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 Colony Square. — Michael Phillips

Ashes of Time Redux
A Chinese action film in which Ouyang Feng, a broken-hearted swordsman who encounters friends and enemies that make him aware of his own solitude. Rated R. At Chez Artiste. 

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

Black Orpheus (1959)
This Brazilian masterpiece is a modern adaptation of the tragic Greek tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. Set in Rio de Jainero during the annual Carneval festival, the film is laden with bossa nova beats and Brazilian guitar. Not rated. At International Film Series.



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, Colony Square and Flatiron. — Michael Phillips

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 Mayan. — Michael Phillips

Changeling
Based on Southern California’s infamous Wineville chicken coop murders of the 1920s, this film, a combination of serial-killer saga and triumph of the human spirit, is a solid addition to Clint Eastwood’s directorial career. Eastwood tells a painful true story neatly and well, with one foot in rousing Hollywood melodrama and the other in a story that resists tidy resolution. Angelina Jolie shines as the mother of a missing boy, crusading against the law-enforcement officials who shut her away in hopes of shutting her up. Rated R (some violent and disturbing content and language). At Flatiron, Century and Twin Peaks. — 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.


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 Colony Square and Chez Artiste. — 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 and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips

The Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror
Helen and Luella are just another typical God-fearing mother and daughter who happen to bake Mincemeat muffins and run a charming if not a bit faded bed and breakfast inn. Or are they? On the eve of the biggest gay party weekend of the year, and having not made advance reservations, five “couples” find themselves having to make accommodations far from the city. There’s Dom and Alex, the “performers” and Deborah and Gabby, the sophisticated, entrepreneurial “lipsticks.” There’s also Mike and Eric, the upscale “yuppie” power couple and their annoying “fag-hag” friend, Lizette. Also checking in are Starr and Brenda, the struggling folk singer and tough-talking tomboy and lastly Rodney and Todd, the sugar daddy and “personal trainer.” What should have been the biggest gay party weekend of the year quickly turns into every gay and lesbian’s worst nightmare! Rated R. At Starz. — Denver Film Society

Happy-Go-Lucky
This is accomplished director Mike Leigh’s most buoyantly comic feature, and it’s a marvelous showcase for Sally Hawkins, who stars as the perpetually cheery Poppy, a grade-school teacher in North London. Happy-Go-Lucky is an ode to the power of irrational exuberance, and Leigh keeps the narrative machinery to a minimum. Everything is a bit neat, but a lot of Leigh’s work tends toward a heightened theatrical neatness. When it works, the result is a slice of life that, in terms of honest cinematic storytelling, is more like a slice of cake. Rated R (language). At Esquire. — Michael Phillips

The Haunting of Molly Hartley
Molly Hartley is a girl with a troubled past who looks to start fresh at a new school. After sparking with a popular student, her secrets start to seep out. Rated PG-13. At Flatiron and Colony Square.

High School Musical 3
See full screen review on page 34. Rated G. At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks.

Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
A classic Parisian surrealist romance that takes place at an Austrian hotel, where man and woman (who may or may not have met before) debate whether or not to run away together. Not rated. At International Film Series.


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 Starz.


Max Payne
Based on a 2001 video game, this joyless adaptation is sluggish as well as hard on the eyes. Max Payne offers max pain along with min invention, and the only thing that keeps it out of the bottom of the Dumpster is the presence of Mark Wahlberg as the vengeance-driven title character. Rated PG-13 (violence including intense shooting sequences, drug content, some sexuality and brief strong language). At Flatiron and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips

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 and Century. — Michael Phillips

Ordet (1955)
This film depicts the tragedies and epiphanies of a Danish farm family. Dreyer emphasizes the dramatic content by enlarging the cinematic context around an event, where traditional practice would contract it. In Danish with subtitles. Not rated. At Boulder Public Library. — Boulder Public Library Film Program

Pride and Glory
See full screen review on page 34. Rated R. At Flatiron, Colony Square and Twin Peaks.

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

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
An intimate look into the life and scandals of director Roman Polanski. Not rated. At International Film Series.

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

RocknRolla
In this Guy Ritchie film, a London real-estate scam has brought out the seediest of the British underworld for a slice of the pie. Among them is a surprise character, a drug-using former rock and roll star who had been presumed dead. Rated R. At Flatiron and Century.

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.

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 Colony Square. — Tasha Robinson

Trouble the Water
A riveting exploration of poverty in America as seen through the eyes of a couple trapped in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. This film received the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. The New York Times says “Superb... One of the best American documentaries in recent memory.” Not rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society

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.
Oliver Stone’s film about the life and exceptional good luck enjoyed (and squandered, if you agree with Stone) by George W. Bush may be ill-timed, unnecessary and no more psychologically probing than any other Stone movie. But much of it works as deft, brisk, slyly engaging docudrama. As with any Stone film, the swing between truth and fantasy is willful and wide. A wily and exacting Josh Brolin plays W., going just far enough with certain traits to ring the bell (the little heh-heh-heh chuckle, for instance). Rated PG-13 (language including sexual references, some alcohol abuse, smoking and brief disturbing war images). At Flatiron,Century and Colony Square. — Michael Phillips

What Just Happened
Small, mild, easy to watch and easier to forget, this adaptation of producer Art Linson’s Hollywood memoirs has the virtue of breeziness, and of Robert De Niro unwinding, after one too many tense performances, in the role of Linson’s alter ego, a twice-divorced and multi-directionally frazzled movie producer. Yet you leave wanting more, and funnier. Rated R (language, some violent images, sexual content and some drug material). At Chez Artiste. — Michael Phillips

Zach and Miri Make a Porno
Kevin Smith’s latest in which two longtime platonic friends seek to solve their economic woes by making an adult film together. Rated R. At Flatiron, Century and Colony Square.

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