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Click on the title for details. |
MARCH 21 - MARCH 27, 2006
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MARCH 21 - MARCH 27, 2006 |
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BLACKMAIL BOY (dir: Michalis Reppas / Thanassis Papathanasiou, Not Rated) – A dysfunctional family in a small Greek town goes about blackmailing, murdering and swapping partners with a relish the residents of Detroit would be proud of. |
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BUFFALO BOY (dir: Nguyen-Vo Nghiem-Minh, Not Rated) – When you’re coming of age in 1940s Vietnam and you need to find grass to feed your buffalo, you have no choice but to start running with a rough and dangerous band of buffalo herders. | |||
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BUKOWSKI: BORN INTO THIS (dir: John Dullaghan, R) – Bono, Harry Dean Stanton, Tom Waits and other drunk people are on hand to pay tribute to one of the greatest drunks of all time, Charles Bukowski. |
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CAPOTE (dir: Bennett Miller, R) – P.S. Hoffman may have had his work in ALONG CAME POLLY and TWISTER overlooked by the Academy, but they practically threw the Oscar at him for masterfully capturing every nuance of the wily and loveable scamp of the New York literati in this terrific bio-pic. Rock on, Hoff-meister! | |||
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CHICKEN LITTLE (dir: Mark Dindal, G) – Do you hate your children? If not, then don’t let them watch this. It’s insulting even to stupid kids. Disney minus Pixar equals suck-city. |
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DEAR WENDY (dir: Thomas Vinterberg, Not Rated) – If you don’t know the deal with Lars Von Trier, let me catch you up. He’s the Danish filmmaker responsible for DOGVILLE, DANCER IN THE DARK and BREAKING THE WAVES. He’s very outspoken in his criticism of America’s cultural imperialism, but he’s never been to America because he’s phobic of, among other things, flying. In his latest project (which he wrote but didn’t direct) he continues to point out how lame we are with a modern day fable about our obsession with guns. Jamie Bell, the British teenage actor, once again plays an American teenager. | |||
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DERAILED (dir: Mikael Håfström, Unrated) – America’s sweetheart Jennifer Aniston sullies her image a bit with this sleazy thriller involving a one-night-stand gone drastically wrong. Clive Owen plays her bed buddy, but Vincent Cassel steals the show as a French baddie. |
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DREAMER:
INSPIRED BY A |
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THE DYING GAUL (dir: Craig Lucas, R) – A dream cast of Campbell Scott, Peter Sarsgaard and Patricia Clarkson assemble for this intriguing and sometimes difficult story of a screenwriter who becomes strangely entangled with a Hollywood executive and his wife. |
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EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED (dir: Liev Schreiber, PG-13) – Elijah Wood heads off to the Ukraine in this adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s sort-of memoir. With a hilarious translator in tow, he attempts to find the woman who saved his Grandfather from the Nazis in 1942. Worth the price of admission alone for a dog named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr.. | |||
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GOOD MORNING, NIGHT (dir: Marco Bellocchio, Not Rated) – This Italian thriller documents the kidnapping and murder of a former Prime Minister by the terrorist group The Red Brigades in 1978. In addition to picking up awards at The Venice Film Festival and The European Film Awards, GOOD MORNING, NIGHT also landed on many critics ten best lists for 2004. |
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IN THE MIX (dir: Ron Underwood, PG-13) – Singing and dancing sensation Usher returns to acting (let’s not forget his work in THE FACULTY and SHE’S ALL THAT) by playing the bodyguard of a Mafia boss’s super-hot daughter. | |||
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^KEANE (dir: Lodge Kerrigan, R) – FLIGHTPLAN hits the streets of New York when a guy who might be nuts searches for his daughter who may never have existed. Directed by indie favorite Lodge Kerrigan. |
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A LEAGUE OF ORDINARY GENTLEMEN (dir: Chris Browne, R) – This documentary shines a light on the unheralded, undervalued and, yes, unimpressive world of professional bowling. | |||
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LOGGERHEADS (dir: Tim Kirkman, PG-13) – Critics loved this indie drama about a handsome drifter who travels to North Carolina to save endangered Loggerhead sea turtes. |
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PARADISE NOW (dir: Hany Abu-Assad, PG-13) – I know a lot of kids these days think being a suicide bomber may seem like a glamorously dangerous activity, but this controversial drama about two fellows bent on blowing themselves up in Tel Aviv will set them straight. | |||
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SEQUINS (dir: Eleonore Faucher, Not Rated) – You know when critics call a movie “a film for the senses,” you’re not dealing with plot heavy material. This “beautifully observed” story of female friendship in a small town in France is lovely to look at, so wake me up when it’s over. |
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SHOW ME (dir: Cassandra Nicolaou, R) – Two street kids kidnap a well-to-do woman and head to a remote cabin in the woods, but soon her yuppie veneer is shed and they’re all heading for a violent showdown. | |||
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SOUTHERN BELLES (dir: Paul S. Myers / Brennan Shroff, R) – The lovely and talented Anna Faris stars as a nice girl stuck in a trailer park in Georgia. She and her friend decide to head for the big city of Atlanta to make all their dreams come true but unexpectedly encounter obstacles along the way. |
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*THE SQUID AND THE WHALE (dir: Noah Baumbach, R) – Ahh, divorce. Never has a movie so captured all the magic and mystery of that odious transaction. Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney turn in fantastic performances as a couple whose squabbling and selfishness threaten to derail their children’s lives. Oh. And Jeff Daniels gets to make out with Anna Paquin who played his daughter in FLY AWAY HOME. Yuck. | |||
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WHISKY (dir: Juan Pablo Rebella / Pablo Stoll, Not Rated) – A lonely sock factory owner in Uruguay has his assistant pretend to be his wife when his annoying brother comes to visit. This bitterly funny comedy is like a southern hemisphere crossbreed of a Jim Jarmusch/Aki Kaurismaki film. |
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THE YOUNG UNKNOWNS (dir: Catherine Jelski, R) – Remember Brian Krakow from MY SO-CALLED LIFE? Well, he stars in this 21st Century LESS THAN ZERO as a Hollywood brat whose life is starting to unravel. | |||
| * = Greg's pick of the week ^ = Bart's pick of the week | ||||||