OPENING THIS WEEK:
77 Minutes Almost 33 years ago, an armed gunman walked into a McDonald's in San Ysidro, California, and claimed the lives of 21 people. The survivors tell their story in this documentary, which also explores the thorny question of why it took law enforcement over an hour to get the situation in hand. Filmmaker Charlie Minn, a veteran of TV's America's Most Wanted, is hoping to make a similar film about Pulse. So you might want to check out 77 Minutes to see what you think of his approach before another film crew shows up in town asking questions. (NR)
The Fate of the Furious The title, and the fact that this is the is-there-a-Jesus eighth installment of the rubber-burning franchise, might seem to indicate that things are winding down for Vin Diesel and company. And they are – eventually. Diesel says Fate is the first installment of a trilogy that will bring the series to a close with its tenth outing. And you know what that means: If number 10 makes good bank, expect that trilogy to suddenly turn into a sextology. (PG-13)
Frantz François Ozon (Swimming Pool) directed this loose remake of Ernst Lubitsch's Broken Lullaby, in which a young German woman strikes up a controversial friendship with the Frenchman who killed her fiancé in World War I. The movie is listed as a French-German co-production, but I think it's more fun to call them "collaborators," just because of that whole Vichy thing. (PG-13)
Gifted Geek Nation is up in arms that Chris Evans might be walking away from the role of Captain America after the Infinity War movies. But listen, inhaler boys: He doesn't owe you anything. By that point, he will have made seven pictures as Cap, and so far, most of them have been pretty damn good. Besides, not every movie that gets made has to be about superpowers and galactic conflicts. So Evans has earned the right to focus on smaller, more grounded types of films – like Gifted, in which he plays a single dad whose life gets turned upside down when the world discovers that his 7-year-old daughter is a math whiz. SPOILER: She's a mutant! (PG-13)
Spark If you can't wait until Christmas to learn if Rey is Luke Skywalker's daughter, here's another sci-fi flick about an orphan living on a desolate planet who has to save the universe from an evil conspiracy. The studio says this animated adventure is about "becoming the hero you were born to become." Jesus, they couldn't even afford a verb budget. (PG)
Also playing:
1 Mile to You The story of a midget rapper struggling to fill Eminem's shoes in the competitive world of Detroit's backroom battles. "That's 1-Mile to you!" Actually, I'm totally fucking with ya, and this movie is instead about a teen who takes up competitive running in order to forget his dead girlfriend. But now I really want to see that midget flick. (NR)
Mine Still in search of an honest-to-goodness career, Armie Hammer plays a U.S. soldier who gets stranded in a hostile desert for 52 hours. See, if he had just held out for another 75, he could have been a one-armed James Franco. (NR)
Queen of the Desert Werner Herzog's latest feature stars Nicole Kidman as real-life archaeologist and explorer Gertrude Bell. Poor reviews and weak box office in its native Germany might be the reasons the film is getting a very limited release here, but I'm sure Herzog could tell you it's actually because the universe is monstrously indifferent to the presence of man. (PG-13)
Your Name. Japanese animation goes all Freaky Friday on us, introducing us to two teenagers who don't even know each other but wake up one morning to find that each now inhabits the other's body. Working title: Two Souls, One Cup. (PG)
