The Greatest Showman (2017)

Synopsis   

Inspired by the imagination of Phineas Taylor Barnum, The Greatest Showman is an original musical that celebrates the birth of show business and tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.  

The life and work of Phineas Taylor Barnum get Broadway razzle-dazzle and sentiment in this occasionally rousing, visually smooth, emotionally diluted musical, set in nineteenth-century New York. 
 

Phineas Taylor (Hugh Jackman), a tailor’s son, and Charity Hallett (Michelle Williams), a socialite’s daughter, are unlikely childhood friends who marry. They have two daughters and are poor and happy, but Phineas Taylor has big dreams, and he borrows and schemes to realize them. His circus displays human curiosities who are callously called freaks by his critics (including a snooty theatre reviewer, played by Paul Sparks) but whose humanity and dignity his show brings to light. The impresario’s confrontations with public hostility, financial difficulties, and romantic misunderstandings form the core of the plot, but another crucial strand involves his high-society business partner, the playwright Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron), who defies his own family and the conventions of the time by pursuing a romantic relationship with one of the company’s trapeze artists, Anne Wheeler (Zendaya), a black woman. (What Anne’s brother, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, thinks of the relationship is never specified.) The director, Michael Gracey, delivers quick doses of excitement in splashy scenes but has little feel for the choreographic action, offers scant historical substance, and displays slender dramatic insight.  

Barnum was a fascinating and complex individual, a man who championed abolitionism and served as a reasonably competent politician in his later years but made his fortune through schemes that mislead paying audiences about what he was displaying and exploited the physical difference of so-called “freaks.” He was a philanthropist who always insisted on making a buck off of his charitable works if possible, a huckster who was beloved by those who knew him well, a charlatan entertainer who tried to debunk spiritualists and others whose deceptions he considered morally worse than his own. 

Downsizing (2017)

Synopsis  

A social satire in which a guy realizes he would have a better life if he were to shrink himself. 

When scientists discover how to shrink humans to five inches tall as a solution to over-population, Paul (Matt Damon) and his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) decide to abandon their stressed lives in order to get small and move to a new downsized community - a choice that triggers life-changing adventures.  

The greatest science fiction stories generally start with a single, significant change to the world, then consider what other changes would follow. Ambitious science fiction considers radical changes to culture and humanity, and possibly to the entire universe. The smaller-scale stuff might just consider how a hobby or an industry looks different with the advent of one new technology. Meanwhile, bad science fiction adds superficial changes to a familiar world, then loses track of those changes, and gets bogged down in familiar stories. There’s nothing more disappointing in the genre than a great idea that ends up buried under a mediocre story.  

Initially, Downsizing tracks the cultural, social, political, and environmental changes that come from such a vast technological shift. But before long, Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor narrow their focus considerably. As the film wears on, they get further and further from the ideas that make the whole conceit unique and exciting. Like the protagonist, the story shrinks down to a fraction of its size, and becomes much less interesting in the process.  
 

It’s the dullest route through a fascinating story. Downsizing is packed with familiar faces in small roles, including Margo Martindale, Don Lake, James Van Der Beek, and Niecy Nash. Neil Patrick Harris and Laura Dern are particular standouts as shills for Leisureland Estates, in a marvelously spry, wry scene that mimics an infomercial combined with a hotel room sales seminar. But it’s easy to feel that any one of these characters is living a more interesting life than Paul. He’s the boring eye at the center of a dynamic whirlwind, but as the film goes on, it focuses more and more on his limited emotional palate and straightforward, unnuanced reactions. It’s like watching a donkey follow whatever carrot is in front of him at any given moment. 

Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)

Synopsis  

The third film in the "Pitch Perfect" franchise that follows a team entering singing competitions, starring Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson and Brittany Snow in recurring roles. 

After the highs of winning the World Championships, the Bellas find themselves split apart and discovering there aren't job prospects for making music with your mouth. But when they get the chance to reunite for an overseas USO tour, this group of awesome nerds will come together to make some music, and some questionable decisions, one last time.   

An invitation to join a USO tour and perform in Spain, Italy and France provides just the contrivance to reunite the Bellas for one last hurrah and prolong their avoidance of adulthood.   

That's pretty much it concerning the flimsiness of the storyline that links one song to another. The numbers are lively as always, but with a sameness of energy and choreography that eventually makes them feel repetitive and numbing.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2017)

Synopsis 

In the epic finale to the Maze Runner saga, Thomas leads his group of escaped Gladers on their final and most dangerous mission yet. To save their friends, they must break into the legendary Last City, a WCKD-controlled labyrinth that may turn out to be the deadliest maze of all. Anyone who makes it out alive will get answers to the questions the Gladers have been asking since they first arrived in the maze.  

Insidious: The Last Key (2017)

Synopsis  

Taking place right after "Chapter 3", the movie goes back to Elise's beginnings, seeing her at a very different point in her life where her quest to find the person that has been haunting her begins.  

Parapsychologist Dr. Elise Rainier faces her most fearsome and personal haunting yet - in her own family home. 

 

Adam Robitel helms the fourth entry of the Insidious series, with Chapter 3 director Leigh Whannell providing the script, centering around parapsychologist Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) and her continued voyage into the "further". 

 

Parents need to know that Insidious: The Last Key is the fourth movie in the scary supernatural horror franchise. Like Insidious Chapter 3, this movie is also a prequel to Insidious and Insidious Chapter 2. It goes into the past of medium/parapsychology Dr. Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye). In this installment, she returns to her family's home to face her most terrifying haunting yet. Although this franchise is known for being lighter on violence and gore than most, it still has lots of disturbing imagery and jump scares and definitely isn't for younger kids. But older teen horror fans who can stomach this sort of psychological thriller will likely want to see it. 

  

It looks to deepen the series mythology by bringing the action to Elise’s childhood home, which seems to house its fair share of spooks who like to appear suddenly, often accompanied by a sting on the soundtrack. There’s even a brief appearance from that Darth Maul-esque demon from the first movie, which suggests that the series’ already tight continuity is about to get tighter. If you’re like me and feel weirdly invested in these characters, this is all fine and good! If you’re not like me and just want an excuse to munch popcorn and scream at ghosts…well, it looks like you’ll have a good time, too.