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. Please call theater for times.
Designates items highlighted in this week's issue.
Click here for movie theaters and showtimes
|
|
Casino Royale
A new Bond for a new day, as they say, and this 007 takes the cake. He's still buff but also blond and not 100 percent misogynistic (what's a purist to do?). Daniel Craig brings to life an up-and-coming Bond on his first serious mission for MI6, British Secret Intelligence. What will be the challenge through which the budding agent proves his worth? Surprise: drinking martinis and winning a casino tournament to keep money away from terrorists. Not a bad way to start your career, and the adorable Bond is certainly up to the challenge.
Dreamcatcher, UA South, PG-13, 144 min.
Fast Food Nation
An ensemble cast containing everyone from Kris Kristofferson to Wilmer Valderrama brings to life Eric Schlosser's bestselling book about the horrific truths behind the fast food industry. From migrant farm workers to fat cat industry execs, the characters explored by
Fast Food Nation
smartly reveal how our country has grown so crooked and so obese at the same time.
UA DeVargas, R, 114 min.
Happy Feet
If you've seen
March of the Penguins
, you know that those arctic birds attract their mates through song, but what if you can't sing? Elijah Wood lends his voice to the character Mumble, a frolicking penguin who can't carry a tune but can sure cut up an icy dance floor.
Dreamcatcher, UA North, PG, 87 min.
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
A fisherman takes a train to Tokyo to see his ailing son, but his son refuses to speak with him. In a moving gesture, his father travels to China to convince a famous opera singer to sing a song for the his dying son.
Riding Alone
features lovely cinematography and moving performances.
CCA, PG, 107 min.
The Rules of the Game
Jean Renoir's 1939 masterpiece looks at the tangled love affairs of the French upper class at the beginning of WWII. Upon its initial release,
La Règle du jeu
was ill received and banned, first by the French, then by the Nazi regime. The reels were burned and what remains is, according to Renoir, only missing a single scene.
The Screen, NR, 106 min.
13 (Tzameti)
Writer/director Géla Babluani's second offering,
13 (Tzameti)
, follows the unwitting Sébastien as he decides to take on the role meant for another, ending up in an adventure where lives are gambled for fun.
The Screen, NR, 86 min.
American Blackout
Now that the champagne from voting day is going flat,
American Blackout
follows Georgia Democratic representative Cynthia McKinney as she exposes the corruption in the voting systems during the 2000 and 2004 elections. In an out-of-the-ordinary twist, the politician is actually more focused on the issue than herself, and she is painted in both good and bad lights.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 92 min.
Black Gold
While enjoying your latte this morning, it might interest you to know that the $80 billion coffee industry is second only to oil as the world's most valuable trading commodity. While large international companies prosper, coffee farmers struggle just to hold on to their land.
Black Gold
documents Tadesse Meskela as he fights for fair trade prices for the more than 75,000 Ethiopian coffee farmers he represents.
The Screen, NR, 78 min.
CircleSpeak: A Journey Into the Heart of Crop Circle Country
This insightful documentary features in-depth interviews with experts and (for the first time) people who live near the phenomenon crop circles. If you loved
Stairway to Heaven
, you'll love this as well.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 97 min.
Fabulous Thursdays: Camp Out
A group of teenagers explore the difficult possibility of being gay and Christian in this new documentary co-sponsored by the Santa Fe Mountain Center. Ten Midwestern boys and girls realize that coming out as Christian is just as hard as coming out as gay and that they don't quite fit into either community.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 78 min.
Friends of Santa Fe Film Center
The Friends of the Santa Fe Film Festival invite you to a special preview of a selection of films from this year's upcoming festival. Enjoy special refreshments and cast your ballot for your favorite films. Suggested donation is $25.
Santa Fe Film Center, ratings and run times vary
Heroic Grace II: Kung Fu Film Festival
Get down and dirty kung fu-style with 1979's Asiansploitation flick
Dirty Ho
. Yue Wong, star of more than 30 films throughout the '70s and '80s, stars in the title role.
The Screen, NR, run times vary
Janet Gaynor Centennial Celebration
The midmorning screenings of Janet Gaynor's flicks keep on coming. This week for brunch, it's
Delicious
and
Ladies in Love
. The former finds Gaynor and her pals playing European immigrants with romance problems here in the good old US of A. It's funny, but not
Borat
funny. Those pesky immigration issues were a little more wholesome back in the 1930s.
Ladies in Love
delights with a touch of the sinister. Three girls working hard in Budapest try and fail with men. In the end, one of the men and one of the women find themselves poisoned and one of the girls goes home with everything.
The Screen, NR, run times vary
Jimi Hendrix
In 1973, director Joe Boyd put together a documentary-style collage of concerts from the rock legend. Monterrey Pop, Woodstock and the Fillmore are featured, but the best part? It's about the music, not commentary on the artists or performances. After this, you will be experienced.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 98 min.
Kids First!: Ice Age: The Meltdown
Follow Scrat the saber-toothed squirrel, Manny the mammoth, Sid the sloth and Diego the tiger as they race to find a boat before the end of the ice age. Along the way, they meet a strange mammoth named Ellie who's convinced herself she's a possum.
Santa Fe Film Center, PG, 91 min.
Shakespeare Behind Bars
Filmmakers Hank Rogerson and Jilann Spitzmiller come to the Screen for a special showing of their documentary about a group of Kentucky inmates who form their own prison Shakespeare company. Rogerson and Spitzmiller will be joined by a panel of experts on prison theater.
The Screen, NR, 93 min.
Stairways to Heaven: The Practical Magic of Sacred Spaces
A documentary exploring the space between the worlds: as in, ours and the next. Using ancient monuments (like Stonehenge, presumably actual size, not 18 inches tall or made of refrigerators), great Gothic cathedrals (with secret Templar messages hidden in them) and the fairly recent advent of crop circles, the "spiritual technology" of the ancients is revealed. We humbly predict this film will play in Santa Fe well into the next ice age.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 54 min.
Turistas
Young, beautiful backpackers get lost in the Brazilian jungle. The cast is full of attractive actors known from television shows like
The OC
,
Crossing Jordan
and
Charmed
. Sure,
Turistas
isn't the Screen's typical art fare, but remember, it is on a college campus, and this flick is getting free showings at universities all over the country. It is free, so come early for the first come, first served horror affair.
The Screen, R, 98 min.
A Good Year
A successful businessman is stopped dead in his moneymaking tracks by the good life at a French vineyard. After Max Skinner (Russell Crowe) inherits his dead uncle's estate, it's curtains for Wall Street with all the Ridley Scott pageantry.
UA North, PG-13, 118 min.
Babel
The accidental shooting of a tourist sparks an international uproar from Japan to Mexico. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu (
21 Grams
) explores how the difficulty people have communicating affects the personal and political areas of our lives. With Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael García Bernal (see
).
UA DeVargas, R, 142 min.
Borat!: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Sacha Baron Cohen, of Ali G fame, brings his outrageous character Borat to the big screen. A journalist for Kazakhstan's national television network, the impossibly offensive Borat stumbles through the US, leaving a trail of hilarious disaster in his wake. The reason for his adventure? To chronicle American culture; what could be funnier than that (see
)?
Dreamcatcher, UA North, R, 84 min.
Changing Times
A dreamy French love story set in Tangiers, this delicious film stars the incomparable Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu. Antoine (Depardieu) takes a job in Morocco in order to be reunited with his first love. Cécile (Deneuve) is unhappily married to an alcoholic and can't quite break free. Will Antoine be the key to her freedom? While waiting to find out, a host of zany family members parade their problems through the exotic streets of the casbah.
The Screen, NR, 90 min.
Conversations with God
If most people told their friends that God was speaking to them, their sanity might be in question. Author Neale Donald Walsch turned his dialogue with the divine into a multimillion-dollar bestseller. Now a very successful guru of sorts, Walsch shares his spiritual transformation through a film produced by Stephen Simon (
What Dreams May Come
).
UA South, PG, 109 min.
The Departed
Martin Scorsese kicks the cop drama up a notch with his newest criminal masterpiece, filled with serious Hollywood acting machismo. Jack Nicholson (back to his classic
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
persona) plays a cunning and twisted crime boss. Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon star as talented undercover agents, but there is a mole in their midst. This psychological roller coaster ride packs a mean street punch.
UA North, UA South, R, 150 min.
Flags of Our Fathers
Clint Eastwood takes moviegoers to the battle of Iwo Jima in his latest attempt to add another Oscar to the shelf. Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford and Adam Beach star as the men whose heroism proved to the American public that WWII would end in victory.
UA North, UA South, R, 132 min.
Flicka
Starring Alison Lohman, Tim McGraw and Maria Bello, this adaptation of Mary O'Hara's beloved novel follows the dream of a 16-year-old girl and a wild mustang. Katy (Lohman) has no ambitions other than to live and work on her father's ranch in modern-day Wyoming. Her father, understandably, wants more for her, but enter an untamed thoroughbred and a penchant for the races, and all aspirations may change.
Dreamcatcher, UA South, PG, 94 min.
Flushed Away
A spoiled uptown pet rat named Roddy (Hugh Jackman) accidentally flushes himself down the toilet and into a wondrous metropolis where rodents and animals reign. In this new world, he meets Rita (Kate Winslet) and the two embark on a courageous mission to return Roddy home. But with a menacing henchman and the dreaded mercenary Le Frog on their tail, this animated team is in for a bumpy ride.
Dreamcatcher, UA North, PG, 86 min.
The Grudge 2
See Sarah Michelle Gellar get killed by chalky Japanese children in this sequel to a mediocre remake. If you are trying to talk your girlfriend out of wanting kids, take her to see
The Grudge 2
, which follows evil spirits as they escape the house that held them and go on a murderous rampage. Hopefully this will follow
The Ring Two
to a fate of shelving before it can incur the label "trilogy."
UA South, PG-13, 95 min.
Harsh Times
Christian Bale stars as a loco ex-soldier wreaking havoc on the streets of LA. Written and directed by the scribe who gave us
Training Day
, this flick about two friends on the job search (with booze and drugs) will give you another reason to be scared to drive in southern California.
UA South, R, 120 min.
Jesus Camp
Conservative Christians start their preachers out young.
Jesus Camp
documents the trials and tribulations of youth as they attend a summer camp in hopes of growing up to be the next Billy Graham.
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 84 min.
Keeping Mum
If Mrs. Doubtfire was British and a female, she would be Grace (Dame Maggie Smith), the inspirational and no-nonsense housekeeper in Keeping Mum. In a small, rural parish, a vicar (Rowan Atkinson) becomes consumed with his work and ignores his increasingly volatile family life. His wife (Kristen Scott Thomas) shamelessly flirts with her golf instructor (Patrick Swayze), his daughter is boy-crazy and his son a punching bag for the local bullies. Enter Grace, a gift from heaven sent to whip the family back into shape.
CCA, R, 103 min.
Man of the Year
In a nation where the intellect of comedian and activist Bill Maher often ranks higher then that of the president, hasn't the thought crossed some people's minds that a switch might be in order? Written and directed by Barry Levinson, this comeback vehicle for funny man Robin Williams employs the no-longer-improbable idea that an entertainer could be elected president. But it isn't all smiles and high fives in the oval office-sometimes the most terrible thing is to get what you wish for.
UA South, PG-13, 115 min.
Marie Antoinette
Sofia Coppola's indie rock fantasy about the life of Marie Antoinette stars Kirsten Dunst and Jason Schwartzman and was shot on location in Versaille. It's more than caviar dreams for the young queen. Steeped in
outré
fab garb and surrounded by sumptuous delicacies
à la Français
, the film-and its title character-blurs the line between fantasy and reality. Indulge anyway and see both sides of the notorious Marie Antoinette.
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 125 min.
The Marine
Ushering in a new exploitation genre is
The Marine
, a story about a He-Man-esque soldier who goes on a rampage to find his kidnapped wife. While perhaps not the hat-tipping homage the military deserves, it will raise a lot of pride in their ability to kick arse. Starring John Cena and Robert Patrick and directed by John Bonito.
Dreamcatcher, UA South, PG-13, 93 min.
Open Season
Ever wonder what happens when captive animals are released into the wild? Well, here's your chance to find out. Martin Lawrence provides the voice of Boog, a 900-pound grizzly bear who finds himself in the wild three days before hunting season. Completely naive to the ways of the wild, he's forced to rely on a mule deer named Elliot, played by Ashton Kutcher. With hunters on their trail, the animals prepare to fight back in this hilarious animated adventure.
UA South, PG, 99 min.
The Prestige
Two of Hollywood's hunkiest foreigners, Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, play two exceptional magicians locked in a rivalry that could destroy them both. The question is, who will be famous and who will be left infamous? The answer isn't as interesting to discover as one from Christopher Nolan (
Batman
,
Memento
) should be. Scarlett Johansson does a repeat of her role in
The Black Dahlia
as the woman between them.
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 128 min.
The Queen
God save Helen Mirren, I mean the queen! An intimate portrait of the extremely private Queen Elizabeth II,
The Queen
focuses on the time surrounding the death of Princess Diana. With the country torn apart by confusion and grief, her royal highness looks to Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) for strength and strategy.
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 97 min.
The Return
New queen of horror Sarah Michelle Gellar stars as, gasp, a brunette in her newest thriller about a traveling saleswoman who is contacted by murdered spirits. Vivid nightmares drive her in a search to find the killer.
UA South, PG-13, 85 min.
Running with Scissors
Augusten Burroughs' memoir
Running with Scissors
is one of those true-life tales that is so fantastical that it almost has to be true. The film adaptation shows the young Burroughs (Joseph Cross) sent by his philosophy professor father and poet mother to live with her psychiatrist's insane family. With Annette Bening, Alec Baldwin, Evan Rachel Wood and Brian Cox.
UA DeVargas, R, 116 min.
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
Tim Allen stars in his third film as Santa Claus. No one could have seen that coming. The ex-Tool Man has made quite a name for himself as the king of the North Pole, and this time the crafty Jack Frost (Martin Short) is out to take it all away. While the jolly man is busy planning an extended family Christmas (ex-wife and her new husband included), Frost schemes on how to knock old Santa off his throne. Head elf Curtis is on the case, watching his boss' back, and some help from Claus' ex-wife's daughter doesn't hurt either. Talk about a PC, modern family Christmas.
Dreamcatcher, UA South, G, 98 min.
Saw III
The vicious murderer Jigsaw has an apprentice, and she's as deranged as her master. In this bloody third installment, the new teacher's pet kidnaps a doctor in order to keep her master and their newest victim alive for selfish reasons. Bring a sick bag; you'll need it.
Dreamcatcher, UA South, R, 107 min.
Shortbus
John Cameron Mitchell (
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
) returns with
Shortbus
, a graphic tale of sexual liberation. The real sex shown on-screen is shocking, but the story is real and alive, taking the erotic out of images and using them to add to a coming-of-age story for a group of New Yorkers desperate for change in their lives.
CCA, NR (no one under 18 admitted), 101 min.
Stranger Than Fiction
Harold Crick has a British voice narrating his life and it's starting to annoy him. Crick (Will Ferrell) is even more upset when the voice decides it's time for him to die. Little does he know the fateful orator is just an author with writer's block played by Emma Thompson.
Dreamcatcher, UA North, PG-13, 113 min.
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Not surprisingly, this documentary on the American Ratings Board originally received an NC-17 rating. Filmmaker Kirby Dick surrendered his rating all together, refusing to cower to the censorship he seeks to expose.
The Screen, NR, 97 min.
