Pick of the week: “How To Train Your Dragon 2” — Apparently the first movie didn’t provide ample dragon-training instruction, as there’s a sequel. But it’s a sequel that improves on the already strong first movie, with dazzling action sequences, sharp humor and a genuinely affecting family drama at its core. Plus dragons.
Very few of us will get the experience of watching a Yazujiro Ozu film along with UW professor emeritus David Bordwell, author of “Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema” and considered one of the world’s leading scholars on Ozu.
But you get the next best thing with Bordwell’s commentary track for “An Autumn Afternoon,” Ozu’s last film, from 1962. Bordwell recorded the track for the DVD release in 2005, and it appears on the new Blu-ray edition recently released by the Criterion Collection.
“Run All Night” is now playing at Point, Eastgate and Star Cinemas. R, 1:55, three stars out of four.
At this point, the question is not whether Liam Neeson will kick ass, but what sort of ass he will kick. Albanian ass, as in “Taken”? German ass, as in “Unknown”? Midair ass, as in “Non-Stop”?
Or Irish-American ass, as in his latest action thriller “Run All Night,” although “Run” takes some pains to worry about things like acting, characterization and texture. Why, it’s almost a full hour before the first ass gets kicked.
Pick of the week: “Listen Up Philip” (Amazon Prime) — My full review is here. Jason Schwartzman is hilariously awful as an arrogant young writer who finds that success only feeds and confirms his misanthropy in this acerbic comedy from Alex Ross Perry.
“Jauja” has its Madison premiere on Saturday, March 7 at 7 p.m. at the UW-Cinematheque screening room, 4070 Vilas Hall. Unrated, 1:50, three stars out of four. FREE!
Lisandro Alonso’s “Jauja” is shot in a boxy 4:3 frame that used to be the standard for movies. But interestingly, the edges of the frame are rounded, the colors deeply saturated, making each frame look like an old photo you might find in a shoebox in your grandfather’s closet.
That anachronistic out-of-time sensation suits “Jauja” well, both for where it’s set, and where it’s going. Argentinian director Alonso is known for experimental films with little dialogue and slippery narrative rules. At first, “Jauja” seems like a much more traditional sort of film, with lots of dialogue and a big star (Viggo Mortensen) in the center. But don’t be fooled.
It’s a bit of a cliche to say that a city is almost a “character” in a movie, like how Austin is such a big part of “Slacker” or Manhattan is such a major part of, well, “Manhattan.” But Paris really is a character in Jacques Rivette’s trippy 1981 film “La Pont Du Nord.” And, quite possibly, it’s the villain.
“Wild Canaries” is now playing in New York and Los Angeles and is available to rent on video-on-demand, including Amazon Prime and iTunes. Not rated, 1:42, three stars out of four.
You know what a musical “sting” is? It’s a sudden jolt of “Duh DUH!” music in a movie soundtrack, like a blast of horns, intended to maximize the surprise or shock of a moment in a movie, usually in a thriller.
“Wild Canaries” has comically oversized stings, stings that don’t just startle you, but come right up and punch you in the face. These are “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!”-sized stings. That they’re so ridiculously big speaks to the tone of Lawrence Michael Levine’s funny, fizzy screwball comedy, an homage to old mystery spoofs set among the hipsters of Brooklyn.
Pick of the week: “Groundhog Day“: You’re exactly a month late on this one, Netflix. But it’s still wonderful to see Harold Ramis’ 1992 comedy, which wraps a beautiful message on how to live a better life inside a hilarious comedy. No wonder Bill Murray moved away from being a leading comic actor — he could never top this.
“Focus” opens Friday at Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema and Sundance. R, 1:45, three stars out of four.
“Focus” is like the beginner con artist that Margot Robbie plays in the film — not nearly as smart as it thinks it is, but smart enough to steal the price of a ticket from your pocket without you minding too much.
“Mr. Turner” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. R, 2:30, three stars out of four. I’ll host a post-show chat about the film on Tuesday, March 3 after the 7:15 p.m. show.
A famous J.M.W. Turner painting appears in the last James Bond movie, “Skyfall.” Bond meets the new Q (Ben Whishaw) in front of Turner’s “The Fighting Temeraire,” which shows an old warship being towed away to be turned into scrap metal. Q suggests the painting illustrates “the inevitability of time,” a dig at 007’s age, but all Bond sees is a “bloody big ship.”
One could approach Mike Leigh’s biopic, “Mr. Turner,” from much the same perspectives. You could look at the largely plotless narrative covering the last quarter of the British painter’s life and see themes and insights into the man and his work emerge. Or you could just see him as a bloody big ship.
Madison Movie 