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

THE INNOCENTS

A young French doctor, Mathilde, is summoned by a Polish nun to tend to an emergency in the convent — seven of the nuns are pregnant after being raped by Russian soldiers in World War II, and they need discretion along with care. Based on a true story, this languid film offers a thoughtful examination of faith amidst betrayal, of religion’s struggle to endure in a modern, secular world. It’s a side of war that is little seen in cinema, which prefers to follow the exploits of soldiers and not the ugly consequences. But it’s slow moving to a fault, and Mathilde offers little outside of a convenient foil to the complex nuns.

Opens Sept. 9 at Kahala Theatre

PALE MOON

Personal banker and housewife Rika is bored and lonely, ignored by her husband and unsatisfied by daily life. She pilfers some spare cash from one of her clients and covers it up — and then spirals out of control as she picks up a young lover and starts living it up in 1994’s post-bubble Japan. It’s, well, pretty American of her, and the film is a joyful romp packed full of loving montages of cash, love hotels and inevitable (but still fun) downfall. Rika is an unusually independent Japanese woman, flicking away the tendrils of society trying to subsume her, and it is a pleasure to watch.

Plays at noon, 4 and 8 p.m. Sept. 16, and noon, 4:30 and 9 p.m. Sept. 19 at the Movie Museum

THE WAILING A rather incompetent policeman in a small Korean village is thrust unexpectedly into a serial killing spree that may or may not be caused by some supernatural incarnation of pure evil. Director Na Hong-jin throws in a traditional exorcism, some racial tension between the villagers and a Japanese stranger, demons, paranoia and gore galore into the pot and sets it to full boil for a lengthy 156 minutes. It’s kind of a mess. Sometimes unbelievably stupid things happen. There are no real answers, only ambiguities. Yet it’s mesmerizing almost in spite of itself.

Plays at 1 p.m. Sept. 11 and 17, and 7:30 p.m. Sept. 15 at Doris Duke Theatre