Movie reviews
The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by Catholic News Service.
Apollo 18 (Dimension/Weinstein)
An inventive horror film presented — in the spirit of "The Blair Witch Project" — as a documentary, purporting to tell the story of a top-secret mission to the moon, and why we dare not return there anytime soon. Christmas 1973 finds NASA preparing the titular spacecraft and training its eager astronauts. Once on the lunar surface, Owen's character goes walkabout, stumbles upon footprints and a dead Soviet cosmonaut, and the fun, so to speak, begins as Spanish director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego's Hollywood debut morphs into a monster movie. Sporadic but intense moments of terror and fleeting profane and crude language. (A-III, PG-13)
Brighton Rock (IFC)
This powerful adaptation of Graham Greene's 1939 novel — first brought to the screen in a 1947 noir thriller — revolves around a depraved young hoodlum who manipulates a naive waitress to avoid being arrested for two brutal murders he commits. By setting the story in 1964, writer-director Rowan Joffe puts the violence and the two lead characters' Catholic faith in a more relatable social context than in the original. Yet the picture poses timeless and tough questions about good and evil while evoking visceral menace and moral dread; its potentially objectionable elements can be judged acceptable for adults willing to grapple with Greene's richly complex view of Catholicism and of faith in general. Considerable violence, primarily involving knives, brief nongraphic marital lovemaking, some profanity and sexual innuendo, and much rough and crude language. (L, no MPAA rating)
The Debt (Focus)
This stylish — though frequently violent — remake of the 2007 Israeli spy thriller of the same name is a game of cat-and-mouse across two time periods as three Mossad agents track down and capture a Josef Mengele-like Nazi war criminal. Their feat — told in flashback by their younger selves — has made them national heroes. But it seems there's more to their exploit than the official story recounts. While suitable only for mature viewers open to challenging material, as directed with flair by John Madden, this gritty drama will certainly keep them guessing right up to the end. Considerable bloody violence, a disturbing portrayal of anti-Semitism, brief nongraphic premarital sexual activity, some rough language. (L, R)
I Don't Know How She Does It (Weinstein)
Sarah Jessica Parker stars in this sentimental goo about a wife and mother struggling to succeed in high finance while juggling the needs of her husband and two young children. Director Doug McGrath and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, working from the novel by Allison Pearson, create a gentle upper-crust world filled with wisecracking friends, warm parents, the occasional understanding boss and picture-postcard views of Boston and New York. A fleeting reference to abortion, frequent crude and crass language and fleeting profane language. (A-III, PG-13)
The Mill & The Cross (Kino Lorber)
Ingenious blend of art history and filmmaking, inspired by a book-length study of Pieter Bruegel's painting "The Way to Calvary," stars Rutger Hauer as the Flemish artist, Michael York as his patron, and Charlotte Rampling as the Virgin Mary. Polish director Lech Majewski re-imagines the Passion, dramatizes a dark episode in the history of the Catholic Church, experiments with pictorial representation, and issues an appeal for religious tolerance — all without pretension or bias. Catholics won't find the movie radical from a theological standpoint, since links between the paschal mystery and social justice are integral to the faith, yet the immersion in Bruegel's masterpiece forces viewers to confront regrettable historical truths. Moderately graphic violence, including four crucifixions, several whippings and beatings, and a woman being buried alive, a few instances of groping, and brief frontal and rear female nudity. (A-III, no MPAA rating)
—CNS
Catholic News Service classifications: A-I — general patronage; A-II — adults and adolescents; A-III — adults; L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling; O — morally offensive.
Apollo 18 (Dimension/Weinstein)
An inventive horror film presented — in the spirit of "The Blair Witch Project" — as a documentary, purporting to tell the story of a top-secret mission to the moon, and why we dare not return there anytime soon. Christmas 1973 finds NASA preparing the titular spacecraft and training its eager astronauts. Once on the lunar surface, Owen's character goes walkabout, stumbles upon footprints and a dead Soviet cosmonaut, and the fun, so to speak, begins as Spanish director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego's Hollywood debut morphs into a monster movie. Sporadic but intense moments of terror and fleeting profane and crude language. (A-III, PG-13)
Brighton Rock (IFC)
This powerful adaptation of Graham Greene's 1939 novel — first brought to the screen in a 1947 noir thriller — revolves around a depraved young hoodlum who manipulates a naive waitress to avoid being arrested for two brutal murders he commits. By setting the story in 1964, writer-director Rowan Joffe puts the violence and the two lead characters' Catholic faith in a more relatable social context than in the original. Yet the picture poses timeless and tough questions about good and evil while evoking visceral menace and moral dread; its potentially objectionable elements can be judged acceptable for adults willing to grapple with Greene's richly complex view of Catholicism and of faith in general. Considerable violence, primarily involving knives, brief nongraphic marital lovemaking, some profanity and sexual innuendo, and much rough and crude language. (L, no MPAA rating)
The Debt (Focus)
This stylish — though frequently violent — remake of the 2007 Israeli spy thriller of the same name is a game of cat-and-mouse across two time periods as three Mossad agents track down and capture a Josef Mengele-like Nazi war criminal. Their feat — told in flashback by their younger selves — has made them national heroes. But it seems there's more to their exploit than the official story recounts. While suitable only for mature viewers open to challenging material, as directed with flair by John Madden, this gritty drama will certainly keep them guessing right up to the end. Considerable bloody violence, a disturbing portrayal of anti-Semitism, brief nongraphic premarital sexual activity, some rough language. (L, R)
I Don't Know How She Does It (Weinstein)
Sarah Jessica Parker stars in this sentimental goo about a wife and mother struggling to succeed in high finance while juggling the needs of her husband and two young children. Director Doug McGrath and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, working from the novel by Allison Pearson, create a gentle upper-crust world filled with wisecracking friends, warm parents, the occasional understanding boss and picture-postcard views of Boston and New York. A fleeting reference to abortion, frequent crude and crass language and fleeting profane language. (A-III, PG-13)
The Mill & The Cross (Kino Lorber)
Ingenious blend of art history and filmmaking, inspired by a book-length study of Pieter Bruegel's painting "The Way to Calvary," stars Rutger Hauer as the Flemish artist, Michael York as his patron, and Charlotte Rampling as the Virgin Mary. Polish director Lech Majewski re-imagines the Passion, dramatizes a dark episode in the history of the Catholic Church, experiments with pictorial representation, and issues an appeal for religious tolerance — all without pretension or bias. Catholics won't find the movie radical from a theological standpoint, since links between the paschal mystery and social justice are integral to the faith, yet the immersion in Bruegel's masterpiece forces viewers to confront regrettable historical truths. Moderately graphic violence, including four crucifixions, several whippings and beatings, and a woman being buried alive, a few instances of groping, and brief frontal and rear female nudity. (A-III, no MPAA rating)
—CNS
Catholic News Service classifications: A-I — general patronage; A-II — adults and adolescents; A-III — adults; L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling; O — morally offensive.
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