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Up To Date

Up To Date's Indie, Foreign & Doc Critics' 'Three To See,' July 28-30

A24

Did you know July is National Anti-Boredom Month? (No, we're not kidding.) If you're looking back in remorse at an uneventful last four weeks, it's time to get off the couch and get into your local theater! Up To Date's indie, foreign and documentary film critics are back to recommend the least-boring flicks playing now. Finish off the month in style with a movie that's sure to keep you entertained.

Cynthia Haines

Score: A Film Music Documentary, Not rated

  • A journey with Hollywood's most notable composers through the unforgettable soundtracks of cinema. The documentary delves into the science of music, and the challenges of creating a score that strikes a chord with the audience.

The Exception, R

  • A German soldier played by Jai Courtney falls in love with a Jewish maid while investigating the manse of exiled monarch Kaiser Wilhelm II. The romance confronts him with a choice: follow his country or his heart.

Big Pharma: Market Failure, Not rated

  • This short documentary examines the astronomically rising prices of prescription drugs, Congress' inability to deal with the crisis, and how a dysfunctional pharmaceutical industry impacts the nation's health.

Steve Walker

A Ghost Story, R

  • Writer and director David Lowery unspools a low-key but effectively haunting story about the presence of a ghost, simplistically adorned in a white sheet with eyeholes, who figures intimately in the lives of a young couple played by Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara.

The Big Sick, R

  • This alternately witty and wrenching autobiographical comedy about a Pakistani stand-up comic and a health scare endured by his Caucasian girlfriend stars Silicon Valley's Kumail Nanjiani, who co-wrote the film with his wife, Emily V. Gordon.

Maudie, PG-13

  • This poignant and unconventionally romantic biopic about Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis, who suffered from debilitating arthritis, stars Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, both excellent as the title character and her grumpy, illiterate husband.

Bob Butler

A Ghost Story, R

  • In this hauntingly surreal film, a recently deceased ghost, dressed in a simple, all-white bed sheet with eye holes, returns home to console his widow.

Maudie, PG-13

  • Based on the true story of Canadian painter Maud Lewis, Sally Hawkins deftly portrays the renowned folk artist, who was first hired as housekeeper for the introverted man she eventually falls in love with.

The Big Sick, R

  • Based on the real-life courtship of the film's co-writers, this untraditional rom-com tells the tale of an unlikely pair, a Pakistan-born comedian and a graduate student, whose relationship turns into much more than either expected.
Since 1998, Steve Walker has contributed stories and interviews about theater, visual arts, and music as an arts reporter at KCUR. He's also one of Up to Date's regular trio of critics who discuss the latest in art, independent and documentary films playing on area screens.