Isn't It Romantic premieres Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2019.
Alita: Battle Angel (Rated PG-13)
Co-written by James Cameron and drawn from Yukito Kishiro's manga series, this adaptation captures Rosa Salazar's performance using dozens of censors. Six hundred years hence, cyber-doctor Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) finds a discarded cyborg head and spine, which he fuses with the body of dead teen girl. Alita is born without memory of her past as an extraterrestrial weapon. She loves our war-torn world, defending it from both human and machine attackers. An elite combatant, Alita fights fiercely while loving cautiously and chastely with local boy, Hugo (Keean Johnson). Though Cameron delivers another technological film breakthrough, his perfunctory script fails to hit the "next level." (Lisa Miller)
‘Black Love Through a Black Lens: Part Two’
The Black Lens series celebrates Valentine’s Day with a program of short films focused on African American perspectives on romance. Included are the London-set UR Mines (directed by Jeff Lucky), the foodie film French Fries (directed by Janine Sherman Barrois), the love triangle of B Love (directed by Shahari Moore), the dating story 90 Days (directed by Nathan Hale Williams) and the coming of age comedy Their Eyes Were Watching Gummy Bears (directed by Raafi Rivero). Dasha Kelly-Hamilton will moderate a post-screening panel discussion. (David Luhrssen)
6:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 14, at the Oriental Theatre.
Happy Death Day 2U (Rated PG-13)
In the sequel to the surprising 2017 hit Happy Death Day, college student Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) is once again stuck in a time loop that concludes each cycle with her death and the deaths of her friends. While the baby-masked killer returns, the murderer from the first film was killed, leaving the new killer's identity unknown. Injecting humor into its plot, the first film demonstrated a self-aware streak that audiences appreciated. If this sequel can pull off that same hat trick, writer-director Christopher Landon and studio head Jason Blum (of Blumhouse), promise a threequel, which may finally close their time loop. (L.M.)
Isn’t It Romantic (Rated PG-13)
New York City architect Natalie (Rebel Wilson) hopes to get noticed for her work, but her supervisors have Natalie delivering coffee and bagels. A nonbeliever in romantic love, Natalie suffers a hard bump to the head, and awakens as the star of her own romantic comedy. She's beset by handsome men (especially one played by Liam Hemsworth). Natalie's cluttered apartment is transformed into a Park Avenue showplace, her walk-in closet brimming with high fashion clothes and accessories and a personal trainer. Likewise, her rundown neighborhood becomes a mecca of charming stores and eateries where residents spontaneously burst into song and dance. To escape this special Hell, Natalie must fall in love and have her feelings requited, a task she finds as distasteful as living in a rom-com world. (L.M.)
Never Look Away (Rated R)
The Nazis planned to “improve” humanity by killing those they deemed undesirable, including the mentally ill. At the center of the Oscar-nominated Never Look Away is eminent gynecologist Carl Seeband, an SS officer who transitions into a Communist dignitary in East Germany before emigrating to the West. The life of the protagonist, Kurt Barnert, threads across Seeband’s arc; Seeband euthanizes Kurt’s beloved but unstable aunt and years later Kurt falls in love with a fellow art student, the doctor’s daughter. Rambling but full of interesting thoughts on art under Nazism, Communism and capitalist democracy, the German film was inspired by the life of painter Gerhard Richter (who had denounced it) and a recurring statement redolent of German Romanticism: “Everything that’s beautiful is true.” (D.L.)
