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July 9 - July 15, 2009
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 Angels and Demons
On the heels of the 2006 adaptation of Dan Brown’s best-seller The Da Vinci Code, Tom Hanks returns to the dullest role of his career, once again under the direction of Ron Howard, who takes the material as seriously as a kidney stone on the way out. Angels & Demons is the same sort of lumbering mediocrity that Da Vinci Code was. It’s more violent, which is something, I guess, and its narrative structure ensures a regular string of cliffhangers. But what turns the pages in print doesn’t necessarily propel a story onscreen. Rated PG-13 (sequences of violence, disturbing images and thematic material). At Flatiron. — Michael Phillips
Away We Go
Glib and charming in roughly equal measure, the road-tripping Away We Go is worth seeing for Maya Rudolph (best known for being underutilized on Saturday Night Live), who plays a mother-to-be living in Colorado with an insurance salesman (John Krasinski of The Office). From the beginning, with American Beauty, director Sam Mendes has never been one to defuse the smugness in a smug script. Much of the dialogue in Away We Go is enjoyable, but in their pursuit of happiness, the two lead characters remain attractive outlines. Rated R (language and some sexual content). At Century and Mayan. — Michael Phillips
Cheri
See full screen review. Rated R. At Esquire.
The Country Teacher
When a gifted and well-qualified young teacher takes a job teaching natural sciences at a grammar school in the country, he makes the acquaintance of a woman and her troubled 17-year-old son. The teacher has no romantic interest in the woman but they quickly form a strong friendship, each recognizing the other’s uncertainties, hopes and longing for love. When the teacher’s ex-boyfriend comes to visit from the city, he quickly realizes that nobody in the village knows that the teacher is gay and harbors a secret affection for the teenage boy. His jealous actions set in motion a series of events that will test the inner strength and compassion of the teacher, the woman and her son to a breaking point. Not Rated. At Starz — Denver Film Society
Departures
Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, Departures is a delightful journey into the heartland of Japan as well an astonishingly beautiful look at a sacred part of Japan’s cultural heritage. Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved, is suddenly left without a job. Daigo decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled Departures thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency only to discover that the job is actually for a “Nokanshi” or “encoffineer,” a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living. Not Rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society
End of the Road (1970)
Suppressed for decades and long considered lost, this film was shot two weeks after Bobby Kennedy’s assassination. The film captures, via the catatonic main character, the metaphorical destruction of 1960s idealism, and signals a prescient critique of the irresponsible “me” generation to come. Shot in the Berkshires by Gordon Willis, this is the true dawn of Independent Cinema. The film, which Terry Southern co-produced, has a harrowing (non-graphic) abortion scene, an existential, anti-war sentiment and an Actor’s Studio cast (many in their first starring roles) who play with an intensity rarely seen. Not Rated. At the Boulder Public Library — BPL Film Program
Food, Inc.
This eye-popping documentary from filmmaker Robert Kenner should win a few hearts and minds regarding what we put in our stomachs. But the film got virtually no cooperation from representatives of the dominant players in industrial food production, and as a result, Food, Inc. is a rangy, well-articulated essay rather than a compelling point-counterpoint. Rated PG (some thematic material and disturbing images). At Century and Chez Artiste. — Michael Phillips
The Glenn Miller Story (1954)
Unlike so many motion picture biographies, this one is an honest, intelligent depiction of one of the USA’s greatest musical influences. A bright young man with a love of the trombone and creating music encounters a young woman at the University of Colorado in Boulder campus and they are soon in love. After graduation, he goes to work playing in a pit orchestra for a Broadway show. He becomes best friends with the operator of a Boston dance palace where he develops his distinctive sound. He forms his own group and is met with great success. When World War II breaks out, he joins the army and spends most of his time entertaining the troops. Not Rated. At the Boulder Public Library — BPL Film Program
 The Goonies (1985)
They call themselves The Goonies. The secret caves. The old lighthouse. The lost map. The treacherous traps. The hidden treasure. And Sloth... Join the adventure. Rated PG. At the Boulder Theater. — BT
Hamlet: The Drama of Vengeance (1920)
Drawing inspiration from Edward P. Vining’s The Mystery of Hamlet, written in 1881, this film explores Vining’s theory that Hamlet’s curious behavior throughout the play is driven by the issue of gender; he was actually born a she, but raised as a male for reasons of state. This fascinating and somewhat controversial interpretation effectively re-frames the interplay of tensions between the Danish prince and other characters in Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. Not Rated. At the Boulder Public Library. — BPL Film Program
The Hangover
The Hangover takes care of its target audience — males who, after seeing director Todd Phillips’ earlier and funnier Old School, dreamed of joining the Old School fraternity. This film belongs to the what-happened-last-night? genre typified by Dude, Where’s My Car? Groom-to-be Doug (Justin Bartha) is whisked to Vegas from L.A. by his pals (Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms), with Doug’s eerie future brother-in-law (Zach Galifianakis) in tow. Chaos ensues; laughs do not (although Helms is an exception). Rated R (pervasive language, sexual content including nudity, and some drug material). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
Herb & Dorothy
This documentary tells the extraordinary story of Herbert Vogel, a postal clerk, and Dorothy Vogel, a librarian, who managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history with very modest means. In the early 1960s, when very little attention was paid to minimalist and conceptual art, Herb and Dorothy quietly began purchasing the works of unknown artists. Devoting all of Herb’s salary to purchase art they liked, and living on Dorothy’s paycheck alone, they continued collecting artworks guided by two rules: the piece had to be affordable, and it had to be small enough to fit in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Within these limitations, they collected over 4,000 pieces and proved themselves curatorial visionaries; most of those they supported and befriended went on to become world-renowned artists. Not Rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
See full screen review. Rated PG. At Flatiron, Twin Peaks Century and Colony Square.
Il Divo
Giulio Andreotti (Toni Servillo), variously nicknamed The Divine Giulio, Little Caesar, Beelezebub and Mr. Italy, was the uncrowned king of postwar Italian politics. Between 1972 and 1992 he was Prime Minister seven times and eventually named Senator for Life — but he was also famously accused of and tried for collusion with the mafia. Writer/director Paolo Sorrentino’s rip-roaring biopic is chockfull of colorful characters and sinister deaths: machine-gun ambushes, poisoned coffee in a “safe” jail cell, a plastic bag over the head, and more. Andreotti — witty, diminutive, hunched-over, a martyr to headaches — seems an unlikely figure to fear, yet he is at the center of a whirlwind of violence. Familiarity with Italian politics is not essential to enjoy the sheer entertainment and panache of this no-holds-barred portrait of the Machiavellian enigma of Andreotti. Jury Prize winner at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Not Rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society
Moon
This film could alternatively be titled 2009: A Space Odyssey, as it’s virtually impossible not to be reminded of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece between Kevin Spacey’s soothing ministrations as a computer named Gerty and Sam Rockwell’s efforts to cope as the lone occupant of a lunar outpost. Rockwell plays Sam, a technician working on a strip-mining operation on the moon. There’s an accident, a rescue and suddenly another man in this vacuum-sealed life who looks like a younger version of Sam. Director Duncan Jones, son of musician David Bowie, struggles to find entertainment within the esoteric. Rated R (language). At Mayan. — Betsy Sharkey
My Sister’s Keeper
The harder this cinematic assault weapon went at my tear ducts, the more duct tape I wrapped around them as a defensive measure. Anna (Abigail Breslin), a girl who was a test-tube baby conceived to provide bone marrow to her older sister (Sofia Vassilieva), who has leukemia, sues her parents (Cameron Diaz, Jason Patric) for “medical emancipation,” and while you’d think inter-family legal action would stop all the lovey-dovey montages of everybody cherishing every minute together, think again. Rated PG-13 (mature thematic content, some disturbing images, sensuality, language, and brief teen smoking). At Flatiron, Century and Colony Square. — Michael Phillips
Office Space
This geeky 1999 office comedy starring Ron Livingston as a corporate everyman instantly gained cult status for its unabashed caricatures of office personalities, and its theme of corporate sabotage. Peter Gibbons (Livingston) is a typical middle manager living a mundane life amid a gray maze of cubicles. Everything in his life reeks of mediocrity, from the mid-size car he drives to the chain restaurant, Chotchky’s (read: TGI Friday’s), where he eats lunch every day. Even his apartment, a cookie-cutter duplex with walls so thin that he can chat with his next-door neighbor through the plaster, is totally lacking in personality. The company where he works is peppered with ambitionless drones who blindly comply with the condescending requests made of them by their Porsche-driving CEO (Gary Cole). Then one day, Gibbons snaps. As a team of experts is brought in to enact large-scale layoffs, Gibbons simply stops trying and adopts an attitude of total disinterest. That is, he’s only interested in dating the blond waitress (Jennifer Anniston) at the local restaurant, and putting in place a devilish scheme for some corporate payback. Rated R. At Red Rocks. — Denver Film Society
Pineapple Express
A dope dealer (James Franco) and his steady customer (Seth Rogen) go on the run after the latter witnesses a drug-related murder and drops a precious joint at the scene of the crime. Few recent comedies have started so well and ended so poorly. At its sharpest, the script by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who co-wrote Superbad, recalls what made Superbad worth seeing: the sidewinding conversational riffs, the why-am-I-laughing? wordplay. Then, around the midpoint, the film falls apart, the violence overshadowing the laughs. Rated R (pervasive language, drug use, sexual references and violence). At Boulder Outdoor Cinema. — Michael Phillips
The Proposal
In this disposable romantic comedy, Ryan Reynolds plays the beleaguered Man Friday to a fearsomely mean book editor played by Sandra Bullock. The editor, a Canadian living in New York, has visa troubles and is threatened with deportation. She strong-arms the assistant into marrying her — quickie divorce to follow — under the suspicious eye of Immigration Services. It’s not terrible, but there’s not much fun to be had watching the Wicked Witch of the Upper East Side get her comeuppance and thaw out and fall in love. Rated PG-13 (sexual content, nudity and language). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
Public Enemies
Johnny Depp stars as charismatic Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger, and Christian Bale plays G-man Melvin Purvis. The film is a fascinating bundle of contradictions -- authentic in a million details, deeply romanticized in others. Cool, calm and collected, this is more love story than gangster picture (Marion Cotillard plays Dillinger’s lover), and it’s more vivid around the edges than at its center. Yet a genuine filmmaking intelligence guides every scene. Director Michael Mann focuses on 1933-34, the final year and a half in Dillinger’s life. Rated R (gangster violence and some language). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
The Secret of Grain
Mister Beiji, a weary 60-year-old, is still grinding away at the shipyard, in a job that has become more painful as the years wear on. A divorced father, he desperately tries to remain close to his loved ones, a task made all the more difficult by familial rifts and tensions at the breaking point, and which financial difficulties only exacerbate. In this delicate part of his life, it seems like everything contributes to his feelings of uselessness. He has carried the weight of perceived failure for a long time, and his only thought is to overcome it by founding his own business, a restaurant. But it isn’t going to be easy. His income is insufficient and irregular, and falls far short of what he’ll need to realize his ambition. That doesn’t keep him from dreaming and talking about it, mostly to his family. That family is, little by little, drawn together around the plan, which has for all of them taken on value as a symbolic quest for a better life. Thanks to their can-do attitude and all their hard work, the dream will come true... Well, almost. Not Rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society
Sita Sings the Blues
A feminist spoof of the ancient Hindu epic The Ramayana, Sita Sings the Blues uses a rich blend of visual styles to wed the story of a modern-day marital split to the saga of the goddess Sita, abandoned by her husband Rama. With funding from a Guggenheim fellowship, syndicated comic-strip artist Nina Paley (The Hots, Nina’s Adventures) single-handedly created this delightful, flash-animated adult cartoon on a laptop over the space of five years. The narrative is broken up by segments of stop-action cutouts as elaborate as pages in a children’s pop-up book, while shadow puppets engage in a gentle sibling rivalry to recount the details of the 3,000-year-old fairy tale. It’s a handmade, heartfelt romp that the corporate heads at Disney could never have achieved. Not Rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society
Star Trek
The new Star Trek seeks to extend a lucrative brand with a young demographic. But it’s a real movie — breathlessly paced bordering on manic, but propulsively entertaining. The script ping-pongs early on between Iowa and Vulcan, as the destinies of James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) entwine. The plot issues — of moderate interest at best — deal with the space-time continuum and alternate reality. The film may not be memorable science fiction, but it's an engaging pop diversion. Rated PG-13 (sci-fi action and violence and brief sexual content). Rated PG-13. At Flatiron and Colony Square. — Michael Phillips
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Denzel Washington’s easygoing authority compensates for a lot in a sequel that fails to live up to the 1974 original, which starred Walter Matthau as a New York City transit cop locking horns with subway hijackers. Director Tony Scott’s modern version is slick, predictable and, thanks mainly to Washington’s canny underplaying, fairly diverting. John Travolta plays the lead baddie, sporting a handlebar mustache that wouldn’t be out of place in William Friedkin’s Cruising. Rated R (violence and pervasive language). At Flatiron.— Michael Phillips
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
The first Transformers was a headache, but I sort of enjoyed it. It was a Slurpee brain-freeze of a blockbuster. This sequel is more like listening to rocks in a clothes dryer for 2.5 hours. Nobody’s looking for anything other than relentless, brainless action, but director Michael Bay offers nothing but visual and aural chaos. Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox run for their lives while the U.S. military and their metallic allies deal with evil robots. Rated PG-13 (intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
Up
Balloon salesman Carl (voiced by Ed Asner) shared a dream with his wife to visit South America. After his wife dies, Carl’s yearning for adventure dies as well. Yet it rises again, and Up becomes a chronicle of an unlikely friendship between Carl and an 8-year-old (Jordan Nagai). This Disney-Pixar film feels nervy and adventurous and a little messy, the result of formidable creators working on an enormous budget, enormously well-spent. Yet the expansive emotional landscape of Up is something new. More power to these people. They are making the best films coming out of Hollywood. Rated PG (some peril and action). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
Whatever Works
On the heels of last year’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the freshest Woody Allen film in more than a decade, Whatever Works (Allen’s 40th feature as director) plays like a hoary old Broadway stage comedy yanked, reluctantly, into the present. Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm) plays a New York City misanthrope whose worldview is tempered by a relationship with a much younger Southern runaway (Evan Rachel Wood). The detail work in this film is virtually nonexistent. Whatever Works is more like “Oh, Whatever.” Rated PG-13 (sexual situations including dialogue, brief nude images and thematic material). At Century and Esquire. — Michael Phillips
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