Suitably Epic

The arrival of a new Star War means the counterprogramming has to be very, very strategic — so Sony Pictures Classics goes wide with one of the year’s biggest art-house pictures and former Lucasfilm distributor Fox launches a new family toon.

Smart. Won’t help, but it’s smart.

Call Me By Your Name: Luca Guadagnino applies his trademark textural gloss to this adaptation of Andre Aciman’s queer coming-of-age novel, and critics and audiences have swooned … but I agree with Glenn about a certain lack of urgency that undermines the drama. The performances are uniformly strong and the details are expertly realized, but the whole thing feels weightless.

Ferdinand: Rad finds Blue Sky’s latest — an adaptation of that old children’s story, with John Cena voicing the friendly bull — to be a pretty pleasant experience, if nothing more.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Not only is it really good — like, really good, the kind of good that makes you wonder whether this is where the franchise tops out — but Rian Johnson’s Episode VIII is stirringly beautiful. Go big for this one, you won’t regret it.

Also, Errol Morris’ mystery series Wormwood just dropped on Netflix. It’s interesting, but not quite dense enough to justify its length.

Oh, and we just put my Local Heroes of 2017 online. The results may surprise you! Or not.

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