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Opening Friday
DOMINO
Please, great deities of Scott, director Tony and producer Ridley, please let Domino be
Thelma & Louise
! Please let it be like unto
True Romance
! Please let it be
Alien
-oh, it's so not going to be, is it. Instead, writer Richard Kelly (
Donnie Darko
) has morphed the story of Laurence Harvey's knockabout daughter (who was never a Ford supermodel but did work as a bail recovery agent, in between bouts of fighting her fatal drug habit) into "a punk-rock fever dream." Translation? Tony's erratic camerawork will make you feel like barfing if you actually watch the screen; everything will be tinted green for no discernible reason; and there won't be so much as a vestige of the wild, troubled young woman herself left visible for our interest or sympathy. Keira Knightley (
Bend It Like Beckham
) essays the title role, supported by Mickey Roarke, Christopher Walken, Lucy Liu and Jacqueline Bisset. For all the good it'll do any of 'em.
DreamCatcher, UA South, R, 130 min.
THE EDUKATORS
Hans Weingartner's nervily shot romantic drama tips its cap to
Jules et Jim
in its fresh, lively take on idealistic student life in Berlin. When uninsured Jule (Julia Jentsch) runs into a businessman's limousine, she's forced to move in with her boyfriend Jan (Daniel Brühl) and his taciturn roommate Peter (Stipe Erceg)-whereupon she's surprised to learn they've begun a bizarre form of activism in which they break into the houses of the wealthy and rearrange the furniture before leaving cryptically threatening notes (e.g., one which reads simply, "You have too much money"). Of course she wants in on the action, and of course there will be personal, as well as political, consequences.
The Screen, R, 127 min.
ELIZABETHTOWN
Please, oh Cameron Crowe, let us have
Almost Famous
, and not
Vanilla Sky
. Let us see
Singles
, and not
Jerry Maguire
…shoot, this never works. Any rate, we can count on some of what we'll get:
Six Feet Under
meets
Garden State
, as follows. 1) Orlando Bloom (you know, the pretty skateboarding elf), here startlingly brunette and ordinary, doing the depressed workaholic who's lost his job and his father in one fell swoop, and must fly back to Kentucky for the funeral; 2) Kirsten Dunst (MJ to Tobey's
Spider-man
) doing Quirky for all she's worth as the airline hostess who understands him; and 3) Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon doing whatever is the dignified Democratic thing to do.
DreamCatcher, UA North, PG-13, 123 min.
THE FOG
We're really not sure why this blood-curdling classic of vengeful shipwrecked revenants needed to be remade, especially with the director responsible for
Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em: The Movie
behind the camera instead of John Carpenter. But the mysterious forces of evil have decided that once again we must lock our doors…bolt our windows…there's something in THE FOG! Right. This time around Selma Blair (
Hellboy
) tries to fill the, um, shoes worn 25 years ago by Adrienne Barbeau; but without Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh, John Houseman, Hal Holbrook and the crack writing of Debra Hill…well, frankly, we've been more frightened by a steam iron.
DreamCatcher, UA South, PG-13, 100 min.
THE MEMORY OF A KILLER
Literally entitled
The Alzheimer Case
, this Flemish gem is a cross between the best of
Inspector Morse
and an arresting, poignant remembrance of things past
à la Memento
. Deadly assassin Angelo Ledda (the magnificent Jan Decleir) heads to his hometown in Belgium for one last piece of work before his mind deserts him entirely, but when he sees the object of his contract and balks at carrying out the hit, he's pursued by both his angry employers and bewildered Antwerp cops Vincke and Verstuyft (the Brodyesque Koen De Bouw and Werner De Smedt; may they pair up for many more installments, based on the popular mystery series)-yet the disease rapidly stripping him of his faculties may be his most dangerous foe.
CCA, R, 120 min.
THE RIVER
The Cinematheque offers a rare chance to see an exquisitely restored print of Jean Renoir's 1951 late film
Le fleuve
, based on Rumer Godden's novel and set in a placid, pre-Independence India, where three teenaged English girls come of age. Son of Impressionist painter Auguste, the director (
La règle du jeu, La grande illusion
) hired an interesting assistant for the shoot: a young Bengali named Satyajit Ray.
CCA, NR, 95 min.
Opening Friday, Oct. 21
THE TALENT GIVEN US
See
.
Jean Cocteau, NR, 97 min.
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Short Runs
8 WHEELS AND SOME SOUL BROTHA' MUSIC
With footage from 1976 to 1978, Tyrone Dixon's debut doc celebrates the funk, old school and R&B music accompanying urban roller, or style, skating (especially the Polyester Players with Greg "G Mack" Dalton), breathing vitality into another American revolution: One of the eight-wheeled variety.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 85 min.
BEST OF YOUTH
So comprehensively epic it has to be shown in two parts, this current crowning glory of Italian cinema spans four decades in the lives of Roman brothers Nicola and Matteo, taking in almost every piece of European history in recent memory along the way; last year's Cannes Jury Prizewinner, Best of Youth is worth every twinge of sciatica.
The Screen, R, 366 min.
THE CARE BEARS: BIG WISH MOVIE
Wish Bear wants to make new friends, but she'll need help for her dreams to come true in this Kids First! Film. And you probably didn't even know Care Bears had genders, did you?
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 85 min.
CREATIVE BRAINS: GIFTED, TALENTED AND DYSLEXIC
Santa Fean director Lois Rothschild and videographers Tony and Gigi Carlson present the DVD premiere of their documentary, which interviews dyslexics from all walks of life, collecting stories of difficulty and triumph. A wine and cheese reception follows.
The Screen, NR
DIEGO RIVERA: I PAINT WHAT I SEE
Saturnine elephant to Frida Kahlo's dove, the notorious Mexican muralist deserves his own biography, with footage and photographs never seen before.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 58 min.
FISH CAN'T FLY
It's a Thursday more forceful than Fabulous, this week: Tom Murray's grim but ultimately important documentary examines the "ex-gay" movement, in which religious-right programs such as Exodus verge on perpetuating human rights abuses in their attempts to help gay and lesbian Christians overcome their sexual preference-honest, relaxed, funny at times, tragic at others and without an axe (or labyris) to grind.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 83 min.
MARGARET MEAD FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL
The American Museum of Natural History's traveling festival shows innovative, independent cultural documentaries at SFCC every Tuesday through Nov. 1; this week's double-header will be
A Panther in Africa
and
a/k/a Mrs. George Gilbert
, an imaginative recreation of the FBI's two-month search for then-fugitive Angela Davis.
7 pm, Tuesday, Oct. 18. Free. Planetarium, Santa Fe Community College, 6401 Richards Ave., 428-1375
NINA SIMONE: LOVE SORCERESS
Rare concert footage of a 1976 show in Paris grants us front-row seats to see the legendarily witchy pianist, singer and "High Priestess of Soul," idiosyncratic and divertingly crabby.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 75 min
SALLIE WAGNER'S HOME MOVIES: TRADING POST YEARS
When young amateur filmmaker Sallie Wagner and her husband lived in the Dinétah in the 1930s and '40s, she kept her camera in her saddlebag, ready to film at any moment. Her 16mm Kodacolor record of non-Native and Native life in the Navajo Nation has been recently restored, and Ms. Wagner is scheduled to provide live narration herself for her (silent, hand-titled) work.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR
TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD
Leonard Cohen narrates this unique exploration of the teachings of the Buddhist text; filmed on location in India, the documentary records actual sacred rituals passed from priest to student, using animation to envision the soul's passage into liberation.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 93 min.
TOUCH THE SOUND
After introducing us to the work of Andy Goldsworthy,
Rivers and Tides'
Thomas Riedelsheimer brings us another uncommon artist in this documentary about world-class, Grammy-winning percussionist Evelyn Glennie, whose ability to perceive and create riotous cascades of sound is not in the least limited by the fact that she is profoundly deaf.
The Screen, NR, 95 min.
TURMOIL
Local director Rhett A Muse just absconded with the Best Documentary Prize from San Francisco's World Film Festival for this scathing exposé of the sketchy politics underpinning US relations with the oil-saturated country of Venezuela, whose reserves are only surpassed by those of Saudi Arabia, looking closely at complex questions of democracy, the motives and choices of leader Hugo Chavez and the fate of his countrymen, 80 percent of whom now live in poverty.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 52 min.
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Now Showing
THE CONSTANT GARDENER
As John Le Carré's diplomat Justin Quayle, Ralph Fiennes embodies the introverted expatriate, quietly manicuring Kenya into Kensington Park. When his impetuous young wife Tessa (the gorgeous Rachel Weisz of
Enemy at the Gates
and
Constantine
) is found murdered, however, along with the man thought to be her lover, Quayle turns falcon and begins to ask undiplomatic questions, revealing a connection between pharmaceutical companies and the British High Commission and catapulting into mortal danger himself. Strong performances by Bill Nighy and Pete Postlethwaite add to the unhesitating accelerando of Fernando Meirelles' (
City of God
) chaotic, shimmering visual narrative.
UA DeVargas, R, 129 min.
CORPSE BRIDE
In a brooding gray 19th-century European village, on the eve of his wedding to sensitive, shy Victoria (Emily Watson), an equally bashful Victor (Johnny Depp) accidentally marries the Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter), a maiden no less alluring for being deceased and a trifle decayed. Trademark stop-motion mastery from Tim Burton (
The Nightmare Before Christmas
) makes it possible to completely forget this macabre little fairytale is animated. And speaking of animation, how can Victor return to his above-ground love when life after death seems so much livelier-or as one character says plaintively, "Why go up there when people are dying to get down here?" We take his point.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA North, PG-13, 76 min.
THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE
When Father Moore (Tom Wilkinson) attempts a fatally unsuccessful exorcism on poor slavering Emily (Jennifer Carpenter) rather than encouraging her to take her meds, he's on trial for negligent homicide and it's up to agnostic attorney Erin Bruner (Laura Linney) to defend him. Apparently "the first courtroom horror drama" ever (though it may also be the last),
Emily Rose
suffers from great genre confusion; at least its courtroom scenes provide relief from all the wallpaper-shredding and raving in Latin.
DreamCatcher, UA North, PG-13, 114 min.
FLIGHTPLAN
In a recent interview, Jodie Foster confessed, "I know it's a mystery to everyone why I choose the things that I do." Well, yes, now that you mention it. Recently widowed Kyle Pratt (Foster) knocks back some Xanax for the red-eye flight which also bears her husband's body back to the US; but when she awakens, her daughter Julia (Marlene Lawston) has disappeared-and even worse, the patronizing stewardesses, captain (Sean Bean) and air marshall (
Garden State
's Peter Sarsgaard) all maintain she was never on board. Could it be that the distraught Kyle is a few peanuts short of a Snickers bar? Can the same be ventured for Ms. Jodie?
DreamCatcher, UA North, PG-13, 93 min.
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) has a peaceable Midwestern life with wife Edie (Maria Bello) and their two children, until a violent robbery of his diner, during which Tom kills the two criminals and saves his coworkers, to everyone's surprise-including his. Before long a mysterious man in black sunglasses turns up (the delightfully villainous Ed Harris) and it starts to look as though there's more to Tom than meets the eye. At times shimmering with art-house photography (director David Cronenberg knows his Kurosawa and Peckinpah) and at other times clumsy and overt, betraying its origins as a comic-book parable,
A History of Violence
provides intriguing, inscrutable cinema about which audiences can argue fiercely for quite some time to come.
UA DeVargas, R, 96 min.
IN HER SHOES
The lobby posters make it look like it's Cameron Diaz's show, but this latest from director Curtis Hanson (
Wonder Boys, LA Confidential
) is an ensemble family drama also starring Toni Collette (
About a Boy, Muriel's Wedding
) and our very own Shirley MacLaine. Freeloading Maggie (Diaz) finally pushes her straight-laced sister (Collette) to kick her out; what's a ditzy girl to do, other than move in with an unlikely grandma (MacLaine)? Instead of further padding Diaz's coffers, here's hoping
In Her Shoes
brings good things to the overlooked Collette, always game to gain weight and dye her hair brown to get a job.
UA North, PG-13, 130 min.
INTO THE BLUE
Jessica Alba's derrière stars in this corned-beef hash of about 18 other films shot underwater, from
The Deep
to
Thunderball
, with a dash of
Cliffhanger
thrown in. Alba (
Sin City
) once snorkeled as one of Flipper's friends of the sea; here she appears with Paul Walker and Scott Caan (yes, the son of Santino Corleone) as scuba divers who come upon a submerged plane wreck and its sunken cocaine treasure-whose druglord owner really, really wants it back.
DreamCatcher, UA North, PG-13, 110 min.
JUNEBUG
Director Phil Morrison and writer Angus MacLachlan's mercurial film stars Embeth Davidtz as outsider art dealer Madeline, courting a reclusive painter in North Carolina. What better occasion to meet the family of her new husband George (Alessandro Nivola)? Her encounters with his hostile mother (Celia Weston), laconic father (Scott Wilson), churlish younger brother (Ben McKenzie) and extremely effusive, extremely pregnant sister-in-law (Amy Adams, who pocketed a special jury prize from Sundance) are by turns hilarious and heart-wrenching.
UA DeVargas, R, 107 min.
JUST LIKE HEAVEN
The pitch practically writes itself: "It's
Ghost
, only funny…it's
City of Angels
crossed with Terry Schiavo…really, you're gonna love it." It's hard to find much of interest in this schlocky, credulity-straining love story between a morosely relocated Mark Ruffalo and his unexpected, ethereal housemate (Reese Witherspoon, playing a comatose woman, no pun intended, who hovers in limbo between life and death).
DreamCatcher UA South, PG-13, 95 min.
MARCH OF THE PENGUINS
Despite the amazing endurance of the critters themselves, March of the Penguins is crippled by narration which puts forth a sentimentalized version of the penguins' unwavering drive toward procreation. In its favor, March features eye-popping cinematography, but why ruin gorgeous hard-won camera work of Antarctic wildlife by hand-feeding us the Dr. Seuss interpretation? Nature is far more interesting when unembellished by the gravelly tones of Morgan Freeman telling us what to feel.
CCA, G, 80 min.
OLIVER TWIST
Roman Polanski (
Chinatown, Tess, Rosemary's Baby, The Pianist
…we could go on) follows in David Lean's footsteps, remaking Dickens' classic novel of crime and punishment with
Pianist
scriptwriter Ronald Harwood, Barney Clark as the gormless Oliver, Ben Kingsley chewing up the role of Fagin and a gazillion-dollar replica of 19th century London. Polanski's version promises to be the most grimly realistic yet, with alcoholics, prostitutes and children sold into slave labor-hardly stuff to sing about.
Jean Cocteau, PG-13, 130 min.
SERENITY
From start to finish, Joss Whedon's
Serenity
is nothing but messy formulaic fun, with an unexpectedly mordant script and characters that suck you in immediately. It's gloriously over-the-top, relationship-driven space opera of a kind seldom seen on the big screen since
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
. You don't have to be a fan of Whedon's short-lived TV series
Firefly
to appreciate the setup:
Serenity
's successful not because of its original characters or flawless special effects, but because of a certain chemistry between its cast members-it's sci-fi made with paper clips and twine; and, miraculously, the whole shebang flies.
UA South, PG-13, 119 min.
THE SKELETON KEY
Forget demon possession; The Skeleton Key gets its thrills from good old-fashioned hoodoo. Kate Hudson (
Almost Famous
, which hopefully won't describe her career) is the gutsy blonde ingenue who crawls around the attic of her Louisiana bayou home, bumping into dusty old things and gasping; John Hurt and Gena Rowlands join in the fun as her creepy employers-are they Evil, or just Weird?
Skeleton Key
ends with a twist that promises you'll leave the theater grinning-because, after all, nothing puts a smile on your face like human sacrifice.
UA South, PG-13, 104 min.
THUMBSUCKER
See
.
UA DeVargas, R, 96 min.
TWO FOR THE MONEY
Somewhere along the line Al Pacino stopped acting (
Dog Day Afternoon, Carlito's Way
) and started hollering (
The Scent of a Woman, The Devil's Advocate
). At least with Matthew McConaughey, who plays the Cocky Young Upstart in this drama of squillions won and lost in the seedy world of sports betting, you don't have the same tragic sense of talent squandered. The setting may be vaguely novel, but you've already seen this movie
ad nauseam
(
Wall Street, The Boiler Room…
); consider staying home and renting
Glengarry Glen Ross
instead.
DreamCatcher, UA North, R, 122 min.
AN UNFINISHED LIFE
Lasse Hallström (
Chocolat, The Cider House Rules
) directed this J Lo vehicle in which Mrs. Anthony plays a woman running from an abusive boyfriend, Robert Redford depicts the grizzled past tense of Jeremiah Johnson as her curmudgeonly father-in-law who still hasn't recovered from the death of his son, and Morgan Freeman is his Montana ranch hand, victim of a bear attack that's left him scarred. If the soft-focus titles in flowing script and gentle strains of guitar music don't send you running right away, you probably have a secret stash of Nicholas Sparks novels hidden underneath your bed, concealed by the pink dust ruffle.
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 95 min.
WAITING…
It's taken writer-director Rob McKittrick eight years to get his debut film on the table, ever since the dismal days when, just like its characters, he was a waiter at an unnamed suburban-mall theme restaurant (dubbed "Shenanigan's" in the movie). Lying somewhere along the continuum between gross-out comedy and Linklaterish disaffection, like Office Space if it were actually set in Chotchkie's,
Waiting…
stars Ryan Reynolds, Anna Faris and Luis Guzmán. Remember the hotel caterers scene in
Fight Club
? Let's just say that if you've never worked in a restaurant, after watching this movie you'll probably want to start tipping your flair-bedecked waitperson a whole lot more.
UA South, R, 100 min.
WALLACE AND GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT
Finally, after five long years, thousands of pounds of clay and 250 toiling animators, some little bendy Britons to fill that gaping wound left in our lives since
W&G: A Close Shave
. Nick Park's Wensleydale-loving inventor Wallace (still given voice by 84-year-old Peter Sallis) and his expressively silent pup Gromit seek to exterminate the mysterious wabbit eatin' th' wegetubbles of Lady Tottington (the omnipresent Helena Bonham Carter), vying with her scurrilous suitor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes) to do so before the peckish hare ruins the town's annual giant veg contest. Huzzah for Plasticene!
DreamCatcher, UA South, G, 85 min.
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