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
Brick
See
.
CCA, R, 110 min.
Clerks II
In 1994, director Kevin Smith made
Clerks
, the now cult classic, shot in low-budget black-and-white, about the
misadventures of convenience store workers. Fast-forward more than 10 years, add an indie-darling (Rosario Dawson) and former MTV personality (Jenny McCarthy), shoot in color, and you've got
Clerks II
. The old store has burnt down, and its employees Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) are forced to go find work in the fast-food industry. This time around, instead of soliloquies about
The Empire Strikes Back
, expect jokes about
The Lord of the Rings
. And of course, Smith favorites Jay and Silent Bob make a nipple-twisting/gross-out-joke appearance.
UA South, R, 97 min.
Lady in the Water
The always fantastic and understated Paul Giamatti and Ron's also red-headed daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard, star in this film about the underworld creeping into planet Earth through an apartment complex. Superintendent Cleveland Heep (Giamatti) leads a fairly banal existence until he discovers an eerie and unusual creature from the deep (Howard) inhabiting the deep end of his pool. Written and directed by M Night Shyamalan (
The Sixth Sense
,
The Village
), this tale originated as a bedtime
story for his two daughters before becoming slightly more sinister for its screen adaptation.
Dreamcatcher, UA South, PG-13, 110 min.
Monster House
Steve Buscemi and Maggie Gyllenhall lend their vocal talents to this story about kids from next door who take on a different sort of haunted house. This one gobbles things up from the street, eating even cop cars alive. It also grumbles, groans and moves at will. When mom and dad go out of town, three neighborhood kids (including an ambitious Girl Scout) take on the house with the usual daring-do supplies: flashlights and bed-sheet capes.
Dreamcatcher, UA North, PG, 91 min.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Uma Thurman kicks some serious ass (again) as Jenny, a clingy, neurotic, insecure ex-girlfriend who just happens to have super powers. Part romantic comedy and part action flick,
Ex-Girlfriend
starts predictably enough with the usual jealous-girl jokes, then takes a turn for the bizarre when Jenny drops her ex-boyfriend's (Luke Wilson) car in the middle of the road, and attacks him with a great white shark in his apartment. Brought to you by Ivan Reitman, who directed the Luke Wilson picture
Old School
, as well as classics like
Ghostbusters
and
Kindergarten Cop
.
Dreamcatcher, PG-13, 95 min.
SHORT RUNS
Beyond Organic and My Father's Garden
A double-feature sponsored by The Santa Fe Farmer's Market, both of these movies focus on the effects of chemical farming versus organic food production.
My Father's Garden
is a comparison between two farmers, one of whom (the filmmaker's father) began using pesticides in the '50s and another who refuses to use chemicals, even in the GMO age of farming.
Beyond Organic
, narrated by Meryl Streep, tells of the struggle of a community farm in Santa Barbara that prevailed against financial odds. Both films are strong advocates of organic farming and local foods, which can be found every Tuesday and Saturday at our community farmer's market.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 56 min., 33 min.
Kids First! Film Club: Clifford the Big Red Dog: Growing Up with Clifford
For those unfamiliar with Clifford, his title is pretty self-explanatory: He's a big (and big means as big as a house) fire-engine-red dog belonging to a little girl named Emily Elizabeth. This showing is a collection of eight stories united under the themes of growing up and taking on new responsibilities. Kids under 14 (who don't have too many responsibilities themselves yet) are free with a paying adult.
Santa Fe Film Center, G, 90 min.
Mother Theresa
This biopic portrays the life of visionary, Nobel Peace Prize winner and human being extraordinaire Mother Theresa. A focus on the power of love emphasizes the ways in which Mother Theresa was unique, particularly her willingness to believe that anything is possible. From everyday miracles to diplomatic negotiations, this film illuminates Mother Theresa's incredible perseverance. With Golden Globe winner Olivia Hussey in the title role.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 90 min.
Opera Night: Forbidden Planet
This kitschy 1950s sci-fi classic is loosely based on the Shakespeare play
The Tempest
, (just in time for Thomas Adés' American premiere at The Santa Fe Opera of his own version) in which magician Prospero and his beautiful daughter Miranda inhabit a godforsaken island as exiles. Shakespeare's character of Ariel, the spirit, is in this incarnation a robot, and there are lots of flying-saucer-across-the-moon shots, as were popular in the era.
Forbidden Planet
has been hailed as a precursor to iconic sci-fi standbys
Star Trek
and
Star Wars
, and even more "intellectual" films like
2001: A Space Odyssey
.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 98 min.
Loose Change: Second Edition
"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.
Love and Suicide
The first entirely US-shot feature to be made in Cuba since 1959,
Love
is the story of Tomas (Kamar de los Reyes), a drifter who travels to the country to find the difference between love and suicide. Along the way he meets fellow wanderer and hippie Nina (Daisy McCrackin) and taxi driver Alberto (Luis Moro), who help Tomas to rediscover the simpler things in life, and return to a slower, more peaceful pace. Directed by Lisa France, the nominee of two Independent Spirit awards for her film
Anne B. Real
,
Love & Suicide
offers a rare glimpse of a Cuba largely unknown to Americans.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 90 min.
Summer in the Dark: Film Noir Festival
This long-standing Santa Fe tradition has found a new home at The Screen and this year features 14 films focusing on mystery, murder and gorgeous girls. For more detailed film-by-film information visit
.
The Screen, various ratings and runtimes
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.
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 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 North, PG-13, 97 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.
Prada
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, 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. Plot takes a back seat to some of the best stunt work around, with actors flying (without the use of strings or CGI) over Parisian rooftops.
The Screen, R, 85 min.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
The third
Fast and the Furious
installment 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.
UA South, PG-13, 90 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.
UA South, PG, 85 min.
Little Man
The boys who brought you 2004's
White Chicks
, the Wayans Brothers, are back with this film about an escaped criminal, Calvin (Marlon Wayans), who is able to pose as an orphaned baby because of his short stature. Finding refuge with a childless suburban couple, Marlon struggles to convincingly pose as a toddler. Expect lots of little-person jokes and bathroom humor. Quite literally, in fact: One critical scene revolves around Marlon trying to avoid taking a bath with his new foster father. With Shawn Wayans and Kerry Washington.
Dreamcatcher, UA South PG-13, 90 min.
The Lost City
The Lost City
is mired with one-dimensional characters and a storyline that slogs along like a humid island afternoon. Garcia plays Fico Fellove, the proprietor of El Tropico, a top Havana nightclub in the days before the revolution. Unlike his two brothers (Enrique Murciano, Nestor Carbonell), who are both active participants in the growing revolutionary movement, Fico calls to mind
Casablanca
's Rick, whose nightspot aimed to be a late-night DMZ where the politics of the day gave way to the blur of the night. Overlong by a good half-hour to 45 minutes,
The Lost City
gets sidetracked with a fruitless love story and Fico's indecision about what to do once his nightclub is removed from his ownership. The movie is as languid as its tropical setting, and even Dustin Hoffman's brief turn as the gangster Meyer Lansky doesn't usher in a fresh breeze.
CCA, R, 143 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.
Nacho Libre
is written by Mike White, the man behind
The Good Girl
and another Jack Black film,
School of Rock
. Filled to the brim with lots of body slams and sweeping Oaxacan vistas.
UA North, PG, 100 min.
Peaceful Warrior
At least there's Nick Nolte, who hovers over this whole production like some sapient force of nature. It's mostly hoo-hah, sure, but there are moments in this New-Agey, feel-semigood crowd-pleaser that rise above and beyond the ropes, rings and willfully calm psychobabble of men's gymnastics.
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 120 min.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Johnny Depp fully inhabits his seagoing spin on Keith Richards, wrapping his lips around florid syllables or turning drunken stumbles into something approaching graceful pirouettes. Screenwriters Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio try to give the character some tension between his cowardly nature and a sense of loyalty, but they know well enough not to mess too much with what worked the first time. Once
Dead Man's Chest
gets started, it rolls along with all the energy a summer movie should aspire to.
Dreamcatcher, UA DeVargas, UA North, PG-13, 145 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.
A Scanner Darkly
Like 2001's
Waking Life
, director Richard Linklater employs interpolated rotoscoping, an advanced animation technique which looks like painting over the filmed frames. The effect is aesthetically pleasing if somewhat disorienting. Based on the book by Philip K Dick, the film explores a futuristic Orange County and an America in which the drug war has failed.
Scanner
presents themes such as paranoia, hallucinations, what we think we know, and, of course, postmodern angst. With Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey, Jr. and Woody Harrelson (see
).
UA DeVargas, R, 100 min
Sketches of Frank Gehry
Some buildings are stark, square and tall, others look like aliens dropped them onto the landscape at some unknown point in history but manage to stand out and fit in simultaneously. Frank Gehry's buildings are the latter. From his line drawings, which in no way resemble anything but scribbles, to models of paper and clay of different scales, he's made a name a living creating some of the most bizarre places on the planet. Director Sidney Pollack follows Gehry through his process and into a few of these structures with the eye of an admirer, offering only a touch of criticism, in a documentary filled with personality, art and unusual shapes. (Patricia Sauthoff)
CCA, PG-13, 83 min.
Superman Returns
Superman Returns
to earth, after a five-year hiatus, just in time to keep Lex Luthor from taking over the world. Aside from Lois Lane writing the Pulitzer Prize winning "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman," nothing much seems to have happened during his extended vacation. But he's back and he's got a world to carry on his shoulders. While
Superman Returns
is the fun, brainless Hollywood movie that should be expected, it tries to be symbolic, by using the symbolism of Atlas and Christ in the most literal ways possible, so as not to be missed by anyone. It's the kind of movie that you were already going to see or not. If you do, you'll enjoy it, if you don't, you won't miss a thing. (Patricia Sauthoff)
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA South, PG, 157 min.
You, Me and Dupree
Owen Wilson, Kate Hudson and Matt Dillon star as an unlikely trio living together in the suburbs. When Molly (Hudson) and Carl (Dillon) return from their honeymoon, they find that Carl's best friend since forever, Dupree (Wilson), wants to move in with them for a few days, as he's without a place to live. The couple complies, and antics ensue. Wilson relies on slapstick and physical comedy in his familiar role, Hudson pulls out her dimples and plays adorable and Dillon's Carl is trying desperately to be a grownup.
Dreamcatcher, UA North, PG-13, 108 min.
