An unapologetic ode to outlaw culture, “Lawless” flaunts an impressive bare-knuckle intensity. This Prohibition drama focuses on three bootlegging brothers (Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, and Jason Clarke) squaring off against cops and gangsters. Directed by John Hillcoat—who showed his preference for bleak, violent worldviews with “The Proposition” and “The Road”—“Lawless” exudes a twitchy unease as its amoral antiheroes wage war on all those around them. Hardy is gripping as the taciturn Forrest Bondurant, while LaBeouf is passable as Forrest’s undisciplined younger brother. The bloodshed and tough-guy bravado can be overwhelming, but a cast that includes Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, and Gary Oldman is solid throughout, with Guy Pearce especially enthralling as a monstrously thuggish and preening lawman.
A monster of another kind torments a young girl in “The Possession,” a run-of-the-mill exorcism horror film. Natasha Calis plays Em, who has enough problems coping with the divorce of her parents (Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick) before she finds a wooden box with an invisible evil spirit inside. Thus begins a predictable series of spooky occurrences, although Calis can be quite arresting as she goes through the typical transformation from innocent child to frightening menace. There’s very little new in this forgettable genre exercise, but Morgan’s brooding eyes go a long way to adding soul to the father-daughter story.
The shamelessly silly “For a Good Time, Call...” is the sort of paper-thin comedy that lives or dies on the strength of its star chemistry. Thankfully, Ari Graynor and co-writer Lauren Anne Miller are all kinds of delightful playing mismatched New York roommates who start a phone-sex company together. The setup is one-note—Graynor’s sexually assertive Katie and Miller’s refined Lauren are just the latest riff on the “Odd Couple” formula—but the warmth of their fire-and-ice rapport coaxes you into forgiving the movie’s forced faux naughtiness. Be warned: Justin Long’s campy gay best friend gets old fast.
Orlando Bloom’s strikingly pretty features have served him well in “The Lord of the Rings” and “Pirates of the Caribbean,” but his skills as a dramatic actor remain open to debate. “The Good Doctor” finds him in darker terrain; he plays Martin Blake, a new doctor at a Southern California hospital. Insecure and feeling like an outsider, he becomes weirdly infatuated with an admiring young patient (Riley Keough). Reminiscent of the needy, quietly unwell protagonists of “The King of Comedy” and “One Hour Photo,” Martin isn’t well-drawn, but Bloom’s commitment to his withdrawn, slightly haughty performance keeps “The Good Doctor” intriguing. Nonetheless, this psychological drama feels too derivative, despite some nice ironic twists, including having Rob Morrow, best known for his role as the inexperienced young doctor on “Northern Exposure,” play the hospital’s hard-edged chief resident.
Jessica Biel has some of the same career issues as Bloom: Her pinup looks overshadow her acting chops. “The Tall Man” allows her to demonstrate her dramatic side, previously on display in “Home of the Brave” and “Easy Virtue,” and it’s a gutsy performance in a tonally ambitious, uneven thriller. She plays a small-town widow whose son is kidnapped by a mysterious man who has been swiping kids throughout the community. Biel hunts the kidnapper, but “The Tall Man” soon takes unexpected narrative detours, upending much of what we think we know about the film’s premise. It would be unfair to reveal the surprises, but let it be said that Biel does good work as a frantic mother who turns out to be something else, almost paving over the film’s niggling logic problems.
Juno Temple has played the dynamic bombshell in “Killer Joe” and “Dirty Girl,” and she applies that dangerously untamed carnality to “Little Birds,” a coming-of-age drama that flirts with an edginess it never quite achieves. Lily (Temple) dreams of escaping her white-trash California town when she meets a handsome L.A. guy (Kyle Gallner) who invites her to visit. Kay Panabaker is strong as Lily’s mousy best friend, the levelheaded yin to Lily’s self-destructive yang, but “Little Birds” gets its power from Temple’s controlled performance as a girl so desperate to shed her skin that she discards common sense at the same time.
American audiences have become familiar with the mythic, poetic grandeur of wuxia martial-arts films thanks to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Hero,” but “Flying Swords of Dragon Gate” isn’t up to the level of those other Asian exports. Starring Jet Li, the film follows a group of noble warriors and despicable scoundrels as they go in search of a lost city of gold. Plot is inconsequential in an action film like this, but what makes “Flying Swords of Dragon Gate” such a drag is that the fight sequences are burdened with cheap digital effects and uninspired wirework. Li’s calm command is much appreciated, but otherwise this is a rather dull kung-fu affair.
