Simultaneously effective and uninspired, "Red Sparrow" is successful in fits and starts. A perfectly serviceable spy thriller, it inevitably leaves behind the feeling that a better film was possible than the one that made it to the screen. Certainly, all signs were promising, starting with the...

The Lucy in “Oh Lucy!” is a droopy middle-aged Tokyo office worker named Setsuko Kawashima (Shinobu Terajima), who abruptly decides to take a break from her gloomy, deadening routine. At the insistence of her upbeat young niece, Mika (Shioli Kutsuna), she joins an English class, held in a shady-look..

“You clearly love Sacramento,” says the Catholic nun and high school principal as she looks over the college essay written by one of her students. The teenager, who clearly thinks the city is uncool, shrugs and says she just pays attention to her surroundings. “Well, it comes across as love,” says..