| NEW MOVIES! DECEMBER 26 -
JANUARY 2, 2007
click
here for last week's New Movies
click
here for 2006 OVERVIEW!
Click on the title for details.
|
 |
AMAR
TE DUELE (dir: Fernando Sariñana, R) – A rich girl and a
poor guy must fight class stereotypes to keep their love alive in
this Mexican weepie. |
|
 |
THE BLACK DAHLIA (dir: Brian De Palma, R) – Brian De Palma continues to find inspiration in the dark underbelly of society. In his latest, Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart play cops trying to solve the most notorious case in California history. Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Swank co-star. |
|
 |
BUENOS AIRES 100 KM (dir: Pablo José Meza, Not Rated) – In a small town in Argentina’s countryside, a group of teenage friends enjoy a last summer of youthful freedom before more adult concerns beckon. |
|
 |
COLDITZ (dir: Stuart
Orme, Not Rated) – Boasting a classy cast including Damian Lewis, Sophia Myles, James Fox and, umm, Jason Priestley, COLDITZ is the epic true story of an escape from one of Germany’s most notorious POW camps during WWII. |
|
 |
DANIKA (dir: Ariel
Vromen, R) – Marisa Tomei plays an overprotective mother whose everyday fears begin to control her life. The more she tries to control her fears, the more they control her and eventually spiral out of control into horrific delusions. |
|
 |
*THE DESCENT (dir: Neil Marshall, Unrated) – If you like your horror films claustrophobic and brutal, check out this British spelunking adventure gone awry. A group of adventurous women in an uncharted cave find their exit blocked by a rockslide and begin to turn on each other, until they realize they’re not alone. |
|
 |
EDI
(dir: Piotr Trzaskalski, Not Rated) – In a strange twist of fate,
a Polish scrap metal picker is made to look after the baby of the
woman he is falsely accused of raping. |
|
 |
^FACTOTUM (dir: Bent
Hamer, R) – Matt Dillon’s hot streak continues with this adaptation of a Charles Bukowski novel about, obviously, a drunk writer. Lili Taylor turns in a great performance as his partner in excess, and this is, sadly, one of the last projects of recently murdered indie icon Adrienne Shelly. |
|
 |
GOD’S SANDBOX (dir: Doron
Eran, Not Rated) – There’s a real Sixties fearlessness to this Israeli hippie exploitation film set in the Sinai Desert. Although it’s probably best avoided by viewers wary of graphic depictions of female circumcision. |
|
 |
HAVEN (dir: Frank E. Flowers, R) – It’s got Orlando Bloom, exotic locales and a sultry and dangerous love story. So why did every critic in America utterly despise it? |
|
 |
JACKASS NUMBER TWO (dir: Jeff
Tremaine, Unrated) – Why is it when BORAT does the same stuff it’s considered some grand social critique but with these guys it’s considered puerile potty humor? |
|
 |
THE LAST KISS (dir: Tony Goldwyn, R) – Zach Braff follows up GARDEN STATE by playing another lovelorn and slightly aimless young man in this remake of the award-winning Italian drama. |
|
 |
MACHUCA (dir: Andrés Wood, Not Rated) – Two boys from different social classes become unlikely friends in this terrific Chilean coming-of-age film set against the backdrop of the U.S.- backed assassination of Salvador Allende in 1973. |
|
 |
MY BROTHER'S WAR
(dir: Whitney Hamilton, Not Rated) – It’s COLD MOUNTAIN meets
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN when a young woman disguises herself as a man to
fight in the Civil War and forms a deep bond with a young war widow. |
|
 |
MY FIRST WEDDING (dir: Laurent
Firode, PG-13) – Rachael Leigh Cook plays a young bride-to-be who confesses to her priest that she worries about being unfaithful. Unfortunately, she wasn’t talking to a priest but to the carpenter repairing the confessional. |
|
 |
SHEITAN (dir: Kim
Chapiron, Not Rated) – French madman Vincent Cassel stars in this thriller that sees several young people headed to the countryside for Christmas only to end up as pawns in Monsieur Cassel’s sick game. |
|
 |
SHEM (dir: Caroline
Roboh, Not Rated) – A young and aimless Londoner embarks on a journey through Europe searching for his Jewish roots at the request of his grandmother in this quietly moving road movie. |
|
 |
A SIMPLE CURVE (dir: Aubrey
Nealon, Not Rated) – In a small town in Canada, a young, idealistic woodworker struggles to keep his business afloat with the help of his aging hippie draft-dodging Dad. This is this month’s Film Movement selection. |
|
 |
THE SPECTATOR (dir: Paolo
Franchi, Not Rated) – If your idea of fun is a bleak study of loneliness, voyeurism and passivity, you’ll love the new drama from Italy’s Paolo
Franchi. |
|
 |
TODAY AND TOMORROW (dir: Alejandro Chomski, Not Rated) – A struggling actress in Buenos Aires finds herself in a cycle of debt and frustration. So she does the logical thing and turns to streetwalking…and likes it. |
|
 |
THE WEEPING MEADOW (dir: Theo Angelopoulos, Not Rated) – Critics have been swanning over the films of Greece’s Theo Angelopoulos for years, but Bart and Greg just can’t get into him. Here’s another 3 hour meditation on love, family and fate that probably won’t change our minds. |
|
 |
WOMEN’S PRISON (dir: Manijeh
Hekmat, Not Rated) – If you’re thinking ILSA or CAGED HEAT, you’re going to be sorely mistaken. This is simply an Iranian drama about a woman imprisoned for murdering her violent stepfather. |
|
|
|
| * = Greg's
pick of the week ^ =
Bart's pick of the week |