Allied

After paired together and succeeding in deadly assassination attempt in 1942 Morocco, an officer (Brad Pitt) is informed by his superiors that his Resistance member and now wife (Marion Cotillard) is a turncoat and he himself has been charged with her execution. Despite its dumbed down trailer which drew comparisons to Mr. and Mrs Smith, Robert Zemeckis' Allied is a quiet spy thriller drawn from a substantial Steven Knight script. Pitt however is way too old for the role and appears creepy made to play a character ostensibly 30 or so years younger.

*** out of ****

Pawn Sacrifice

Raised in a middle class Brooklyn home by his communist sympathizing mother, Bobby Fischer  (Tobey Maguire) develops a distinct knack for chess which is matched by gradually deteriorating mind state consisting of narcissistic paranoid delusions. Rising through the ranks with the help of a shifty manager (Michael Stuhlbarg) and a pragmatic priest (Peter Saarsgaard), he preps for an internationally followed world tournament match against reigning Russian champion Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber). Edward Zwick's take on a unique Cold War chapter that both oddly and briefly captured the public's imagination is a fascinating film about a maddening individual told through an offbeat Steven Knight screenplay that resists being dumbed down. Maguire, Saarsgaard, and Stuhlbarg are all great.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Dirty Pretty Things

A Nigerian doctor (Chiwetel Ejiofor) exiled from his own country and living illegally in London, drives a cab by day and works a hotel front desk by night, turning a blind eye to the various vices he encounters while performing simple medical procedures under the table and living with a Turkish maid (Audrey Tatou). His life gets thrown into chaos when one sleepless, ordinary night, a prostitute friend asks him to check the clogged toilet in her room. From a script by Steven Knight, Dirty Pretty Things is a thriller with an immigration agenda, telling a seamy tale of the underbelly of London and while it is not as shocking as its subject matter would indicate, it is nonetheless intriguing with exacting direction from Stephen Frears and a brilliant performance from Ejiofor.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Locke

As he drives to visit the woman about to give birth to his child in the hospital and figures out how to break the news to his wife and son, a foreman (Tom Hardy) loses his job on the evening of the biggest concrete pour of his career, but decides to see it through anyway counseling his replacement, all via bluetooth during the lengthy car ride to London. Locke is a high concept film from talented screenwriter Steven Knight (also directing here) that nearly works but grows wearisome, even in its short running time. Hardy makes some strange acting choices but is generally powerful in this one man show.

** 1/2 out of ****