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OPENS FRIDAY
16 Blocks
Mos Def's appearing in another movie this week; probably a better idea to join
Dave Chappelle's Block Party
than this Bruce Willis vehicle. Willis sports a moustache, one clue that this isn't a rip-off of Clint Eastwood's 1977
The Gauntlet
-though the setup is otherwise uncannily redolent. Washed-up alcoholic cop Jack (Willis) draws a suitably brainless assignment: transport an inmate to his court date; but a whole murder of crooked po-po has other, less law-abiding, plans.
DreamCatcher, UA North, PG-13, 102 min.
Aquamarine
As one indicator of a nation's economic success is the average number of years of education per woman, so perhaps we could measure our economic might by how many teenaged-girl films studios produce annually. Surprise-not that many, because even white girls don't have the discretionary income of the almighty dollars generated by the male 15-25 age bracket. Emma Roberts and JoJo play Claire and Hailey, two young ladies who come across the title character (Sara Paxton) in their club's swimming pool, splish splash, taking a bath-with a long finned tail, à la Daryl Hannah.
DreamCatcher, PG, 109 min.
Caché
Winner of a gazillion prizes and inexplicably not nominated by France for the Oscars, Michael Haneke's fiendishly intelligent, merciless, Hitchcockian
Caché
(
Hidden
) stars Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche at the height of their powers. Expect them to make off with most of the scenery as Georges and Anne, a blandly contented suburban couple whose lives are thrown into upheaval by the appearance of videotapes on their doorstep-tapes which make it clear they're being surveilled, and expertly at that.
Caché
grapples with ongoing French-Algerian racial and political tensions, but in an uncomfortably personal way.
Jean Cocteau, R, 117 min.
Edvard Munch
A spiffy new 35mm print of director Peter Watkins' 1976 made-for-television biopic-but don't let the "TV" word stop you, because film hasn't ever again succeeded in capturing the subjective experience of painting with such freaky, sharply visual accuracy. Watkins also wrote the film, which stars Geir Westby as the Norwegian expressionist and covers his life from 1884 to 1894, a decade during which Munch painted his infamous "The Scream."
The Screen, NR, 117 min.
Night Watch
Nochnoi Dozor
made an unprecedented amount of dough in its native Russia, though it remains to be seen whether its hallucinogenic, relentless CGI blend of fantasy, horror and Realpolitik will translate effectively onto American screens. Based on Sergei Lukyanenko's hugely popular trilogy of novels,
Night Watch
is the first installment in this sprawling saga of, what else, good versus evil; in the best gnostic tradition neither has the upper hand, with the Day Watch making sure evil behaves itself reasonably well and the Night Watch keeping similar tabs on good-until the precarious balance is threatened by a new arrival.
UA DeVargas, R, 114 min.
Transamerica
In another eagerly awaited and much delayed Oscar contender, Felicity Huffman stars as pre-op M2F tranny Bree, who, days before her scheduled final surgery, finds out that she has a son from her former life somewhere out there, and embarks on a cross-country journey to reunite with her teenaged son-a gay hustler working NYC.
UA DeVargas, R, 103 min.
Ultraviolet
Since the point of
Ultraviolet
is to be artistically violent, we can already see that it's got some serious pluses on its side. One: Milla Jovovich as Violet. She'll look great in latex, catwalk hair and murky blue bullet-time. Two: German director Kurt Wimmer, author of such glitzy baubles as the adaptation of Michael Crichton's
Sphere
. And last but not least: Hemophages, the sexy new name for vampires after future powers-that-be have genetically modified certain humans to be bionically puissant and "superior."
DreamCatcher, UA North, PG-13, 88 min.
SHORT RUNS
The African Effect
There are at least nine reasons to make sure you're standing outside CCA at 3 pm on Thursday, when the doors open on this year's festival of films highlighting Africa and its many and distinctive disasporic cultures:
The Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela
, an astonishing documentary about the exiled South Africans whose tireless efforts ultimately overturned apartheid; the absorbing experiment of
Boys of Baraka
, in which 20 tough inner-city Baltimorean lads enroll in a Kenyan boarding school;
Cape of Good Hope
, a complicated yet warm-hearted romantic comedy with an entirely African cast; the not-to-be-missed
Niiwam
, based on Ousmane Sembane's novel and presented by Samba Gadjigo (Sembane's biographer and also this year's guest curator);
Duma
, the magical South African love story of a cheetah cub and his boy; 1992's rediscovered Guinean rarity
The Golden Ball
; the epic achievement of
Live and Become
, inspired by 1984's exodus of Ethiopian Jews to the Sudan and Israel;
Shake Hands with the Devil
, a Sundance winner that ruthlessly revisits one UN general's helpless attempts to stand in the path of the Rwandan bloodshed; and
Sisters in Law
, an invigoratingly funny look at two Cameroon justices of the peace, both women, who've decided to begin handing down punishments to domestic offenders, despite pressures to let such crimes slide. The four-day-long festival's like a buffet table groaning with plenitude, and even if you choose a film or two at random, there's not a bad one in the bunch. No matter what, you're guaranteed a vibrant, powerful, hopeful yet realistic, harsh yet humorous experience.
CCA, various ratings and runtimes
After Innocence
A powerful and affecting documentary about the shattered lives of those convicted of crimes they did not commit,
After Innocence
both celebrates the exonerees' release from prison (thanks to newly available DNA evidence), and also follows the struggles of its seven innocent subjects as they take their first tentative steps back into society; Jessica Sanders' documentary exposes the glaring lack of support from a criminal justice system that wrongfully sentenced each of them for decades.
The Screen, NR, 95 min.
Aristide and the Endless Revolution
The Screen's series "Visions of the Real: Documentaries on the Cutting Edge" cuts where it hurts with Nicholas Rossier's no-holds-barred investigation of how Haiti's democratically elected leader could be removed from office-twice-right in the United States' back garden; featuring interviews with President Aristide himself, both Bush
and
Shrub, Noam Chomsky, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld and UN goodwill ambassador Danny Glover.
The Screen, NR, 84 min.
Crimen Ferpecto
Consummate salesman Rafael (Guillermo Toledo) manages Ladies' clothing-and the ladies-for a flossy department store. When his ambition to make floor manager lands Rafael in serious trouble, he's unexpectedly saved by homely Lourdes (Mónica Cervera). And don't think Lourdes won't seize the opportunity to do a little corporate climbing of her own. The script for
Ferpecto
gleams razor-edged, savage and laugh-out-loud funny. You can't really root for either misogynist Rafael or psychopathic Lourdes in their battle of wits; writer-director Álex de la Iglesias settles happily for amused, amoral panache, served up by whippet-smart actors.
The Screen, NR, 105 min.
Days
Fabulous Thursday gets serious about living with HIV this week with Italy's 2001
Giorni
, starring Thomas Trabacchi, Riccardo Salerno and Davide Bechini as Claudio, Andrea and Dario, a triangle of lovers whose affairs are complicated by the fact that Claudio's HIV-positive, his longterm relationship with Dario has lapsed into bed death-and handsome young Andrea doesn't seem to be concerned about safe sex.
Santa Fe Film Center, 90 min.
The Hunter
Sergei Aprimov's 2004
Okhotnik
was a surprise smash at the Santa Fe Film Festival, returning to give viewers another look at life in the director's native Kazakhstan. Gape-worthy cinematography combined with the skillful use of non-actors brings us right into the Kazakh culture, especially their close relationships with horses-a mutually beneficial coevolution.
The Screen, NR, 93 min.
Ice Age
Subtler, less ambitious and ever so much cooler than its relatives
Shrek
and
Toy Story
, Chris Wedge's and Carlos Saldanha's animated pearl will have its anticipated sequel this summer. Until then, refresh your memory: The unlikely troika of a sabertooth tiger (Denis Leary), a sloth (John Leguizamo) and a woolly mammoth (Ray Romano) find a human baby and try to return him to his bipedal, toolmaking kind.
Santa Fe Film Center, PG, 81 min.
One: The Movie
It's hard even to say what exactly this documentary's about because, hey, what the bleep do we know. We do know that the documentary was filmed by a group of suburban dads; that all manner of people from all faiths-including a gaggle of spiritual luminaries such as Deepak Chopra, Ram Dass, Thich Nhat Hahn, Riane Eisler, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Father Thomas Keating, Robert Thurman and His Holiness the Dalai Lama-are asked for their answers to 20 of life's biggest questions and in the process discuss the common beliefs of spirituality through human history; and that, allegedly, "it's more than a film, it's an experience."
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 79 min.
Paradise Now
Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman) are two average Palestinian guys, kind of the Wayne and Garth of Nablus. They can't get work visas for Israeli-occupied areas with better jobs so, like most ghettoized young men, they wind up turning to the underworld for reassurance and financing-whether through dealing drugs or, in this case, death. They've been chosen for a retaliatory suicide mission; but in the meantime, Said has fallen for Suha (Lubna Azabal), beautiful, educated and vehemently opposed to the resistance's violent tactics. The tension thusly generated-will Said and Khaled go through with it?-fairly blisters the screen until the last frame. With his film's beautifully problematized dialectic, Hany Abu-Assad brings us unflinchingly into the daily lives of average-Joe martyrs.
CCA, PG-13, 90 min.
Rick's Canoe
We only wish there were more column inches to cover one of the quirkiest, most refreshingly homegrown film events of an otherwise dreary late winter: Shot on location in Santa Fe, Rick's Canoe came together in a matter of days thanks to heroic efforts on the part of local filmmakers and actors Rick Schmidt, Stephen "Jules" Rubin, Jonathan Grossman, Jonathan Skurnik, John Reed and Barry Norman, with a special appearance by Val DeVargas (
The Magnificent Seven
). Rick (Norman) is your average Santa Fe guy: He's 48, unemployed, has no girlfriend and his camper's just been stolen, along with everything in it. Can he and best friend Jules (Rubin) find meaning-and possibly love-in a men's group led by Santa Flaky therapist Deirdre (Deirdre Parness)?
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 86 min.
NOW SHOWING
Big Momma's House 2
Martin Lawrence reprises his role-and costume-as Malcolm Turner, an FBI agent who must disguise himself as a large, older African-American woman in order to protect a federal witness. Inspired by the premise that large, older African-American women are inherently funny, Lawrence must know different women than we do…and in fact, the gags are most successful when Momma takes wide-eyed, innocent relish in smacking around stupid crooked white guys, of whom, in art as in life, there seldom seems to be any shortage.
DreamCatcher, UA South, PG-13, 99 min.
Brokeback Mountain
Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (adapting Annie Proulx's story) have actually succeeded in making something new under Hollywood's world-weary sun. Add the lyrical direction of Ang Lee and you get an old-fashioned big-screen romance which happens to be between two men. Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis (Heath Ledger, recalling Brando or Dean) meet one summer when they pair up to herd sheep in Montana. Eventually, the agonizing repercussions of one's fearful renunciation of the other reverberate through the remainder of the film, a tragic denial of self.
UA DeVargas, R, 134 min.
Capote
Philip Seymour Hoffman has found the role of his career as the New Yorker author, who persuades his editor to let him write about a gruesome murder case. Truman heads for the dark interior of the Midwest with friend Harper Lee (Catherine Keener), where he began researching what was to become
In Cold Blood
. Director Bennett Miller, writer Dan Futterman and Hoffman don't seek to whitewash Capote's self-serving; the result is an uncannily accomplished character assassination turned ode to its gifted, ambiguous subject.
UA DeVargas, R, 98 min.
Curious George
Perfect for the very small, this Ron Howard-produced animated version of the inquisitive little primate stars Will Ferrell as the Man in the Yellow Hat and also features the vocal talents of Drew Barrymore, David Cross, Eugene Levy and Dick Van Dyke.
DreamCatcher, UA South, G, 82 min.
Date Movie
This alleged rom-com parody almost has to be seen to be believed-though not if you're ever hoping to see your date again.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
's Alyson Hannigan stars as Julia, a romantic at heart who meets the British man of her dreams (Adam Campbell as Grant Fonckyerdoder)-but there are obstacles to their blissful union, not least perhaps that their film will surely close in a matter of days.
UA North, PG-13, 80 min.
Eight Below
Those of us addicted to the Reader's Digest "Drama in Real Life" feature and who watched all 5,000 hours of
Shackleton
will find this Disney tale of a team of sled dogs who must be left behind in the Antarctic riveting, if only because it's true. When weather conditions force researchers Paul Walker, Bruce Greenwood and Jason Biggs to go home poochless, the dogs survive for more than six months-and they don't have to eat Chilean football players to do it. Parents beware: You yourselves may not be old enough to handle the scary leopard-seal attack.
UA South, PG, 112 min.
Final Destination III
A high-school senior (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has a premonition of her violent death aboard a roller-coaster; thusly warned, she saves herself and her friends from certain doom. Having once escaped the Grim Reaper, the teens embark on a campaign to continue evading him. James Wong wrote and directed, as he did the first
Final Destination
.
DreamCatcher, R, 115 min.
Firewall
Harrison Ford, determined to prove to God, Calista and everyone that's he's still got it, leaps and rolls and punches guys and then does clever things with iPods in this otherwise tired, even depressingly so, action flick. Bank security specialist Jack Stanfield finds his kids have been napped and held hostage until he agrees to rob his client and set himself up for embezzlement. If you think he's going to put up with that…you're obviously not ready for
Indiana Jones IV
. Firewall costars Paul Bettany (
Master and Commander
) as the prototypical sneering British-accented villain.
UA North, PG-13, 105 min.
Freedomland
One of those films that ought to have been much better than it actually is,
Freedomland
's blessed with Julianne Moore as an unbalanced young mother whose report of a carjacking and inadvertent kidnapping brings a racially divided community to the brink of riot, which doesn't really help already-frustrated and high-strung detective Samuel L Jackson in finding her son.
UA North, R, 113 min.
Madea's Family Reunion
Writer-director Tyler Perry ought to be a very happy playwright. He's successfully turned his stage performance as the formidable Mable "Madea" Simmons into last year's breakout success
Diary of a Mad Black Woman
-and it was such a surprise hit that within the first record-breaking week of its release, Lions Gate finagled a seven-picture deal for the remainder of his plays. Perry reprises his title character, but unfortunately, the joke's not nearly as funny this time around.
DreamCatcher, UA South, PG-13, 107 min.
The Matador
Pierce Brosnan's earned every bit of the praise he's been garnering for tackling the role of Julian, an unsavory hitman who befriends down-on-his-luck salesman Danny (Greg Kinnear) in Mexico during an inebriated evening of hotel-bar confidences. Flash-forward a few months: Julian's flubbed a couple of jobs and now the hit's out on him. Writer-director Richard Shepard's deft touch lets the story teeter on the edge of contrast between Julian's seedy quotidian existence and the cosiness of Danny's homelife. A black comedy well worth the price of admission.
DreamCatcher, R, 96 min.
Match Point
You can't really say Woody Allen's made a comeback with his latest foray, which ventures not only out of Manhattan into London, but also away from his well-worn genre turf into the arena of the romantic thriller. At his service is a hungry young cast: Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer and Matthew Goode, none of whom even remotely resembles Woody Allen.
Jean Cocteau, R, 124 min.
Mrs. Henderson Presents
Dame Judi scores yet another Best Actress nomination with this story of the enterprising society woman who founded the historic Windmill Theater. Thinking way outside the box, the savvy Mrs. H lured London audiences away from moving pictures and back into music halls via a clever loophole in the civic code: Nude women were allowed to appear on stage as long as they didn't move.
UA DeVargas, R, 103 min.
The Pink Panther
Fierce loyalty to Peter Sellars makes it hard to understand why anyone would even try to add to the genius of Clouseau; and as it turns out, Steve Martin (who co-wrote) and Kevin Klein are not the guys to do it-though who could have done justice to Sellars' flawless embodiment of the worst investigator in all of France, or Herbert Lom's bubbling insanity as Chief Inspector Dreyfus.
DreamCatcher, UA South, PG, 92 min.
Running Scared
Good old-fashioned organized crime, violence, profanity and corruption, served up slapdash by writer-director Wayne Kramer (
Mindhunters
) and given a slight edge by positioning Paul Walker (
Into the Blue
, assorted
Fasts and Furious
es) as a worthy inheritor to the tradition (which, sadly, he isn't). Chazz Palminteri tries to prop up the raving mess as a dirty cop who's all over Joey Gazelle (Walker), a low-level mob flunkie whose job it is to dispose of recently employed firearms-and Joey's not particularly good at his job.
UA South, R, 122 min.
Something New
Well, it's certainly not (new), but it's bland enough entertainment as long as you can overlook the clunky camerawork, ham-fisted editing and some of the most painful dialogue ever encountered. Kenya (Sanaa Lathan) is uptight, rich and black; Brian (Simon Baker) is laid-back, working-class and white and thus we're supposed to conclude that it's biracial issues which make it so tough for them to be together.
UA South, PG-13, 100 min.
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Texan boy Tommy Lee Jones keeps it close to home with this yarn of a murdered illegal, his employer and a racist border cop. The end result, scripted by
21 Grams
author Guillermo Arriaga, plays like everyone involved also read most of Cormac McCarthy, Joseph Conrad and a big dollop of Chekhov. Jones'
Melquiades
is dilapidated and tired and beautiful, the same as the elusive border between Mexico and Texas so beloved by John Sayles.
UA DeVargas, R, 121 min.
When a Stranger Calls
By far the most entertaining thing about this remake of the already-silly 1979 thriller are the conversations you can have with the film's heroine when you add "Jill020306" to your AIM buddy list. Poor old Jill's not the sharpest knife in the drawer; her vocabulary seems confined to "he can c me…what do u think I should do?"
UA North, PG-13, 83 min.
The White Countess
Natasha Richardson wrings the script dry as the noble title character, a post-Revolution Russian aristocrat stuck in 1930s Shanghai with her dispossessed family, for whom she works tirelessly as a taxi dancer-at least until she meets Ralph Fiennes, a blind US businessman (and former delegate to Versailles) who hires her to hostess his own nightspot, named for her. The entire Merchant-Ivory concoction has that "nervous splendor" feeling to it, as the platonic lovers' world threatens to come down around their ears, quite literally.
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 138 min.
The World's Fastest Indian
Disarming-that's probably the best word to describe the hugely enjoyable story of New Zealander Burt Munro who, at the age of 68 and with barely enough money for bootlaces, set the world's landspeed record not once but umpteen times running. The title's reference is to the cherry-red 1920 Indian Scout that retiree Munro (Anthony Hopkins) rebuilt from the ground up until it was capable of tooling along in the neighborhood of 201 mph. It may be one of Sir Anthony's best performances-pulling off a seemingly effortless embodiment of the ordinary-while proving conclusively that a real man can fix anything, as long as he has enough duct tape.
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 127 min.
