The Girl who Played with Fire - Coming in September
Mikael Blomkvist is about to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society. On the eve of publication, the two investigating reporters are murdered and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander. "4/5 Stars. As satisfying as The Girl Who Played With Fire is, it leaves you longing for more."-Los Angeles Times. "n Rapace, it has an actress who brings a memorable literary character to indelible movie life, as Vivien Leigh did for Scarlett O'Hara."-Time. "3.5/4 Stars. A thriller is incomparably more arresting when it involves plausible people doing plausible things, rather than archetypes co-starring with animation."-Roger Ebert. "I found The Girl Who Played With Fire more gripping than Dragon Tattoo, because this one doesn't just play with thriller conventions -- it puts them to work."-Entertainment Weekly. 129 min., Rated R.
I Am Love - Coming in August
I Am Love tells the story of the wealthy Recchi family, whose lives are undergoing sweeping changes. Eduardo Sr., the family patriarch, has decided to name a successor to the reins of his massive industrial company, surprising everyone by splitting power between his son Tancredi, and grandson Edo. But Edo dreams of opening a restaurant with his friend Antonio, a handsome and talented chef. At the heart of the family is Tancredi's wife Emma, a Russian immigrant who has adopted the culture of Milan. An adoring and attentive mother, her existence is shocked to the core when she falls quickly and deeply in love with Edo's friend and partner Antonio, and embarks on a passionate love affair that will change her family forever. "4/4 stars. In every sense, I Am Love is a stunning achievement."-Variety. "4/4 Stars. An amazing film. It is deep, rich, human. It is not about rich and poor, but about old and new. It is about the ancient war between tradition and feeling."-Roger Ebert. "Swinton is one of the finest actresses working in contemporary cinema, but Guadagnino, who developed the project with her in mind, has created a film that literally luxuriates in her talents."-Los Angeles Times. 120 min., Rated R (sexuality and nudity.)
Winter's Bone
This tense, naturalistic thriller follows 17-year-old Ree Dolly as she confronts the local criminal underworld and the harsh Ozark wilderness in order to to track down her father, who has put up the family homestead for his bail. Featuring a star-making performance by Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone is sure to be one of the most-critically acclaimed films of the year. "91% Fresh."-Rottentomatoes.com. "Grade: A. Entertainment Weekly. Lawrence is the movie's blooming discovery, a mesmerizing actor with a gaze that's the opposite of actress-coy."-Entertainment Weekly. "Spectacular for its humanity, austere beauty and heart-stopping urgency."-Wall St. Journal. "4.5/5 Stars. A coming-of-age story that is not entirely about breaking free."-New York Times. "4/4 Stars. The movie heroes who affect me most are not extroverted. They don't strut, speechify and lead armies. They have no superpowers. They are ordinary people who are faced with a need and rise to the occasion. Ree Dolly is such a hero."-Roger Ebert. 100 min., Rated R.
Harry Brown
Set in modern day Britain, Harry Brown follows one man's journey through a chaotic world where teenage violence runs rampant. As a modest, law abiding citizen, Brown lives alone. His only companion is his best friend Leonard. When Leonard is killed, Brown reaches his breaking point. "Harry Brown has more to say, about aging, about old-school courtesy in collision with blind stupid violence, and about how sometimes pensioners on a fixed income get stuck in neighborhoods that turn dangerous."-San Francisco Chronicle. "This movie plays better than perhaps it should. Directed as a debut by Daniel Barber, it places story and character above manufactured "thrills" and works better."-Roger Ebert. "It's a strong directing debut for Barber, who uses the poignant power of Harry's experience to take a universal cut at decaying communities and the poverty of soul as well as pocket."-Los Angeles Times. 103 min., Rated R.
Ondine
Ondine is the story of Syracuse, a simple fisherman who catches a beautiful and mysterious woman in his trawler's nets. The woman seems to be dead, but then she comes alive before Syracuse's eyes and he thinks he may be seeing things. However, with the help of his ailing, yet irrepressible daughter, Annie, he comes to believe that the fantastical might be possible and that the woman (Ondine) might be a myth come true. Ondine and Syracuse fall passionately in love, but just as we think the fairytale might go on forever, the real world intercedes. Then, after a terrible car crash and the return of a dark and violent figure from Ondine's past, hope eventually prevails and a new beginning is presented to Syracuse, Ondine and Annie. "Ondine is Injected with a heavy dose of magic and has a lot going for it: an endearing performance from star Colin Farrell, Christopher Doyle's evocative cinematography and a captivating story."-Box Office Magazine. "there is enough saving grace on these craggy shores to let the mists and the legends roll in and envelop you for a while."-Los Angeles Times. "Silkies aren't the only creatures who can inhabit two worlds. As Annie knows, and as Jordan's film makes clear, stories enable us to step outside the quotidian world and dream, if only for an hour or two."-Washington Post. 111 min., Rated PG-13.
The Kids are All Right
The Kids Are All Right is the heartfelt new comedy from acclaimed director Lisa Cholodenko, starring Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, and Mark Ruffalo. Two teenaged children (Alice in Wonderland's Mia Wasikowska and Journey to the Center of the Earth's Josh Hutcherson) get the notion to seek out their biological father and introduce him into the family life that their two mothers (Bening and Moore) have built for them. Once the donor (Ruffalo) is found, the household will never be the same, as family ties are defined, re—defined, and re—re—defined. "Sparked by wonderfully lived-in performances from Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, "The Kids Are All Right" is alright, if not up to the level of writer-director Lisa Cholodenko's earlier pair of new bohemian dramas."-Variety. "A crowd-pleasing, feel-good comedy for an era in which the very definition of "family" is fluid and in flux."-Box Office Magazine. "A generous, nearly note—perfect portrait of a modern family."-New York Times. "Funny, smart and sexy!"-Entertainment Weekly. 104 min.
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Exit Through the Gift Shop, the first film by renowned graffiti artist Banksy, became the hottest ticket at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival where it made its world debut. Banksy is a graffiti artist with a global reputation whose work can be seen on walls from post—hurricane New Orleans to the separation barrier on the Palestinian West Bank. Fiercely guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution, Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film. Exit Through the Gift Shop tells the incredible true story of how an eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner – with spectacular results. The film contains exclusive footage of Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Invader and many of the world's most infamous graffiti artists at work, on walls and in interview. As Banksy describes it, "It's basically the story of how one man set out to film the un—filmable. And failed." "97% Fresh." Rottentomatoes.com. "Grade: A. An exhilarating hall-of-mirrors look at what happens when global art fame turns anonymous, artists become objects, fans turn into artists, and the whole what's-sincere-and-what's-a-sham spectacle is more fun than art was ever supposed to be."-Entertainment Weekly. "4/4 Stars. Subversive, provocative and unexpected, Exit Through the Gift Shop delights in taking you by surprise, starting quietly but ending up in a hall of mirrors as unsettling as anything Lewis Carroll's Alice ever experienced."-Los Angeles Times. "4/4 Stars. One of the best, most karmically satisfying comedies of the year, much to the chagrin of the people who are in it."-Boston Globe. "3.5/4 Stars. The widespread speculation that Exit Through the Gift Shop is a hoax only adds to its fascination."-Roger Ebert. "Not just the definitive portrait of street-art counterculture, but also a hilarious expose on the gullibility of the masses who embrace manufactured creative personas."-Village Voice. 87 min.
Micmacs
"Amelie" director Jean-Pierre Jeunet brings his trademark style and whimsy back to the screen with Micmacs. First it was a mine that exploded in the middle of the Moroccan desert. Years later, it was a stray bullet that lodged in his brain... Bazil doesn't have much luck with weapons. The first made him an orphan, the second holds him on the brink of sudden, instant death. Released from the hospital after his accident, Bazil is homeless. Luckily, our inspired and gentle-natured dreamer is quickly taken in by a motley crew of junkyard dealers living in a veritable Ali Baba's cave. The group's talents and aspirations are as surprising as they are diverse: Remington, Calculator, Buster, Slammer, Elastic Girl, Tiny Pete and Mama Chow. Then one day, walking by two huge buildings, Bazil recognizes the logos of the weapons manufacturers that caused all of his misfortune. He sets out to take revenge, with the help of his faithful gang of wacky friends. Underdogs battling heartless industrial giants, our gang relive the battle of David and Goliath, with all the imagination and fantasy of Buster Keaton. "A whimsical whirligig of a movie filled with salvaged metal and salvaged lives, where a bullet to the brain brings insight and a bunch of clever misfits bring a couple of weapons-making giants to their knees. What fun."-Los Angeles Times. "4/4 Stars. Micmacs is like a Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd movie where everybody is Buster or Harold, yet they all work in harmony."-Toronto Star. "Grade: B+. Director and co-writer Jean-Pierre Jeunet is back doing what he likes best, which is moving eccentric characters around a board in a miniature game of fate and chance."-Entertainment Weekly. "Like "Amelie," Micmacs is visually dazzling, the ravishing images coming courtesy of "La Vie en Rose" cinematographer, Tetsuo Nagata."-Box Office Magazine. 105 min., Rated R (for some sexuality and brief violence.)
Solitary Man
As Solitary Man opens, Ben's (Michael Douglass) on the verge of a comeback, but some of the same motivations that led to his demise are threatening to take him down again. He's divorced from Nancy (Susan Sarandon), his college sweetheart and the one person who knows him better than anyone. Although he still finds the time to hang out with his daughter Susan (Jenna Fischer) and his adoring grandson, she breaks off contact when she discovers he's seeing one of her friends. His girlfriend Jordan is the daughter of a very influential businessman who's on the board of a major auto manufacturer. If Ben can just keep his hubris in check for a little while longer, he will be back as big as ever. But circumstances place him in very close proximity with the one girl he shouldn't touch, throwing everything into jeopardy. Also starring Danny DeVito, Mary-Louise Parker & Jesse Eisenberg. "Grade: A-. With an outstanding screenplay by Brian Koppelman and disciplined direction by Koppelman and David Levien, a story that could have been generic (or worse, scented with flowery bulls---) turns into a precise, honest, and affecting film. Michael Douglas surges ahead in Solitary Man with the best work he's done in the decade since Wonder Boys."-Entertainment Weekly. "A sharp, small-scale comedy of male misbehavior that turns out to be one of this dreary spring's pleasant cinematic surprises."-New York Times. "It offers audiences the pleasures of a screenplay whose every acerbic line is firmly rooted in character, and it hands Michael Douglas one of his best roles in years."-Variety. 90 min., Rated R.
Mother and Child
Writer/director Rodrigo García (Nine Lives) teams with executive producer Alejandro González Inarritu to craft this drama highlighting the powerful bond between a mother and her child. It's been years since Karen (Annette Bening) gave her daughter, Elizabeth, up for adoption, and the decision to abandon her child has always haunted her. Upon meeting laid-back Paco (Jimmy Smits), Karen permits her anxiety and mistrust to get the best of her. On the surface it appears that Elizabeth (Naomi Watts) is none the worse for never knowing her biological mother; she's a fast-talking lawyer who's just landed a high-profile job at a firm fronted by Paul (Samuel L. Jackson), though her unsavory penchant for exploiting others is about to blow up in her face. Meanwhile, maternal-minded baker Lucy (Kerry Washington) longs to experience the joys of motherhood, eventually deciding that adoption is the best bet to start a family with her husband, Joseph (David Ramsey). "Writer/director Rodrigo Garcia has fashioned a clear-eyed look at motherhood at all stages."-USA Today. "Rodrigo Garcia's reputation as a writer for and director of women will increase exponentially with Mother and Child, an insightfully observed and exceptionally acted ensemble piece precisely about what the title suggests."-Variety. "Dynamite performances from Annette Bening and Naomi Watts ignite this strong drama from writer-director Rodrigo Garcia."-Rolling Stone. 125 min., Rated R.