#Middlebury
“Dragged Across Concrete” (R) – Officers Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) and Lurasetti (Vince Vaughn) are suspended for excessive tactics that are caught on camera, but both have compelling reasons to stay in the game: Ridgeman’s wife is sick, and Lurasetti is on the cusp of proposing to his longtime girlfriend. They need money. The pair dig deep in their dirty contacts to find an enterprising little side job – robbing a group of bank robbers. Standing in their way is a pair of moralist criminals (Tory Kittles, Michael Jai White) with their own compelling reasons for cash. Much like the title says, it’s a violent, slow lurch toward a grisly end that leaves a trail of destruction in its wake.
“Miss Bala” (PG-13) – Gina Rodriguez stars as Gloria, a young, pretty LA makeup artist in Mexico to visit her best friend. At a nightclub, the women are witness to some cartel violence. Her friend is kidnapped, but instead of being helped by the police, Gloria is handed over to the cartel. To find her friend, she must embrace her inner baddie and journey through a world of double-dealing drug lords, police, government agents and more. It’s an English-language remake of the 2011 version by Mexican director Gerardo Naranjo, and it’s a little lighter and a little less gritty.
Katie Douglas in “Level 16” (Dark Sky Films photo)
“Level 16” (NR) – Canadian director Danishka Esterhazy offers a dystopian and very gray look into a secluded (read that windowless, color-drained, possibly underground) boarding school for girls, who are taught the “virtues” of femininity: cleanliness, obedience, silence, etc. They practice in hopes that being a “clean girl” will lead to adoption by a loving family. The whole thing is headed by a serious bottle blonde with neither a speck of lint on her sharp black suit nor trace of a soul. Suspicious yet? So is Vivian (Katie Douglas), who has just leveled up and joins previous classmate Sophia (Celina Martin) on Level 16, the presumably final level, where new and dangerous rules apply.
“Serenity” (R) – Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey) is a fishing boat captain in search of a great big fish. His ex-wife Karen (Anne Hathaway, strangely blonde) tracks him down for help: take her new, abusive husband (Jason Clarke) fishing, and drop him in the ocean for the sharks to eat, thereby saving her and their son from any more abuse. There are big, impressive twists – at least that is how the producers would like you to see them, and I’m not going to ruin them for you. It’s a hard combo to pull off, but this movie managed to be both overly complicated and as transparent as a shallow lagoon.
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© 2019 King Features Synd., Inc.
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