What We Do in the Shadows, directed by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement
(unrated, 86 minutes)
Sure, you're sick of vampires. Who wouldn't be, after all those increasingly weird seasons of True Blood? And let's not even get started on the Twilight franchise. But c'mon, give the vamps one more chance.
Jemaine Clement (of the HBO series Flight of the Conchords, also the name of his two-man band with Bret McKenzie) and fellow Kiwi Taika Waititi co-direct this stylish, energetic and reliably funny snarkfest concerning four vampire roommates, ranging in age from 183 to 8,000 years, who find that life in modern Wellington, New Zealand, isn't all that accommodating of the undead.
Like all roomies, they suffer from domestic disturbances (housekeeping chores are a major source of tension), and along with all of us they scrabble to keep informed on ever-changing technology, the fickle whimsies of fashion, and the trouble caused by the necessities of following a very strict and limited diet.
American Sniper (R, 134 minutes) Clint Eastwood's American Sniper is a curious mixture of tall tale and tragedy, a celebration of the warrior ethos. Brilliantly played by Bradley Cooper, Navy SEAL sharpshooter Chris Kyle is a highly decorated soldier and probably the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history, with 160 confirmed kills.
Eastwood takes on the story in a straightforward, conventional Hollywood fashion that camouflages his deeper intention -- the exploration, if not explosion, of masculine myth. Kyle has no problem acclimating himself to killing bad guys if it means saving American lives. He only regrets he couldn't save them all.
Kyle's four tours in Iraq alternate with increasingly alienated stretches at home. In the field, he's competent and profane, a man totally alive in the moment. Back in the States, he's dead-eyed and useless, preoccupied with the war he has temporarily left behind.
Eastwood suspends moral judgments and concentrates on the concrete details of his subject's work. And so the adjustment of a weapon's sights, the tiny calibrated movements of Kyle's hands and eyes, the slowing of the pulse rate and the regulation of breath serve to build an almost hypnotic tension as the man makes himself an instrument of fate.
Leviathan (R, 141 minutes) Andrey Zvyagintsev's well-wrought Leviathan starts out as a domestic drama that ends up an epic. Set in contemporary Russia, it concerns a car mechanic who has built a ramshackle house on a spit of waterfront land in the country's northwestern interior, a spot coveted by corrupt mayor Vadim (Roman Madyanov) who uses the Russian equivalent of eminent domain to compel the owner to sell.
It's giving nothing away to say Leviathan is a tragedy, although its bleakness is relieved by a few moments of comedy and the stark, sensual beauty of Mikhail Krichman's cinematography. In Russian with subtitles. Special features include deleted scenes, a making-of featurette, and commentary with director Zvyagintsev and producer Alexander Rodnyansky.
Strange Magic (PG, 99 minutes) This frenetically paced animated musical from Lucasfilm Ltd., inspired by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, uses popular songs from decades past (like "Love Is Strange," "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch" and "Fools Rush In") and a cast of fairy-tale creatures (fairies, elves, and such) to illustrate a story about a fierce battle over a magical love potion. With the voices of Alan Cumming, Evan Rachel Wood, Kristin Chenoweth, Maya Rudolph; directed by Gary Rydstrom.
Before I Disappear (unrated, 93 minutes) A skimpy plot padded with side-story filler doesn't give audiences quite enough to chew on in this drama about semi-suicidal Richie (Shawn Christensen), who is forced to re-examine his self-destructive agenda when his estranged sister Maggie (Emmy Rossum) convinces him to mind her preteen daughter Sophia (Fatima Ptacek). Her plea results in an illuminating romp through the seedier side of Manhattan at night. With Ron Perlman, Paul Wesley; written and directed by Christensen.
Cymbeline (R, 85 minutes) Another Shakespeare-inspired film, gritty and often brutal Cymbeline uses simplified Shakespearean language and modern social media technology to focus on a standoff between on-the-take law enforcement and a drug-dealing biker gang that's forced to take extreme action to stay in business. With Ethan Hawke, Dakota Johnson, Milla Jovovich, Ed Harris, Anton Yelchin, Penn Badgley; directed by Michael Almereyda.
Zombeavers (R, 85 minutes) For those in need of something to watch while drinking lots of beer and that's grotesque, goofy and authentically disgusting, here you go. Zombified beavers unite to pounce upon three sorority sisters spending a getaway weekend in a remote cabin, where they're also menaced by a hungry bear, a not-quite-right hunter, and their uninvited boyfriends. With nobody you've ever heard of; directed by Jordan Rubin.
MovieStyle on 05/22/2015