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NEW MOVIES!  MARCH 17 - MARCH 23, 2009

AMUSEMENT (dir: John Simpson, R) – Yeah, clowns are scary. We get it.

AZUR & ASMAR: THE PRINCES' QUEST (dir: Michel Ocelot, PG) – Michael Ocelot, the French animator of the KIRIKOU films, made a big mistake when he decided to switch over to computer animation. If your kids make it all the way through this, they might be comatose.

BACK TO NORMANDY (dir: Nicolas Philibert, Not Rated) – Thirty years after working on a film about a 19th century triple murder in rural France that utilized local non-actors as its cast, Nicolas Philibert returns to track down those people. He finds that not much has changed.
ELEGY (dir: Isabel Coixet, R) – Based on a novella by Phillip Roth, ELEGY has Ben Kingsley, as a slimy college professor, getting his comeuppance from Penelope Cruz, his seductive student. The two Academy Award winners are terrific and it's always nice to see Ben Kingsley doing a movie for reasons other than the paycheck.

GOAL II: LIVING THE DREAM (dir: Jaume Collet-Serra, Not Rated) – Wow, they weren't kidding about this being a trilogy. Are you allowed to make sequels to a movie that nobody saw? Well, at least hardcore soccer fans should be happy.

ISLANDER (dir: Ian McCrudden, Not Rated) – 
We've been waiting for what seems like forever for the DVD release of this locally made winner about a fishing community on Vinalhaven, starring Philip Baker Hall and the pink Power Ranger.
*LAKE TAHOE (dir: Fernando Eimbcke, Not Rated) – Film Movement brings us this story of a Mexican teenager encountering weirdo after weirdo as he attempts to get his family car fixed in a small town. From the director of the delightful DUCK SEASON.

MOVING MIDWAY (dir: Godfrey Cheshire, Not Rated) – A documentarian moves his ancestral manor home to a more rural location in order to turn it into a working plantation again. Hopefully, making a film about the experience will help him come to grips with his family's slave-owning past.

MY ZINC BED (dir: Anthony Page, Not Rated) – Man, I sure love Paddy Considine. He's so great in DEAD MAN'S SHOES, LAST RESORT and IN AMERICA. Here he plays a recovering alcoholic who falls for a recovering cokehead, played by Uma Thurman.
PUNISHER: WAR ZONE (dir: Lexi Alexander, R) – Thomas Jane, still reveling in how awesome THE MIST was, took a pass on re-appearing as the super violent vigilante. The new guy is some former rugby player or something. And he was on ROME.

TAKE (dir: Charles Oliver, R) – Minnie Driver and Jeremy Renner slog through this grim tale of a gambling addict and a young mother who seemingly have little in common. That is, until fate gets involved.

THE VELVETEEN RABBIT (dir: Michael Landon Jr., G) – Christianity Today only gave this new adaptation of the popular children's story two and a half stars. Director Michael Landon Jr., who's very keen on carrying on his Dad's wholesome legacy, can't possibly consider that a favorable result.
WALLED IN (dir: Gilles Paquet-Brenner, R) – Does anybody in the world like Mischa Barton? Is there actually a person who would identify themselves as a Mischa Barton fan? I don't believe it.

WILD COMBINATION: A PORTRAIT OF ARTHUR RUSSELL (dir: Matt Wolf, Not Rated) – Arthur Russell, the avant-garde musician who died of AIDS in 1992, gets the documentary treatment with collaborators and friends like Phillip Glass contributing anecdotes.

^WONDERFUL TOWN (dir: Aditya Assarat, Not Rated) – Romance blooms in a small Thai town still dealing with the affects of the 2004 tsunami. An architect that has traveled there to help rebuild falls for a local girl, but they meet great resistance from the other residents who are wary of outsiders.
* = GREG's pick of the week!         ^ = Bart's pick of the week!

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