Here are the films opening theatrically in the U.S. the week of Friday, May 15. [Synopses provided by distributor unless listed otherwise.]
Wide
Mad Max: Fury Road
Director: George Miller
Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Zoë Kravitz, Riley Keough, Nathan Jones, Adelaide Clemens, Richard Norton, Abbey Lee
Synopsis: “Haunted by his turbulent past, Mad Max believes the best way to survive is to wander alone. Nevertheless, he becomes swept up with a group fleeing across the Wasteland in a War Rig driven by an elite Imperator, Furiosa. They are escaping a Citadel tyrannized by the Immortan Joe, from whom something irreplaceable has been taken. Enraged, the Warlord marshals all his gangs and pursues the rebels ruthlessly in the high-octane Road War that follows.” [Cannes Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: A- (12 reviews)
Pitch Perfect 2
Director: Elizabeth Banks
Cast: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Hailee Steinfeld, Hana Mae Lee, Shelley Regner, Katey Sagal, Ester Dean, Kelley Jakle, Alexis Knapp, Anna Camp, Skylar Astin, Elizabeth Banks
Synopsis: “Collegiate a cappella group the Barden Bellas enter into an international competition that no American team has ever won.”
Criticwire Grade Average: B- (5 reviews)
Where Hope Grows
Director: Chris Dowling
Cast: Danica McKellar, William Zabka, Kerr Smith, McKaley Miller, Kristoffer Polaha, Brooke Burns, David DeSanctis
Synopsis: “Calvin Campbell is a former professional baseball player sent to an early retirement due to his panic attacks at the plate. Even though he had all the talent for the big leagues, he struggles with the curveballs life has thrown him. Today, he mindlessly sleepwalks through his days and the challenge of raising his teenager daughter. His life is in a slow downward spiral when it is suddenly awakened and invigorated by the most unlikely person – Produce, a young-man with Down syndrome who works at the local grocery store.”
Limited
Absolution
Director: Keoni Waxman
Cast: Steven Seagal, Byron Mann, Josh Barnett, Adina Stetcu, Massimo Dobrovic, Vinnie Jones, Sabina Branduse, George Remes, Dominte Cosmin, Lesley-Anne Down, Lauro Chartrand, Sergiu Costache, Maria Bata
Synopsis: “When a contract killer encounters a girl on the run from a dangerous mob boss with powerful political ties, running a human trafficking operation, he is torn between protecting the girl, and remaining loyal to the government agency that hired him.”
Theatrical Release: Select Markets
Animals
Director: Collin Schiffli
Cast: David Dastmalchian, Kim Shaw, John Heard, John Hoogenakker
Synopsis: “The story of Bobbie and Jude, a young couple living in their broken-down car parked alongside Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo. Their days are a continuous ritual of theft and scoring until they must confront the difficult truth of their relationship after one of them is hospitalized.” [SXSW Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: A- (4 reviews)
Theatrical Release: Various (including New York and Los Angeles, Atlanta, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis, Phoenix and Seattle)
Area 51
Director: Oren Peli
Cast: Sandra Staggs, Ben Rovner, Jelena Nik, Roy Abramsohn, David Saucedo, Glenn Campbell, Jonathan Marsh
Synopsis: “Reid has always been obsessed with UFOs. While on a weekend trip to Vegas, he convinces two friends to join him on a mission to break into Area 51, where they find terrifying proof of alien presence.”
Theatrical Release: Select Markets
Childless
Director: Charlie Levi
Cast: Barbara Hershey, Joe Mantegna, James Naughton, Diane Venora, Natalie Dreyfuss, Jordan Baker, Randy Crowder
Synopsis: “Katherine is a typical teenager. Today’s her funeral. The four adults in her life have a lot on their mind – and it’s not all about Katherine either. With a frankness that’s strikingly disarming as well as frequently self-serving, the grown-ups struggle with being…well… grown-up. It’s about time.”
Theatrical Release: New York
The Connection
Director: Cedric Jimenez
Cast: Jean Dujardin, Gilles Lellouche, Céline Sallette, Benoit Magimel
Synopsis: “Marseille, 1975. Pierre Michel, a young police magistrate with a wife and children, has just been transferred to help crack down on the city’s organized crime. He decides to take on the French Connection, a Mafia-run operation that exports heroin all over the world. Not paying heed to any warnings, he leads a one-man campaign against Mafia kingpin Gaëtan Zampa, the most untouchable godfather of all. But Pierre Michel soon discovers that to get results he will have to change his methods.” [Toronto International Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: B (5 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles (expands to various cities nationwide through the beginning of July)
Dark Star: HR Giger’s World
Director: Belinda Sallin
Synopsis: “Surrealist artist H. R. Giger (1940–2014) terrified audiences with his Oscar-winning monsters in Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien.’ Sci-fi, horror, music, album covers, tattoos and fetish art have been influenced by his intricate paintings and sculptures depicting birth, death and sex. Both a mesmerizing introduction to Giger’s oeuvre and a must-see for Giger devotees, Belinda Sallin’s definitive documentary ‘Dark Star: HR Giger’s World’ shares the last years of the artist’s life and reveals how deeply he resided within his own artistic visions.”
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles, San Francisco and Providence, RI (expands to 11 additional markets later this month)
Days of Grace
Director: Evarardo Gout
Cast: Carlos Bardem, Kristian Ferrer, Dolores Heredia, Tenoch Huerta, José Sefami, Ellen Yanez, Mario Zaragoza
Synopsis: “Set in Mexico City over twelve years, benchmarked by the World Cup 2002, 2006 and 2010, the film follows three very disparate lives that intersect as they are impacted by violence and abduction. Lupe (Tenoch Huerta), an idealistic cop, is tasked to investigate a crime ring and finds that justice has no value when a human life has a price. When Susana’s (Dolores Heredia) businessman-husband Arturo is taken, she must go outside the law to fight for his release. And Iguana (Kristyan Ferrer) is conflicted as he dreams of becoming a boxer even as he is drawn into a lifestyle that finds him guarding kidnap Victim X (Carlos Bardem) and facing down a criminal mastermind.”
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles
Echoes of War
Director: Kane Senes
Cast: James Badge Dale, Ethan Embry, William Forsythe, Maika Monroe, Rhys Wakefield
Synopsis: “In post-Civil War Texas, two neighboring families are grieving tragic losses while they struggle to survive in this rural drama. The cattle-ranching McCluskeys have lost both a son and their entire herd to the war. The Rileys, mourning the loss of wife and mother Mary to illness, eke out a living trapping animals and selling their pelts. When Seamus Riley’s brother-in-law Wade returns from fighting for the Confederacy, he soon discovers that Randolph McCluskey and family have been stealing animals from his family’s traps. He decides it is intolerable and takes matters into his own hands, sparking yet another tragic and senseless war.”
Theatrical Release: Various AMC Theaters (including New York and Los Angeles, Boston, Houston, Orlando and Phoenix)
Every Secret Thing
Director: Amy Berg
Cast: Dakota Fanning, Elizabeth Banks, Diane Lane, Colin Donnell, Nate Parker, Bill Sage, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Danielle Macdonald, Common
Synopsis: “One clear summer day in a Baltimore suburb, a baby goes missing from her front porch. Two young girls serve seven years for the crime and are released into a town that hasn’t fully forgiven or forgotten. Soon, another child is missing, and two detectives are called in to investigate the mystery in a community where everyone seems to have a secret.”
Criticwire Grade Average: C (6 reviews)
Theatrical Release: Various (including New York and Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Phoenix)
Good Kill
Director: Andrew Niccol
Cast: January Jones, Ethan Hawke, Zoë Kravitz, Jake Abel, Bruce Greenwood
Synopsis: “In the shadowy world of drone warfare, combat unfolds like a video game–only with real lives at stake. After six tours of duty, Air Force pilot Tom Egan now fights the Taliban from an air-conditioned bunker in the Nevada desert. But as he yearns to get back in the cockpit of a real plane and becomes increasingly troubled by the collateral damage he causes each time he pushes a button, Egan’s nerves—and his relationship with his wife—begin to unravel.”
Criticwire Grade Average: B- (11 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles
Groundswell Rising
Director: Renard Cohen
Synopsis: “A new documentary that captures the passion of people engaged in a David-and-Goliath confrontation. They stand together, challenging a system that promotes profit over health. We meet mothers, fathers, scientists, doctors, farmers and people from all sides of the political spectrum taking a hard look at energy extraction techniques that have not been proven safe. With the oil and gas industry’s expansion of fracking seen as a moral issue, this provocative documentary tracks a people’s movement, a groundswell rising towards reason and sensitivity, to protect life, today and tomorrow.”
Theatrical Release: Los Angeles
I’ll See You in My Dreams
Director: Brett Haley
Cast: Blythe Danner, Martin Starr, Sam Elliott, Malin Akerman, June Squibb, Rhea Perlman, Mary Kay Place
Synopsis: “Carol is a retired schoolteacher and a longtime widow in her 70s. She enjoys a tranquil routine playing cards with close friends, keeping up her garden, and relaxing with a glass of wine. When her beloved dog dies, there’s a mournful vacuum that draws new experiences and attachments into her world. She forges a friendship with her pool guy and allows a pal to drag her to a speed dating shindig. And then there’s the gravelly-voiced, exuberant gentleman, Bill, who comes out of nowhere.” [Sundance Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: B+ (4 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles (expands to various cities throughout the end of the month)
In the Name of My Daughter
Director: André Téchiné
Cast: Guillaume Canet, Catherine Deneuve, Adèle Haenel
Synopsis: “When her marriage falls apart, Agnes Le Roux moves back to the South of France from Africa to live with her mother, Renee, owner of the Palais de La Mediterranee casino in Nice. There, Agnes falls in love with Maurice Agnelet, a lawyer and Renee’s business advisor, who is ten years her senior. Maurice continues to have relationships with other women. Agnes is madly in love with him. As a shareholder in the Palais de la Mediterannee casino, Agnes decides to sell what should have been her inheritance to go it alone. A fixed card game threatens the casino’s financial stability. Someone is trying to intimidate her mother. Behind the scenes hangs the shadow of the mafia and Fratoni, the owner of a rival casino, who wants to take over the Palais de la Mediterannee. Agnelet, who has fallen from grace with Renee, introduces Agnes to Fratoni. Fratoni offers her 3 million francs to vote against her mother in the shareholder’s meeting. Agnes accepts the offer. Renee loses control of the casino. Agnes finds it hard to cope with her betrayal. Maurice also distances himself from her. In November 1977, after a failed suicide attempt, Agnes disappears. Her body is never found. Thirty years on, Maurice Agnelet remains the prime suspect in a murder case with no body and no proof of his guilt. Convinced of his involvement, Renee is prepared to fight to the bitter end to see him put behind bars…”
Criticwire Grade Average: B (9 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles (expands to various cities throughout the end of the month)
Know How
Director: Juan Carlos Pineiro-Escoriaza
Cast: Deshawn Brown, Niquana Clark, Michael Dew
Synopsis: “Five youth’s worlds interweave as they confront loss, heartbreak, and come of age in this tale about transience and perseverance. Addie struggles to graduate from high school while her best friend Marie loses a grandmother. Megan copes with being taken from her abusive family and faces the harsh reality of living in a residential treatment center. All the while Eva works to be mother to her sister while their father falls deeper into a crack addiction. Finally, there’s Austin who’s living on the street with his brother; barely able to feed himself. All of them must decide to survive or else fall victim to a broken system.”
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles
Miles to Go
Director: Quincy Rose
Cast: Quincy Rose, Jen McPherson, Zack Tiegen, Kim Argetsinger, Maggie Rowe, Amelia Morck, Emily Arlook, Toni Romano, Drew Bell, Alex Moglan
Synopsis: “A writer from Los Angeles, who doesn’t believe that relationships can last, struggles to mend his most recent failed relationship, believing it may just be the key to his success and happiness in life.”
Theatrical Release: Los Angeles
One Cut, One Life
Director: Lucia Small & Ed Pincus
Synopsis: “When documentarian Ed Pincus, considered the father of first-person non-fiction film, is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he and collaborator Lucia Small team up to make one last film – much to the chagrin of Jane, Ed’s wife of 50 years. Ed and Lucia’s unique approach to filming offers an intimacy rarely seen in docs, questioning whether some things might be too private to be made public.”
Theatrical Release: New York and Boston (opens in Los Angeles on June 12th)
Our Man in Tehran
Director: Drew Taylor & Larry Weinstein
Cast: Ken Taylor
Synopsis: “Chronicles the true story behind Argo’s Hollywood embellishments by looking at the efforts of the venerable Ken Taylor, Canada’s former ambassador to Iran, who personally sheltered six American diplomats in the operation that became known as ‘the Canadian Caper.'”
Theatrical Release: New York
Pound of Flesh
Director: Ernie Barbarash
Cast: Jean-Claude van Damme, John Ralston, Charlotte Peters, Darren Shahlavi, Aki Aleong, Jason Tobin
Synopsis: “In China to donate his kidney to his dying niece, former black-ops agent Deacon awakes the day before the operation to find he is the latest victim of organ theft. Stitched up and pissed-off, Deacon descends from his opulent hotel in search of his stolen kidney and carves a blood-soaked path through the darkest corners of the city. The clock is ticking for his niece and with each step he loses blood.”
Theatrical Release: Los Angeles
Slow West
Director: John Maclean
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Ben Mendelsohn, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Caren Pistorius, Rory McCann
Synopsis: “Jay is a lovelorn 17-year-old Scottish aristocrat who travels to the American West at the close of the 19th century to track down his former lover. Confronted with the harsh realities of the frontier, he falls in with a rough and mysterious traveler named Silas, who soon discovers that the focus of Jay’s affection has a price on her head. Together, the two navigate a vast, untamed wilderness while attempting to stay one step ahead of a bloodthirsty posse and colorful bounty hunter. Their search leads to a bloody confrontation where Jay’s romanticism is the first of many casualties.” [Sundance Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: B+ (20 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles (expands to various cities nationwide through the end of June)
The Surface
Director: Gil Cates Jr.
Cast: Sean Astin, Mimi Rogers, Chris Mulkey, John Emmett Tracy, Elvis Thao, Jeff Gendelman, Sam Fuhrer, Rachel Renee, Deleono Johnson, David John Rosenthal
Synopsis: “Two strangers, both at the end of their rope, suddenly meet in the middle of the unpredictable waters of Lake Michigan.”
Theatrical Release: Various (including cities in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin)
Time Lapse
Director: Bradley King
Cast: Danielle Panabaker, Matt O’Leary, George Finn, John Rhys-Davies, Amin Joseph, Jason Spisak, David Figlioli, Sharon Maughan, Judith Drake, Mark C. Hanson
Synopsis: “‘Time Lapse’ explores the possibilities of time travel through a machine that is capable of taking pictures 24 hours into the future. When three friends discover this mysterious machine in their neighbor’s apartment, they encounter a number of pressing questions, not least of which is the whereabouts of their neighbor. Realizing the potential impact of the machine, Finn, Jasper and Callie attempt to cash in on their discovery. But, when a dangerous criminal learns their secret, the friends must set aside their differences and confront the paradox of a future that was once predetermined and entirely uncertain.”
Theatrical Release: New York
Two Shots Fired
Director: Martin Rejtman
Cast: Susana Pampin, Rafael Federman, Laura Paredes, Mariel Fernandéz, Benjamin Coelho, Manuela Martelli, Camila Fabbri, Fabián Arenillas, Walter Jakob, María Inés Sancerni
Synopsis: “Sixteen-year-old Mariano (Rafael Federman), inexplicably and without warning, shoots himself twice—once in the stomach and once in the head—and improbably survives. As his family strains to protect Mariano from himself, his elder brother (Benjamín Coehlo) pursues a romance with a disaffected girl (Laura Paredes) who works the counter at a fast-food restaurant, his mother (Susana Pampin) impulsively takes off on a trip with a stranger, and Mariano recruits a young woman (Manuela Martelli) to join his medieval wind ensemble.” [Film Society of Lincoln Center]
Criticwire Grade Average: B- (6 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York
Missed last week? Here are all the releases from the weekend of May 8.
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