In Theaters This Weekend: 'Boyhood' and 'Apes' Wow the Critics

There are two excellent options at the movies this weekend, one a wide release blockbuster and one a specialty opening that, based on all accounts, is going to be sticking around for a very long time and probably headed to the Oscar stage next year, even at this early date. But Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the first showing, which got pretty great reviews this week, scoring a 91% Fresh rating and a 79 on Metacritic (which is actually pretty high for them, especially for a franchise release). The first movie, Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011, was no slouch, but most are saying this one is better, darker and sets the stage perfectly for the next entry in the series:

"It's a satisfying movie and an example- a dispiritingly rare one these days- of what mainstream Hollywood filmmaking can still achieve." (New York TImes)

"Dawn's vision of masses of intelligent apes swarming the screen as masters of all they survey is even more impressive than it was the last time around and reason enough to see the film all by itself." (Los Angeles Times)

"Within the fertile area between promise and execution, Dawn is dynamite entertainment, especially in the rousing first hour." (Rolling Stone)

If Dawn got great reviews all around though, it's nothing compared to the absolutely astonishing reception that Richard Linklater's Boyhood is getting in limited release. The movie was highly praised at Sundance, but that now turns out to be something of an understatement, as it still maintains a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes (with 95 reviews in no less) and an unbelievable 99 on Metacritic, which makes it, and I'm not kidding, one of the best reviewed movies of all time (comparable with only classics on those sites). The praise isn't just high- words like "masterpiece" and "American classic" are being thrown around, which means this movie is very likely headed for the Oscars, even though summer releases rarely do that well. But I can't imagine any other movie this year getting this kind of reaction. You're going to want to check this one out (if only just to see if the reviews are overrating it):

"There isn't anything else quite like 'Boyhood' in the history of cinema, although that wouldn't matter one-fifth as much if it weren't a moving and memorable viewing experience in the end." (Salon)

"'Boyhood' is an epic masterpiece that seems wholly unconcerned with trying to be one." (USA Today)

"I can think of few feature films in the history of the medium that have explored the power, and the melancholy, of film's intimate enmeshment with time in the way Richard Linklater's 'Boyhood' does." (Slate)

"Richard Linklater's coming-of-age tale is the best movie of the year, a four-star game-changer that earns its place in the cultural landscape." (Rolling Stone)

"There's a rough-edged, organic quality to 'Boyhood' that recalls the work of those European helmers Linklater so admires: Fassbinder, Bergman, Bresson." (Variety)

TEASER: "Exodus: Gods and Kings"

Gotta say, the first trailer for Exodus doesn't really make it look all that special. Seems like just your typical Ridley Scott, Kingdom of Heaven-esque bible epic to me. But I guess we'll find out when it's released on December 12th. For now though? Unimpressed.

TRAILER: "Unbroken"

The Christmas release Unbroken, from Angelina Jolie, finally has a full length trailer. Based on the book by Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand about the life of Olympic athlete and WWII hero Louis Zamperini (who just died a couple weeks ago), and starring Jack O'Connell in the lead role, but it looks like pretty standard Oscar bait to me. This trailer pushes hard on the oh-so-inspirational theme of the story, but I guess Seabiscuit did the same thing. I don't know- the buzz (sight unseen of course) is that this was supposed to be one of the big movies of the year, but I'm guessing it'll turn out similar to movies like War Horse and The Butler. Too middlebrow and corny to garner serious Oscar attention (aside from Roger Deakins' visuals, which look great as always). Even Wild looks less heavy-handed.

TRAILER + POSTER: "Wild"

The trailer for Wild, the next movie from Dallas Buyers Club director Jean-Marc Vallee, looks like it exists to be an acting showcase for Reese Witherspoon, kind of like Dallas was for McConaughey. With a release date of December 5th, that can only be a good thing because frankly, Reese hasn't been in a decent movie since Walk the Line nine years ago. This is based on the memoir by Cheryl Strayed, who hiked 1000 miles along the Pacific Coast after the breakup of her marriage and death of her mother. With a screenplay by Nick Hornby (author of High Fidelity and About a Boy), it has all the right ingredients to be a heavy awards player, so I'm guessing that she bags her second Oscar nomination for this.

Poster:

TEASER #2: "Mockingjay, Part I"

The second teaser for the Hunger Games sequel arrived today, again playing up the realness of the Panem universe. This one's called "Unity" and contains an appearance from Jeffery Wright. I can only presume that Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss will eventually show up in one of these teasers herself, right?

TRAILER: "The Zero Theorem"

Terry Gilliam is very much an acquired taste. The director of Brazil, The Fisher King, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and 12 Monkeys has a devoted cult fanbase, but he's so particular in his appeal that his latest film (which premiered at Venice almost a year ago) couldn't even secure a wide theatrical release and is instead coming out on VOD August 19th. I like him some of the time (my favorites are Fear and Loathing and 12 Monkeys, but I kind of hated The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus), and all I can say about this one is that it certainly looks like a Terry Gilliam movie. What do you think?

REVIEW: "Only Lovers Left Alive" (2014) Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston. Dir. Jim Jarmusch

Sometimes in a movie you meet characters that you just want to hang out with for as long as you can. There are certain movies that are all about what's known as the "hangout" vibe, like Dazed and Confused, or the 1987 cult classic Withnail and I (one of my favorite comedies). Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive is another superb entry in that particular genre, containing one of the coolest movie couples ever, the immortals Adam and Eve, played by Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton. Really, the casting is absolutely perfect- who else immediately embodies such an inherent "cool" factor than those two?

Vampires are creatures that have been done to death in movies and on TV, most egregiously by the Twilight series, which took pride in destroying the whole concept and everything that makes vampires such romantic and endearing figures in the first place. But Jarmusch comes at it from a different place- it's really his own lethargic, laid-back tone that sets up the atmosphere for these disillusioned modern day vamps camped out in Detroit (what better hiding ground, right?). Hiddleston is Adam, who's seemingly in his thirties yet been dead for centuries, and he's a morose, romantic manic-depressive who spends his days whittling away at making music that he sends out into underground clubs via proxies, and collecting instruments that include antique guitars he takes pains to remind us the value of. Anton Yelchin is his human buddy who idolizes him and goes out of his way to bring him anything he needs, including, with no questions asked, a wooden bullet that Adam is apparently going to use to end his long-lasting agony.

But his wife of several hundred years will have none of that, as she's Tilda Swinton, a cool, calm, collected and enlightened immortal, somewhat older than her hubbie (whom she may have turned, but we never find out), and though they go through periods of estrangement, she always shows up whenever she needs to pull her beloved out of his rut, which she blames on the influence of his old pals Byron and Shelley (of course). So she does it again this time, turning up in Detroit to coax him out of his depressive phase and back onto his love for her. Eve loves life, and looks back fondly on the history and events they've witnessed, particularly the art and music that they've seen evolve over the years (even though the "zombies," as they call humans, have taken credit for nearly everything that vampires have actually created). Hiddleston and Swinton make the perfect couple, completely devoted to each other, yet not obsessively so (why would they be, since forever is locked up in their case) and we could spend hours with them as they hang around and play chess while licking on blood popsicles, waxing nostalgic about the past and casually bemoaning the state of present day affairs (zombies purposely destroying the planet and all).

What little plot there is involves an appearance midway through the film by Eve's trouble-making sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska), who shows up to interrupt Adam and Eve's blissful state of mind by insisting they go out and hinting around about feeding off the blood of delicious looking humans. But in the present day, human feeding has gone out of fashion, because they've managed to deplete their resources as well as contaminate their own blood, which forces most vampires into finding other ways of obtaining their precious life source (Jeffrey Wright has an amusing couple of scenes as Adam's shady contact at the hospital, where he has a habit of appearing at inopportune times with a suspicious name tag reading "Dr. Faust"). Another amusing aside is the role that John Hurt (semi-immortal himself it seems) plays as a beloved historical figure still harboring a grudge over being denied credit for some of the greatest literary works ever made (I won't spoil the joke for you).

There could be an air of pretentiousness in a movie that attempts to bemoan the state of the present day, but surprisingly there are nothing like lectures or lengthy diatribes on the evils of human corruption- Adam and Eve are above it all and have more or less accepted things as they are. And the consistent humor and cute asides always cut through any faux seriousness as we simply revel in the enjoyment of Adam and Eve's company, laughing as they can't resist the temptation of drinking blood from a flask in public, even as others ask for a taste. With their sunglasses and leather gloves firmly in place whenever they go out at night, we understand why the zombies are so enthralled. They're just so cool.

* * * 1/2

FIRST LOOK: Henry Cavill as Superman

Here's the official photo of Henry Cavill's Supes from the new, ridiculously titled Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, but for all the buzz this picture has created on the internet, I can't for the life of me see how he looks any different than he did in Man of Steel. In fact, when I first saw this photo I thought it was from the last movie. What do you think?

FIRST LOOK: "Exodus"

EW.com has the first set pictures from Ridley Scott's biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings, coming out this December. It looks like they're doing the full scale Moses epic all right, check out all the crazy costumes. The cool thing about movies like The Ten Commandments though, was the way the directors actually had to film massive sets with thousands of extras mulling around. Here I'm sure it's all going to be CGI, just like it was in Gladiator. It just seems less impressive than what used to have to be done for movies like this.

TRAILER: "Gone Girl"

We finally have the full trailer for David Fincher's Gone Girl, and boy does this look good. One of the most anticipated movies of the year, based on Gillian Flynn's best-selling novel, Ben Affleck stars as a man accused of murdering his wife, played by Rosamund Pike (a British actress who's been around in small supporting parts in movies for years, now finally getting a chance to shine in a big role). Nobody does these creepy, procedural type thrillers like Fincher, and it doesn't even bother me about Affleck starring in it. Can't wait. Comes out October 3rd.

BOX OFFICE 7/04-7/06: 'Transformers' Takes the Weekend; 'Tammy' Falls Short

The 4th of July normally provides for a strong box office week, but not so this year, as it ended up the weakest holiday for movies in at least 15 years. Transformers came in at No. 1 again, with $36 million over the weekend, but fell a steep 63% from last week, and will undoubtedly turn out to be the lowest grossing film in the series (at least domestically- worldwide it's already made $400 million). It'll pass $200 million in the U.S., but not much more than that, so maybe there's hope for humanity after all. In second place was the Melissa McCarthy vehicle Tammy, which got extremely poor reviews (23% Rotten Tomatoes score) and a terrible "C+" Cinemascore, which likely means it'll be on its way out in just a few weeks, although it didn't do that badly, bringing in $21 million over the weekend and $32 million over the five day frame, almost enough to beat Transformers. You can thank Melissa McCarthy's star power for that, even though it did fail to live up to the studio's higher expectations.

The horror film Deliver Us From Evil landed at No. 3, earning just $9.5 million, while 22 Jump Street and How to Train Your Dragon 2 filled out the rest of the top five, bringing their respective totals to $158 million and $140 million each. Meanwhile, Maleficent's legs remain strong, having now made $213 million total, and will probably pass X-Men: Days of Future Past soon, and Edge of Tomorrow crossed $90 million, perhaps slowly making its way over that $100 million threshold.

Top 5:

1. Transformers: Age of Extinction- $36.4 million
2. Tammy- $21.2 million
3. Deliver Us From Evil- $9.5 million
4. 22 Jump Street- $9.4 million
5. How to Train Your Dragon 2- $8.75 million

In limited release things looked a bit rosier, especially for Weinstein Company films, as Begin Again expanded to 175 screens and earned $1.3 million, bringing its total to $1.8 million and showing real strength as it received an "A-" Cinemascore and will expand even further to 800 screens next week. Snowpiercer didn't do as well in 242 theaters, making just under $1 million, but it's still decent for an unusual film that was barely promoted by its distributor. And Jon Favreau's Chef continues to coast, now having made over $22 million and on its way to $30, despite losing screens in its third month of release. Next week should be bigger, as the spectacularly reviewed Dawn of the Planet of the Apes comes out, along with Richard Linklater's long-awaited Boyhood in limited release, the start of a slate of several buzzed about indie films that will be trickling out for the rest of the summer.

10 Movies to Celebrate the Fourth of July

In honor of the new month, here are ten great movies to celebrate the Fourth of July this weekend, and all are great American films that pay tribute to the spirit of the U.S.A. From wartime 1940's classics like Yankee Doodle Dandy and Casablanca to 70's hits Rocky and All the President's Men, there's a wide range of options to choose from, including the epic 7-part HBO miniseries John Adams, that documents the Revolutionary War and founding of the country. You can binge this weekend or celebrate all month long- just head over to the July Movie page to check out our picks, now complete with full original trailers (or if not available, scenes from the film). Happy Independence Day, everybody!