Support the Free Press | Facts matter. Truth matters. Journalism mattersSalt Lake City Weekly has been Utah's source of independent news and in-depth journalism since 1984. Donate today to ensure the legacy continues.
Black Beauty, The Croods: A New Age, Uncle Frank and more
Black Beauty **1/2
On the one hand, writer/director Ashley Avis’s adaptation of Anna Sewell’s novel is reasonably faithful in transplanting the story from Victorian England to present-day America; on the other hand, why? On a New York horse farm, trainer Jon Manly (Iain Glen) finds a challenge in breaking a newly-arrived rescued wild mustang (voiced by Kate Winslet)—until the arrival of Manly’s orphaned niece, Jo (Mackenzie Foy).
SLUG Localized goes virtual, Performing Arts Festival call for entries
Localized Gets Virtualized
One SLC concert tradition is surely SLUG Magazine’s Localized concert series, which is paired with editorial pieces on the guests of honor at each show.
Belushi ***1/2
The life and death of John Belushi have been chronicled many times previously—in books, in biopics, in snippets from other documentaries—yet director R. J. Cutler somehow emerges with something that feels more definitive and more compassionate than any of the others. It’s a comprehensive portrait, employing journalist Tanner Colby’s recorded interviews with family members, friends and professional collaborators to track Belushi’s rise from child of Albanian immigrants in the Chicago suburbs to the most popular comedic actor in America.
Frederick Wiseman limits his scope with a focus on one public servant
Because Frederick Wiseman has spent his 50-year-plus career as a documentary filmmaker focusing on institutions—civic, artistic and commercial—there’s an accompanying notion that he doesn’t make movies about people. That should be a preposterous suggestion to anyone who actually watches his movies, which are steeped in the idea that institutions only function because of the passions of those who are part of them, or who hold those institutions to account.
As they have been each month, the Salt Lake Public Library presents a virtualized version of their arts program 12 Minutes Max, featuring a rich roundup of film, dance and music for viewers to tune in to.
Ammonite, Fatman, Freaky, Come Away, Hillbilly Elegy and more
Ammonite ***
If Portrait of a Lady on Fire had not been released just last year, writer/director Francis Lee’s drama might have felt more revelatory—but it was, so it doesn’t. There are still pleasures to be found in the story based on real-life British paleontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet), who in this narrative circa the 1840s is scraping out a living running a gift shop with her mother (Gemma Jones) on the English coast. Into her life steps Roderick Murchison (James McArdle), a dilettante fossil hobbyist who first wants to learn from Mary, then leaves his ailing wife Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan) in her care when he travels abroad.
Let Him Go, The Informer, Jungleland, A Rainy Day in New York and more.
The Informer ***
Co-writer/director Andrea di Stefano has a lot of stuff to pack into her adaptation of a Swedish novel, but keeps her wronged-man narrative at the center just enough to provide a foundation for the dense plotting. Joel Kinnaman plays Pete Koslow, an ex-military ex-con working as an FBI undercover operative inside the Polish mafia.
Often when SLC locals move away, decamping to the likes of L.A. or New York in the hopes of making it, they become, upon that move, e.g. “L.A.-based” artists.
