In two long interviews with Jesuit publications, director Martin Scorsese described his new film “Silence” as a major stage in his pilgrimage of faith, a pilgrimage that included flunking out of the minor seminary, investigating other religions and recognizing that the Catholic Church was his home.
Cubicle drones cuts loose in “Office Christmas Party” (Paramount). The result is a sleazy soiree, an “Animal House” toga wingding for the spreading-middle and receding-hairline set.
Evangelical Christian faith hovers in the background of the holiday-themed drama “Believe” (Freestyle).
Dignity and understatement are usually noble qualities in a film. “Loving” (Focus), the fact-based story behind a landmark 1967 Supreme Court decision, is so restrained and decorous, however, that it nearly obscures the historical significance of the events it recounts.
Somewhere in the planning stages of “Incarnate” (BH Tilt), someone must have thought it would be a good idea to combine elements of Christopher Nolan’s 2010 tour de force “Inception” with tropes that have been familiar to moviegoers at least since Linda Blair’s head went spinning round in “The Exorcist” way back in 1973.
As soul-deadening as its squalid urban setting, “Bad Santa 2” (Broad Green) attempts to mine laughs out of human degradation.
The same tropical setting that provided the backdrop for the 1949 musical “South Pacific” now lends its exotic flavor to the animated feature “Moana” (Disney).
Warren Beatty wrote, directed and stars in “Rules Don’t Apply” (Fox), a loosely fact-based tale set within the secretive world of eccentric industrialist Howard Hughes (1905-1976).
