week with the company’s genius boss, where he’s asked to evaluate the CEO’s seductive new A.I. experiment. Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, and Alicia Vikander star for writer-turned-director Alex Garland (who wrote 28 Days Later, and Sunshine). (R) 110 minutes. Starts Friday.
LITTLE BOY Newcomer Jakob Salvati plays the title character in this inspirational drama set in the 1940s about a 7-year-old who will do anything to bring his beloved dad back home from World War II. Kevin James, Emily Watson, Michael Rappaport, and Tom Wilkinson co-star for director Alejandro Monteverde. (PG-13) 106 minutes. Starts Friday.
THE SALT OF THE EARTH The 40-year global journey of photographer Sebastião Salgado, on a mission to capture and record our planet’s wild unspoiled beauty, is the subject of this documentary from Wim Wenders. (PG-13) 110 minutes. Starts Friday.
SEYMOUR: AN INTRODUCTION Creativity, passion, and the tools for building a rewarding life are the themes in this documentary about Seymour Bernstein, a virtuoso concert pianist who gave up the limelight to become a teacher, helping others develop their talents. Actor-turned-filmmaker Ethan Hawke directs. (PG) 84 minutes. Starts Friday.
THE WATER DIVINER Russell Crowe makes his directing debut with this drama in which he stars as an Australian farmer who travels to Turkey in 1919, at the end of World War I, where all three of his sons were lost in the Battle of Gallipoli, to find their remains and bring them home. Olga Kurylenko co-stars. (R) 111 minutes. Starts Friday.
Film Events
SPECIAL EVENT THIS WEEK: GRIEFWALKER Tim Wilson’s documentary features the life and work of Harvard trained theologian, Stephen Jenkinson, who counsels that the knowledge of death empowers us to live our lives to the fullest. At the Center for Spiritual Living (1818 Felt Street), Friday only, 7 p.m.
CONTINUING SERIES: MIDNIGHTS @ THE DEL MAR Eclectic movies for wild and crazy tastes plus great prizes and buckets of fun for only $6.50. This week: GHOST IN THE SHELL This slice of existential Japanese anime from 1995 features a female cyborg cop of the high-tech future pondering the nature of her existence (the “ghost” of consciousness within her robotic shell) while tracking powerful criminal mastermind, the Puppet Master. Mamoru Oshii directs, based on the graphic novel. (Not rated) 83 minutes. In Japanese with English subtitles. At the Del Mar, Fri-Sat midnight only.
CONTINUING EVENT: LET’S TALK ABOUT THE MOVIES Film buffs are invited to join us Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. in downtown Santa Cruz, where each week we discuss a different current release. For our location and discussion topic, please visit our Google Groups webpage:https://groups.google.com/group/LTATM
Movie Times click here.
Now Playing
CHILD 44 Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, and Noomi Rapace star in this thriller set in Stalin’s Soviet Union about a disgraced member of the military police investigating a string of horrific child murders. Daniel Espinoza (Safe House) directs. (R) 137 minutes.
MONKEY KINGDOM Hot on the heels (or paws) of the previous Disneynature films Earth, Chimpanzee, African Cats, and Bears, comes a new Earth Day doc about a monkey clan in South Asia. Tina Fey narrates for co-directors Mark Linfield and Alastair Fothergill. (G) 81 minutes.
PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2 Kevin James is back aboard his Segway in this belated sequel to the 2009 comedy hit. This time he heads to Las Vegas for a last, pre-college outing with his teenage daughter and winds up facing a whole new cast of foes. Raini Rodriguez co-stars for director Andy Fickman. (PG) 94 minutes.
TRUE STORY This drama is based on the true story of disgraced New York Times reporter Michael Finkel who became obsessed with finding out the truth about accused murderer Christian Longo after Longo stole Finkel’s identity. Jonah Hill and James Franco star as Finkel and Longo; Rupert Goold directs. (R) 99 minutes.
UNFRIENDED Chat room friends find themselves stalked online by an evil entity using the account of their dead friend in this horror thriller from director Levan Gabriadzre. (R) 82 minutes.
WOMAN IN GOLD Themes of art, justice, and family merge in Simon Curtis’ compelling true story. The famous Gustav Klimt painting is the subject of a contest of wills between the Austrian government and one determined Austrian Jewish woman, repatriated to Los Angeles, who claims the painting was stolen from her family by the Nazis. The mighty Helen Mirren stars as Maria Altmann, seeking to recover the portrait of her beloved aunt. Tatiana Maslany is wonderful as her younger self, and flashbacks to elegant Old World Vienna deepen the drama. PG-13. 109 minutes. (***)—Lisa Jensen.
