Here to take a look at the films coming out in wide and limited release this coming weekend. I’ll give you my thoughts to help you decide what’s worth checking out.
- Black or White – Kevin Costner plays a grandfather who’s raised his granddaughter and has to deal with her grandmother, played Octavia Spencer, on the other side attempting to get split custody for her son (who’s a junkie). But there’s more – Costner is white and Spencer is black. I’m very curious about what the message is exactly in this movie because there are just so many weird racial overtones. This just looks … bad. At this year’s Critics Choice, Costner was awarded a career achievement award and it just feels very weird considering how terrible his has been for years now.
- Project Almanac – Easily feels like another Chronicle – teenage kids, found footage, science fiction storyline. Chronicle was actually quite good though, so I am sort of interested to see if this lives up to that little gem at all. It also has such a similar vibe because it’s about kids who discover a way to time travel and begin to take advantage of it until things start going too far. Sound familiar? Hopefully this is at least worth a watch.
- The Loft – This thriller is about a group of men that all commonly use a loft to meet their mistresses. Shit goes haywire when a murdered body inexplicably appears in the loft. From here it looks like a cat and mouse type plot that could make for a trashy but fun movie. It stars the under-appreciated James Marsden, Karl Urban, and some other white dudes. This doesn’t really look like anything more than perhaps an afternoon watch on cable.
- Girlhood – Now this is only playing in New York but it seems like damn shame. We never see stories like this – true feeling coming-of-age films, especially about girls or people of color. It just rarely happens. The fact that it’s also French certainly doesn’t help distribution I’m sure. The trailer doesn’t give you too much of the plot but it’s about a teenage girl who deals with friendship, family life, and relationships… the normal stuff. It does however look great visually and seem like it could be a great watch, whenever we can actually watch it.
Playing in select theaters.
