'Doctor Sleep'

In the horror thriller “Doctor Sleep,” director-screenwriter-editor Mike Flanagan gives Stephen King what he’s always wanted: A new hold on the fate of Danny Torrance, the little boy at the heart of his classic “The Shining.”

Whether that’s good for the rest of us, or for the memory of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of “The Shining” — hated by King and his loyalists, but beloved and obsessed over by an army of fans — is a split decision.

Flanagan, who was responsible for the amazing and creepy Netflix series “The Haunting of Hill House,” starts with imagery from Kubrick’s classic. In the prologue, it’s 1980, Danny (played as a youth by Roger Dale Floyd) and his mom, Wendy (Alex Essoe, done up to look a bit like Shelly Duvall), are living in Florida, far from the snows of the Overlook Hotel. Sometimes, though, Danny still sees Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly, doing a muted version of Scatman Crothers from the original), a ghost who teaches him how to use his “shining” powers.

The plot of “Doctor Sleep” kicks in when Flanagan introduces the True Knot, a caravan of travelers who seek out and consume the gifts of kids with “the shining.” Their leader is Rose the Hat, an ageless and powerful beauty played by Rebecca Ferguson (from the last couple “Mission: Impossible” movies).

Flash forward to this decade, and Danny — played as an adult by Ewan McGregor — is using alcohol to mute his “shining” abilities. Ultimately, he ends up in a small town in New Hampshire, and meets friendly guy, Billy Freeman (Cliff Curtis). Billy sees something in Danny, so he gets him an apartment, and gets him into an AA meeting. Sober, Danny gets a job as an orderly at a hospice, where he finds himself easing terminally ill residents to a peaceful death.

But Danny, thanks to his “shining” power, detects Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran), a 13-year-old girl who has the same gifts a thousand-fold. Abra finds Danny, but their powers attract Rose’s attention — and soon the caravan is headed toward New Hampshire to hunt.

Through this middle section, Flanagan establishes a tight pace and a darkly brooding atmosphere. Taken on its own, this part of the film would stand up as a smart little horror thriller, and we’d all go home having enjoyed some satisfying scares.

But those bookends, when Flanagan tries to re-create the oppressive mood of Kubrick’s classic, become a problem. They stand as reminders of that earlier film, and make Flanagan’s effective work look tame and small in comparison. (Something similar happened with Peter Hyams’ 1984 movie “2010,” a perfectly serviceable outer-space thriller that fell apart because the beginning and end tried to redo Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”)

Flanagan tries to serve two masters in “Doctor Sleep,” to make a movie that’s both a worthy successor to Kubrick’s “The Shining” and a faithful adaptation of King’s books. But those two things are so much in opposition — King famously hates Kubrick’s version, and wrote a 1997 remake for TV — that Flanagan can’t square them. He’s like a host who invites both halves of a divorced couple to a party, and for all his efforts can’t make both of them happy.

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‘Doctor Sleep’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, November 8, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for disturbing and violent content, some bloody images, language, nudity and drug use. Running time: 152 minutes.

'Pain & Glory'

Federico Felliini once said “all art is autobiographical,” and certainly the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar hasn’t shied from strip-mining his life for material, in such films as “All About My Mother” and “Volver,” among others.

Almodóvar’s latest, “Pain & Glory,” feels on the surface to be even more overtly autobiographical — though with the director’s puckish nature, who’s to say that this story of an aging movie director isn’t pure fiction?

Like Fellini’s classic “8 1/2,” this movie is about a movie director, Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas). Mallo has decided to retire from directing, mostly because of his chronic back pain, migraines and other ailments that leave him in various sorts of pain. When his illnesses work in concert to give him several pains at once, he says in his narration, he believes in God — but when only one pain is afflicting him, in that moment, he’s an atheist.

When he’s in pain, or on his pain medication, he often flashes back to his childhood — mostly to memories of his loving mother (played by Penélope Cruz). The flashbacks grow more frequent after a reunion with Alberto (Asier Etxeandia), the tempestuous star of Salvador’s career-making movie 32 years ago, when the actor gets Salvador interested in smoking heroin.

Almodóvar, who wrote and directed, takes Salvador down some other excursions down memory lane — while his loyal assistant Mercedes (Nora Navas) tries to keep him on track and seeing his doctor.

The movie is a showcase for Banderas, who gets to play so many emotions — agony, desire, love, hate, anger and ecstasy — and makes them each authentic. It’s a subtle performance, but all the more powerful in the way Banderas’ charming exterior gives way to everything Salvador is keeping inside.

“Pain & Glory” could be read as Almodóvar’s thesis on the intersection of love and art, and how a director like Salvador may sacrifice the things he cares about — like his mother’s feelings or his old friendships — for the sake of creating his art. No matter how close this story is to Almodóvar’s own truth, he makes this story feel real, which maybe is all that matters.

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‘Pain & Glory’

★★★1/2

Opened October 4 in select cities; opens Friday, November 8, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Rated R for drug use, some graphic nudity and language Running time: 113 minutes; in Spanish with subtitles.

'Last Christmas'

If there ever was a movie that was utterly ruined by its own marketing, it’s “Last Christmas,” a warm and winsome holiday romantic comedy that works best if you don’t know too much about it.

Since I’m not in Universal’s marketing department, I can deploy some restraint in synopsizing the movie. It centers on Kate, played by Emlia Clarke, a Croatia native who moved to London as a kid with her parents (Emma Thompson, who co-wrote the screenplay, and Boris Isakovic) and her sister, Marta (Lydia Leonard). 

Now, in 2017, Kate is 26 and something of a train wreck, alienating her friends by couch surfing to avoid living with her parents, getting drunk at night, and having disastrous auditions that do not help her nonexistent singing career. She works as a clerk and assistant elf at a Covent Garden shop that sells Christmas stuff all year long, and barely hangs on thanks to her indulgent boss, a Chinese woman who goes by the name Santa (played by Michelle Yeoh).

One evening, Kate meets Tom — played by Yeoh’s “Crazy Rich Asians” son, Henry Golding — who takes an instant shine to her. Kate is more jaded, but slowly she warms up to his perpetually sunny disposition.

This being a romantic comedy — and, what’s worse, a Christmas rom-com — there are complications in the script, by Thompson and rookie writer Bryony Kimmings (with story credit going to Thompson and her husband, Greg Wise). There’s a big one that would be a “Crying Game”-level shocker, if half the internet hadn’t deduced what it was when they saw the trailer a couple months ago.

But forget about that, if you can, and revel in how director Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids,” “Spy,” “Ghostbusters”) and the writers fill out the story with so many whimsical details — from the postcard-perfect London scenery to the playful use of George Michael songs throughout the soundtrack, including the title tune.

Mostly, the delights of “Last Christmas” are in the cast. Thompson, in heavy Slavic accent, brings some acid wit to Kate’s old-country mum. Leonard is appropriately brittle as Kate’s often-ignored sister. And Yeoh steals her scenes, bringing a comic goofiness to offset her polished screen persona.

And the leads are everything a romantic would want. Golding’s Tom is impossibly handsome and charming, and his effusive optimism is infectious. He’s nicely matched by Clarke, who displays a wealth of comedic skills that didn’t get much play in her last job, as the genocidal Mother of Dragons on “Game of Thrones.” Clarke’s bright smile and willingness to play the fool or the jerk will serve her well, in what could be a promising career as England’s next rom-com icon.

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‘Last Christmas’

★★★

Opens Friday, November 8, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for language and sexual content. Running time: 102 minutes.

'Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound'

For 92 years, since “The Jazz Singer,” movies have been talkies — and the documentary “Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound” is a fond look at the art of melding sound to image and the pioneers who have changed how it’s done.

Even before we’re born, the legendary sound editor Walter Murch says to start the movie, “sound is the first sense that gets plugged in.” It’s a good reminder when talking about movies, because our focus on the visual aspect of filmmaking — the cinematography, the action, the faces — often shortchanges the other half of the equation: What we hear in a movie.

“The Jazz Singer” was a sensation when it debuted in 1927, but the advent of sound also took cinematic art back a step — because studios had to build cavernous sound stages so they could eliminate ambient sound. But soon, sight and sound worked hand in glove, with pioneers like Murray Spivack (“King Kong”) showing what could be done. Another hero mentioned is Barbra Streisand, who as producer of the 1976 “A Star Is Born” insisted on recording in stereo and urging theaters to install stereo speaker systems.

Director Midge Costin focuses largely on three greats in movie sound design. One is Murch, who met up with a guy named Francis Ford Coppola and worked on “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now,” the latter introducing six-track surround stereo. Next is Ben Burtt, who collaborated with George Lucas to make the many creatures and robots of “Star Wars” sound realistic. The third is Gary Rydstrom, who took sound-effects collection into the digital age, working on Pixar’s “Luxo Jr.” and “Toy Story,” and with Steven Spielberg on “Jurassic Park” and others.

The movie then dissects the elements of sound design, from the different types of dialogue to the variety of sound effects, and finally the music. All these elements are then brought together in the re-recording mixing studio, where all the sounds are melded together for maximum emotional impact and to further the story.

Costin draws from dozens of movie clips, and some solid interviews with many sound designers and the directors who rely on their work to tell the story. They share childhood anecdotes and dissect scenes from classic movies to show how the sound changes everything.

One wishes Costin didn’t feel the need to cram everything about sound design into 95 minutes, and could linger with some filmmakers and scenes. Frankly, I could hear Murch talk about “The Godfather” for the entire run time. Even so, “Making Waves” is a great primer for the up-and-coming armchair film scholar, and you’ll never listen to a movie the same way again.

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‘Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound’

★★★

Opened October 25 in select cities; opens Friday, November 8, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Not rated, but probably PG-13 for depictions of violence. Running time: 95 minutes.

'Playing With Fire'

There’s dumb, there’s really dumb, and then there’s a movie directed by Andy Fickman — like “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2” or the new “Playing With Fire,” which depends on the subtle comical stylings of John Cena.

Cena plays Supt. Jake Carson, the big guy in charge of a U.S. Department of Forestry (no such thing) smokejumper crew in central California. He is heroic when facing down a raging forest fire, leading his men (played by Keegan-Michael Key, John Leguizamo and Tyler Mane) in their lifesaving missions. He’s a shoo-in to replace the retiring fire commander (Dennis Haysbert), to bring honor to his late father, who ran the smokejumpers’ depot before him and died in the line of duty.

In areas of human contact, though, Jake’s skills are lacking. This is clear when he walked out on a date with Dr. Amy Hicks (Judy Greer), a charming scientist doing field research on toads in a nearby lake. And it’s even clearer when Jake rescues three siblings — teen Brynn (Brianna Hildebrand, from the “Deadpool” movies), 9-year-old Will (Christian Convery), and pre-schooler Zoey (Finley Rose Slater) — and has to house them at the depot.

Fickman and screenwriters Dan Ewen and Matt Lieberman go for the cheapest laughs, whether they involves changing Zoey’s diaper or letting Will go crazy with the soap suds. But the script seems to have left actual punchlines unwritten, and relies on its cast to ad-lib the funny. That’s marginally OK when it’s Leguizamo or Key (who’s quickly becoming the Garfunkel to Jordan Peele’s Simon), but when Cena tries to be funny, it sticks out more than his bulging biceps.

Here’s the thing, though: At the Saturday morning screening where I was suffering through this vast wasteland of labored gags, the audience around me was laughing fairly consistently. I had a moment like Principal Skinner on “The Simpsons” did, where I wondered if I was out of touch — but then, after the 14th lame “fire” song on the soundtrack, I decided that, no, it’s the audience that was wrong.

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‘Playing With Fire’

★

Opens Friday, November 8, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG for rude humor, some suggestive material and mild peril. Running time: 96 minutes.

'Parasite'

When a movie arrives with as much hype as Bong Joon-Ho’s “Parasite” — after winning the Palme D’Or at Cannes, stirred up Academy Awards talk, and had impressive opening box office numbers — there’s always the worry that the movie can’t live up to it.

No such worry here. “Parasite” is entertaining and shocking, a thought-provoking examination of class differences that shifts effortlessly from comedy to social commentary to something approaching horror.

The Kim family lives in a semi-basement apartment that always smells vaguely of something unpleasant. They are on the low end of the economic spectrum, partly through bad luck and partly through their own lackluster ambitions. The four of them — Ki-taek (Kang-ho Song), the patriarch; his wife, Chung-Song (Hye-Jin Chang); and adult children Ki-woo (Woo-sik Choi) and Ki-jung (So-dam Park) — are usually unemployed, and when they do find jobs they do them as lazily as possible.

One night, Ki-woo’s university friend, Min (Seo-joon Park), mentions that he’s leaving Korea to study abroad, and he won’t be able to tutor Park Da-Hye (Jung Ziso), the teen daughter of a rich couple, Dong-ik (Sun-kyun Lee) and Yeon-kyo (Yeo-jeong Jo). Min suggests Ki-woo take the job while he’s gone. After an interview, augmented by university records faked expertly by his sister, Ki-Jung, Ki-woo has an interview — and a foot in the door of the Parks that could benefit all of the Kims.

First, he helps Ki-jung finagle a job as an “art therapist,” to help Da-Hye’s rambunctious little brother, Da-song (Jung Hyun-jun). Then Ki-jung helps get the Parks’ driver fired, and Dad takes that job. The toughest nut to crack is figuring out how to get rid of the housekeeper, Moon-gwang (Jeong-eun Lee), who has been in the house longer than the Parks have, and talks glowingly of the architect who created such a gorgeous home.

At one point, everything seems to be going the Kims’ way, and they’re finally getting everything they think they deserve. Then, something happens that sends the Kims reeling, putting their hard work — or their hard avoidance of work — into jeopardy.

Bong (“Snowpiercer,” “The Host”), who directed and wrote the screenplay with Han Jin Won (an assistant director on Bong’s “Okja”), sets up his story as a gradually intensifying comedy of manners between the blithely wealthy Parks and the conniving lower-class Kims. The differences are literally from the gutter to the stars, with a whole lot of resentment and condescension in between. The humor in the early part of the film slowly makes way for a nail-biting thriller, and Bong balances both moods in a delicious tension.

The particulars — Jo’s comic performance as the clueless Mrs. Park, cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo’s precise images of the ultra-modern Park house and the shabby Kim apartment, Bong’s sly commentary on the haves and have nots — are calibrated perfectly, all building to a conclusion that will make audiences choke on the laughter that so easily escaped them in the early going. “Parasite” is the sort of movie that shows much in the moment, and reveals more as it rattles around in the viewer’s brain.

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‘Parasite’

★★★★

Opened October 11 in select cities; opens Friday, Nov. 1, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City) and Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy). Rated R for language, some violence and sexual content. Running time: 132 minutes; in Korean, with subtitles.

'Harriet'

It was only a matter of time before Tony winner Cynthia Erivo found the starring movie role she deserved: Harriet Tubman, the escaped slave who became helped lead many other slaves to freedom, in the riveting biographical drama “Harriet.”

Director Kasi Lemmons (“Talk to Me,” “Eve’s Bayou”) introduces us to Tubman as Minty, a slave on a Maryland plantation in 1849. Her husband, a free black man named John Tubman (Zachary Momoh), tries to assert his and Minty’s legal rights to the plantation owner, Edward Brodess (Michael Marunde), but he won’t let Minty go. When Edward dies, leaving the plantation to his wife, Eliza (country singer Jennifer Nettles), and their son, Gideon (Joe Alwyn), who has lusted after Minty since childhood.

Fearful of what Gideon might do with his father gone, Minty makes a harrowing escape north, finding helpful people along the way. She eventually walks across the Mason-Dixon line into Pennsylvania, and lands in Philadelphia at the offices of William Still (Leslie Odom Jr.), an abolitionist and author. Still interviews Minty about her ordeal, takes down the horrific details, and suggests she give herself a new name — her freedom name. She chooses Harriet.

Still introduces Harriet to Marie Buchanon (Janelle Monaé), a fiercely independent black woman who owns a boarding house. Harriet gets Still’s help to go back and rescue some of her family, garnering a reputation as a fearless emancipator. Still hooks Harriet up with the Underground Railroad, and soon becomes one of the group’s most successful “conductors.” It’s a tribute, or sorts, to Harriet’s skills and bravery that Gideon and his fellow slaveholders think the mysterious “Moses” must be a white male Northerner, not a petite black woman like her.

Lemmons, rewriting a script by Gregory Alan Howard (“Remember the Titans”), creates a refreshingly old-fashioned biopic. Lemmons doesn’t shy away from the horrors of America’s slave trade and the racist laws that propped it up, but she’s willing to shape the details of history a bit for dramatic effect.

Tubman is a complex character, driven by love of family as much as lofty ideals, and subject to spells and occasional visions of the future — the result, we’re told, of a brutal skull fracture when she was young. Erivo, acting in her third movie (she had supporting roles in “Bad Times at the El Royale” and “Widows,” channels those contradictory threads of Tubman’s life into a strong-willed yet sensitive woman who fights because that’s the only way to survive.

Because of Erivo’s performance, and strong support from Odom and Monaé, “Harriet” becomes a forceful portrait of an American hero. Maybe it will be enough to finally get Tubman on the damn 20-dollar bill.

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“Harriet”

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, Nov. 1, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for thematic content throughout, violent material and language including racial epithets. Running time: 125 minutes.

'Terminator: Dark Fate'

When you see James Cameron’s name on the poster for “Terminator: Dark Fate,” don’t get your hopes up — the franchise’s creator is only a co-writer and producer here, director Tim Miller (“Deadpool”) doesn’t quite have the stuff to replace him, and we’re still getting those dumb “Avatar” sequels.

The first thing we see is Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton), in footage from “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” warning disbelieving shrinks of the pending apocalypse. It’s an apocalypse she prevented, in a timeline that never comes to pass, though there’s an unexpected tragedy that drives Sarah underground.

In the here-and-now, we see two figures from the future arrive in Mexico City. One, we learn quickly, is Grace (Mackenzie Davis), an augmented human sent to protect a young woman, Danielle Ramos (Natalia Reyes). The other is what’s trying to kill Danielle: A Terminator, a new Rev-9 model (played by Gabriel Luna), who has the same liquid-metal capabilities as “Terminator 2’s” T-1000, and the same blandly unemotional expression as he slices through anything in his way.

Miller creates some solid action set pieces, with Davis’s Grace fighting fiercely against Luna’s Rev-9. The momentum shifts sharply when another player enters the game: Sarah Conner, and darn if it isn’t great to see Hamilton, weathered but still a bad-ass at 63, back after what seems forever. (In the process, Hamilton’s presence retcons away at least one sequel, if not everything since “T2.”)

If you’ve seen any publicity material, you also know that Arnold Schwarzenegger, the original Terminator, shows up along the line. Giving away that plot point is a spoiler, for sure — one that will cause eyes to roll from coast to coast.

And therein lies the problem with “Terminator: Dark Fate.” Sure, the action sequences are ridiculously entertaining, but they’re driving the story, rather than the other way around. The much-handled script — David S. Goyer & Justin Rhodes wrote the screenplay, with a rewrite by Billy Ray, and Goyer, Rhodes and Cameron are three of five sharing story credit — turns out to be a flimsy clothesline on which to hang the action.

But darn if everyone doesn’t look cool doing it. Hamilton and Schwarzenegger are fun to watch in their golden years, still fighting evil. Luna (who played Ghost Rider on a season of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) displays catlike smoothness as the robot killing machine. Reyes, a Colombian actor who shined in “Birds of Passage,” blossoms in hero mode. But the stealth MVP is Davis (“Halt and Catch Fire”), whose lean frame and haunting eyes make her the most effective Terminator hunter since — well, since Hamilton.

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‘Terminator: Dark Fate’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, Nov. 1, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for violence throughout, language and brief nudity. Running time: 128 minutes.