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

Metro-081916-Ratings-DontThinkTwicekewl
DON’T THINK TWICE

A comedy improv troupe finds itself at odds when one of its downtrodden lot (improv comedians are not known for being financially solvent) actually does strike it big. Suddenly the group dynamic is shattered, and in improv, the group is everything. This honest little film weaves in and out of the new lines drawn by fame and how it changes people, buoyed by the likes of Keegan-Michael Key and Gillian Jacobs, though the ensemble cast is occasionally hampered by their one-note biographies. Still, it is sharply, painfully honest about the price of fame — all while, of course, remaining pretty darn funny. Opens Aug. 19 at Kahala Theatre

8E9A7943.CR2thebeesknees
HELL OR HIGH WATER

Two bad-news brothers — Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner (Ben Foster) — have made an industry of rapid, smalltime bank robbery. An aging but sharp Texas Ranger (Jeff Bridges) is on their scent, but they may self-destruct before he even arrives. The story is simple, but the characterization is where this movie shines: telling a tense, modern-day Western about morally ambiguous cops and robbers who have to be bad in order to do good. Taylor Sheridan (of Sicario fame) pens this caper, and he captures a particular sense of red-blooded America that is too often misunderstood in film (and popular) culture. Opens Aug. 19 at Kahala Theatre

Metro-081916-Ratings-Tradedmeh
TRADED

A willful daughter runs away from home, only to get railroaded into forced prostitution. So her ex-gunslinger pop has to come after her, and of course he’s going to shoot everyone that gets in his way. And there are a lot of scumbags who do just that. It’s a pretty typical Western narrative with all the patriarchy you could want — but mostly it’s just a dull, stereotypical affair that hits all the beats without any of the heart we’ve come to expect from the contemporary Western flick. Clich s are really the only thing on offer here. Look elsewhere for your cowboy fix. Plays at 11:30 a.m., 3:15, 5 and 8:45 p.m. Aug. 22 at the Movie Museum