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Opens Friday
DOOM
Many thousands of years in the future, humanity's descendents will live on a water-starved desert planet called Arrakis, where enormous ravenous sandworms-wait, sorry.
Doom
(rather like David Lynch's
Dune
, come to think of it) has nothing to do with Frank Herbert, but rather is based on the seminal video game and set on Mars, where the threat isn't giant annelids but zombies from hell (or a government experiment gone awry, depending on your sources).
Doom
stars The Rock, along with other actors of whom you've never heard (perhaps to preserve your sentiments when they're heedlessly slaughtered) and will doubtless remain faithful to its origins, with a fantastic volume of gore and scenes filmed from the POV of the shooter, the better to make you feel like you're trapped in a video game you can't control.
DreamCatcher, UA North, R, 130 min.
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DREAMER: INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY
A spirited horse, a plucky little girl, Kurt Russell-we can't ask for much more. Though as it turns out, we also get Kris Kristofferson, Elisabeth Shue, David Morse and Luis Guzmán-to say nothing of Ms. Dakota Fanning, who'll probably soon have earned enough to buy Montana if she wants. Ms. Fanning plays Cale, a feisty young'un determined to bring together an injured filly with her dour dad, who's recently been given the sack from his job as a horse trainer.
Let the healing begin!
DreamCatcher, UA South, PG, 102 min.
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MACHUCA
It's the most genuine sign of a country's having come to terms with the messier details of its recent past that its movie producers become willing to back an historically astute film. Now that there's some padding between Pinochet and the present tense of Chile, we're lucky enough to have Andrés Wood's lyrical, funny and also unapologetic, ruthlessly accurate child's-eye version of the events of 1973. Gonzalo (Matías Quer) is an awkward upper-class 12-year-old who's befriended by a scholarship boy from Santiago's shantytown, Machuca (Ariel Mateluna)-and suddenly the anti-populist political opinions of Gonzalo's family don't quite stack up to him anymore.
CCA, NR, 121 min.
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NORTH COUNTRY
Fresh off the success of
Whale Rider
, director Niki Caro had her pick of scripts; she chose this story of a single mother (
Monster
's Charlize Theron) who moves back to her Minnesota hometown to start over. Her best friend (Frances McDormand), one of the few women miners in town, talks her into applying for a job; she's prepared for the work to be dangerous, but not for her male coworkers to behave like ill-mannered bonobos. When she not only stands up for herself but also emboldens other women to do so, she risks the disapproval of community, children and parents (Sissy Spacek and Richard Jenkins from
Six Feet Under
)-and, of course, her employers. Think Sally Field standing on her sewing machine with big sign that reads "UNION"; think Karen Silkwood, but even less popular with her bosses.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, R,
123 min.
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STAY
True, director Marc Forster's done interesting work (
Finding Neverland, Monster's Ball
)…but not with Ewan McGregor, who's got some 'splainin' to do after the combined career-throttling effects of
The Island, Robots
and being thoroughly, ingloriously Lucasified. Here McGregor plays a psychiatry prof with a suicidal advisee, Sam (Ryan Gosling); not that it's odd for med students to be suicidal, but it is odd that both of them can see Sam's deceased relatives (among whom, Bob Hoskins). Naomi Watts and Janeane Garofalo co-star, which probably means it's worth the sticky floor of the UA South.
UA South, R, 99 min.
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THE TALENT GIVEN US
If you went as yourself this Halloween, how would anyone know? Screenwriter Andrew Wagner's given it a shot by making a movie in which his family members (including him) all play…themselves. His father suffers from an unidentified neuropathic disorder which leaves his balance unsteady, his mouth permanently ajar and, his fractious mother doesn't hesitate to let anyone in earshot know, their sex life dead in the water. On the spur of the moment they decide they'll drive from New York to LA with their two daughters (both real-life actresses) to surprise Andrew. Whenever the literally Wagnerian cartrip begins to grate, the plot sagely steps aside to allow glimpses of their touching willingness to be witnessed by us; in the end it's a non-actorly transparency which turns the talents behind
Talent
from mere exuberant (and often irritating) hamminess into something movingly real.
Jean Cocteau, NR, 97 min.
Opens Saturday
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THE 3 ROOMS OF MELANCHOLIA
Pirjo Honkasalo's devastating documentary had the filmmaker sneaking across borders in order to interview Chechen and Russian children in orphanages and schools along war zones, to find how the conflict has affected children on both sides. The three "rooms" of the film's title are literally stanzas, chapters entitled "Longing," "Breathing" and "Remembering." For the most part Honkasalo contributes little narration, wisely permitting the traumatized faces and small bodies of her subjects to tell the truth of terror's lasting impact.
The Screen, NR, 104 min.
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Short Runs
ART21: ART IN THE 21ST CENTURY
The Santa Fe Art Institute presents a pair of prescreenings of the popular PBS series. Wednesday's show will repeat the episodes
Play
and
Structures
; on Thursday,
Power
takes viewers into the studios and minds of Laylah Ali, Ida Applebroog, Cai Guo-Qiang and Krzysztof Wodiczko, followed by
Memory
's investigation of Mike Kelley, Josiah McElheny, Susan Rothenberg and Hiroshi Sugimoto.
6 pm, Wednesday-Thursday, Oct. 19-20. $2.50-$5. Tipton Hall, Santa Fe Art Institute, 1600 St. Michael's Drive, 424-5050
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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.
The Screen, R, 366 min.
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.
AN EVENING OF SHORT FILMS BY DOUG MAGNUS
The first years of the Santa Fe Film Festival, captured on Super 8 by Doug Magnus, apparently hosted a veritable parade of celebrity, from Francis Ford Coppola to Charlton Heston and Ginger Rogers-as well as documenting some of the local color who helped give us our reputation for being the City Weird.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 75 min.
FERNGULLY: THE LAST RAINFOREST
A Kids First! Film Club selection to help keep grown-ups awake on Saturday morning, Ferngully stars rainforest fairies in skimpy outfits and showcases such vocal talents as Tim Curry, Robin Williams and Raffi.
Santa Fe Film Center, G, 76 min.
FROM OTHER WORLDS
Cara Buono (
Waterland, Hulk
) and Ghost Dog's Isaach De Bankolé lead a cast which includes David Lansbury and Robert Downey, Sr. in this comic take on alien abduction and the end of the world. Joanne Schwartzbaum (Buono) attends a support group meeting for abductees, where she and Abraham (De Bankolé) discover they both have the same mysterious mark on their bodies. Writer-director Barry Strugatz's (
Married to the Mob
) film world-premiered in Santa Fe last year.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 88 min.
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HOMELAND
Profiling Native activists from the Dinétah to the Penobscot River in Maine, Roberta Grossman's blunt, forthright yet inspiring doc walks us through the daily struggles of five different tribal leaders as they claim sovereignty over their own land, water and mineral rights in the face of big business-and the fact that the current administration is dismantling 30 years' worth of environmental legislation and infrastructure as fast as it can.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 88 min.
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NINA SIMONE: LOVE SORCERESS
Rare concert footage of a 1976 show in Paris with legendarily witchy pianista and singer, idiosyncratic and divertingly crabby.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 75 min
MARGARET MEAD FILM FESTIVAL
The American Museum of Natural History's traveling festival shows innovative, independent cultural documentaries; this week's
Marry Me
takes a sharp look at the phenomenon of Cuban-American marriage for immigration purposes.
7 pm Tuesday, Oct. 25. Free. Planetarium, Santa Fe Community College, 6401 Richards Ave., 428-1375
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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 reunite for many a sequel)-yet the disease rapidly stripping him of his faculties may be his most dangerous foe.
CCA, R, 120 min.
PARTY MONSTER
Probably the simplest way to describe what makes this week's Thursday literally Fabulous is by reeling off some names: Seth Green. Macauley Culkin. Chlöe Sevigny. Marilyn Manson. Mia Kirschner (
The L-Word
's messed-up Jenny)-and Natasha Lyonne. Like the best (worst?) of John Waters, this adaptation of the true-story novel
Disco Bloodbath
doesn't sound like a film so much as an Event, post-post-post-Camp and orgiastic non plus ultra.
Santa Fe Film Center, R, 98 min.
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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.
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 sacred rituals passed from priest to student, using animation to envision the soul's passage into liberation.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 93 min.
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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.
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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
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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 (Rachel Weisz) 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 accelerando of Meirelles' chaotic, shimmering visual narrative.
UA DeVargas, R, 129 min.
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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.
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DOMINO
Thanks for nothing, Richard Kelly; the
Donnie Darko
writer 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 Scott's erratic camerawork makes you feel like barfing if you actually watch the screen; everything is tinted green for no discernible reason; and there's not 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
) pouts and smokes cigarettes in the title role, limply supported by Mickey Rourke, Christopher Walken, Lucy Liu and Jacqueline Bisset.
DreamCatcher, UA South, R, 130 min.
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ELIZABETHTOWN
See SFR's
.
DreamCatcher, UA North, PG-13, 123 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 (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.
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 the precipitation's getting cranky. Selma Blair (
Hellboy
) must fill the, um, shoes worn 25 years ago by Adrienne Barbeau; but without Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh, John Houseman, Hal Holbrook and Debra Hill's crack writing…frankly, we've been more frightened by a steam iron.
DreamCatcher, UA South, PG-13, 100 min.
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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 both 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 and at others clumsy and overt, betraying its origins as comic-book parable,
History
provides intriguing, inscrutable cinema about which audiences can argue fiercely for quite some time to come.
UA DeVargas, R, 96 min.
IN HER SHOES
See SFR's
.
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 as divers who come upon a submerged airplane crash replete with cocaine treasure-whose druglord owner really wants it back.
DreamCatcher, UA North, PG-13, 110 min.
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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.
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.
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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.
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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
; and you don't have to be a fan of Whedon's short-lived TV series
Firefly
to appreciate the setup.
Serenity
's successful only because of a certain chemistry between its cast members-it's sci-fi made with paper clips and twine; and, miraculously, the shebang flies.
UA South, PG-13, 119 min.
THUMBSUCKER
Despite a gifted cast, fairly competent screenplay and spare, frequently lovely photography, there's something oddly lacking in the sum of
Thumbsucker
's parts. High school senior Justin (Lou Pucci) struggles with his age-inappropriate addiction, to the chagrin of his mom (Tilda Swinton, who just gets more brilliant with every film) and dad (Vincent D'Onofrio)-until his hippie orthodontist (Keanu Reeves) hypnotizes him, and lo and behold, Justin begins to wear neckties, mop up the floor with the opposition at debate matches and make out with the hot environmentalist girl. Director Mike Mills' first feature references coming-of-age disaffection from
The Graduate
to
Garden State
; but even with supporting talent like Swinton and Vince Vaughn, there's something listless about its plights, and eventually
Thumbsucker
settles for being mere decorative emotional wallpaper.
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's 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…
); stay home and rent
Glengarry Glen Ross
instead.
DreamCatcher, UA North, R, 122 min.
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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 critter 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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