Reel-View Ratings: The Bigger The Beard, The Better The Movie

Metro-060316-Ratings-EastSideSushiEAST SIDE SUSHIkewl

Juana (Diana Elizabeth Torres) is a struggling single mother who winds up taking a job at a sushi restaurant in California — and discovers an aptitude with a knife and a reserved mentor in Aki (Yutaka Takeuchi). But the odds are against her: Women are not traditionally sushi chefs, and a Latina woman even less so. So Juana sets out to defy racist and sexist expectations in a feel-good story that … goes pretty much as you would expect. It’s not groundbreaking, but the film does a nice job wrapping things up with only minor missteps (like an overbearing score), and it pays attentive, loving detail to Juana’s skill in the kitchen for the requisite food porn. Plays at 1:15, 5 and 8:45 p.m. June 4, and 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m. June 16 at the Movie Museum

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ME BEFORE YOU

A perplexing cross between sad love story and pointed commentary about euthanasia, Me Before You isn’t quite sure what it wants to be, either. Emilia Clarke is the bubbly, na ve ing nue who plays hired friend (not nursemaid) to unspeakably handsome, quadriplegic Sam Claflin — a man so divorced from his pre-accident self that he has already planned to end his life at an assisted-suicide facility in Switzerland. She tries to persuade him that life is worth living. It’s not an easy topic to address, and layering a very run-of-the-mill love story over euthanasia doesn’t help matters. The result is a visually pleasing but emotionally light diversion that falls far short of the weight it aspires for. Opens June 3 in wide release

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MON ROI

Recovering from a knee injury, Tony (Emmanuelle Bercot) reflects on another source of agony in her life: her ex Georgio (Vincent Cassel). Told in flashbacks, this French film proclaims solemn and poignant, if unoriginal ideas about relationships and love, as the mismatched but passionate pair inevitably burns each other out. The beautiful cinematography deftly contrasts a tranquil present with a turbulent past — often moreso with images than any spoken words — but Tony’s present day is sadly half as interesting as her unhappy life with Georgio. So, yeah, it’s kind of your typical French romance, but as Tony learns, familiarity can be comforting. Plays at 6 and 7:30 p.m. June 4, and 1 p.m. June 8 at Doris Duke Theatre