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By Roger Costa
THE INVISIBLES
Set in 1943 Berlin, director Claus Räfle’s debut follows the risky adventures of four people who managed to skip deportation and camp incarceration, hiding under various circumstances as well as embodying a new identity from Nazi enemies. Impressively structured as a docudrama, blending archive footage, dramatization and testimonies from the real survivors, Räfle conducts the material with both elegance and urgency, creating a sumptuous thriller. His lenses are able to capture revealing, heartbreaking moments as we hear the incredible stories told with enthusiasm and moving relief by the elderly heroes. The thrilling depiction of fear and threat along with the convincingly edgy performances have perfect chemistry and pace, giving their dramas an exciting, suspenseful wardrobe. It’s a haunting experience about the torments of war, how to make amends with memory and tragedy, and the pressure of living next to the enemy. (Greewich Entertainment. 1/25. Quad Cinema and Landmark at 57.)
THE UPSIDE
A complete entertaining vehicle, this blockbuster hit is a heartwarming, funny and unexpectedly satisfying remake of a French film. Director Neil Burger (The Illusionist, Limitless) continues to build up a brilliant career, using a unique, sophisticated, seductive yet universally-reachable aesthetic to address relationships. Flirting with the comedy terrain for the first time, he accurately exercises irreverence with sarcastic humor on the racial and social classes conflicts of the plot. Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston are perfectly synchronized in the main roles, a contagiously affecting buddy-experiment while developing a fabulous parallel of two completely different men in all aspects. Hart plays an ex-con struggling with his family separation, debts and his recklessly lazy low-life habits; Cranston is a cold-heart, art-lover billionaire widow confined to a wheelchair, unable to move any of his members but his neck. A job oportunity puts them together, as they will learn important lessons from each other. Though it’s inevitably supported by cliches, the superb performances, including a strong Nicole Kidman as the ill man’s lonely personal assistant and Tate Donovan as a nosy neighbor, the dialogue and comic situations have a fresh breathe, reigning over the dramatic elements and co-dependence message behind. (STX Entertainment. 1/24. Regal Union Square.)
ALSO SHOWING
In ESCAPE ROOM a group of youngsters defy death while playing mortal games set by a mega company. As they enter the rooms, they find clues on how to escape it before it kills them. Adam Robitel’s follow-up to last year horrible “Insidious Last Key” is efficient, well designed but poorly performed and as predictable as it is convinced of its (lack of) chills’ skills. Legendary director M. Night Shyamalan returns with GLASS, an encounter between two of his most successful films, “Unbreakable” and “Split”. As both men with “super powers” are imprisoned by merciless scientists, James McAvoy (delivering laughable, freaky twists of personalities) and Bruce Willis (forcing his aged physical appeal, though hauntingly convincing under the dark cape), reprise their infamous roles, leading to a collaboration with the always reliable Samuel L. Jackson (as the lunatic brain controller of the title) who’s also under the frequently fantastic Sarah Paulson’s doctor’s commands, as she runs the ultra specialized in such meta-physicality facility. The premise was promising, and kicks off well, but it reduces itself to just that, focusing on boredom, explanations, unnecessary flashbacks, and the inevitable final confrontation. All done with the taste of senseless. Families, kids and dog lovers alike should enjoy A DOG’S WAY HOME, which follows the incredible story of a female Pit bull that traveled for years in search of its owner. Accomplished director Charles Martin Smith is a master of family animal films, and here he subtly addresses human relations with coherence, adding contemporary social issues to the charming, efficient and fantastical adventurous plot. Keanu Reeves offers this year’s first ridiculously confusing experience in the futuristic thriller REPLICAS. As he brings back to life his family members after a car crash, using unsafe and not-yet-tested replicas, the complex story delves into illogical twists and resolutions. Director Jeffrey Nachmanoff showed off promising talent with 2008’s “Traitor”, and perhaps the decade absence didn’t do him much good. Even Matrix’s fans, from where he obviously extracts the same “embodiment” spectrum, will be disappointed.
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