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Due to the ever-changing nature of the movie biz, showtimes as they appear in ANY and ALL newspapers should always be double-checked with the theaters before setting off for a night at the flicks.
Opens Friday
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
Leave it to an animated lion and the director of
Shrek
to stir up more pre-release press opportunities than The Passion of the Mel; amidst the folderol may lie a film worth watching, but it's already hard to tell, with the blue and red states playing tug-of-war over its alleged religious content. The truth is that Oxford classicist CS Lewis' conversion to Anglicanism (and subsequent writing of allegorical fairy tales) bears little or no resemblance to the kind of populist fundamentalism we Americans are already trying to wrest from this big-budget Disney film, which if nothing else has at least cast Tilda Swinton in the role she was destined to inhabit from birth: that of Jadis, the evil White Queen. It's really up to the screenwriters to make this story of four war-era British schoolchildren who accidentally wander into the magical land of Narnia both enchanting and still believable.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA South, PG, 140 min.
SYRIANA
The neocons are already squawking and ruffling their feathers over this one, so there must be something worth seeing here-although if writer Stephen Gaghan's last film (
Traffic
) was any indication, you'll be dropping your Jordan almonds in the effort to keep up with multiple plotlines and coruscating scene changes. No doubt about it, Gaghan's the perfect choice to adapt former CIA agent Robert Baer's book
See No Evil
into an ensemble piece tracking players across the globe as they compete for the power and wealth surrounding the oil industry; he's also directing, this time, an eye-popping cast from Matt Damon and George Clooney (who apparently gained 35 pounds for the part) to Chris Cooper, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Alex Siddig and Amanda Peet…come to mama. We should probably be tired of Clooney by now, but we're just not.
UA DeVargas, R, 126 min.
Short Runs
LE GRAND VOYAGE
Wondering what all the fuss in the Paris suburbs is about? In the spirit of
White Teeth, East Is East
and the films of Claire Denis, writer-director Ismaël Ferroukhi sends French-Moroccan teen Reda (Nicolas Cazalé) on a reluctant road trip from the south of France all the way to Mecca, so that his aging father (Mohamed Majd) can fulfil his pilgrimage. Paralleling the confusing circumstances of so many Europeanized children of non-Western immigrants, father and son literally don't even speak the same language-but what Reda learns on the trip will bridge their cultural gap forever.
CCA, NR, 108 min.
KINGS AND QUEEN
"There are four men I've loved. I have killed two of them." Thus Nora (
Read My Lips
' enigmatic, luscious Emmanuelle Devos) explains her sketchy romantic history in Arnaud Desplechin's latest tragicomic feature. On the upswing from her most recent matrimonial disaster, Nora's now making it work with a successful businessman-until she has to track down former lover Ismaël (Mathieu Amalric), a violinist who's been committed to a mental institution (where he's "cared for" by steely, scary psychologist Catherine Deneuve). Expect a third-act surprise that upsets the narrative completely and leaves you scrambling to reinterpret everything you've seen; you may need to watch this one twice.
The Screen, NR, 150 min.
NINE LIVES
Writer-director Rodrigo García's achievement in
Nine Lives
is in creating an entirely new vehicle for some of the most criminally underworked women in film; the son of Colombian novelist Gabriel García Marquez brought together an eye-popping roster of actresses (including Amy Brenneman, Elpidia Carrillo, Glenn Close, Dakota Fanning, Holly Hunter, Robin Wright Penn and Sissy Spacek) and turned them loose on nine single-take scenes, each shot in one day and none more than 11 minutes long. The results, though uneven, are certainly unique; and some of the performances-in particular that of Ms. Wright Penn, who really should work more-are genuinely haunting.
CCA, R, 98 min.
SIXTH ANNUAL SANTA FE
FILM FESTIVAL
See SFR's
.
Santa Fe Film Center and other venues, ratings and runtimes vary
SUDDEN RAIN: THE FILMS OF MIKIO NARUSE
Nervy, damn-the-torpedoes maneuvers like this are why we can't help but love the Screen, who for the next eight Sundays will continue showing fearsomely prolific (but little-known outside Japan) director Naruse's work, this week featuring
Mother
(1952). Most of Naruse's work isn't available on DVD or video, either, so take advantage of the newly added showtimes to see the Japanese master's elegant work, usefully compared to that of Chekhov.
The Screen, NR, 97 min.
TONY TAKITANI
We're so thrilled to see this spare little movie find an audience, because it's absolutely poignant and evocative with a minimum of on-screen fuss. Renowned stage actor Issei Ogaku plays the title character (as well as his father), a profoundly isolated man who experiences a brief reprieve from alienation when he marries a beautiful and affectionate younger woman, who has just a teensy-weensy shopping addiction. Director Jun Ichikawa also adapted the script from the New Yorker short story by Haruki Murakami; spare and minimalist as ikebana yet emotionally absorbing (thanks in no small part to Ryuichi Sakamoto's clear, Satiesque piano score).
The Screen, NR, 75 min.
THE WARRIOR
That rare creature, a Hindi film with crossover appeal (think
Lagaan
or
Asoka
), writer-director Asif Kapadia's action movie has normally calm reviewers like LA Weekly's Scott Foundas fairly gibbering with approval of its epic cinematography and mythic simplicity. Irfan Khan stars as Lafcadia, an enforcer to a local warlord who renounces his violent ways only to discover that getting out has a high price; he heads across the Rajasthan desert toward the Himalayan ranges seeking peace, hotly pursued by the violence he's sown.
The Screen, R, 86 min.
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Now Showing
AEON FLUX
See
.
UA North, PG-13, 93 min.
BEE SEASON
Jake and Maggie's mom Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal handled this adaptation of Myla Goldberg's novel of the story of a marriage headed over the cliff (Richard Gere in full-bore Sincere Mode as, yes, a Talmudic scholar, and Juliette Binoche without much to do but stalk around looking aggrieved and sexually restless) and their unfortunate progeny (Anthony's son Max Minghella and the spelling champion of the title, Flora Cross) tagged to resuscitate familial bliss. In the midst of its sometimes tiresome detail are some startling performances by the young actors and a vein of frank sentiment, which won't surprise those who remember codirectors Scott McGehee's and David Siegel's other films (
Suture, The Deep End
).
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 104 min.
CHICKEN LITTLE
Somehow, Zach Braff is pretty much the last guy in the world you'd peg to play an animated chicken, but there it is. This fairy-tale revamp (you know, baseball plus aliens who want to take over the world-your standard stuff) manages to waste the vocal talents of Garry Marshall, Patrick Stewart, Amy Sedaris, Wallace Shawn, Steve Zahn, Joan Cusack, Adam West and Don Knotts (as Mayor Turkey Lurkey).
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA South, G, 77 min.
DERAILED
Suburban dad Clive Owen is tootling off to work one morning when he discovers he has no train ticket. Hey, presto-leggy femme fatale Lucinda (Aniston) comes to his rescue. Problem one: Rachel Geller as a femme fatale. Problem two: Clive Owen as a suburban dad. And problem three: They're both married, which just means they have to drink a lot before they call their spouses to claim they're working late. But while they are in, as it were, media res, an assailant breaks into their seedy motel room...and it all goes pear-shaped from there. Swedish director Mikael Håfström's movie seems to want to be preposterous, and finally crosses so far over into idiocy that it almost becomes enjoyable; besides, if we'd wanted Hitchcock, we'd have rented
Strangers on a Train
.
UA North, R, 147 min.
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.
It's hard to remember a time when corporate couldn't quite control editorial and anchors appeared live on the news with cigarettes burning indifferently in their fingers; the face of CBS then was Edward R Murrow (David Strathairn), who, along with his producer Fred Friendly (George Clooney) dared to speak out against Senator McCarthy. Clooney's unusually restrained, staying out of the way of his fantastic cast-especially Strathairn, who's gobsmackingly convincing. Combine the razor-sharp script with sleek period details like vacuum-tube broadcasting equipment and gorgeous long expanses of uncut newsreel footage, and you get classic, compelling cinema that's still all too pertinent.
UA DeVargas, PG, 93 min.
HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE
Director Mike Newell ratchets up the tension another notch as the scruffy young wizard (an adequate Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione and Ron must cope with the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Voldemort in the flesh (apt cast addition Ralph Fiennes) and, perhaps most formidably, finding dates for the Yule Ball. Newell deserves ringing encomia for managing to film Rowling's vasty tome at all; unfortunately he's had to shoehorn so much material into the thing that at times it feels elliptical, like looking at engraved illustrations. With naughty words, flirty looks and a fairly shocking death, his
Goblet of Fire
nonetheless charts the next steps on our heroes' path-and it's only going to get grimmer from here on out.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA North, PG-13, 157 min.
THE ICE HARVEST
In this "holiday movie" which has absolutely nothing to do with the holidays, John Cusack plays Charlie, a crooked attorney who, with his porn-king colleague Vic (Billy Bob Thornton) has managed to skim off $2 million from their mobster boss; on Christmas morning the two plan to skip town. But it's Wichita, Kansas, and the verglacé of the title is accumulating rapidly; their boss (a thuggish Randy Quaid) is coming after them; classy strip-club owner Renata (Connie Nielsen, doing a broad parody of the noir femme fatale) seems ***image:left4***determined to find out what Charlie's up to; Vic's hidden the cash from Charlie and, perhaps worst of all, Charlie's friend Pete (the brilliant Oliver Platt)-having partaken freely of the festive seasonal spirits-has latched onto him with all the rosy-cheeked doggedness of the totally plastered. Bravo to Focus Features for once again taking on something essentially unmarketable and letting it be…whatever the heck it is. Not for the easily offended or the squeamish,
The Ice Harvest
has no good guys, alternating blackest depravity with curiously heartfelt touches-a strange combo for the holidays, perhaps; but then some of us don't want to eat the same dang Chex Mix all month long.
UA North, R, 88 min.
IN THE MIX
Usher's fans being legion and mostly under 15, this film will probably drag in revenue no matter how awful it is, which, we are obliged to inform you, is unhappily the case. Usher plays Darrell, a DJ who inadvertently saves the daughter (Emmanuelle Chriqui) of a Mafia don (Chazz Palmenteri, who must be either putting his kids through college or saving for expensive dental work). Darrell's reward for said saving? A full-time job protecting her, which is kind of like the prize for the pie-eating contest being…free pie.
UA South, PG-13, 97 min.
JARHEAD
Four actors at the top of their game (Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Chris Cooper and Jamie Foxx) and one of our most enigmatic directors (Sam Mendes of
American Beauty
and
Road to Perdition
) take on Anthony Swofford's Desert Storm memoir. The result is cryptic at best, veering confusingly between cinematic cliché and the blank-faced, stultifying boredom of war. Mendes self-consciously references Vietnam-era classics
The Deer Hunter
and
Apocalypse Now
, but it's unclear where he hopes to position his own film, despite meaty performances from its actors. Beautifully filmed; curiously unmoving.
UA North, R, 122 min.
JUST FRIENDS
There are, the wise tell us, a few useful rules in this life: Don't eat in restaurants named after women, never work anywhere there's one of those height rulers taped next to the exit and at all costs avoid movies in which people wear fat suits. Ryan Reynolds (Will Farrell Lite) takes a slapstick turn in the hot rubber costume, portraying the guy who was portly in high school and who's now an attractive, womanizing music producer. Yep, happens all the time. Anna Faris (admittedly a scene-stealer in
Lost in Translation
) is his scary client and Amy Smart is the girl he's loved all these years and to whom he now finally can pitch that woo.
UA North, PG-13, 96 min.
THE LEGEND OF ZORRO
And this film needed to be made because…? It has an oddly historical flavor, even taking into account the fact that it's set in 19th century California, almost as though the movie were made 10 years ago and has been sitting around some back lot in a can gathering dust. Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones pick up their original roles as the passionately duelling de la Vegas, whose marriage is on the skids because the señor just can't seem to quit with the mask-wearing and the crime-fighting, even though Mrs. Zorro has moved out and started dating Rufus Sewall (go her!).
UA South, PG, 100 min.
PRIDE & PREJUDICE
This week's Austen adaptation stars Keira Knightley as every bookish girl's heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, the next-to-oldest daughter in a rambunctious but poor country family whose daughters must marry well in order to provide an income not only for themselves but also for their aging parents (Brenda Blethyn and, in one of the best performances of the year, Donald Sutherland). Opinionated Elizabeth takes an immediate dislike to dour but wealthy Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFayden) who seems to embody the pride of the title-but is she too proud to accept his help in an hour of need, or to admit that she's fallen for him? If you can manage to turn off the part of your brain that winces at mediocre camera work, you'll be perfectly content; Knightley isn't brilliant but she's quite passable, and very pretty; and when she's onscreen with Sutherland or MacFayden you really can't tear your eyes away. Overall, it's another Austen we can welcome happily into the fold.
UA DeVargas, PG, 127 min.
RENT
Alas, director Chris Columbus (responsible for the first two Harry Potter films,
Home Alone
and
Mrs. Doubtfire)
has essentially turned
Rent
into a kids' movie, the kind no one but your 13-year-old stagestruck daughter will want to see. The late Jonathan Larson's retelling of
La bohème
is rendered more simperingly naughty than daringly avant-garde; through some truly atrocious sound editing (in which blasts of amplified strings and electric guitars submerge the lyrics in an exuberant volume of nothingness) and really weird blocking, it even somehow manages to mute the irrepressible Wilson Jermaine Heredia, the best thing about both the original Broadway production and this pallid replica. We credit the insistent verve and commitment of its eight-person ensemble, but on the whole, as far as
Rent
goes, you probably should do just that.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, PG-13, 135 min.
SHOPGIRL
Steve Martin stars in the screen version of his own novella, which he also adapted; Martin plays Ray Porter, a hollow-man millionaire who takes a shine to the glove saleswoman at Saks, starving artist Mirabelle (an underworked-of-late Claire Danes)-who's dating an impecunious and romantically clueless young font designer, Jeremy (
Rushmore
's Jason Schwartzman). Will she choose finesse over jeunesse, or someone who honks the horn when he comes to pick her up for a date over someone who knows what a wine list is? It's worth spending the hour and a half to find out, largely thanks to the performances, including unabashed hamming from Schwartzman.
UA South, R, 104 min.
WALK THE LINE
"I feel like I just saw
Ray
," complained a friend. Alas, this pretty succinctly sums up the problem with
Walk the Line
-the performances are outstanding but the writing and direction are about the caliber of a made-for-television movie; the result is an average-at-best music biopic that you feel you've already seen two dozen times. Joaquin Phoenix inhabits his character with unbalanced gravity and Reese Witherspoon turns in her most authoritative work to date as steely June Carter; and director James Mangold offers us some truly kickin' music (with spot-on work by actors playing Sam Phillips, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis in particular); but there's a curious flat inadequacy to the film as a whole, as though it needed to be either an hour shorter or seven longer.
DreamCatcher, Jean Cocteau, UA South, PG-13, 136 min.
YOURS, MINE AND OURS
Note to Dennis Quaid:
Why
? Why, when everyone knows you can act (
The Right Stuff, Traffic
and
Far from Heaven
), do you persist in taking any old piece of dreck your agent throws at you? Are Meg's alimony payments really that hefty? For whatever occult reasons, you've chosen now to appear in this remake of what wasn't all that funny in 1968: 18 children (
Cheaper by the Dozen 1.5?
) attempting to destroy the budding relationship of their parents, a widower (Quaid) and widow (Rene Russo) who've fallen in love. Painfully awful,
Yours, Mine and Ours
shouldn't have to be anybody's.
DreamCatcher, UA South, PG, 88 min.
ZATHURA
Fans of actor-director Jon Favreau's
Swingers
and
Made
probably wouldn't have him figured for a kids' movie guy; but it's clear he can still manage to be witty even on a big budget, without indulging in the aimless pyrotechnics most directors instinctively head for when they aim to please boys under 12. Based on the book by children's writer and illustrator Chris Van Allsburg (
The Polar Express, Jumanji
), the story is simple: Two squabbling brothers (Jonah Bobo and Josh Hutcherson) discover a dusty old vintage board game called Zathura, which turns their house into a rocket ship hurtling through outer space, teaching lessons about fraternal loyalty along the way.
DreamCatcher, UA South, PG, 113 min.
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Nothing Trivial About It
This week's winner,
Bill Drugan
, accurately named Bernadette Peters and Barbra Streisand as two "Broadway babies" known for their fabulous hair, distinctive singing voices and onscreen roles opposite Mandy Patinkin. (We were actually thinking of Peters and Amy Irving, but hey, close enough.) Bill will receive a DVD chosen from our eclectic collection here at the SFR.
This week's quiz is especially for motorcyclists, in honor of
The World's Fastest Indian
, one of the gala presentations of the Santa Fe Film Festival. Actor Steve McQueen was of course well known for doing his own motorcycle stunt riding in his films, among them 1963's
The Great Escape
. Two questions: In that film, what's wrong with the bike he steals from the Germans; and what famous actor plays one of the soldiers in hot pursuit? Submit your answers to
.
