Blue Valentine; R, 114 minutes; coming soon

When Blue Valentine comes to a theater near you, it will be preceded by its reputation. Given the automatic buzz of indie golden-boy director Derek Cianfrance returning from documentaries to narrative features with a film reportedly a dozen years in the making, the dust-up about its rating—NC-17, until the Weinstein Company successfully appealed for R—seems […]

The King’s Speech; R, 111 minutes; Regal Downtown Mall 6

Having grown up with a strict father (Michael Gambon) and a prominent older brother (Guy Pearce), an otherwise capable and courtly fellow (Colin Firth) finds himself with a problem. He stutters, severely. Colin Firth plays Bertie, a stuttering Duke who finds himself crowned King George VI of England just as the country goes to war. […]

True Grit; R, 110 minutes; Regal Downtown Mall 6

Of what does true grit consist? Grit, presumably. But also something else, something that makes it easy to distinguish from false grit. True Grit the film consists of a young teenage girl in 1880s Arkansas and the old, fat, drunk, half-blind marshal she hires to track down her father’s killer. For the girl, true grit […]

Tamara Drewe; R, 111 minutes; Vinegar Hill, opening Friday

For all the familiar ground it covers, Tamara Drewe is a welcome rarity. It’s a film about writers that’s not too inwardly verbal; a black comedy that’s not too cruel; an ensemble piece that’s not too diffuse; an adaptation of a graphic novel that’s not too callow; and, in fact, a mature film that revels […]

Unstoppable; R. 95 minutes; Carmike Cinema 6

After playing with fighter jets, race cars, submarines and subway trains in Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Crimson Tide and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, respectively, director Tony Scott isn’t done hurling around huge, deadly vehicles. In Scott’s new action thriller Unstoppable, Denzel Washington, Chris Pine and Rosario Dawson contend with a combustible […]