The Queen of Versailles
Opens July 20
5/5 stars
The Queen of Versailles is simply astonishing in every sense of the word. Jackie Siegel, the irrepressible title character of this compulsively watchable documentary, gives reality TV stars a real run for their money. And Jackie’s husband David, 30-plus-years her senior, desperately needs that money. With the 2008 financial crisis causing his timeshare empire to reach near-bankruptcy, the Siegels are defaulting on payments for their 90,000-square-feet(!) Orlando dream home—a mansion modeled after Versailles. This jaw-dropping spectacle of conspicuous consumption is shocking, depressing and still vastly entertaining. David’s ego is as big as his dream home, and Jackie’s inability to downsize—hell, even her breasts need reducing—is darkly comic. Her parenting skills are fascinating, and when she asks a car rental agent—perhaps without irony—the name of her driver, it is downright hilarious. The Queen of Versailles is less a cautionary tale about the perils of overspending—Jackie’s shopping spree at Walmart is alarming—and more of a satisfying riches-to-rags tale about the ‘1%’ joining the lower 99. The testimonies from nannies, drivers—even Jackie’s friends and former neighbors—resonate, making viewers greatly appreciate Jackie and David’s assets depreciating as their relationship deteriorates. —Gary M. Kramer

Crazy Eyes
Starring Lukas Haas, Madeline Zima, Ray Wise
Now showing
1/5 stars
Viewers could have one helluva drinking game by imbibing every time Zach (Haas) and Crazy Eyes (Zima) belly up to the bar or pick up a bottle in this rambling shambles of a film. He’s a millionaire who wants to take her to a Hieronymus Bosch exhibit and to bed. She’s got a boyfriend and can’t decide whether to kiss or slap him. He tells her to do both—and she does. Punchy and drunk, these irritating would-be lovers spend an interminable 96 minutes being “really bored … trying to have sex.” It’s easy to lose patience with the unattractive characters; they engender little or no emotion. The only feeling viewers will experience is the headache watching the characters wake up with a hangover. Much of this enervating film consists of the actors boozing it up and acting drunk. A handful of knock-down, drag-out fights in a bar hardly compensates for action. Zach’s alcoholism can likely be a response to his failed marriage, which produced a 5-year-old, foul-mouthed son, compounded by his grief over a dying father (Wise). When the film finally lumbers to the ending credits, it’s a relief. Most viewers will require a celebratory drink. —Gary M. Kramer

Savages
Starring Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, Blake Lively
Now showing
4/5 stars
When one enters a theatre to see an Oliver Stone film, one has every right to expect political posturing, a left-wing harangue, some semblance of a lecture. So what a treat to report that Savages is simply flat-out entertainment, the twisty tale of two marijuana entrepreneurs, the girl they both love and share, a shady FBI agent and the cutthroat Mexican drug cartel headed up by an ice-cold underground queen in the beautiful, diminutive form of Salma Hayek. Working from a screenplay by Shane Salerno, Don Winslow and Stone himself—based on Winslow’s tough novel—the director does a job-for-hire that’s probably the most vital work he’s delivered in years. He doesn’t pile on ideas or grand themes; he doesn’t get in his own way. He simply serves the material and gathers us up for a cracking good ride. The actors all shine, with extra props for John Travolta’s weasel of an FBI agent and Benicio Del Toro’s mustache-twirling henchman Lado. The screenplay goes wrong in the very end; unable to decide if the film should end with irony or tragedy, it tries for both. Yet that doesn’t dim the overall effect of Savages as a kinky, amoral romp. —Dan Loughry

Trishna
Starring Freida Pinto, Riz Ahmed, Roshan Seth
Opens July 13
4/5 stars
Trishna is a sensational—and highly sensory—film. Director Michael Winterbottom uses vibrant color and fabulous music and dance sequences to turn this romantic tragedy into an incredibly tactile experience. Viewers can practically feel the heat of the sand and the sun, the touch of fine linen, the scent of jasmine or the breeze during a lengthy motorcycle ride. The story—a reimagining of Tess of the d’Urbervilles in contemporary India, where a caste/class system still exists—is enthralling, too. Trishna (Pinto) is the poor but beautiful daughter who captures the fancy of Jay (Ahmed), the rich, handsome son of a blind hotelier (Seth). He employs her, teaches her how to whistle, and one night, he seduces her. While she feels ashamed and returns home, Jay soon finds her and takes her away again, only to repeat a dangerous cycle where she is treated like his property. Winterbottom’s alterations—Jay is the conflation of two characters in the novel, and key elements are changed or omitted—mostly enhance, rather than sacrifice, the book’s themes of purity stained and corrupted. Pinto is captivating as the malleable tragic/feminist heroine, and Ahmed is irresistible as her suitor/benefactor. Trishna dazzles right up to its shocking ending. —Gary M. Kramer