Capsule reviews for March 25

Born to Be Blue

Ethan Hawke finds the right rhythm and melody in his performance as the late jazz trumpeter Chet Baker in this otherwise muddled portrait from Canadian director Robert Budreau. The film blends fact and fiction in chronicling the troubled Baker during the 1960s, when he tries to resurrect his music and acting career by starring in his own biopic alongside an alluring co-star (Carmen Ejogo). However, heroin abuse threatens his comeback and his personal life. Hawke captures both the mannerisms and the spirit of Baker, although the film itself feels manipulative by squeezing its true-life subject matter into a formulaic melodrama about redemption and misunderstood artistry. (Rated R, 97 minutes).

Fastball

Baseball historians will best appreciate this documentary about that tries to prove a popular source of speculation among the sport’s aficionados (such as narrator Kevin Costner): Who threw the fastest pitches of all time? The film uses science and technology to compare fireballers from different eras — from Walter Johnson and Bob Feller to Nolan Ryan and Aroldis Chapman — with a generous array of colorful anecdotes and interviews from the Hall of Fame hitters who faced them. Although there’s not much here for non-fans, director Jonathan Hock keeps the pace lively as he explores the allure of the fastball and its most prolific purveyors through the ages. (Not rated, 87 minutes).

Get a Job

Neither a contemporary workplace satire nor an insightful lampoon of the laziness of overprivileged millennials, this comedy from director Dylan Kidd (Roger Dodger) rests somewhere in the middle, and some notoriously significant post-production tinkering must have left the laughs on the cutting-room floor. The story follows an aspiring videographer (Miles Teller) who drifts in and out of employment along with his stoner roommates, his girlfriend (Anna Kendrick) and his exasperated father (Bryan Cranston). Other recognizable faces pop up in the cast, but none of them can inject much life into a script that’s detached from reality and instead uses broad slapstick to strain for laughs. (Rated R, 83 minutes).

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2

It appears the motives are more financial than creative for this sequel to the 2002 box-office hit about the comic dysfunctions of an extended Greek family. This follow-up showcases many of the same broad stereotypes and sugary predictability of its predecessor, but without the same freshness to the characters or the scenario. This time, Toula (Nia Vardalos) and Ian (John Corbett) are enduring some parenting and family issues while preparing for another wild wedding, this time involving her parents, who discover through a technicality that they were never truly married in the first place. Some scattered laughs can’t compensate for the familiarity of the material. (Rated PG-13, 94 minutes).

My Golden Days

A touching sense of nostalgia pervades this stylish drama from French director Arnaud Desplechin (A Christmas Tale) that’s told mostly through flashbacks. It begins with Paul (Mathieu Amalric), an anthropologist in Tajikistan who starts to reflect on his early years, including his troubled upbringing and his college days in Russia, where a young Paul (Quentin Dolmaire) navigated relationship issues while remaining committed to his true love, Esther (Lou Roy-Lecollinet). Despite its deliberate pace and episodic structure, Desplechin’s script — which revisits characters from a couple of his early films — finds a balance of humor, romance and poignancy throughout most of its segments that crosses cultural boundaries. (Rated R, 123 minutes).