SCATTER MY ASHES AT BERGDORF’S (PG-13)

Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s (PG-13)

If fashion is a religion, one of its sacred shrines is an emporium that takes up a whole city block on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, a store so venerated by devotees that a celebrated New Yorker cartoon had one matron confess to another, “I want my ashes scattered over Bergdorf’s.”

THE ANGELS’ SHARE (unrated)

The Angels’ Share (unrated)

A barrel of whisky would usually spell doom for the working-class blokes who always find their way into Ken Loach films. But it is redemption the director and his longtime creative collaborator, writer Paul Laverty, have in mind in the unexpectedly warm, hopeful and humorous brew of The Angels’ Share.

Miami International Film Festival

Silent movie opens window on lost world of Eastern European Jews

In the fraught world of the silent film The Yellow Ticket, the heroine confronts anti-Semitism and moral hypocrisy, fights for survival and nearly dies before discovering her true identity and finding acceptance and happiness.

ART IMITATES LIFE

‘Pain & Gain,’ a movie based on South Florida murders, is a painful reminder to victims’ families

Victims’ relatives say action-comedy ‘Pain & Gain’ starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson trivializes a Dade couple’s murder.

Bruce Willis' new ‘Die Hard' scores with $25M debut

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Bruce Willis remains a die-hard at the box office.

Television review

FX’s ‘The Americans’ a family spy drama you should not miss

The Americans. 10-11:45 p.m. Wednesday. FX.

Oscar odds, ends, facts and figures

Fun stuff to know about Thursday’s Oscar nominations:

Movies

2012 reports of film’s death greatly exaggerated

“The movies are dead.” That was the mantra of some popular film writers in 2012. They fretted that movies no longer mattered, that they had been replaced by long-form TV narratives at the water cooler, that they were so empty and disposable they didn’t leave you with anything to talk about.

Hollywood Blacklist born 65 years ago today; published out of revenge, son says

Sixty-five years ago today, at the height of the country’s ‘red scare,” one of Hollywood’s darkest chapter’s played out with the creation of the Hollywood Blacklist.

Nobody Walks (R)

Nobody Walks (R)

Nobody Walks is one of those fish bowl films: an idea is tossed in like a crumb, then we wait and watch what happens.

Rogues list of James Bond’s best villains

For 50 years we’ve rooted for 007. But as long-time fans of the spy series know, a James Bond film rises or falls on the quality of its villain.

Flight (R)

Flight (R)

The best scene in Flight comes early and will undoubtedly stay with you a good long time: A commercial pilot (Denzel Washington) tries to land a crashing plane full of terrified passengers in a field near Atlanta. It’s a horrifying, nauseating, expertly shot sequence that is bound to send nervous fliers off in search of a Xanax prescription the next time they have to board a plane.

Halloween 19 years ago, actor River Phoenix died; now his last movie is out

It's a common Hollywood scenario: A young, talented actor overdoses and dies too young. On Halloween 1993, that became the River Phoenix story.

UM film aims to tackle challenges “On Cities” spurred by rapid growth

By 2050, two thirds of the world’s population – about six billion people – will live in urban areas instead of rural or suburban neighborhoods, according to the World Health Organization.

Frankenweenie (PG)

Frankenweenie (PG)

Here’s how good Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie is: It’s got enough juice to jolt the bad taste of Dark Shadows right out of your system. More Beetlejuice than Alice in Wonderland, more Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands than Planet of the Apes, this delightfully twisted story about a boy and his (dead) dog showcases precisely what Burton excels at: blending the macabre and the heartfelt in a perfect, if oddball, union.

The Oranges (R)

The Oranges (R)

The Oranges is a bizarre little film in which Hugh Laurie (House) and Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl) hook up, and if you just threw up in your mouth a little bit don’t feel bad. You’re not alone. At least the filmmakers, inept at the black humor needed to pull off such a farce, are savvy enough to realize these two have zero chemistry and that the whole idea of them making out is nauseating. And thus we are spared extended unpalatable scenes.

Movies

Perks of Being a Wallflower set in '90s, with timeless teen-oriented plot

Stephen Chbosky’s new film, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, is set in the 1990s and highlighted with pop culture touchstones of the time (think mix tapes and Morrissey posters). There’s not a cellphone in sight. But don’t think of the movie, which opened Friday, as a period piece.

Movies

‘Looper’ reinvents the time-travel genre

The sci-fi adventure ‘Looper’ reinvents the time-travel genre

Beloved (unrated)

Beloved (unrated)

One minute, Ludivine Sagnier is moving down a Paris street — she’s a shop girl in a shoe store, it’s 1963 — and the next she’s breaking into a jangly Yé-yé inner song-o-logue about love.

Chicken With Plums (PG-13)

Chicken with Plums (PG-13)

Chicken with Plums, the first live action film of French filmmaker Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis), is an agony of bad plotting and whimsical, lifeless scenes. It is the story of a man who, disappointed by life and love, decides to go to bed and die. And the movie does the same — only it dies a full hour before the finish.

Sleepwalk With Me (Unrated)

Sleepwalk With Me (Unrated)

Comic Mike Birbiglia’s funny one-man show about love, life on the stand-up circuit, sleepwalking and the perils of all three was a near-perfectly calibrated piece of theater that became an off-Broadway hit a few years ago. The comic’s conversational storytelling made all the players and their problems seem real. The staging was unexpected, the timing exceptional.

RED HOOK SUMMER (R)

Red Hook Summer (R)

Anyone worried that the years have worn down Spike Lee’s edge, rest assured. The filmmaker is just as prickly as ever — and intent on getting under your skin. His new drama, Red Hook Summer, takes aim at poverty, pollution, politicians, pedophiles, pimps and pushers with a religious fervor. Even Barack Obama does not escape his ire.

ROBOT & FRANK (PG-13)

Robot & Frank (PG-13)

Everything about Robot & Frank is as unlikely as it is irresistible. Charming, playful and sly, it makes us believe that a serene automaton and a snappish human being can be best friends forever.

THE POSSESSION (PG-13)

The Possession (PG-13)

If you only see one demonic possession/ Jewish exorcism movie this year, make it The Possession.