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{"source_url": "https://www.cityweekly.net", "url": "https://www.cityweekly.net/utah/film-news-jan-2-8/Content?oid=14634262", "title": "FILM NEWS: JAN 2-8", "top_image": "https://media1.fdncms.com/saltlake/imager/u/slideshow/14634261/cinema-clips.png", "meta_img": "https://media1.fdncms.com/saltlake/imager/u/slideshow/14634261/cinema-clips.png", "images": ["https://media1.fdncms.com/saltlake/imager/u/blog/14634261/cinema-clips.png?cb=1577749965", "https://media1.fdncms.com/saltlake/imager/u/slideshow/14634261/cinema-clips.png", "https://www.cityweekly.net/foundation/images/icons/cross.png", "https://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-a4LDpi_DEopn-.gif", "https://www.cityweekly.net/imager/b/story/2124584/4ff7/Scott.jpg", "https://www.cityweekly.net/general/graphics/MovieTimesTicket.png", "https://www.cityweekly.net/imager/b/coverthisweek/14633845/e4eb/COVER_200102.jpg", "https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=1832028880415856&ev=PageView&noscript=1", "https://www.cityweekly.net/binary/c1bb/Olympian-Tell-Me-More.png", "https://www.cityweekly.net/images/header-thisWeek.png", "https://www.cityweekly.net/binary/bc2c/staffSocial.png"], "movies": [], "text": "click to enlarge\n\nNEW THIS WEEK\n\nFilm release schedules are subject to change. Reviews online at cityweekly.net\n\nThe Grudge\n\n[not reviewed]\n\nLatest U.S. remake of the Japanese horror story about a house haunted by a vengeful ghost. Opens Jan. 3 at theaters valleywide. (R)\n\nSPECIAL SCREENINGS\n\nThe Aeronauts\n\nAt Park City Film Series, Jan. 3-4, 8 p.m. & Jan. 5, 6 p.m. (PG-13)\n\nCURRENT RELEASES\n\nBombshell 2 stars\n\nCharlize Theron looks a lot like Megyn Kelly in Bombshell\u2014but it would be great to move on from that to whether Bombshell is actually a good movie. Because it's not. There's a scandalous premise at its core: the sexual harassment allegations at Fox News in 2017 that brought down the network's founder and architect, Roger Ailes (John Lithgow), along with popular commentator Bill O'Reilly. But beyond the casting of familiar actors impersonating high-profile public figures\u2014including Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson\u2014what \"there\" is there in Jay Roach's movie? Occasionally it finds an emotional hook, like with a fictionalized sexually-harrassed producer played by Margot Robbie. Mostly, however, the performances are buried under an exercise in cinematic schadenfreude that's basically progressive fan service. We get to congratulate ourselves for recognizing that sexual harassment is bad, and Fox News is worse. (R)\u2014Scott Renshaw\n\nCats 2 stars\n\nDirector Tom Hooper adapts Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical phenomenon about a weird annual ritual of cats trying to figure out which one of them gets to die and be reincarnated, with various cats (Jennifer Hudson, Jason Derulo, James Corden, Taylor Swift and more) each getting a solo number before being kidnapped by the villainous Macavity (Idris Elba). The only reason Cats works on stage, despite being a bad musical aside from the ubiquitous \"Memory,\" is the spectacle of its stagecraft. On a movie screen, those mostly blah songs are in the mouths of people with CGI fur, which never stops looking creepy. Some lively dancing and the eye-catching ing\u00e9nue presence of ballerina Francesca Hayward energize something that at least deserves credit for batshit craziness more fitting for a stoned midnight movie audience than a blockbuster holiday release. (PG)\u2014SR\n\nA Hidden Life 4 stars\n\nMaybe it's because Taika Waititi's so-called satire Jojo Rabbit left a bad taste in my mouth that I find Terrence Malick's latest opus to be a far more appealing account of living among the Nazis during World War II. Mostly set in an overwhelmingly idyllic village in Austria, the movie follows Franz J\u00e4gerst\u00e4tter (August Diehl), a real-life peasant farmer who chose not to fight with the Nazis, even if that meant spending a huge chunk of wartime incarcerated. As always with Malick, there's a love story at its core\u2014this time, it's between J\u00e4gerst\u00e4tter and his loyal, supportive wife (Valerie Pachner), who goes through just as much pain and drama as he does. As usual, Malick creates what seems like an endlessly emotional dream, as he and cinematographer J\u00f6rg Widmer constantly come up with gorgeous, sensuous shots and images that are just as vital to the story as the actual narrative. Even though I'm sure some people will complain about the nearly three-hour length, when you're engulfed in a world that's as moving and beautiful as the one Malick assembles, time doesn't mean a damn thing. Opens Dec. 20 at theaters valleywide. (PG-13)\u2014Criag D. Lindsey\n\nJumanji: The Next Level 1 star\n\nTwo years ago, a quartet of high-schoolers magically entered a 1990s-era videogame and were transformed into \"hilariously\" opposite avatars (scrawny nerd becomes buff swashbuckler; shy girl becomes scantily clad \"dance fighter;\" etc.) to solve a jungle adventure puzzle. The one-joke wonder of the 2017 movie is painfully extended as two grandpas join the shenanigans, and now it's \"hilarious\" that squawky curmudgeon Danny DeVito lands in the body of The Rock (later Awkwafina) and a loquacious Danny Glover becomes \"Boy Scout\" Kevin Hart. Writer-director Jake Kasdan directs action sequences as if he intends to suck all the excitement and suspense out of them. The stakes are too low, anyway, to generate much suspense: Everyone gets another life when they \"die\" in the game. This isn't an action adventure so much as a body-swap comedy, minus any real laughs. (PG-13)\u2014 MaryAnn Johanson\n\nLittle Women 3.5 stars\n\nWriter-director Greta Gerwig takes Louisa May Alcott's 150-year-old text and finds a way of telling it that feels new and vital. She radically re-imagines the structure, opening with Jo March (Saoirse Ronan) already in New York trying to build a career as a writer; the narrative flashes back from there seven years to Jo and her sisters\u2014Meg (Emma Watson), Amy (Florence Pugh) and Beth (Eliza Scanlen)\u2014living with their mother (Laura Dern). That fragmented chronology turns it into a tale juxtaposing the lives the young protagonists imagine for themselves with the choices they ultimately have available. Yet it's also gloriously entertaining, thanks to the top-notch casting. It's wonderful to see this source material as a call to recognize the unfairness the world might throw at you, stare it down, and decide you're going to make your own happiness. (PG)\u2014SR\n\nSpies in Disguise 2.5 stars\n\nWill Smith voices a cocky secret agent who needs help from a nebbishy scientist (Tom Holland) to disappear when he gets framed for a crime. Unfortunately, he accidentally downs a potion that turns him into a pigeon\u2014that's right, a friggin' pigeon. Stupid as this sounds, directors Troy Quane and Nick Bruno come up with enough elaborate, screwball hijinks to properly appease the parent-kid combos in the audience, while populating the flick with an eccentric collection of star voices (Karen Gillan, Reba McEntire, DJ Khaled). They even squeeze in a message of pacifism, as Smith and Holland's characters argue about the best way to handle acts of terrorism. I wasn't expecting a flick where the Fresh Prince eats garbage, lays an egg and finds out how pigeons go to the bathroom to be so damn heavy. (PG)\u2014CDL\n\nStar Wars: Episode IX\u2014The Rise of Skywalker 2 stars\n\nJ.J. Abrams attempts to wrap up 40 years of Star Wars' Skywalker saga with the possible return of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), as all of our main characters\u2014Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), Poe (Oscar Isaac) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver)\u2014trying to figure out what it all means. The set pieces, while energetically staged, involve a lot of racing around trying to find a Very Important Object, or even trying to find the Very Important Object that will help them find another Very Important Object. We also get new characters, making the movie even more densely packed with stuff. But the elephant-in-the-Throne-Room problem is that this feels like a cover-band version of Return of the Jedi, puts characters through the motions of arcs we've seen before, offering a comforting pat on the head without any surprises. (PG-13)\u2014SR\n\nUncut Gems 3 stars\n\nJosh and Benny Safdie (Good Time) tell another story about a screw-up who can't get out of his own way: Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), a New York jeweler facing impending divorce, mounting gambling debt and an accompanying threat of physical violence. But he thinks a rare, valuable black opal from Ethiopia will solve all his problems. The Safdies maintain a relentless momentum as Howard's schemes repeatedly blow up in his face, with Sandler turning in strong work as a guy who's always got a hustle, while never understanding that the disaster of his life is his own fault. If anything, it's too relentless, exacerbated by Daniel Lopatin's punishing score. The character study doesn't hold the same thematic depth as Robert Pattinson's furiously entitled protagonist of Good Time, but it's still consistently fascinating to rubberneck at this human car crash. (R)\u2014SR", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": ["Visual Art", "Theater", "Dance", "Comedy", "Movies", "TV", "Books", "Sports", "Recreation", "Reviews", "Salt Lake City", "Park City", "Ogden", "Provo and Utah", "", "Best of Salt Lake City", "Restaurants", "Dining", "Bars", "News", "Events", "Music", "Arts", "Guide", "Review", "Best Of Utah", "Salt Lake City", "SLC", "Park City", "Best of Music", "LGBT", "Party", "Band", "Venue"], "tags": ["Cinema Clips"], "authors": ["Scott Renshaw"], "publish_date": null, "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "New This Week, Special Screenings, and Current Releases", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "/favicon.ico", "meta_data": {"viewport": "width=1000", "layout": "Content Default", "oid": 14634262, "google-signin-client_id": "994967671027-8onjgidd96k7ia5node65hqvciq4ko73.apps.googleusercontent.com", "title": "FILM NEWS: JAN 2-8 | Cinema Clips | Salt Lake City | Salt Lake City Weekly", "description": "New This Week, Special Screenings, and Current Releases", "keywords": "Visual Art, Theater, Dance, Comedy, Movies, TV, Books, Sports, Recreation, Reviews, Salt Lake City, Park City, Ogden, Provo and Utah,, Best of Salt Lake City, Restaurants, Dining, Bars, News, Events, Music, Arts, Guide, Review, Best Of Utah, Salt Lake City, SLC, Park City, Best of Music, LGBT, Party, Band, Venue", "date": "2020-01-01 04:00:00", "author": "Scott Renshaw", "news_keywords": "visual art, theater, dance, comedy, movies, tv, books, sports, recreation, reviews", "thumbnail": "https://media1.fdncms.com/saltlake/imager/u/slideshow/14634261/cinema-clips.png", "og": {"url": "https://www.cityweekly.net/utah/film-news-jan-2-8/Content?oid=14634262", "site_name": "Salt Lake City Weekly", "title": "FILM NEWS: JAN 2-8", "image": {"identifier": "https://media1.fdncms.com/saltlake/imager/u/slideshow/14634261/cinema-clips.png", "width": 665, "height": 259}, "description": "New This Week, Special Screenings, and Current Releases", "type": "article"}, "fb": {"app_id": 358760447552497}, "twitter": {"card": "summary_large_image", "image": "https://media1.fdncms.com/saltlake/imager/u/slideshow/14634261/cinema-clips.png", "creator": "@scottrenshaw", "title": "FILM NEWS: JAN 2-8", "description": "New This Week, Special Screenings, and Current Releases"}}, "canonical_link": "https://www.cityweekly.net/utah/film-news-jan-2-8/Content?oid=14634262"} |
