Reel-View Ratings: The Bigger The Beard, The Better The Movie

on March 9, 2015 at 2:44 pm

CALVARY

In the heart of Catholic Ireland, Father James (Brendan Gleeson) takes confession from a man who announces his intent to kill him in exactly one week. It’s a dark, exciting premise to kickstart the film … which peters off into an almost-too-comedic character parade as Father James cycles through the varying basket cases of his flock. Glee-son gives a powerful, painfully human performance, a Sisyphus trying to bring hope to the irreversibly hopeless. (But the film structure sometimes feels repetitively Sisyphean.) Still, the dialogue is sharp, the scenery is melancholic and that opening scene does find resolution.

PLAYS AT NOON, 4:30 AND 9 P.M. MARCH 12; 6:30 P.M. MARCH 13; AND 2:15 P.M. MARCH 14 AT THE MOVIE MUSEUM

KEEPING UP WITH THE STEINS

Perhaps the most grievous sin that this comedy commits is that, well, it’d probably be less of a waste to watch Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Adam Fielder (Jeremy Piven, at his most Jeremy Piven-ish) attempts to throw his son the Best Bar Mitzvah Ever, by which we mean the most obnoxiously expensive one ever. His son distracts him by inviting his long-estranged grandfather to the proceedings. There’s some nodding toward Jewish customs, with a tepid kind of satire that probably won’t get across to most viewers. The film can be funny, but it never really takes advantage of its Jewish context to rise above its sitcom humor.

PLAYS AT 6 P.M. MARCH 7, AND 11:10 A.M. AND 1 P.M. MARCH 15 AT DORIS DUKE THEATRE

MAGIC MEN

The elderly Avraham (Makram J. Khoury) heads to Greece to track down the magician who saved his life during WWII. His estranged son Yehuda, a devout Hassidic and rapper, accompanies him, as well as Greek prostitute Maria. Does this unlikely road trip bring these two men back together, despite all their differences? Of course it does, with absolutely zero subtlety. That’s not to say the movie doesn’t have good points — Khoury is fantastic — but it’s not enough to create anything truly magical.