What to See or Skip This Weekend, From Must-See Indie Sci-Fi ‘Coherence’ to Eastwood’s Musical ‘Jersey Boys’
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If you’re in New York or Los Angeles this weekend, run don’t walk to James Ward Byrkit’s dizzying metaphysical horror film “Coherence,” or Roman Polanski’s elegant pas-de-deux “Venus in Fur.” But think twice before heading to Clint Eastwood’s 1960s musical biopic “Jersey Boys,” meeting a mixed critical response, or Paul Haggis’ awful collage of interlocking soap operas “Third Person,” currently crashing with reviewers.
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On the indie side of the spectrum, you can catch Brit Joanna Hogg’s “Exhibition,” starring Tom Hiddleston, which Indiewire says has shades of Michael Haneke by way of Miranda July; Filipino helmer Lav Diaz’s latest multi-hour epic, “Norte, The End of History,” will hold court at NY’s Lincoln Center after a long festival tour dating back to Cannes 2013, where “Venus in Fur” also bowed; and Jan Troell’s austere WWII-era psychodrama “The Last Sentence” hits select markets too.
The film to see this weekend is “Coherence,” which in terms of its pared-down dinner party setting, is also a psychodrama. But convention quickly shatters as our eight partygoers start to collectively go insane on the eve of a rare astronomical event. Cell phones are shattered, power is lost and a spooky box enters the picture, unleashing a reality-bending nightmare for all involved — but to say any more would take the piss out of this explosively brilliant and deeply scary little movie.
Also wowing critics, and rightly so, is Roman Polanski’s late-career triumph “Venus in Fur” from the David Ives play about a theater director and an actress, incarnated here by Mathieu Amalric and Emmanuelle Seigner, dueling for power in the confined spaces of the stage. As they engage in a very wicked game of lusty wits — and, not to mention, a casting director’s hell — Polanski directs with the vigor of an old pro who’s learned more than a few new tricks.
Trailers and specs for all below.
Norte, The End of History Dir. Lav Diaz, Philippines | Cinema Guild | Cast: Cid Lucero, Archie Alemania, Soliman Cruz | 100% Fresh | Time Out NY: “You’d have to go back to Edward Yang’s ‘Yi-Yi’ to find a movie that approaches marathon-length running times yet still makes you wish it were twice as long.”
Venus in Fur Dir. Roman Polanski, France | IFC Films | Cast: Emmanuelle Seigner, Mathieu Amalric | 97% Fresh | Village Voice: “Polanski orchestrates this cat-and-mouse game with devilish delight, dancing around Ives’s play as if it were a pagan bonfire, jabbing at it with his figurative pitchfork.”
Exhibition Dir. Joanna Hogg, UK | Kino Lorber | Cast: Viv Albertine, Tom Hiddleston, Liam Gillick | 88% Fresh | Indiewire: “Hogg’s third feature magnifies the relationship between people and the spaces they live in with a keen eye for the way the two tend to blend together.”
Coherence Dir. James Ward Byrkit, USA | Oscilloscope Pictures | Cast: Emily Foxler, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon, Elizabeth Gracen | 85% Fresh | The Dissolve: “No-budget filmmaking at its most delectably inventive.” | Our review
Jersey Boys Dir. Clint Eastwood, USA | Warner Bros. | Cast: John Lloyd Young, Vincent Piazza, Christopher Walken, Erich Bergen, Michael Lomenda | 58% Fresh | The Hollywood Reporter: “A dash of showbiz pizzazz has been lost but some welcome emotional depth has been gained in the big-screen version of the still-thriving theatrical smash…” | Our review roundup
The Last Sentence Dir. Jan Troell, Sweden | Music Box Films | Cast: Jesper Christensen, Ulla Skoog, Pernilla August, Amanda Ooms | 57% Fresh | The New Republic: “[Troell] is a great and restrained director, seldom extravagant or showy, but trusting of actors, decor, and a relentless attention to mixed motives.”
Third Person Dir. Paul Haggis, USA | Sony Pictures Classics | Cast: Mila Kunis, Olivia Wilde, Adrien Brody, James Franco, Kim Basinger | 43% Fresh | New Yorker: “The kind of eccentric and emotionally exhausting movie whose ardent sincerity remains in memory after smoother, more conventional works have passed into oblivion.”
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