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

NORTHERN LIMIT LINE

In 2002, North and South Korea got into a bloody naval skirmish over disputed maritime boundaries, with multiple casualties on both sides. This dramatization has become the highest-grossing film of the year in South Korea, but patriotic sentiment, as opposed to film quality, may explain that. Northern is long (way too long), focusing too much on the personal lives of the soldiers involved, and not enough on the battle and its surrounding sociopolitical context. The film is followed by somber interviews with survivors and archival funeral footage of those who died — it might’ve been better as a documentary, honestly.

Plays at 6:45 p.m. Nov. 20 and 4:30 and 8:45 p.m. Nov. 23 at the Movie Museum

SPOTLIGHT

Sometimes, it feels that all journalism films owe a debt to All the President’s Men. In truth, they probably do, and Spotlight is no exception. This is a methodical, process-oriented examination of The Boston Globe‘s exposure of the systemic cover up of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. There’s no drama here, no sweeping takedowns of religion or men. There is only the story, and everything else comes second to the loving shots of reporters at work, doing the right thing in the right way. Journalists will love the film; others may find the so-subtle-it’s-bland characters and office-bound settings to be rather uninteresting. 


Opens Nov. 20 at Kahala Theatre

THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 2

Everyone is dying and everything hurts in the final, final installment of The Hunger Games series. Picking up directly where Part 1 left off, the Panem revolution continues with Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) as its increasingly reluctant and disillusioned figurehead, as she decides to assassinate President Snow with her band of ex-Tributes and friends. The film remains faithful to its novel source, for better or worse, so don’t expect too many surprising changes (though you can expect the world’s longest, slightly draggy epilogue). The action is good, the acting is buoyed as ever by Lawrence, and the politics of it all remain more than relevant. All in all, a fitting way to say goodbye to Panem. Opens Nov. 20 in wide release