Films Shown in 2004
LOVE ACTUALLY - Rated R - 135
minutes - Scope
Starring Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman,
Colin Firth, and Liam Neeson
Golden Globe Nominations including Best Picture, Best Screenplay
 |
Love Actually investigates the premise
that love is a many-splendored thing, focusing on a number of London
couples connected incidentally to each other. Richard Curtis, who scripted
such hits as Four Weddings and A Funeral, Bridget Jones's
Diary and Notting Hill, makes his directing debut with another
charming comedy based on the libido of those likeable Brits. Hugh Grant
is the Prime Minister who falls for the tea girl. Emma Thompson and
Alan Rickman are a longtime married couple, Liam Neeson is a father
in mourning, and Colin Firth is a writer who falls for his house keeper,
despite a language barrier. Numerous up-and-coming television performers
complete the large cast in this romantic romp. |
See reviews
COLD MOUNTAIN - Rated R - 146
minutes - Scope
Five Oscar nominations including Best Actor for
Jude Law and Best Supporting Actress for Renee Zellweger! Also starring
Nicole Kidman
Cold
Mountain, North Carolina seethes with rebellious glee in 1861 when the Confederate
States of America declare war on the anti-slavery Union. This causes nothing
but pain for Inman (Jude Law), who must leave the woman he loves, Ada (Nicole
Kidman), and go off to war. When he is severely wounded in the carnage of
Petersburg, Inman begins a dangerous trek back to the only place he can
feel safe, "Cold Mountain." Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella
(The English Patient) adapts the National Book Award winning novel
by Charles Frazier and brings to the screen a love story that is also about
courage, loyalty, revenge and the perilous times in America's south at the
end of the civil war.
See reviews
HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG - Rated
R - 126 minutes - Flat
Three Oscar nominations including Best Actor for
Ben Kingsley and Best Supporting Actress for Shohreh Aghdashloo! Also starring
Jennifer Connelly
Jennifer Connelly, a recovering
alcoholic, has been living alone since her husband walked out eight months
ago. She has fallen behind on the taxes on her modest split-level California
home. When she neglects warnings from the county, the house is put up for
auction, and it is purchased by Ben Kingsley, an Iranian immigrant who was
a colonel in the Shah's air force but now works two jobs, and dreams that
this house is the first step in rebuilding the lives of his wife and son.
House of Sand and Fog sees into the hearts of its characters, and
loves and pities them, making this a compelling conflict that is much more
than simply a formula of good versus evil.
See reviews
CALENDAR GIRLS - Rated PG-13
- 108 minutes - Scope
Starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters
Calendar Girls
has all the potential to be a female Full Monty, the breakout British
hit of a few years ago. But what gives this film even more heart is that
it's based on a real-life story. Julie Walters portrays Angela Baker, whose
husband (John Alderton) is diagnosed with and dies of leukemia. Angela's
best friend, Tricia (Helen Mirren), rallies members of their local Women's
Institute to pose for a calendar to raise money for leukemia research. The
twist: The mature-aged women are all to pose nude, engaged in traditional
Women's Institute activities like knitting, gardening, pressing apples or
baking cakes. But the calendar takes off with a life of its own, revved
up by media frenzy. Long-established friendships are tested as the women
attempt to adjust to their new life in the spotlight.
See reviews
IN AMERICA - Rated PG-13 - 103
minutes - Flat
3 Oscar nominations! Best Actress - Samantha Morton,
Best Supporting Actor - Djimon Hounson, Best Writing (Original) - Jim Sheridan,
Naomi Sheridan and Kirsten Sheridan
An immigrant
Irish family enduring the trials and travails of New York is the subject
of this semi-autobiographical film from Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot,
In The Name of the Father). Still reeling from the death of son Frankie,
the Sullivan family decides to relocate to New York. Father (Paddy Considine)
trys to make it as an actor. Mother (Samantha Morton) just wants to make
do. The two girls in the family are enthralled by their new home and, in
their explorations, befriend "the man who screams," the dying
artist (Djimon Hounsou) who lives next door. In America is a perceptive
tale, part fable, part drama, about being poor and a stranger in a new land.
See reviews
MONSTER - Rated R - 111 minutes
- Flat
Starring Academy Award Best Actress Charlize Theron
In Monster
an almost unrecognizable Charlize Theron gives an Oscar best actress portrayal
of the nation's first female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute
since age 13 whose life story is a series of one hard knock after another.
Monster depicts the pivotal months in 1989-1990 when Wuornos robs
and murders seven men whom she encounters while turning tricks along the
highway in Daytona Beach, Fla. The film depicts both a horrifying and touching
love story about the disenfranchised on whom society turns its back--a segment
of the population not often portrayed on film.
See reviews
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING - Rated PG-13 - 90 minutes - Scope
Starring Scarlett Johansson
Girl With
a Pearl Earring features Scarlett Johansson, the luminous young star
of Lost in Translation, as Griet, the maidservant who supposedly
sat for 16th-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's famous portrait. The
painting has become as intriguing in its modest way as the Mona Lisa. The
girl's face turned toward us from centuries ago demands that we ask, who
was she? What was she thinking? What was the artist's relationship with
her? British actor Colin Firth plays the tempestuous painter and Tom Wilkinson,
portrays the morally corrupt art patron who keeps Vermeer alive. Johansson
gives a delicately nuanced performance which brings the painting to life.
Girl With a Pearl Earring received Academy Award nominations for
Art Direction and Costume.
See reviews
FOG OF WAR - Rated PG-13 - 107
minutes - Flat
Academy Award Winner - Best Feature Documentary!
Renowned
author and documentarian Errol Morris (Thin Blue Line, Stephen Hawking's
A Brief History of Time, and Fast Cheap and Out of Control
) this time takes as his focus Robert McNamara, U.S. Secretary of Defense
from 1961-68, who presided over defining moments in American history such
as the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam War. The end
result is a very compelling mosaic. Morris incisively deals with a subject
who is surprising in his candor, not only confronting his own political
career but also casting warnings about the repercussions of decisions and
policies.
See reviews
TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE - Rated
PG-13 - 80 minutes - Flat
An animated treat from France!
Not since
Pee-wee's Big Adventure has the story of a boy and his bike been
this delightfully strange. This French animated feature is the wildly detailed,
nearly silent story of a cycle-happy kid named Champion, his overweight
dog Bruno, his myopic grandmother Madame Souza, and a trio of eccentric,
frog-eating performers known as the Triplets of Belleville. When Champion
enters the Tour de France and is kidnapped mid race by mysterious men in
black, his grandmother and Bruno begin a tireless search. Their path leads
them to the Triplets, whose odd habits often distract the searchers more
than help. Academy Award Nominee - Best Original Song.
See reviews
CITY OF GOD - Rated R - 131 minutes
- Flat
Oscar nominee Best Writing, Direction, Cinematography,
Editing!
Based on the acclaimed novel of the same
name by Paulo Lins, City of God is a thrilling Brazilian drama about
the rise and fall of gangsters and drug dealers in Rio de Janeiro's slums.
That many of them are children, ranging in age from nine to 14, is just
one of the many shocking aspects of this movie, which, like "The Sopranos,"
manages to strike notes of black comedy amidst the horror. Directed by Fernando
Meirelles and written by Braulio Mantovani.
See reviews
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND - Rated
R - 108 minutes - Flat
Starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet
Joel
(Jim Carrey) is stunned to discover that his girlfriend Clementine (Kate
Winslet) has had her memories of their tumultuous relationship erased. Out
of desperation, he contracts the inventor of the process, Dr. Howard Mierzwaik
(Tom Wilkinson), to have Clementine removed from his own memory. But as
Joel's memories progressively disappear, he begins to rediscover their earlier
passion. From deep within the recesses of his brain, Joel attempts to escape
the procedure. As Dr. Mierzwiak and his crew (Kristen Dunst, Mark Ruffalo,
Elijah Wood) chase him through the maze of his memories, it's clear that
Joel just can't get her out of his head.
See reviews
TOUCHING THE VOID - Unrated -
108 minutes - Flat
A true mountain adventure!
Documentarian Kevin Macdonald,
whose One Day in September won an Oscar in 2000 for his superb revisitation
of the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics, crafts a reenactment
of a 1985 mountain ascent that went horribly wrong. Joe Simpson and Simon
Yates were young, fit, skilled climbers who set their sights on the west
face of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes--a feat that had not yet
been accomplished. Summiting in three-and-a-half days, the pair had no choice
but to descend in worsening weather when Simpson slipped a short distance,
driving his lower leg bone through his knee cap. With little discussion,
Yates began to lower Simpson 300 feet at a time--the length of their rope--down
the mountain in a slow, painful process, ultimately unknowingly dropping
him over the lip of a crevasse. The rope did not slacken, and with the whipping
wind inhibiting any communication, Yates had no choice but to assume his
partner was dead and cut the rope. Amazingly, this desperate act is only
the beginning of this epic real-life story.
See reviews
BARBARIAN INVASIONS - Rated R
- 100 minutes - Scope
Academy Award Winner - Best Foreign Film!
In Barbarian Invasions,
Canadian Denys Arcand, the writer/director of The Decline of the American
Empire, reunites his characters 17 years later--like a senior Big
Chill. As his narrative drive to bring the friends back together, Arcand
uses the hospitalization and terminal condition of cancer-afflicted Remy
(Remy Girard), a lecherous fiftysomething divorced academic. When his ex-wife
calls on their son, London-based financier Sebastien (Stephane Rousseau)--estranged
from his father and his complete opposite--to return home to Quebec, she
has to be very persuasive. But on arrival, he wastes no time in moving his
father to a better hospital, rallying his dad's old friends and ex-lovers,
and even arranging for heroin, compliments of an old flame's addicted daughter
(Marie-Josee Croze), to ease his pain.
See reviews
HELLBOY - Rated PG-13 - 121 minutes
- Flat
Mexican
horror master Guillermo del Toro (Mimic, Blade II) bases his
third Hollywood outing on the popular Dark Horse Comics series by Mike Mignola.
Hellboy blends elements of X-Men, Men in Black, Ghostbusters,
and The Hulk to conjure up an engaging supernatural action film.
Like most such sagas, Hellboy uses World War II as ground zero for
20th-century evil. It is there that the film's 13-minute prologue begins,
with American troops and a paranormal expert named Trevor Broom raiding
a rainy Scottish isle where the occultist Russian monk Rasputin (Karel Roden)
is leading a Nazi team to open a portal to Hell. Not that Rasputin (who
should have died decades earlier) is particularly interested in such an
earthly evil as Nazism--he wants outright Armageddon, and the unsuspecting
goose-steppers are merely providing him the means. Fortunately, the Yanks
spoil the party, but not before a little red creature with a giant stone
hand is able to slip through from the netherworld. Rather than kill the
creature, however, Broom chooses to adopt the rosy waif, raising him through
the decades to become a kind of mythical crime fighter known only as Hellboy.
See reviews
SPARTAN - Rated R - 102 minutes
- Scope
The newest from David Mamet!
Val Kilmer stars in the latest outing from
noted playwright/director David Mamet.
For Kilmer, Spartan is a return to the strong action-adventure material
he did so memorably in films like Tombstone and Heat. He plays
Robert Scott, a military special-operations officer with unspecified connections
to the twilight zone where law enforcement, espionage and politics come
together. When the president's college-age daughter (Kristen Bell) disappears
under scandalous circumstances that may be tied to a white slavery ring,
Scott gets the call. But things spin so far out of control that even the
veteran operative can no longer tell who is on which side.
See reviews
GODSEND - Rated PG-13 - 102 minutes
- Scope
Starring Greg Kinnear, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos and
Robert De Niro
Godsend, a stylish thriller
by British Director Nick Hamm (European cult hit The Hole), focuses
on an eight-year-old boy whose death leads to a genetic experiment revealing
the moral and ethical quandaries surrounding the subject of cloning. Greg
Kinnear and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos are the concerned parents and Robert De
Niro is the genetic scientist who offers them possible hope for the future.
See reviews
HUKKLE - Unrated (Probably PG-13)
- 75 minutes - Flat
A unique visual delight from Hungary !
 |
27-year-old director György Pálfi's
thesis film, Hukkle, became a sleeper hit on the international
festival circuit last year. This largely wordless film depicts the activities
of the inhabitants -- both human and animal -- of a rural Hungarian
town as observed by an old man with the hiccups (Hukkle in Hungarian).
A visual marvel that illustrates the beauty and terror of the natural
world with unusual care, Palfi's debut is also deeply odd: - blink at
the wrong moment and you'll miss the murder-mystery plotline that is
one of the film's few organizing principles. With the emergence of directors
as energetic as Palfi it's no wonder Hungary's filmmaking scene seems
so hale and hearty! |
See reviews
MAN ON FIRE - Rated R - 146 minutes
- Scope
Starring Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning
In his latest film, Man on
Fire, Denzel Washington plays a haunted former government operative
whose friend, Christopher Walken, lands him a job as a bodyguard for a charming
little rich girl, Dakota Fanning. Through his growing friendship with her,
Washington begins to reclaim his courage. But when she's abducted, it brings
out his bad side and his revenge plays out in a furious bloodbath. Washington's
charisma and Fanning's old-soul charm lift this film a notch above genre
norms, and director Tony Scott's gritty style makes this one hot action
flick!
See reviews
TOUCHING THE VOID - Unrated -
108 minutes - Flat
A true mountain adventure!
Documentarian Kevin Macdonald,
whose One Day in September won an Oscar in 2000 for his superb revisitation
of the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics, crafts a reenactment
of a 1985 mountain ascent that went horribly wrong. Joe Simpson and Simon
Yates were young, fit, skilled climbers who set their sights on the west
face of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes--a feat that had not yet
been accomplished. Summiting in three-and-a-half days, the pair had no choice
but to descend in worsening weather when Simpson slipped a short distance,
driving his lower leg bone through his knee cap. With little discussion,
Yates began to lower Simpson 300 feet at a time--the length of their rope--down
the mountain in a slow, painful process, ultimately unknowingly dropping
him over the lip of a crevasse. The rope did not slacken, and with the whipping
wind inhibiting any communication, Yates had no choice but to assume his
partner was dead and cut the rope. Amazingly, this desperate act is only
the beginning of this epic real-life story.
See reviews
THE LIFE OF BRIAN - Rated R -
93 minutes - Flat
Classic Monty Python re-issued!
The Life
of Brian represents some of the most daring and cutting edge comedy
of the 1970s. It is a testimony to the force and timelessness of the material
that it is as effective today as it was when it was initially released more
than 20 years ago, and, more than either of the other two Python movies
(The Holy Grail and The Meaning of Life), it stands up to
multiple repeated viewings. Over the years, few comedies have dared to confront
religious hypocrisy with the uncompromising fervor of this one (Kevin Smith's
Dogma is the only other one that immediately comes to mind), although
the charges of blasphemy are both unfair and unfounded. It has been said
that a Monty Python movie is only successful if it offends everyone in the
audience at least once. By that measuring stick as well as nearly any other,
The Life of Brian is an unqualified triumph. It makes us confront
our foibles and laugh at them!
See reviews
RAISING HELEN - Rated PG-13 -
123 minutes - Flat
Kate Hudson, in her latest outing,
is a likable socialite on the verge of being promoted from executive assistant
to agent at a posh New York modeling agency. The youngest of three sisters,
she loves her gaggle of nieces and nephews but exhibits no interest in yielding
her freewheeling lifestyle for the domesticity that has claimed eldest sister
Lindsay (Felicity Huffman) and middle sister Jenny (Joan Cusack). Then tragedy
strikes, leaving Helen with custody of three needy kids. Hudson, Cusack,
and the children are all excellent, as is everyone's favorite nice guy of
the moment, John Corbett, as the sexy Lutheran Pastor who takes a liking
to the beleaguered Helen.
See reviews
SAVED! - Rated PG - 13 - 93 minutes
- Flat
Saved!
is a teen comedy that advances a tenet of tolerance and acceptance, while
skewering some of the less positive aspects of Christianity. Mary (Jena
Malone) is one of the most popular girls in school at American Eagle Christian
High--until her boyfriend tells her that he thinks he might be gay. When
Jesus appears to her in a vision, she heeds his message to "do everything
she can to help him." Although they work diligently on his problem,
their strategy doesn't do a bit of good and leads to her being cast out
of the "Christian Jewels." Now an outcast, Mary discovers unexpected
support from the school's other pariahs: wheelchair-bound Roland (Macaulay
Culkin); the school's lone Jew, Cassandra (Eva Amurri); and Patrick (Patrick
Fugit), the new kid at school after a mission to South America and the World
Skateboarding for Christianity Tour. Together they navigate the treacherous
halls of high school toward graduation.
See reviews
AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS - Rated PG - 123 minutes - Scope
Based
on the classic Jules Verne novel, this is the 2004 edition of one of filmdom's
most popular yarns, involving eccentric 19th century London inventor, Phileas
Fogg. The last time around, in the 1960's, it was David Niven and Mexican
actor Cantiflas. This time Fogg is played by Steve Coogan and his trusty
sidekick is Jackie Chan. Desperate to be taken seriously, Fogg makes an
outlandish bet that he can circumnavigate the globe in 80 days. Possessing
the secrets of electricity, flight, and even rollerblades, he and his cohort
set off on an exciting race that takes them to dozens of exotic and dangerous
places by land, sea and air.
See reviews
THE TERMINAL - Rated PG - 13
- 128 minutes - Flat
Starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones!
The Terminal,
is the latest collaboration between Tom Hanks and master director Steven
Spielberg. It is a sweet and delicate comedy, so precisely devised as to
make you hold your breath. The hero is Viktor Navorski, a traveler from
the fictional country of Krakozia, which falls in a coup just as he arrives
in a vast American airport. Therefore his passport and visa are worthless,
his country no longer exists, and he cannot go forward or go back. He is
free to remain in the International Arrivals Lounge, but forbidden to step
foot on American soil. His journey of survival includes socializing with
the airport staff and wooing a beautiful stewardess - Catherine Zeta-Jones.
See reviews
COFFEE AND CIGARETTES - Rated
R - 97 minutes - Flat
The latest from cult director Jim Jarmusch!
Jim
Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes is fast moving toward being another
sleeper hit for the idiosyncratic director. It boasts a great cast spread
across 11 vignettes with common themes. The project began in 1986 with a
six-minute Roberto Benigni/Steven Wright sketch called "Coffee &
Cigarettes" (renamed here "Strange to Meet You") and over
the years Jarmusch continued to add shorts, all revolving around coffee
and cigarettes and the individuals, usually playing themselves, who consumed
those products. Coffee and Cigarettes collects them all in one film,
including the hilarious "Somewhere in California" with musicians
Iggy Pop and Tom Waits attempting to one-up each other, and "Cousins?,"
a droll and very clever encounter between established actor Alfred Molina
(Boogie Nights) and hot newcomer Steve Coogan (24 Hour Party People),
who just may be related to each other. Bill Murray is also very funny, posing
as a waiter in the weird "Delirium".
See reviews
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN - Rated
PG - 142 minutes - Scope
 |
Young wizard Harry and his friends Ron and
Hermione return for their third year of training in magic at Hogwarts,
but school is the last thing they have on their minds: Convicted murderer
Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), accused of leading the evil Lord Voldemort
to Harry's parents, has escaped Azkaban prison and the clutches of its
soul-sucking Dementor guards, and is now fixated on finding Harry. |
See reviews
FAHRENHEIT 9/11 - Rated R - 116
minutes - Flat
Michael Moore's controversial new film!
Michael
Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 is the highest grossing op-ed documentary
in history - the first ever to hit the number one spot in box office earnings
on its opening weekend. It is less an expose of George W. Bush than a dramatization
of what Moore sees as a failed and dangerous presidency. The charges in
the film will not come as news to those who pay attention to politics, but
Moore illustrates them with dramatic images and a relentless commentary.
Fahrenheit 9/11 is informative, provocative, frightening, compelling,
funny, manipulative, and most of all - entertaining!
See reviews
THE NOTEBOOK - Rated PG-13 -
124 minutes - Scope
Starring Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner,
Gena Rowlands, Sam Shepard and Joan Allen
The Notebook
is an ultra-romance based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks. Director Nick
Cassavetes lets his fine cast shine, with especially strong performances
from Ryan Gosling, James Garner, and the always powerful Joan Allen. The
story begins on an elegiac note, in a hospital for the elderly where a woman
suffering from senile dementia (Gena Rowlands) looks out upon an idyllic
lake. Fellow resident Duke (James Garner) visits daily to read to her from
a notebook. The story he tells--and much of the rest of the film--centers
on the romance between two teens who meet in June 1940. Country boy Noah
(Ryan Gosling of "The Believer") falls hard for sophisticated
Allie (Rachel McAdams of "Mean Girls"), recognizing a free spirit
beneath the money and breeding. Her parents (with Joan Allen as the mother)
whisk her back to the city when things get serious, and World War II promptly
intervenes to sever the tie completely. But seven years later, on the eve
of Allie's wedding to a wealthy young man (James Marsden), she and Noah
reconnect, and her neat life gets messy.
See reviews
SUPER SIZE ME - Rated PG-13 -
98 minutes - Flat
The hit documentary on American eating habits!
Like
fellow provocateur Michael Moore, documentarian Morgan Spurlock's success
with Super Size Me -- in addition to the indisputable facts he presents--lies
in his infectious personality and sense of humor. His thesis: America is
the fattest nation on earth, 37 percent of American children and adolescents
are packing too many pounds, and two-thirds of adults are overweight or
obese. At the center of this epidemic is the fast-food industry. Spurlock
decided to do something about it. For 30 days he ate at McDonald's. There
were rules: He couldn't eat or drink anything that wasn't on the McDonald's
menu, including water; he consumed three square meals a day; he had to order
everything on the menu at least once; and he had to "super size"
his meal if asked. The results are amazing, and scary!
See reviews
DE-LOVELY - Rated PG-13 - 125
minutes - Scope
The new Cole Porter extravaganza starring Kevin
Kline and Ashley Judd.
De-Lovely
is a musical and a biography about legendary songwriter Cole Porter. It
brings to both of those genres a worldly sophistication. Porter floated
effortlessly for a time between worlds: Gay and straight, Europe and America,
Broadway and Hollywood, show biz and high society. He had a lifelong love
affair with his wife, and lifelong love affairs without his wife. He thrived
on a lifestyle that would have destroyed other men and was, in fact, illegal
in most of the places he lived. And all the time he wrote those magical
songs - sung here by a diverse array of contemporary warblers such as Alanis
Morissette and Elvis Costello.
See reviews
THE STORY OF THE WEEPING CAMEL - Rated PG - 90 minutes - Flat
A wondrous tale for the whole family!
The Story
of the Weeping Camel, which despite its title, is a joyous film, tells
the story of a nomadic Mongolian family on the edge of the Gobi Desert,
and of their camel, which gives birth to a rare white calf and refuses to
nurse it. It is a terrible thing to hear the cry of a baby camel rejected
by its mother. Beautiful and mysterious, the film has been made in the same
way that Robert Flaherty made such documentaries as Nanook of the North
and Man of Aran - using real people in real places in a story inspired
by their lives.
See reviews
HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE - Rated R - 88 minutes - Flat
This generation's Cheech and Chong!
By day, Harold is a Korean-American
financial analyst for a New York investment banking firm while Kumar is
the promising pre-med son of a prominent surgeon. By night, they're weed-smoking
losers. On this particular night, however, they decide to feed their munchies
with something special--White Castle hamburgers. But the simple task of
locating a White Castle franchise soon turns into an After Hours-type
nightmare during which the duo are forced to deal with crazy redneck skateboarders,
a psychotic police officer, a boil-ridden tow truck driver, and an escaped
cheetah, just for starters.
See reviews
VANITY FAIR - Rated PG -13 -
141 minutes - Scope
Starring Reese Witherspoon, Gabriel Byrne, and Bob
Hoskins
This sprawling
adaptation of William Thackeray's 1828 novel stars American actress Reese
Witherspoon as Rebecca (Becky) Sharp who transforms herself from the impoverished
orphan of an alcoholic painter into an adornment of the middle, if not the
upper, reaches of the British aristocracy. Director Mira Nair's version
of Vanity Fair makes Becky much more likeable than she was in the
novel. "I had thought her a mere social climber. I see now she's a
mountaineer," says one of her fascinated observers. Vanity Fair
scores some sharp, telling points about the hypocrisy and snobbishness of
Britain's class system. Wealthy wives, especially, are adamant that no outsiders
need apply for entry. The men feel differently but they're just as likely
to have ulterior predatory motives, particularly when it involves helping
the comely Becky.
See reviews
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE - Rated PG
- 86 minutes - Flat
Fast becoming the sleeper hit of the season!
Set and shot in director Jared Hess' rural
hometown of Preston, Idaho, Napoleon Dynamite follows a tall, gawky
nerd as he navigates the requisite teen rites of passage: school dances
and class presidential elections. Napoleon is largely left to his own devices
as his 32-year-old brother spends his days looking for romance in Internet
chat rooms, his quad-running grandmother breaks her coccyx, and his uncle
constantly reminisces about his "glory" days as a football player
while going door-to-door selling herbal breast enhancers and in general
ruining Napoleon's life. When his best friend decides to oppose a stuck-up
campus queen in the student elections, Napoleon and his buddy draw upon
their knowledge of piñatas, cows and a surprise special talent to
triumph in the name of all social outcasts.
See reviews
INTIMATE STRANGERS - Rated R
- 103 minutes - Scope
An intriguing new hit from France!
French
director Patrice Leconte's Intimate Strangers is an extraordinary
ballet of contrasts, confirming that Leconte - already one of the most prolific
and highly respected directors in the world - is at the very top of his
game. The film begins with that most popular of Hitchcockian conceits--mistaken
identity--only to detour into the kind of sparse character and relationship
study at which the French have always excelled. A distraught woman named
Anna (Sandrine Bonnaire) enters the office of a tax attorney named William
Faber (Fabrice Luchini), believing him to be the therapist who works down
the hall. By the time Faber realizes her mistake, it's too late--she has
already begun spilling the most intimate details of her life, establishing
an accidental confidence he simply cannot bring himself to break. If the
premise is compelling, the plot's unfolding is nothing less than exhilarating.
Defying expectations at every opportunity, Leconte propels the audience
through a maze-like odyssey of human interaction that shatters every conceivable
formula. In French with subtitles.
See reviews
GARDEN STATE - Rated R - 106
minutes - Scope
Starring Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard,
Ian Holm
Writer/director and actor Zach
Braff, best-known for his starring role on TV's Scrubs, makes his
feature film debut with a romantic comedy reminiscent of Woody Allen. Exquisitely
clever and devastatingly poignant, Garden State portrays that uniquely
Generation X experience of going through a mid-life crisis 20 years prematurely.
After nine years of struggling toward a moderate success as an actor in
Hollywood, Andrew "Large" Largeman (Braff) returns to his hometown
in New Jersey to attend his mother's funeral. Notably, he leaves his pharmacy
of powerful antidepressants behind in the medicine cabinet. This act is
the first step in a journey of self-discovery over the course of the coming
weekend.
See reviews
SILVER CITY - Rated R - 128 minutes
- Flat
The latest from director John Sayles
John Sayles'
Silver City is a biting social satire aimed at today's political
landscape. Sayles (Matewan, Lone Star, Secret of Roan Inish) is a
master at the art of assembling large casts and keeping all the characters
alive - this film includes such diverse actors as Danny Huston, Chris Cooper,
Richard Dreyfuss, Thora Birch, Kris Kristofferson, Mary Kay Place, Tim Roth,
Ralph Waite, Billy Zane and Michael Murphy. The story centers on the campaign
of Dickie Pilager (Chris Cooper), who is running for governor of Colorado
with the backing of his father (Michael Murphy), the state's senior senator.
When the corpse of an unidentified migrant worker is drug out of a pond
during the shooting of a commercial, a failed journalist (Danny Huston)
is hired to figure out which of many political enemies is behind it. What
the investigator uncovers is a vast and often humorous conspiracy that may
confirm your worst suspicions!
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TEAM AMERICA - Rated R - 98 minutes
- Scope
Rated R for graphic crude and sexual humor, violent
images & strong language--all involving puppets!
Timed to let the hot air out
of the 2004 political season, the hilariously brilliant Team America:
World Police is bound to be greeted with the same mixture of cheers
and jeers as Trey Parker's and Matt Stone's other infamous creation - South
Park. Starring a cast comprised entirely of marionettes, Team America
is all about killing terrorists. No matter the cost. No matter the hurdles.
No matter the consequences. Comprised of three square-jawed action hero
guys and a pair of butt-kicking, gun-toting gals, they bring their arsenal
of star-spangled weapons anywhere and wreak all manner of havoc just so
long as they keep the world safe. In this film, however, the real terrorist
puppeteer isn't Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein but North Korean dictator
Kim Jong Il, who is about to hatch a devious plot to destroy civilization
with the help of such politically vocal Hollywood liberals as Alec Baldwin,
Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and filmmaker Michael Moore, among
others. But to coalesce as a team and fight the threat, they'll first have
to manage the relationship conflicts centering around their newest member,
a former Broadway stage actor named Gary.
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SHAUN OF THE DEAD - Rated R -
99 minutes - Scope
A British romantic zombie cult hit!
 |
Finally, a great zombie movie! Disguised as a romantic
comedy! Director Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead is a quirky
homage to American low-budget horror director George Romero’s acclaimed
“Evil Dead” films. In this yarn Shaun and his best chum Ed
are everyday schmoes: Shaun's in a dead-end retail job, Ed is a lazy
marijuana peddler, and both have little ambition or luck. After Shaun
gets dumped by his girlfriend, he goes on an all-night drinking binge.
When he wakes up and heads to work the next morning, the hangover barely
lets Shaun take notice of a strange development: London is crawling
with zombies! |
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I HEART HUCKABEES - Rated R -
107 minutes - Scope
Starring Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin!
I
Heart Huckabees is a fascinating existential mystery about an environmental
activist and poet, Albert (Jason Schwartzman), who is trying to find the
cosmic connection to a series of coincidental encounters. To do so, he seeks
out the help of an existential detective agency led by Bernard Jaffe (Dustin
Hoffman) and his wife and business partner Vivian (Lily Tomlin). They happily
take on his case and begin to study the clues to his life. They soon focus
on the rivalry between Albert and his nemesis, Brad (Jude Law), a corporate
stooge at Huckabees, a megafranchise about to build a new store on land
that Albert is trying to protect.
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THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES - Rated
R - 126 minutes - Flat
In 1952,
23-year-old medical student Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (Gael Garcia Bernal)
sets out with a friend on what is to be a four-month, 8,000-mile tour of
South America on the back of a 1939 Norton motorcycle, ironically dubbed
"The Mighty One." It's an adventure that ultimately lasts nine
months and takes them more than 12,000 km from their departure point in
Buenos Aires, Argentina, across the continent through Chile, Peru, Colombia
and Venezuela. It's a life-changing experience that shapes Ernesto into
the man he will become - "Che" Guevara the firebrand revolutionary
who freed Cuba.
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WHAT THE BLEEP - Rated PG-13
- 108 minutes - Flat
The most requested film of the year!
What
is reality? Why are we here? If a tree falls in the forest and nobody's
there to hear it, does the light in the refrigerator really go off when
you close the door? There are a lot of Big Questions - and Big Answers -
in the goofy, perceptive and provocative What the Bleep Do We Know?
A filmic handbook on heightened consciousness and, in the words of one of
its many talking heads, "the weird, wacky world of quantum possibility,"
this mix of documentary interviews and fictional narrative explores the
realms where science and spiritualism meet. Not to be missed!
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AFTER THE SUNSET - Rated PG-13
- 98 minutes - Scope
Starring Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Woody Harrelson
After
The Sunset features Pierce Brosnan as a sort of James Bond gone bad
jewel thief. Brosnan and his lovely accomplice - Salma Hayek - have retired
to Paradise Island in the Caribbean, having just pulled off the heist of
a lifetime. Meanwhile, Brosnan's long time nemesis, FBI agent Woody Harrelson,
is hot on his trail, not believing for a second that Brosnan has given up
his life of crime
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RAY - Rated PG-13 - 152 minutes
- Flat
Starring Jamie Foxx in a breakout performance!
Ray, featuring the life of the great
rhythm and blues artist Ray Charles, is a case of everything going perfectly
right. Perfection begins with Jamie Foxx in the title role. Not only does
Foxx capture the soul of this American genius, who radically fused gospel,
blues and country into a potent musical force, he also captures his great
warmth. The critical buzz is that Foxx may see an Oscar nomination! Although
Foxx sings some of the early material, he later lip-synchs Charles' hits.
But he gets so far inside the character that, like Jessica Lange's Patsy
Cline in Sweet Dreams, he practically embodies the songs.
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 |
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