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. Note: Movies and showtimes for Friday, July 7 through Tuesday, July 11 are unavailable in many cases due to the 4th of July holiday in combination with SFR's Monday press deadline.
Designates items highlighted in this week's issue.
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OPENS FRIDAY
The Fallen Idol
This 1948 "exquisitely plotted murder mystery" (Time Out New York) was adapted by Graham Greene himself from his eponymous short story. Carol Reed (
The Third Man
) directed, and won the Best Director award from the New York Film Critics Circle.
CCA, NR, 90 min. UA South PG-13, 145 min
.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
(See
.)
UA DeVargas, UA North, PG-13, 145 min.
SHORT RUNS
Gay Games
Greg Louganis narrates this "jock doc" featuring athletes Martina Navratilova, David Kopay, Billy Bean and Bruce Hayes, author Armistead Maupin and Ambassador James Hormel. The brainchild of Tom Wadell (an Olympic athlete in Mexico City in 1968), the Gay Games were originally called The Gay Olympics, until the Olympic Committee sued. Apparently, Special Olympics are okay, but gay athletes are perhaps just a bit too special. At any rate, the documentary looks at the history of the Gay Games, tracing the growth of this event into one of the largest adult sporting events in the world.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 97 min.
High Ambitions in the Himalayas
This documentary chronicles the ascent of the 27,000-foot peak Cho Oyu by filmmaker Curt Dowdy and Australian climber John Taske, who was part of the disastrous 1996 Everest expedition of Jon Krakauer's
Into Thin Air
. Intimate and personal, the film examines the journey of each climber as they encounter adversity and hardship on the way to the summit. Accompanying the film are two other shorts:
Nettles Stung Red
and
Islamic Journey
, both directed by women, about a nettle cultivator, and an autobiographical account of an American Jewish woman traveling in Islamic nations. On Friday and Saturday night, filmmakers from all three films will be appearing at the Santa Fe Film Center for discussion.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 75 min.
Loose Change: Second Edition
Terran Lovewave, host of KSFR's Camp Lovewave radio show, and Marty Rosenberg, board chairman of the Santa Fe Film Festival, host a screening of this documentary with proceeds benefitting Warehouse 21 and Kitchen Angels. Press materials are highly suggestive of the subject matter: "The question for all of us to ask ourselves is how did American Airlines Flight 77 with a 124 foot wing span and a 44 foot tall tail stabilizer fit into the 16 foot diameter hole in the Pentagon as stated by the government?" That's a long question, and we'd be willing to bet there's a short answer provided at this screening. A discussion follows each showing: Look for men in black planted in the audience, posing as maté drinkin', unshaven, wild-eyed vegan holy men.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 60 min.
Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School
Strange how times have changed for Robert Carlyle, ever since his turn as psychotic Begbie in
Trainspotting
; the roles he's landed since then have tended much more toward the sweet side, if still often darkly funny: the alcoholic dad in
Angela's Ashes
, a romantic lead in
Carla's Song
and
The Full Monty
-and of course quirky Beeb detective
Hamish Macbeth
. Carlyle continues with the pure evaporated cane sugar, so far rarely redolent of sucralose, as a man broken-hearted by the death of his wife. A chance encounter with John Goodman leads him circuitously to the school of the title (overseen by Mary Steenburgen)-and to a fresh start, his transformation attended by fellow dance and charm students Marisa Tomei, Donnie Wahlberg and Sean Astin (don't you lose him, Samwise Gamgee!).
The Screen, PG-13, 103 min.
The Seeker
Evan Somers, struggling screenwriter, former teacher and 45-year-old dreamer, sets off on a motorcycle road trip to find himself. This ain't no Robert Pirsig journey, however: Somers is a quadriplegic, seeking answers from the medical establishment on the hope of a cure for spinal cord injuries. Along the way, Somers encounters Christopher Reeve and ends up at the annual motorcycle-fest in Sturgis, SD, riding a specially modified hog and where he is warmly welcomed as a hero.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 91 min.
Sisters in Law
Beatrice Ntuba makes a special appearance all the way from Cameroon for the screening of this documentary, hailed by the Telluride Film Festival as "the best documentary of all time." Ntuba is (along with sister-in-law Vera Ngassa) a judge in a small town domestic court, and the film captures the two tough-minded women as they establish a radical new gender-neutral justice. Winner of the Prix de Essai in Cannes, 2005, the film reveals women's struggle for legal protection without preaching, but with warmth and humor.
CCA, NR, 90 min.
NOW SHOWING
An Inconvenient Truth
Al Gore in all of his earnest glory, post-Presidential hopes, touring the country and exhorting anyone who will listen to take global warming seriously. Gore's screen persona turns out to be "disarming, funny and animated," according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, and that goes a long way toward sustaining the hour-and-a-half litany of urgency and unfolding environmental catastrophe.
UA DeVargas, PG, 95 min.
The Break-Up
Vince Vaughn is funny. Sure, it's in that chauvinistic, frat-boy kind of way, but he manages to make that role, which he's played time and again, both lovable and fairly inoffensive. Despite a script that plays up many rom-com clichés, Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston make the audience genuinely care and dismisses those, "really, she went from Brad Pitt to this frumpy guy?" thoughts. The two work well together, trading insults and injury in a movie that will be forgotten in a few months, but still a great movie for a make-up date with your honey. (Patricia Sauthoff)
UA South, PG-13, 106 min.
Cars
Pixar strikes again with this animated feature garnering generally positive reviews. Voice work by Owen Wilson, Paul Newman and Bonnie Hunt has heightened the buzz. The LA Times, joining a chorus of applause, raves "what's surprising about this supremely engaging film is the source of its curb appeal: It has heart."
Dreamcatcher, UA DeVargas, UA South, G, 116 min.
Click
Adam Sandler headlines as Michael Newman, a workaholic architect/family man who wishes for a "universal remote" to make his hectic life easier. Enter Christopher Walken, a mad-scientist employee of Bed, Bath and Beyond who supplies Michael with a remote control that does everything from fast-forwarding through marital strife to putting the whole world on pause. While initially the answer to his prayers, the universal remote situation gets a bit out of hand, as Michael realizes that, in spite of being able to freeze frame a passing jogger's sports bra, he's also missing the best parts of life. For Sandler devotees, this film reunites the actor with his
Waterboy
and
Wedding Singer
director Frank Coraci. With Kate Beckinsale as Michael's suburban housewife.
Dreamcatcher, UA DeVargas, UA North, PG-13, 97 min.
The Da Vinci Code
Tom Hanks stars as Harvard "symbologist" Robert Langdon in this fairly entertaining adaptation of Dan Brown's not in the least entertaining novel. Naturally, during a Paris booksigning, Langdon's asked by the gendarmerie to assist with a murder case. Enter cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), the victim's granddaughter. All this abruptly leads to a clandestine midnight tour of the Louvre and Langdon's and Neveu's flight from Paris; frantically intercut scenes suggest that the Catholic order Opus Dei are tasking a monastic albino hitman Silas (Paul Bettany), who murders his way across France. While much of what's amusing may be unintentionally so (including the dialogue: "I have to get to a library-fast!"), director Ron Howard keeps things moving quickly enough so that you can't really dwell on the idiocies.
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 149 min.
The Devil Wears Prada
Anna Hathaway reprises her
Princess Diaries
ugly duckling persona in this film, based on the book of the same name, which chronicles the experiences of an assistant to the former editor of Vogue. Meryl Streep co-stars as the devil herself, Miranda Priestly, the editor of the fictional magazine Runway. Directed by David Frankel, who moonlighted as a director for the popular HBO series
Sex and the City
, this film is a glamorous look inside the New York fashion scene, which most of us are too dowdy to even dream about entering-a glimpse that is resplendent with sexy clothes and peppy music montages. With Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA North PG-13, 106 min.
District B-13
Luc Besson helped to pen the screenplay for this French action sci-fi comedy directed by Pierre Morel. Set in the Paris ghettos of 2010, a cop and an ex-thug try to defuse a neutron bomb (see
).
The Screen, R, 85 min.
Down in the Valley
This quirky character-driven indie starts off with charm but takes the plunge into heavy-handed symbolism, overly focused on "The Myth of the West." Elegantly shot by cinematographer Enrique Chediak, the film is a looker. But it takes itself altogether too seriously, even when dealing in giggle-eliciting cliches. With Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood and Bruce Dern. Written and directed by David Jacobsen.
CCA, R, 125 min.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
The third
Fast and the Furious
installment, this
outing illuminates the little-known world of underground Tokyo drift racing. With none of the original cast and a new director,
Justin Lin
(
Better Luck Tomorrow
), Tokyo Drift features fast cars, scantily clad girls, new rivalries and the neon glow of Tokyo at night. Lucas Black stars as the troubled Shaun Boswell, who travels across the Pacific to avoid a jail sentence. With Bow Wow, Nathalie Kelley and Brian Tee.
Dreamcatcher, UA South, PG-13, 90 min.
Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties
Critical acclaim must not do it for Bill Murray. On the heels of the highly lauded
Lost in Translation
, and more recently,
Broken Flowers
, Murray follows up with
Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties
, reprising his role as the voice of the computer-generated overweight feline himself. Director Tim Hill (who brought us 1999's endearing
Muppets From Space
) is new to the series, in which Garfield, canine pal Odie and owner Jon hop across the pond to England, where they battle evil Lord Dargis (Billy Connolly), who wants to turn a historic castle into a resort. Ironically enough, the message of this film seems to be: Resist
commodification and commercialization. With Breckin Meyer and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
UA North, PG, 80 min.
The Lake House
Speed
costars Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock reunite in this story of two lonely professionals, a doctor, Kate (Bullock) and an architect, Alex (Reeves), who fall in
love the old-fashioned way, through a courtship of letters. Based on the Korean film
Il Mare
, the twist here is that Kate and Alex are separated by time: Alex lives in a house in 2004 that Kate will inhabit in 2006. By exchanging daily letters through their shared mailbox, the two get to know one another, and eventually, realize their inconvenient separation. Meant to be a subtle drama with numerous references to "the light" and literal glass houses,
The Lake House
is shot on Chicago's North shore. As film reviewer James Berardinelli advises, "Don't think too hard-you'll spoil the mood." With Christopher Plummer as Alex's mad-genius architect father.
Dreamcatcher, UA North, PG, 85 min.
Nacho Libre
Napoleon Dynamite
writer-director Jared Hess is back, with this film about a cook at a Mexican orphanage, Ignacio (Jack Black), who spends his off hours as a
luche libre
wrestler called Nacho (think face masks, red tights) in order to earn extra cash for the kids. If
Napoleon
is any indication,
Nacho Libre
will leave us with quotable catch phrases and plastic Jack Black paraphernalia sold at gas stations well into next year. Nacho Libre is written by Mike White, the man behind
The Good Girl
and another Jack Black film,
School of Rock
. Expect lots of body slams and sweeping Oaxacan vistas.
Dreamcatcher, UA North, PG, 100 min.
Over the Hedge
Only black-sheep cousin DreamWorks, with its countercultural sense of humor, could get behind a story as subtly left-of-center as this one: RJ (Bruce Willis) is a fast-talking raccoon on the make, looking to score a large quantity of junk food so he can pay off an ursine leg-breaker (Nick Nolte). In the interest of saving his hide, he enlists an eclectic "family" of animals stymied by the new hedge enveloping their former forest home, now a tiny enclave of park surrounded by the identical tract-housing of suburbia. The family's cautious leader, turtle Vern (Garry Shandling), has returned from a preliminary investigation with horrific reports of the "freaking pink primates!" on the other side. RJ must convince the group that there's Oreos and Pringles to be had, and they'd better brave the 'burbs to store enough calories for the winter. Like many of cinema's con men, however, RJ finds himself wondering whether selling out his adorable new friends is worth it. And we take his point: Steve Carell as an overcaffeinated squirrel is particularly cute, whether stammering incoherently, "But I like a cookie!" or (in one priceless sequence) experiencing the world as slowed-down due to his own untrammeled velocity.
UA North, PG, 96 min.
A Prairie Home Companion
Robert Altman's newest, with a screenplay by Garrison Keillor, imagines what would happen if the small radio station producing "Prairie Home Companion" were purchased by a major media outlet. The film follows a fictional cast and crew as they prepare for their last broadcast. Features the usual Altman stellar cast including Kevin Kline, Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin.
The Screen, PG-13, 105 min.
Sketches of Frank Gehry
Most famous architects are lucky to be equally beloved and despised, largely due to the very public presence of their (whimsical? hideous?) creations. Frank Gehry is an exception: His designs are embraced (especially in Los Angeles) without uproar or outrage. Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa, Tootsie) takes a close look at Gehry and his creative process.
CCA, PG-13, 83 min.
Superman Returns
Overheard in Santa Fe: "I have yet to
see a positive review of that new Superman movie." "Yeah...but it's
Superman!" So it goes when our storytellers on the left coast bank on a franchise, nay, a veritable legend. But is whatshisname (ah yes, Brandon Routh) a worthy successor to Christopher Reeve, or even George Reeves for that matter? Will he be able to leap tall sequels in a single typecasting, career-deadening hurdle? Tune in next summer.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA South, PG, 157 min.
Waist Deep
The tag line for this film says it all: Bonnie and Clyde-On the Flip Side. In this modern day take on the concept of male-female bank-robbing duo, the streets of Los Angeles serve as the backdrop for gunfights, rappers moonlighting as actors, and lots of smoking rubber. Tyrese stars as O2, a bad guy gone good, who is forced back into crime when his son is kidnapped and he needs to come up with $100,000 in 24 hours. Seeing few other options, O2 enlists his girl Coco (Megan Wood) as a partner in crime, and together, the two take on banks and convenience stores in a race against the clock to save O2's son. With Shawn Parr, Henry Hunter Hall (as himself) and rapper The Game.
UA South, R, 97 min.
