Aleksandra
A look at the Chechnyan war through the eyes of a grandmother, Aleksandra follows an elderly woman as she takes a train trip to visit her grandson at his army camp in Chechnya. At International Film Series.

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.

The Big Lebowski
Hey, all you Little Lebowski Urban Achievers, it’s time to strap on your bowling shoes and mix some Caucasians. This Coen brothers cult classic did for stoners what The Rocky Horror Picture Show did for transsexual goths: it gave them the opportunity to dress up and get wasted. When you show up at the Boulder Theater, be prepared to meet The Dude, Walter Sobchak, Donny or even the quintessential messianic pedophile himself, Jesus Quintana. “It’s good to know he’s out there, The Dude, takin’ ‘er easy for all us sinners.” Rated R. At Boulder Theater.

Body of Lies
Ridley Scott directs this slick, busy international thriller that stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the CIA’s top man in Jordan, on the hunt of an Osama bin Laden-style terrorist. Russell Crowe gets most of screenwriter William The Departed Monahan’s best lines as the spymaster back home. Rated R (strong violence, including some torture, and language throughout). At Century and Flatiron. — Michael Phillips

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 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
This richly designed fantasy is set in an underground city, where a couple of resourceful kids hold the key to civilization’s future. While life above ground regenerates after the end of the world as we know it, the citizens of Ember (including a mayor played by Bill Murray) cope with their makeshift metropolis, built to last for 200 years. Time’s almost up. Gil Kenan of Monster House directs, and he gets the texture, tone and spirit of this movie just right. Rated PG (mild peril and some thematic elements). At Flatiron. — Michael Phillips

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, Colony Square, 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

Filth and Wisdom
A Madonna-directed flick about three flatmates in London who all live desperate lives. At least the guys of Gogol Bordello make an appearance. Not rated. At Chez Artiste.

Frontrunners
Frontrunners is a smart and funny political documentary that follows the student council presidential campaign at one of the country’s most prestigious public high schools: Stuyvesant High School in New York City. An entertaining and symbolic campaign film, put forth in classic verite style, we follow four charming and idiosyncratic candidates as they navigate an electoral process that is said to be one of the most competitive at the high-school level. These teenaged candidates face the same issues as candidates of any age, such as picking the “right” running mate, shaking as many hands as possible, preparing for televised debates, impressing the pundits and journalistic community, addressing sensitive race-related issues and mobilizing an apathetic voter base. Not rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society

High School Musical 3
A bunch of high-school seniors bust out into song and cliché as they celebrate their final year in high school and mourn their future separation. Rated G. At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks.

It Always Rains on Sunday (1947)
A 1940s tragic thriller in which an escaped convict attempts to hide out at his former (and recently remarried) lover’s house. Not rated. At International Film Series.

Labyrinth (1986)
A product of the late, great Jim Henson, Labyrinth is a musical that stars David Bowie, his bulge and a series of magical puppets. Frustrated with watching her little brother, Tobey, Sarah wishes he would be taken by the goblins in his bedtime story. Upon hearing this, Jareth the Goblin King kidnaps the baby. Sarah must travel through the labyrinth and rescue Tobey before he is permanently transformed. Rated PG. Weekend midnight film at Esquire.

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
See full screen review on page 34. Rated PG-13. At Flatiron, Colony Square and Twin Peaks.

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

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 maSomething From Alicesks 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 International Film Series. — Denver Film Society

Painters Painting (1972)
A documentary of the New York painting scene of 1940-70. Among the artists appearing in the film are Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns, Jules Olitski, Jackson Pollack, Larry Poons, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Tom Hess and Robert Schull. Not rated. At Boulder Public Library. — Boulder Public Library Film Program

Pride and Glory
A family with several generations in the NYC Police Department are torn apart when scandals uncover familial involvement in corruption. Rated R. At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks.

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

Rachel Getting Married
Jonathan Demme’s most bracing narrative feature since The Silence of the Lambs combines a wedding with a tense family reunion, starring Anne Hathaway as a recovering addict returning home for her sister’s nuptials. A triumph of ambience, this is the first Demme film since the 1980s that feels like a party — bittersweet, but a party nonetheless. Rated R (language and brief sexuality). At Mayan. — Michael Phillips

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

Saw V
In the latest of the Saw series, a detective who was supposedly the last to see Jigsaw alive must hunt to eliminate all of the loose ends of the Jigsaw legacy. Rated R. At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks.

Secrecy
This unflinching documentary uncovers the vast, invisible world of government secrecy. Today, 70 years after the builders of the bomb created a national information security system and just a few years after 9/11, a government secrecy crisis is looming. The combination of a declared war on terrorism and the curtailment of civil liberties sets the stage to ask some critical questions. When does security erode, rather than enhance, democracy? Can burying too much information actually undermine national security? Directors Moss and Galison explore this hidden world by meticulously examining the many implications of secrecy, both for government and individuals. Not rated. At Starz. — Ron Henderson

Secret Life of Bees
Based on Sue Monk Kidd’s 2002 novel, a hugely popular exploration of family, love and the brutal politics of race in 1964 South Carolina, this adaptation forces the characters through their paces at breakneck speed, never allowing a moment for reflection. Dakota Fanning plays Lily, a lonely budding writer who ends up in the care of four black women (Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Sophie Okonedo). It’s all very neat and tidy, but not very satisfying. Rated PG-13 (thematic material and some violence). At Flatiron, Century and Colony Square. — Jessica Reaves

Sex Drive
This derivative gross-out movie is easier to take if you accept that the answer to every baffling plot question is “because it’s a teen sex comedy.” Protagonist Ian (Josh Zuckerman) and two pals (Amanda Crew, Clark Duke) drive from Chicago to Tennessee so that Ian can meet an Internet chat partner who, he hopes, will relieve him of his virginity. It’s just a loose framework for a joyously crass celebration of adolescent hormones. Rated R (strong crude and sexual content, nudity, language, some drug and alcohol use — all involving teens). At Flatiron, Century and Colony Square. — Tasha Robinson

Something From Alice (1988)
This film mixes one live actor with a large variety of very odd, stop-motion animated creatures. The original story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll is followed reasonably faithfully, though it does emphasize the black humor of Carroll’s book. Not recommended for children. Not rated. At Boulder Public Library. — Boulder Public Library Film Program

Tell No One
This French thriller focuses in on Alexander, a pediatrician wrongfully accused but never prosecuted for the death of his wife, Margot. Eight years after the incident, two bodies are found near Margot’s former resting spot and the case reopens. Things get stickier when Alexander receives an e-mail, showing his wife alive and older. Not rated. At International Film Series.

Trouble the Water
This documentary follows an aspiring rap star and her street-savvy band as they search for a new beginning in the aftermath of Katrina. Not rated. At Chez Artiste.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Woody Allen’s liveliest feature in years. Two Americans (Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall) spend a summer in Spain, where their romantic fortunes intertwine with those of a sensually forthright painter (Javier Bardem) and, later, his violently jealous ex-wife and muse (Penelope Cruz). It’s modest but satisfying, and Hall is a major screen actress in the making. Rated PG-13 (mature thematic material involving sexuality, and smoking). At  Starz. — Michael Phillips

W.
See full screen review on page 34. Rated PG-13. At Flatiron,Century and Colony Square.

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