OPENING THIS WEEK
Homebrew
The Fertile Ground Theater Festival is expanding to include animation this year. The lineup of 12 to 15 animated shorts of varying lengths and from animators of all levels is followed by a half-hour talkback with the local artists. Curator Sophya Vidal says she was inspired to create a show where local, independent animators could showcase their work after she noticed Portland doesn't have enough such places. 5th Avenue Cinema, 510 SW Hall St., fertilegroundpdx.org. 3 pm Sunday, Jan. 24. $10.
Ip Man 3
C- You would think a movie whose central gimmick is casting Mike Tyson and pitting him against the hero—while he swears in lisped Chinese—would have its finger on the pulse of audacity. This is, after all, the third installment of the Ip Man series, which takes extreme liberties with the life of real wing chun master (and Bruce Lee mentor) Ip Man. The film transforms him into a leg-snapping, gravity defying, rabbit-punching hurricane of fists and feet played by Donnie Yen and pits him against everything from Japanese war criminals to British pugilists. This presumed final film in the series augments a minimal plot by focusing on his family, including his wife's bout with cancer. It's understandable the filmmakers wanted to interlace some drama, but if you want people to invest seriously in your character drama, why on earth would you cast Mike fucking Tyson and his facial tattoo in your melodramatic kung fu soap opera? Dull and ordinary doesn't do it here. PG-13. AP KRYZA. Fox Tower.
Sholay
Sholay is the Citizen Kane of Bollywood, a 204-minute epic that might be the one truly Indian film export you've heard of. Two outlaws, played with gusto by Indian film legends Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan, band together with the law to exact justice on a fellow bandit. With its nods to Sergio Leone, Sholay makes a cinephile's perfect study in comparisons alongside The Hateful Eight, which is playing in 70 mm at the Hollywood. NR. NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium. 3 pm Sunday, Jan. 24. $9.
STILL SHOWING

13 Hours
C Michael Bay's latest big-budget war film doesn't have the star power you'd expect, but it's message is predicatbly patriotic: Americans are heroic, and Libyans are barbaric. This time, the heroes are six security contractors who save the day during a surprise nighttime attack from Libyan rebels. The film is essentially Call of Duty, often told in point-of-view shots with night-vision goggles, sniper targets and comically fake spews of bright red blood. A few moments do take aim at the American military, like when John Krasinski gazes up at the Libyan sky and says in a wavering Southern accent: "I'm going to die fighting in a war I don't understand." Mainly, the actors succeed at looking buff and running around to the Hans Zimmer soundtrack, but they lack genuinely emotive performances. To be fair, the meathead script didn't give them much to emote. In one of the most unintentionally comical scenes, the Americans mistake the Muslim call to prayer for another attack. In the other, one character muses about Joseph Campbell's philosophy. Like the film, both misfire. R. SOPHIA JUNE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
Anomalisa
B- It's a little creepy watching a puppet perform cunnilingus on another puppet; creepier still when the foreplay turns into outright sex. Puppets aren't supposed to fuck—are they? Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) fills his movie with jarring moments like these, when our childhood associations of stop-motion puppet animation collide with the very grown-up story that Anomalisa tells. But while the animation is undisputably nifty-looking, it can't redeem this deeply pessimistic film. To motivational speaker Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis), everyone in the world looks and sounds exactly the same. The only person with a unique face and voice is a woman named Lisa, whom Stone meets and falls in love with at a Cincinnati hotel. Alas, just as his life is about to open up, the crushing conformity returns with a vengeance. We can never escape our ennui, the film heavy-handedly asserts. Morose and defeatist, Anomalisa might be an animated favorite for the upcoming Oscars, but it's also an early contender for feel-bad movie of 2016. R. RICHARD SPEER. Cinema 21.
The Big Short
A We're in a bubble of movies about the financial crisis, but The Big Short is the first good one. It's based on the book by Michael Lewis, who's known for making complicated financial issues into compelling stories, and adapted by Adam McKay, who is known for Talladega Nights and the "More Cowbell" sketch. Surprisingly, this combo works. The film focuses on three real weirdos (Steve Carell, Christian Bale and Brad Pitt) who were some of the only people to predict the collapse of the housing market in 2007. It's entertaining and informative, just like you'd expect from Michael Lewis and not at all what you'd expect from Adam McKay. R. ALEX FALCONE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Cornelius, Living Room Theaters, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
Bridge of Spies
B- Steven Spielberg was born to convey viewers through weird and wonderful alternate realities, but the director's gift just doesn't shine as brightly when he contends with humanity's past. Bridge of Spies, starring Tom Hanks as an insurance lawyer recruited by the U.S. government to negotiate a spy-for-spy trade with the Soviet Union, benefits from a caustic screenplay by the Coen brothers. While Spielberg is pretty good even when he's on autopilot, there is little here that doesn't feel perfunctory. PG-13. CHRIS STAMM. Lake Theater, Living Room Theaters.
Brooklyn
A- Based on the novel by Irish author Colm Tóibín and adapted by Nick Hornby (High Fidelty, About a Boy), Brooklyn is just the sweetest thing. Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) makes an adorable couple with Emory Cohen (Smash), and I could watch them court for hours, especially their awkward dinners with Cohen's Italian family. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Cinema 21, City Center.
Carol
A Like a long-gone grandparent, Portland director Todd Haynes' newest feature is an experience you remember mostly by token images—Cate Blanchett's lacquered nails, Rooney Mara developing film in her shabby apartment kitchen, Blanchett's lipstick stains on Mara's nipples. A romance between a young salesgirl and older housewife set against the picture-book 1950s, Carol in many ways echoes Haynes' Oscar-nominated Far From Heaven. It's an almost painfully beautiful adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel, The Price of Salt, with Haynes' signature touches—magnetic actresses and gorgeous shots of them lighting slim cigarettes. This is the first Haynes feature with a lesbian couple front and center, and the first he didn't write. Framed to channel Vivian Maier's midcentury photography of Chicago, the film shows romance as tea sandwiches, abusive husbands and lindy hops in equal measure. And a sense of voyeurism colors the film—we sit in on the couple's first date, and in the final scene, Haynes transplants our eyes into Therese's head and makes them stare straight into Carol's. But Carol seduced you already, two hours back. R. ENID SPITZ. Clackamas, Hollywood, Lake Theater, Fox Tower, St. Johns Cinemas.
Chi-Raq
B+ If you're a fan of modern interpretations of classic Greek drama or showmanship in the style of Baz Luhrman, then this is the Spike Lee joint you've been waiting for. Based on Aristophanes' comedy Lysistrata, Lee tells the tale of an indomitable heroine rallying women from both sides of the Peloponnesian War to withhold sex in order to force the armies to negotiate peace. Through the lens of modern, vibrant, Spike Lee-styled Chicago, the classic takes on a gritty texture. In an unsuccessful homage to its Grecian roots, much of Chi-Raq's dialogue rhymes, resembling a draft of "Dr. Seuss Goes to Englewood." R. LAUREN TERRY. Academy, Cinema 21, Laurelhurst.
Concussion
c- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air stars in a movie based on a GQ article about a coroner living in Pittsburgh who discovered brain damage in a retired football player and was hounded by the NFL to retract his findings. Unfortunately, even Alec Baldwin, Albert Brooks and Big Willie Style (complete with a halfway decent Nigerian accent) couldn't make an exciting story out of microscopes, publishing scientific papers, and men sitting around conference tables lying to each other. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Eastport, Clackamas, Forest Theatre, Bridgeport, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Tigard.
Creed
A- Creed—the seventh movie in the Rocky franchise—is more like the original Rocky than its sequels because it's mostly good, but also because it's almost entirely the same movie as Rocky. It feels more like an apology for the mediocre Rocky movies we've endured, more like a series reboot than a sequel, featuring a stronger young actor in Michael B. Jordan. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Academy, Avalon, Eastport, Clackamas, Kennedy School, Laurelhurst, Division, Movies on TV.
Crimson Peak
B+ "It's not a ghost story. It's a story with ghosts in it," a film in which the things that go bump in the night are not nearly as terrifying as the people who walk the earth. R. AP KRYZA. Laurelhurst.
Daddy's Home
B Will Ferrell hasn't exhausted the comedy of emasculation just yet—his argyle sweater vest-wearing persona still has some comic juice, especially teamed with The Other Guys co-star Mark Wahlberg's alpha male. Director Sean Anders sticks to sitcom setups and obvious gags. But compared to, say, the shapeless Sisters, Daddy's Home at least has structure and sincerity. PG. ROBERT HORTON. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
The Danish Girl
A In director Tom Hooper's first film since Les Miserables, Eddie Redmayne plays Einar Wegener, one of the first people to undergo gender reassignment surgery, in the story from David Ebershoff's novel of the same name. Wegener and his wife, Gerda (Alicia Vikander), a fellow artist and his best friend, make the perfect, hip art couple of 1920s Copenhagen. R. LAUREN TERRY. Bridgeport, City Center, Fox Tower.
The Good Dinosaur
B- The Good Dinosaur is a Little House on the Prairie-style rendering of pioneer life, except, of course, all the characters are talking dinosaurs living in an alternate reality where a certain fateful asteroid never made impact. PG. PENELOPE BASS. Academy, Avalon, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Empirical, Kennedy School, Laurelhurst, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Division, Movies on TV, Tigard, Wilsonville.
The Hateful Eight
A- Quentin Tarantino's new mystery Western, The Hateful Eight is a lot of very good things. It's a spectacular bit of storytelling set against 70 millimeters of Wyoming grandeur, yet neat enough to fit together like the gears in a Swiss watch, with stellar character acting and crackling dialogue. But it's also very much a Tarantino film. Yes, there are buckets of bright red blood spilled on bright white shirts, copious use of the most offensive English-language word beginning with N, and a bloody Mexican standoff. Kurt Russell is John "The Hangman" Ruth, a bounty hunter charged with bringing the mysterious Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) into Red Rock, Wyo., to hang. His stagecoach comes across snowbound and desperate Samuel L. Jackson and Walton Goggins, and they're eventually trapped inside a country inn with four lodgers. It's a great setup, and the long and plentiful monologues are sharp, backstories emerge in a natural way, and the twists are unexpected until they're obvious. The cartoonish level of violence will give some pause—it's Kill Bill with fewer bodies but tighter shots—but that's to be expected of Tarantino, a man who's had 20 years to indulge his impulses, and who'll hopefully have 20 more. R. MARTIN CIZMAR. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Cornelius, Hollywood, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy, St. Johns Cinemas.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2
B Katniss Everdeen leads a group of rebels against the Capitol, which has been booby-trapped with hot oil, lasers, and an army of lizard people. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville.
Inside Out
A- Pretty much everybody in the theater was sobbing at some point during Inside Out. It's sad. Crushingly, relentlessly sad. And absolutely brilliant from writer-director Pete Docter (Up). It's not about depression per se. It's about young Riley, who has to move across the country for her dad's job, and the tiny people in her head who represent her emotions. The main story seems aimed more at parents and, to a lesser extent, older kids. There's a talking elephant made of cotton candy to help occupy the littles, but you will love it, because it's great. And since you're paying for it, screw them. PG. ALEX FALCONE. Valley.
The Intern
B+ Ben (Robert De Niro), an active widower and retiree in need of something to keep himself busy, applies to a senior internship program at "About the Fit," a Topshop-like online clothing site founded by the dedicated Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). It's a refreshingly modern concept, serving as a reminder that the timeless art of being a gentleman begins with respect. PG-13. LAUREN TERRY. Academy, Vancouver, Valley.
Joy
B+ Director David O. Russell takes his formula for American Hustle, wraps it in Christmastime and casts America's ass-kicking sweetheart Jennifer Lawrence as the woman who invented the self-wringing Miracle Mop. Joy (Lawrence) is the ultimate handyman, balancing her explosive father (Robert De Niro) and musician ex-husband (Édgar Ramirez) fighting in the basement, her antisocial and bed-ridden mother (Virginia Madsen), two kids and too many unpaid bills. She fixes plumbing, shoots rifles to let off steam, bleeds a widow (Isabella Rossellini) for money and gives Bradley Cooper's Home Shopping Network exec a piece of her mind. The movie is a joy to look at, but don't those mail-order deals always seem smaller in real life? PG-13. ENID SPITZ. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Forest Theatre, Hollywood, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Sherwood, Tigard, Sandy.
The Martian
B- It's just a pretty good sci-fi yarn based on Andy Weir's book that stumbles on its own ambition. When a massive storm hits the Martian exploration project and Watney's team leaves him for dead, the skilled botanist realizes that the only way to avoid starvation and space madness is to "science the shit" out of his situation. PG-13. AP KRYZA. Academy, Avalon, Laurelhurst, Mt. Hood, Vancouver, Valley.
Moonwalkers
D- We live in a country where a disturbingly large percentage of the population believes the moon landings were a hoax, so a movie that plays out this elaborate conspiracy seems like fertile comedic ground. Take an unhinged CIA agent (Ron Perlman) and send him to 1969 psychedelic London to persuade Stanley Kubrick to direct a fake Apollo mission. Perlman inadvertently hires a money-hungry band manager (Rupert Grint), posing as Kubrick's agent. The two unlikely collaborators carry out the staged moon landing themselves, a process which apparently requires a lot of gratuitous head bashing. Moonwalkers proves that without a strong vision or a clear point of view on the part of the filmmaker, it is impossible to pull off satire, social commentary, and Tarantino-esque ultraviolence. In the hands of first-time film director Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, this story is neither funny nor does it have anything to say. Though with a script this thin, it would have been difficult for even a seasoned filmmaker to make much of it. R. JENNIFER RABIN. Cinema 21.
Mustang
A In remote Turkey, five orphaned sisters are strictly confined to their home while their uncle arranges their marriages. In this feature debut from director Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Lale—the youngest sister—watches her siblings capitulate to suffocating patriarchy and searches herself for the strength to escape. PG-13. MIKE GALLUCCI. Living Room Theaters.
The Peanuts Movie
A bald child named Charlie battles questionable fashion choices, impossible odds and burgeoning hormones. G. Academy, Avalon, Kennedy School, Mt. Hood, Vancouver, The Joy, Valley.
Norm of the North
C- This 86-minute animated movie about a polar bear trying to save the Arctic feels more like a three-hour movie about animals dancing. Norm, the film's clumsy protagonist, is a less cute version of Po from Kung Fu Panda. When Mr. Greene—an evil developer who looks like Michael Jackson with a body made of a slinky—tries to build condos in the Arctic, Norm pretends to be a spokesman for the campaign and goes to New York to win the public's approval. As Norm reveals that the condos will actually destroy his home, the film takes unnecessary pains to explain things like the polar bear's ability to talk to humans. Meanwhile, we suspend our disbelief about the complex public relations techniques. Norm had the opportunity to be an environmental film that teaches kids about global warming through a cuddly talking polar bear, but instead it develops a plot based on a problem that doesn't currently threaten the Arctic. At least it has enough scenes of lemmings peeing and farting to entertain the kids. PG. SOPHIA JUNE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Milwaukie, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Division, Evergreen, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Tigard, Sandy.
Point Break
D+ It's as if somebody stripped the original of its charm and character dynamic, let it soak in a bucket of Mountain Dew, Red Bull and Axe body spray, and then plopped it onscreen, dripping and bulging. Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey, making Reeves seem like Orson Welles), a young FBI agent with a chip on his shoulder, again infiltrates a gang of mysterious, adrenaline-addicted thieves led by the charismatic Bodhi (Édgar Ramirez). Utah gets in too deep, drawn like others to Bodhi's mysterious charm. People die. Things blow up. Athletes do extreme things. But outside the basic outline, Point Break 2015 shares very little with its predecessor. PG-13. AP KRYZA. Eastport, Clackamas, Cornelius, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Sherwood.
The Revenant
A- In terms of pure spectacle and cinematic beauty, Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant approaches masterpiece status. Fur trapper Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) finds his trapping party on the receiving end of a bear attack that leaves him barely clinging to life. Playing Klaus Kinski to Iñárritu's Werner Herzog for what was reportedly a shoot of Fitzcarraldo-level difficulty, DiCaprio brings his A-game to an abstract role. It is one of the best wilderness survival films of all time—a violent, unrelenting and staggeringly beautiful cinematic experience that leaves you feeling battered by an angry mother bear by the time the credits roll, but ready to take the ride again. R. AP KRYZA. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, CineMagic, Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy, St. Johns Theater.
Room
B+ In this riveting adaptation of Emma Donoghue's novel, an abducted woman must raise her son in a confined space, To maintain a stimulating setting, Ma (Brie Larson) creates a social environment with anthropomorphized characters named Bed and Lamp. R. LAUREN TERRY. Fox Tower. R. LAUREN TERRY. Academy, Kiggins Theatre, Laurelhurst, Fox Tower.
Sicario
A How do you like your tension? Relentless? Then you're in luck, my friend, because Sicario is like a broken elevator; it never lets up. R. ALEX FALCONE. Laurelhurst.
Sisters
C+ As Gen X plunges into the Big Four-O with all the grace of an arthritic Tommy Lee flailing about his gyroscopic drum riser, studios have released a slew of movies about the bummers of aging: You've got your Grown-Ups, your Hot Tub Time Machines, your Star Wars (I assume that's what Chewie's arc will be about), etc. This year, America's pre-eminent comedic minds, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, take a crack at it as the titular sisters who throw one last rager in their family house before their parents sell it. For the most part, it's a straight-up party comedy, replete with the requisite tropes, and given the preponderance of truly innovative comedians, Sisters is disappointingly standard. R. JAMES HELMSWORTH. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
Spectre
C+ The 26th Bond film has it all, and more. The one thing it doesn't have is the ability to leave a lasting impression. Buildings crumble, helicopters do barrel rolls, and Daniel Craig nonchalantly causes millions in property damage. But from the minute Sam Smith's grating theme music starts, the movie slides downhill. Sure, there's fun to be had—Bond drives a tricked-out ride through Rome's narrow streets and engages in an Alpine plane chase before the anticlimactic conclusion lands with a dull thud. Considering everybody who's involved in Spectre, the very last reaction anybody expected was "meh." PG-13. AP KRYZA. Mt. Hood, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Vancouver, Valley.
Spotlight
A- Spotlight inverts the usual comparison: It's a movie that feels like prestige television. Specifically, it feels like The Wire. An Oscar favorite recounting how a Boston Globe investigative team uncovered an epidemic of pederast priests abetted by the archdiocese, Spotlight borrows the rhythms of a propulsive TV procedural. It resists the temptation for self-congratulation. R. AARON MESH. Eastport, Bridgeport, Fox Tower.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
A- If there's one thing we know about Star Wars fans, it's that they're as resistant to change as any religious zealot. And so, the best thing that can be said about The Force Awakens is that it's almost old-fashioned. There's no Dark Knight-style brooding, no ring-a-ding-ding dialogue a la The Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy. The action is fairly nonstop, and the story is pretty simple: Some guys in helmets are threatening peace in the galaxy, and it's up to, well, you-know-who to stop them. PG-13. MATTHEW SINGER. Bagdad, Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Cornelius, Edgefield, Lake Theater, Milwaukie, Moreland, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Roseway Theatre, Sandy, St. Johns Cinemas.
Youth
C Despite coming from Italian filmmaker and Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino and starring Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel as two graying artists, Youth ends up feeling like too much beautiful, existential pondering without enough teeth. Caine and Keitel sit around talking about the past and how much they piss, which doesn't sound cute or important, even from Caine. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Cinema 21.
Willamette Week