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.
***image3***Designates items highlighted in this week's issue.
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Confetti
Planning a wedding isn't all fun and games, especially when your task is to come up with the "most original wedding" ever. Three couples battle less against each other than against their
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friends, family and spouses-to-be in this homage to the Christopher Guest-style mockumentary.
UA DeVargas, R, 100 min.
***image2***Gabrielle
A celebrated adaptation by Patrice Chéreau of Joseph Conrad's short story
The Return
,
Gabrielle
delves into the world of the French bourgeoisie at the turn of the 20th century. Isabelle Huppert and Pascal Greggory star in this vision of a stylish marriage on the verge of collapse.
The Screen, NR, 90 min.
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Half Nelson
Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "the first Oscar caliber performance of the year," Ryan Gosling stars as a teacher with a drug problem. He works at an inner-city junior high school, and his fervor for his students is matched only by his addiction to crack cocaine. His self-destructive behavior raises the eyebrows of one of his students, and the two become friends. In a world where there are no easy solutions, the two embark on a road that could lead to either redemption or disaster.
UA DeVargas, R, 106 min.
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House of Sand
Brazil's top mother-and-daughter duo, Fernanda Montenegro and Fernando Torres, play multiple roles in the period epic
House of Sand
. Set in the remote and beautiful desert of Maranhao, the film chronicles a woman coming to terms with the "labyrinth of sand" she is forced to inhabit. This film by Andrucha Waddington spans 60 years in an exploration of the universal need for love and a home to call one's own (see
).
CCA, R, 114 min.
Jackass: Number Two
If you happen to be lacking in scatological humor and depravity, please don't miss the return of
Jackass
. This second big-screen installment of the
Jackass
TV show promises its cast of burros will fall to uncharted lows to get a laugh. Go MTV films.
Dreamcatcher, UA North, R, 95 min.
La Tragedia de Macario
A rancher with a heart of gold is lured across the border by dreams of making enough money to buy his family their own home. In a horrid twist of fate, he finds himself part of a doomed container of human cargo on a train that may never reach its destination.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 71 min.
Fat Girls
Take
Pretty in Pink
, turn Molly Ringwald into a nerdy gay boy, set it in Texas and you have
Fat Girls
. The protagonist of this teen angst adventure is Rodney, the son of fundamentalist Christians who finds fortitude in his fellow outcast friends (an overweight daughter of two lesbians and her Cuban boyfriend) and their theater group. The plot revolves around the heart-pumping task of asking the most beautiful boy in school (who happens to be gay) to the prom.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 88 min.
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Heading South
Three middle-aged, North American women travel to 1970s Haiti to buy the affections of the local young men. Their ideas of no-strings-attached romance are disturbed by the realities of political unrest and poverty plaguing the land. Through Legba (Menothy Cesar, winner of the Marcello Mastroianni Award at the 2005 Venice Film Festival), a favorite conquest of the ladies, they experience the increasing frustration of Haiti's people with their social constraints.
The Screen, NR, 108 min.
Kids First! Film Club: Care Bears: Hearts at Sea
A cuddly collection of stories from our favorite multicolored bears who hug. The Care family sets off on the SS Friendship for fun and adventures at sea filled with rhymes, games and safety messages.
Santa Fe Film Center, G, 88 min.
Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
A star-studded tribute to the life and music of songsmith Leonard Cohen. This "loving, extraordinary documentary by Lian Lunsin" boasts live performances by Nick Cave, Martha and Rufus Wainwright and a duet between The Man Cohen and U2 frontman Bono.
CCA, NR, 98 min.
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My Country, My Country
A poignant look at the US occupation of Iraq through the eyes of Iraqi medical doctor and Sunni political candidate Dr. Riyadh al-Adhadh. The doctor, through his patients, becomes overrun
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with the reality of physical and mental stress resulting from the escalating violence and chaos of the occupation.
The Screen, NR, 90 min.
9/11: Press for Truth
After 9/11 a collection of civilians forced Washington to create a committee that would delve into the truth of that crisis. This documentary follows their labors, their success and finally their disillusionment with the powers that be.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 84 min.
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Seventh Heaven
Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell star as an unlikely pair of misfits who find inspiration and strength in their love affair. Set in pre-World War I Paris, the film follows Diane (Gaynor), an orphan who is beaten by her sister and treated like Cinderella. Chico (Farrell) comes to her aid, and the two embark on a journey of empowerment that resists even the tragedies of war.
The Screen, NR, 100 min.
Spirit Riders
An award-winning documentary exploring the role of the Lakota Indians in the world peace movement. The film chronicles the practice of ceremonial horseback rides as a means of healing and inspiration. Narrated by Peter Coyote, including interviews with Viggo Mortenson (
Lord of the Rings
,
Hidalgo
) and music by Bill Miller, Robert Mirabal, Keith Secola, Rick Allen and Lauren Monroe.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 90 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.
Stolen
When 13 paintings were stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990, the walls remained bare. Gardner's will stated that nothing be changed after her death, and the blank spaces and frames that once housed Rembrandt, Degas and Manet are almost as powerful as the missing paintings. Blythe Danner and Campbell Scott help tell the story of the hunt for these missing treasures.
The Screen, NR, 85 min.
Accepted
It's every high school senior's dream: Screw higher education and make up a college where students can study what they like, someone's crackpot uncle poses as the dean and your main facility is an abandoned psychiatric hospital. When Bartelby B Gaines (Justin Long-the guy from the new Apple commercials) is rejected from all of the schools to which he applies, he creates the fictitious South Harmon Institute of Technology in order to placate his parents. Soon, college-app-rejects from all over are showing up at South Harmon, ready to take classes. Or maybe just major in hanging out by the pool and perfecting the art of the wet T-shirt contest. With Blake Lively as Monica, the girl of Bartelby's dreams, and Lewis Black as the uncle who masquerades as administration.
UA North, PG-13, 90 min.
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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, UA North, PG, 95 min.
Barnyard: The Original Party Animals
In this animated story of epic times at the farm, Otis (voiced by Kevin James) is a carefree jokester of a bovine (who enjoys activities like cow-tipping) until his father, the patriarch of the farm (Sam Elliott), is attacked by coyotes and Otis is forced to become a more responsible member of the barnyard community. Courtney Cox's vocal talents make an appearance as Daisy, Otis' lady love, and Danny Glover is Miles, the sidekick mule.
UA South, PG, 83 min.
Beerfest
Beer is hilarious. Dumb guys are hilarious. Germans can, of course, be very funny too. Dumb guys who drink lots of beer competing with evil Germans in an underground beer drinking contest that has sinister echoes of
Fight Club
are maybe not so funny. But who knows? Jay Chandrasekhar (
The Dukes of Hazzard
,
Super Troopers
) directs. Featuring Paul Soter, writer of
Club Dread
, with cameos from Cloris Leachman and Jürgen Prochnow.
UA North, R, 110 min.
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The Black Dahlia
Brian De Palma's homage to noir twists the notorious murder of Betty Short and the corrupt world of LA policemen into a stylized package. Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Swank star.
UA DeVargas, R, 121 min.
The Covenant
Four friends at a New England prep school are the descendents of real witches. Using their model looks and
Charmed
-inspired powers, they fight the forces of evil and pick up hot chicks on the way.
Dreamcatcher, UA North, PG-13, 97 min.
Crank
Imagine you're one of those hitmen who wants to get out of the glamorous lifestyle of killing people for money, but you only have an hour to live, because you've been poisoned and the only way you can keep yourself alive is to keep adrenaline levels high in your blood, because adrenaline is the only antidote to the poison you've been given. It's like
Speed
meets
Grosse Point Blank
meets...what exactly? Our guess is someone out there in Tinseltown is
really
talented at pitching scripts. With Jason Statham and Amy Smart.
Dreamcatcher, UA South, R, 83 min.
Crossover
Two friends, both skilled basketball players, have very different goals. One wants to be a doctor, the other a streetball star, but in a fateful trip out to Los Angeles everything changes.
Dreamcatcher, PG-13, 95 min.
Everyone's Hero
An animated adventure about a young boy who travels to the big city to help Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees win the world series. A story of perseverance inspired by late executive producer Christopher Reeves. Features the voices of Rob Reiner and Whoopi Goldberg.
Dreamcatcher, G, 88 min.
Gridiron Gang
Kids at a juvenile detention center find self-empowerment through football and their coach, played by The Rock. Against all odds the segregated delinquents come together as a team to take on the league champs.
Dreamcatcher, PG-13, 120 min.
Hollywoodland
Adrien Brody plays a medium-boiled investigator delving into Hollywood's upper crust to find the truth behind the death of TV's Superman (Ben Affleck). Diane Lane stars as the glamorous wife of the head of MGM and girlfriend to the late man of steel.
UA DeVargas, R, 126 min.
The Illusionist
Based on a short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steven Millhauser. A magician, Eisenheim (Edward Norton), uses his unusual talents to woo his ill-fated childhood sweetheart, Duchess Sophie von Teschen (Jessica Biel), and derail the class system in Victorian Vienna. Upon returning from exploring the world, Eisenheim finds that Sophie, with whom he's still in love, is engaged to the Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell). Eisenheim strikes up an unlikely friendship with Chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) in his quest to win back his lady love.
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 109 min.
Invincible
Mark Wahlberg plays real-life Vince Papale, an ordinary working stiff who gets a chance to be a member of the Philadelphia Eagles football team. He's 30 years old! But even more unspeakably shocking, the absolutely unimaginable truth of it: He never played college ball. We can hear the gasps spreading around Santa Fe like so many air brakes. Rest assured, Papale ended up overcoming the (almost) insurmountable handicap of never playing college ball. He played three seasons (from '76 through '78) with the Iggles as a wide receiver and has fairly respectable stats, considering that, at 30 years old, he was the oldest rookie in the history of the NFL who
never played college ball
. With Greg Kinnear and Elizabeth Banks.
Dreamcatcher, UA South, PG, 128 min.
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Little Miss Sunshine
A mixed bag cynical road trip that halfway morphs into a family situation comedy lovefest. While precisely stylized use of the camera evokes a boldness reminiscent of
The Graduate
or early Woody Allen, endearing moments are the glue holding this frequently cynical movie together. When the family finally arrives at its destination, the depiction of child pageant queens, at once disturbing and hilarious, is the cherry on top of this wild ride. The result is a climactic scene that is pretty near perfect: both laugh-out-loud surprising and endearingly inevitable. With Alan Arkin, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Abigail Breslin and Greg Kinnear.
UA DeVargas, R, 110 min.
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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.
UA North, PG-13, 145 min.
The Protector
A young fighter named Kham (Tony Jaa) exhibits moves that could rival Jackie Chan in this purely-for-entertainment flick about a search for
stolen elephants. When Kham's father is killed defending the king's elephants, Kham heads to Australia to retrieve the snatched animals and avenge his father's death.
UA South, R, 108 min.
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Quinceañera
Newcomer Araceli Guzman-Rico plays Maria, a girl who discovers she's pregnant on the eve of her 15th birthday. Thrust out of her home, the teenager finds support and a home with her great-grand-uncle and gay cousin.
Dreamcatcher, UA DeVargas, R, 90 min.
Step Up
Tyler Gage (Channing Tatum) is an archetypal boy from the wrong side of the tracks who lands himself a community service gig at the prestigious Maryland School for the Arts. Before long, he's busting out his mad break-dancing skills in the parking lot and is spotted by Nora (Jenna Dewan), who recruits him to be her dance partner. This may be Tyler's chance to be upwardly mobile, if he can survive the world of competitive dance. With Rachel Griffiths as an administrator at the school, and choreographed by the acclaimed Anne Fletcher.
UA South, PG-13, 98 min.
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Talladega Nights
Even highbrow art-film snobby friends of ours are (sometimes reluctantly, as if to avoid scratching their smartypants persona) praising this Will Ferrell comedy. We wonder what diehard, poor, white-trash NASCAR fans think.
UA North, PG-13, 110 min.
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Trust the Man
An insightful look into New York couples and the ties that bind them (see
).
UA DeVargas, R, 103 min.
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The Valiant Ones
Set in the Ming Dynasty, this King Hu classic uses swordplay as poetry during a mission to protect the Chinese border from Japanese invaders.
The Screen, NR, 102 min.
The Wicker Man
Nick Cage (who also produced this remake of the 1973 British effort) plays a hardboiled hero lawman who travels to a freaky island in search of a missing girl only to find strange sexual rituals, a "possible" human sacrifice (in the words of press materials) and, the real shocker, a "harvest festival." These are some hardcore neo-pagans, folks.
Dreamcatcher, UA North, PG-13, 93 min.
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World Trade Center
Oliver Stone's latest is a different sort of action film: Rather than chronicling political intrigue (
Nixon
,
JFK
) or colossal conquerors of the past (
Alexander
), Stone takes on the events of 9/11 in New York City. A New Yorker himself, Stone offers us the story of two Port Authority cops, John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno (Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena, respectively), who become trapped under the World Trade Center rubble when they go to evacuate the buildings. With Maggie Gyllenhaal and Maria Bello as the significant others of Will and John.
Dreamcatcher, UA DeVargas, UA South, PG-13, 125 min.
