The Secret Life of Pets, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Captain Fantastic, Our Little Sister, Nuts!, Zero Days

The Secret Life of Pets (my rating)

The Secret Life of Pets (Scruffies' rating)

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

Captain Fantastic

Our Little Sister

Nuts!

Zero Days

Tonal dissonance is the common thread in a weak week at the movies:

The Interview, A Most Violent Year, Cake

The Interview

Cake

A Most Violent Year

Capsule reviews on three of the last four films of 2014. Only “Leviathan” remains and I’ll see it tonight.

Into the Woods

Rob Marshall, who directed the Oscar-winning adaptation of “Chicago” (2002), again gives moviegoers a Christmas gift with the disproportionately enjoyable “Into the Woods,” with book by James Lapine and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

Happy Christmas

Joe Swanberg's "Happy Christmas" packs more truth into less runtime than any movie since "Don Jon."

Drinking Buddies

 

Writer-director Joe Swanberg's "Drinking Buddies" is a slice-of-life movie that grows on you even after it ends, with its keenly observed relationships and refusal to conform to pat expectations.

Seven Psychopaths, Pitch Perfect

Seven Psychopaths

Pitch Perfect

Martin McDonagh's "Seven Psychopaths" is the latest in a seemingly endless stream of ultraviolent comedies with high-toned, non-sequitur dialogue between the bloody murders. Despite the presence of "In Bruges" star Colin Farrell, only rarely does "Seven" attain the farcical momentum or genial ingratiation of that, McDonagh's best film. Too often the writing aims for an epic, "Usual Suspects" grandeur while achieving only occasional absurdist laughs. Christopher Walken turns in a toned-down, effective performance, and Woody Harrelson makes an excellent psychopath-among-psychopaths, but "Seven" remains more a concept than a fully inhabited film.