If the thought of the rain coming back this weekend makes you want to retreat into a movie theater, we've got you covered. Our critics have picked the best movies to see this weekendâfrom a punk vs. skinhead horror flick to free Shakespeare spinoffs to a chance to see Hot Fuzz again on the big screenâand we've compiled them all below, being careful to leave off the disappointing Miles Ahead and the "sickly sweet" sequel to The Huntsman. If these options aren't enough, check out our complete movie times listings, or our comprehensive Things To Do calendar.
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NEW RELEASES
1. Elvis & Nixon
"You've seen the photo: the King of Rock 'n' Roll and the Leader of the Free World, shaking hands in the Oval Office with cautious smiles and dazed looks in their eyes. Elvis & Nixon is an accountâfrom director Liza Johnson and co-writer Cary Elwesâof that bizarre meeting in 1970. Elvis & Nixon's contained scope and underplayed humor make for a deft, lighthearted comedy about two pretty tragic dudes." NED LANNAMANN
2. Green Room
"Bad guys are bad guys. The goal is to escape their clutches by any means possible. And so it goes for the punk band that ends up playing a gig at a white-supremacist compound in Oregonâshades of Malheurâout of sheer desperation. Then they witness a murder and the neo-Nazis give them the Hotel California treatment. From that point forward, itâs punks versus skinheads set to a soundtrack of Bad Brains, Slayer, and Poison Idea. The fun is in witnessing the ingenious ways the punksâincluding two turncoatsâfight back using the crudest tools available. Itâs fast, bloody, and, when you least expect it, hilarious." KATHY FENNESSY
LIMITED RUNS
3. Fireworks Wednesday
"Rouhi (Taraneh Alidousti), a young Iranian woman, has the calm, watchful countenance of a neorealist heroine. Mojdeh (Hediyeh Tehrani), the stressed-out wife, suspects Morteza (Hamid Farokh-Nejad), the chain-smoking husband, of cheating, so she gets Rouhi to scope out their newly divorced neighbor, Mrs. Simin (Pantea Bahram), a self-employed beautician. What the three women have in common is that the men in their lives, from husbands to landlords, hold all the cards. Though surrounded by actors of talent, especially the women, Alidousti carries the film by way of her expressive, all-seeing eyes." KATHY FENNESSY
4. Hot Fuzz
"The creative team of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg takes unusual care to craft an honest-to-god narrative to support the gags. They're so successful at it, actually, that their film almost loses sight of its ultimate purpose. Sad as it is to say, there're more than a few long stretches of just waiting around for a punch line. Make no mistake: When it finally does go into full-tilt bombastic Michael Bay mode in the third act, Hot Fuzz is glorious. Chop out 20 minutes or so, and this thing would be blinding." ANDREW WRIGHT
5. Louder Than Bombs
"Trier's film has the cerebral, elliptical quality of a great short-story collection, and an easy intimacy with its central family of grieving men, who face a terrible crossroads after the death of their matriarch, war photographer Isabelle (Isabelle Huppert). What might be a delayed but rather obvious revelation in a more conventional film comes out early in Louder Than Bombs: Isabelle's death wasn't an accident, but a suicide. Refusing suspense or ambiguity around her death frees up the film to reckon with more interesting questions. There's precision in this narrative choice, and Trier brings that same precision to a million other choices throughout the film, building it all to a resonant, satisfying, and haltingly hopeful film." MEGAN BURBANK
6. My Golden Days
"One among the many great moments in My Golden Days, a charming French film about young love, about the beauty of youth, about the best years of life, happens like this: The hero is heading to school in a car while listening to De La Soulâs âJenifa Taught Me (Derwin's Revenge).â This is the late 1980s, and this is the kind of music the French youth were listening to at the time. In the next scene, the hero meets for the first time the love of his life. She has great â80s hair. Because nothing much happens during oneâs youth, nothing heavy happens in this film by Arnaud Desplechin." CHARLES MUDEDE
7. No Home Movie
"No Home Movie, the final work from the great Belgian director Chantal Akerman, depicts her mother's last months on earth. There's no melodrama, because that wasn't Akerman's way, but rather a dispassionate depiction of a genial octogenarian going about her day-to-day routine. This isn't a depressing film, since Chantal prioritizes life over death. After her mother's death, Akerman suffered her own decline, culminating in her suicide last October. As she puts it in Marianne Lambert's documentary I Don't Belong Anywhere [also playing this weekend], "My mother was at the heart of my work." Some believe the divided reception of No Home Movie also played a part, but it's a mystery she took with her when she died. The way her aquamarine eyes light up the screen makes this the sadder film of the two, because it's hard to imagine that anything but time could put an end to her boundless curiosity." KATHY FENNESSY
8. Sold
"In the prologue to Sold, Jeffrey D. Brownâs adaptation of Patricia McCormickâs YA novel, 13-year-old Lakshmi (newcomer Niyar Saikia, a sympathetic if unsteady presence) tells her mother she has no intention of washing men's feet when she grows up. It's the first clue that she'll be doing a lot worse, and soon. And that's what happens when heavy rains destroy her family's crops. Lakshmi takes a job in Kolkata to help the out the family, thinking sheâll work as a cleaning woman for a respectable family, but she ends up in a brothel where she must service brutish men until she pays off her so-called debt. Her salvation arrives in the form of a photographer (Gillian Anderson) who makes Lakshmi's freedom her personal mission. Anderson is good, and it's unlikely she would have signed on unless she cared about the issue, but she can't quite turn this extended PSA into a film. Sold isn't cheap or shoddyâcinematographer Seamus Tierney is sensitive to light and colorâand the relationships between the captives is affecting, but it's impossible to shake the feeling that it would make more sense in a lecture hall than in a theater." KATHY FENNESSY
ONE-NIGHT SCREENINGS
9. The Glamour & The Squalor with Marco Collins in Person
Seattle DJ Marco Collins is a huge part of why the world loves bands like Weezer, Nirvana, Death Cab for Cutie, Beck, Pearl Jam, Modest Mouse, and so many moreâhe was the first radio DJ to play dozens of these bands that went on to be huge successes. If you listened to the radio in the 90s, you heard Marco. But Collins has also battled drugs and addiction. The documentary The Glamour and the Squalor examines both Collins' successes and his struggles. (Friday only)
10. Scarecrow Video Screenings
This city's biggest and most culturally significant video store will host free screenings of Mulholland Drive, the 2001 David Lynch masterpiece starring Mulholland Drive that can only be referred to as "psychoerotic" noir, and The Tempest, the 1982 adaptation of the Shakespearean rom-com starring John Cassavetes, Molly Ringwald, and Raul Julia. (Sunday only)
11. Seijun Suzuki Retrospective
The dominant image we have of Japanese culture is that itâs a very orderly society. Rules are rigidly followed, a person knows who is above and below them, there is lots of bowing, and women speak softly. But that view of Japan is very limited and is contradicted by the films of directors who constitute what is known as Japanâs silver age, 1960 to 1980. One leading figure of this moment is Seijun Suzuki, whose movies are celebrated for their visual and narrative excesses. His work often overflows with violence, sex, madness, and criminals. Itâs not at all surprising that they influenced Quentin Tarantino. The copresented (Northwest Film Forum and Grand Illusion) Seijun Suzuki Retrospective will provide an excellent opportunity to enter and absorb the genius of this director, who is still alive. This weekend, catch Ziguernerweisen and Kagero-Za. CHARLES MUDEDE (Saturday and Sunday only)
12. William Shakespeare 400 Years Later
On Saturday, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, watch the 1963 version of As You Like It, a Royal Shakespeare Company production which stars Vanessa Redgrave, Ian Richardson, Max Adrian, and Patrick Wymark, for free. On Sunday, Northwest Film Forum will also play a free screening of The Taming of the Shrew, the 2005 version that was called "deliciously far-fetched" by the New York Times and stars Shirley Henderson, Rufus Sewell, Twiggy Lawson, and David Mitchell. (Saturday and Sunday only)
CONTINUING RUNS
13. April and the Extraordinary World
This French-Belgian-Canadian animated thriller, starring Marion Cotillard, is based on Jacques Tardi's 1976 graphic novel about an adventurer exploring a warped, fictional universe.
14. Barbershop: The Next Cut
"When the whole #OscarsSoWhite storm hit, Ice Cube, a founding member of the hiphop crew NWA, said that it was wrong for blacks to boycott the Oscars because movies were not about the awards but the fans. Who knew Cube had become such a Republican? (I hear LL Cool J is one too.) But clearly Cube is in the one percent and makes sure his bread is always buttered on the right side. Barbershop: The Next Cut was made with one function in mind: to put that extra butter on his slice of bread." CHARLES MUDEDE
15. The Boss
"The first act of The Boss is clunky, clumsily written, and forced, but thanks largely to a cast of gifted improvisational actors (including the terrific Cecily Strong, Kristen Schaal, Timothy Simons, and PETER MOTHERFUCKING DINKLAGEâwho is so hilarious, he gives Melissa McCarthy herself a run for her money), the movie eventually gels and the laughs come fast and furious." WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
16. Everybody Wants Some!!
"Over the course of two hours, Everybody Wants Some!!, Richard Linklater's 'spiritual sequel' to 1993's Dazed and Confused, goes from detestable to damn near lovableâit's an eventually enjoyable movie that I almost walked out of. It's broad and cheesy and kind of porny, but eventually you come to realize that it's not 'college' porn, but a very specific porn based on an idealized version of Linklater's own college experience. College hijinks have been done to death, but there's something endearing and slightly universal about a middle-aged man looking back on his college years and only remembering the parts that were super awesome(!!)." VINCE MANCINI
17. Eye in the Sky
"If Eye in the Sky accomplishes one thing, it's to function as a gripping thriller despite dealing almost exclusively with people staring at screens while talking on the telephone. But if the film accomplishes two things, it also generates awareness of what modern warfare technology looks like (awesome, brimming with unintended consequences), and encourages careful consideration of the ethical liability that comes with this power. What Eye in the Sky doesn't do, however, is provide a faithful portrayal of how those who are in power have weighed that responsibility." MARJORIE SKINNER
18. Francofonia
"In Francofonia, which is about the Louvre (how it was made, how it obtained the treasures it holds, and what happened to it during the Second World War when the Nazis rolled into Paris and became her master), a ship traveling across a storm-enraged sea is the filmâs leitmotif and a symbol of what the Louvre is. The chaos all around it is, of course, history. Altogether, Francofonia is a film that shows Alexander Sokurov in his element. This is what he does bestâphilosophical meditations on the highest forms and productions of culture." CHARLES MUDEDE
19. Hello, My Name is Doris
"Michael Showalterâs Hello, My Name Is Doris banks on [Sally Field's] mix of insecurity and charm to winning, if discomforting, effect...What starts out as Harold and Maude by way of Marvin's Room ends like a John Hughes tale with an ever-so-slightly older heroine." KATHY FENNESSY
20. The Jungle Book
"I'm not convinced remaking The Jungle Book was absolutely necessary, but Disney's latest navel-gazing foray into its own archives delivers everything it needs to: The kid who plays Mowgli is adorable. The digitally animated jungle inhabitants are as warmhearted as they are slick-looking. Do you need more baby animals in your life? The Jungle Book has you covered! You'll squee all the way through as you watch a delightful parade of baby elephants and baby wolves." MEGAN BURBANK
21. Midnight Special
"Midnight Special, Nichols's latest, continues the director's winning streak. While on its surface an affectionate throwback to the kid-friendly sci-fi adventures of yesteryear (as the critic Matt Zoller Seitz said on Twitter, if this had been made in the '80s, it'd never stop playing on HBO), its underlying themes of families under pressure make it very much of a piece with the filmmaker's other work." ANDREW WRIGHT
22. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
"WTF is well-cast, which is key for a film that seems unable to decide if it is a wacky fish-out-of-water comedy, or a serious tale of war, or an unlikely romance, or, IDK, an episode of This American Life? SURE. It's uneven. But what's utterly convincing is that somehow, this good-but-not-great movie has accurately captured that particular moment when a reporter discovers the ineffable joy of chasing a high-stakes story for the first time. It's something that I suspect fellow Tina Fey-appreciating journalists will delight in." MEGAN BURBANK
23. Zootopia
"Zootopia may ostensibly be an animated buddy cop flick with a few winks to Chinatown, but it's also chock full of smart, incisive observations on race and gender, as well as front-loaded with tons of laughs and heart. Disney is doing better." WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
