Beauty and the Beast

Stop the presses!

Burnt

“Burnt” is a cinematic grease fire, a food movie that starts sour and quickly turns rancid.

Woman in Gold, Effie Gray

Woman in Gold

Effie Gray





Even as a critical filmgoer perceives the flaws in Simon Curtis’ “Woman in Gold,” about the late Maria Altmann’s efforts to recover Gustav Klimt’s iconic portrait of her aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, which painting had been seized by the Nazis, he cannot deny its effectiveness or pretend to be surprised by the warm ovation it garners.

Saving Mr. Banks

"Saving Mr. Banks" is almost as square as the trailer makes it look.

Brave

The Disney-Pixar collaboration “Brave” features the upstart’s first female protagonist, a willful Scottish mop of red hair named Princess Merida (Kelly Macdonald), whose mum (the redoubtable Emma Thompson) and pop (Billy Connolly) arrange for three lords’ buffoonish sons to battle for her hand but who has the gall to want to choose her own love, whoever (and whenever) ...it may be. Macdonald and Thompson are too good for the whiny back-and-forth between Merida and Queen Elinor, a mélange of Glaswegian and Encino Birmingham High. The plot takes a turn to the bizarre when a woodcarving witch (Julie Walters) spells Elinor into a bear, which leads to tiresome computer-generated animal fights set to AC radio-ready tracks. “Brave” is dark and short on humor and not much fun for kids or adults. It screens with the deserving animated-short Oscar nominee “La Luna.”