Film Clips: Beauty and the iron lady make joyful carnage

‘Pariah’s’ Adepero Oduye upstages Queen Latifah, Dolly Parton, Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep and Belle.

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  • Movie Fix
  • Mark Wahlberg stars in Contraband as a smuggler.

OPENING TODAY
’’BEAUTY AND THE BEAST 3D (1991) 5 stars (G) The tale as old as time jumps on a trend as new as two years ago with this 3D release. It’s still probably the best of the animated films that would fall under the “Disney Princess” umbrella, with great songs from Alan Mencken and the late Howard Ashman. — Holman
CARNAGE 3 stars (R ) Two pairs of upper middle-class parents (Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly in one corner, Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet in the other) attempt to come to civilized accord after a playground fracas between their kids. Tempers eventually boil over in the style of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Jodie Foster standing out as a mom with an almost masochistic commitment to liberal fairness. Roman Polanski’s adaptation of the stage play God of Carnage’’ doesn’t transcend its source’s theatrical contrivances, but at 79 minutes, doesn’t overstay its welcome. — Curt Holman
’’CONTRABAND (R ) Mark Wahlberg stars in this action thriller as Chris Farraday, a former smuggler who has retired from the smuggling game and settled down with his wife in New Orleans. But when his brother-in-law (Caleb Landry) screws up a drug deal, Chris must come out of retirement to save him. — Henry Samuels
THE IRON LADY 2 stars (PG-13) Meryl Streep gives a predictably rich and insightful lead performance in this thin, superficial biopic of Margaret Thatcher, England’s first female prime minister. The Iron Lady’’ seems primarily interested in the doddering, elderly Thatcher who speaks to her deceased husband Denis (an excellent Jim Broadbent), while the wishy-washy script refuses to form an opinion about Thatcher’s controversial politics. — Holman
’’JOYFUL NOISE (PG-13) Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton share the spotlight as members of a small-town members with ambitions to take the choir to a national championship. — Samuels
PARIAH (R) stars Gay Brooklyn high schooler Alike, or “Lee” (Adepero Oduye), passes as straight among her parents (including her deeply religious mother, played by Kim Wayans) until tensions at home and her social life come to a breaking point. Writer-director Dee Rees based her script partly on her own life and it’s easy to believe that she either lived through most of the film’s incidents, or knows people who did. Pariah’’ presents more rounded characters than you find in the urban dramas of Tyler Perry or the more manipulative Spike Lee movies, and the excellent cast comes across as completely credible people. — Holman
DULY NOTED
FRIDAY THE 13TH (R ) (1980) A group of horny young people pay an ill-fated visit to Camp Crystal Lake in the first installment of the apparently indestructible horror franchise. Don’t expect to see the hockey mask, though: that comes later. Splatter Cinema. Fri., Jan. 13. Plaza Theatre, 1049 Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-873-1939. www.plazaatlanta.com.’’
GOD’S GONNA TROUBLE THE WATER (NR) Ruby Dee narrates this documentary about the former African-American slaves who settled on the Gullah Islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. Sun., Jan. 15, 3 p.m. Atlanta-Fulton Central Library Auditorium, 1 Margaret Mitchell Square. Free. www.sankofaspirit.com/movies_with_a_mission_atlanta’‘
WHITE REINDEER (1952) This Finnish horror film based on a Lapland folk tale depicts a heartbroken wife who transforms into a shapeshifter bloodsucker. 9:30 p.m., Sat., Jan. 14. Plaza Theatre, 1049 Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-873-1939. www.plazaatlanta.com.

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