Author: Amy Diaz

Amy Diaz is the executive editor and writes about movies and compiles the Kiddie Pool column. Reach her at adiaz@hippopress.com.

At the Sofaplex 22/12/01

Tár (R)

Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant.

Lydia Tár (Blanchett) is the conductor of a symphony in Berlin. She has professional success; a large apartment; a child with her wife and the symphony’s first violinist, Sharon (Nina Hoss); a book about to hit shelves, and a much-awaited recording of a Mahler symphony in the works. But behind all of this are the increasingly desperate emails from a young woman Lydia had some sort of relationship with and has now blackballed from work with other symphonies. Her assistant Francesca (Merlant) seems aware that this relationship has the potential to do real damage (there are regular suggestions that this relationship is not the first of its kind) but Lydia pretends not to be aware of the mounting darkness — nor does this gathering storm stop her from pursuing a new young musician in the symphony.

The movie is very clever in the way it puts all the Bad Man behavior in this female character. And I find it interesting how it shows us the power dynamics, the fragile self-esteem, the carelessness and the selfishness but not the sex. We’re seeing the wreckage, not the crash, and Blanchett does great things (particularly with the way she uses her voice and with small gestures) as the person walking through the scene and trying hard to stay convinced that they didn’t cause the disaster. Truly, Blanchett is the movie, and I can see why Oscar predictors have been labeling hers as the performance to beat this year. The movie is long with deliberate, not-at-all speedy pacing but Blanchett makes the destructive Lydia impossible to look away from. A Available for rent or purchase.

Causeway (R)

Jennifer Lawrence, Brian Tyree Henry.

Lynsey (Lawrence) is recently home from military service in Afghanistan, where she suffered a traumatic brain injury, and has had to relearn basics like walking, holding things and sleeping without spiraling into panic. James (Henry) is a mechanic she meets when her family’s truck needs work. Both Lynsey and James have lived in New Orleans all their lives; both have suffered familial tragedy in the city, which led Lynsey to run to the Army and James to stay put.

Joe Reid and Chris V. Feil, hosts of This Had Oscar Buzz, frequently talk about “friendship cinema,” which this very much is — a movie where the development of a non-romantic relationship is the heart of the story. Lynsey and James find in each other something Lynsey isn’t getting from her mother (Linda Emond), with whom she is staying while she tries to recuperate, and that James can’t get from his empty house. And both Lawrence and Henry are bringing so much unsaid to their performances, so much we aren’t specifically told about their characters but can understand from what they do with their eyes or the way they smile. Causeway is a calm surprise of a movie built on these standout roles. A- Available on Apple TV+.

The Wonder (R)

Florence Pugh, Toby Jones

Pugh is an English nurse hired to go to mid-1800s Ireland to report on the case of Anna O’Donnell (Kila Lord Cassidy), an 11-ish-year-old girl who appears to be healthy despite, as her family claims, not eating for more than four months. A group of men in this small, very religious village including the local doctor (Jones) and priest (Ciaran Hinds) have called in Nurse Elizabeth Wright (Pugh) and a nun, Sister Michael (Josie Walker), to watch Anna and report what they observe. Wright thinks this is all nonsense — as do a good number of the townsfolk — but Anna seems sincere in her belief that she is existing only on manna from heaven and has attracted quite a bit of attention for what people seem to believe is a kind of saintliness.

It doesn’t take a psychologist to make some guesses about what might be in the intersection of a “miracle” for a young girl deeply invested in the stories of female saints, denial of food by a tween and a recent family death. But the journey of Wright finding out what is behind this supernatural-seeming happening is nonetheless captivating. The men in the story have some personal gains to protect — the religious members of the town want a saint; the doctor thinks Anna might be the beginning of some scientific discovery (for him to make, of course); William Byrne (Tom Burke), a journalist from London who has his roots in this village, is chasing a story. Wright may have limited agency and some personal baggage but she is determined to figure out what’s really happening and, eventually, find a way to keep a girl from starving to death for dumb reasons. Pugh makes this investigation compelling. B Available on Netflix.

Armageddon Time (R)

Anthony Hopkins, Anne Hathaway.

This movie about Paul Graff (Banks Repeta), a tween from a Jewish family growing up in 1980 Queens, has a very novella, moment-in-time feel. Paul and public school classmate Johnny Davis (Jaylin Webb) are fast friends with a real George-and-Harold energy (for those who know their Captain Underpants), with Paul having a love of drawing and both of them disliking school and very much liking goofing off. The consequences of their goofiery are not equal, though — Johnny, one of the few Black kids at the school, seems to get punished harshly whether he’s done something or not. One particular misadventure has Johnny, who is cared for by a grandmother in poor health, dodging foster care officials while Paul is sent to his older brother’s private school to set him straight.

Surprisingly to Paul, the advice to his parents —Esther (Hathaway) and Irving (Jeremy Strong) — to send him to the tonier school came from Esther’s dad, Paul’s beloved grandpa (Anthony Hopkins). Having struggled against antisemitism throughout his life, Paul’s grandpa tells him to take the opportunities he gets. But he also urges Paul to stick up for the non-white kids that the students at his new private school disparage; be a mensch, he tells him.

The movie has its compelling moments, with characters like his mother, his often angry father and his grandfather often presented to us from his kid’s-eye-view of them. But the pieces of this movie don’t always hang together. Each of the adult characters, while well-performed, feel like they’re working at slightly different frequencies. Armageddon Time isn’t bad but it lacks a certain clarity. B Available for rent or purchase.

See How They Run (PG-13)

Saoirse Ronan, Sam Rockwell.

In 1950s London, Inspector Stoppard (Rockwell) and Constable Stalker (Ronan) investigate the murder of Leo Kopernick (Adian Brody), an American director tasked with turning Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap into a film. As in any English country house murder, there are an assortment of potential suspects with an assortment of connections to (and disagreements with) the victim. Eager and slightly star-struck Stalker and uninterested, world-weary Stoppard make an odd-couple pairing as they interview the various players — an ego-filled star (Harris Dickinson), an ego-filled writer (David Oyelowo), the play’s no-nonsense producer (Ruth Wilson), the potential producer of the movie (Reece Shearsmith) and his mistress (Pippa Bennett-Warner) — and try to figure which of the many reasons for wanting Leo dead actually moved someone to murder.

This movie has all the trappings — in how it’s shot, in the very Character-y characters, in its wry dialogue — of a buoyant murder mystery. But somehow it’s missing the bounce, the spark that would make it the kind of fun it seems to want to be. See How They Run seems to be aiming for “Knives Out but cozier” but instead it’s merely inoffensive and mildly pleasant. B- On VOD and HBO Max.

The Menu (R)

The Menu (R)

Diners at an exclusive, multi-thousand-dollar-per-diner restaurant realize their evening is about more than foams and locally sourced seafood in The Menu, a thriller that’s probably more cute than clever but does leave you hungry for a really good [spoiler alert].

Let’s just say the food item in question isn’t quite the Chef grilled cheese sandwich but it’s in that vein and I will be thinking about it long after I stop thinking about the rest of the movie.

Hawthorne is the kind of restaurant that patrons have to wait months to get a reservation for and then can get to only by taking a boat out to a secluded island where only a dozen customers are served per night. Before even getting to the restaurant, front-of-house manager Elsa (Hong Chau) takes the diners on a tour of the island and the restaurant’s gardens and chicken coop and smokehouse — the base camp of bull—- mountain, as Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) observes. Of all the guests, she is the least impressed by all the artisanal nonsense of the restaurant. And she’s the date of the guest who is most obsessed with the idea of each dish’s umami and presentation and Instagramability, Tyler (Nicholas Hoult). She is not, we quickly understand, the date he was supposed to bring, and when she and another guest, older man Richard (Reed Birney), recognize each other and then pointedly look away from each other, we can guess pretty quickly how she came to be with Tyler. Richard is there with his wife, Anne (Judith Light). Other guests include three finance bros (Mark St. Cyr, Arturo Castro, Rob Yang); a restaurant critic (Janet McTeer) and her editor (Paul Adelstein); a past-his-prime movie star (John Leguizamo) and his assistant (Aimee Carrero), and an older woman (Rebecca Koon).

Chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) commands great respect — or something — from his kitchen staff, who snap to attention and “yes, chef” him loudly when he gives an order. The dishes come out, one by one, each with a story (and accompanying title card), and each one gets a little more conceptual and insane than the next. When a taco course comes out featuring a chicken thigh with small scissors stuck it (to go along with a story about Slowik stabbing his abusive father in the thigh) and tortillas laser-printed with the guests’ various misdeeds, the guests realize that the uneasiness they’ve felt all evening was the correct emotion.

What if Jigsaw from Saw went to culinary school and started to take food really seriously while still wanting to mess with people — is what I’m getting from this movie. Yes, the title cards are funny and there are a few genuine laugh-out-loud moments, often juxtaposing the la-di-da nature of foodie talk with menace or outright violence. But the customers are more monied sadsacks than monsters and the kitchen staff come off as either either dead-eyed cult members or wild-eyed lunatics. Which, fine — but the movie spends a lot of time on speechifying and seeming to have characters believe they’re making a point about class and the shallowness of high-end foodie culture. The movie acts like it’s saying something but really every statement of purpose boils down to “people suck,” which kind of takes the air out of that part of the movie and makes it feel more like window dressing to the suspense than a clever message. It is, as Paul Hollywood would say poking his thumb into these sections of the movie, underbaked.

We are also boxed in to only rooting for Taylor-Joy (well, maybe her and Judith Light, who is able to do great things with the tiniest of looks or motions). This is by design but the movie doesn’t give her much more than “Girl You Root For” as a character or personality. Fiennes, as the Big Bad, doesn’t get a whole lot more than that — his character basically delivers Chef Julian’s whole deal during one of many pre-course monologues — but he does seem to be having fun with this Great Man gone off the rails.

For all this, I enjoyed The Menu — it’s gleeful about its different kinds of villainy and really relishes, ha, sending up needless extravagance and foodie culture. B

Rated R for strong/disturbing violent content, language throughout and some sexual references, according to the MPA at filmratings.com. Directed by Mark Mylod and written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, The Menu is an hour and 47 minutes long and distributed by Searchlight Pictures in theaters.

Featured photo: Ralph Fiennes in The Menu.

She Said (R)

New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor investigate reports of sexual harassment and assault by Harvey Weinstein in She Said, a movie based on the real-life investigation and the subsequent book by the same name.

When we first meet Twohey (Carey Mulligan) she’s investigating allegations against then candidate Donald Trump — while also going to OB appointments as her pregnancy progresses. Kantor (Zoe Kazan) is covering refugees, while also juggling her two girls’ schedules with her husband, who is also a reporter. Kantor gets a tip about allegations of sexual misconduct, possibly years of misconduct, by Weinstein and starts looking into it, making calls and finding women with stories who can’t talk or won’t talk on the record out of fear of damaging their careers or because of non-disclosure agreements signed years ago. Twohey joins her on the investigation when she returns to work from maternity leave, still sort of reeling from what the movie depicts as postpartum depression.

The paper’s editors — including Rebecca Corbett (Patricia Clarkson) and Dean Baquet (Andre Braugher) — believe in the story but know that hefty on-the-record corroboration is needed. Twohey and Kantor chip away at the process of finding documents to back up the stories about settlements, charges that are dropped, HR complaints and the many non-disclosures. They also search for women with a story to tell about Weinstein, hoping they can find at least one who will go on the record, talking to the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Rose McGowan and Ashely Judd (who appears in the movie as herself). They also talk to former assistants who have spent years carrying the trauma of their interactions with Weinstein. The more they investigate, the more Twohey and Kantor are told that Weinstein himself will be coming for them, having shut down all previous attempts to tell these stories.

I almost feel like She Said isn’t quite about what it seems to be about. The trailer sells the idea that the movie is some John Grisham-meets-All the President’s Men high-pressure race to get Weinstein and go after the “whole system” or something — the trailer sort of feels like it’s just one explosion short of a Michael Bay movie. And there are moments in the movie itself where we get some real TV-exposition-style lines of the “what? Sexual harassers getting away with it?” variety that feel kind of silly coming from fully grown women in 2016 and 2017 who work in national media.

But the actual story, the meat of the movie, is more about the unglamorous work of investigating — a lot of phone calls and searching for documents and showing up at the doors of people who don’t want to talk — paired with the pushing-a-boulder-up-a-mountain quality of trying to work while parenting. Specifically, I think, of trying to work while being the mother of in Megan’s case a new baby and in Jodi’s case two young kids. The limitations, the constant sense of being behind and running late and keeping it all together with tape. At one point Jodi gets a pivotal call and, to get the time and quiet to have the conversation, she essentially bribes her daughter with Netflix time. That moment felt incredibly well done and true to life, as do scenes where Megan tries to find her work self again while swimming through her postpartum struggles. It captures the “backwards and in heels” aspect of what was involved for these two specific reporters to work this investigation and goes to the movie’s larger themes about women, the situations they have to deal with and the choices they make.

When the movie just lets itself be about this, about the work and Jodi and Megan and the way they try to honestly foster relationships with the women hurt by Weinstein without over-promising or being false about their motivations, She Said is absolutely riveting. The core duo of Mulligan and Kazan bring a lot that is unsaid to their characters, with facial expressions and little moments that fill their characters out and make them people. Mulligan even gets one really good explosion, a “had it with All Of This” moment, that is just a chef’s kiss. Clarkson is also solid; I wish she’d had even more to do.

She Said occasionally seems to get tangled up in the needs of a conventional movie versus the still-developing story that its characters are enmeshed in. But when it works, when its elements all come together, it’s thoroughly captivating.

Featured photo: She Said.

Bringing the Holiday Fun: Film favorites

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‘Fra-gee-lay!’

See holiday classics at a theater near you

Movie theaters will be filled with would-be blockbusters, Oscar hopefuls and underwater Avatar in the coming weeks but some screen time is also being slated for favorite holiday films so you can watch Flick get his tongue stuck to the flagpole on the big screen.

• Red River Theatres (11 S. Main St. in Concord; 224-4600, redrivertheatres.org) has special holiday screenings planned each weekend for the next four weeks. On Saturday, Nov. 26, see Ralphie pine for an “official Red Ryder carbine action 200 shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time” atA Christmas Story(PG, 1983), which screens at 11 a.m.National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation(PG-13, 1989) will screen Saturday, Dec. 3, at 11 a.m. Elf(PG, 2003) will screen Saturday, Dec. 10, and Sunday, Dec. 11, at 11 a.m. And kid classic The Polar Express(G, 2004) will screen Saturday, Dec. 17, and Sunday, Dec. 18, at 11 a.m.

• Fathom Events (fathomevents.com) has several Christmas-themed movies on the schedule. It’s Christmas Again (G, 2022), a new movie about a kid who goes back in time to Bethlehem (according to the movie’s official website), will screen one night only, on Tuesday, Nov. 29, at 7 p.m. at AMC Londonderry, Regal Concord and O’neil Cinemas at Brickyard Square in Epping.

Another new movie falling in the “inspirational” category, I Heard the Bells (NR) will screen Thursday, Dec. 1, through Thursday, Dec. 8, at theaters including AMC Londonderry, Cinemark Rockingham in Salem, O’neil in Epping and Regal Fox Run in Newington (not all theaters on all nights). Screentime is 7 p.m. on weekdays, 4 p.m. on weekends.

A holiday encore of The Met: Live in HD production of the opera The Magic Flutewill screen on Saturday, Dec. 3, at 12:55 p.m. at theaters including O’neil in Epping and Regal Fox Run.

And TMC Big Screen Classics will present that most classic of Christmas movies, It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), on Sunday, Dec. 18, at Cinemark and Regal Fox Run and Wednesday, Dec. 21, at Cinemark, O’neil Epping and Regal Fox Run — see the website for times.

• The Park Theatre (19 Main St. in Jaffrey; theparktheatre.org, 532-8888) will screen a new London stage production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol starring Mark Gatiss and Nicholas Farrell on Thursday, Dec. 1, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 4, at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets cost $15

• The three Chunky’s Cinema Pubs (707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com) have big plans for the holiday season.

December trivia nights on Thursdays in Manchester (which start at 7:30 p.m.) are each based on a Christmas movie: Elf on Dec. 1; A Christmas Story on Dec. 8, and The Santa Clause on Dec. 22, with the final trivia night, Dec. 29, being a year in review of 2022.

On Thursday, Dec. 8, at all three Chunky’s locations, a 21+ Ugly Sweater Party screening National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation(PG-13, 1989) starts at 8 p.m. (wear a sweater to get a special surprise).

The Polar Express(G, 2004) will screen in at all three locations Friday, Dec. 9, through Thursday, Dec. 15, with multiple daily screenings Friday through Sunday and one 5:30 p.m. screening Monday through Thursday. Kids get a golden ticket when entering the theater and there is a surprise during the hot chocolate scene, according to the website. On Friday, Dec. 9, the 4 p.m. screening is a sensory-friendly screening with house lights slightly brighter and the movie volume turned down, the website said.

There are a few screenings of Elf(PG, 2003) on the schedule as well. On Sunday, Dec. 18, in Manchester at 6:30 p.m. catch a screening of Elf and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) along with a five-course meal with The Farmers Dinner, which starts at 5 p.m. The cost per person ranges from $75 to $110 (plus fees). There will be a family-friendly screening at all three Chunky’s locations on Wednesday, Dec. 21. A 21+ screening on Thursday, Dec. 22, will be held at 8 p.m. at all locations.

On Sunday, Dec. 18, at 7:30 p.m. at all three locations catch a screening of It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).

Also on Sunday, Dec. 18, at 6:30 p.m., the Pelham location will have a family-friendly dinner party with a screening of 2000’s live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas (PG). The dinner costs $75 or $99 for adults and $25 for kids (the kids dinner ends with milk and cookies).

• O’neil Cinemas at Brickyard Square (24 Calef Hwy. in Epping; 679-3529, oneilcinemas.com) will screen The Polar Express(G, 2004) Friday, Dec. 2, through Thursday, Dec. 8, with multiple screenings each day including one D-BOX screening (usually at 4:30 p.m.). Tickets, which are on sale now, cost $7 and include a bell while supplies last. The theater is also running a Polar Express-themed coloring contest, with a winner picked on Dec. 1; see the website for details.

• The Strand (20 Third St. in Dover; 343-1899, thestranddover.com) will hold its annual Christmas Break on a Budget with family activities, a story time and a screening of the movie Elf on Saturday, Dec. 17, from noon to 4 p.m. for $20 per family up to five people.

• The Music Hall (28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth; 436-2400, themusichall.org) has four holiday films in the days right before Christmas. Miracle on 34th Street(1947) screens on Friday, Dec. 23, at 1 p.m. Love, Actually (R, 2003) screens on Friday, Dec. 23, at 7 p.m. On Christmas Eve (Saturday, Dec. 24) catch the animated movie Arthur Christmas(PG, 2011) at 1 p.m. and then Queen City’s own at 4 p.m. with the animated movie Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights (PG-13, 2002).

Featured photo: A Christmas Story.

Bringing the Holiday Fun: Races and runs

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Race through the holidays

5Ks on Thanksgiving and beyond

Lace up those sneakers Thursday morning — there are about a dozen Turkey Trot road races to wake you up Thanksgiving morning. And if that puts you in the holiday running spirit, check out the races hitting the streets the rest of this season.

Thanksgiving Day races

Thanksgiving is Thursday, Nov. 24.

• The 14th annual Bow Athletic Club – Bow PD Turkey Trot 5K has an 8 a.m. start time for adults, teens and kids. Advance registration costs $35 for adults, $25 for ages 13 to 19 and $15 for 12 and under (plus $5 on the day). The race location is Bow High School (55 Falcon Way); see totalimagerunning.com/events.

• The Rotary Club of Merrimack’s 5K Turkey Trot starts at 8 a.m. at Merrimack Middle School (31 Madeline Bennett Drive), where on-location race-day registration will run from 7 to 7:30 a.m. and costs $25 for adults and $15 for children 13 and under. See merrimack5k.com.

• The Dover Turkey Trot starts at 8:30 a.m. and is described as a 5K race for runners and walkers of all ages and abilities, according to doverturkeytrot.com. The start and finish is Garrison Elementary School in Dover and registration on the day costs $30, $15 for fourth-graders and younger.

• The Free Fall 5K starts at 8:30 a.m. and begins and ends at the Rochester Community Center (150 Wakefield St. in Rochester). Registration costs $25 for adults, $20 for ages 13 to 17, $15 for ages 7 to 12, and is free for 6 and under (plus $5 to register on race day). See freefall5k.com.

• The Hampstead Turkey Trot, a 5K, starts at 8:30 a.m. at St. Anne’s Church (26 Emerson Ave. in Hampstead). Registration costs $20 for 18+ and $15 for 62+ and ages 5 to 17. Same-day sign-up is from 7 to 8 a.m. See hampsteadnh.us/recreation.

• The Seacoast Rotary’s 5K Turkey Trot starts at 8:30 a.m. in Portsmouth. Registration costs $35 for ages 20+, $25 for ages 13 to 19 and $15 for ages 12 and under. See seacoastrotary.org.

• The Dartmouth Health Fisher Cats Thanksgiving 5K starts at 9 a.m., beginning and ending at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in downtown Manchester. Lil’ Turkey Trot, a kids fun run, will be held in the stadium at 8:30 a.m. Registration for ages 12 and up costs $35 in advance or $40 on race day (if available); for kids 11 and under it’s $15 in advance or $20 on race day (if available). See millenniumrunning.com.

• The 15th annual Gilford Youth Center Turkey Trot 5K Race and Family Walk will start at 9 a.m. (8:45 a.m. for walkers) at the youth center (19 Potter Hill Road in Gilford). Registration costs $26 per person or $90 for a family of up to five people. See gilfordyouthcenter.com.

• The 16th annual Lake Sunapee Turkey Trot, a 5K where costumes are encouraged, starts at 9 a.m. at the Sunapee Harbor gazebo with a 1K Chicken Run for kids starting at 8:15 a.m. and going down Lake Avenue. Registration costs $30 for ages 13 to 64, $15 for ages 65 and up and $10 for ages 12 and under (kids 12 and under running in the Chicken Run are free). See sunapeeturkeytrot.com. The event and a pre-registration event from 4 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 23, will feature a pie sale; pies are $10 each.

• The 28th Annual Windham Turkey Trot, which offers 1-, 3- and 5-mile options, starts at 9 a.m. at 74 Blossom Road in Windham. You can pre-register but you can also just show up on the day; registration costs are by donation with proceeds going to Shepherd’s Pantry. See windhamturkeytrot.org.

Thanksgiving weekend

Races Friday, Nov. 25, through Sunday, Nov. 27.

• The Amherst Junior Women’s Club will hold its Trot Off Your Turkey 5K & 1 Mile Fun Run on Saturday, Nov. 26. The fun run starts at 9 a.m. and the 5K starts at 9:30 a.m.; both runs start and end at the Congregational Church in Amherst. Registration costs $25 for the 5K and $10 for the fun run; register in advance or register before the race on the day. See ajwcnh.org.

• Bishop Brady High School (25 Columbus Ave. in Concord; bishopbrady.edu) will hold its Galloping Gobbler 4-mile race on Saturday, Nov. 26, at 9:30 a.m. Registration costs $30 for ages 16 and up and $20 for ages 15 and under. Bib pickup is 8 a.m. on race day.

More holiday races

• The BASC Santa Claus Shuffle, a 3-mile race where Santa costumes are included and stations along the way offer Santa’s favorite food groups (milk & cookies, maple syrup, chocolate and candy), takes place Saturday, Dec. 3, at 3 p.m. in downtown Manchester, starting and ending in Veterans Park. The Stonyfield Organic Lil’ Elf Runs (a 100-yard race) is held at 2:30 p.m. and the Manchester Christmas Parade starts at 4 p.m. Registration in advance costs $30 for ages 21+, $25 for ages 12 to 21 and $10 for ages 11 and younger and for the Lil’ Elf Run (plus $5 to register on race day, if available). See millenniumrunning.com.

• The 2022 Jingle Bell Run, a 5K where festive costume dress is encouraged, will be held Sunday, Dec. 4, at 9:30 a.m. at the West Side Ice Arena in Manchester. Day-of registration begins at 8:30 a.m. The event will include ornament and cookie decorating for kids, according to events.arthritis.org, where you can register for the event. Registration costs $45 in advance, $50 on the day for timed runners; $40 in advance and $45 on the day for untimed runners (both include shirt and jingle bells), the website said.

• The Greg Hill Foundation’s Jingle All the Way 5K at Cisco Brewers in Portsmouth will take place Saturday, Dec. 10, at 10 a.m. Dig out your ugly sweaters or favorite holiday outfit for the post-race celebration with live music, food and a post-race beer for 21+, according to ghfjingle5k. Registration costs $30 for 21+ and $10 for 20 and under.

• Yule Light Up the Night, a 2.1-mile race through the Gift of Lights display at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, will start at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 11. Registration costs $25 for ages 12+, $15 for ages 4 to 11 and $10 for ages 3 and under (plus $5 to register on race day, if available). See millenniumrunning.com.

• The Tito’s Ugly Sweater 4 Miler, to benefit Second Chance Ranch Rescue, Humane Society of Greater Nashua and the Salem Animal Rescue League, will take place Saturday, Dec. 17, at 9 a.m. The race begins and ends at Backyard Brewery (1211 Mammoth Road in Manchester) and features a post-race party with a Tito’s Handmade Vodka beverage. See hsfn.org/uglysweaterrun.

New Year’s Day races

New Year’s Day is Sunday, Jan. 1, in the year 2023 if you can believe it.

• The Apple Therapy and Derry Sports & Rehab Millennium Mile, a one-mile downhill race on Mammoth Road in Londonderry, starts at a forgiving 2 p.m. Registration costs $20 for 12+ and $10 for 11 and under, with the first 1,250 registrants getting a winter hat (if available, registration on race day costs $5 more). See millenniumrunning.com.

Featured photo: The Jingle Bell Run. Courtesy photo.

At the Sofaplex 22/11/17

Sassy girls in olden times edition

Rosaline (PG-13)

Kaitlyn Dever, Isabela Merced.

Before there was Romeo and Juliet, there was Romeo and Rosaline — also a Capulet who was wooed by Montague Romeo in secret. An off-screen character who just rates a mention in the Shakespeare play, Rosaline (Dever), here the center of the story, is so certain of her True Love for Romeo (Kyle Allen) that she makes an extra effort to scare off all the potential husbands brought to her by her weary father (Bradley Whitford), who really just wants her to pick someone and leave the nest already. But Rosaline, when she’s not dreaming of Romeo, dreams of being a cartographer and not so much of being some thrice-married widower’s most recent wife. Rosaline is particularly peeved when one of these forced dates — with actual handsome young man Dario (Sean Teale) — makes her late to the masquerade ball where she was planning to meet up with Romeo.

Rosaline writes letter after letter to apologize for missing him but later learns that he has been spending all of his time writing letters to her young cousin, Juliet (Merced). Rosaline tries to convince Juliet to enjoy the single life and forget about this sweet-talking phony Romeo but, with a kind of Disney princess sweetness, Juliet can’t quit the equally besotted Romeo.

Rosaline is a fun bit of romantic comedy using the familiar story to (lightly) examine romantic heartbreak and the dearth of occupation choices for women in Renaissance-era Italy. Dever is a treat as Verona’s Daria, who doesn’t like to admit when she’s wrong, and Merced does a good job of walking the line between dopily innocent and smarter than people give her credit for. Allen makes his Romeo a goofy but good-natured dude who could be plausibly appealing to two very different kinds of girls. B Available on Hulu

Catherine Called Birdy (PG-13)

Bella Ramsey, Andrew Scott.

Or, if you prefer, Game of Thrones’ little badass Lady Lyanna Mormount playing the daughter of Fleabag’s hot priest/Sherlock’s Moriarty. In this Lena Dunham-written and -directed movie (based on the book by Karen Cushman), Birdy (Ramsey), as Catherine, the oldest daughter of a noble but not terribly flush family in 1290 England, is called, gets her period and finds out that she’s the most valuable asset her spendy father Lord Rollo (Scott) has. Thus is Birdy paraded in front of a series of men, whom she is able to scare off by pretending to be various kinds of unhinged — or just demonstrating that she’s mouthy and willful, which, this being medieval times, is enough to brand a woman unmarriable. But Rollo keeps on — he’s in need of the cash a dowry will bring, what with Birdy’s mother Lady Aislinn’s (Billie Piper) regular (if sadly unsuccessful) pregnancies, his son Robert’s (Dean-Charles Chapman) own marriage hopes and the family manor to run. But Birdy wants to stay at her family home with her nurse (Lesley Sharp), her childhood buddy Perkin (Michael Woolfitt), fellow reluctant-marriage-market-participant Aelis (Isis Hainsworth) and her mother’s brother, Uncle George (Joe Alwyn), a former soldier in the crusades whom Birdy girlishly worships. She sees him as a hero and wishes to either be him or marry him — oh if only he were her cousin and not her uncle, she says with “I know that boy band singer and I would be perfect together” breathlessness.

Catherine Called Birdy sort of straddles the line between being a thoroughly modern story with a medieval setting and being a peek at life in an earlier time. Birdy is sassy and opinionated and often scored with a solid line-up of pop songs that would make Sofia Coppola proud. But she also has only the life options of a 1290s girl. Even as she scares off some suitors, it’s clear that eventually she will have to let one of them catch her and that the rough stuff of childbirth and mothering is in her future, like it or not.

Watching Birdy grow up a little, going from a clearly loved and indulged child to someone who comes to understand more of the balance of bitter and sweet in life, is surprisingly affecting. Beneath all the veils and period dress, we get a lot of frustrated parents trying to help their kids find their way and very teen-like kids trying to balance duty and their own desires. Ramsey does this well, making for a compelling not-quite-kid but not-yet-adult woman coming to terms with society’s limits and how and when she can push them. It’s a sweet story, told with a winning sense of humor. B+ Available on Amazon Prime Video.

The Princess (R)

Joey King, Dominic Cooper.

A princess in unspecified olden times wakes up to find that the jerk (Cooper) her father the king (Ed Stoppard) wanted her to marry has seized the castle and is holding the king, the queen (Alex Reid) and the princess’ younger sister (Katelyn Rose Downey) hostage. She left him at the altar, correctly sensing his tyrannical ways, but now he’s going to force a marriage like it or not. The princess is chained and locked in a tower until the ceremony; good thing her warrior buddy Linh (Veronica Ngo) has spent years teaching her to sword fight with the best of them.

Look, this ain’t Shakespeare or even a riff on a Shakespeare tertiary character, but The Princess is real punchy kicky swashbuckle-y fun. It’s an hour and 34 minutes long and could probably lose another 20 minutes, much in the manner that the princess loses bits of her fancy wedding dress with each fight, becoming more badass with each encounter. We get some training flashbacks, some flashbacks to “girl as a ruler? Preposterous!” from the father-king. But mostly it’s just the princess, kicking and stabbing as she grows more determined to save her family and friends. B Available on Hulu.

The School for Good and Evil (PG-13)

Sofia Wylie, Sophia Anne Caruso.

Besties find themselves at a boarding school for the future heroes and villains of one-day fairy tales in this Harry Potter-y, The Descendants-ish warmed over mash with a strangely good cast.

Behind the scenes: director Paul Feig. In front of the camera: Michelle Yeoh, Rachel Bloom, Rob Delaney and Patti freaking LuPone, all in blink-and-you’ll-miss-it bit parts, as well as Kerry Washington and Charlize Theron as the leaders of the Good and Evil schools respectively and then Laurence Fishburne as the one school headmaster to rule them all. How? Why? And if you have them, why not give them something interesting to do?

Teenage-y Sophie (Caruso), living in a crummy ye olden days village filled with small-minded ye olden days peasants, is a crackerjack dress designer who dreams of becoming a fairy tale princess and has the talking-to-squirrels skills to back up that dream. Her best friend Agatha (Wylie) is the daughter of the town witch and shunned as a witch herself. When Sophie is dragged off to the School for Good and Evil after making enrollment there her fondest wish-upon-a-wishing-tree wish, Agatha follows her in hopes of keeping her friend safe. They’re dumped off in the school yards — but are they the right school yards? The golden-haired princess-wannabe Sophie finds herself at the School for Evil, where the students are called Nevers. Agatha is in the taffeta nightmare that is the School for Good, where the Evers might be future heroes and princesses but they are currently snotty jerks. Not that the goths at Evil are any better. Why are all these fairy tale folk so awful? Can Agatha save Sophie? Did this movie need to be two and a half hours?

To answer the first and last of those questions: because this is basically high school, and not at all. “People are not all good or all bad” is the message of this movie, but rather than examine this the movie mostly just states it over and over. There are not-bad ideas here about not letting yourself believe whatever arbitrary labels your school or peer group puts on you, but the movie never goes more than half an inch deep. It doesn’t even dig deep enough to be the sort of silly fun that something with Theron as a vampy villain should be. C Available on Netflix.

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