Friday, January 19, 2007
Movie Day...1/19
The Good German (R); Nationwide
Berlin, 1945. U.S. war correspondent Jake Geismer has just arrived to cover the upcoming Potsdam Peace Conference, where Allied leaders will meet to determine the fate of a vanquished Germany and a newly liberated Europe--and, in the process, carve up what's left of any value for themselves. It's not Jake's first visit to Berlin. He once managed a news bureau here. He once fell in love here. But that seems a lifetime ago as he takes in the staggering devastation on the jeep ride from the airport to his hotel in the American zone. Jake's driver, Corporal Tully, exudes small-town American charm--an eager, guileless, good-natured kid from the Midwest. In reality, he's corrupt to the core, bartering anything and anyone, and playing all sides for the highest price. But that's not unusual. Everyone in Berlin has a secret now. Everyone is working an angle to get what they need: money, power, survival--or just a way out. Tully's black market dealings don't interest Jake, but Tully's girlfriend does. She's Lena Brandt, Jake's former love, although somehow, now, not quite the person he once knew. She has been irrevocably changed by the war, the hardship of life in this ruined city and the burden of her own secrets. When Tully ends up in the Russian zone with 100,000 marks in his pocket and a bullet in his back, Jake finds himself drawn into the mystery of this murder, and the bigger mystery of why both the American and Russian authorities look the other way. The deeper his investigation takes him, the more it leads him back to Lena. Jake discovers that it is nearly impossible to unearth the truth in a time and place where people are still reeling from the horrors of the war and desperate to salvage their humanity in the shadow of the often unbearable knowledge of what they did to survive.
Starring: George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire, Robin Weigert, Dave Power
The Hitcher (R); Nationwide
A thriller which tracks the terror-filled trajectory of Grace Andrews and Jim Halsey, a collegiate couple who are tormented by the mysterious hitchhiker John Ryder, a.k.a. The Hitcher. The young couple hit the road in a 1970 Oldsmobile 442, en route to spring break. But their pleasure trip soon turns into a waking nightmare. The initial encounters with Ryder are increasingly off-putting for Grace and Jim, and they bravely fight back when he ambushes them. However, they are truly blindsided when he implicates them in a horrific slaying and continues to shadow them. The open road becomes a battleground of suspense and action, blood and metal as--in trying to elude not only Ryder but also New Mexico State Police Lieutenant Esteridge's officers--Grace and Jim must fight for their lives and face their fears head-on.
Starring: Sean Bean, Sophia Bush, Zachary Knighton, Kyle Davis, Neal McDonough
Screamers (R); Nationwide
A documentary examining why genocides keep occurring--from the Armenian genocide in 1915, to the Holocaust, Bosnia, Rwanda and now Darfur. With the contribution of the band 'System of a Down', whose members are all grandchildren of genocide survivors, the film traces the locations and stories of genocide in the last century. Through the arguments of Pulitzer prize-winning author Samantha Power, the personal stories of genocide survivors, policy critics and whistleblowers--the screamers--the film dissects the problem of genocide denial and, as well, Power's thesis that America's interest has always been to stay neutral, no matter how wide-scale the carnage, with successive Presidents conspiring to turn a blind eye to genocides as they are happening. After the Holocaust, we may say never again--but we don't mean it.
Starring: John Dolmayan, Daron Malakian, Shavo Odadjian, Serj Tankian
Babel (R); Limited
In the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, a rifle shot rings out--detonating a chain of events that will link an American tourist couple's frantic struggle to survive, two Moroccan boys involved in an accidental crime, a nanny illegally crossing into Mexico with two American children and a Japanese teen rebel whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo. Separated by clashing cultures and sprawling distances, each of these four disparate groups of people are nevertheless hurtling towards a shared destiny of isolation and grief. In the course of just a few days, they will each face the dizzying sensation of becoming profoundly lost--lost in the desert, lost to the world, lost to themselves--as they are pushed to the farthest edges of confusion and fear as well as to the very depths of connection and love.
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Koji Yakusho, Mahima Chaudhry
The Dead Girl (R); Limited
The murdered body of a young woman named Krista is found by Arden, a lonesome caretaker living with her irascible mother. This leads to Leah, a forensics graduate student whose sister went missing as a child, stumbling upon possible closure when Krista's body appears on her gurney. The story continues with Ruth, who in the midst of a long and intense love/hate relationship with her husband, discovers a disturbing connection between her husband and Krista's murder. Finally, Melora is a mother searching for answers about her runaway daughter Krista's troubled life and finds help in her quest from another troubled young woman.
Starring: Toni Collette, Rose Byrne, Mary Beth Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, Brittany Murphy
God Grew Tired of Us: The Story of Lost Boys of Sudan (PG); Limited
Orphaned by a tumultuous civil war and traveling barefoot across the sub-Saharan desert, John Bul Dau, Daniel Abol Pach and Panther Blor were among the 25,000 "Lost Boys" (ages 3 to 13) who fled villages, formed surrogate families and sought refuge from famine, disease, wild animals and attacks from rebel soldiers. The boys traveled together for five years and against all odds crossed into the UN's refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya. A journey's end for some, it was only the beginning for John, Daniel and Panther, who along with 3,800 other young survivors, were selected by the International Rescue committee to re-settle in the United States. The cameras observe three resilient young men in a complex and confusing western world. illuminating all that has been gained and much that has been lost in the continuing immigrant experience of coming to America.
Starring: John Bul Dou, Peter Greneng, Mabouc Thon Mabouc, Paul Ding Nyuon, Daniel Abul Pach
The Last King of Scotland (R); Limited
A Scottish doctor on a Ugandan medical mission becomes irreversibly entangled with one of the world's most barbaric figures: Idi Amin. Impressed by Dr. Garrigan's brazen attitude in a moment of crisis, the newly self-appointed Ugandan President Amin hand picks him as his personal physician and closest confidante. Though Garrigan is at first flattered and fascinated by his new position, he soon awakens to Amin's savagery--and his own complicity in it. Horror and betrayal ensue as Garrigan tries to right his wrongs and escape Uganda alive.
Starring: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Gillian Anderson, David Oyelowo, Kerry Washington
Letters From Iwo Jima (R); Limited
Sixty-one years ago, U.S. and Japanese armies met on Iwo Jima. Decades later, several hundred letters are unearthed from that stark island's soil. The letters give faces and voices to the men who fought there, as well as the extraordinary general who led them. The Japanese soldiers are sent to Iwo Jima knowing that, in all probability, they will not come back. Among them are Saigo, a baker who wants only to live see the face of his newborn daughter; Baron Nishi, an Olympic equestrian champion known around the world for his skill and his honor; Shimizu, a young former military policeman whose idealism has not yet been tested by war; and Lieutenant Ito, a strict military man who would rather accept suicide than surrender. Leading the defense is Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, whose travels in America have revealed to him the hopeless nature of the war, but have also given him strategic insight into how to take on the vast American armada streaming in across the Pacific. With little defense other than sheer will and the volcanic rock of the island itself, Gen. Kuribayashi's unprecedented tactics transform what was predicted to be a quick and bloody defeat into nearly 40 days of heroic and resourceful combat. Almost 7,000 American soldiers were killed on Iwo Jima; more than 20,000 Japanese troops perished. The black sands of Iwo Jima are stained with their blood, but their sacrifices, their struggles, their courage and their compassion live on in the letters they sent home.
Starring: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Shido Nakamura, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase
Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) (R); Limited
Set in 1940s Spain against the postwar repression of Franco's Spain, a fairy tale that centers on Ofelia, a lonely and dreamy child living with her mother and adoptive father, who is a military officer tasked with 'ridding the area' of rebels. In her loneliness, Ofelia creates a world filled with fantastical creatures and secret destinies. With Fascism at its height, Ofelia must come to terms with her world through a fable of her own creation.
Starring: Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu, Ivana Baquero, Alex Angulo, Doug Jones
Venus (R); Limited
Maurice and Ian are a pair of veteran actors who never quite hit the big time. Now in their ‘golden years,' they continue to work, though the jobs are far from glamorous. But their comfortable routine and witty banter over breakfast in a favorite café is disrupted by the arrival of Ian's grand-niece, Jessie. Jessie quickly tries her great-uncle's patience; but Maurice is absolutely taken with the young woman and proceeds to show her the cultural sights of London. As Maurice tries to give Jessie the benefit of his experience, he is surprised to discover how very little he actually knows about himself now that his life is drawing to a close. Jessie, who had arrived with an enormous chip on her shoulders, slowly learns from Maurice the value of respect--for herself as well as others.
Starring: Peter O'Toole, Leslie Phillips, Jodie Whittaker, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Griffiths
Director(s): Roger Michell
Coming Attractions
-
Blood and Chocolate (PG-13); Nationwide; opens 1/26
Catch and Release (PG-13); Nationwide; opens 1/26
Epic Movie (PG-13); Nationwide; opens 1/26
Smokin' Aces (R); Nationwide; opens 1/26 ¶ 1/19/2007 08:44:00 AM
Berlin, 1945. U.S. war correspondent Jake Geismer has just arrived to cover the upcoming Potsdam Peace Conference, where Allied leaders will meet to determine the fate of a vanquished Germany and a newly liberated Europe--and, in the process, carve up what's left of any value for themselves. It's not Jake's first visit to Berlin. He once managed a news bureau here. He once fell in love here. But that seems a lifetime ago as he takes in the staggering devastation on the jeep ride from the airport to his hotel in the American zone. Jake's driver, Corporal Tully, exudes small-town American charm--an eager, guileless, good-natured kid from the Midwest. In reality, he's corrupt to the core, bartering anything and anyone, and playing all sides for the highest price. But that's not unusual. Everyone in Berlin has a secret now. Everyone is working an angle to get what they need: money, power, survival--or just a way out. Tully's black market dealings don't interest Jake, but Tully's girlfriend does. She's Lena Brandt, Jake's former love, although somehow, now, not quite the person he once knew. She has been irrevocably changed by the war, the hardship of life in this ruined city and the burden of her own secrets. When Tully ends up in the Russian zone with 100,000 marks in his pocket and a bullet in his back, Jake finds himself drawn into the mystery of this murder, and the bigger mystery of why both the American and Russian authorities look the other way. The deeper his investigation takes him, the more it leads him back to Lena. Jake discovers that it is nearly impossible to unearth the truth in a time and place where people are still reeling from the horrors of the war and desperate to salvage their humanity in the shadow of the often unbearable knowledge of what they did to survive.
Starring: George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire, Robin Weigert, Dave Power
The Hitcher (R); Nationwide
A thriller which tracks the terror-filled trajectory of Grace Andrews and Jim Halsey, a collegiate couple who are tormented by the mysterious hitchhiker John Ryder, a.k.a. The Hitcher. The young couple hit the road in a 1970 Oldsmobile 442, en route to spring break. But their pleasure trip soon turns into a waking nightmare. The initial encounters with Ryder are increasingly off-putting for Grace and Jim, and they bravely fight back when he ambushes them. However, they are truly blindsided when he implicates them in a horrific slaying and continues to shadow them. The open road becomes a battleground of suspense and action, blood and metal as--in trying to elude not only Ryder but also New Mexico State Police Lieutenant Esteridge's officers--Grace and Jim must fight for their lives and face their fears head-on.
Starring: Sean Bean, Sophia Bush, Zachary Knighton, Kyle Davis, Neal McDonough
Screamers (R); Nationwide
A documentary examining why genocides keep occurring--from the Armenian genocide in 1915, to the Holocaust, Bosnia, Rwanda and now Darfur. With the contribution of the band 'System of a Down', whose members are all grandchildren of genocide survivors, the film traces the locations and stories of genocide in the last century. Through the arguments of Pulitzer prize-winning author Samantha Power, the personal stories of genocide survivors, policy critics and whistleblowers--the screamers--the film dissects the problem of genocide denial and, as well, Power's thesis that America's interest has always been to stay neutral, no matter how wide-scale the carnage, with successive Presidents conspiring to turn a blind eye to genocides as they are happening. After the Holocaust, we may say never again--but we don't mean it.
Starring: John Dolmayan, Daron Malakian, Shavo Odadjian, Serj Tankian
Babel (R); Limited
In the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, a rifle shot rings out--detonating a chain of events that will link an American tourist couple's frantic struggle to survive, two Moroccan boys involved in an accidental crime, a nanny illegally crossing into Mexico with two American children and a Japanese teen rebel whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo. Separated by clashing cultures and sprawling distances, each of these four disparate groups of people are nevertheless hurtling towards a shared destiny of isolation and grief. In the course of just a few days, they will each face the dizzying sensation of becoming profoundly lost--lost in the desert, lost to the world, lost to themselves--as they are pushed to the farthest edges of confusion and fear as well as to the very depths of connection and love.
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Koji Yakusho, Mahima Chaudhry
The Dead Girl (R); Limited
The murdered body of a young woman named Krista is found by Arden, a lonesome caretaker living with her irascible mother. This leads to Leah, a forensics graduate student whose sister went missing as a child, stumbling upon possible closure when Krista's body appears on her gurney. The story continues with Ruth, who in the midst of a long and intense love/hate relationship with her husband, discovers a disturbing connection between her husband and Krista's murder. Finally, Melora is a mother searching for answers about her runaway daughter Krista's troubled life and finds help in her quest from another troubled young woman.
Starring: Toni Collette, Rose Byrne, Mary Beth Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, Brittany Murphy
God Grew Tired of Us: The Story of Lost Boys of Sudan (PG); Limited
Orphaned by a tumultuous civil war and traveling barefoot across the sub-Saharan desert, John Bul Dau, Daniel Abol Pach and Panther Blor were among the 25,000 "Lost Boys" (ages 3 to 13) who fled villages, formed surrogate families and sought refuge from famine, disease, wild animals and attacks from rebel soldiers. The boys traveled together for five years and against all odds crossed into the UN's refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya. A journey's end for some, it was only the beginning for John, Daniel and Panther, who along with 3,800 other young survivors, were selected by the International Rescue committee to re-settle in the United States. The cameras observe three resilient young men in a complex and confusing western world. illuminating all that has been gained and much that has been lost in the continuing immigrant experience of coming to America.
Starring: John Bul Dou, Peter Greneng, Mabouc Thon Mabouc, Paul Ding Nyuon, Daniel Abul Pach
The Last King of Scotland (R); Limited
A Scottish doctor on a Ugandan medical mission becomes irreversibly entangled with one of the world's most barbaric figures: Idi Amin. Impressed by Dr. Garrigan's brazen attitude in a moment of crisis, the newly self-appointed Ugandan President Amin hand picks him as his personal physician and closest confidante. Though Garrigan is at first flattered and fascinated by his new position, he soon awakens to Amin's savagery--and his own complicity in it. Horror and betrayal ensue as Garrigan tries to right his wrongs and escape Uganda alive.
Starring: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Gillian Anderson, David Oyelowo, Kerry Washington
Letters From Iwo Jima (R); Limited
Sixty-one years ago, U.S. and Japanese armies met on Iwo Jima. Decades later, several hundred letters are unearthed from that stark island's soil. The letters give faces and voices to the men who fought there, as well as the extraordinary general who led them. The Japanese soldiers are sent to Iwo Jima knowing that, in all probability, they will not come back. Among them are Saigo, a baker who wants only to live see the face of his newborn daughter; Baron Nishi, an Olympic equestrian champion known around the world for his skill and his honor; Shimizu, a young former military policeman whose idealism has not yet been tested by war; and Lieutenant Ito, a strict military man who would rather accept suicide than surrender. Leading the defense is Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, whose travels in America have revealed to him the hopeless nature of the war, but have also given him strategic insight into how to take on the vast American armada streaming in across the Pacific. With little defense other than sheer will and the volcanic rock of the island itself, Gen. Kuribayashi's unprecedented tactics transform what was predicted to be a quick and bloody defeat into nearly 40 days of heroic and resourceful combat. Almost 7,000 American soldiers were killed on Iwo Jima; more than 20,000 Japanese troops perished. The black sands of Iwo Jima are stained with their blood, but their sacrifices, their struggles, their courage and their compassion live on in the letters they sent home.
Starring: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Shido Nakamura, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase
Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) (R); Limited
Set in 1940s Spain against the postwar repression of Franco's Spain, a fairy tale that centers on Ofelia, a lonely and dreamy child living with her mother and adoptive father, who is a military officer tasked with 'ridding the area' of rebels. In her loneliness, Ofelia creates a world filled with fantastical creatures and secret destinies. With Fascism at its height, Ofelia must come to terms with her world through a fable of her own creation.
Starring: Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu, Ivana Baquero, Alex Angulo, Doug Jones
Venus (R); Limited
Maurice and Ian are a pair of veteran actors who never quite hit the big time. Now in their ‘golden years,' they continue to work, though the jobs are far from glamorous. But their comfortable routine and witty banter over breakfast in a favorite café is disrupted by the arrival of Ian's grand-niece, Jessie. Jessie quickly tries her great-uncle's patience; but Maurice is absolutely taken with the young woman and proceeds to show her the cultural sights of London. As Maurice tries to give Jessie the benefit of his experience, he is surprised to discover how very little he actually knows about himself now that his life is drawing to a close. Jessie, who had arrived with an enormous chip on her shoulders, slowly learns from Maurice the value of respect--for herself as well as others.
Starring: Peter O'Toole, Leslie Phillips, Jodie Whittaker, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Griffiths
Director(s): Roger Michell
Coming Attractions
-
Blood and Chocolate (PG-13); Nationwide; opens 1/26
Catch and Release (PG-13); Nationwide; opens 1/26
Epic Movie (PG-13); Nationwide; opens 1/26
Smokin' Aces (R); Nationwide; opens 1/26 ¶ 1/19/2007 08:44:00 AM
Subscribe to My Feed