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February 19-25, 2009
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Paul Newman and Robert Redford are the famed outlaws. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are each apparently bent on stealing the loot, or the show, in this caper-laced comedic jaunt through the mythical Old West. Rated PG. At International Film Series. — IFS
Confessions of a Shopaholic
See full screen review on page 37. Rated PG. At Century and Colony Square.
 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
This is a tall tale of a man aging in reverse while bobbing serenely on life’s unpredictable seas. The colorful supporting characters spill their guts to the wonder of nature played by Brad Pitt, as he begins his life a very old man, ages into late-middle age, ripens into... well, Brad Pitt, then embarks on the big fade into childhood, infancy and check-out time. It’s worth seeing because the sights are truly something. As with his earlier Zodiac, director David Fincher applies the right technology in the right way. Rated PG-13 (brief war violence, sexual content, language and smoking). At Colony Square. — Michael Phillips
Coraline
An intelligent preteen (Dakota Fanning) discovers a tiny door in the wall of her immense home that leads to a parallel universe offering a brighter, more inviting version of the same house, and her same parents. Coraline may not be for all tastes, and it’s certainly not for all kids, given its macabre premise. But Henry Selick’s film advances the stop-motion animation genre through that most heartening of attributes: quality. It pulls audiences into a meticulously detailed universe, familiar in many respects, menacing in others. Rated PG (thematic elements, scary images, some language and suggestive humor). At Century, Flatiron, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Zombies. They are the ultimate consumers. They are also the ultimate metaphor for our consumer-based society and the waste we leave in our wake.At International Film Series. Rated R. — IFS
Doubt
A deft, beautifully built play has made it to the screen with its dramatic juice intact. John Patrick Shanley adapted and directed his stage piece set in a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964, pitting Meryl Streep’s Sister Aloysius against Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Father Flynn, who’s suspected of an improper student relationship. Rated PG-13 (thematic material). At Mayan. — Michael Phillips
Fanboys
This comedy follows a quintet of Star Wars fanatics on a 1998 journey from Ohio to their Holy Grail: George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in California, where they hope to bust into the joint and sneak a look at a work print of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. It all should’ve been wilder and funnier. For a comedy of fanboy insanity to fly, it has to be a little less beholden to the pop-culture phenoms it is satirizing, however affectionately. Rated PG-13 (pervasive crude and sexual material, language and drug content). At Colony Square. — Michael Phillips
Fear(s) of the Dark
What is more frightening to you? Spiders? Needles? Darkness? A group of international artists was commissioned to create the black-and-white animations that explore the things that make them jump and squirm. Rated R. At International Film Series. — IFS
Floating Weeds (1959)
A troupe of travelling players arrives at a small seaport in the south of Japan. The aging master of the troupe goes to visit his old flame and their son. The boy believes his father is his uncle. The leading actress of the troupe is jealous and in order to humiliate the master, persuades a young actress to seduce his son. In Japanese with subtitles. At Boulder Public Library. — BPL Film Program
Friday the 13th (2009)
See full screen review on page 37. Rated R. At Century and Colony Square.
Frozen River
Filmed in sub-zero weather in upstate New York, writer/director Courtney Hunt’s award-winning debut feature is set in a real-life smuggling zone on a Native American reservation between New York State and Quebec, where the lure of fast money presents a daily challenge to single moms who would otherwise be making minimum wage. Strapped for money and having been deserted by her husband, working class Ray (Melissa Leo) reluctantly teams up with Lila (Misty Upham), a widowed Mohawk Indian, to smuggle illegal immigrants across the frozen St. Lawrence River from Canada to the U.S. in the trunk of a Dodge Spirit. Both women swear each trip will be their last, but one final run across the river leads to a showdown with the law on all sides. Not rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society
Gran Torino
Clint Eastwood’s performance as a reclusive Korean War veteran toughing it out in a sketchy Detroit-area neighborhood may well lead to his first Academy Award for acting. But we’ll have to assume he’s winning it for richer assignments en route. After the vet’s young neighbor (Bee Vang) breaks into his garage to steal the car for which this film is named, our hero sets out to teach the boy how to stand up to his venal gangsta cousins. Some of this is affecting and painful in the right way; a lot of it is just cheap. Rated R (language throughout and some violence). At Century and Colony Square. — Michael Phillips
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 Starz. — Michael Phillips
He’s Just Not That Into You
The film adaptation of Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo’s 2004 relationship-advice book is a sprawling, many-threaded series of stories, most of which contradict the book’s advice about moving on when facing a lack of commitment. Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, Drew Barrymore and Ben Affleck head the cast of this romantic comedy, which has some fun with its bubble-gum tone until a rash of ridiculous happy endings takes all the bite out of the premise. Rated PG-13 (sexual content and brief strong language). At Century and Colony Square. — Tasha Robinson
The International
Director Tom Tykwer’s thriller is all over the place, both geographically and in terms of audience satisfaction. Clive Owen plays an Interpol agent working with his ally in the New York DA’s office (Naomi Watts) to bust a nefarious bank. Some of the set pieces are terrific, particularly the opening scene in Berlin and a shootout at the Guggenheim Museum, but getting in and out of such sequences is not the film’s strong suit. Tykwer (Run Lola Run) has a way with complex cinematic mayhem, but International is tripped up by klutzy, formulaic dialogue. Rated R (some sequences of violence and language). At Century and Colony Square. — Michael Phillips
JCVD
This unusual vehicle for Jean-Claude Van Damme is an unexpectedly droll game of three-card monte disguised as an action film that turns into a (fake) reality-TV-style documentary and then into a hostage thriller. The star’s star has waned, and he has child-custody battles to wage, as well as a drug-and-philandering rep to cloud his recent past. When Van Damme finds himself embroiled in a heist and then a hostage situation, he must draw upon his inner Van Damme to resolve it. The film is more a novelty item than a fully formed work, but it’s very entertaining. Rated R (language and some violence). At International Film Series. — Michael Phillips
Milk
The story of Harvey Milk is a tragedy, but not since Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High has Sean Penn played such a serenely happy individual. Penn is superb as the martyred San Francisco city supervisor, America’s first widely acknowledged openly gay elected official. He was killed by Milk’s former colleague, Dan White (Josh Brolin, also excellent), minutes after White’s fatal shooting of Mayor George Moscone in 1978. Rated R (language, some sexual content and brief violence). At Mayan. — Michael Phillips
Moscow, Belgium
Moscow, or “Moscou” in Flemish, is a densely populated working class neighborhood on the outskirts of Ghent, Belgium. That’s where Matty (Barbara Sarafian), an ordinary housewife with nothing but three kids to her name, works at the post office. Her art teacher husband Werner (Johan Heldenbergh) has run off to the bedroom of one of his students. At 43, life seems pretty hopeless. Then she gets in a fender-bender at the grocery store with 29-year-old truck driver Johnny (Jurgen Delnaet). After some harsh words, Johnny finds himself attracted to Matty, who finds that she likes being wanted. A romance ensues just as her wandering husband comes home. Now the center of attention, Matty must choose whether to settle back into the life she was leading or step into the unknown. A heartfelt dramatic comedy about a woman whose soul is full of dents and bruises, from award-winning director Christophe Van Rompaey. Not rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society
Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Kevin James plays a mall security guard trying to stop a Black Friday robbery scheme. Underneath all the cartoonish mall mayhem and silly slapstick lies a comedy that aspires to be the sort of gentle crowd-pleaser John Hughes used to make, had the filmmakers been more willing to sacrifice some of James’ rolling-and-tumbling time. Rated PG (some violence, mild crude and suggestive humor and language). At Century. — Glenn Whipp
Pink Panther 2
This disposable Pink Panther sequel follows the 2006 remake and once again features Steve Martin as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. The cast (which also includes Emily Mortimer, Andy Garcia, John Cleese and Lily Tomlin) sprints way out ahead of the material. Most of it would work twice as well if the filmmakers had eased up and allowed the performers to interact — to do their thing in medium shot, without a lot of pushy close-ups and overemphasis, so that their bodies might inform what their faces are up to. Rated PG (some suggestive humor, brief mild language and action). At Century and Colony Square. — Michael Phillips
Push
Psychic experiments started by the Nazis are being continued by the U.S. government, and so a telekinetic (Chris Evans) and a clairvoyant (Dakota Fanning) must recover a powerful experimental drug in the jam-packed streets of Hong Kong before a government agent (Djimon Hounsou) gets his hands on it. Director Paul McGuigan (Lucky Number Slevin) has never been keen on plot logic, and that might be fine if his inscrutable film offered anything other than lush images of Hong Kong. Rated PG-13 (intense sequences of action, intense sequences of violence, smoking and teen drinking). At Century and Colony Square. — Glenn Whipp
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 Starz. — Michael Phillips
The Reader
Kate Winslet stars in the film version of Bernhard Schlink’s 1995 novel about a 15-year-old West German boy who, in 1958, embarks on an affair with a 36-year-old trolley conductor with more on her mind, and in her past, than she admits. The novel was hugely popular as well as controversial worldwide and an Oprah’s Book Club selection besides. However, it needed a different set of interpreters to make any emotional sense of it on screen. Even in the scenes dominated by Winslet, you never quite believe the way anything unfolds. Rated R (some scenes of sexuality and nudity). At Colony Square and Chez Artiste. — Michael Phillips
Revolutionary Road
However sterling the craftsmanship, the film adaptation of Richard Yates’ 1961 novel — an excoriating portrait of a mid-1950s marriage built on sticks, straw and delusion — inflates the meaning and buffs the atmospheric surfaces of the story, rather than digging into its guts. But when stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet unleash their character’s demons, Revolutionary Road loses its tight, controlled sense of composition and air of solemnity and, in human terms, matters. Rated R (language and for some sexual content/nudity). At Century and Esquire. — Michael Phillips
Secrets (1966)
In Frankenheimer’s third part of his paranoia trilogy, which includes The Manchurian Candidate and Seven Days in May, a successful middle-aged businessman buys a new physiognomy and lifestyle from a secret organization known as “The Company,” but is mentally unable to handle his new life. Frankenheimer and cinematographer James Wong Howe combine their talents in choices of lenses, stark angles, and inventive camera movements to intensify the grim mood of this film. Frankenheimer said, “I wanted to make a matter-of-fact yet horrifying portrait of big business that will do anything for anybody, providing you are willing to pay for it.” Based on the novel by David Ely. Not rated. At Boulder Public Library. — BPL Film Program
Sleeper (1973)
A Greenwich Village health food store owner goes to the hospital for an ulcer operation in 1973. When the operation fails, he is cryogenically stored and awakens 200 years later. He is enlisted by his doctors to overthrow the Big Brother leader who rules the world. Some of this science fiction parody was shot in and around the Boulder area, and features regional modern architecture masterpieces by Charles Deaton, I. M. Pei, Charles A. Haertling and others. Architect Carl Worthington introduces the film. Not rated. At Boulder Public Library. — BPL Film Program
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire is a ruthlessly effective paean to destiny, leaving nothing to chance. It also has a good shot at winning this year’s Academy Award for best picture, if the pundits have anything to say about it. Every arrow plucked from director Danny Boyle’s quiver takes aim at the same objective: to leave you exhausted but wowed. An 18-year-old (Dev Patel) in the former Bombay, India, is suspected of cheating his way to national fame on the Hindi version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? Rated R (some violence, disturbing images and some language). At Century, Colony Square, Esquire and Chez Artiste. — Michael Phillips
Taken
Liam Neeson plays a former CIA spook whose clandestine career bled into his home and led to a divorce. After sex traffickers kidnap his daughter in Europe, our hero has 96 hours to save her, and he wastes no time karate-chopping his way through every mime and baguette peddler in France. The movie overheats quickly, but Neeson and the filmmakers manage to make the Charles Bronson-style simplicity work. Rated PG-13 (intense sequences of violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, some drug references and language). At Century and Colony Square. — Christopher Borrelli
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
The Visitor
A reclusive widower (Richard Jenkins) visiting New York City for an economics conference forges an unexpected friendship with a Syrian drummer (Haaz Sleiman) and his Senegalese girlfriend (Danai Gurira) in writer-director Tom McCarthy’s simple, moving story about connections and goodbyes. It’s a pleasure to see veteran character actor Jenkins step up to a leading role. Rated PG-13 (brief strong language). At Starz. — Michael Phillips
Waltz with Bashir
An extraordinary achievement and a true visual feast, Ari Folman’s animated Waltz With Bashir is a detective story as well as an moral inquiry into the specific horrors of one war (the 1982 Lebanon War), and one man’s buried memories of it. It’s personal filmmaking of the highest order, recognized with an Academy Award nomination for best foreign film. Rated R (some disturbing images of atrocities, strong violence, brief nudity and a scene of graphic sexual content). Rated R. At Esquire. — Michael Phillips
Who Does She Think She Is?
Your children’s wellbeing or your own? Responsibility or self-expression? Who Does She Think She Is? features five bold women who navigate some of the most problematic intersections of our time: mothering and creativity, partnering and independence, economics and art. Along the way the film invites us to consider ancient legacies where women were worshiped as cultural muses, to more modern times when most people can’t even name a handful of female artists. Not rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society
The Wrestler
This film spends 105 minutes grappling at the edge of camp, cheap laughs and cliches. Yet the way it’s handled by director Darren Aronofsky and especially by Mickey Rourke — who really should get an Oscar for his portrayal of Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a steroid-addled sweetie in tights — it stays honest and keeps on fighting. An aging, down-on-his luck pro grappler, The Ram has heart problems, but The Wrestler does not. It’s sincere, violent, sentimental, predictable and extremely effective. Rated R (violence, sexuality/nudity, language and some drug use). At Century and Mayan. — Michael Phillips
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