Roberts and Hedges effectively play a struggling mother and son in ‘Ben Is Back’

“Ben Is Back” – “Instead of a criminal or a drug addict, I was looking at a boy, just a boy.” – Shannon A. Thompson, “Take Me Tomorrow” Ben (Lucas Hedges) is back home on Christmas Eve. Patches of crusty snow are scattered on suburban lawns, wintery-grays fill the skies and leafless trees remind us that warm weather won’t hug this neighborhood for a few distant months.  It might be comfy inside Ben’s house, but this (roughly) 18-year-old kid is locked out, because he did not tell his mom Holly…

Tremblay, Roberts and Wilson kindly deliver in ‘Wonder’

“Wonder” – Be kind. Auggie (Jacob Tremblay) walks with his parents – Isabel (Julia Roberts) and Nate (Owen Wilson) – towards Beecher Prep for his first day of middle school, and he is terrified.  Sure, middle school can be terrifying for just about any kid.  Think back to your years during that preadolescent and adolescent brew of confusion mixed with caste systems of rumors, doubt and Darwinism that distract from the primary tasks at hand: reading, writing and arithmetic. His future schoolwork does not concern him, but the potentially toxic…