Alice in Wonderland (1915)
Alice lolls beside a brook with her sister, who reads aloud to her. In a dream, a white rabbit leads her to Wonderland, where she experiences many strange adventures including attending an animal convention. Based on the novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Silent. Live piano improvisations by Brian Golden. Not rated. At Boulder Public Library. — Boulder Public Library Film Program

Appaloosa
This leisurely, off-and-on buddy Western, set in the New Mexico territory in 1882, stars Ed Harris (who also co-wrote the screenplay and directed) as a gunslinger who goes up against a ruthless rancher (Jeremy Irons). This film could have used a real sense of danger to go along with all the neat, tidy, highfalutin’ honor and decency. Rated R (some violence and language). At Flatiron, Colony Square and Century. — Michael Phillips

Beverly Hills Chihuahua
A pampered chihuahua from Beverly Hills becomes lost in the mean streets of Mexico. Seriously. Rated PG. At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks.

Body of Lies
See full screen review on page 54. Rated R. At Century, Flatiron, Colony Square and Twin Peaks.

Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
Boogie Man is a comprehensive look at Lee Atwater, the blues-playing rogue whose rambunctious rise from the South to Chairman of the GOP made him a household name. He mentored Karl Rove and George W. Bush and played a key role in the elections of Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He wrote the Republican Party’s winning playbook which the McCain campaign is currently using. In eye-opening interviews with Atwater’s closest friends and enemies, Boogie Man re-examines Atwater’s crucial role in the remaking of the Republican Party. To Democrats offended by his cutthroat style (to say nothing of the 1988 Willie Horton controversy), Atwater was a political assassin dubbed by one congresswoman “the most evil man in America.” But to most Republicans he remains a hero for his deep understanding of the American heartland, his expert manipulation of the media, and his unapologetic vision of politics as war. Director Stefan Forbes offers a timely documentary for this election year as he examines the charming yet Machiavellian godfather of the modern negative political campaign. Not rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society

Burn After Reading
An imperious former spook (John Malkovich) accuses his blackmailers (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand) of heading a “league of morons,” in the latest film from Joel and Ethan Coen. As in all Coen japes, stupid has at least a 40 percent chance of getting you killed in spectacularly violent fashion. But the cosmic joke being played on the morons here isn’t much fun in the telling. Rated R (pervasive language, some sexual content, and violence). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Esquire. — Michael Phillips

Choke
The long-awaited film adaptation of the Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club) novel. In it, Victor Mancini spends his days working at a Colonial-era theme park and his nights pretending to choke at upscale restaurants. When patrons “save” him, they feel responsible for his life and send him money. Oh, and he’s a complete sex addict. Rated R. At Mayan.


City of Ember
See full screen review on page 54. Rated PG. At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks.

The Duchess
This film dramatizes Amanda Foreman’s popular biography of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (played by Keira Knightley), a cultishly adored (and sometimes loathed) celebrity of the 18th century known for her outspoken politics as much as her influence over British fashions. The Duchess is a beautifully crafted period piece, but it’s also disturbingly shallow, focused so tightly on one woman’s feelings of repression and loneliness that it lacks any perspective on her causes. Rated PG-13 (sexual content, brief nudity and thematic material). At Century, Flatiron, Chez Artiste and Mayan. — Tasha Robinson

Eagle Eye
Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan are dragooned into a vast cyber conspiracy involving a super-secret Pentagon surveillance weapon that’s basically a humorless female version of HAL 9000. The screenplay tries like the devil to get you all fussed up about omnivorous cyber-surveillance on a scale George Orwell never imagined, but the result is a hyperactive jumble that fails to whip up the right mixture of dread and propulsion. Rated PG-13 (intense sequences of action and violence and for language). At Flatiron. — Michael Phillips

The Exiles
The Exiles is the story of one wild-but-typical night in the lives of three young American Indians who have left their reservations to live in downtown Los Angeles. It presents the lifestyles and actions of these people that are “not true of all Indians of the time… but typical of many.” Starting at 4 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, Yvonne, a young, pregnant Apache, wanders around the shops of Grand Central Food Market in downtown Bunker Hill, L.A., as she gazes through glass windows that provide the barrier between her mundane existence and the unattainable. The film follows Yvonne, her husband Homer (Hualapi) and Tommy, a Mexican who lives with them, through 14 hours of their everyday life. With the fall of night comes the drinking, card-playing, picking up girls, fighting and dancing of the boys — juxtaposed against Yvonne’s lonely, uneventful existence. These two scenarios sum up the confused lives of a group that was part of a new generation caught between opposing forces — the past versus modern day living. Not rated. At International Film Series. — Denver Film Society

The Express
A sincere but formulaic biopic of running back Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy. Dennis Quaid gets top billing as Syracuse U. coach Ben Schwartzwalder, and the movie tilts too far in his direction. I wish the characterization of Davis came to more than general goodwill and great on-field maneuvers. Everything in The Express has a stilted and slightly artificial air. Rated PG (thematic content, violence and language involving racism, and for brief sensuality). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Narrated by Johnny Depp, this biopic lays out a history of Thompson’s work and his legacy, leaning heavily on his “gonzo” image, the hard-boozing, hard-drugging, larger-than-life persona that dominated his writing, and sometimes outshone it. The film is informative and a little titillating, but like Thompson’s work itself, it sometimes feels like a smoke screen, a colorful but distracting set of pretenses hiding as much as they reveal. Rated R (language and brief nudity). At International Film Series. — Tasha Robinson

Man on Wire
A documentary that follows Philippe Petit’s 1974 high-wire routine performed between the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York City. The act was hailed as the “artistic crime of the century.” Rated PG-13. At Chez Artiste.



Max Payne
After his partner and family are killed, a cop delves deep into the underworld to seek vengeance. Rated PG-13. At Flatiron, Colony Square and Twin Peaks.

My Life to Live (1962)
A Jean-Luc Godard film in which Nana (played by Godard’s then-wife Anna Karina) is confronted with prostitution after leaving her home to seek work as an actress in Paris. Not rated. At International Film Series.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Taking place during one offhandedly eventful night, this modest charmer stars Michael Cera and Kat Dennings as a couple of Jersey kids crisscrossing Manhattan with their respective posses in search of their favorite band rumored to be playing somewhere in the city, the two eventually intersecting long enough to realize they’re interested in each other. The film coasts on the appeal of its stars and its depiction of Manhattan as a place where your true self can find true love. Rated PG-13 (mature thematic material, including teen drinking, sexuality, language and crude behavior). At Flatiron, Century and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips

Nights in Rodanthe
A recently separated woman (Diane Lane) leaves her kids with her ex and heads to the scenic coastal burg of Rodanthe, N.C., where her pal owns the a picturesque inn. She’s there to spend time alone and prepare the inn for an incoming nor’easter, but the sole scheduled visitor is a doctor (Richard Gere) who recently lost a patient during a routine operation and has come to amends with the grieving widower (Scott Glenn). The result is a feather-light romance based on a feather-light novel by Nicholas Sparks. Rated PG-13 (some sensuality). At Century. — Michael Phillips

The Order of Myths
The first Mardi Gras in America was celebrated in Mobile, Ala., in 1703. In 2007, it is still racially segregated. Filmmaker Margaret Brown (Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt), herself a daughter of Mobile, escorts us into the parallel hearts of the city’s two carnivals. With unprecedented access, she traces the exotic world of secret mystic societies and centuries-old traditions and pageantry; diamond-encrusted crowns, voluminous, hand-sewn gowns, surreal masks and enormous papier-mache floats. Against this opulent backdrop, she uncovers a tangled web of historical violence and power dynamics, elusive forces that keep this hallowed tradition organized along enduring color lines. A shocking look at the state of race relations in America today. Not rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society

The Pool
The Pool is the story of Venkatesh, a “room boy” working at a hotel in Panjim, Goa, who sees from his perch in a mango tree a luxuriant garden and shimmering pool hidden behind a wall. In making whatever efforts he can to better himself, Venkatesh offers his services to the wealthy owner of the home. Not content to simply dream about a different life, Venkatesh is inquisitive about the home’s inhabitants — indeed about the world around him — and his curiosity changes the shape of his future. Working in Hindi with young actors and in a country obviously not his own, director/co-writer Chris Smith (Yes Men, American Movie) has nevertheless created a superbly incisive portrait. Not rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society

Quarantine
A reporter and a cameraman become quarantined in an apartment building. Rated R. At Century, Twin Peaks, Colony Square and Flatiron.

Religulous
Bill Maher and director Larry Charles get a fair number of laughs as they take aim at religious extremism in many forms. Yet even if you share Maher’s skepticism on his subject, you may wish he’d set up his straight men and straight women in a way that doesn’t merely score the cheapest possible laughs. Rated R (some language and sexual material).  At Century and Esquire. — Michael Phillips

Save Me
Mark (Chad Allen) is a young gay man who is addicted to sex and drugs. After a particularly nasty binge his brother checks him into Genesis House, a Christian retreat in New Mexico miles from anywhere. Run by a compassionate husband-and-wife team, Gayle (Judith Light) and Ted (Stephen Lang) have made it their life’s mission to cure young men of their “gay affliction” through spiritual guidance. At first, Mark resists, but soon takes the message to heart and begins to bond with his fellow residents — in particular Scott (Robert Gant), a mentor charged with guiding Mark through his conversion. As their friendship evolves into romance, Mark and Scott are forced to confront their true selves, while Gayle and Ted find the values they hold as absolute truths to be threatened. Not rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society

Secret Life of Bees
Based on the best-selling novel, The Secret Life of Bees takes place in 1964 in South Carolina. A young girl runs away after her mother’s accidental death and finds herself taken in by three black beekeeping sisters. Rated PG-13. At Flatiron and Century.

Sex Drive
A high-school senior takes a road trip with his friends to hook up with a girl he met online. Rated R. At Flatiron, Century and Colony Square.

The Story of Qiu Ju (1922)
The pregnant wife of a farmer demands an apology from the village chief who physically assaulted her husband in a dispute. The resulting quest for justice, takes her from her tiny village to the big city and into the labyrinth of post-Mao Chinese bureaucracy. In Mandarin with subtitles. At Boulder Public Library. — Boulder Public Library Film Program

W.
Oliver Stone’s latest film is an exposé of George W. Bush, his life and rise to presidency. Rated PG-13. At Flatiron and Century.

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