Good Boys, Mike Wallace Is Here, Where’d You Go, Bernadette: Here is Your Weekly Roundup of New Movies

What to skip and what to see in theaters.

(courtesy of Annapurna Pictures)

Good Boys

** "We're not kids, we're tweens," says Max, one of the trio of good boys in Good Boys whose newly raging hormones possess them to do some uncharacteristically bad things. Played by angel-faced Jacob Tremblay, who looks so young he'd get carded trying to buy a can of Mountain Dew, it makes his insistence that he's not just a child with a few wisps of armpit hair even more absurd. Of course, that's the whole joke of Good Boys, the latest raunch-com to apply the Superbad formula to a different adolescent demographic—the only joke, really. Caught in that liminal state between pre- and post-pubescence, Max and his buddies—collectively known as the Bean Bag Boys, a reference to the chairs they play RPG card games in—have no idea how to process the adult scenarios the plot keeps pushing them into, and the comedy, such as it exists, is in watching them swear, scream and scheme their way through them. It's the sort of thing that works when it works, and Tremblay, along with co-stars Keith L. Williams and Brady Noon, do what they can. But screenwriters Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, who also directs, try to balance the chaotic juvenalia with heartfelt insights during a deeply confusing age, and those two impulses consistently undercut each other until they're left with a movie that's only halfway insightful, and only intermittently funny. R. MATTHEW SINGER. AMC DINE-IN Progress Ridge 13, AMC Mill Plain 8, AMC Vancouver Mall 23, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cornelius Cinemas, Eastport, Oak Grove, Regal Bridgeport Village & IMAX, Regal Cascade IMAX & RPX, Regal Cinema 99, Regal City Center, Regal Division Street, Regal Evergreen Parkway & RPX, Regal Lloyd Center & IMAX, Regal Movies On TV, Regal Pioneer Place, Regal Sherwood, Regal Tigard, Regal Vancouver Plaza, Scappoose Cinema 7, Studio One Theaters.

Mike Wallace Is Here

The most feared interviewer to date, and a man who changed the face of television journalism, Mike Wallace is terrifying as ever in the newest documentary chronicling his life by Avi Belkin. But what makes this compelling—as with most good documentaries—is the glimmer of humanity beneath the surface of the hostile reporter who never lost an interview. In Belkin's film, which begins with a split-screen montage of the 60 Minutes correspondent's interviews accompanied by shots of the terrified faces of his subjects, painting the portrait of a man with immense curiosity and an even greater level of confidence. The film is a tour through the latter half of the 20th century via Wallace's sit-downs with the most prominent people of the era. From Malcolm X to Salvador Dalí and Bette Davis to Donald Trump, we are graciously given a time capsule of history's most pivotal moments, and various accounts that go far beyond what the history books would say. Barbra Streisand calls Wallace an SOB on camera, countless big names refuse to finish their interviews, and Wallace is ultimately asked how he'd like it if this brutal interview style were turned back on him. And that's exactly what happens in this film. It's the sum of a lifelong interview of sorts with the king of the interview himself as subject. And to Belkin's credit, it's tough, honest and sometimes brutal, but also deeply moving. PG-13. KAIA HUBBARD. Cinema 21, Kiggins.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette

** Amid the chrome-plated ambience of Seattle, artistic enigma Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett) is having a neuroses-fueled breakdown. Her 15-year-old daughter Bee (newcomer Emma Nelson) wants the family to take a vacation in Antarctica, her Patagonia-clad neighbor (Kristen Wiig) is a high-strung pest, and her tech-guru husband (Billy Crudup) is more focused on his work than her declining mental health. So she dips to rediscover her own creative genius. Richard Linklater's much-delayed dramedy excels in its sympathy for its struggling antiheroine. Mental illness is easily romanticized or demonized, and the film's ultimate message about treating those affected with understanding rather than scrutiny is wholly necessary. Though it's often reductive to compare the book to the movie—those who have read Maria Semple's brilliantly unconventional source material will most certainly find this adaptation lackluster. Chiefly told from Bee's perspective, the novel is a compilation of letters, emails and other archival information––we are allowed only glimpses of her elusive mother. The mistake Linklater and team make is putting the should-be-missing Bernadette in nearly every scene, a choice seemingly hinging on the star power and talent of multi-Academy Award winner Blanchett. Nevertheless, her unapologetic originality and proclivity for chaos makes for a compelling jaunt that's markedly entertaining, if scattered. PG-13. MIA VICINO. AMC DINE-IN Progress Ridge 13, AMC Mill Plain 8, AMC Vancouver Mall 23, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Living Room Theaters, Oak Grove, Regal Bridgeport Village & IMAX, Regal Cascade IMAX & RPX, Regal Cinema 99, Regal City Center, Regal Division Street, Regal Evergreen Parkway & RPX, Regal Fox Tower, Regal Lloyd Center & IMAX, Regal Movies On TV, Regal Sherwood, Regal Tigard, Regal Vancouver Plaza, Scappoose Cinema 7, Studio One Theaters.


Love, Antosha 

*** What actor Anton Yelchin tragically lacked in years on this planet, he partly offset in sheer work: 69 projects before the 27-year-old's freak accidental death in 2016. And though it's only the smallest solace, by acting so much from age 11 onward, he attracted an extraordinary number of voices for this remembrance. Even more extraordinary is how Yelchin—celebrated for films as diverse as Star Trek and Green Room—embodied quite different meanings to some of the most respected actors alive. To a young Kristen Stewart, he was a gateway to new art. To Martin Landau, he was a kindred spirit despite their 50-year age gap. To Chris Pine, a guitar buddy. Dozens of such voices, combined with a deep personal library of Yelchin's writing and early acting videos, coalesce into a convincing elegy for an artist who never quite became a household name or lived much of his life away from movie sets. But to those fans who routinely bet on his talent through countless odd and daring 2010s indie films, Love, Antosha is an illuminating farewell. The documentary candidly reveals previously undisclosed health issues and bizarre art projects that signify an ongoing gift from "Antosha" Yelchin; his honesty in life is still breeding honesty. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Regal Fox Tower.

The Art of Racing in the Rain

** The latest Hollywood dog-star vehicle pandering to America's evidently bottomless appetite for cornball tearjerkers built around the fated death of a beloved pet betrays the worst instincts of its breed. In The Art of Racing in the Rain, Enzo, a golden retriever drolly voiced by Kevin Costner, exists only as a framing device for the paint-by-numbers love story featuring aspiring Formula 1 driver Denny (a neutered Milo Ventimiglia) and Eve (Amanda Seyfried). Most troublingly, as has become customary among the recent pack of New Yeller movies, we're meant to take for granted an especially service-oriented twist on reincarnation—no dogs go to heaven these days. Save for one bonkers interlude involving Enzo's hunger-driven hallucinations of a plush zebra toy torn asunder amid demonic possession, director Simon Curtis (My Week With Marilyn) never bothers to explore what our four-legged narrator might actually perceive, and instead presumes the pooch finds fulfillment watching televised races in preparation for his next life as an F1 champion. Of all potential careers, this one seems particularly ill-suited to canine ambitions, and a smarter film might have allowed Enzo to question why his owner insists on taking laps in the hardest, costliest, loudest manner imaginable. Alas, time and again, we create dog in our own image. PG. JAY HORTON. AMC DINE-IN Progress Ridge 13, AMC Mill Plain 8, AMC Vancouver Mall 23, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cornelius Cinemas, Eastport, Regal Bridgeport Village & IMAX, Regal Cascade IMAX & RPX, Regal Cinema 99, Regal City Center, Regal Division Street, Regal Evergreen Parkway & RPX, Regal Fox Tower, Regal Lloyd Center & IMAX, Regal Movies On TV, Regal Sherwood, Regal Tigard.

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.