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Friday, March 11, 2016
Movie Reviews: 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Young Messiah, The Brothers Grimsby
Embrace of the Serpent, A War, Singing With Angels
Posted By Scott Renshaw on March 11, 2016, 8:34 AM
A pair of faith-based dramas, a pair of Oscar-nominated foreign films and one terrific psychological thriller are among the new releases in Utah theaters this week.
The best of the bunch is 10 Cloverfield Lane (pictured), which takes its story of a woman who awake ns in a fallout shelter and turns it into a brilliantly tense character piece (with a great John Goodman performance). The Danish drama A War follows a soldier in Afghanistan and his wife back at home, but makes the mistake of trying to tell too many stories at once. Embrace of the Serpent offers stunning visuals in its tale of two journeys through the Amazon Basin, but ultimately seems most concerned with a lecture on simple wisdom vs. Western rapaciousness. The music of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is the real star of Singing With Angels, a fictionalized story about a choir member with enough melodrama to make you wish it was just a straightforward documentary. And the story of a 7-year-old Jesus in The Young Messiah too often loses track of its compelling look at a human family wrestling with being part of a divine plan.
In this week's feature review, MaryAnn Johanson wonders what happened to the Sacha Baron Cohen who used to speak truth to power, now instead punching down in The Brothers Grimsby.
Also opening this week, but not screened for press: the dark psycho-sexual drama The Perfect Match.
The best of the bunch is 10 Cloverfield Lane (pictured), which takes its story of a woman who awake ns in a fallout shelter and turns it into a brilliantly tense character piece (with a great John Goodman performance). The Danish drama A War follows a soldier in Afghanistan and his wife back at home, but makes the mistake of trying to tell too many stories at once. Embrace of the Serpent offers stunning visuals in its tale of two journeys through the Amazon Basin, but ultimately seems most concerned with a lecture on simple wisdom vs. Western rapaciousness. The music of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is the real star of Singing With Angels, a fictionalized story about a choir member with enough melodrama to make you wish it was just a straightforward documentary. And the story of a 7-year-old Jesus in The Young Messiah too often loses track of its compelling look at a human family wrestling with being part of a divine plan.
In this week's feature review, MaryAnn Johanson wonders what happened to the Sacha Baron Cohen who used to speak truth to power, now instead punching down in The Brothers Grimsby.
Also opening this week, but not screened for press: the dark psycho-sexual drama The Perfect Match.
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