“Finestkind”
Ben Foster, Toby Wallace, and Tommy Lee Jones pull you onto their crew in this rousing crime drama by writer-director Brian Helgeland (“Legend,” TIFF ’15) about a group of fishermen who make a habit out of pushing the line.
Charlie (Wallace) is looking to get away from his dull college education when he begs his older brother, Tom (Foster), to let him work on his fishing trawler for a summer. There’s no deterring him, even after their first expedition almost ends disastrously. Charlie becomes fast friends with the group, making a place for himself in New Bedford as he starts dating Mabel (Jenna Ortega), who’s trying to make her own future. In this town, scallops are gold, and more is never enough as Tom’s crew encroaches into Canadian waters to continue fishing. Trouble follows, and with debts piling up, the men are forced to come up with a way to make some fast cash. Wrapped up in a dangerous drug deal, they get more than they bargained for, forcing Tom’s father, Ray (Jones) ― famous in the community for his cantankerousness ― to step in the only way he knows how.
“His Three Daughters”
When their father’s health worsens, three estranged sisters come together to try to plan for the inevitable. The eldest is high-strung Katie (Carrie Coon), who talks a hundred miles a minute and stresses about all the practical details. The middle sister, Rachel (Natasha Lyonne), is ready to check out after spending a year taking care of the man. And the youngest sibling, Christina (Elizabeth Olsen), seems always on the verge of tears, trying her best to clumsily keep the peace while they’re all stuck in their father’s small apartment.
“Lee”
Oscar-winner Kate Winslet stars in this fascinating portrait of the great American photojournalist Lee Miller, whose singular talent and ferocious tenacity gave us some of the 20th century’s most indelible images.
The story begins in Paris, 1938, where Miller lives with a bevy of artists and bon vivants. Already a model, muse, and mentee to the avant-garde photographer Man Ray, Miller is now focusing exclusively on her own work. Everything changes, however, with the outbreak of war. Miller and her lover, art dealer Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgård), move to London, where she begins working for British Vogue. Unsatisfied with documenting life on the home front, Miller teams up with fellow photographer David E. Scherman (Andy Samberg) and goes on assignment for Life. The pair record one of the first uses of napalm, the liberation of Paris, and Hitler’s abandoned Berlin home — where Scherman captures Miller bathing in der Führer’s tub. They are also among the first photographers to enter the camps at Buchenwald and Dachau, where Lee crafts a series of horrifying, urgent images that will sear themselves into history.