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.
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OPENS FRIDAY
CSA: Confederate States of America
Delicately skirting
along the edge of the tasteful comes this eye-opening, sickeningly funny mockumentary depicting an alternate universe in which the Confederacy won the War of Northern Aggression, changing world history as a result. CSA not only sends up all of the documentary conventions flawlessly ("Learn how we protected the noble institution of slavery!" says a breathless voiceover, as the camera lingers over those Ken-Burns-style still photographs and DW Griffiths' films go on to depict Lincoln's capture) but also manages to skewer the current state of US racial politics (QVC commercials selling slave families, "available individually or as a set"); deliciously, evilly subversive.
The Screen, NR, 89 min.
The Da Vinci Code
Prepare to see Tom Hanks' weird slicked-back hairdo this week on all the talk shows as he plugs Dan Brown's word made flesh, scripted by Akiva Goldsman (
A Beautiful Mind
) and directed by the sacrilegiously baseball-hatted Ron Howard (likewise). Audrey Tautou (
Dirty Pretty Things
) costars as Mary Magdalene-whoops, as Sophie Neveu, a French cryptologist who joins Harvard professor Robert Langdon (Hanks) when he's summoned to the Louvre to help solve a colleague's murder. Of course, it's not just one little old dead academic and, of course, as enigmatic clues hidden in riddles begin to appear to the skillful eyes of our protagonists, both in the works of Leonardo and hither and yon throughout Europe, they are Thrust into a Maze of Intrigue and Danger, While Uncovering a Secret with the Power to Change the World! Hoo boy.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA North, PG-13, 149 min.
Iron Island
Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof's
Jazireh ahani
may surprise you: Rather than being in-your-face political, it sideswipes you with its ready sense of humor. Set aboard a stalled, rusting tanker in the Persian Gulf,
Iron Island
refers to the boat which has become an odd kind of home for the nomadic families who've turned themselves over to the governance of Captain Nemat (Ali Nassirian)-but does he take them aboard for humanitarian reasons, or to turn a profit? You'll be on the edge of your seat by the end of this unabashed satire, by turns hilarious and haunting.
CCA, NR, 90 min.
Over the Hedge
Could it be a computer-animated feature that's actually well-scripted? Been a while since we've seen one of those, but the trailer's kind of funny. A rascally raccoon (Bruce Willis)
and his
timid turtle best-friend (Garry Shandling) decide to raid some refrigerators as the lawns and
pools of human suburbia encroach upon the
forest's indigenous neighborhood; Steve Carell, William Shatner, Nick Nolte, Thomas Hayden Church, Allison Janney and Eugene Levy make up the usual star-strewn roster of vocal talents.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA South, PG, 96 min.
Screen Door Jesus
We wish we could tell you more about this Altmanesque, ensemble indie film from 2003, because its premise is intriguing: When Christ's visage miraculously appears one morning, not on a tortilla but on an elderly woman's screen door, the residents of her small East Texas town take sides on matters of faith, religion and race in the midst of a full-blown media circus.
Santa Fe Film Center, R, 119 min.
See No Evil
In a blatant effort to pull in WWF audiences, this teen-slaying horror flick stars all seven feet and 320 pounds of "wrestling" champion Kane, who plays retiring psychopath Jacob Goodnight. When a group of delinquent teenagers draws the community-service job of cleaning out the hazardously disintegrating Blackwell Hotel, they're unaware that Monsieur Goodnight is squatting in its ruins-and bears a grudge. But honestly, he just doesn't look that scary to us; maybe he just needs someone to talk to, you know?
UA South, R, 100 min.
Shakespeare Behind Bars
Nominated for the grand jury prize last year at Sundance, Hank Rogerson's documentary follows an unusual rehearsal process for and performance of Shakespeare's
The Tempest
, staged at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in LaGrange, Ky., by 20 male inmates, who both cast and directed themselves in their roles; over the course of this absorbing and moving film, the actors must come to grips with the play's themes of flawed humanity, forgiveness and redemption.
The Screen, NR, 93 min.
SHORT RUNS
Dora the Explorer: Dora's First Trip
Kids First! Film Club screens the pilot for the Nickelodeon series, starring the intrepid chiquita, along with her talking backpack and annoying singing map.
Santa Fe Film Center, PG, 110 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.
¡Ese!
This exuberantly entitled collection of 32 shorts brings together movies made by Santa Fe and Española teens, originally screened as part of the "Española Showing Excellence" festival. Students from Capital High, Monte del Sol, Santa Fe School for the Arts, McCurdy and Española Valley are responsible for the varied contents of this grab bag, filled to bursting with animation, live-action, music videos, documentaries, dramas, comedies, dramedies and, uh, commas.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR
La femme de Gilles
Even when wordless, Emmanuelle Devos (
Kings and Queen
) is magnificent as the title wife; she has the ability to seem complex and simple at the same time, both utterly vulnerable yet also somehow unknowable. And that's a very good thing, because otherwise the daytime-soap storyline (Elisa loves Gilles, Gilles cheats on Elisa, Elisa starts to lose her marbles) might be a bit much to take-especially when an abrupt, tacked-on melodramatic ending nearly ruins all the ambiguity Devos has spent the preceding hour-and-a-half constructing so meticulously. The film's other asset is its cinematography: It's as though the DP moved in with the family and concentrated on recording the household's most intimate doings over the course of several years, as lushly as possible. The plangent beauty of Elisa at her housework suggests an aesthetic reason for
La femme de Gilles
' existence-but the real marvel here, and reason not to miss the film, is Devos' private, enigmatic, innocent smile, asking questions with no easy answers.
CCA, NR, 103 min.
I Married a Monster / I Married a Savage
Psycho Saturday (new series highlighting classic sci-fi silliness) kicks off with this inaugural pair of humorously awful (or awfully humorous) '50s films, bracketing a "Bad Marriage" contest.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 78 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.
Lesbian Icons
Heads up, Jodie fans: Pratibha Parmar's short documentary on Ms. Clarice Starling headlines this Fabulous Thursday collection of shorts, which also includes a cleverly edited on-screen romance between Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich (fated to be!).
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 62 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.
Nine to Five
Women's Health Services presents this screening of the 1980 comedy which made "sexual harassment" the buzzphrase of the decade, starring Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin.
Santa Fe Film Center, PG, 110 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 acknowledged their existence.
The Screen, R, 91 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.
The Puppet Animations of Kihachiro Kawamoto
Both adults and kids can lose themselves in the uncanny, gorgeous films of Kihachiro Kawamoto, who's been animating puppets since the 1950s to mystical, mythological effect (and continues to work-in his eighties, Kawamoto just finished his second feature). These two compilations of short films,
The Book of the Dead
and
Demons, Poets and Priests
, are taken mostly from his fairy-tale adaptations of the '60s and '70s-spare, beautiful pieces, part Noh, part kabuki, part post-nuclear Japan and all intricate, gauzy detail.
The Screen, NR
NOW SHOWING
Art School Confidential
See
.
UA DeVargas, R, 102 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) 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. 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.
Goal! The Dream Begins
Real-life soccer star Kuno Becker plays Santiago Munez, an immigrant LA kid given the chance of a lifetime: To play football for Newcastle United.
Goal!
being the first in a projected trilogy, this installment concerns itself primarily with his initiation into British footie culture (translation: serious partying) and his first season of play; he finds an unexpected ally in loutish but charming teammate Gavin (
Junebug
's Alessandro Nivola); Marcel Iures, Stephen Dillane and Anna Friel costar, with cameos aplenty.
UA North, PG, 118 min.
Hoot
Sadly bland, this family flick, though 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. But why assume that kids are any less observant or will find caricatures any less tedious than adults? Instead the script's just OK, when it could have been slyly intelligent. Jimmy Buffett provides the tunes, which either makes or breaks 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), while the film as a whole benefits from regular appearances from proto-squirrel Scrat, ever scrabbling after his elusive acorn-the most amusing thing in the movie, which only occasionally takes off into choreographed flights of glee.
UA South, PG, 90 min.
Just My Luck
Say what you like about Lindsay Lohan, she became a bankable lead after a trio of tweener films which even crabby old white-guy critics liked:
Freaky Friday
,
Mean Girls
and
The Parent Trap
. Yet the ersatz teen's still too young to carry a film as an adult lead. It's yet another swapping-identities plot, but 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-and Jake's about as lucky as a frat boy at an Emily's List campaign fundraiser. If only they'd left it at that….
DreamCatcher, UA South, PG-13, 103 min.
Mission: Impossible III
Lost
director JJ Abrams does everything in his power to keep you from remembering that it's the Sofa-Leaper Himself playing Ethan Hunt-from
M:I-3
's nerve-wracking opening sequence in which a bound and bruised Hunt negotiates frantically with gun-wielding villain Philip Seymour Hoffman. Alas, Abrams also wants us to see Ethan's "sensitive side," so he makes other choices like…cutting from this sequence straight to an engagement party for Ethan and his bride Julia (Michelle Monaghan). Fortunately, Hunt's summoned out of his mushy love-nest retirement to bring down Hoffman, an elegant doer of international evil deeds, in the course of which there are helicopters to blow up, buildings off which to base-jump, a crack team of IMF experts to assemble (Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Maggie Q) and contrived plot lines to pursue.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA North, PG-13, 126 min.
Poseidon
See
.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA North, PG-13, 99 min.
The Promise
Wuxia gets 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); alas, the princess 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.
DreamCatcher, UA North, PG, 99 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 South, 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, charming and guileless. 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 one of the most difficult films you ever sit through. It's not just that writer-director Paul Greengrass (
The Bourne Supremacy
) has the disaster-movie formula
nailed
. Nor is it the way the script lets events unfold 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 that day has been wrested out of the mouths of politicians and placed squarely back in human reality, while at the same time 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.
