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

DEMOLITION

In this latest tale of white-man-finds-himself, Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal) finds his world turned upside down after his wife dies in a car accident — mostly because, as it turns out, he secretly had hated his life (and to an extent, his wife) all along. Somehow his emotional therapy involves writing long letters to a vending machine company and somehow acquiring a manic-pixie-dream-girlfriend (Naomi Watts) and then destroying literally everything (with literal bulldozers) while also mentoring his new girlfriend’s son (with guns and a bulletproof vest). It’s all a metaphor for growth, or something. Mostly it just feels like a lot of tropes spun together in hopes of finding some deeper meaning — though that’s not to say the movie doesn’t have its occasional moments of clarity.

Opened April 8 at Kahala Theatre

MIDNIGHT SPECIAL

A young boy is kidnapped by his father (Michael Shannon), but that’s just the starting point for this delightful, sharply written mystery. This particular child has special powers that make him both a threat to national security and a messianic figure to a doomsday cult, and both groups set off in hot pursuit of the child. It sounds like too much to handle, and it is, which is exactly why it works so well. Writer-director Jeff Nichols expects his audience to keep up and doesn’t slow his storytelling down to drop any exposition, letting contextual in media res do the talking. The ending goes a little off the rails, but it’s a small price to pay for such a ride.

Opens April 15 at Kahala Theatre