The 2005 movie version of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds was one of two Oscar-nominated thrillers Steven Spielberg directed that year — the other was fact-based Best Picture nominee Munich. Both were prime examples of how the War on Terror had hopeful auteurs like Ol’ Sunny Steve making cynical, complicated cinema that mirrored our collective struggle with war and peace. For this summer blockbuster, Spielberg reimagines Wells’ alien-invasion yarn as a nerve-rattling post-9/11 allegory. He reteamed with his Minority Report star Tom Cruise, having him play a divorced working-class dad whose awkward weekend with the kids (Justin Chatwin and a grade-school-age Dakota Fanning) turns into a nightmarish journey of survival as extraterrestrials climb out the gotdamn ground in huge-ass war machines, annihilating everybody and everything they come across. If you’ve never had the experience of witnessing the insane, intense set pieces Spielberg delivers in this bad boy on the big screen, the Belcourt will be serving up all that celluloid carnage — in glorious 35 mm! — this weekend. Visit belcourt.org for showtimes.
April 12 & 16 at the Belcourt
2102 Belcourt Ave.
