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April 23-29, 2009
buzz@boulderweekly.com
 Adventureland
This sweet, sharp coming-of-age romance is a little warmer, a little funnier and a lot more truthful than the last 20 or 30 of its ilk. You know the kind: R-rated comedies about socially maladroit horndogs on the brink of adulthood, partying and setting their sights on the rest of their lives. All this happens in Adventureland — set in 1987, mostly within the confines of a Pittsburgh amusement park — yet the characters, female as well as male, interact like real people. It’s my favorite American movie so far this year. Rated R (language, drug use and sexual references). At Century. — Michael Phillips
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
In this classic fable, a poor merchant (Marcel André) picks a rose for his daughter, Belle (Josette Day), angering the garden’s owner, a half-human/half-beast (Jean Marais) who threatens the merchant with death but agrees to accept one of the merchant’s daughters instead. To save her father, Belle offers herself and goes to live at the castle, where she finds the beast to be less fearsome and more sympathetic than expected. Poet and surrealist Jean Cocteau directed his black-and-white film in 1946 in part to acknowledge the way the miseries of World War II had affected some men, turning them into apparent monsters who deserved more compassion from society. Not rated. At International Film Series. — IFS
 Crips and Bloods: Made in America
In Crips and Bloods: Made In America, renowned documentarian Stacy Peralta (Dogtown and Z Boys, Riding Giants) examines the story of South Los Angeles and the gangs that inhabit it. Blending gripping archival footage and photos with in-depth interviews of current and former gang members, educators, historians, family members and experts, Peralta brings his trademark dynamic visual style and story-telling ability to this often-ignored chapter of America’s history. Hard-hitting, yet ultimately hopeful, Crips and Bloods: Made In America not only documents the emergence of the Bloods and the Crips and their growth beyond the borders of South Central, but also offers insight as to how this ongoing tragedy might be resolved. Produced by NBA superstar Baron Davis and narrated by Academy Award-winning actor, Forest Whitaker. Not rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society
Examined Life
In Examined Life, filmmaker Astra Taylor accompanies some of today’s most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas. Peter Singer’s thoughts on the ethics of consumption are amplified against the backdrop of Fifth Avenue’s posh boutiques. Slavoj Zizek questions current beliefs about the environment while sifting through a garbage dump. Michael Hardt ponders the nature of revolution while surrounded by symbols of wealth and leisure. Judith Butler and a friend stroll through San Francisco’s Mission District questioning our culture’s fixation on individualism. And while driving through Manhattan, Cornel West — perhaps America’s best-known public intellectual — compares philosophy to jazz and blues, reminding us how intense and invigorating a life of the mind can be. Offering privileged moments with great thinkers from fields ranging from moral philosophy to cultural theory, Examined Life reveals philosophy’s power to transform the way we see the world around us and imagine our place in it. Not rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society
Fast & Furious
If you’re in the mood for a lot of vroom, vroom, thump, thump, the fourth installment in the metal-twisting series that began with The Fast and the Furious (2001) should leave you satiated for a long time. The return of Vin Diesel restores energy to the franchise, and director Justin Lin infuses the necessary full-throttle bits with a dynamic lyricism. The plot isn’t really important as long as you know there are plenty of extreme and extended demolition derbies — countless cars gave their lives to make this movie possible. Rated R (language, drug use and sexual references). At Flatiron and Century. — Michael Phillips
 Hannah Montana: The Movie
Miley Cyrus, 16, stars in a big-screen expansion of the Disney Channel TV series in which Ms. Cyrus splits herself in two, trying to be both down-home Miley Stewart from Tennessee and, in disguise, Hannah Montana, L.A. rock star adored by millions, with only a dirty-blond wig to conceal her identity. Miley/Hannah must save her hometown of Crowley Corners, Tenn., from a developer (Barry Bostwick) who wants to build a mall and ruin the scenery. Alas, this isn’t a very funny film. Millions of kids will disagree, but they deserve better. Rated G. At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
The Haunting in Connecticut
There’s not much wrong with the house in this movie that a little WD-40 couldn’t cure. Everything creaks, including the dialogue. This so-so horror flick, supposedly based on a true story, bumps along from low-grade scare to scare, and it’s not lousy, mainly because Virginia Madsen prevents it from being so. It offers the requisite “jump” bits, and director Peter Cornwell manages some evocatively grisly images of long-ago mortuary activity and necromancy and PG-13-level nastiness. Rated PG-13 (some intense sequences of terror and disturbing images). At Flatiron. — Michael Phillips
I Love You, Man
This minor but enjoyable entry in the boy-man comedy genre stars Paul Rudd as a heterosexual L.A. real estate agent engaged to be married but short on straight-up male companionship in general and a best man for his wedding in particular. Along comes a sometime investment whiz (Jason Segel) living the life of a Venice Beach slacker. How these two meet and bond leads to much engaging time-wasting. Rated R (pervasive language, including crude and sexual references). At Flatiron and Century. — Michael Phillips
Ink
As the light fades and the city goes to sleep, two forces emerge. They are invisible except for the power they exert over us in our sleep. These two groups battle for our souls in our dreams. Through good dreams one force supports our hopes and gives us strength. Through nightmares the other force leads us toward desperation.
In this high-concept visual thriller, part It’s a Wonderful Life and Sin City, John and his daughter Emma are thrust into a fantastical dreamworld battle between good and evil where the most precious elements — love, loss and redemption — are at stake. At Starz. — Denver Film Society
Knowing
Nicolas Cage plays a man privy to the details of upcoming disasters — when, where and how many people will die. Until it jumps the tracks into self-righteousness, Knowing can be as unnerving as the best episodes of The Twilight Zone. This slice of disaster porn dabbles in faith and doubt and has no patience for fence-sitters. And by the way, isn’t Cage due to make a high-quality film one of these days? Rated PG-13 (disaster sequences, disturbing images and brief strong language). At Flatiron and Century. — Christopher Borrelli
Monsters vs. Aliens
DreamWorks’ animated 3-D feature is blessed with a high-concept title and Seth Rogen’s serenely dense line readings in the role of a genetically altered tomato gone wrong. But much of the project went wrong somewhere, along with the tomato. The script piles on the mayhem and forgets the funny. To add insult to a paucity of jokes, the look of the picture is cold and oddly flat. This story of imprisoned monsters and rampaging aliens centers on a woman (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) who is creamed by a meteor that turns her into a giant. Rated PG (sci-fi action, some crude humor and mild language). At Flatiron, Century and Colony Square. — Michael Phillips
 Observe and Report
Seth Rogen is likely to get blamed for everything wrong with Observe and Report, because he’s overexposed at the moment and the film doesn’t really work, even with its flashes of rude invention. But the fault lies with writer-director Jody Hill, who spends half the picture condescending to Rogen’s sociopathic mall cop before turning him into an object of working-class pity, and then working-class triumph. The hypocrisy smells, the comedy curdles and the violence is stupidly misjudged to boot. Rated R (pervasive language, graphic nudity, drug use, sexual content and violence). At Flatiron and Century. — Michael Phillips
Race to Witch Mountain
Benign yet assaultive PG mayhem — it’s a neat trick if you can pull it off. The Walt Disney Co., determined to remake every live-action feature in its canon, brings us a frenetic update of Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) in which Dwayne Johnson reunites with The Game Plan director Andy Fickman. The premise — alien kids with special powers try to get back home — echoes the original, but this hopped-up remake lays on the X-Files paranoia. The charismatic Johnson helps make it work. Rated PG (sequences of action and violence, frightening and dangerous situations, and some thematic elements). At Flatiron. — Michael Phillips
17 Again
See full screen review on page 45. Rated PG-13. At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks.
Skills Like This
Twenty-five-year-old Max Solomon would like to be a writer, but has to admit he’s just not going to make it with his pen when his play, The Onion Dance, meets with a catastrophic reaction in its opening performance. His best buddies are Dave, who brown-noses his way to a monumentally boring mid-level sales job with no future, and Tommy, a slacker best suited for hanging out in a coffee shop and being funny. With career options like these in front of him, Max commits an impulse bank robbery — of an absolutely unique, but effective, sort. Holding a gun on his own head, he relieves interested teller Lucy of the cash in her register and rejoins his disbelieving but admiring friends. In the next three days, more unusual robberies happen and a compelling romance blooms between Max and Lucy while Dave and Tommy have their lives equally changed and Max has to question his newfound success. Skills Like This is a hilarious, original and freewheeling comedy with a real heart, winner of a well-deserved Audience Award at the South by Southwest Film Festival. Not rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society
The Song of Sparrows
Karim works at an ostrich farm outside of Tehran, Iran. He leads a simple and contented life with his family in his small house, until one day when one of the ostriches runs away. Karim is blamed for the loss and is fired from the farm. Soon after, he travels to the city in order to repair his elder daughter’s hearing aid but finds himself mistaken for a motorcycle taxi driver. Thus begins his new profession: ferrying people and goods through heavy traffic. But the people and material goods that he deals with daily start to transform Karim’s generous and honest nature, much to the distress of his wife and daughters. It is up to those closest to him to restore the values that he had once cherished. Grammy-nominated composer and musician Hossein Alizadeh, a master tar and setar player, provides the haunting score. Not rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society
State of Play
See full screen review on page 45. Rated PG-13. At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks.
Sunshine Cleaning
Amy Adams and Emily Blunt play sisters who start up an unlicensed crime-scene cleanup business. They’re haunted by the suicide death of their mother; for them the biohazard removal biz is a way of processing their grief, and bringing to survivors the comfort they themselves seek. Certain narrative events are more about dramatic convenience than the mess of real life. But it helps to have actresses as vibrant as Adams and Blunt around. Director Christine Jeffs loosens the plotting as best she can, letting the interactions breathe. Rated R (language, disturbing images, some sexuality and drug use). At Century, Colony Square and Mayan. — Michael Phillips
Tokyo!
Tokyo! features the work of three directors with international cult followings, Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon-ho. Each contributes to this film a story about modern-day urban Japan. Gondry’s surreal “Interior Design” centers on a woman who moves to a cramped apartment in Tokyo with her increasingly successful filmmaker boyfriend. To support his goals, she begins to blend into their surroundings. Carax’s “Merde” is about a creature who lives in the sewers and emerges to harass Tokyo’s residents, eventually being brought to trial for his crimes. In “Shaking Tokyo,” Korean director Bong Joon-ho tells of a “hikikimori,” a shut-in, who falls in love with a delivery person who brings him food. Not rated. At International Film Series. — IFS
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