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
Art School Confidential
Fans of comic artist and writer Daniel Clowes and director Terry Zwigoff will flock to see this, hoping for a repeat of their first collaboration, the flatly mordant
Ghost World
(which also may have gotten a whole lot of snobby people more interested in Bollywood dance numbers than they ever imagined possible, via "Jaan Pehechaan Ho!"). Early reports from the field aren't good, despite the presences of character actors John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent and Anjelica Huston. Max Minghella (son of director Anthony and recently seen in Bee Season) plays Jerome, the art-school student who dreams of making it big (well, as big as painters ever can, anyway) despite one small handicap: He's almost completely talentless. AO Scott calls it "a dull and dyspeptic exercise in self-pity and hostility," while Entertainment Weekly opines: "Insistently sullen, nihilistic, and successful to the point of smugness at transmitting buzzkill." Enjoy!
UA DeVargas, R, 102 min.
La femme de Gilles
See
.
CCA, NR, 103 min.
Just My Luck
Say what you like about Lindsay Lohan (and rest assured we certainly will), she's a bankable lead now, after a trio
of films which even crabby old white-guy critics liked:
Freaky Friday
,
Mean Girls
and
The Parent Trap
(we'll turn away politely from
Herbie: Fully
Loaded
). The ersatz teen crooner (who still looks too young to play a grown-up, to us) stars in another story of the swapping-bodies genre, this time without props from Jamie Lee Curtis; Lohan plays Ashley, notorious within her circle of Manhattan friends for being the luckiest chick around. When she kisses Jake (Chris Pine) at a masked ball, however, she exchanges her fortune for his. Unfortunately, Jake only gets about as lucky as a frat boy at a Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign fundraiser…
DreamCatcher, UA South, PG-13, 103 min.
The Notorious Bettie Page
Gretchen Mol gives a bang-up performance, full of heart and free of spirit, as the 1950s pin-up cupcake in this pretty little bauble (directed by
I Shot Andy Warhol
's Mary Harron and penned by
The L Word
's Guinevere Turner) following her career from swimsuit model to exuberant nudist to born-again Bible banger. Born in Tennessee and trained as an elementary-school teacher, Page's real dream was to be a screen actress, and it was only to make money that she turned to the "bondage" photos which made her infamous (sweet and tame by today's standards-cf. Bettie trying to spank a colleague authoritatively while nearly doubled over with laughter, or casting puzzled glances at her lace-up fetish wear). The movie gives Mol the freedom to portray Bettie's innocent charm touchingly, and its movement from black-and-white film to contrasting supersaturated Technicolor is so slick as to convey feeling-tone almost subliminally; overall, a visual treat and an interesting peek into BDSM and porn culture before anyone even acknowledged their existence.
The Screen, R, 91 min.
Poseidon
On the one hand, this remake of the classic 1972 disaster flick has Wolfgang Peterson at the helm (
The Perfect Storm
,
Das Boot
). On the other hand…it has Wolfgang Peterson at the helm (
Troy
,
The NeverEnding Story
). And on yet another (anatomically improbable) hand, it doesn't have Red Buttons, Roddy McDowall, Ernest Borgnine or Gene Hackman. The genius of the original
Poseidon Adventure
was character-driven and twofold: 1) You never had the merest hint of an idea which of the characters were going to survive and which perish, so every death was genuinely shocking; and 2) The film was shot in sequence, with actors doing their own stunts-so when you see people growing increasingly dirty and exhausted, and displaying more injuries, that's pretty much what was happening on set. This time around, Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss and Andre Braugher are among the passengers and crew trapped in the bottom (that is, the top) of the rogue-wave-capsized ocean liner, who must climb to the top (that is, the bottom) if they are to escape.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA North, PG-13, 99 min.
SHORT RUNS
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.
Being Born
Mothering Magazine proudly celebrates its 30th anniversary with a day of movies, food and conversation at the Film Center. Kicking things off is the premiere of
Being Born
, an as-yet-unedited PBS documentary produced and directed by Suzanne Arms and Christopher Carson, examining the radical changes which birth practices have undergone in the last 100 years. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion, poetry reading and booksigning with Mothering publisher Peggy O'Mara.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR
College of Santa Fe Juried Show
Every May, the faculty of the Moving Image Arts at CSF meet to select the best student work of the academic year (the press release mentions "long disputes in the screening rooms"; having recently survived one such good-natured wrestling match ourselves, we can only hope that all the faculty will be back to teach this September). The goodies are then all edited into a compact package of short films ranging from linear narrative to abstract, stylized mood piece, from straight-faced documentary to tongue-in-cheek animation.
7 pm Thursday, May 11. Free. The Screen, College of Santa Fe, 1600 St. Michael's Drive, 473-6494.
Dry Kisses Only / The War on Lesbians
Fabulous Thursday this week is for the girls with two sharp-witted mockumentaries that skewer the media's oblivion to the Daughters of Bilitis. First up, Jane Cottis and Kaucyila Brooke
doctor movie clips, interview the Lesbian on the Street and get critical perspective from Theory Woman to explore the girl-on-girl subtext of cinema in
Dry Kisses Only
, followed by transgressive radio/television satire
The War on Lesbians
.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 107 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.
Gay Sex in the '70s
The title's no misnomer in this documentary (first seen last fall as part of the Fabulous Thursday series), which interviews former swingers as they reveal their once-wild lives of unprotected, uncommitted and uninhibited sex in the salad days before HIV.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 72 min.
Kekexili
Inspired by a true story, this beautifully photographed epic (filmed in the 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
has allegedly become a phenomenon in China, where it has led to new efforts to protect endangered Tibetan species-but beyond any ethical or 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.
Metal: A Headbanger's Journey
Dig out the earplugs: Anthropologist (and metal fan) Sam Dunn has trained his analytical gaze on the much-maligned and misunderstood culture of heavy metal, interviewing bands and artists from Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Poison and Alice Cooper to the less-familiar Voivod, Cinderella and Man O War. Dunn's film is unabashedly partisan; yet on his travels through Europe and North America he discovers a few things about metal culture even he can't defend, while his investigations also reveal, for all the alleged toughness of its musicians and consumers, a surprisingly sensitive collection of souls, offering philosophical observations on sexuality, religion, violence and death.
CCA, R, 96 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.
Nanny McPhee
The 2005 holiday comedy stars Emma Thompson as the nanny with a tough assignment: to straighten out the naughtiest kids in Britain, as well as assorted adults (including Colin Firth, Derek Jacobi and a far-over-the-top Angela Lansbury).
Santa Fe Film Center, PG, 97 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 questions.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 79 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.
Sophie Scholl
depicts the six days following in an almost real-time sequence of scenes, dialogue-heavy, pressured and nerve-wracking. Scholl (Julia Jentsch, in a star-making performance of contained obduracy) handily outargues her Gestapo interrogator, but her idealism is also so untainted with any Realpolitik that it's hard to see her as a political adult. Never mind;
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.
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.
Don't Come Knocking
Wim Wenders directs and Sam Shepard wrote and stars as 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. Costarring Tim Roth, Eva Marie Saint and Jessica Lange,
Knocking
's 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
Olivia (Jennifer Aniston, finally handing in her least affected work since
The Good Girl
) is definitely the odd woman out in a quartet of female friends otherwise possessed of wealth, careers, children, homes, husbands and fitness routines-whereas she has only an obsessive interest in a married man, a beat-up Honda and insufficient cash to buy face cream. 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, headlined by Frances McDormand, Joan Cusack and Catherine Keener, bring their trained instincts and impeccable timing to Holofcener's trademark less-is-more storytelling.
UA DeVargas, R, 88 min.
Hoot
Former talk-show host Wil Shriner adapted, directs and renders sadly bland this family flick, based on the kids' novel by Carl Hiaasen. When middle-schooler Roy (the bright young Logan Lerman) moves to Florida with his family, he and his new friends band together to save a community of endangered owls from corporate greed, represented by Clark Gregg; in the other corner is local cop Luke Wilson. But why assume that kids are any less observant or will find caricatures any less tedious than adults? We're left with a script that's just OK, when it could have been slyly intelligent. Jimmy Buffett provides the tunes, which could either make or break the movie, depending on your perspective.
DreamCatcher, UA South, PG, 90 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, UA South, PG, 90 min.
Mission: Impossible III
See
.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA North, PG-13, 126 min.
The Promise
Farewell My Concubine
director Kaige Chen gives wuxia a CGI boost in this swoopy Hong Kong epic about a royal concubine (Cecilia Cheung) who falls in love with a masked warrior (Dong-Kun Jang); 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. But who cares about plot, when there's 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.
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
Jumaniji
), who decides his dysfunctional suburban family would benefit from an extended RV trip to the Rockies, where they encounter NASCAR-lovin', beer-drinkin' campers, among them Jeff Daniels and Kristin Chenoweth.
RV
would have been an entirely different movie, perhaps even a watchable one, had someone been smart enough to swap out Williams' and Daniels' roles.
DreamCatcher, UA North, PG, 99 min.
Silent Hill
Radha Mitchell (
Finding Neverland
) stars as young mother Rose, seeking her daughter in the misty streets of the titular abandoned town. Adapting from the video game, director Christophe Gann (
Brotherhood of the Wolf
) has provided plenty of scary shrouded ghoulish beings, but ultimately
Silent Hill
is an elaborately designed set with no particular reason to exist.
DreamCatcher, UA South, R, 126 min.
Stick It
Gymnast-turned-model-turned-screenwriter Jessica Bendiger also directs this sports-girl movie in which tough chica Missy Peregrym is court-ordered to return to competitive gymnastics after a run-in with the law. 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.
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
United 93
may be the most difficult film you ever sit through. Please do anyway. It's not just that writer and director Paul Greengrass (
Bloody Sunday
,
The Bourne Supremacy
) has the disaster-movie formula nailed. Nor is it the way the script lets events unfold exactly as bewilderingly as they did on 9.11. And it's not even the way the film's events take place in real-time with excruciating pace. The achievement here is that at least one of the events of 9.11 has been wrested out of the mouths of politicians and placed squarely back in human reality-messy, distorted, confused, terrified and, yes, heroic-while refusing to take the easy way out by demonizing the terrorists. If you can stomach it,
United 93
will haunt you for a long, long time.
UA South, R, 111 min.
The Wild
Disney pays homage to DreamWorks'
Madagascar
by ripping it off shamelessly: A lion teenager, born in captivity in New York and accidentally transported to Africa, must be rescued by friends (voiced by Jim Belushi, Janeane Garofalo and Eddie Izzard). Entertaining for small children, but you'll want to bring your knitting.
UA South, G, 94 min.
