Feature

Out of the Furnace

Two brothers cross paths with a dangerous outlaw.

Directed by Scott Cooper
(R)

***

Don’t let the Rust Belt backdrop fool you, said A.A. Dowd in the A.V. Club. This tale about two blue-collar brothers and the bond that inspires one of them to violence may look like “a bleeding-heart vision of economic despair,” but really it’s just “a predictable, very ordinary retribution story” propped up by an A-list cast. Playing a battered Iraq War veteran who takes up bare-fisted boxing to pocket some cash, Casey Affleck “makes an extremely believable lost soul,” said Stephanie Zacharek in The Village Voice. Yet the versatile Christian Bale proves even more effective as the protective older brother. Bale is “much looser and more relaxed than usual,” letting the fire inside this good-guy ex-con build ever so slowly. Still, from the moment we meet the fight fixer brought to wild life by Woody Harrelson, we see the big clash that’s coming, said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. Give this to director Scott Cooper, though: The goods he’s serving “may be canned, but the sincerity with which he delivers them can make them hard to resist.”

Recommended

Blaze kills 39 at migrant detention center in Mexico
 Rescuers work to take the injured and the corpses of the victims out of the premises after a fire at an immigration detention center in Northern Mexico
tragedy at the border

Blaze kills 39 at migrant detention center in Mexico

U.S. to crack down on guns going south, Mexico works to stop fentanyl heading north
A CBP agent at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Ysidro, California.
Stopping the Flow

U.S. to crack down on guns going south, Mexico works to stop fentanyl heading north

Lebanon to reverse daylight savings decision
Clock tower in Lebanon.
really, what time is it?

Lebanon to reverse daylight savings decision

The extreme weather events of 2023
An illustration of a tornado and wind-swept palm trees
In depth

The extreme weather events of 2023

Most Popular

How to watch 5 planets align in the night sky on Tuesday
Moon, Jupiter, Venus.
skyline

How to watch 5 planets align in the night sky on Tuesday

5 toons about Trump's possible indictment
Political Cartoon
Feature

5 toons about Trump's possible indictment

Florida principal forced to resign over Michelangelo's David display
The statue of 'David' by Michelangelo.
Controversy Over David

Florida principal forced to resign over Michelangelo's David display