Your weekend preview: What to see (and what to skip) In the theatres

Should you still go to the movies?  According to a recent poll courtesy of Morning Consult and The Hollywood Reporter,  about 38% of U.S. respondents said they would support closures of the kind that have taken place in China, the biggest movie market after North America. 

On the other hand, 44% opposed a temporary shutdown of movie theaters.  Canada's biggest exhibiting chain, Cineplex has issued a statement promising "enhanced cleaning protocols" to make theatres safer, which is a huge source of comfort.

Kelly Reichardt’s neo-Western First Cow is our pick of the week.

Whether you attend or not (those first empty screenings of the day are pretty self-isolating)  we're committed to keeping you abreast of new releases, at  a time of year when there's an abundance of under-the-radar releases, including indie and foreign films and the more off-beat studio movies.

First off there's First Cow (B Plus), a neo-Western from the queen of American indie directors, Kelly Reichardt, set in 1820s Oregon.  The story centers on the relationship between two men, a cook (John Magaro) and a Chinese immigrant (Orion Lee) who he finds hiding in the woods. Add the first milk cow in the territory, and you’ve got a plot involving lactic larceny.  "Reichardt trusts her audience to go with the storytelling and to reflect" on matters both political and spiritual, writes reviewer Karen Gordon. 

 And now three movies related by their B grade and titles introduced by the definite article: The Whistlers (B) from absurdist Romanian writer-director Corneliu Porumboiu (Police, Adjective) is, says Liam Lacey, a film-noir pastiche, which bounces between between Budapest and the Canary Island of La Gomera, in a way that sometimes feels more about ingenuity than art. The Booksellers (B)  a documentary about the decline of antiquarian book shops in New York City, is something of a cluttered bookshop itself, mixing some good finds and perhaps too much clutter.  The Hunt (B) is a satiric exploitation flick about the culture wars, which drew fire from conservatives last fall, for its theme of liberal elites hunting "deplorables.” In practice, the movie's an equal opportunity offender.

 Imagine Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson in A Marriage Story if they had stuck it out 20 more years, but starring Annette Bening and Bill Nighy, and you would have something like Hope Gap (B-minus). It’s a study in grief for the dissolution of a marriage which reviewer Jim Slotek praises for the excellence of its acting, 

Red Snow (B minus), written and directed by Indigenous playwright Marie Clements is a timely Canadian drama which follows a Gwich'in soldier captured by the Taliban and relying on wisdom gained during his traumatic past in Canada's far north. Bloodshot (C) is a not-so-super superhero movie starring Vin Diesel as a robotically reanimated soldier. Kim Hughes says it features a "whole coterie of Franken-badasses". And finally, reviewer Linda Barnard, reviewing My Spy (C minus) says she may have seen too many movies about big tough guys and cute kids that are kindergarten cop-outs.

Have a super sanitary weekend.