We haven’t done our Friday round-up of the week’s new theatrical releases in a while – because frankly, being the early weeks of the year, there wasn’t much out there we could even stomach seeing. Which is not to say this week’s crop is exactly Masterpiece Theater.
- “It just doesn’t hold up, does it?” sneers Will Ferrell’s Mugatu late in Ben Stiller’s excruciatingly unfunny Zoolander 2, a 15-years-later rehash of a property that was probably best left alone. Occasional giggles (most provided by Kristen Wiig’s Donatella Versace riff) can’t temper the whiff of old gags reheated poorly – or the bad taste of the bizarre 9/11 gag that opens it. Read more about that here.
- How to Be Single has a cast to die for (Dakota Johnson, Leslie Mann, Rebel Wison, and Alison Brie), and its rowdy trailers promised something more than the standard Sex in the City rip-off. Alas, it doesn’t deliver on that promise. Read our review here.
- This week also marks an oddly delayed wide release of Michael Moore’s latest free-form cinematic op-ed Where to Invade Next , which offers the usual assortment of laughs and food for thought, though its anecdotal approach almost seems to invite the criticisms that’ve dogged his work for years. Here’s our first look from Toronto, followed by a more in-depth review from the New York Film Festival, as well as our coverage of Moore’s talk at that fest.
- And on the indie beat this week, you’ve got limited releases for the tough family drama Glassland, the tender and effective Katie Holmes/Luke Kirby drama Touched with Fire, and the charming Before Sunrise/Lost in Translation riff Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong. Read about them all in our February indie guide.