Category: Film Reviews by Amy

The 355 (PG-13)

The 355 (PG-13)

A group of bad-ass international spy-type ladies kick some international bad-guy butt in the big bucket of movie theater popcorn that is The 355 — or, at least, that’s the movie I wanted to see.

In actuality, while that description basically holds, The 355 is something less than that. These are all awesome actresses, all in their 40s no less, who all get a chance to kick and punch and throw elbows, taking down countless henchmen. They get to be tough, walk tough, dress tough — and dress fancy during one part of their mission. And yet the movie never revs up. Every time the movie is about to get going, it feels like the energy just dissipates.

CIA agent Mace (Jessica Chastain) and fellow agent (and longtime friend) Nick (Sebastian Stan) are tasked with going to Paris to meet with a rogue Colombian intelligence agent, Luis (Edgar Ramirez), who is looking to sell a tech gizmo that allows anyone (or any government or any terrorist organization) that possesses it unfettered access to any closed system in the world. The drive can down planes, black out cities, unleash nukes, yada yada — you’ve seen variations of this McGuffin before.

Naturally, the CIA isn’t the only interested party. While Mace and Nick pose as a honeymooning couple at a cafe, German intelligence officer Marie (Diane Kruger) is making espressos and waiting for her chance to grab the bag that has the drive. When she does, chaos ensues. Mace chases Marie but doesn’t get her before she’s able to get away — not, Marie is disappointed to learn, with the drive. Nick meets up with a group of baddies seeking the drive and soon Mace finds herself alone and under suspicion. Needing help to track down Luis, she turns to MI6 agent Khadijah (Lupita Nyong’o). When they catch up with Luis, they find that not only is Marie still on his trail, but he’s been joined by Graciela (Penelope Cruz), a psychiatrist who works with Colombian intelligence who has been sent to bring Luis back in.

Eventually Graciela, Khadijah, Marie and Mace decide to work together to fight off the bad guys and get the potentially civilization-toppling drive into safe hands. That goal, they learn, is shared by Chinese intelligence agent Lin Mi Sheng (Fan Bingbing).

As I said, all of these actresses are in their 40s (which I mention because it’s just cool to see) and all are credible as strong women with special evil-defeating skills. This should work; I should have run home from the theater having had so much fun that I immediately attempted to pre-order the movie for regular comfort food watching. But this movie lacks the kind of energy, the crackle of fun, that you expect from something with this much potential. Its runtime is just over two hours which feels like too long for what it’s doing, made even draggier by some pokey pacing and some real “who cares” backstories. (There is also something odd about many of Fan Bingbing’s scenes; I spent a lot of time trying to figure out whether she had been green-screened in after the fact. If nothing else, it probably goes to how pasted together the story felt when it comes to putting all the lady spies together.)

That you could guess every single twist and turn is not fatal — I was expecting The 355 to be kinda dumb. Heck, I was looking forward to enjoying a kinda dumb action movie with ladies Jason-Bourne-ing it up. But this movie doesn’t let its formidable cast loose and doesn’t have the internal cleverness to be as smart or as goofy as it needed to be. C+

Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, brief strong language and suggestive material, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Simon Kinberg with a screenplay by Theresa Rebeck and Simon Kinberg, The 355 is two hours and two minutes long and is distributed by Universal Studios in theaters.

Licorice Pizza (R)

A 15-year-old living in the San Fernando Valley in the early 1970s has big dreams — one of which is marrying the 25-year-old photographer’s assistant he meets on school picture day — in Licorice Pizza, which is written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman, son of frequent Anderson actor the late Philip Seymour Hoffman) has some movie and TV credits on his resume and, despite not yet driving, runs a PR firm with his mother (Mary Elizabeth Ellis). I’m not telling you this to brag, he says to Alana (Alana Haim, of the band Haim), when he first meets her as she’s offering combs and a mirror to high schoolers lining up to get their photos taken. He explains he’s just telling her how he can afford dinner at Tail o’ the Cock, the steakhouse that is his usual Thursday night hangout spot (he does PR for the owner). He invites her to stop by — and Alana both laughs at his chutzpah and is intrigued.

She does stop by, they hang out and she gives him her number — but reminds him that they aren’t boyfriend and girlfriend, that such a relationship would be illegal, that he’s just a kid. And yet, she continues to hang out with him. When Gary’s chance encounter with a discount waterbed has him suddenly enter the waterbed business, Alana joins him as his business partner, helping him sell them over the phone and even driving the truck to install one. Later, as she tries to break free of his strange teenage friend group by volunteering for a political campaign, she nevertheless calls on Gary to shoot an ad for the candidate. And that shoot is where he gets the idea to start a pinball parlor — Gary is always on the make, always looking for his next thing. And, he seems perfectly content to look for new girlfriends, even while never letting go of the idea that Alana is the girl he’s going to marry.

Presumably, when he graduates from high school.

Throughout this strange, rambling hang in Encino, we meet real and fictionalized versions of L.A. personalities and showbiz people, from fellow younger actors (played by Skyler Gisondo) and to older stars (played by Christine Ebersole, Sean Penn) to more general Hollywood types (played by Bradley Cooper, Maya Rudolph).

In a movie full of great, fun performances, Cooper Hoffman (18 in real life) and Alana Haim stand out for turning in the loose, natural performances you come to an artier movie hoping for. Even before I realized who Hoffman’s father was, I found myself thinking “this kid has some real Michael Gandolfini energy” — something about him makes you think both of the discipline of the father as well as the rawness of a young actor’s performance.

Haim is equally precisely cast. It feels like a cop-out to just describe her as natural — her sisters here are played by her real-life sisters, her parents are played by her actual parents. But she gives such a round and real performance. Perhaps the highest compliment I could pay is that she feels like a girl in a Sofia Coppola movie, one who feels like a whole complete person, still figuring herself out but living a whole life from the first frame.

I could never completely forget that this movie was asking me to be all “aw, youth” about a (thankfully, fairly chaste) relationship between a 25 (at least) -year-old and a 15-year-old, no matter how precocious he is. You don’t have to think about it (or the gender politics of the situation) too hard for it to all feel icky.

So there’s that.

But then there was the other part of this movie, the one about rotary phones and newspapers the size of tablecloths and Pontiacs and those steakhouse-as-Tudor-pub restaurants (that vaguely call to mind the old style of Pizza Hut) and 1970s-era radio and aging Golden Age of Hollywood stars and a land where everybody is sort of an actor and the look of the warm sun of inland Los Angeles. My feelings about that aspect of the movie aren’t nostalgia, exactly; this all predates me. But Licorice Pizza puts you in a very specific space, and weaves its groovy-man fairy tale in such a way that I felt not just pulled in but charmed by the spirit of it. It made me think about all the times I’ve seen 1950s suburbia or 1950s Brooklyn presented with that same comforting glow of consequence-free misadventures and coming-of-age bravado. Fairy tale feels like the right way to describe all of this, a fairy tale of 1970s southern California.

With a really great soundtrack. A-

Rated R for language, sexual material and some drug use, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza is two hours and 13 minutes long and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures in theaters.

FILM

Venues

AMC Londonderry
16 Orchard View Dr., Londonderry
amctheatres.com

Bank of NH Stage in Concord
16 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, banknhstage.com

Capitol Center for the Arts
44 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, ccanh.com

Cinemark Rockingham Park 12
15 Mall Road, Salem

Chunky’s Cinema Pub
707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com

Dana Center
Saint Anselm College
100 Saint Anselm Dr., Manchester, anselm.edu

Fathom Events
Fathomevents.com

The Flying Monkey
39 Main St., Plymouth
536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com

LaBelle Winery
345 Route 101, Amherst
672-9898, labellewinery.com

The Music Hall
28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth
436-2400, themusichall.org

O’neil Cinemas
24 Calef Hwy., Epping
679-3529, oneilcinemas.com

Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Regal Fox Run Stadium 15
45 Gosling Road, Newington
regmovies.com

Rex Theatre
23 Amherst St., Manchester
668-5588, palacetheatre.org

The Strand
20 Third St., Dover
343-1899, thestranddover.com

Wilton Town Hall Theatre
40 Main St., Wilton
wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456

Shows

• Licorice Pizza (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord on Thursday, Jan. 13, at 3:30 & 7 p.m.; Friday, Jan. 14, through Sunday, Jan. 16, at 12:30, 3:45 & 7 p.m.; Thursday, Jan. 20, at 3:45 & 7 p.m.

• The Tragedy of Macbeth (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord on Thursday, Jan. 13, at 4 & 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Jan. 14, through Sunday, Jan. 16, at noon & 5 p.m.; Thursday, Jan. 20, at 5 p.m.

• C’mon C’mon (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, Jan. 14, through Sunday, Jan. 16, at 2:30 & 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, Jan. 20, at 7:30 p.m.

• Nanook of the North (1922), a silent documentary with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Sunday, Jan. 23, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.

• For Heaven’s Sake (1926), a silent film starring Harold Lloyd with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Wednesday, Jan. 26, at 6 p.m. at the Flying Monkey. Suggested donation of $10.

• Dark Mountain (2021) on Wednesday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m. at the Flying Monkey. Tickets cost $12.

• Blood and Sand (1922), on Sunday, Feb. 13, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.

Featured photo: The 355..

Nightmare Alley (R)

Nightmare Alley (R)

Step right up and enjoy the thrills, chills and stylish miasma of dread concocted by director and co-writer Guillermo del Toro in Nightmare Alley.

It’s 1939 when we first see Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper). He’s dragging a body into a hole in the floor of a dilapidated house and then lighting the house on fire. Walking away from the flames, he eventually boards a bus and rides until the end of the line, which happens to be very near to a low-budget carnival. He wanders around, ducking out of the geek show (man eats live chicken) before Clem (Willem Dafoe) can collect the 25-cent admission. Carnival boss Bruno (Ron Perlman) catches him but takes pity on him, offering the nearly wordless Stan a job helping to break down the sets and tents and haul the carnival to the next town. Stan does alright with the job, and they keep him around. At first he helps out Clem but later he worms his way into the act of Zeena (Toni Collette), who does mystical readings and psychic-type work. She and her partner Pete (David Strathain) used to have a more elaborate mind-reading act, but Pete is now too lost in his alcohol addiction to help Zeena that much. Stan, however, sees the potential in starting their act up again. He also woos quiet performer Molly (Rooney Mara). He even helps her improve her act by building an electric chair with a lot of accompanying set design that gives the whole thing an air of mad-science and danger.

Eventually, Molly and Stan do strike out on their own, taking their mind-reading act on the road and performing in hotels. But then Stan stumbles into doing a bit of medium work, helping a rich couple (Peter MacNeill, Mary Steenburgen) communicate with their son who died during World War I. It’s a trick he performs with help from Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), a psychiatrist who has been treating the couple. Stan realizes that with inside knowledge from Ritter about patients’ deepest secrets, he can have a very profitable side gig of helping the wealthy obtain peace. But, as several of the carnival workers warn him, that kind of con has a lot of potential dangers.

I feel like this movie is built backward from Cate Blanchett’s femme fatale stylings (which are great because she’s always great styled that way), the mood of descending doom created by situating the movie during the early days of World War II and the blend of con-artistry and implied magic of a traveling carnival. Those are the ingredients, now build a meal from that — is what Nightmare Alley feels like. But it’s a bit like building a meal from gravy, whipped cream and nuts. Sure, there’s something there, but it doesn’t feel substantial enough to justify the giant serving dish.

Nightmare Alley is long — two and a half hours — and feels it. I feel like it could have made its points about the darkness of the human heart in at least 45 fewer minutes. The movie loads up on Chekov guns (including a literal gun that appears in the second act), and we have to wait a long time to watch each one go off in a way that is neither dramatically satisfying nor particularly necessary. I get why, with sets and costumes and a score this noirily gorgeous, the movie would want to include as much of the atmospherics as possible. But I think the performances here — Bradley Cooper feels particularly flat — are not helped by giving us more of them.

Nightmare Alley has plenty of that del Toro vibe — dark, creepy, beautiful, with interesting touches of humor — but it is otherwise fairly ho-hum. B-

Rated R for strong/bloody violence, some sexual content, nudity and language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Guillermo del Toro with a screenplay by Guillermo del Toro & Kim Morgan (based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham), Nightmare Alley is two hours and 28 minutes long and distributed in theaters by Searchlight Pictures.

FILM

Venues

AMC Londonderry
16 Orchard View Dr., Londonderry
amctheatres.com

Bank of NH Stage in Concord
16 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, banknhstage.com

Capitol Center for the Arts
44 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, ccanh.com

Cinemark Rockingham Park 12
15 Mall Road, Salem

Chunky’s Cinema Pub
707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com

Dana Center
Saint Anselm College
100 Saint Anselm Dr., Manchester, anselm.edu

Fathom Events
Fathomevents.com

The Flying Monkey
39 Main St., Plymouth
536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com

LaBelle Winery
345 Route 101, Amherst
672-9898, labellewinery.com

The Music Hall
28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth
436-2400, themusichall.org

O’neil Cinemas
24 Calef Hwy., Epping
679-3529, oneilcinemas.com

Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Regal Fox Run Stadium 15
45 Gosling Road, Newington
regmovies.com

Rex Theatre
23 Amherst St., Manchester
668-5588, palacetheatre.org

The Strand
20 Third St., Dover
343-1899, thestranddover.com

Wilton Town Hall Theatre
40 Main St., Wilton
wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456

Shows

• Licorice Pizza (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord Thursday, Jan. 6, at 4 & 7:30 p.m. and Friday, Jan. 7 through Sunday, Jan. 9, at noon, 3:30 & 7 p.m.; Thursday, Jan. 13, 3:30 & 7 p.m.

• The Tragedy of MacBeth (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord on Thursday, Jan. 6, at 4 & 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Jan. 7, through Sunday, Jan. 9, at 1, 4 & 7:30 p..m.; Thursday, Jan. 13, 4 & 7:30 p.m.

• The Metropolitan Opera — Cinderella on Saturday, Jan. 1, at 12:55 p.m. at Bank of NH Stage in Concord. Tickets cost $26.

• Nanook of the North (1922), a silent documentary, on Sunday, Jan. 23, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.

• For Heaven’s Sake (1926), a silent film starring Harold Lloyd, on Wednesday, Jan. 26, at 6 p.m. at the Flying Monkey. Suggested donation of $10.

• Dark Mountain (2021) on Wednesday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m. at the Flying Monkey. Tickets cost $12.

• Blood and Sand (1922), on Sunday, Feb. 13, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.

Featured photo: Nightmare Alley.

The Matrix Resurrections (R)

The Matrix Resurrections (R)

Keanu Reeves is once again Neo — or is he Thomas Anderson, sometimes delusional but wildly successful video game developer? — in The Matrix Resurrections, a nearly 20-years-in-the-making sequel to the late 1990s/early 2000s Matrix trilogy.

Was Neo the hero who fought for the freedom of humans stuck in a machine-run simulacrum called the Matrix (which placated people while sucking their energy to power the machines)? Or was Neo simply the main character in a trilogy of hugely popular video games called The Matrix, designed by Thomas Anderson? Mr. Anderson doesn’t seem entirely sure of either answer but he’s willing to believe option B — that he is a wealthy video game developer who has somewhat stabilized his mental health with the help of his analyst (Neil Patrick Harris) and some blue pills. But then his boss/business partner Smith (Jonathan Groff, really doing a great job of capturing the oily evil of Hugo Weaving) tells him that Warner Bros. wants to make a new entry in the Matrix franchise and Thomas will have to lead the team, no matter how much he finds the subject of the Matrix triggering. There a lot of fun here about the nature of sequels and the commodification of art into “content” and we get a perfect Christina Ricci cameo that feels like the working out of some frustration about studio notes on the part of Lana Wachowski (this movie’s director and co-writer and half of the Wachowskis sibling duo that wrote and directed the first three movies).

As Thomas gets deeper into the in-movie Matrix 4 project, he finds himself clearly questioning reality again, in particular his relationship to Tiffany (Carrie-Anne Moss), the married mother of two who does not answer to the name “Trinity” but does seem to feel some kind of connection to Thomas.

All the while, as Thomas takes his blue pills and checks his mirrors for liquidity, Bugs (Jessica Henwick), who is exactly what you’d picture if I said “scrappy hacker type,” and Sequoia (Toby Onwumere), the guy whose job it is to look at the code-covered computer screens and give ominous warnings, are trying to convince Thomas that the Matrix games aren’t just valuable IP but his actual memories. They are aided in this by an agent who hunted them but then, like, awakened as Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), but a younger and hotter version (no disrespect intended, Laurence Fishburne).

The story here has a real “big bag of things” feel that includes commentary about being forced to make a sequel, some genuine fondness (and maybe just a little too much reverence) for the original Matrix movies, some self-awareness about the lasting impacts of the Matrix movies and maybe even a little bit about how insufferable parts of Matrix fandom, and everything that’s happened with the term “red pill,” have become.

The movie offers a fair amount of exposition, about the world it’s set in now and story points from the original movies, so I don’t think you’ll be lost if you’ve never seen a Matrix movie before. But you will get a lot of story, a lot of “after this thing happened, here’s a bunch of explanation about these other events which leads to this,” that drags on this two-hour-and-30-minute movie.

I would also estimate that about half the action is fun — Keanu Reeves, particularly old Keanu, doing martial arts is both a skillful display of choreography and, like, a hoot — and half feels like the part where you’d go look for drink refills. I like the young new Matrix Babies just fine but I think I most enjoyed the parts of the movie that are focused on Reeves and Moss. I was reminded that even through all of the slick Matrix costumes and slo-mo fighting, the two actors have actual chemistry (maybe not super-hot romantic chemistry, but good screen-duo chemistry).

The Matrix Resurrections has a lot of interesting ideas — more than it’s able to really examine. Nostalgia and the general quality of the storytelling here make it a fun enough watch. B-

Rated R for violence and some language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Lana Wachowski with a screenplay by Lana Wachowski & David Mitchell & Aleksander Hemon, The Matrix Resurrections is two hours and 28 minutes long and distributed by Warner Bros. in theaters and on HBOMax.

The King’s Man (R)

The government-unaffiliated intelligence service known as the Kingsmen gets its World War I-set origin story in The King’s Man, a movie you’ve probably been watching trailers of for two and a half years.

At least two and a half years, maybe more — Wikipedia says the movie originally had a November 2019 release date before being moved into February 2020 and then later playing Covid-related hopscotch through the calendar. I know there have been at least two, maybe three, widely released versions of the trailer and I mention all of this because I don’t think that seeing this much advance footage of this movie did it any favors.

Duke Orlando Oxford (Ralph Fiennes) and his wife Lady Emily (Alexandra Maria Lara) are pacifists who work with the Red Cross. Though dedicated to non-violence, Emily is killed while in South Africa, making Oxford promise her that he will keep their son Conrad (Harris Dickinson as an adult) out of war.

Years later, as Europe is on the precipice of World War I, Conrad is eager for any kind of action in life but Orlando is still trying to shelter him. What Conrad doesn’t know is that Orlando has started a sort of proto-Kingsmen that uses a network of domestic service workers to attempt to advance the cause of peace. It is in this spirit, and at the behest of Field Marshal Kitchner (Charles Dance), that Orlando and Conrad are in Sarajevo when Franz Ferdinand is shot. Despite all attempts at smoothing over the egos of the U.K.’s King George, Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm and Russia’s Tsar Nicholas (all Tom Hollander), Europe slides into war but Orlando and his team, including Polly (Gemma Arterton) and Shola (Djimon Hounsou), continue to work for peace. Conrad, meanwhile, remains eager to serve as a soldier — even after a trip to Russia and a visit with Rasputin (Rhys Ifans) give him a taste of the spy life.

The King’s Man is festooned with real-life people and events but this has the odd effect not of rooting it in history but of making it seem even more outside it. If you remember even a little history from high school, the movie doesn’t offer much in the way of tension. The movie creates the idea of a sprawling sinister force but other than name-check historical features, its goals are not even as exciting as the villains of the modern-day Kingsman movies.

The movie does have some fun action set pieces — a mission involving a mountain-top-located, goat-filled barn is fun logistically even if I didn’t care about the story related to it, a couple of stretches set in the trenches of the battlefield were surprisingly emotionally rich and had some good edge-of-your-seat moments. But it also has some real draggy stretches — I have definitely seen the Rasputin parts in too many trailers and the whole deal with him goes on too long with ultimately little payoff.

This movie just overall has less zip than the first, silly-but-fun Kingsman movie. C

Rated R for sequences of strong/bloody violence, language and some sexual material, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Matthew Vaughn with a screenplay by Matthew Vaughn & Karl Gajdusek, The King’s Man is two hours and 11 minutes long and is distributed in theaters by Twentieth Century Studios.

FILM

Venues

AMC Londonderry
16 Orchard View Dr., Londonderry
amctheatres.com

Bank of NH Stage in Concord
16 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, banknhstage.com

Capitol Center for the Arts
44 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, ccanh.com

Cinemark Rockingham Park 12
15 Mall Road, Salem

Chunky’s Cinema Pub
707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com

Dana Center
Saint Anselm College
100 Saint Anselm Dr., Manchester, anselm.edu

Fathom Events
Fathomevents.com

The Flying Monkey
39 Main St., Plymouth
536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com

LaBelle Winery
345 Route 101, Amherst
672-9898, labellewinery.com

The Music Hall
28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth
436-2400, themusichall.org

O’neil Cinemas
24 Calef Hwy., Epping
679-3529, oneilcinemas.com

Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Regal Fox Run Stadium 15
45 Gosling Road, Newington
regmovies.com

Rex Theatre
23 Amherst St., Manchester
668-5588, palacetheatre.org

The Strand
20 Third St., Dover
343-1899, thestranddover.com

Wilton Town Hall Theatre
40 Main St., Wilton
wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456

Shows

• Nightmare Alley (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres Thursday, Dec. 30, through Sunday, Jan. 2, at 12:30, 4 & 7:30 p.m.

• Licorice Pizza (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord Thursday, Dec. 30, through Sunday, Jan. 2, at 12, 3:30 & 7 p.m.; Thursday, Jan. 6, at 4 & 7:30 p.m.

• The Tragedy of MacBeth (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord on Friday, Dec. 31, at 4 & 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Jan. 1, and Sunday, Jan. 2, at 1, 4 & 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, Jan. 6, at 4 & 7:30 p.m.

• The Metropolitan Opera — Cinderella on Saturday, Jan. 1, at 12:55 p.m. at Bank of NH Stage in Concord. Tickets cost $26.

• Grandma’s Boy (1922), a silent film starring Harold Lloyd, on Sunday, Jan. 2, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.

• Nanook of the North (1922), a silent documentary, on Sunday, Jan. 23, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.

• For Heaven’s Sake (1926), a silent film starring Harold Lloyd, on Wednesday, Jan. 26, at 6 p.m. at the Flying Monkey. Suggested donation of $10.

• Dark Mountain (2021) on Wednesday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m. at the Flying Monkey. Tickets cost $12.

• Blood and Sand (1922), on Sunday, Feb. 13, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.

• When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922), a silent film starring Marion Davies, on Sunday, Feb. 20, at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.

• Girl Shy (1924), a silent film starring Harold Lloyd, on Thursday, Feb. 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Rex in Manchester, featuring live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis. Admission costs $10.

• Smilin’ Through (1922) on Sunday, March 13, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation $10.

• Robin Hood (1922) on Sunday, March 27, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation $10.

• Flesh and Blood and The Man from Beyond (1922) on Sunday, April 10, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation $10.

• Othello (1922) on Sunday, April 24, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation $10.

Featured photo: The Matrix Resurrections.

Spider-Man: No Way Home (PG-13)

Spider-Man: No Way Home (PG-13)

Peter Parker is introduced to the multiverse in Spider-Man: No Way Home, a solid third part to the saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s teenage Peter Parker.

The movie more or less picks up where 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home ended, with Peter’s (Tom Holland) Spider-Man alter ego being revealed to the world. Far from becoming a celebrity, a la Tony Stark post-“I am Iron Man,” Peter is suspected of crimes related to his fight with fake hero Mysterio in the last movie and related to missing tech from Stark Industries. On his first day of senior year, he finds himself hounded by news media and phone-wielding fellow students and also learns that not only are colleges reluctant to accept him, but best buddy Ned (Jacob Batalon) and girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) are also being turned down because of their association with him. Life would be better if he could just go back to a time before everybody knew he was Spider-Man, Peter thinks mopily. And then he realizes that he actually knows somebody who can mess with time: Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), the MCU’s New York City-dwelling wizard.

When Peter goes to see him, Strange explains that he doesn’t have the time stone (the doohickey that allowed him to manipulate time) anymore but does think he can conjure a spell to help the world forget that Peter is Spider-Man. Oh, but wait, Peter says as Strange is conjuring, I do want MJ to know, and Ned and Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and Happy (Jon Favreau) and…. Too late, Strange realizes all of these last-minute exceptions have caused the spell to go wonky. He thinks he’s contained it before disrupting the fabric of reality but later, while Peter tries to get an official from MIT to reconsider not admitting his friends, he is confronted by Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), looking to fight Spider-Man. Ock, the scientist who went villainous in 2004’s Spider-Man 2 due to a mind meld with his metallic tentacles, knows that Spider-Man is Peter Parker but he is surprised when the Peter he sees isn’t the Peter Parker he remembers.

As you may have seen in trailers, more villains appear — the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Electro (Jamie Foxx), others — representing both live-action, 21st-century pre-MCU Spider-Man franchises. They are from the multiverse, Strange tells Peter, and Peter has to hunt them all down and send them back to universes they belong in.

This could have gone a bunch of different ways but in the end I think this element of the movie works. While I didn’t always feel like the road to getting us all these different iterations of the Spider-Man story was particularly smooth (some of the choices the characters here make do not make sense for people with the recent MCU time-related experiences — Thanos and the blip — that these characters have), I felt great affection for how the movie uses the idea of bringing all these worlds together. It manages to bring something to those pre-MCU movies’ story arcs that wasn’t there before and is mostly fun in its own right. As with the (unrelated, so far) animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the different realms of Spider-Man help to examine basic elements of the character — the choices he has to make, the way he wants to live his life.

And I think this movie does right by its core trio of Peter, MJ and Ned and their relationships with each other. They work well together, Scooby-Doo-ing the problem, as Stephen Strange says, and what they’re given to do makes sense with how their characters change and grow as near-end-of-high-school teens.

My biggest problem with this movie is that the mechanics of getting us from this situation to that situation, of bringing in certain sets of characters, is so very choppy. To use Martin Scorsese’s comparison of superhero movies to amusement park rides, this one has that jerky, stop-start feel of something hastily constructed and not entirely passing code. That the movie could feel this way and still basically be fun — and fun for almost all of its nearly two-and-a-half-hour runtime — is I think a credit largely to the characters and the way the movie builds its relationships more than the way it builds its story.

Spider-Man: No Way Home does offer the grand blockbuster movie experience that you want from a Marvel movie and that has still been relatively rare since March 2020. Even when the movie’s execution of its story wasn’t perfect, I enjoyed being back in this world. B+

Rated PG-13 for sequences of action/violence, some language and brief suggestive comments, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Jon Watts and written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, Spider-Man: No Way Home is two hours and 28 minutes long and distributed by Columbia Pictures.

Christmas at the movies

Even this year, we’re getting a rush of new releases over the next week.

On Wednesday, Dec. 22, The Matrix Resurrection is scheduled for release in theaters and on HBO Max for 30 days. The movie, the fourth in the Matrix series and the first since 2003, brings back Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss.

Also scheduled for release on Wednesday are the much-rescheduled The King’s Man, the prequel to the Kingsman movies starring Ralph Fiennes and Harris Dickinson, and the animated sequel Sing 2, featuring oodles of big-name voices including Reese Witherspoon, Matthew McConaughey, Taron Egerton and Scarlett Johansson.

Celebrate Christmas Eve, Friday, Dec. 24, with the Adam McKay-written and -directed Don’t Look Up, a comedy about the impending destruction of all life on Earth via comet starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep and Jonah Hill, which will be released on Netflix.

On Christmas Day, Saturday, Dec. 25, new movies include American Underdog, a biopic of football player Kurt Warner starring Zachary Levi and Anna Paquin, and A Journal for Jordan, directed by Denzel Washington and starring Michael B. Jordan.

The Tragedy of MacBeth, starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand and directed by Joel Coen, is also slated to open on Christmas in limited release and will be on Apple TV+ on Jan. 14.

FILM

Venues

AMC Londonderry
16 Orchard View Dr., Londonderry
amctheatres.com

Bank of NH Stage in Concord
16 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, banknhstage.com

Capitol Center for the Arts
44 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, ccanh.com

Cinemark Rockingham Park 12
15 Mall Road, Salem

Chunky’s Cinema Pub
707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com

Dana Center
Saint Anselm College
100 Saint Anselm Dr., Manchester, anselm.edu

Fathom Events
Fathomevents.com

The Flying Monkey
39 Main St., Plymouth
536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com

LaBelle Winery
345 Route 101, Amherst
672-9898, labellewinery.com

The Music Hall
28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth
436-2400, themusichall.org

O’neil Cinemas
24 Calef Hwy., Epping
679-3529, oneilcinemas.com

Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Regal Fox Run Stadium 15
45 Gosling Road, Newington
regmovies.com

Rex Theatre
23 Amherst St., Manchester
668-5588, palacetheatre.org

The Strand
20 Third St., Dover
343-1899, thestranddover.com

Wilton Town Hall Theatre
40 Main St., Wilton
wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456

Shows

• It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) will screen at the Music Hall in Portsmouth on Wednesday, Dec. 22, at 3 and 7 p.m. Tickets cost $15 for adults and $12 for seniors age 60 and up, students, military and first responders.

• The Grinch (2018, PG) will screen at the Music Hall in Portsmouth on Thursday, Dec. 23, at 3 p.m. Tickets cost $15 for adults and $12 for seniors age 60 and up, students, military and first responders.

• House of Gucci (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres on Thursday, Dec. 23, at 6 p.m.

• Nightmare Alley (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres on Thursday, Dec. 23, at 6:30 p.m.; Friday, Dec. 24, at noon and 3:30 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 25, at 4 & 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 26, through Sunday, Jan. 2, 12:30, 4 & 7:30 p.m.

• Last Christmas (2019, PG-13) will screen at the Music Hall in Portsmouth on Thursday, Dec. 23, at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $15 for adults and $12 for seniors age 60 and up, students, military and first responders.

• Licorice Pizza (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, Dec. 24, 4 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 25, 3:30 & 7 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 26, through Sunday, Jan. 2, 12, 3:30 & 7 p.m.

• The Strong Man (1926) starring Harry Langdon and directed by Frank Capra, a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Sunday, Dec. 26, at 2 p.m. at Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Admission is free; $10 donation suggested.

• The Senior Movie Mornings Series at the Rex Theatre (23 Amherst St., Manchester) presents White Christmas(1954) on Tuesday, Dec. 28, at 10 a.m. Tickets cost $10. Call 668-5588 or visit palacetheatre.org/rex-theatre.

• The Metropolitan Opera — Cinderella on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022, at 12:55 p.m. at Bank of NH Stage in Concord. Tickets cost $26.

• Girl Shy (1924), a silent film starring Harold Lloyd, on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. at the Rex in Manchester, featuring live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis. Admission costs $10.

• Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ(1925), a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Thursday, April 21, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. at the Rex in Manchester. Tickets cost $10.

Featured photo: Spider-Man. Courtesy photo.

West Side Story (PG-13)

West Side Story (PG-13)

Get Maria and Tony, the Sharks and the Jets, the dance-fights and the love songs plus Rita Moreno in West Side Story, the Steven Spielberg-directed film adaption of the 1957 stage musical.

If you are totally new to West Side Story in any form, it is basically Romeo & Juliet with New York City-born Tony (Ansel Elgort) and recent arrival from Puerto Rico Maria (Rachel Zegler) as the star-crossed lovers and the gang of angry nativist boys calling themselves the Jets and the Puerto Rican gang called the Sharks standing in for the Montague and Capulet families. Here, racial animosity, economic fears and encroaching gentrification in the Upper West Side of mid-century New York City form the basis of the resentments between the opposing camps, instead of whatever the beef was back in fair Verona.

In Maria’s corner: her older brother Bernardo (David Alvarez), the leader of the Sharks; Bernardo’s girlfriend Anita (Ariana DeBose), and Chino (Josh Andrés Rivera), a nice boy with a good future in accounting whom Bernardo is shoving at Maria.

In Tony’s corner: Riff (Mike Faist), head of the Jets, and Valentina (Rita Moreno), widowed owner of corner store Doc’s, who is letting Tony work and live at the shop. Valentina, who has sort of adopted Tony, is also Puerto Rican, which is perhaps why Tony seems less focused on the turf struggles than Riff. Well, that and the fact that he’s had a good long while to think about the nature of violence while serving time for his part in a previous brawl.

I’m not at all objective about this movie or this musical; it is one of my longtime favorites. So even when the movie felt a little flat in the opening few scenes, I was always having a good time. But, happily, it grew on me. The more we got of Anita, Bernardo, Valentina and even Riff, the more interesting I found this movie’s take on the material and the more I generally liked the movie. The movie sort of rides the line between seeming like it’s in a real place and feeling like a stage set. Scenes in the Puerto Rican neighborhood approached a kind of reality (or, at least, golden age Hollywood musical reality) but other scenes, particularly some of the scenes set amid the construction rubble of half-demolished slums, felt more like an excellent tech crew was working with a very large budget.

The least interesting thing about the film is probably the Tony-Maria love story. Elgort is mostly fine, Zegler is quite good, bringing more depth to the occasionally drippy-seeming character of Maria. Their relationship had more oomph than I remember from the 1961 movie — more actually than most Romeo & Juliet stories I’ve seen. But all the stuff going on around them and all the supporting characters — to include smaller roles like Anybodys (Iris Menas) or Valentina or Chino or the storyline about the urban renewal projects displacing many neighborhoods — are more interesting than the two people who “love at first sight” during a dance battle. (A well-staged dance battle. All of the choreography here is electric and has that “big Hollywood musical dance number” showmanship, all bright colors and screen-filling extras.)

As with the 1961 movie adaptation of West Side Story, Anita is the movie’s standout character, followed here by Valentina (which feels fitting, since Moreno won an Oscar for playing Anita in the 1961 movie). Anita is awesome, her showcase song “America” is the banger it always is, her wardrobe is a costume-y delight and she gets the movie’s most complex (if super downbeat) arc. DeBose brings all the energy and stage presence the role calls for and absolutely shines throughout. I also appreciated the movie’s take on Anita’s personal goals and the relationship between Bernardo and her, and their different experiences with trying to make it in New York. This movie doesn’t modernize the play’s politics, necessarily, but it does bring some 2021 awareness to the racial and economic issues in the story.

This adaptation of West Side Story doesn’t explode its box or do something entirely new, but it adds enough little details or tweaked elements that it does feel like its own thing while still presenting you with the songs and characters you know and love. A-

Rated PG-13 for some strong violence, strong language, thematic content, suggestive material and brief smoking, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Steven Spielberg with a screenplay by Tony Kushner, West Side Story is two hours and 36 minutes long and distributed by Twentieth Century Studios in theaters.

Being the Ricardos (R)

A series of potential calamities hits the I Love Lucy show during one week in the early 1950s in Being the Ricardos, an Aaron Sorkin-written and -directed movie that is in theaters now and slated to stream on Amazon Prime on Dec. 21.

On Sunday, Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) gets an early peek at a tabloid story alleging that her husband, Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem), is a serial cheater — worse, she’s getting the story after he’s been gone for a couple of days. After he comes back, claiming he spent the time playing cards on his boat and swearing that he’s been a faithful husband, the two start to make up — only to have their making out interrupted by Walter Winchell’s radio report of a blind item about the most popular woman in television being a secret communist. Maybe he means Imogene Coca, Desi tries to calm her by saying, but Lucy knows he’s talking about her.

On Monday, Lucy and Desi meet with officials from CBS and Philip Morris (the show’s largest advertiser) to explain the situation — or rather, to sort of explain the situation. Desi tells them she checked the wrong box when registering to vote decades ago, though privately Lucy says her one-time communist party affiliation was a tribute to the grandfather who raised her. The story hasn’t hit the papers yet, but Lucy and Desi work to reassure their show’s staff, the network and Philip Morris that Lucy’s no communist and that this hit show, now in its second season, will go on.

Monday’s craziness pushes their intended big news of the week back a day: Lucy is pregnant and, rather than hide that fact on TV with laundry and giant chairs, Desi wants Lucy Ricardo, her onscreen persona, to be pregnant on air as well. Of course, pregnant women are indecent (somehow) and shake the very foundations of society (or something) and aren’t to be shown on television, is the network’s position, which the couple will have to work to change.

Will the show last long enough for Desi to get his boundary-breaking pregnancy storyline or will news of Lucy’s recent appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee sink the show before Friday’s tape time? This is the most urgent part of the story, but Lucy’s fears about Desi’s infidelities and the possible breakup of their marriage also bubble steadily in the background. Then there’s the ongoing, very active dislike between costars William Frawley (J.K. Simmons) and Vivian Vance (Nina Arianda), who is bristling at her character’s dowdiness being a running gag (and a likely bit of typecasting from which she won’t escape). We also watch writers Madelyn Pugh (Alia Shawkat) and Bob Carroll (Jake Lacy) jostling for position with executive producer Jesse Oppenheimer (Tony Hale).

The movie is framed with an older trio of actors playing those last three characters as they look back on that week, a conceit that allows for a lot of exposition delivery. It’s not the smoothest bit of scene-setting and character-building ever put on screen, but it gets the job done — which is maybe how I’d describe the movie overall. Nobody blows you away but nobody stinks up the joint, performance-wise. This is neither the most nor the least Sorkiny Sorkin screenplay; I think in the main his writer tendencies work with the material and the story as he’s chosen to tell it.

In addition to directly being told about the volatility of Lucy and Desi’s relationship, we get flashbacks that sort of deepen the exploration of the characters and their motivations. You know, sort of. This movie reminds me a bit of last year’s Mank for how it gives you a picture of an earlier era of showbiz, showing you both the golden public image and the grimier behind-the-scenes happenings. But while that movie was Doing A Thing (giving you the behind-the-scenes of Citizen Kane in the style of Citizen Kane), Being the Ricardos is a more straightforward take that blends network politics, national politics and marriage politics with bits of several people’s biographies. This movie is solid, enjoyable if you are at all interested in TV or Hollywood or any of the big names involved — and the fact that it will soon be available for viewing in your home is all the better. B

Rated R for language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, Being the Ricardos is two hours and 5 minutes long and is distributed by Amazon Studios in theaters and will stream on Amazon Prime starting Dec. 21.

FILM

Venues

AMC Londonderry
16 Orchard View Dr., Londonderry
amctheatres.com

Bank of NH Stage in Concord
16 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, banknhstage.com

Capitol Center for the Arts
44 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, ccanh.com

Cinemark Rockingham Park 12
15 Mall Road, Salem

Chunky’s Cinema Pub
707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com

Dana Center
Saint Anselm College
100 Saint Anselm Dr., Manchester, anselm.edu

Fathom Events
Fathomevents.com

The Flying Monkey
39 Main St., Plymouth
536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com

LaBelle Winery
345 Route 101, Amherst
672-9898, labellewinery.com

The Music Hall
28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth
436-2400, themusichall.org

O’neil Cinemas
24 Calef Hwy., Epping
679-3529, oneilcinemas.com

Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Regal Fox Run Stadium 15
45 Gosling Road, Newington
regmovies.com

Rex Theatre
23 Amherst St., Manchester
668-5588, palacetheatre.org

The Strand
20 Third St., Dover
343-1899, thestranddover.com

Wilton Town Hall Theatre
40 Main St., Wilton
wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456

Shows

• The Polar Express (G, 2004) will screen multiple times at all three Chunky’s locations through Thursday, Dec. 16. Tickets cost $5.99.

• The Danish Collector: Delacroix to Gauguin (2021) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord on Wednesday, Dec. 15, at 6 p.m.

• House of Gucci (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord on Thursday, Dec. 16, at 3:30 & 7 p.m. and Thursday, Dec. 23, at 6 p.m. (vaccinated guests); Friday, Dec. 17, through Sunday, Dec. 19, at noon, 3:30 & 7 p.m.

• Die Hard (R, 1988) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord on Thursday, Dec. 16, at 7 p.m.

• Nightmare Alley (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres on Friday, Dec. 17, through Sunday, Dec 19, at 12:30, 4 & 7:30 p.m. and (for vaccinated guests) on Thursday, Dec. 23, at 6:30 p.m.

• Elf screening at Christmas Break on a Budget on Saturday, Dec. 18, at noon at The Strand in Dover. The afternoon will include storytime, family activities and the movie. The cost is $20 for a family of four or $8 each.

• National Lampoon’sChristmas Vacation (PG-13, 1989) will screen at Regal Fox Run on Saturday, Dec. 18, at 1 p.m. Tickets $5.

• The Polar Express (G, 2004) will screen at the Park Theatre (19 Main St. in Jaffrey; theparktheatre.org) on Saturday, Dec. 18, at 1 p.m. Admission is free but go online to get tickets. Have a photo taken with Santa and Elves in the lobby.

• The Bolshoi Ballet — The Nutcracker A broadcast presentation captured live, Sunday, Dec. 19, at 12:55 p.m. at the Bank of NH Stage in Concord. Tickets cost $15.

• It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) will screen at all three Chunky’s locations on Sunday, Dec. 19, at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $5.99.

• The Music Hall will show a series of holiday movies during Christmas week at its Historic Theater (28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth), including White Christmas (1954) on Tuesday, Dec. 21, at 3 p.m.; Love Actually (R, 2003) on Tuesday, Dec. 21, at 7 p.m.; It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) on Wednesday, Dec. 22, at 3 and 7 p.m.; The Grinch (2018, PG) on Thursday, Dec. 23, at 3 p.m.; and Last Christmas (2019, PG-13) on Thursday, Dec. 23, at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $15 for adults and $12 for seniors age 60 and up, students, military and first responders. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• The Strong Man (1926) starring Harry Langdon and directed by Frank Capra, a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Sunday, Dec. 26, at 2 p.m. at Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Admission is free; $10 donation suggested.

• The Senior Movie Mornings Series at the Rex Theatre (23 Amherst St., Manchester) presents White Christmas(1954) on Tuesday, Dec. 28, at 10 a.m. Tickets cost $10. Call 668-5588 or visit palacetheatre.org.

Featured photo: West Side Story. Courtesy photo.

Encanto (PG)

Encanto (PG)

A girl growing up in a magical family with a magical house tries to find her place in the world in Encanto, a lovely new animated movie from Disney.

Mirabel (voice of Stephanie Beatriz) is a member of the “magical Madrigal” family, whose members all live together in a large house in an idyllic Colombian valley. All of the adult members have their own superpowers that they call their “gift.” Mirabel’s mom, Julieta (voice of Angie Cepeda), can heal people with her cooking. Her sister Luisa (voice of Jessica Darrow) has superhuman strength. Her “perfect” sister Isabela (voice of Diane Guerrero) can make gardens of beautiful flowers grow and bloom at will. Her aunt Pepa (voice of Carolina Gaitán) can control the weather. Pepa’s children, Mirabel’s cousins, Dolores (voice of Adassa) and Camilo (voice of Rhenzy Feliz), have superhearing and shape-shifting powers, respectively. Only Pepa’s and Julieta’s husbands (voiced by Mauro Castillo and Wilmer Valderrama) are non-magical, having just married into the family.

Abuela (voice by María Cecila Botero) is in charge of the house and the family and her power seems to be having the triplets — Julieta, Pepa and Bruno (voice of John Leguizamo), “we don’t talk about Bruno” is the family’s position about that brother — that kicked off the family’s magic and caring for the family and the town that grew up around the house.

The house, which has a magic of its own, responding to voice commands and occasionally being a little sassy, and the family get their magic from a long-burning candle that became charmed as a sort of miracle after the death of Abuela’s husband long ago. He died helping his wife and children — and the people who became the townsfolk — escape from the bad guys on horseback who had chased them out of their former hometown and into the jungle. His sacrifice leads to the miracle of the magic-giving candle and a forest that grows to create a hidden valley where the people can live safely.

Abuela is determined to keep the house, the family and the magic going so that they can all stay safe in this green, beautiful and, it’s implied, somewhat hidden valley. But as the years go by, Mirabel never develops her gift. When she starts to see some cracks in the house, Abuela secretly fears that the house, the magic and the family could be falling apart but is determined for the town to see only the strong, magical family they’ve always been.

Mirabel’s quest — because these movies always have a quest — is to figure out what is putting the magic in danger and to save the family’s miracle. To do this, she sets out to find clues about Uncle Bruno, whose power was seeing the future and who vanished years ago.

Encanto is a truly beautiful movie — beautiful all the way around, beautiful music, beautiful songs that play with South American musical elements, beautiful jewel-toned visuals, beautiful characters that display a wide diversity of the people you might find in one Latin American family. And it has some really beautiful messages about being yourself, figuring out your place in the world, loving and celebrating family not for the image we want to project but for what it and its members truly are. And it has a fair amount of humor. There isn’t a wisecracking dragon or snowman but the cousins bring plenty of their own quirky senses of humor to the situation.

I feel like there is a lot here that I appreciated initially and that I will only grow to enjoy more with subsequent viewings (and I’m sure there will be subsequent viewings, as this movie comes to Disney+ on Dec. 24).

But — and it kills me that there’s a “but” — there is also something off about Encanto, like a cake where one layer is way too thick and one layer is way too thin and the whole thing is leveled off with large frosting patches. The movie takes a long time to get to the central problem — and I’m still not entirely certain I understand what that problem was — and rushes through things such as Isabela’s discovery that she can make things other than soft, rose-like flowers and Luisa’s stress at having to carry so much weight all the time. Bruno is a really well-developed and intriguing character that the movie doesn’t always seem to know what to do with. I would have loved Mirabel as a child, with her curly hair and her glasses and her lack of a discernible Thing, and she’s a great character to build an adventure around but, as with so many other elements in this movie, her whole arc seems rushed. We see her worry A Lot about her place in the family if she is not gifted like everyone else but the resolution of this comes very fast and feels unfinished. Maybe there are so many good characters, so many ideas, that the movie spends too long setting up all its pieces and leaves not enough time to play out their stories? So many times it feels like a really interesting point or a fairly big character development is sort of sewed up with one very fast line of dialogue.

I feel like I need to watch Encanto again to really figure out how I feel about this movie. But I guess the best recommendation I can give for it is that I look forward to another viewing. I may not have always understood what Encanto is doing but it’s such a lovely world to spend time in. B

Rated PG for some thematic elements and mild peril, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard and co-directed by Charise Castro Smith with a screenplay by Charise Castro Smith & Jared Bush, Encanto is an hour and 42 minutes long and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures in theaters (and on Disney+ starting Dec. 24).

FILM

Venues

AMC Londonderry
16 Orchard View Dr., Londonderry
amctheatres.com

Bank of NH Stage in Concord
16 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, banknhstage.com

Capitol Center for the Arts
44 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, ccanh.com

Cinemark Rockingham Park 12
15 Mall Road, Salem

Chunky’s Cinema Pub
707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com

Dana Center
Saint Anselm College
100 Saint Anselm Dr., Manchester, anselm.edu

Fathom Events
Fathomevents.com

The Flying Monkey
39 Main St., Plymouth
536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com

LaBelle Winery
345 Route 101, Amherst
672-9898, labellewinery.com

The Music Hall
28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth
436-2400, themusichall.org

O’neil Cinemas
24 Calef Hwy., Epping
679-3529, oneilcinemas.com

Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Regal Fox Run Stadium 15
45 Gosling Road, Newington
regmovies.com

Rex Theatre
23 Amherst St., Manchester
668-5588, palacetheatre.org

The Strand
20 Third St., Dover
343-1899, thestranddover.com

Wilton Town Hall Theatre
40 Main St., Wilton
wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456

Shows

• House of Gucci (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres on Thursday, Dec. 9, at 3:30 & 7 p.m. and Thursday, Dec. 16, at 6 p.m. (vaccinated guests); Friday, Dec. 10, through Sunday, Dec. 12, at noon, 3:30 & 7 p.m.

• Elf (PG, 2003) 21+ screening at all three Chunky’s locations on Thursday, Dec. 9, at 7 p.m.

• Straight Is the Way (1921) This silent crime drama set in New Hampshire will screen Thursday, Dec. 9, at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. (for vaccinated guests) at Red River Theatres with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis.

• The Polar Express (G, 2004) will screen multiple times at all three Chunky’s locations Friday, Dec. 10, through Thursday, Dec. 16. Tickets cost $5.99.

• Belfast (PG-13, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres on Friday, Dec. 10, at 1 & 4 p.m.; and Saturday, Dec. 11, and Sunday, Dec. 12, at 4 p.m.

• The French Dispatch(R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres on Friday, Dec. 10, through Sunday, Dec. 12, at 7:30 p.m.

• Winter Starts Soon (NR, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord on Saturday, Dec. 11, and Sunday, Dec. 12, at 1 p.m.

Featured photo: Encanto. Courtesy photo.

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