The Magnificent Seven, Queen of Katwe, The Dressmaker, Goat, My Blind Brother, Cameraperson, The Lovers and the Despot

The Magnificent Seven

Queen of Katwe



The Dressmaker

Goat



My Blind Brother

Cameraperson



The Lovers and the Despot

Capsules on a movie week of great highs and modest lows:

Selma

Airless, flat and squirmy, Ava DuVernay’s “Selma” is the epitome of what I call the “broccoli movie”: you’re supposed to see it because it’s good for you.

Lee Daniels' The Butler

"Lee Daniels' The Butler" is a 90-minute commercial for OWN, followed by a 30-minute commercial for the president. It's been called a black "Forrest Gump," and while it's much better than that flatulent film, it suffers from the same events-driven approach to history you'd find in a grade-school textbook, mixed with a staid and self-satisfied pomposity that too often keeps it from coming to life. The driving emotion behind the movie appears to have been Daniels' fear that someone might accuse him of leaving anything (or any Obama donor in Hollywood) out.

Jack Reacher

It’s often better not to have read the book. That way, you don’t know, for example, that Tom Cruise looks nothing like the hero of Lee Child’s series, and it’s possible to think Cruise’s sleek, jet-black masculinity and reluctant heroism bring interest to a cryptic part defined more by who he isn’t than who he is. “The Usual Suspects” screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie takes the director’s chair for only the second time, and delivers a crisp, enjoyable crime thriller – albeit one that’s mostly solved by the halfway point. He’s assembled a great supporting cast, including Richard Jenkins, David Oyelowo, Werner Herzog as the chief baddie, Robert Duvall (who’s having a blast and brings needed wit and levity to the second hour), and the winsome Rosamund Pike, the best thing about last year’s insufferable “Barney’s Version.” I’d love to see more big parts for Pike, but I wish her defense attorney here, Helen Rodin, were a worthier counterpart to Reacher (that is to say, smarter). Mostly, he has to drag her along from clue to clue, and it’s not a great sign that we’re often two steps ahead of her.

The Paperboy, The Oranges

The Paperboy

The Oranges

Both have been trashed by critics, but I'm going to recommend "The Paperboy" and "The Oranges," two films with nothing in common but a strong sense of self. They know exactly what they mean to do, and do it.