ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL
OUTNOW/ RATEDM/121 MINSA comic-book adaptation that’s been on the King
Of The World’s back-burner since before the
Titanic sank, Robert Rodriguez rescues James
Cameron’s angel from purgatory but struggles
to give her a 21st-century story to match her
bleeding-edge visuals. Alita’s oversized emoji-
face is an eye-opening technical achievement
for sure, the closest Hollywood has come to
capturing the spirit of manga, butBattle Angelis
otherwise an old-school adventure that stopped
downloading new updates in the ’90s (see:
scruffy urchins playing futuristic street sports;
British cyber-punks with Mohawks; Jeff Fahey).
Your mileage may vary depending on your
tolerance forPhantom Menace-esque story
beats and blatant sequel set-ups, but the action
is sharp and well defined, and heck, sometimes
it’s fun to watch Oscar winners — three of them!
— slumming it in the modern-day equivalent of
a video-store cult classic.ALI GRAYDUMBO
OUTNOW/PG/112 MINSTim Burton and Disney were famously not
a good fit when the director was starting out
in animation. But time is a great healer, and
now here he is with this live-action take on
beloved 1941 animation,Dumbo. From the
lovely wordless montage that opens it, Burton
is as playful and emotionally honest as he
has been since 2003’sBig Fish, as Colin
Farrell, Eva Green, Danny DeVito and various
circus folk (Burton once again delighting in
painting ‘freaks’ as heroes) try to protect the
title star, the cutesy flying elephant, from the
avaricious clutches of Michael Keaton’s
billionaire theme park owner. And there’s the
rub: while this may seem unusually sweet
and devoid of satirical sting at first glance,
consider this: Burton has made a Disney
movie in which the bad guy is, essentially,
Walt Disney. Maybe they’re still not quite
a good fit.CHRIS HEWITTBORDER
OUTNOW/ RATEDMA15+/110 MINS
Adapted from a short story byLet The Right One
Inauthor John Ajvide Lindqvist,Borderis another
freaky fable about born outsiders, unorthodox
love and unusual genitals. When unconventional-
looking border agent Tina (Eva Melander) meets
equally odd maggot-smuggler Vore (Eero
Milonoff), they embark on a relationship that
yields one of cinema’s most surprising reveals:
I won’t spoil it here, but let’s just say this is a folk
tale about folk with tails. Part love story, part
crime mystery,Bordertakes a surreal approach
to notions of identification and fluid bodies, only
occasionally stumbling with excessive exposition
and a deeply uncomfortable child-abuse subplot.
But there’s poignancy at its heart, and Melander
is terrific as Tina, projecting all sorts of emotions
through layers of potentially restrictive
prosthetics. Nordic weirdness meetsThe League
Of Gentlemen’s Edward and Tubbs; there’s
definitely something for you here.NEIL ALCOCK
TeamEmpireon
the month’s essential
movies
FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY
OUTNOW
RATEDM/108 MINSMuch like professional wrestling itself, the
outcome ofFighting With My Family— a tale
of WWE superstar Paige’s rise to stardom —
is fixed, but over a crowdpleasing 108 minutes
it reveals itself to have plenty in its corner to
help elevate it beyond the standard sports
movie clichés. Topping that list is Florence
Pugh, convincing whether she’s selling a punch
or reckoning with Paige’s authentic self, and as
her brother who must come to terms with
giving up on his dream, Jack Lowden’s quietly
devastating turn is not far behind. Indeed,
you don’t need to be a wrestling fan for these
themes to resonate, and writer-director
Stephen Merchant does well to make the
familial relationships — which consistently get
an alternately funny and warm boost from Nick
Frost and Lena Headey — hit just as hard as
any slam inside the ring.AMON WARMANNCAPTAIN MARVEL
OUTNOW
RATEDM/123 MINSPledging a fierce loyalty to the MCU’s first
female origin story, Captain Marvel is all at once
a feminist anthem, buddy caper and possibly the
studio’s most anti-Trump chapter to date. Set in
the grunge-tinged ’90s, Brie Larson plays Vers,
an intergalactic Kree soldier with few memories
of her past. An encounter with Skrull nemesis
Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), however, sends our
heroine on a journey to Earth in pursuit of a
weapon that will change the war and her legacy
permanently. Not since Robert Downey Jr and
Iron Man has the transition between a star and
their MCU counterpart felt so seamless, and
Larson’s pairing with Samuel L. Jackson’s
deftly de-aged Nick Fury makes for a delightful
friendship. Tackling topical themes to
generational bangers from No Doubt, Nirvana
and R.E.M. earns the film bonus points, as does
Mendelsohn’s flair for alien ad-lib.BETH WEBB