Critic’s Pick: Film tributes in L.A. area for John Sayles and Humphrey Bogart

This week filmgoers have the choice of tributes to two film legends, one who is very much with us and one who is gone. Or you could see them both.

Alive and kicking is independent film maestro John Sayles, who is going to have an in-person tribute at Cinefamily at 611 N. Fairfax Ave. in Los Angeles.

Screening Friday is “The Brother From Another Planet” (with Sayles in attendance) and “Piranha” with producer Roger Corman appearing. On Saturday there will be an afternoon screening of “City of Hope,” with Sayles talking, and “Lianna” and “Baby It’s You” in the evening.

For those with more classic Hollywood tastes, Turner Classic Movies and Fathom Events are combining for big-screen showings of Humphrey Bogart in “The Maltese Falcon” at 2 p.m. Sunday and 7 p.m. Wednesday. More information at www.fathomevents.com.

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Movie recommendations from critic Kenneth Turan and other reviewers.

Anomalisa

Sad, beautiful, the wittiest film of the year; directors Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman, using stop-motion animation and working from a script Kaufman originally wrote and staged a decade ago, transform the comedy of quiet desperation into an occasion for serious pleasure. (Michael Phillips) R.

The Big Short

Adam McKay, with the help of Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt, has made a very funny film about a very serious situation, 2008’s global financial collapse. (Kenneth Turan) R.

Bridge of Spies

Steven Spielberg’s superior directing skills and fine acting from Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance do the trick in this espionage thriller about a successful insurance lawyer who has to defend a Soviet spy and then attempt to trade him to the Russians for one of ours. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13.

Brooklyn

Impeccably directed by John Crowley, feelingly adapted by Nick Hornby from Colm Tóibín’s fine novel and blessed with heart-stopping work from star Saoirse Ronan and the rest of the cast, “Brooklyn” is about love and heartache, loneliness and intimacy, what home means and how we achieve it. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13.

Carol

Impeccably acted by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara as two women in love, with an exquisite look captured by cinematographer Ed Lachman, “Carol” has been made under the complete and total control of Todd Haynes, a director who always knows what he’s doing. (Kenneth Turan) R.

Creed

In the hands of director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan, what is nominally a spinoff of the celebrated “Rocky” series plays like a spiritual remake of the 1976 film that retells the original story in the kind of involving way one would not have thought possible. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13.

The Good Dinosaur

It is antic and unexpected as well as homiletic, rife with subversive elements, wacky critters and some of the most beautiful landscapes ever seen in a computer-animated feature. (Kenneth Turan) PG.

Hail, Caesar!

A droll Coen brothers tribute to and spoof of Hollywood past that amuses from beginning to end with its site specific re-creation of the studio system and the movies that made it famous. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13.

Room

Brie Larson excels in a film able to give full weight to both sides of the emotional equation as it tells the story of a young woman imprisoned for years in a tiny shed and the young son who was born to her there and knows no other world. (Kenneth Turan) R.

Spotlight

The saga of how the Boston Globe won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for uncovering sexual abuse by Catholic priests, the film is mightily impressive not only because of the importance of the story it tells but also because of how much effort and skill went into bringing it to the screen. (Kenneth Turan) R.

A War

Denmark’s best foreign language Oscar finalist is a film done exactly right about a situation gone horribly wrong. Like Susanne Brier’s taut 2004 “Brothers,” it’s a superb drama dealing with personal damage resulting from Denmark’s troop deployment as peacekeepers in Afghanistan. (Kenneth Turan) R.