Transformations rarely come as thick as the one made by Vanessa Hudgens for "Gimme Shelter." The sweet-cheeked kids-show chanteuse tosses on the hoodie from the bottom of the pile of dirty clothes. She becomes Apple, a teenage wretch escaping from her life with an abusive mom. This street child isn’t above cutting her hair in clumps or eating pizza out of a dumpster. That was not a skill learned on the set of High School Musical. "Gimme Shelter" starts out looking like "The Blind Side"

The shadows for “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” fall over the movie and the actors themselves. When did Kevin Costner become an old man? What happened to Keira Knightley’s rise to stardom? Why has a relaunch of Tom Clancy’s heroic CIA analyst fallen into the January dump period, especially when it, at least, is not a disaster? There’s certainly nothing shadowy about the chosen story for this intended reboot. This isn’t the first time

In “August: Osage County,” we enter the story (based on the Tracy Letts play), of the appalling Westons who live in Oklahoma. The disappearance of the patriarch, a poet and a drunk (Sam Sheppard), brings together the members of this spectacularly dysfunctional family. In the stifling heat, they claw and tear each other to pieces, they cuss, yell, and throw at one another’s face awful revelation after awful revelation. Intelligent writing and great ensemble acting make “August” fascinating.

Let’s face it, French president François Hollande is rather . [...]