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AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

Trailer youtu.be/d9myw72elq0

This sequel catches up with Avatar‘s protagonist, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a decade after he’s decided to retire from service with the Marines and take up residence on Pandora (the planet he was sent to colonize), become a member of the native Na’vi tribe, and marry Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). When an ancient threat resurfaces, Jake must fight a difficult war against the humans. The Way of Water is frequently clunky and hamhanded in its storytelling, and the words spoken by its characters aren’t particularly memorable. But there’s no denying the power of images that can only be described as transporting — literally and figuratively. With Kate Winslet and Sigourney Weaver. (Ann Hornaday/the Washington Post) Oscar nominee, sci-fi/action, rated PG-13, 192 minutes, Regal Santa Fe Place 6, Regal Stadium 14, Violet Crown

THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN (REISSUE)

Trailer youtu.be/uru3zlojn2c

The Banshees of Inisherin, Irish writer-director Martin Mcdonagh’s latest portrait of human frailty taken to its most perverse lengths, finds the filmmaker in a gentler allegorical space than his previous films (In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri). But viewers shouldn’t mistake the story’s fairytale-like contours for reassurance. It’s still Mcdonagh’s world, shot through with rhetorical curlicues, unfettered absurdism, and lashings of sudden, lacerating violence. On a remote island off the coast of Ireland, Pádraic (Colin Farrell) is devastated when his buddy Colm (Brendan Gleeson) suddenly puts an end to their lifelong friendship. With help from his sister and a troubled young islander, Pádraic sets out to repair the damaged relationship by any means necessary. However, as Colm’s resolve only strengthens, he soon delivers an ultimatum that leads to shocking consequences. (Ann Hornaday/the Washington Post) Oscar nominee, drama/comedy, rated R, 109 minutes, CCAC, Regal Stadium 14, Violet Crown

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER

Trailer youtu.be/_z3qkkl1wym

In the wake of King T’challa’s death, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba) fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and forge a new path for their kingdom. Wakanda Forever addresses, head on, the tragic loss of Chadwick Boseman, who played King T’challa in 2018’s Black Panther and died of colon cancer in 2020, but this sequel turns out to be one long eulogy, toggling between overbusy storytelling and coping with sadness and loss. It winds up feeling hopelessly stalled, covering up an inability to move on by

resorting to repetitive, over-familiar action sequences, maudlin emotional beats, and an uninvolving, occasionally incoherent story. (Ann Hornaday/the Washington Post) Oscar nominee, action/adventure, rated PG-13, 161 minutes, Regal Stadium 14

BROKER

Trailer youtu.be/vm3b-fdc9xw

This South Korean film, winner of two Cannes Film Festival awards, follows two brokers who sell orphaned infants, circumventing the bureaucracy of legal adoption, to affluent couples who can’t have children of their own. After an infant’s mother surprises the duo by returning to ensure her child finds a good home, the three embark on a journey to find the right couple, building an unlikely family of their own. “Written and directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, Broker revels in slowly uncovering character motivations and periodically fooling the audience with narrative loop-de-loos.” (Jennifer Levin/for The New Mexican) Drama, rated R, 129 minutes, CCAC

ELVIS (REISSUE)

Trailer youtu.be/gp2bnhwbwvi

The best way to appreciate Elvis, Baz Luhrmann’s audacious, frenetic, occasionally astonishing, and ultimately confounding movie about Elvis Presley (Austin Butler), is simply to surrender to it. The story of Presley’s life is narrated by his manager, Col. Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), a sulfurous and tiresome guide through Presley’s life story, which Luhrmann illustrates with a bricolage of musical numbers, set pieces, and melodramatic encounters. Elvis is aware that the audience knows exactly where this story is going: In rapid succession, using dramatized and real-life news clips, Luhrmann revisits the highs, lows, and most dismal depths of Presley’s life. The result is a dizzying, almost hallucinatory experience — akin to being thrown into a washing machine and mercilessly churned for 2 1/2 hours. That isn’t to say that Elvis doesn’t provide moments of insight, or even genuine inspiration; it’s just that they occur fitfully, when the viewer is briefly pasted up against the window before being plunged into the barrel of Luhrmann’s lurid sensibility once again. (Ann Hornaday/the Washington Post) Oscar nominee, musical/drama, rated PG-13, 159 minutes, Regal Stadium 14, Violet Crown

EO

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The world is a mysterious place when seen through the eyes of an animal. Eo, a grey donkey with melancholic eyes, meets good and bad people on his life’s path, experiences joy and pain, endures the wheel of fortune randomly turning his luck into disaster and his despair into unexpected bliss. But not even for a moment does he lose his innocence. “Eo’s fate is both shocking and unsurprising, but the sadness of the donkey’s saga is at least partly assuaged by the rapturous empathy with which it’s told.” (Mark Jenkins/for The Washington Post) Oscar nominee, drama, not rated, 88 minutes, CCAC

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (REISSUE)

Trailer youtu.be/wxn1t1uxq2g

This sci-fi-inflected meditation on the meaning of life stars Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn, a humble laundromat operator who discovers the multiverse, in which there are uncountable alternate versions of her with amazing skills that she must learn to defeat a malevolent being. It’s hard to know what to make of Everything Everywhere All at Once. It’s a tour de force — but of what? It’s exhausting. It’s funny. It’s confusing. By one measure, Everything is an exhilarating roller-coaster ride of sci-fi gobbledygook. On another, it’s an intergenerational mother-daughter family drama masquerading as a philosophical dissertation on the nature of existence — with martial arts action. (Michael O’sullivan/the Washington Post) Oscar nominee, sci-fi/action-adventure, rated R, 140 minutes, CCAC, Regal Stadium 14, Violet Crown

THE FABELMANS

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Young Sammy Fabelman falls in love with movies after his parents take him to see The Greatest Show on Earth. Armed with a camera, Sammy starts to make his own films at home, much to the delight of his supportive mother (Michelle Williams). With Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, and Judd Hirsch. “A love letter from director Steven Spielberg to the people and the art form that made him who he is.” (Newsday) Oscar nominee, drama, rated PG-13, 151 minutes, Violet Crown, Regal Stadium 14

HOUSE PARTY

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Aspiring club promoters and best buddies Damon and Kevin are barely keeping things together. Out of money, down on their luck and about to lose the roofs over their heads, they need a huge windfall to make their problems go away. They soon decide to host the party of the year at an exclusive mansion, which just happens to belong to none other than NBA superstar Lebron James. What could go wrong? Comedy, rated R, 101 minutes, Regal Stadium 14

A MAN CALLED OTTO

Trailer youtu.be/efyux9l-m5i

As the title character in A Man Called Otto, Tom Hanks plays a cantankerous widower with an affinity for home repair. When it comes to this tear-jerker’s own makeover — it’s based on Hannes Holm’s 2016 Swedish film A Man Called Ove, inspired by Fredrik Backman’s 2012 novel — some sanded-off edges threaten to throw the project out of whack. But in the end, they don’t quite compromise a sturdy foundation. When a lively young family moves in next door, the grumpy Otto meets his match in a quick-witted, pregnant woman named Marisol, leading to an unlikely friendship that turns his world upside down. Even if A Man Called Otto loses some of its soul in translation, Hanks’ innate warmth adds heart to this affecting depiction of longing for the past and finding purpose in the present. (Thomas Floyd/ The Washington Post) Drama/comedy, rated PG-13, 126 minutes, Regal Santa Fe Place 6, Regal Stadium 14, Violet Crown

M3GAN

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M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a lifelike doll that’s programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. Designed by Gemma (Allison Williams), a brilliant roboticist, M3GAN can listen, watch, and learn as it plays the role of friend and teacher, playmate and protector. When Gemma becomes the unexpected caretaker of her 8-year-old niece, she decides to give the girl a M3GAN prototype, a decision that leads to unimaginable consequences. Horror/suspense, rated PG-13, 102 minutes, Regal Santa Fe Place 6, Regal Stadium 14, Violet Crown

MISSING

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When her mother (Nia Long) disappears while on vacation in Colombia with her new boyfriend, June’s (Storm Reid) search for answers is hindered by international red tape. Stuck thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, June creatively uses all the latest technology at her fingertips to try and find her before it’s too late. However, as she digs ever deeper, her digital sleuthing soon raises more questions than answers. “While Missing is just a cheap thriller, one can’t help but wonder whether, in the hands of more inventive filmmakers, the screen time that has come to define personal interaction might find a richer dramatic purpose.” (Pat Padua/for The Washington Post) Mystery/thriller, rated PG-13, 111 minutes, Regal Santa Fe Place 6, Regal Stadium 14, Violet Crown. Review Page 27

PLANE

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Pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) saves passengers from a lightning strike by making a risky landing on a war-torn island — only to find that surviving the landing was just the beginning. When dangerous rebels take most of the passengers hostage, the only person Torrance can count on for help is Louis Gaspare, an accused murderer who was being transported by the FBI. ”Plane is a shot of adrenaline and fast-paced, brain-free fun. What more could you ask for in the middle of January?” (Michael O’sullivan/the Washington Post) Action/thriller, rated R, 107 minutes, Regal Stadium 14, Violet Crown

PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH

Trailer youtu.be/thb7wlgyauc

The latest installment in the adventures of the swashbuckling ginger cat kicks off with a swooping, flying, visually fun opening battle, and Puss (Antonio Banderas) learns that he has just run through his eighth of nine lives. The imminent loss of quasi-immortality sends Puss into a funk. Eliminating all risk is the only thing Puss can think of to do, so he eats and sleeps and not much else — until learning of a magical star that can reset his nine lives if he wishes on it. He reunites with Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) from the last film and sets off. The Last Wish arrives just in time to give families something to do after all the presents have been unwrapped. And sometimes that’s enough. The bar isn’t terribly high here, but Puss and company clear it comfortably, landing — but of course — on their feet. (Kristen Page-kirby/the Washington Post) Oscar nominee, comedy/animation, rated PG, 100 minutes, Regal Santa Fe Place 6, Regal Stadium 14, Violet Crown

THE SON

Trailer youtu.be/sjwry4dzoaq

A cautionary tale that follows a family as it struggles to reunite after falling apart. The Son centers on Peter (Hugh Jackman), whose hectic life with his infant and new partner, Beth (Vanessa Kirby), is upended when his ex-wife, Kate (Laura Dern), appears at his door to discuss their son, Nicholas (Zen Mcgrath), who is now a deeply troubled teenager. With Anthony Hopkins. Directed by Florian Zeller (The Father). “The Son doesn’t plumb any surprising depths of mental illness. Instead, Zeller seems

content to skim the most lurid surfaces of a subject that is far more complicated and nuanced than the stock beats we see here.” (Ann Hornaday/the Washington Post) Drama, rated PG-13, 123 minutes, Violet Crown. Review Page 26

TÁR

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Watching Cate Blanchett inhabit the most indelible character to materialize on-screen this year is to witness a fascinating feat of artistic doubling, wherein Blanchett brings her angular physicality and a quick, slashing intelligence to bear on a woman, Lydia Tár, who’s creating herself in real time. Lydia is so impressively competent, the social space she moves in so stylish and discrete, that it has no option but to come crashing down. Tár is less a movie than a seductive deep dive into an unraveling psyche of a woman who’s simultaneously defined by and apart from the world she has so confidently by the tail. That world, in Lydia’s case, is classical music, a rarefied universe of transcendence and transaction that comes to hushed, high-stakes life in the hands of writer-director Todd Field, who has made a film about exploitation and self-loathing and compulsion, but with an extravagant eye for beauty and surface polish that makes it deeply pleasurable to watch. (Ann Hornaday/the Washington Post) Oscar nominee, drama, rated R, 153 minutes, Regal Stadium 14, Violet Crown

THAT TIME I GOT REINCARNATED AS A SLIME: SCARLET BOND

Trailer youtu.be/z56vmw4gago

Corporate worker Mikami is stabbed to death by a random killer and reborn as a slime monster in an alternate world. He gains new abilities and has many adventures with new friends after being given the name Rimuru. Anime, not rated, 110 minutes, Regal Stadium 14

THE WHALE

Trailer youtu.be/d30r0cwtikc

It’s impossible not to root for Brendan Fraser, one of Hollywood’s most likable actors, whose comeback has been one of the most heartening movie stories of 2022. But admiring Fraser’s performance in The Whale doesn’t necessarily mean liking the movie he’s in. Darren Aronofsky’s adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter’s play is a murkylooking, claustrophobic exercise in emotionalism at its most trite and ostentatiously maudlin. Fraser plays Charlie, a 600-pound recluse rendered virtually immobilized by shame, itself the result of numbing the losses of his life in trancelike binge-eating sessions. The Whale might start out being about a man struggling to break free of his corporeal and spiritual bonds. But it’s Fraser’s smart, humane, vulnerable performance that too often seems trapped, in this case by a film whose mawkishness so oppressively weighs him down. (Ann Hornaday/the Washington Post) Oscar nominee, drama, rated R, 117 minutes, Violet Crown

WHITNEY HOUSTON: I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY youtu.be/wcbkfsokydc

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Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, director Kasi Lemmons’ frustratingly one-note biopic about the pop songstress, who died in 2012 at age 48, suffers from an egregiously ironic musical sin: It’s all hooks and no bridges. Despite clocking in at nearly 2 1/2 hours, I Wanna Dance barely scratches the surface of its celestial subject and the figures in her orbit. Plot points are raised and dismissed so jarringly that it feels as if the movie had been torn to shreds in the edit. That’s a shame for star Naomi Ackie, who gamely embodies Houston’s luminous star power, sharp spunk and, later, world-weary disillusionment. In the movie’s final moments, the filmmaker captures the tragedy of a generational genius undone by her demons. But until that point, there’s little texture to this musical mosaic. (Thomas Floyd/the Washington Post) Music/biography, rated PG-13, 146 minutes, Regal Stadium 14

WOMEN TALKING

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In 2010, the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling a brutal reality with their faith. With Jessie Buckley, Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Ben Whishaw, and Frances Mcdormand. Directed by Sarah Polley. “A movie that deliberately hovers between drama and parable, the materially concrete and the spiritually abstract, and whose stark austerity sometimes gives way to bursts of salty wit and cathartic laughter.” (Los Angeles Times) Oscar nominee, drama, rated PG-13, 104 minutes, Violet Crown

Center for Contemporary Arts Cinema (1050 Old Pecos Trail, 505-982-1338, ext.105, santafe.org), Jean Cocteau Cinema (418 Montezuma Ave., 505-466-5528, jean cocteaucinema.com), No Name Cinema (2013 Pinion St., nonamecinema.org), Regal Santa Fe Place 6 (4250 Cerrillos Road, 505-424-6109, showtimes.com/movie-theaters/ regal-santa-fe-13482), Regal Stadium 14 (3474 Zafarano, 844-462-7342, showtimes. com/movie-theaters/regal-santa-fe-stadium-14-7442), and Violet Crown (106 Alcaldesa St., 505-216-5678, santafe.violetcrown.com)

SOURCES: Google, Imdb.com, Rottentomatoes.com, Vimeo .com, Youtube.com

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2023-01-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-01-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://enewmexican.com/article/281775633291874

Santa Fe New Mexican