|
click
here for the previous week's New Movies
click
here for 2009 OVERVIEW!
NEW
MOVIES! MARCH 10 - MARCH 16, 2009
|
|
BATTLE IN SEATTLE (dir: Stuart Townsend, R) – A bunch of disparate people get caught up in the chaos of the WTO protests in 1999.
Remember? It was that time a few Hampshire students on spring break put on gas masks and broke a window at Starbucks. |
|
 |
THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS (dir: Mark Herman, PG-13) – The young son of a concentration camp commandant befriends a boy from the wrong side of the fence in this audience approved but critically reviled drama. |
|
 |
CADILLAC RECORDS (dir: Darnell Martin, R) – Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Mos Def and Beyonce star in this energetic history of Chicago’s Chess Records, which in the
1950s and 60s churned out hit records by Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Etta James and many others. |
|
|
CHRIS & DON: A LOVE STORY (dir: Tina Mascara / Guido
Santi, Not Rated) – This acclaimed documentary about writer Christopher Isherwood and painter Don Bachardy’s three decade relationship takes in everything from the wild pre-war years of Berlin to the glamour of 1950’s Hollywood. Along the way they hung out with everyone from Igor Stravinsky to Tennessee Williams. |
|
 |
CONGORAMA (dir: Philippe
Falardeau, Not Rated) – Olivier Gourmet, best known for his work with The Dardenne Brothers, stars as a frustrated Belgian inventor who, after learning he was adopted, sets off for rural Quebec to find his birth parents. |
|
 |
ELSA & FRED (dir: Marcos
Carnevale, Not Rated) – Be prepared to be charmed into submission with this Spanish film about an elderly hypochondriac who, upon moving to a new apartment in Madrid, falls into a whirlwind romance with his new neighbor from Argentina. |
|
|
GROWING OUT (dir: Graham Ratliff, Not Rated) – A struggling musician thinks free room and board in exchange for some light housekeeping is a great deal. Which it would be, if there wasn’t something really sinister in the basement. |
|
 |
^HAPPY-GO-LUCKY (dir: Mike Leigh, R) – Mike Leigh adds to his impeccable legacy with this lauded comedy, and creates one of his most memorable characters with Poppy, a bubbly schoolteacher who refuses to acknowledge anything but the bright side. |
|
 |
*LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (dir: Tomas
Alfredson, R) – Granted, I’m going to be partial to any elegant Swedish coming-of-age vampire romance set in the
1980s that borrows its title from a Morrissey lyric. But how did this movie turn out so frickin’ perfect? Best movie of the decade. Period |
|
|
MARIE AND BRUCE (dir: Tom Cairns, R) – Based on a play by Wallace Shawn, MARIE AND BRUCE is an acidic comedy that follows a very dysfunctional couple, played by Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick, over the course of one fateful day. |
|
 |
THE MATADOR (dir: Stephen Higgins / Nina Gilden
Seavey, Not Rated) – If you consider bullfighting to be an outdated and barbaric act of cruelty, you should probably avoid this documentary about a young man’s pursuit of excellence in this controversial
“sport.” However, if you think bulls are overrated and need to be taken down a few notches, check it out. |
|
 |
MILK (dir: Gus Van
Sant, R) – Sean Penn may have crushed Mickey Rourke’s Oscar dreams, but his performance as Harvey Milk is equally deserving. Gus Van Sant’s labor of love also features outstanding performances from James Franco, Diego Luna and the chilling Josh
Brolin. |
|
|
NOBEL SON (dir: Randall Miller, R) – A young man living in his Nobel Prize-winning father’s shadow gets kidnapped for ransom on the eve of the ceremony. Alan Rickman, as the philandering, arrogant chemist, refuses to pay
- which sets off a darkly comic chain reaction. |
|
 |
P.J.: A JOURNEY OF THE HEART (dir: Russ Emanuel, Not Rated) – A doctor, played by John Heard, battling plenty of his own demons has to dig deep to help pull a man with post-traumatic stress out of his shell. |
|
 |
RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (dir: Jonathan
Demme, R) – Anne Hathaway decides to liven up her sister’s wedding with a little bit of drug-fuelled madness and good old-fashioned mental illness.
It's a revelatory performance for the former tween queen. She’s scary
great. And this is a triumphant return to form for Jonathan Demme, who hasn’t been this good since THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. |
|
|
ROLE MODELS (dir: David
Wain, Unrated) – Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott are hilarious in this David Wain
directed comedy about two screw-ups forced to do community service mentoring little kids after an energy drink fuelled driving mishap. Also featuring other WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER vets Elizabeth Banks, Ken Marino and A.D. Miles. |
|
 |
SUGARHOUSE (dir: Gary Love, R) – Andy
Serkis, better know as Gollum in THE LORD OF THE RINGS films, plays a psychotic London drug lord very keen on recovering a lost revolver. |
|
 |
SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK (dir: Charlie Kaufman, R) – ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND writer Charlie Kaufman makes his directorial debut with this mind-bender starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman
as a small time theater director who, reeling from relationship problems and a mysterious medical condition, surrenders to eccentricity and tries to build a full-scale replica of New York City in a giant warehouse. Crazier than it sounds. |
|
|
TRANSPORTER 3 (dir: Olivier Megaton, PG-13) – Jason Statham, who’s never met a paycheck he wouldn’t cash, returns as Frank Martin, the hard kicking driver who will go to any ridiculous length to make his delivery. |
|
 |
VIVA (dir: Anna
Biller, Unrated) – If they gave out awards for movies that most realistically recreate vintage
Euro-sleaze soft core of the variety commonly featured on late night
Cinemax, this movie would be SCHINDLER’S LIST. |
|
|
| *
= GREG's
pick of the week! ^ = Bart's
pick of the week! |
