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Click on the title for details. |
DECEMBER 27 - JANUARY 2, 2005
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DECEMBER 27 - JANUARY 2, 2005 |
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AB-NORMAL BEAUTY (dir: Oxide Pang, Not Rated) – The creators of THE EYE return with this spooky tale of a young photographer who becomes obsessed with documenting death. |
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AMERICAN PIE: BAND CAMP (dir: Steve Rash, Not Rated) – Eugene Levy, have you no shame? | |||
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ANYTOWN, USA (dir: Kristian Fraga, Not Rated) – The latest Film Movement installment is a documentary about a mayoral race in a small New Jersey town in which two of the candidates are legally blind. |
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BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS (dir: Dai Sijie, Not Rated) – It’s the most erotic movie about book-reading this year! When sent to the mountains for re-education during China’s cultural revolution, two teenage friends find a suitcase of banned western books and proceed to read them to the girl they have both fallen in love with. | |||
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^CAFÉ LUMIERE (dir: Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Not Rated) – If you love long takes, extended silences and an almost fetishistic focus on mundane details, you’ll love Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s homage to Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu. Everyone else might be wondering why they just saw a 10 minute shot of people eating tempura. |
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THE CALAMARI WRESTLER (dir: Minoru Kawasaki, Not Rated) – I’m not even kidding. This movie is really about a squid that becomes a wrestler. | |||
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COPENHAGEN (dir: Howard Davies, Not Rated) – In this adaptation of the Tony-winning play, two brilliant physicists share a secret meeting on the eve of the atomic age. Starring future James Bond Daniel Craig. |
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DARK WATER (dir: Walter Salles, Unrated) – Jennifer Connelly stars in this remake of the Japanese horror film about a woman and her daughter being tormented by evil water. | |||
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THE FOOTBALL FACTORY (dir: Nick Love, R) – If your idea of the English is informed only by frilly Jane Austen adaptations, you’ll absolutely hate this film about a group of soccer hooligans getting messed up on cheap drugs, cheaper lager and then beating each other senseless. And beating any Turkish people senseless, if they’re available. |
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FRANKIE & JOHNNY ARE MARRIED (dir: Michael Pressman, R) – In order to save his marriage, a director casts his wife opposite a hunky actor in his new play. Did I miss something? | |||
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*GRIZZLY MAN (dir: Werner Herzog, R) – Werner Herzog explores the life of Timothy Treadwell, an eccentric young man who lived in the Alaskan wilderness for 13 summers with the bears he loved…until they ate him. |
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HAPPY HERE AND NOW (dir: Michael Almereyda, R) – This Sundance favorite follows a 16-year-old girl searching for her missing sister. Co-starring Ally Sheedy and David Arquette. | |||
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HER NAME IS CARLA (dir: Jay Anania, R) – Two couples face off at a remote seaside cottage in this sexually-charged thriller starring Julian Sands and Julianne Nicholson. |
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A HOLE IN ONE (dir: Richard Ledes, Not Rated) – Michelle Williams plays a young woman who: 1) wants a lobotomy really badly and 2) has a boyfriend played by Meat Loaf. | |||
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INTO THE BLUE (dir: John Stockwell, PG-13) – Geez, it sure must be hot in the Bahamas. Jessica Alba spends practically every scene of this treasure hunting movie in a skimpy bikini. |
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UNDISCOVERED (dir: Meiert Avis, PG-13) –If you thought Ashlee Simpson sucked at singing, just wait ‘til you see her act! | |||
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WHEN THE LAST SWORD IS DRAWN (dir: Yojiro Takita, Not Rated) – A young samurai has to fight to prove his honor in this epic film set in ye olden Japan. Personally, I’m getting really fed up with these Samurai Films. Couldn’t there be a movie about a slightly depressed, slightly world-weary samurai who just wants to chill with some buds and play X-Box all day? He’d know that all that nobility jargon is just other peoples' hang-ups, not his. |
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THE WILD PARROTS OF TELEGRAPH HILL (dir: Judy Irving, G) – If you think penguins are cool, check out these urban parrots living in San Francisco. Not only can they fly (which really seems like something any self-respecting bird should be able to do), but they also don’t walk across Antarctica for two months only to turn around and walk back again while wearing eggs on their feet. | |||
| * = Greg's pick of the week ^ = Bart's pick of the week | ||||||