Entertainment_Weekly_Issue_1456_March_10_2017

56 EW.COM MARCH 10, 2017

SLIGHT EVEN BY THE WAFER-

thin standards of the wedding

rom-com genre, writer-director

Jeffrey Blitz’sTable 19 offers a couple of mild

chuckles, six actors who’ve all been far better

elsewhere, and a mercifully brief running

time. Anna Kendrick (and her dimples) stars

as the plucky flibbertigibbet friend of the

bride who was recently dumped by the best

man (Wyatt Russell) and gets exiled to a

table of assorted losers that includes Stephen

Merchant, Craig Robinson, Lisa Kudrow,

June Squibb, and Tony Revolori. Together

this island of misfit toys bond while getting

high, causing some harmless chaos, and

learning a few life lessons. Honestly, you’re

better off saying “I don’t.”C

Table 19

STARRING Anna Kendrick, Tony Revolori

DIRECTED BY Jeffrey Blitz

RATING PG-13 | LENGTH 1 hr., 27 mins.

REVIEW BY Chris Nashawaty@ChrisNashawaty

4

SET AGAINST THE

star-stacked, history-

sweeping account

of the gay rights movement

offered by ABC’s ambitious new

four-part docudramaWhen We

Rise, filmmaker Eddie Rosen-

stein’s modest documentary

may feel like a niche undertak-

ing, but it still carves out its own

worthy place in the struggle.

Focused primarily on activist

Evan Wolfson and attorney

Mary Bonauto, both of whom

have devoted their lives to mar-

riage equality,Freedom provides

a boots-on-the-ground account

of the state-by-state battles that

ultimately led all the way to the

U.S. Supreme Court. If the

story’s outcome is hardly a

mystery—the landmark case

was affirmed by a 5–4 margin in

June 2015—and the look of the

film itself a little docu-drab, it’s

also a shrewd and frequently

moving testament to the true

nature of change: a thing built

not just on grandly eloquent

Atticus Finch-style speeches and

decisive moments of triumph

but on the incremental, often

tedious labor that bends—in its

own grinding, unglorious way—

the long arc toward justice.B+

The Freedom

to Marry

DIRECTED BY Eddie Rosenstein

RATING NR | LENGTH1 hr., 26 mins.

REVIEW BY Leah Greenblatt
@Leahbats

Hugh Jackman

Evan Wolfson and Mary Bonauto Tony Revolori and Anna Kendrick

LOGAN, THE THIRD WOLVERINE

movie, is a strange contradiction:

When not showering you in blood,

it’s trying to make you spill tears. In the end,

there are both hits and misses.

HITHUGH JACKMANJackman is so ripped he

resembles an overinflated balloon animal,

but his biggest feat is the unexpected exis-

tential pain he gives a character we thought

we already knew.

MISSCLICHÉSLogan must watch over a little-

girl mutant (Dafne Keen) who has gifts like

his own. It’s a protect-the-cub trope familiar

toAliens orTerminator 2fans. Plus, can we

stop using Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” in films?

HITBLOODSHEDLogan is the goriest X-Men

outing by a mile. Those adamantium claws

can cut.

MISSSENTIMENTALITYBeloved characters die

and parental emotions are exploited in what

may go down as the first three-hankie comic-

book movie.

HITTHE ENDINGThe last shot of what’s prob-

ably the last Wolverine film is a perfect

grace note.B–

Logan

STARRING Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart

DIRECTED BY James Mangold

RATING R | LENGTH 2 hrs., 20 mins.

REVIEW BYChris Nashawaty@ChrisNashawaty

LOGAN

: BEN ROTHSTEIN/FOX;

THE FREEDOM TO MARRY

: ARGOT PICTURES;

TABLE 19

: JACE DOWNS/FOX SEARCHLIGHT