|
Click on the title for details. |
FEBRUARY 28 - MARCH 6, 2006
|
||||||
|
|
FEBRUARY 28 - MARCH 6, 2006 |
|
||||
|
|
CONGO: WHITE KING, RED RUBBER, BLACK DEATH (dir: Peter Bate, Not Rated) – This documentary tells the brutal story of Belgium’s colonization of the Congo. Due to the greed for rubber of King Leopold II, who is still a hero in Belgium today, nearly 10 million Africans lost their lives. In fact, the Belgian government denounced this film as a “tendentious diatribe.” |
|
THE FOREST FOR THE TREES (dir: Maren Ade, Not Rated) – This month’s Film Movement selection is a thriller from Germany. A schoolteacher is rejected by her colleagues and abused by her students, but has nothing in her personal life to take comfort in. When an attractive stranger moves in next door, she begins worming her way into her neighbor’s life. | |||
|
|
GOING BY (dir: Iraj Karimi, Not Rated) – In this film debut by one of Iran’s most prominent movie critics, several carloads of people have vastly different experiences on the same stretch of highway. |
|
GREEN RIVER KILLER (dir: Ulli Lommel, R) – Just so we have the complete set, we add THE GREEN RIVER KILLER to our collection of serial killer bio-pics that already includes TED BUNDY, GACY and DAHMER. | |||
|
|
HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON: THE IMPASSIONED EYE (dir: Heinz Butler, Not Rated) – Isabelle Huppert and Arthur Miller are on hand to spout superlatives about Henri Cartier-Bresson in this documentary about the man many consider to be the most important photographer of the last century. |
|
THE ICE HARVEST (dir: Harold Ramis, R) – John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton star as two lawyers who think they’ve planned the perfect crime by ripping off a mob client. Really? Has anyone in a movie ever tried to rip off the mob and had it work out perfectly? Luckily, it doesn’t here either and this darkly funny thriller would be a lot less fun to watch if it had. | |||
|
|
LUELLA MILLER (dir: Dane Giraud, Not Rated) – A beautiful stranger causes loads of problems in a small New Zealand town in this psychological thriller that’s been compared to the work of Roman Polanski. |
|
PERCEPTION (dir: Irving Schwartz, Not Rated) – Piper Perabo stars as a young woman returning home to New York only to encounter trouble from everyone she runs into. Also starring Mary Beth Hurt and Seth Meyers. | |||
|
|
PORNOGRAFIA (dir: Jan Jakub Kolski, Not Rated) – Two artists hiding from the Nazis on a country estate in Poland play matchmaker with a young couple in this adaptation of one of Poland’s most beloved novels. |
|
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (dir: Joe Wright, PG) – Forget all the haters that say Jane Austen is just emotional pornography for lonely women. Her books have earned their place in history. In this sparkling adaptation of her perhaps greatest book, Keira Knightley has a lovely turn as Elizabeth Bennet. | |||
|
|
SATURDAY (dir: Juan Villegas, Not Rated) – If you love the talky films of Eric Rohmer, you’re bound to like this Argentinean movie that examines the small details of six people’s lives over the course of one day in Buenos Aires. |
|
SEAMLESS (dir: Douglas Keeve, Not Rated) – This documentary follows three aspiring fashion designers as they compete for a prize of $200,000 and a mentorship with an industry bigwig. | |||
|
|
*THREE EXTREMES (dir: Takashi Miike / Chan-wook Park / Fruit Chan, R) – Three of Asia’s hottest directors contribute short films for this anthology. When Takashi Miike’s offering turns out to be the least disturbing, you know you’re in trouble. |
|
^THE UNTOLD STORY OF EMMETT LOUIS TILL (dir: Keith & Kevin A. Beauchamp, PG) – In an incident that many consider to be the major catalyst for the Civil Rights movement, a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago was murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman while visiting relatives in Mississippi. This film actually helped to reopen the unsolved case due to the director’s 10 year effort. | |||
|
|
THE VISITATION (dir: Robby Henson, PG-13) – Martin Donovan and Edward Furlong star in this supernatural thriller set in a small town where a mysterious stranger has begun exhibiting bizarre powers. |
|
WALK THE LINE (dir: James Mangold, PG-13) – Sure, it’s Oscar bait. Sure, it follows the musician bio-pic formula religiously. But Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon are so good as Johnny and June Carter Cash that you just don’t care. | |||
|
|
WHAT IVA RECORDED (dir: Tomislav Radic, Not Rated) – In this Croatian drama, a teenage girl is given a video camera that she proceeds to use to expose her family as a petty, squabbling epitome of dysfunction. |
|
WHERE THE TRUTH LIES (dir: Atom Egoyan, Unrated) – Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth star in the new film from Atom Egoyan, the director of THE SWEET HEREAFTER, as a Lewis & Martin-style comedy team that wind up with a dead girl in their hotel suite. | |||
|
|
WILLIAM EGGLESTON IN THE REAL WORLD (dir: Michael Almereyda, Not Rated) – Here’s another documentary about a photographer, this one about the man who inspired the look of the films of David Lynch and Gus Van Sant. |
|
YOURS, MINE & OURS (dir: Raja Gosnell, PG) – What happens when Dennis Quaid, who has six kids, marries Rene Russo, who has ten of her own? Uproarious hilarity the likes of which we haven’t seen since CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN 2. | |||
| * = Greg's pick of the week ^ = Bart's pick of the week | ||||||