MOVIES: Magic Mike dances up a dud but alternatives shine brightly

Except for one notable headliner, the new movies this week are highly recommended. And if they're not enough for you there's always Titanic back on the big screen, refurbished and sparkling in a 25^th anniversary presentation. It was once the top grossing film of all time and still is #3. This might move it up again and certainly will add even more to James Cameron's record. Of the six highest grossing films ever, he made 3.

And if you don't want to go out, notice that the great HBO series The Last of Us gives us its next episode, it's 5^th, early this week. Not on Sunday, Super Bowl Day, but tonight, Friday. You would do well to check out the series, it's on CRAVE in Canada, for a gripping story about an epidemic (a fungus, not a virus). There was a major cliffhanger last week and a bizarre diversion with a gay sex sequence the week before. Both are proof that this series is willing to surprise.

New (or also returning) in theaters today we have:

Magic Mike's Last Dance: 2 stars

To Kill a Tiger: 4 ½

One Fine Morning: 4

Aftersun: 4

MAGIC MIKE'S LAST DANCE: Here's proof you can't string out a thin idea forever. And you shouldn't try to mix in a serious issue when kooky charm is what you've got going. It started 10 years ago when Channing Tatum shone as a male stripper, danced again in film two, and now returns in a third. Except he's now a bartender having failed in a business venture and is picked up by a wealthy socialite (Salma Hayak) for a private dance that turns into a one-night stand. It's not graphic, but steamy and it moves her to proclaim it has revived her perception of who she really is. And to counsel women to demand what they really want. It seems, as per this film, they want to see men dancing on stage, simulating, undulating, thrusting, face-in-a-crotch playfulness.

Salma's character takes Mike to London where she owns a theater (she married and is about to divorce rich) and has him add male dancers into a staid drawing-room drama about an unhappy wife. Her ex tries to interfere and at one point sends a building inspector to enforce an obscure rule. The woman is a prune-dry bureaucrat but is she susceptible to this show? Wait and watch. The dancers, including eventually Tatum, are hot and well-directed by Steven Soderbergh. They deliver but with a weak story and murky women's empowerment ambitions the film is more often tedious. (In theaters) 2 out of 5

TO KILL A TIGER: This is one of the most gripping documentaries in a while. It should be seen, and widely, because although the location, India, might seem remote to us, the subject is not. Rape. It's an epidemic in India, the film's director Nisha Pahuja said in an interview and her film tells a true story that illustrates why. People don't want to talk about it. That bring shame on families and entire villages. It's not done to complain to the police and when one father pushed for justice he not only broke that rule he opened up a virulent backlash and a powerful, dramatic tale.

The man's 13-year-old daughter was gang raped by three men after attending a wedding. He blames himself, and so do the villagers, for leaving her to come home alone. A police official won't do anything. He says it's an internal issue in the village. The people there say the girl should be married off to one of the rapists because who else would want her now. But the father persists, gets advice from a human rights group and total shunning by the community. There are even death threats. Can his courage hold up? Can he bear to make his daughter relive the ordeal by testifying? Is she strong enough? Nisha Pahuja, born in India but living in Toronto since childhood, followed the story over several years and has it all in surprisingly candid and intimate scenes. They won one of the “Amplify Voice Awards” at the Toronto Film Festival. (In two theaters now—Toronto and Vancouver—and probably more, plus TV showings, to come) 4 ½ out of 5

ONE FINE MORNING: This film from France is one of those small, quiet but evocative ones that you'll be glad you took the time to watch. The writer/director Mia Hansen-Løve specializes in stories of real women and the unpredictable events in their love life. With Léa Seydoux, one of France's top actors these days, the film is a winner. Seydoux plays a single mother (and widow) who takes on the added responsibility of finding the best old-age care for her dad. He was a philosophy professor (dedicated his whole life to thinking) but now has a neurodegenerative disease. What to do with his books. They were his life. It's just one of a number of seemingly-small but universal concerns that that pop up in this evocative story.

Re-connecting with an old friend Clement (Melvil Poupaud) adds more poignant drama. He knew her dad and she starts an affair with him. When he admits he is married but promises to leave his wife a future seems to be opening up. He's in and out of her life but can't leave his marriage. He says later it would hurt his son. Familiar story and not at all soap opera-ish. Nicely observed and felt. As is the connection with the dad which deepes when she reads his journal. About the onset of his disease he wrote: “Sense of an abyss.” Those two sides, the spectre of death on one, a personal revival on the other, make this a rich and poignant tale, finely crafted by the director. (In Toronto and Vancouver theaters now, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton next week) 4 out of 5

AFTERSUN: This film came around briefly a few months ago and is back in a few theaters. That's because of the surprise Best Actor Oscar nomination for its star, Paul Mescal. He deserves the inclusion and the return gives us the opportunity to catch up to his performance. And the heart-tugging story he enacts. It is somewhat based on a real trip that the director, Charlotte Wells, took with her father when she was young. Maybe that's why it feels so vivid and moving.

In the film she has a woman (Celia Rowlson-Hall) reflecting on just such a trip taken 20 years earlier, when she was still a pre-teen (and played by Frankie Corio). Her parents have split up; she lives with mom in Scotland, dad lives in England. They travel to an all-inclusive resort in Turkey (bad timing for us right now); hit the attractions like an amusement park and karaoke bar, the water scuba diving or wading and seem to have a good time. Subtly there are hints that he's not a happy man. For her, understood only later on, it's a revelation. But you have to be patient. Much of the time nothing much seems to be happening. Actually little details are accumulating that will keep you engaged and eventually bring on a tearful but enigmatic ending. 4 out of 5