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A busy weekend in local theaters includes three very different kinds of fact-based stories, plus director Tim Burton adapting young-adult fantasy.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (pictured) finds Burton taming his broadest tendencies in service of a way-too-familiar fantasy concept. The inspirational true story of
The Queen of Katwe shines its authenticity through the Disney-approved gloss. Director Jared Hess's fondness for deadpan grotesquerie gets in the way of a terrific cast in the comedy
Masterminds. Long-hidden secrets refuse to stay buried in the thorny, intriguing Polish supernatural drama
Demon. Nanni Moretti's
Mia Madre finds the tale of an emotionally troubled movie director tangled up in distracting farce.
MaryAnn Johanson praises the uniquely female-gaze vengeance narrative at the heart of
The Dressmaker.
In this week's feature review, disaster-movie tropes feel like an awkward fit for the real-world tragedy of
Deepwater Horizon.