Week of May 27 - June 2 (Rhoades)

Tropic Overview

Tropic Cinema Adds First-Runs to Memorial Day Fare

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

A big sea change in the movie industry, Tropic Cinema will be getting more first-run mainstream movies to compliment its indie fare. In the past, these bigger films came as second-runs after they had appeared at the Regal.

First example, “X-Men: Apocalypse,” opened this weekend at the Tropic. This blockbuster completes Bryan Singer’s trilogy about the early years of these superheroes. Here he goes all way back to the first mutant, an Egyptian king who is revived to become the villainous Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac). Of course, he has his Four Horsemen to help him take on the X-Men (James McAvoy et al.). Movie Kit says, “It still manages to thrill you with its mutant action and impeccable characterizations.” And Deadline Hollywood Daily adds, “Thanks to Oscar Isaac’s Apocalypse it is still catnip for fans of the franchise.”

 “The Meddler” is a great comedy vehicle for Susan Sarandon, here playing a mother who is overly helpful when it comes to intruding into her daughter’s just-fine-thank-you life. Rip It Up notes, “Susan Sarandon … offers a performance that’s by turns charmingly funny, bitingly sad, and convincingly annoying.” And Desert News describes it as “a subtle, poignant and often funny film about moving on.”

“A Bigger Splash” offers a very different family dynamic, when an old friend and his grown-up daughter (Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson) drop in on a famous rock star and her photographer boyfriend (Tilda Swinton and Matthias Schoenaerts) while vacationing on an Italian island. Creative Loafing says, “Positively drenched in thick, tasty Euro-ambiance, the film serves up tantalizing characters and even more tantalizing ideas …” And Salt Lake Tribune nods, “The cast is strong, with Swinton particularly powerful even though her voice barely rises above a whisper.”

“The Man Who Knew Infinity” continues to please audiences with this true story about Srinivasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel), an Indian student with a talent for intuiting complicated equations. G.H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons) is the Cambridge prof who recognized the young man’s mathematical gift. St. Louis Post-Dispatch observes, “The multiplexes are full of films that promise little more than a forgettable good time. ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’ is just as entertaining, but far more substantial.” And X-press.com agrees that “Irons and Patel create a bit of magic with their mathematical dance …”

Rounding out the cinematic offerings is “The Jungle Book,” one for the whole family. This is Disney’s fourth telling of the Kipling story about a young boy raised by jungle animals. This time around, it’s bigger, brighter, CGI-animated, and in eye-popping 3-D. South China Morning Post says, “Alternately exhilarating and terrifying, ‘The Jungle Book’ offers a hyper-realistic view of the forest as a place of natural hierarchy, unpredictable menace, and cross-species camaraderie.” And Reforma concludes, “This remake of the animated classic is a visual experience that you can’t miss.”

All five of these films are prefect daliances for a long, lazy Memorial Day Weekend. Enjoy!

srhoades@aol.com