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June’s 12 Minutes Max
This series of 12 Minutes Max, presented by Salt Lake City Public Library, is a little different than usual, in that instead of the usual three short acts to look forward to seeing, the library has narrowed it down to two acts this time around, so that one of them may be a bit longer.
Luca, The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, The Sparks Brothers and more
12 Mighty Orphans **
Fact-based underdog sports movies are a dime a dozen, so if you want yours to stand out, you’ve got to do something more than just show up with the ragtag heroes and triumphant music. This one is set in Fort Worth, Texas circa 1938, where Rusty Russell (Luke Wilson) arrives at the Masonic Orphanage to teach math and try to put together a football team.
In the Heights, Awake, Queen Bees, Censor and more
Awake **1/2
There’s only one major problem with this quick-and-dirty apocalyptic drama, and that’s the “quick” part. Gina Rodriguez plays Jill, a military veteran and ex-addict whose two children—teenager Noah (Lucius Hoyos) and 10-year-old Matilda (Ariana Greenblatt—are in the custody of her late husband’s mother (Frances Fisher).
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Undine, Spirit Untamed and more
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It **1/2
It takes a Costco-size pair of cojones to make a visual nod to The Exorcist in your movie about demonic possession, as this third "official" Conjuring installment does when we get a shot from behind of a fedora-wearing priest arriving at night at a house where a child—young David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard)—is being tormented by a demon. During the ensuing ritual, Arne Johnson (Ruairi O’Connor), the boyfriend of David’s sister, invites the dark spirit to take him instead, and Arne subsequently commits a murder where demonologists Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) attempt to prove that … well, it’s right there in the subtitle.
Cruella, A Quiet Place Part II, American Traitor, Port Authority and more
American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally **1/2
This truly weird historical drama/biopic shouldn’t work at all, yet somehow delivers just enough slivers of interest not to be a complete mess. It’s the story of Mildred Gillars (Meadow Williams), and American singer/actress who becomes a voice for Nazi radio propaganda while living in Berlin circa 1941, then winds up on trial for treason after the end of World War II.
New tunes by World's Worst, Cop Kid and Amateur Atlas
World’s Worst, “Balloons”
The dream of the ‘90s is alive in SLC—or at least, the dream of the ‘90s as it was re-imagined in the early 2010s by bands like Yuck.
Dream Horse ***
It would be hard to top Louise Osmond’s 2015 documentary about this same true story for both character charm and crowd-pleasing drama, but a fictionalized version could have done far worse than this one. Toni Collette plays Jan Vokes, the part-time barmaid/part-time supermarket employee in a small Welsh community who becomes the ringleader for a syndicate in which many local residents invest in a racehorse, which they name Dream Alliance.
Army of the Dead, Spiral: From the Book of Saw and The Killing of Two Lovers
Army of the Dead **1/2
Given the personal tragedy in Zack Snyder’s life, it’s hard to ignore the poignant subtext of building his zombie action thriller around a father-daughter relationship.
