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.
Designates items highlighted in this week's issue.
Click here for movie theaters and showtimes
OPENS FRIDAY
Hoot
Wil Shriner adapted and directs this family flick based on a Carl Hiaasen novel (no, not
that
Carl Hiaasen novel), which looks vaguely promising: When middle-schooler Roy (Logan Lerman) moves from Montana to Florida with his family, he and his new friends fight to save
a community of endangered owls from developer Chuck Muckle (
In Good Company
's Clark Gregg) and clueless foreman Tim Blake Nelson. Luke Wilson plays an equally dim local cop, Robert Wagner has an itty-bitty role and co-producer Jimmy Buffett provides the tunes.
DreamCatcher, UA South, PG, 90 min.
Metal: A Headbanger's Journey
Dig out the earplugs: Anthropologist Sam Dunn has trained his analytical gaze on the much-maligned and misunderstood culture of heavy metal, with interviews from bands and artists like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Poison and Alice Cooper to the less-familiar Voivod, Cinderella and Man O War. Dunn's film is unabashedly partisan, since the young director has been a metal fan since the age of 12; yet on his travels through Europe and North America he discovers a few things about metal culture even he can't defend. Nonetheless, his look into the world of metal reveals, for all the alleged toughness of both musicians and consumers, a collection of sensitive and emotive souls with philosophical observations on topics like sexuality, religion, violence and death-a Wagnerian depth of thought you perhaps wouldn't have expected from music which a friend once described as "like sitting in the dark waiting to be hit."
CCA, R, 96 min.
Mission: Impossible III
Bringing in
Lost
and
Alias
creator JJ Abrams to co-write and direct
M:I III
may be one of the smarter things Mr. Mapother, aka Tom "Operating Thetan" Cruise, has done in some time (assuming neither De Palma nor John Woo would return). Abrams has both created the most expensive movie ever made by a first-time film director, and assembled a solid supporting cast to create an old-school team behind super-spy Ethan Hunt's sophisticated espionage tactics; Ving Rhames is back, but this time we've also got Laurence Fishburn, Billy Crudup, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Keri Russell, Maggie Q and
Shaun of the Dead
's Simon
Pegg-as well as Philip Seymour Hoffman as a villainous "international
weapons and information provider with no remorse and no
conscience," according to the press materials.
But wouldn't a little auditing take care of those
engrams? A subplot involves Ethan falling in love with Liv Tyler-lookalike Michelle Monaghan.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA North, PG-13, 126 min.
Mongolian Ping Pong
In the spirit of
The Cup
comes this yarn from the steppes of Genghis Khan. Inquisitive tot Bilike has never seen a ping-pong ball before (to say nothing of electricity or running water). When he and his best friends Erguotou and Dawa come across an inedible white orb floating in the river, neither village wisdom nor the monastery's lamas can explain its origins or purpose-a glowing pearl from heaven? When they learn about ping-pong, and hear their object is the "national ball of China," they determine to return it to its home, not quite realizing how far away that is….Save your children's brains from the summer animated dreck you could cut off by the yard and take them to see this enchanting fable instead.
The Screen, NR, 102 min.
The Promise
Farewell My Concubine
director Kaige Chen gives wuxia a CGI boost in this Hong Kong epic about a royal concubine (Cecilia Cheung) who falls in love with a masked warrior (Dong-Kun Jang); they kiss in a shadow, they hide from the moon-mostly because the young lady in question has made a pact with a sorceress that, in exchange for breathtaking beauty and some cash, she can never be with the man she loves. Thus, being adored by Princess Qingcheng means you'd better take out life insurance…unless the spell is broken by the occurrence of the impossible: snow falling in the springtime (or in Santa Fe, just snow falling any old time) and the dead coming back to life. But who cares about plot-the trailer features gorgeous flowing fabric, slow-mo swordplay, flaming arrows, a leap off a waterfall, two women fighting in a cherry blossom-filled courtyard and, oh yes: plenty of flying.
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 102 min.
OPENS SATURDAY
39 Pounds of Love
An HBO documentary we never expected to see here in Santa Fe, Dani Menkin's hilarious, loving tribute to his
friend and feisty subject Ami Ankilewitz will amuse and astound in equal measure-and ultimately educate your sentiments to boot. Due to a rare form of muscular dystrophy, Ami (who was never expected to live past the age of 6) is physically tiny, as well as almost completely paralyzed; but his zest for life is ferocious. A 3D animator who lives in Israel, Ami co-created the film with Menkin, weaving animation with live footage of his cross-country journey across America, to confront the doctor who first prophesied his early demise, make peace with his brother, and fulfil a lifelong dream: that of riding a Harley.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 70 min.
SHORT RUNS
The Chipmunk Adventure
Coloratura rodents Alvin, Theodore and Simon star in their first feature film, which purports to have something to do with a hot-air balloon race.
Santa Fe Film Center, G, 90 min.
Comme un frère
Fab Thursday hits the beach with
Like a Brother
, the story of young Sébastien (Benoît Delière), who leaves the sticks behind for Paris and its livelier gay scene-but can't help missing the boy back home, his best friend Romain (the stunningly pretty Thibault Boucaux).
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 55 min.
Duma
White South African Xan (Alex Michaeletos) adopts an orphaned cheetah cub who enjoys living on the Kenyan family farm, but eventually Duma must be returned to the wild. On the way,
Xan and Duma encounter a young African traveler, Ripkuna (the talented Eamonn Walker), and the two young men form a bond which-like Xan's with Duma-winds up far exceeding ordinary expectations of friendship.
CCA, PG, 100 min.
Farinelli
Stravinsky, once granted an audience with the Pope, was allegedly asked what the Vatican could do to support music; the composer responded unhesitatingly: "Give us back castrati!" Until that happy day arrives, we'll have to make do with Stefano Dionisi playing the über-camp title singer (whose eerie voice was computer-created, blending male and female). Carlo Broschi, castrated in childhood to preserve his fabulous voice, sang for Handel, among others; he probably would have been even more staggeringly famous, had his career not been mismanaged by his brother Riccardo (Enrico Lo Verso).
Santa Fe Film Center, R, 111 min.
Kekexili
Inspired by a true story, this beautifully photographed epic (filmed in the Tibetan Himalayas) takes us along for the ride as a Beijing journalist investigates the disappearance of volunteers committed to protect the Tibetan antelope from poachers-even if it means they themselves have to bend the laws.
Kekexili
(which means
Mountain Patrol
) has allegedly become a phenomenon in China, where it has led to new efforts to protect endangered Tibetan species-but beyond any ethical and political value, it's a harshly lovely story.
CCA, NR, 90 min.
The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam
Writer-director Kayvan Mashayekh makes a strong debut with this story of 12-year-old Kamran (Adam Echahly), whose family tells him an important secret: that he's descended from the 11th century poet and astronomer. Flashbacks to ancient Persia explore the relationship between Khayyam (Bruno Lastra) and his best friend Hassan Sabbah (founder of the original assassins), with scenes shot on location in Samarkand and Uzbekistan.
Santa Fe Film Center, PG, 95 min.
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont Hotel
Imagine the
Ladies in Lavender
encountering
Harold and Maude
, and you'll have the right idea. Mrs. Palfrey (Joan Plowright), elegant and doddery, moves from Scotland to London to be near her grandson and stays at the Claremont Hotel, where a chance encounter with young writer Ludo (
Pride and Prejudice
's Rupert Friend) changes everything.
The Screen, NR, 108 min.
One: The Movie
This documentary, filmed by a group of suburban dads, asks a gaggle of spiritual luminaries (such as Deepak Chopra, Ram Dass, Thich Nhat Hahn, Riane Eisler, Father Thomas Keating, Robert Thurman and His Holiness the Dalai Lama) for their answers to life's biggest unsolved questions.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 79 min.
The Real Dirt on Farmer John
Part fiction, part documentary and all entertaining, Taggart Siegel's strange portrait stars John Peterson as himself, a Midwestern farmer (and former UW-Madison hippie) who becomes increasingly unpopular in his hometown as he refuses to sell out to agribusiness.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 82 min.
The Return
Written, directed and edited by students of Santa Fe Performing Arts, this is the first feature-length film entirely produced by SF teenagers. A group of theater students break into the theater one evening (to try on wigs?), where they encounter the supernatural.
NR, 50 min. 7 pm Friday, May 5. $5. Armory for the Arts Theater, 1050 Old Pecos Trail, 982-7992.
The Spirit of the Beehive
The 1973 Spanish-language classic tells the poignant story of two little girls and their search for Frankenstein's monster after they see James Whale's 1931 movie in their Castillian village, ravaged by the Spanish Civil War.
The Screen, NR, 97 min.
NOW SHOWING
Akeelah and the Bee
Keke Palmer stars as the wee title orthographer in this Starbucks-approved pro-literacy movie, which amounts to more than just another adaptation (after
Bee Season
) of 2002's surprise hit documentary
Spellbound
. Writer-director Doug Atchison (he who gave us
The Pornographer
) might not be the first guy on
your
list to helm a family film, but he's wisely cast Angela Bassett as Akeelah's mom and Laurence Fishburne as her melancholic mentor Dr. Joshua Larabee, and they go a long way toward rendering fascinating and even moving this story of a South LA girl with dreams of making it to nationals.
UA South, PG, 112 min.
American Dreamz
Directed by Paul Weitz (
In Good Company
,
About a Boy
),
Dreamz
lurches between high satirical silliness and just plain silly. Hugh Grant, so much more charming when he's sleazy, plays burned-out talent/reality-show host Martin Tweed, groping for ratings by casting Omer, a singer of show tunes (Sam Golzari). But Omer's also a terrorist-and daffy US president Dennis Quaid is scheduled to appear on the show's final episode. Can Omer successfully perform the medley from
Phantom
whilst pulling the pin on a hand grenade? The script's clunkiness makes it hard to care, though there are a few laughs along the way.
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 107 min.
ATL
In this hip-hop-roller-skating-movie-that-can't-be-marketed-as-such-
because-of-the-dismal-failure-of-
Roll-Bounce
, "ATL" stands for Atlanta, as in Georgia, as in the city where working-class teens Tip Harris, Evan Ross, Jackie Long, Jason Weaver and Albert Daniels are coming of age. With a story by Antwone Fisher, this unexpectedly cut-above film has fresh performances and an intensely cool soundtrack.
UA South, PG-13, 105 min.
The Benchwarmers
Trust us, it's even worse than it sounds: David Spade, Jon Heder and Rob Schneider play three friends who form a baseball team to revenge themselves on their traumatic childhood memories of Little League, with agonizingly unfunny results.
DreamCatcher, UA South, PG-13, 87 min.
Don't Come Knocking
There are just three things to say about this one: Wim Wenders directs, Sam Shepard wrote and stars and an unsettling number of critics allege it to be a total schnorrer. Washed-up Western movie star Howard (Shepard), once famed for playing cowboy heroes, now drowns his sorrows in a bottle, until one day he up and rides off into the sunset. À la Jarmusch's
Broken Flowers
, though, after a visit with his mum (Eva Marie Saint) it turns out he may have more family members than he realized. Worth seeing for old times' sake (though you could also just re-rent
Paris
,
Texas
or
Fool for Love
).
UA DeVargas, R, 122 min.
Friends with Money
"Is not married; is a pothead; is a maid." Thus Jane (Frances McDormand) pithily describes Olivia, the odd woman out in a quartet of female friends otherwise possessed of wealth, careers, children, homes, husbands and fitness routines-whereas Olivia (Jennifer Aniston, finally handing in her most natural, convincing work since
The Good Girl
) has only an obsessive interest in a married man, a beat-up Honda and insufficient cash to buy moisturizer. But in the latest from writer-director Nicole Holofcener (
Lovely & Amazing
), the life lesson isn't how to obtain filthy lucre but to accept yourself for who you are while at the same time accepting your friends for being…something completely different and possibly offensive. Like, well,
rich
. A fabulous cast, including Joan Cusack and Catherine Keener, bring their trained instincts and impeccable timing to Holofcener's metonymy when it comes to her trademark less-is-more storytelling.
UA DeVargas, R, 88 min.
Ice Age: The Meltdown
This somewhat disappointing sequel immediately turns disaster-movie as Manny, Diego and Sid discover that behind a wall of melting ice looms a
Deep Impact
quantity of water threatening to submerge their valley. Their escape is interrupted by an attractive lady mammoth (Queen Latifah) who thinks she's an opossum; another subplot involves saber-toothed Diego's fear of water, while the film as a whole benefits from regular appearances from proto-squirrel Scrat, still scrabbling after his elusive acorn-by far the most amusing thing in the movie, which only occasionally takes off into choreographed flights of glee.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA North, PG, 90 min.
Joyeux Noël
See
.
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 116 min.
RV
Barry Sonnenfeld (
Men in Black
) directs the unamusing odyssey of Bob Munro (Robin Williams, ever-vacillating between films like
One Hour Photo
and those like, well,
Jumaniji
and
Flubber
), a square suburban guy who decides his dysfunctional family would benefit from an extended RV trip in the Rockies, where they encounter NASCAR-lovin', beer-drinkin' fellow campers, among them the Gornickes (Jeff Daniels and Kristin Chenoweth). Cheryl Hines (
Curb Your Enthusiasm
) plays Bob's wife, with JoJo and Josh Hutcherson as the surly kids; it would have been an entirely different movie, perhaps even a watchable one, had
we
been consulted on the casting, and allowed to swap out Williams' and Daniels' roles.
DreamCatcher, UA North, PG, 99 min.
Scary Movie 4
Bring on the summer titles with the numbers in 'em! Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) must save the world from giant homicidal iPods-while also lampooning everything from
Saw II
to Tom jumping the couch.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA North, PG-13
The Sentinel
Michael Douglas pulls a Harrison as tough-bird Secret Serviceman Pete Garrison, relieved of his FLOTUS duties when someone frames him for the murder of another agent. Garrison's certain that a neo-Nazi bent on presidential assassination has infiltrated security-but no one will believe him, especially now that his protégé, Kiefer Sutherland (
24
) has seized the reins. One wouldn't think all this could be quite so flabby and uninteresting; but one would, unfortunately, be wrong.
DreamCatcher, UA North, R, 108 min.
Silent Hill
This video-game-turned-horror-movie stars Radha Mitchell (
Finding Neverland
) as young mother Rose, seeking her daughter in the misty streets of the titular abandoned town. Director Christophe Gann (
Brotherhood of the Wolf
) has provided an appropriate number and variety of shrouded ghoulish beings emerging suddenly from the CGI fog, but the effort to figure out what's going on grows wearying, and
Silent Hill
becomes an elaborately designed set without any particular reason to exist.
DreamCatcher, UA South, R, 126 min.
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
Scholl was only 21 when sentenced to execution after she was caught distributing anti-Nazi Party leaflets at her university as part of the White Rose resistance group.
Sophie Scholl: Die letzten Tage
depicts the six days following in an almost real-time sequence of scenes, dialogue-heavy, pressured and nerve-wracking. Initially, Scholl (Julia Jentsch, in a star-making performance of contained obduracy) outargues her Gestapo interrogator, but her idealism is also so untainted with any Realpolitik (think Anouilh's
Antigone
) that it's hard to see her as a political adult. Never mind; as Sontag said of Weil, "No one who loves life would wish to imitate her dedication to martyrdom…yet so far as we love seriousness, as well as life, we are moved by it."
Scholl
offers a crucial piece of revisionism in the aesthetic history of a country brought from Bayreuth to Birkenau within a single generation.
The Screen, NR, 108 min.
Stick It
Gymnast-turned-model-turned-screenwriter Jessica Bendiger also directs this sports-girl movie in which tough chica Haley Graham (Missy Peregrym) is court-ordered to return to competitive gymnastics after a run-in with the law. Whatever you say…Jeff Bridges co-stars as a legendary but non-Romanian instructor (and surprisingly, hands in his best work in quite a while); if the whole were less uneven, we'd be more enthusiastic, but it's a rough ride.
DreamCatcher, UA North, PG-13, 105 min.
Take the Lead
The tepid
Take the Lead
is indeed based on a true story, and for that matter is an infinitely more watchable film. Antonio Banderas stars as a dance instructor who volunteers in the NYC public school system, only to find that his classical methods run counter to his students' hip-hop passions. From this culture clash, an entirely new dance form emerges, which the film somehow manages to render oddly uninspiring.
UA North, PG-13, 108 min.
Thank You for Smoking
Jason Reitman has adroitly adapted Christopher Buckley's already wickedly funny novel and the result is a lucid skewering of the way we deal in what the film's hero affably terms "moral flexibility." Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is a lobbyist for Big Tobacco; blonde, square-jawed, charming and guileless, the so-called "Sultan of Spin" is a master of manipulation. But with Nick's son Joey (Cameron Bright) idolizing his infamous dad, Nick begins to feel less certain of the ethical validity of his profession. Eckhart's Ken-doll features lend hilarious affect to dry dialogue and pointy political satire in the spirit of
Wag the Dog
.
UA DeVargas, R, 92 min.
United 93
See
.
UA South, R, 111 min.
The Wild
Disney pays homage to DreamWorks' summer hit
Madagascar
by ripping it off shamelessly:
The Wild
tells the tale of a lion teenager, born in captivity in New York and accidentally transported to Africa. A posse of friends sets out for the rescue (Jim Belushi, Janeane Garofalo and Eddie Izzard, respectively). Entertaining for small children, but you'll want to bring your knitting.
DreamCatcher, UA South, G, 94 min.
