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The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Entertainment
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Capsule reviews of feature films

BLACKKKLANSMAN. 3 stars. Spike Lee brings the amazing true story to the big screen of Ron Stallworth, a black man who integrated the Colorado Springs Police Department in the 1970s and while doing so infiltrated and disrupted a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan with the help of a fellow officer. Starring John David Washington, Adam Driver, and Topher Grace. 2 hrs. 17 R (language) _ Gary Thompson

COLETTE. 2.5 stars. Evocative period drama and abbreviated biography of French writer Colette (Keira Knightley) who as a young woman wrote a series of sensational novels that her husband (Dominic West) published under his own name. Knightley is good, as usual, but the picture is disrupted a bit by West, who is so good at playing Colette's scoundrel of a husband that you miss him when he's gone. 1 hr. 51 R (sex) _ Gary Thompson

CRAZY RICH ASIANS. 3 stars. An American woman (Constance Wu) goes to Singapore for a wedding and discovers her boyfriend (Henry Golding) is ultra-wealthy, and that not everybody is happy about their relationship. Frothy, sometimes superficial, but elevated by Wu's charming lead performance, and her scenes with Michelle Yeoh as her prospective mother-in-law. 2 hrs. 1 PG-13 (language) _ Gary Thompson

THE HATE U GIVE. 3 stars. Effective adaptation of the YA best-seller about a teen (Amandla Stenberg) who witnesses a police shooting, and must navigate the treacherous gap between the way the incident is viewed in her mostly white prep school, and the African American neighborhood where she lives. Strong cast (with Regina Hall, and Stenberg is excellent) and assured direction from George Tillman Jr., who handles several complex issues with thoughtfulness and skill. 2 hrs. 12 PG-13 (language) _ Gary Thompson

JULIET, NAKED. 3 stars. Winning rom-com based on a Nick Hornby book about a woman (Rose Byrne) who begins an online relationship with the reclusive rocker (Ethan Hawke) worshipped by her boyfriend (Chris O'Dowd). Nicely written, beautifully performed by Byrne and Hawke. 1 hr. 38 R (language) _ Gary Thompson

OPERATION FINALE. 2.5 stars. Competent, thriller-style telling of Israeli agents (Oscar Isaac, Nick Kroll, Melanie Laurent) in 1960 locating and capturing Nazi fugitive and war criminal Adolph Eichmann (Ben Kingsley), then in hiding in Argentina. Directed by Chris Weitz. 2 hrs. 2 PG-13 _ Gary Thompson

THE PREDATOR. 2.5 stars. A boy unwittingly brings about the return of the world's most deadly hunters to Earth. Their prey: the human race. 1 hr. 48 R (profanity, language) _ Nick Vadala

PRIVATE LIFE. 2.5 stars. Comedy, laced with a significant amount of melancholy, about a fortysomething couple (Paul Giamatti, Kathryn Hahn) exhausting their financial and spiritual reserves in a quest to conceive a child, via costly fertility treatments and other means. Written and directed by Tamara Jenkins, full of funny lines, but the film is long and the character arcs flat, and the sadness is very close to the surface. With Molly Shannon, Denis O'Hare. 2 hrs. R (language) _ Gary Thompson

A SIMPLE FAVOR. 3 stars. A blogger (Anna Kendrick) attempts to discover the secret behind her friend's (Blake Lively) sudden disappearance. 1 hr. 56 R (profanity) _ Gary Thompson

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