Here are snapshots of what our reviewers thought of the movies opening this week in the Seattle area. (Star ratings are granted on a scale of zero to four.)
★★★★ “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (R; 119 minutes): French filmmaker Céline Sciamma’s exquisite film, starring Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel, is a slow burn; little happens, but everything — love and passion and loss — happens. In French, with English subtitles. Full review. SIFF Cinema Egyptian, Lincoln Square Reserve (21+). — Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times arts critic
★★★½ “63 Up” (not rated, for mature audiences; 138 minutes): Amazing how quickly seven years can go by. Time plays the starring role yet again in the latest installment of Michael Apted’s remarkable documentary series, which began with 14 wriggly 7-year-olds interviewed about their hopes, their dreams and their worries for a 1964 British television documentary. Apted, then a 22-year-old researcher, was fascinated by the project and continued it, checking in with the original subjects every seven years, letting us watch them grow and age. Full review. SIFF Cinema Uptown. — Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times arts critic
★★★ “The Call of the Wild” (PG; 100 minutes): What we have here is the call of the mild, as Jack London’s 1903 classic novel about the trials and tribulations of a Yukon sled dog is adapted for the big screen with the rough edges filed off. Full review. Multiple theaters. — Soren Andersen, Special to The Seattle Times
Also opening
“Brahms: The Boy II” (PG-13; 86 minutes): Terror strikes when a boy (Christopher Convery) discovers a lifelike doll. Katie Holmes co-stars. Multiple theaters.
“Corpus Christi” (not rated, for mature audiences; 115 minutes): This Polish film, which lost to Oscar-winning “Parasite” in the best international feature category, addresses big issues of conscience and morality. The movie follows an ex-convict (Bartosz Bielenia) who wanders into a church, where he claims to be a priest — and soon ends up serving as a substitute. In Polish, with English subtitles. (The New York Times does not provide star ratings with reviews.) SIFF Cinema Uptown. — Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times
“Goldie” (not rated, for mature audiences; 88 minutes): A teenager (Slick Woods) in a family shelter tries to keep her sisters together while pursuing her dreams of being a dancer. Grand illusion.
“The Lodge” (R; 108 minutes): Double, double, toil and trouble: In their supremely nasty 2014 shocker, “Goodnight Mommy,” Austrian filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala wove an elegant nightmare about a house in the woods, a cruel battle of wits and doppelgängers both real and imagined. Think of their new English-language thriller as a lesser but not ineffective mirror image to that earlier picture. An excellent Riley Keough stars. (The Los Angeles Times does not provide star ratings with reviews.) Multiple theaters. — Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
“Standing Up, Falling Down” (not rated, for mature audiences; 91 minutes): A failing stand-up comedian (Ben Schwartz) and an alcoholic dermatologist (Billy Crystal) form an unlikely friendship. Varsity.
Plus
Seattle Asian American Film Festival: The eighth annual festival, which showcases films by and about Asian Americans, runs through Feb. 23 at Broadway Performance Hall and Northwest Film Forum. For tickets and schedule information, go to seattleaaff.org.
The opinions expressed in reader comments are those of the author only and do not reflect the opinions of The Seattle Times.