This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Labor Day weekend is, traditionally, a lousy one for new movie openings. That's true with the Hollywood product, but not on the art-house side.
The big studio opening is "The Transporter Refueled," a reboot of the Euro-trashy action franchise that Jason Statham rode to three installments. The new version stars Ed Skrein as the driver who takes on illicit deliveries for shadowy clients. The movie was not screened for Utah critics.
The other wide release, "A Walk in the Woods," arrived on Wednesday. It's a warm and droll comedy, based on Bill Bryson's memoir, following two long-estranged friends (played by Robert Redford and Nick Nolte) hiking the Appalachian Trail. The comedy is sometimes salty, and Redford and Nolte are charming in their friendly bickering.
The highlight of the week opens at the Broadway: "Phoenix," a gripping psychological drama set in post-war Berlin. Nina Hoss is brilliant as Nelly, a former cabaret singer whose face was disfigured in the concentration camps. After the war, and with a surgically altered new face, Nelly goes back to Berlin to find her husband (Ronald Zehrfeld), who may be the man who betrayed her to the Nazis. What follows is a dark game of identity, with echoes of Hitchcock's "Vertigo," that culminates in a shattering finale.
The Irish drama "Jimmy's Hall" is a spirited historical drama, in which a Communist rabble-rouser, Jimmy Gralton (Barry Ward), returns home during the Depression after a decade in exile in America. He aims to live a peaceful life, but is compelled to get back into local politics — reopening the dance hall and community center that riled up conservatives and the Catholic priests in the 1920s. Director Ken Loach tells this true story with fierce passion and a gentle air of Irish melancholy.
The post-apocalyptic thriller "Z for Zachariah" is a low-key character study, a three-character drama in which the last woman on earth (Margot Robbie) is confronted by the last two men — a scientist (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and a hunky laborer (Chris Pine). The performances, particularly Ejiofor's, are the draw here.
Lastly, Alex Gibney's documentary "Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine" is a scattershot look at the Apple Computer founder, focusing on his less savory characteristics. There's plenty of meat here, but the presentation is a hodgepodge that doesn't hold together.