What to Watch This Weekend
Intergalactic superheroes arrive, plus two new movies for grownups
Robb Rosenfeld/Courtesy of A24 Films
Debra Winger and Tracy Letts in 'The Lovers’
New in Theaters:
The entertainment news this weekend is all about one of the summer’s biggest blockbusters, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the follow-up to the 2014 megahit about intergalactic criminals fighting to save the universe.
But two less-splashy movies also hitting theaters — The Dinner and The Lovers — should appeal to grownups in the mood for something more thoughtful than explosive.
The Dinner stars Richard Gere and Steve Coogan, who sit down to dinner together with their wives to discuss a horrifying incident involving their teenage kids. Alas, the film, based on Herman Koch’s absorbing novel of the same name, has received some unflattering reviews (one critic called it “an entirely unpleasant film about a group of appalling people”).
More promising is The Lovers, a dark comedy starring Debra Winger and Tracy Letts as a longtime married couple, their son out of the nest, who are barely holding their passionless relationship together. In the midst of their respective infidelities, their feelings for each other begin to reheat — humorously upsetting their quietly unhappy status quo.
AARP Membership: Join or Renew for Just $16 a Year
Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Allison Williams, Betty Gabriel (standing), and Daniel Kaluuya in 'Get Out'
Still in Theaters:
A black photographer (Daniel Kaluuya) and his white girlfriend (Allison Williams) visit the remote home of her creepy parents (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) in this whip-smart horror film that’s also an unsettling meditation on race.
At first blush, writer-director Theodore Melfi’s tale of a trio of retirees (Alan Arkin, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman) pulling off a bank heist is a simple caper comedy. But it also tugs at the scabs left by the late-2000s bank collapse and bailout. Ann-Margret is lovely as Arkin’s “moll.” FULL REVIEW
The dream of finding life on Mars becomes a claustrophobic nightmare for a team of astronauts (including Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson and Ryan Reynolds). Director Daniel Espinosa cribs from a bunch of better flicks.
A little bit X-Men, a little bit Mad Max, this dark update on Hugh Jackman’s tormented superhero, Wolverine, has a gritty vibe that’s nothing like that of its predecessors.
Richard Gere dazzles in his most intriguing role ever: an enigmatic New York fixer who matches disparate people to make improbable business deals. Gere’s title character, wide-eyed and desperate to please, screws his way into our heart even as he infuriates the high-flying Manhattanites who desperately try to elude him. FULL REVIEW
The haunting tale of a woman (Kristen Stewart) who believes her dead brother is trying to contact her is, in the end, a film about waiting: for happiness, for answers, for the ultimate revelation of what comes after death.
Cynthia Nixon beguiles as Emily Dickinson in Terence Davies’ portrait of the poet, whose steadfast self-assurance utterly scandalized the upper crust of 19th century Massachusetts.
As war rages in the last days of the Ottoman Empire, a medical student (Oscar Isaac) and an American journalist (Christian Bale) battle over a classy Armenian woman (Shohreh Aghdashloo). The three are lovely to look at, but their romantic triangle seems like a pretty appendage on a larger tale of brutal, all-out war.
Jessica Chastain stars with Johan Heldenberg — whose heroic character is shortchanged by the title — as the real-life couple who hid fugitive Jews from the Nazis in their zoo compound in Warsaw, Poland. As the couple make selfless choices that place them in increasing peril, director Niki Caro (Whale Rider) constantly ratchets up the suspense. FULL REVIEW