Short Redhead Reel Reviews for the week of Jan. 27

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“Aftershock” (NR) (4) [Subtitled] [DVD only] — Striking photography highlights this heartbreaking, poignant, riveting, well-acted, factually inspired, 130-minute, 2010 film, which is based on Zhang Ling’s novel “Aftershock,” that chronicles the grief-filled, hardship-laden life of a guilt-ridden Chinese widow (Xu Fan) as she mourns the loss of her devoted husband (Zhang Guoqiang) in the devastating Tangshan earthquake in 1976, is forced to choose between twin siblings (Li Chen and Zhang Jingchu) when both become trapped under tons of concrete rubble, and then spends the next three decades struggling to stay connected to her married son (Li Chen) who became financially successful after leaving home, getting married, and having a daughter all the while unknowing that her bitter young daughter survived the earthquake 32 years earlier, was adopted by a kindhearted PLA solider couple (Chen Daoming and Chen Jin), left college as an adult (Zhang Jingchu) after becoming pregnant by a premed student (Lu Yi), and eventually finding happiness in Canada with a lawyer 16 years her senior.

“Bezos: The Beginning” (R) (2.5) [Language.] [Available Jan. 24 on various VOD platforms.] — Khoa Le’s engaging, factually based, predictable, 94-minute biographical film based on Tashena Ebanks’ novel “Zero to Hero” that chronicles the business acumen, numerous challenges, and obstacles that successful, goal-oriented, driven, creative, tenacious, 31-year-old entrepreneurial hedge fund manager Jeff Bezos (Armando Gutierrez) along with his supportive wife MacKenzie Bezos (Alexandria R. Mitchell), parents (Emilio Estefan Jr. and Ann Herberger), and two computer technicians (Sasha Andreev and Nick Friedman) faced in his Seattle garage during his pioneering efforts to start a large-scale, e-commerce merchandising website company called Amazon that initially sells books from the largest virtual bookstore to the dismay and chagrin of Barnes and Noble CEO (Kevin Sorbo).

“The Descendants” (R) (3) [Language, including some sexual references.] — While a grieving, successful Hawaiian lawyer (George Clooney) on Oahu negotiates a sale of a prime, stunningly beautiful property on Kauai worth millions on behalf of a multitude of cousins (Beau Bridges, Michael Ontkean, John McManus, Hugh Foster, Matt Esecson, Matt Corboy, Stanton Johnston, and Tiare R. Finney) in this well-acted, down-to-earth, somber, uneven-paced drama, he is also trying to raise two precocious daughters (Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller) after his wife (Patricia Hastie) ends up in a coma due to a tragic boating accident and learning that she had an affair with a real estate agent (Matthew Lillard), who has a wife (Judy Greer) and two young children.

“Detective Knight: Independence” (R) (2.5) [Violence, language throughout, brief drug use, and sexuality.] [Opens Jan. 23 in theaters and available on various digital and VOD platforms.] — When a disgruntled, psychotic, wannabe-cop EMT (Jack Kilmer), who is dating a paramedic (Willow Shields) and whose ex-convict father (Timothy V. Murphy) runs a shelter, gets fired as a paramedic and then ends up posing as a cop to rob banks in Edward Drake’s tense, gritty, action-packed, fast-paced, violent, predictable, 91-minute thriller, a veteran LAPD detective (Bruce Willis) and his recuperated, longtime partner (Lochlyn Munro) go after the thief and his accomplices after they rob a bank and hijack an ambulance on July 4th that endangers the city and his daughter during holiday celebrations.

“The Ghosts of Monday” (NR) (2) [Available Jan. 23 on DVD, Blu-ray™, and various digital platforms.] — When a skeptical, divorced television director (Mark Huberman) goes with his vision-prone ex-wife to an abandoned, allegedly haunted luxury hotel in Cyprus where 100 partygoers mysteriously died of rat poisoning on New Year’s Eve in 1990 to film the supernatural, paranormal show “Ghosts of the Old World” with its host (Julian Sands) in Francesco Cinquemani’s eerie, dark, tense, uninspired, disjointed, 78-minute horror thriller, the production assistant (Kristina Godunova), the camera operator (Flavia Watson), a sound recording artist (Elva Trill), a duplicitous elderly couple (Anthony Skordi and Maria Ioannou) who plan on refurbishing the property, an adopted girl (Marianna Rossetto), and hotel financiers (Loris Curci and Joanna Fyllidou) are terrorized by ghosts and knife-wielding killers.

“The Greening of Whitney Brown” (PG) (2) [Brief mild language.] — When a popular, spoiled high school student (Sammi Hanratty) is forced to leave her boyfriend (Slade Pearce) and friends (Charlotte Matthews, Anna Colwell, Lily Rashid, et al.) at a private school in Philadelphia to move with her parents (Brooke Shields and Aidan Quinn) to a farmhouse owned by her estranged, widowed grandfather (Kris Kristofferson) after her successful father loses his job in this family-oriented, tween-geared film punctuated with beautiful cinematography, she desperately tries to fit in while being befriended by a black-and-white gypsy manor horse.

“Happy Feet Two” (PG) (3) [Some rude humor and mild peril.] — While an ordinary Emperor Penguin (voiceover by Elijah Wood) shows his timid son (voiceover by Ava Acres) that anyone can be a hero when he saves an elephant seal (voiceover by John Goodman) from certain death and then finds a way to save his wife (voiceover by Pink) and the scared penguin colony (voiceovers by Robin Williams, Ned Beatty, Sofia Vergara, Anthony LaPaglia, Hugo Weaving, Ray Winstone, et al.) from isolation and starvation by teaming up with a flying Swedish puffin (voiceover by Hank Azaria) in this whimsical, charming, funny, upbeat, 3D animated musical that has a memorable soundtrack, an adventurous krill (voiceover by Brad Pitt) and his best friend (voiceover by Matt Damon) prove that even the smallest among us can do extraordinary things.

“Happy FKN Sunshine” (NR) (2.5) [Available Jan. 10 on various digital and VOD platforms.] — When mill workers go on strike in a rundown Canadian town in Derek Diorio’s down-to-earth, humor-dotted, dark, realistic, 98-minute comedy punctuated profane language, a successful weed dealer (Mattea Brotherton) buys her ambitious, teenage brother (Matt Close), who lives with his angry, abusive father (Lewis Hodgson) and mother (Carrie Schiffler), an electric guitar and together they form a heavy metal band, including bass player (Dana Hodgson), a bullying, name-dropping singer (Connor Rueter), and a Goth drummer (Maxime Lauzon), with the help of a talented music/pawn shop owner (Ted Dykstra) to help support their dysfunctional family and to hopefully become successful.

“Immortals” (R) (1.5) [Sequences of strong bloody violence, and a scene of sexuality.] — Over-the-top special effects substitute for plot in this blood-splattered, violent, action-packed, 3D, star-dotted film in which a revenge-driven peasant (Henry Cavill) teams up with a soldier (Stephen Dorff) in 1228 B.C. to protect a virginal, visionary priestess (Freida Pinto) and three oracles (Kaniehtiio Horn, Ayisha Issa, and Mercedes Leggett) with the help of an old man (John Hurt) and then helps to lead an army against a power-hungry, blood-thirsty, ruthless, scarred king (Mickey Rourke) who angers the legendary Greek gods (Luke Evans, Isabel Lucas, Kellan Lutz, Corey Sevier, Peter Stebbings, and Daniel Sharman) after he gains possession of the powerful magical Epirus Bow with plans on unleashing evil on the world.

“J. Edgar” (R) (3) [Brief strong language.] — Slow pacing hinders this superbly acted, grayed-out, nonlinear, factually inspired, star-studded (Jeffrey Donovan, Dermot Mulroney, Josh Lucas, Stephen Root, and Ken Howard) Clint Eastwood biopic that chronicles the illustrative, infamous, 48-year career of paranoid, regimented, colorful, and fascinating FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (Leonard DiCaprio) from 1919 to his death in 1972 and his relationships with his mother (Judi Dench), longtime aide Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), his steadfast secretary (Naomi Watts), and his agents (Josh Stamberg, Ed Westwick, Gerald Downey, Lea Coco, et al.).

“Jack and Jill” (PG) (1.5) [Crude and sexual humor, language, comic violence, and brief smoking.] — When his lonely, loudmouthed, fraternal twin sister (Adam Sandler) arrives from the Bronx to visit her successful advertising company owner brother (Adam Sandler) and his family (Katie Holmes, Elodie Tougne, and Rohan Chand) for Thanksgiving in Los Angeles in this silly, intermittently funny, family-friendly, cameo-dotted (Johnny Depp, Bruce Jenner, Regis Philin, David Spade, Dana Carvey, Drew Carrey, Christie Brinkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Irvin, and Jared Fogle) comedy, she is surprisingly pursued by actor Al Pacino and the widowed family landscaper (Eugenio Derbez).

“Living” (PG-13) (3) [Some suggestive material and smoking.] [Opened Jan. 20 in theaters,] — Oliver Hermanus’ poignant, somber, down-to-earth, low-key, touching, nonlinear, 102-minute film adapted from the 1952 Japanese film Ikiru and inspired by Leo Tolstoy's 1886 Russian novella “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” in which a widowed, reserved, taciturn, longtime British civil servant (Bill Nighy), who is in a bureaucratic rut and has lived a mundane life with his son (Barney Fishwick) and daughter in-law (Patsy Ferran), in London learns he has stomach cancer and has about six months to live in 1953, befriends a comely office employee (Aimee Lou Wood) and treats her to a fancy lunch, and then surprises his coworkers (Alex Sharp, Adrian Rawlins, Tom Burke, Hubert Burton, Anant Varman, Oliver Chris, et al.) when he leads the charge to get a playground built for children to the delight of the East End parents

“My Week with Marilyn” (R) (3) [Some language.] [DVD and VOD only] — A compelling, insightful, factually based, star-dotted (Toby Jones, Emma Watson, Julia Ormand, Derek Jacobi, Dominic Cooper, and Simon Russell Beale) film, which is primarily based on documentary filmmaker Colin Clark’s novel “The Prince, the Showgirl, and Me” and told from his perspective as the third assistant director (Eddie Redmayne), that documents the struggles of iconic, seductive, spoiled, troubled actress Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) while filming “The Prince and the Showgirl” in 1956 at the Pinewood Studios in England with her playwright husband Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott) and loyal acting coach Paula Strasberg (Zoë Wanamaker) at her side while frustrated costars, such as Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and Dame Sybil Thorndike (Judi Dench), coddled her in an attempt to desperately wrap up filming.

“One Fine Morning” (R) (3) [Subtitled] [Language, some sexuality, and nudity.] [Opens Jan. 27 in NY/LA theaters.] — Mia Hansen-Løve’s compelling, realistic, moving, well-acted, multifaceted, 112-minute romantic film in which a widowed, polylingual French translator (Léa Seydoux), who is craving emotional and physical companionship, struggles to raise her free-spirited, 8-year-old daughter (Camille Leban Martins) while caring for her panic-attack-prone, neurodegenerative-afflicted, bibliophile, philosophy professor father (Pascal Greggory) in Paris and searching with his ex-wife (Nicole Garcia), his partner (Fejria Deliba), and her sister (Sarah Le Picard) for a suitable, affordable nursing home and then begins an affair with a married, longtime cosmochemist friend (Melvil Poupaud).

“Peep World” (R) (2) [Language and sexual content.] [DVD only] — Lewis Black narrates this quirky, dark, star-dotted (Stephen Tobolowsky and Kate Mara), 90-minute, 2010 comedy in which all hell breaks loose when a successful novelist (Ben Schwartz) writes a tell-all book about his dysfunctional family and his three siblings, including a broke architect (Michael C. Hall) cheating on his pregnant wife (Judy Greer), a gambling-addicted lawyer (Rainn Wilson) dating an African-American security guard (Taraji P. Henson), and an unhappy actress/artist (Sarah Silverman), gather for the 70th birthday of their cantankerous father (Ron Rifkin), who is dating a much-younger actress (Alicia Witt) to the chagrin of his ex-wife (Lesley Ann Warren).

“Petit Mal (aka Little Evil)” (NR) (2.5) [Subtitled] [Opens Jan. 27 in theaters and available Jan. 31 on various digital platforms.] — Terrific cinematography highlights Ruth Caudeli’s engaging, quirky, primarily black-and-white, realistic, bittersweet, semi-autobiographical, 89-minute, 2022 film in which a gay throuple, consisting of a director (Ruth Caudeli), a screenwriter and film editor (Silvia Varón), and a woman (Ana María Otálora) who maybe unemployed, living with five dogs in Bogotá, Colombia, find their tumultuous relationship on a rollercoaster ride as they cope with jealously, separation, and isolation when one of them accepts a several-month job stint in Europe.

“Shotgun Wedding” (R) (2.5) [Language, some violence, and bloody images.] [Available Jan. 27 on Amazon Prime Video.] — When a bickering, seemingly on-the-fence couple (Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel) decide to have their destination wedding in the Philippines and the crazy wedding party (Jennifer Coolidge, Cheech Marin, Lenny Kravitz, Sônia Braga, D'Arcy Carden. Callie Hernandez, Desmin Borges, Steve Coulter, Melissa Hunter, et al.) is suddenly taken hostage in Jason Moore’s entertaining, wacky, silly, action-packed, intermittently funny, love-it-or-hate-it, twist-filled, slapstick, 100-minute romantic comedy, mayhem ensues as the couple tries to save their love ones from the gun-toting pirates (Alex Mallari Jr., Pancho Cardena, Thorath Sam, et al.) looking for a pay day.

“The Son” (PG-13) (1.5) [Suicide, strong language, and mature thematic content.] [Opened Jan. 20 in theaters.] — When a successful political strategist and lawyer (Hugh Jackman), who has a wife (Vanessa Kirby) and newborn son in Manhattan and a manipulative father (Anthony Hopkins) in Washington, D.C., learns from his concerned ex-wife (Laura Dern) that their 17-year-old son (Zen McGrath) is skipping school and wants to live with him in Florian Zeller’s disappointing, award-winning, poorly written, contrived, unrealistic, frustrating, love-it-or-hate-it, 124-minute prequel to the 2020 “The Father,” he and his ex-wife are oddly clueless that their his son is cutting himself and is suffering from severe, acute depression and have their heads in the sand when it comes to getting him treatment.

“Turn Every Page—The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb” (PG-13) (3.5) [Brief war images, some language, and smoking.] [Opens Jan. 27 in theaters.] — Lizzie Gottlieb’s fascinating, educational, insightful, wit-punctuated, in-depth, 114-minute documentary that examines the writing and editing process and the successful, longtime, collaborative, professional relationship between legendary, influential writer Robert A. Caro, who is working on completing volume 5 of “The Years of Lyndon Johnson,” and his longtime editor Robert Gottlieb and consists of archival photographs and commentary by daughter Lizzie Gottlieb, former president Bill Clinton, actor and writer Ethan Hawke, Pantheon Books publisher Lisa Lucas, “New York Times” reporter Dan Rubinstein, Knopf editor-in-chief Jordan Pavlin and managing editor Kathy Hourigan, literary agent Lynn Nesbit, “The New Yorker” editor-in-chief David Remnick, author and critic Daniel Mendelsohn, television host Conan O’Brien, writers Colm Tóibín and Steven Johnson, “The New Yorker’s” comma queen Mary Norris, grandson Oliver Young, Miami City Ballet artistic director Lourdes Lopez, actress and Bob Gottlieb’s wife Maria Tucci, Bob Caro’s fan Neal Morris, and writer, researcher, and Bob Caro’s wife Ina Caro.

“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part I” (PG-13) (3) [Disturbing images, violence, sexuality/partial nudity, and some thematic elements.] — After lovesick, 19-year-old Bella (Kristen Stewart) becomes mysteriously pregnant on her honeymoon with her worried, hunky vampire husband (Robert Pattinson) on a secluded island off of Brazil in this in highly anticipated, intense, star-dotted (Anna Kendrick, Michael Sheen, Sarah Clarke, et al.) sequel with striking cinematography and sets, the Cullen clan (Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, and Maggie Grace) rallies around her in an attempt to save her life while her smitten werewolf friend (Taylor Lautner) and two steadfast friends (Booboo Stewart and Julia Jones) try to keep the angry wolf pack (Gil Birmingham, Jackson Rathbone, Justin Chon, et al.) at bay.

“The Wandering Earth II” (NR) (3.5) [Subtitled] [Opens Jan. 22 in theaters.] — When the expanding Sun threatens the existence of Earth in Frant Gwo’s riveting, action-packed, fast-paced, battle-laden, violent, 173-minute sci-fi thriller prequel to “The Wandering Earth” dominated by phenomenal special effects, scientists (Andy Lau, et al.), astronauts (Wu Jing, Wang Zhi, et al.), scientists, and the military from varied nations join forces in 2044 to build thousands of gargantuan fusion engines that can move the Earth away from the Sun and the Moon and into another solar system.

The following films screen at the 2023 Slamdance Film Festival that runs Jan. 20-29 at Treasure Mountain Inn, 255 Main Street, Park City, Utah; for more information, log on to http://slamdance.com:

“Don't Die on Me” (R) (3) [Screens Jan. 22 at 7:30 p.m. and Jan. 24 at 10:45 p.m.] — While sitting on a park bench next to a cigarette-puffing stranger in Ori Goldberg’s poignant, creative, artistic, quirky, dark, satirical, 3-minute animated film, an Israeli man suffers another asthma attack that has plagued him since childhood and finds his unsatisfactory life flashing before his eyes during his last coughing spell as he once again hears “don't die on me.”

“The Underbug” (NR) (2) [Subtitled] [Screens Jan. 21 at 10 p.m. and Jan. 23 at 3:15 p.m.] — Two paranoid Indian men (Ali Fazal and Hussain Dalal) hide out in an abandoned home to protect themselves from violent rioters on the eve on Independence Day during the pandemic in India in Shujaat Saudagar’s tense, eerie, dark, 68-minute psychological thriller and find themselves fighting hallucinations, each other, and a creepy, mysterious, presence (Areenah Fatima) in the house as they struggle to keep their sanity.

“Where Is the Lie?” (R) (3) [Subtitled] [Screens Jan. 22 at 3 p.m. and Jan. 26 at 1:45 p.m.] — Quark Henares’ engaging, factually inspired, thought-provoking, realistic, sympathetically portrayed, 89-minute comedy with an insightful perspective and emphasis on the universality of certain human needs in which a trans design student (EJ Jallorina) in the Philippines finds herself the victim of a catfishing scheme by a sociopathic woman (Maris Racal), who is living her own personal fantasy life, when she falls in love with a handsome model (Royce Cabera) on a dating app. 

Wendy Schadewald is a Burnsville resident.