Kam Williams’ Weekly Previews That Make Choosing a Film Fun
Kam’s Kapsules this week include three big budget films, including Barbershop: The Next Cut, and eight Independent or foreign films. So there is a lot to watch this week. Check out the ratings, because they are unrated, PG and R.
Big Budget Films
Barbershop: The Next Cut
Barbershop: The Next Cut is the third installment of the Barbershop urban comedy franchise.
This time, Calvin and the crew are in the Chicago South Side barber shop either fretting over the gang violence claiming lives or getting into lighthearted battles-of-the-sexes. Calvin is played by Ice Cube, and the ensemble cast includes Regina Hall, Cedric the Entertainer, Eve, Regina Hall, Common, J.B. Smoove, Anthony Anderson, Nicki Minaj and Deon Cole.
At Rottentomatoes, The Next Cut had 82% of 4,242 visitors saying they want to see it.
Barbershop: The Next Cut is rated PG-13 for profanity and sexuality.
Criminal
Criminal is a suspense thriller about a recently-deceased CIA agent, played by Gal Gadot.
The agent’s memory and skills are implanted into the brain of a dangerous convict, played by Kevin Costner. The aim is a last-ditch effort to foil a terrorist plot. Also stars Tommy Lee Jones, Ryan Reynolds, Alice Eve and Gary Oldman.
Criminal is much anticipated, with 96% wanting to see it out of 14,299 polled.
Criminal is rated R due to graphic violence and pervasive profanity.
The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book is a live-action/CGI remake of Disney’s well-known animated classic. The story is about an orphan called Mowgli, played by Neel Sethi.
Mowgli is raised in the forest by a black panther, with the voice of Ben Kingsley, a bear voiced by Bill Murray and a couple of wolves voiced by Lupita Nyong’o and Giancarlo Esposito. The cast includes Idris Elba, Scarlett Johansson, Christopher Walken and the late Garry Shandling.
The Jungle Book is rated PG due to the scenes of peril and scary action.
See the 8 Independent & Foreign Films below.
Independent & Foreign Films
13 Cameras
13 Cameras is a psychological horror movie about newlyweds Ryan and Claire, played by PJ McCabe and Brianne Moncrief, who move into a rental home across the country from where they lived before. Their landlord Gerald is an evil Peeping Tom, played by Neville Archambault. Gerald invades their privacy by secretly installing surveillance cameras all around their new home. Eventually, he starts to physically invade their privacy. With Sarah Baldwin, Sean Carrigan and Jim Cummings. 13 Cameras is Unrated.
The Adderall Diaries
James Franco stars in The Adderall Diaries, an adaptation of reporter Stephen Elliott’s memoir of the same name. The Adderall Diaries recounts Elliott’s struggle with substance abuse and writer’s block while covering a bizarre murder trial. The cast includes Amber Heard, Cynthia Nixon, Ed Harris, Christian Slater and Wilmer Valderrama. The Adderall Diaries is rated R for sexuality, drug use, disturbing content and pervasive profanity.
Hostile Border
Hostile Border is an American Dream drama about Claudia, an undocumented immigrant, who is deported after committing credit card fraud. Claudia, played by Veronica Sixtos, speaks no Spanish and seeks out her estranged father. That doesn’t work out and she tries to return to the U.S. With Jesse Garcia, Jorge Jimenez and Julio Cedillo. (In English and Spanish with subtitles). Hostile Border is rated R for violence, profanity, nudity and graphic sexuality.
The Measure of a Man
The Measure Of A Man is a midlife crisis drama, set in France. Vincent Lindon plays Thierry, a newly unemployed blue-collar worker laid off from his factory job. He submits to a series of humiliating ordeals as he searches for work. There are futile retraining courses that take him nowhere, Skype interviews, and an interview-coaching workshop critique of his self-presentation skills.
All of this seems to be an effort to strip him of his identity and self-respect, while reengineering a new type of workforce for a neoliberal technocratic system. The supporting cast includes Yves Ory, Matthieu Schaller and Karine de Mirbeck.
The Measure Of A Man is in French with subtitles and is Unrated.
Our Last Tango
Our Last Tango is a reverential biopic story of love, hatred and passion. It chronicles the 50-year career and enduring relationship of the most famous dance partners in the history of the Tango, Argentina’s Maria Nieves Rego and Juan Carlos Copes. The two met as teenagers and they danced together for almost their whole lives, until a painful separation tore them apart.
Our Last Tango is delivered in Spanish with subtitles and is Unrated.
Sing Street
Sing Street is a coming-of-age tale, set in Dublin in the 1980s. A troubled 14 year-old boy called Connor, played by Ferdia Walsh-Peelo. Connor runs away from home to London because of his parents’ money problems and bad relationship. He goes to an inner-city school and discovers that while the kids are rough, the teachers are worse. With Aidan Gillen, Jack Reynor and Maria Doyle Kennedy.
All 23 critics who have reviewed this film so far, rate it fresh.
Sing Street is rated PG-13 for profanity, mature themes, bullying, drug use, teen smoking and a suggestive image.
Sky
Sky is a marital crisis drama about a battered French woman, played by Diane Kruger. She leaves her husband, played by Gilles Lellouche, for parts unknown while they’re vacationing in California. Cast includes Lena Dunham, Norman Reedus and Lou Diamond Phillips.
Sky is in English and French with subtitles, and is Unrated.
The Syndrome
The Syndrome is a criminal justice expose’ that debunks the junk science underpinning the diagnosis of Shaken Baby Syndrome which has led to the conviction and incarceration of many innocent people.
The Syndrome is Unrated.
