“Big Miracle” – If a movie is cheesy and knows it’s cheesy – if it embraces the soft, gooey texture and pungent aroma of its own fromage – does that make it any more palatable as a meal? That is the question to ponder while watching this rousing, feel-good, family-friendly animal adventure that has the added benefit of being based on a true story. It’s a weird hodgepodge, mixing the large cast and the melodrama of a 1970s disaster movie with the small-town quirkiness of “Northern Exposure,” with just a touch of the big-haired ambition of “Broadcast News.” At its centre are three grey whales – a mother, father and baby who found themselves trapped within the quickly forming Arctic ice near Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost point in the United States, in 1988. The effort to free them in the open water brought together a disparate alliance of environmental activists, oil executives, journalists, native people and even the Soviets toward the end of the Cold War, and it fascinated viewers worldwide. John Krasinski plays Adam, the boyishly enthusiastic local TV reporter who breaks the story. He gets some help from an adorable little native boy (Ahmaogak Sweeney) who looks up to him as a big brother as well as from his idealistic ex-girlfriend, Greenpeace leader Rachel (Drew Barrymore). But soon everyone’s invading this small, remote town for a piece of the action, which sets up all the fish-out-of-water scenarios you’d expect. Ted Danson and Kristen Bell are among the ensemble cast. PG for language. 107 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
– Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
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“Chronicle” – It owes a great debt to the found-footage conceit of “The Blair Witch Project,” has some of the esthetic and tonal touches of “Cloverfield” and probes the same sorts of philosophical notions about the burden of power that serve as the basis for the “X-Men” series. And yet, “Chronicle” still has enough energy and ingenuity to serve as thrilling entertainment all its own. First-time feature director Josh Trank and writer Max Landis (as in son-of-John) have come up with a clever way to tell a hand-held, point-of-view story without relying on the same old grainy, headache-inducing shaky-cam techniques: The camera can levitate. Because the three teenagers who take turns operating it have acquired the power of telekinesis. These are three recognizable high school types: nerdy loner Andrew (Dane DeHaan), popular athlete Steve (Michael B. Jordan) and Matt (Alex Russell), Andrew’s cousin who falls somewhere in the middle of the social hierarchy. One night in the woods outside a party, they discover a hole in the ground and decide to explore it. Since Andrew chronicles everything with his video camera, he documents what they find: some sort of glowing cosmic thing that fascinates them, and also gives them the ability to move and manipulate things with their minds. Rather than embark on some important superhero adventure, they do what regular kids would do. They mess with people at Walmart. The third act goes a little haywire, though, especially as the camera device collapses in favour of various points of view. PG-13 for intense action and violence, thematic material, some language, sexual content and teen drinking. 84 minutes. Three stars out of four.
– Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
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“Kill List” – This morphs subtly but devastatingly from an uncomfortable domestic drama to a brutally violent hit-man thriller to a what-the-hell-just-happened? exploration of a primal, paranoid nightmare. Or is what we’re seeing real? Director and co-writer Ben Wheatley slyly gives nothing away, but rather has enough faith in his challenging material and in his audience to let us debate the meaning of the ending and fill in the blanks for ourselves. And his skilful cast of actors, who improvised much of the dialogue, absolutely sell it with an abiding naturalism, even as the film turns disturbing and outlandishly dark. “Kill List” begins as a slice of life within a modern British family, but from the start, Wheatley creates a sense of unease through camerawork that feels a little too intimate and jump cuts between disconnected moments. Jay (Neil Maskell) is an ex-soldier and unemployed assassin who’s still reeling eight months after a job that went wrong in Kyiv. He and his wife, Shel (the beautiful MyAnna Buring), argue about all the same things normal married couples argue about as they raise their 7-year-old son. By grounding the film in such a prosaic, relatable way early on as Wheatley and co-writer Amy Jump do, it only makes the transition toward the extreme climax seem like even more of an impressive feat. Jay’s partner, Gal (the fascinating Michael Smiley), comes to him with a new assignment that will get him back in business. Not rated but contains graphic violence, disturbing images, nudity, language and smoking. 95 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
– Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
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“The Innkeepers” – The trappings may look familiar, but this is a new twist on the good old-fashioned ghost story: It’s the bored-slacker horror movie. Writer-director-editor Ti West sets his film at the historic Yankee Pedlar Inn (and shot it at the real hotel in Torrington, Conn., which was built in 1891), which, for our purposes, has a history of hauntings and is on the verge of closing. West takes his time and doesn’t seem interested in cheap, loud, quick shocks; the approach pays off and generates real tension. It’s so low-key, it may actually be too languid in parts, but it’s hard not to admire this rare sort of patience, as well as an interest in creating characters who feel like real human beings. Sara Paxton and Pat Healy have an easy chemistry as Claire and Luke, the hotel’s two remaining employees who are stuck minding the place over its final weekend. The slightly nerdy, wisecracking Luke is fascinated by the inn’s supernatural past and is developing a website on the subject; tomboyish Claire doesn’t have anything better to do and gets sucked into helping with his investigation. Naturally, as they prowl the cavernous banquet room and the empty corridors, they start seeing and hearing things. Kelly McGillis co-stars as a surly former TV star who’s one of the hotel’s last guests, and who may know more than she initially indicates. And “Tiny Furniture” writer-director-star Lena Dunham has one very funny scene as the self-centred barista at the nearby coffeehouse. R for some bloody images and language. 100 minutes. Three stars out of four.
– Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
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“W.E.” – The question that needs to be asked about Madonna’s “W.E.” is why? Not why would she set out to make a movie to satisfy her obsession with Wallis Simpson, a woman more famous and notorious in her day than Madonna is herself. But why would anyone, after reading the jumbled, rambling script Madonna co-wrote, turn her loose to direct such a mess of pretty pictures and hollow perceptions about the curse of celebrity and the price of true love? Andrea Riseborough stars as Simpson, the American divorcee for whom Britain’s King Edward VIII (James D’Arcy) gave up the throne, while Abbie Cornish and Oscar Isaac play modern lovers whose story Madonna clumsily appends to reflect that great romance of the 1930s. It’s easy to understand Madonna’s fixation with Simpson. Madonna clearly empathizes with this Material Girl of another generation over the microscopic, often malicious media attention both have endured. But the movie amounts to a case of a big-headed superstar overreaching with empty-headed results. It’s poorly conceived, awkwardly orchestrated, drearily paced and bizarrely assembled. The images have the sheen of a really grand music video or perfume commercial, and the movie has about as much insight. R for some domestic violence, nudity and language. Running time: 119 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.
– David Germain, AP Movie Writer
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“The Woman in Black” – Though it nearly suffocates under the mounting weight of its gothic kitsch – an abandoned house, child ghosts, spooky dolls, oh my! – James Watkins’ thriller nevertheless summons ornately crafted, old-fashioned suspense. In his first post-Potter film, Daniel Radcliffe stars as the struggling, widowed London lawyer Arthur Kipps. Still grieving the loss of his wife in childbirth, Kipps – leaving his 4-year-old son behind – is dispatched to a remote British village to put in order the estate of the recently deceased Alice Drablow. The town is thick with suspicion and foreboding. So well do the townspeople know the tragedy of lost children (their deaths always accompanied by a dark, mysterious character), that whimpering comes even from their parrots. Kipps is to sort a classically menacing Victorian mansion where apparitions and frightful reflections mount as he digs into the past. His lone village friend is Samuel Daily, played by the always excellent Ciaran Hinds. (Janet McTeer plays his loopy wife.) Adapted from Susan Hill’s novel, it’s the second release from the reconstituted Hammer Film Productions, which churned out lush gothics in the ’60s and ’70s. Watkins’ film, nifty and taught, is a worthy enough heir to that tradition, even if its basic cliches threaten to overwhelm it. As a wand-less detective, Radcliff comports himself well, playing Kipps with downcast desperation, conflicted between striving for the future of his son or grimly wallowing in the memory of his wife. PG-13 for thematic material and violence, disturbing images. 95 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
– Jake Coyle, AP Entertainment Writer
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