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    Beauty to Behold in Theaters this Weekend

    Who needs a hug? Maybe Game 7 didn’t go your way, or perhaps it was November 8 that did you in. Or maybe your favorite songwriter of all time just died. It’s been a shit month. But the good news is that Hollywood is finally ready to embrace you with excellence. From big budget aliens to indie heartbreakers – plus a craptastic holiday movie, but you can’t have everything – you can find a reason to hide from the ugly world in a comfy, dark theater this weekend.

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    Arrival

    Amy Adams is as reliable an actor as they come. Thoughtful and expressive, she shares a tremendous range of emotions without uttering a sound.

    With his latest, Arrival, director Denis Villeneuve puts her skills to use to quietly display everything from wonder to terror to hope to gratitude as her character, Dr. Louise Banks, struggles to communicate with visitors.

    Twelve vessels have touched down in random spots across the globe: Sierra Leone, Russia, China, United States. Each nation has taken its own tack toward determining the purpose of the aliens. An expert in communication and linguistics, Banks has been brought to Montana to decipher that purpose.

    Villeneuve and Adams toy with your expectations – Adams, because of your preconceived notions concerning her solitude, and Villeneuve through a sly playfulness with time and structure.

    This sleight of hand allows the filmmaker to ask questions that are simultaneously grand and intimate. Arrival is a quiet film – not mind-blowing or terrifying or one to elicit a self-satisfied, “F*ck yeah!”

    People looking for explosions and jingoism on a global scale need not attend. In its place is a quiet contemplation on speaking, listening and working together. While that may not sound like much excitement, it’s about as relevant a message today as anything I can think of.

    Grade: A-

    Moonlight

    How long has it been since a film touched your very soul?

    Chances are, it’s been a few superheroes ago.

    You can find it in Moonlight, a minor miracle of filmmaking from writer/director Barry Jenkins. He presents a journey of self-discovery in three acts, each one leading us with graceful insight toward a finale as subtle as it is powerful.

    Young Chiron (Alex R. Hibbert) is known as “Little” around his Miami neighborhood, and he’s picked on for being different. By the time he is a skinny teenager, Chiron (Ashton Sanders) is struggling to keep one friend (Andre Holland) and navigate the expectations of masculinity. As a grown man in Atlanta now known as “Black” (Trevante Rhodes), Chiron embodies them. He lives as a mix of chiseled muscle and silent, fearsome demeanor when two faces from the past stir up ghosts he cannot shake.

    Jenkins adapts Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue” with astonishing sensitivity and artful nuance. Simple shots such as closing doors or hands on a sandy beach scream with meaning, and the entire film is grounded in an ache and a longing you will feel in your bones. Jenkins places you in Chiron’s world and lets the important moments breathe, finding universal truth and beauty in the most intimate of questions.

    The performances are impeccable, the craftsmanship precise, the insight blinding. You will be a better human for seeing Moonlight. It is a poignant reminder that movies still have that power.

    Grade: A+

    Almost Christmas

    You know who’s great? Gladys Knight. Man, what a voice.

    What’s that got to do with Almost Christmas? Well, Gladys has two scenes it in and she might as well be Santa, bringing a genuine smile each time.

    Filling up the film’s other 110 minutes are the favored devices of writer/director David E. Talbert (Baggage Claim, First Sunday): contrived situations, painful dialog and exaggerated storytelling.

    Family patriarch Walter Meyers (Danny Glover) is facing his first Christmas season since the loss of his beloved wife, so the whole extended clan comes home to Birmingham 5 days out, and the countdown is on. The cliche countdown.

    There will be a backyard football game. There will be a dance routine in the kitchen, and there will be plenty of sudden mood swings with tender music ready to cue the sighs and wistful staring that means we’re remembering Mama.

    And yes, Glover will say his line about being too mature for this excrement or something.

    Gladys, take me away.

    Grade: D

    Also opening in Columbus this weekend:

    • THE HANDMAIDEN (NR)
    • IXCANUL (NR)
    • KING COBRA (R)
    • THE MONSTER (R)
    • MY KING (NR)
    • NEITHER HEAVEN NOR EARTH (NR)
    • SHUT IN (PG-13)
    • SOMEONE TO TALK TO (NR)
    • WE ARE X (NR)

    Reviews with help from George Wolf.

    Read more from Hope at MADDWOLF and listen to her weekly horror movie podcast, FRIGHT CLUB.

    Looking for more film events in Columbus? CLICK HERE to visit our Events Calendar.

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    Hope Madden
    Hope Maddenhttps://columbusunderground.com
    Hope Madden is a freelance contributor on Columbus Underground who covers the independent film scene, writes film reviews and previews film events.
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