'I Think We're Alone Now'

Reed Morano’s end-of-the-world drama “I Think We’re Alone Now” is one of those independent movies that starts so well, with an enticing set-up and beautiful execution, that you know in your heart of hearts that the good times won’t last to the end. And, alas, you’d be right.

As with most apocalypses in the movies, the details of why everybody’s dead are unmentioned and unimportant. All we are told, and all we need to know, is that everybody in this small town is dead — except for Del (Peter Dinklage), who lived on his own before the apocalypse anyway. 

Del lives in the town library, surrounded by books and rationing his computer battery use. He has methodically gone through every house in town, removing the dead, burying them in a field, cleaning the houses and salvaging canned food and other items. He also has amassed a sizable collection of family snapshots.

One day, while heading to another house, Del sees something on the street that shouldn’t be there: An unfamiliar car, recently crashed into a tree. In the driver’s seat is a young woman, still alive. This is Grace (Elle Fanning), and her presence disrupts Del’s carefully constructed solitude.

For a while, Mike Makowsky’s script bubbles along with the day-to-day mechanics of Grace adjusting to, and sometimes altering, Del’s meticulous routine. As captured by director and cinematographer Reed Morano — who won an Emmy last year for directing “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and has shot such indies as “Frozen River” and “The Skeleton Twins” — those moments are constantly gorgeous and evocative. And Dinklage reminds us that he is one of our most soulful actors, wearing Del’s pain like armor.

It’s too good to last. The finale devolves into a garden-variety conspiracy plot, and introduces two characters (played by Paul Giammati and Charlotte Gainsbourg) and a level of menace the movie could have done without. “I Think We’re Alone Now” is still three-quarters of a good movie, and worth the view if one adjusts one’s expectations down a few notches.

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‘I Think We’re Alone Now’

★★★

Opened Sept. 14 in select cities; opens Friday, Sept. 21, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Rated R for language. Running time: 93 minutes.

'A Happening of Monumental Proportions'

Let me be clear: Judy Greer is a goddamn national treasure, and I will fight anybody who says otherwise.

She’s an oft-overlooked actor, whether she’s playing the cool ex-wife (in “Ant-Man”) or the cool mom (in “Jurassic World”) or the crazy secretary (in “Arrested Development”), or a hundred other roles. Judging from the cast she’s assembled for her directorial debut, the middle-school comedy “A Happening of Monumental Proportions,” she’s also supremely nice, because how else would so many talented people get together for such a labored and humor-deprived script?

The movie chronicles one day in a Los Angeles middle school, on one of the most important days (as the title implies) on the calendar: Career Day. It starts on a morbid note for the principal (Allison Janney), who finds a groundskeeper dead on the school grounds. After learning the paramedics won’t handle someone who’s already dead, she enlists her vice-principal, Ned (Rob Riggle), to lug the body to the teachers’ lounge so the kids — and the parents visiting for Career Day — don’t see it.

Elsewhere at school, nerdy new student Darius (Marcus Eckert) develops an instant crush on a classmate, Patricia (Storm Reid, from “A Wrinkle in Time”). Darius finds himself getting advice from the shop teacher (John Cho) and the music teacher, Chrisian (Anders Holm), the latter of whom is living in his car and dealing with his failures.

Meanwhile, Patricia’s dad, Daniel (played by Common) is unprepared for Career Day, because he is having a very bad day at his job at a publishing firm. The husband of his assistant, Nadine (Jennifer Garner), has learned that Daniel’s having an affair with her — and wants to arrange a time to meet and kick his ass. Also, a new corporate hatchet man, Arthur (Bradley Whitford), is intent on finding out who committed a bit of petty vandalism to the office coffee machine, and Daniel is his prime suspect.

Greer bounces amiably from subplot to subplot, and there are a few nice moments, most of them involving little Darius getting worldly wisdom from his teachers. But neither Greer nor the cast — which includes Katie Holmes, Kumail Nanjiani, and an uncredited actor whose appearance toward the end truly surprises — can overcome the limply written dialogue in first-timer Gary Lundy’s screenplay.

Still, Greer moves things along briskly, and gets us in and out in 81 minutes. She’s so nice, even she doesn’t want audiences to suffer too long through her underwhelming movie.

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‘A Happening of Monumental Proportions’

★1/2

Opens Friday, Sept. 21, at select theaters nationwide, including the Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy). Rated R for sexual content and language. Running time: 81 minutes.

'Let the Corpses Tan'

If you like your gangster movies to be bat-guano crazy, the sun-baked and blood-drenched French/Belgian entry “Let the Corpses Tan” might be right up your alley. If you prefer something a little more coherent, this movie can’t help you.

Let me see if I can summarize the story, because it kind of goes all over the place. There’s a remote villa on the ocean, with stone ruins of an ancient village, that’s the retreat of Luce (Elina Löwensohn), an artist whose prime medium is shooting paintballs at canvases.

For an out-of-the-way place, though, this villa gets more traffic than Times Square. First off, Max (Marc Barbé) has been holed up there, trying to loosen his writer’s block. A mob lawyer (Michelangelo Marchese) has been prepping the place for the arrival of Rhino (Stéphane Ferrara) and his crew, who are carrying more than 500 pounds in stolen gold bars. Along the way, Rhino and crew pick up Melanie (Dorylia Calmel), Max’s wife, their son (Bamba Forzani Ndiaye), and their nanny, Pia (Marine Sainsily), because the crooks fear they may have seen something. And a pair of motorcycle cops (Hervé Sogne and former porn star Dominique Troyes) arrive, hot on Rhino’s trail.

This is all just foreplay. The writer-director team of Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani art-direct this story to within an inch of their lives, inspired by ‘70s “spaghetti Westerns” for a look of glistening bodies sweating in the hot sun — and often getting shot at by the crooks. The gunplay is so fierce and frequent that it’s easy to get confused about who’s shooting who and why.

The one standout among the hot and bothered cast is Löwensohn, who plays Luce with the same jaded sensuality Marlene Dietrich had in her later days. It’s a far cry from Löwensohn’s early days, when the Romanian actor played a vampire in Michael Almereyda’s “Nadja,” had a brief but memorable turn in “Schindler’s List,” and was Jerry’s gymnast girlfriend on an episode of “Seinfeld.”

“Let the Corpses Tan” is gorgeous to look at, from the kinetic gun battles to the stylized depictions of a gold-painted nude model invading Max’s dreams. It may not make a lick of sense, but it’s got eye candy for days.

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‘Let the Corpses Tan’

★★1/2

Opened August 31 in select cities; opens Friday, Sept. 21, at the Tower Theatre (Salt Lake City). Not rated, but probably R for bloody violence, graphic nudity and language. Running time: 90 minutes. In French, with subtitles.

'Lore'

The woodsy suspense thriller “Lore” isn’t a great movie, but it might become a significant one — because it gives hints that its creators, the writing-directing team of Christian Larsen and Brock Manwill, may be going places.

In this debut, they go into Idaho’s Cache National Forest, an area just north of the Utah border seldom used for filmmaking. It’s a beautiful, if rough-hewn territory, the sort of place one might expect a hiker to get lost and never found.

That’s exactly what has happened to Eric (Derek Grange), a 17-year-old boy who has been dealing with the breakup of his parents, Ann (Lyndsey Lantz) and Rich (Max Lesser). When the story begins, Ann is begging the sheriff (Eric Roberts, in a strategic cameo) to continue the so-far fruitless search efforts on the mountainside.

The other side of the mountain is on tribal land and outside the sheriff’s jurisdiction, as well as the subject of mystery and superstition. With the sheriff unable to help, Ann and Rich seek out John (Sean Wei Mah), an Indian guide and tracker, and apparently the only person willing to venture near the mountain’s summit. John reluctantly agrees to take them up, but warns that something up there doesn’t like to be disturbed.

The three hike up the mountain, and soon they start hearing noises and seeing lurking figures in the woods. It’s not exactly “The Blair Witch Project” in terms of chills, but Larsen and Manwill conjure up some satisfactory moments of dread and terror. 

It doesn’t all hold together for 90 minutes, and the tension dissipates a little too soon before the final credits. But these first-time filmmakers have talent, and “Lore” provides enough suspense to make moviegoers wonder what Larsen and Manwill might do next. 

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‘Lore’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, Sept. 21, at the Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy). Not rated, but probably PG-13 for violent images. Running time: 90 minutes.

'A Simple Favor'

Comedies and thrillers, if you think about it, are polar opposites as movie genres. Thrillers require tight control so the tension can build second by second, while comedies need to be loose so the laughs can flow.

The fact that director Paul Feig, a comedy guy, manages to do both at once in the light-fingered but dark-hearted “A Simple Favor” is kind of a big deal. 

Stephanie Smothers (played by Anna Kendrick) is a single suburban mom and a vlogger imparting zucchini chocolate-chip cookie recipes and instructions for friendship bracelets. One day when picking up her son Miles (Joshua Satine), the boy wants to have a playdate with his schoolmate Nicky (Ian Ho) — which is how Stephanie meets Nicky’s mom, Emily Nelson (Blake Lively), a stylish PR executive for a New York fashion label. 

Emily says sure, and while the kids play upstairs, Emily and Stephanie become fast friends, sharing intimate conversation over martinis. The party only stops when Emily’s husband Sean Townsend (played by “Crazy Rich Asians” hunk-of-the-moment Henry Golding) shows up and starts making out with Emily.

After a few more playdates, Emily calls Stephanie to ask for a favor: To take Nicky after school while she deals with a work emergency. An afternoon turns into an evening, then another day, and soon Stephanie is concerned that something has happened to her new best friend.

That’s where the synopsis stops, because part of the fun is how Feig and screenwriter Jessica Sharzer (adapting Darcey Bell’s mystery novel) tease out the suspense behind every plot twist. Suffice it to say that when Stephanie starts playing Nancy Drew, she discovers everybody has something to hide — even herself.

Feig deploys Kendrick and Lively perfectly, first as a strong comedy duo and eventually as sexy and smart figures on their own. No male director working handles women characters as intelligently as Feig — examples include “Bridesmaids,” “Spy” and even his “Ghostbusters” reboot. Here he gives Kendrick room to run her perky persona into some dark places, and discovers in Lively a funny side she hasn’t shown in her movies (but she has in tweets teasing hubby Ryan Reynolds).

In the end, “A Simple Favor” is like one of Emily’s martinis: A strong kick that makes you giggle, ice-cold delivery, and a twist that gives it plenty of bite.

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‘A Simple Favor’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, Sept. 14, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for sexual content and language throughout, some graphic nude images, drug use and violence. 117 minutes.

'The Predator'

In almost every way, “The Predator” is a testosterone soup of an action movie — big and bloody, militaristic and macho, with more alpha males than a wolf convention.

Thankfully, Olivia Munn comes through and kicks as much butt onscreen as she apparently did behind the scenes, when she protested after learning director Shane Black hired a buddy — a registered sex offender — to act in a scene with her.

The movie is a sequel, I guess, of the 1987 jungle sci-fi spectacle starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and of the 1990 follow-up “Predator 2,” and, heck, maybe even of the 2010 reboot “Predators” — but definitely not the two “Alien Vs. Predator” mash-ups. A filmmaker has to draw the line somewhere.

An Army commando leader, Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook), is on a mission somewhere in Mexico to rescue hostages from a drug cartel. Before the drop happens, something literally falls from the sky: A spacecraft, and an occupant who is pretty efficient at killing. McKenna grabs a couple of items from the crashed ship, and arranges to mail them back home in the States.

The recipient who can make best use of this alien tech is McKenna’s son, Rory (Jacob Tremblay, from “Room” and “Wonder”), a socially-awkward fourth-grader who is an autistic savant — because the “Rain Man” cliche never gets old. He instantly figures out the alien tech, which turns out to be quite explosive during trick-or-treating.

Meanwhile, Munn’s character, Dr. Casey Brackett, an expert in alien biology, is asked to confer at a top-secret government research site. That’s where a ruthless boss, Traeger (Sterling K. Brown), and a team of scientists are keeping a captured Predator under heavy sedation — at least until something triggers the creature, and then the lab is being repainted with scientist blood and guts.

McKenna finds himself on a military prison bus with a group of hotheads and misfits — a line-up consisting of Trevante Rhodes (“Moonlight”), Alfie Allen (“Game of Thrones”), Augusto Aguilera, Thomas Jane and Keegan-Michael Key. When the Predator gets loose, these guys spring into action, aided by Casey’s expertise, to rescue Rory and figure out what the hell’s going on.

Good luck with that last part. I’m not sure Black and co-writer Fred Dekker know what’s going on from moment to moment. Nor do I think they care, as long as the blood spurts regularly, the action stays fierce, and the tough-guy one-liners fall thick and fast. After all, this is the franchise that gave us Jesse Ventura saying “I ain’t got time to bleed,” so there’s a tradition to uphold.

Yes, Black peppers the script with references for the diehard fans, including a well-placed “Get to the chopper!” And, as Black did in “Iron Man 3” and “The Nice Guys,” the cute kid makes major contributions to defeating the baddies.

In a movie this overloaded with dudes, of course Munn is the stand-out. She proves herself a true action hero, battling with fists and brains, and getting her share of witticisms to deliver. Even when Black contrives the equivalent of a shower scene, Munn manages to get through it with some level of dignity. How about we give her a franchise and see what she can do with it?

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‘The Predator’

★★★

Opens Friday, Sept. 14, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for strong bloody violence, language throughout, and crude sexual references. Running time: 107 minutes.

'The Wife'

Glenn Close has been nominated for an Academy Award six times, and there’s a fair-sized contingent of critics and prognosticators who think she could get a seventh nod for “The Wife.”

It would be doubly appropriate, since Close plays a character whose talent is unappreciated — and because, if she’s nominated, it will be for a performance that’s far superior to everything going on around her.

In this adaptation of Meg Wolitzer’s novel, Close plays Joan Castleman, the dutiful and doting wife of acclaimed author Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce). As the story begins in 1992, Joe and Joan get some momentous news: Joe has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. They celebrate at their Connecticut home, with their children David (Max Irons) and Susannah (Alix Wilton Regan), and a room full of well-wishers.

On the plane to Stockholm, Joe and Joan are chatted up by Nathaniel Bone (Christian Slater), a journalist who has researched Joe’s career in detail. Nathaniel is a bit miffed that Joe regularly turns down pleas to write the great man’s biography, but the journalist is undaunted, and aims to use this trip to Sweden to prove himself to the Castlemans.

Everything is not well in the Castleman family, though. David, himself a writer, strains to squeeze a drop of appreciation from his father. Joan notices Joe flirting with a pretty photographer (Karin Franz Körlof), which dredges up memories of Joe’s past affairs. And Nathaniel tells Joan he thinks he’s uncovered a secret about Joe that, if true, could rock the literary world.

Joan used to be a writer, we learn in flashbacks, when a young Joan (Annie Starke, Close’s real-life daughter) was a student at Smith College. Joe (played as a young man by Harry Lloyd) was her professor, and married to his first wife. Joe is impressed with Joan’s writing ability, and Joan is taken with his attention, and — well, they’re married 40 years later, so it’s clear where things are going.

Alas, even if you haven’t read Woiltzer’s book, it’s clear where the entire story (adapted by “Olive Kitteridge” screenwriter Jane Anderson) is going. There is a clockwork predictability to each revelation, each twist, each argument, as director Björn Runge lays them out.

What’s more surprising, though, is how thoroughly lived-in Close’s performance is. In stillness or in full rage, every one of Joan’s disappointments, resentments and thwarted ambitions play out across her delicately expressive face. It’s a quietly devastating performance that itself may be in for a few awards.

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‘The Wife’

★★★

Opened August 17 in select cities; opens Friday, Sept. 14, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake Cty) and Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy). Rated R for language and some sexual content. Running time: 100 minutes.

'American Chaos'

The biggest cliche in American journalism today is when an editor sends a reporter into the red states to “listen to Trump voters.” These moments of hayseed tourism always turn out the same: Reporter points to some crazy thing Donald Trump has done lately and asks “Do you still like him now?,” and the voters say “yep,” and the cycle continues.

James D. Stern, the Hollywood movie producer whose credits range from “Looper” to “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,” at least gets credit for traveling to Trump country and talking to the natives back in 2016, before it was trendy. The documentary “American Chaos” captures in plain terms what Stern (who directed the film) learned from them.

Stern introduces himself as growing up a Kennedy Democrat, and that one of his happiest moments was watching Barack Obama’s inauguration. He’s got some connection to Obama, as well: Stern’s brother, Todd, was one of Obama’s envoys who helped negotiate the Paris climate treaty.

Watching Donald Trump descend that escalator and announce his candidacy, Stern had the same reaction most of the experts did: This guy’s a joke. But Stern, at least as he depicts himself here, latched on early to the idea that Trump might actually win, because of the supporters Stern met in Florida, West Virginia and Arizona, and at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

It’s not what these people say about Trump. Invariably, what they say is the same canned nonsense they heard on right-wing media, from Breitbart to Limbaugh to Fox News. It’s all “Hillary committed treason” and “she’s going to take our guns” and the usual rhetoric. They don’t say it with malice, but with the repetitious air of kids reciting their multiplication tables or anything else they’ve had drilled into their head.

The real stories Stern gets are about the people themselves. The Cuban immigrant who worked to become mayor of a Miami suburb. The West Virginia residents who hope against hope that the coal mines will open again. The Arizona rancher who watches a drug-cartel drone fly over the border fence, looking for the easiest route through.

All these folks, like millions of others, heard and believed Trump’s promises that he alone could fix things, that he had the common people’s interests at heart, that he could make America great again. They aren’t deplorable (Stern cringes at the political stupidity Hillary Clinton displayed with that word), and Stern’s mournful but hopeful film shows us how their problems and their lives will still be there, waiting for an answer, after the White House’s current occupant is gone.

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‘American Chaos’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, Sept. 14, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Rated R for language including sexual references. Running time: 90 minutes.