Kip Mooney
On Keanu And The Rest Of The Weekend’s New Film Releases.
Keanu.
Director: Peter Atencio.
Writers: Jordan Peele, Alex Rubens.
Cast: Jordan Peele, Keegan-Michael Key, Will Forte, Nia Long.
Playing At: Wide.
Key & Peele will go down as one of the greatest sketch comedy series of all time. I'm not quite convinced this will be able to sustain a full-length film, but I will absolutely follow these two geniuses anywhere to find out. The duo don't quite play themselves, but they do get mixed up with some actual gangsters while trying to find their pet cat.
Mother's Day.
Director: Garry Marshall.
Writers: Tom Hines, Lily Hollander, Anya Kochoff, Matthew Walker.
Cast: Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson, Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis.
Playing At: Wide.
Your mom deserves so much better than these cliché inter-connected stories about ladies trying to reconnect with their mothers. If you're going to take her to a movie, find something, anything better than this garbage.
Ratchet & Clank.
Directors: Kevin Munroe, Jericca Cleland.
Writers: Kevin Munroe, T.J. Fixman, Gerry Swallow.
Cast: James Arnold Taylor, David Kaye, Rosario Dawson, Paul Giamatti.
Playing At: Wide.
For an adaptation of a major video game, this one has strangely received little buzz. This odd couple sci-fi comedy should score with kids and adults if they pull off the right blend of humor and action, but it could just be a poorly organized series of cutscenes.
Green Room.
Director: Jeremy Saulnier.
Writer: Jeremy Saulnier.
Cast: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Patrick Stewart.
Playing At: Wide.
Our own Javier Fuentes really loved this movie. It's Jeremy Saulnier's follow up to his 2013 thriller Blue Ruin, and features Anton Yelchin as the lead singer of a punk band trapped in the titular room of a club taken over by neo-Nazis. Patrick Stewart leads the violent gang. Expect more blood than you're used to seeing in movies. It's everywhere!
Louder than Bombs.
Director: Joachim Trier.
Writers: Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt.
Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Isabelle Huppert, Jesse Eisenberg, Devin Druid.
Playing At: Angelika Dallas, Angelika Plano.
Lots of critics — but not me — dug the English language debut of Norwegian director Joachim Trier. It's a portrait of a father (Gabriel Byrne) and his two sons (Jesse Eisenberg and Devin Druid) as they cope with the loss of their matriarch (Isabelle Huppert). I found it too obtuse and unfocused to be powerful, even though it does have some great scenes.
Sing Street.
Director: John Carney.
Writer: John Carney.
Cast: Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Aidan Gillen, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Kelly Thornton.
Playing At: Angelika Dallas, Angelika Plano.
There are movies that are in my wheelhouse, and then there's Sing Street, which set me up to love it from the first notes of the Jam's “Town Called Malice.” Ferdia Walsh-Peelo plays the kid trying to fit in at school while starting a band to impress an out-of-his-league girl. And it has a killer soundtrack. This is what I want, and it comes from the writer-director of two movies that make me extremely happy (Once and Begin Again).
April and the Extraordinary World.
Directors: Christian Desmares, Franck Eckinci.
Writers: Frank Ekinci, Benjamin Legrand.
Cast: Mario Cotillard, Jean Rochefort, Olivier Gourmet, Marc-Andre Grondin.
Playing At: The Magnolia, Angelika Plano.
This French animated tale follows a girl and her talking cat as they try to find their way home in a Paris that's both futuristic and stuck in the past. The Magnolia will show both the subtitled and dubbed versions, while the Angelika Plano only has the dubbed version.
Tale of Tales.
Director: Matteo Garrone.
Writers: Edoardo Albinati, Ugo Chiti, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso.
Cast: Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, Toby Jones, John C. Reilly.
Playing At: Texas Theatre.
Matteo Garron (director of the Italian mob thriller Gomorrah) assembled an all-star cast for his adaptation of 17th Century Italian poet Giambattista Basile's classic fairy tales. Salma Hayek plays the queen hoping for a child. Toby Jones plays a jealous king and there are plenty of dragons, ogres and witches. So basically like a more colorful Game of Thrones.
Papa Hemingway in Cuba.
Director: Bob Yari.
Writer: Denne Bart Petitclerc.
Cast: Adrian Sparks, Joely Richardson, James Remar, Giovanni Ribisi.
Playing At: Angelika Dallas, LOOK Cinemas.
Sort of based on a true story, this is the first film shot in Cuba in 50 years. Denne Bart Petitclerc wrote the script years ago, detailing his relationship with Ernest Hemingway, whom he spent a lot of time with in Cuba before the revolution. Giovanni Ribisi plays Petitclerc and Adrian Sparks plays Hemingway.
Men & Chicken.
Director: Anders Thomas Jensen.
Writer: Anders Thomas Jensen.
Cast: David Dencik, Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Soren Mallig.
Playing At: Alamo Drafthouse Dallas.
Because he was so great on Hannibal, I will watch Mads Mikkelsen in just about anything. But Men & Chicken, a quirky Danish comedy, might push my limits. It's about two brothers who find out their real father is living in a mental institution, and meet their crazy half-brothers along the way.
Purple Rain.
Director: Albert Magnoli.
Writers: Albert Magnoli, William Blinn.
Cast: Prince, Apollonia Kotero, Morris Day, Jerome Benton.
Playing At: Texas Theatre.
Showing: Saturday, April 30.
Spoiler alert: Aside from the music scenes — which are electrifying — Purple Rain doesn't really hold up. But it's got the greatest soundtrack of all time, and this will be a great way to honor Prince's memory. Other theaters are showing the 1984 film this weekend, but only the Texas Theatre is hosting an all-night dance party afterward.