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

IDA

This Polish film finds a young, pious woman, Anna, on the verge of taking her vows as a Catholic nun in the 1960s — only to discover from her world-weary Communist aunt that her name is actually Ida, and she is a Jew who lost her family in the Holocaust. So the two hit the road and return to their familial roots. Framed by all these political and religious lines and their contradictory intersections, Ida is also very much a compelling story about two women from different worlds finding themselves. The slow-paced but short film also evokes its historical roots aesthetically — it is shot in stark black and white.

Plays at noon Feb. 16 at the Movie Museum

STILL ALICE

Alice Howland has it all — a great family, a comfortable lifestyle and a prestigious academic career — until early-onset Alzheimer’s begins to take it all away. Alzheimer’s disease makes for a kind of subtle, fatalistic horror story, as the monster of memory loss swallows its victims, inch by inch, until there is nothing left. Still Alice focuses on the fading woman, and not her reeling family, replicating her growing confusion in blurry shots and off-key music. Cinematic portrayal of this process can, therefore, be maudlin and emotionally manipulative, but Julianne Moore steers Still Alice away from that path with her agonizing, too-real performance, buoyed by Kristen Stewart as her black-sheep daughter, Lydia.

Opens Feb. 13 at Kahala Theatre

THE RETRIEVAL

This Civil War film sidesteps the battles and white men talking big about freedom and unity, and instead focuses on the black slaves walking along the periphery of history. Thirteen-year-old Will and his uncle Marcus work with white bounty hunters to ensnare escaped slaves for a portion of the gold. Their current mark is Nate, a freed slave worth a lot of gold back South, who ends up serving as a father figure for the directionless Will. It’s a fascinating, little-discussed premise. But the cinematography is, at times, a little too Spartan in nature, leaving the film wanting something meatier, something worthier of its deserving subjects.

Shows at 1:45 and 7 p.m. Feb. 12 at the Movie Museum