The Messenger - 2 Oscar Nominations: Best Supporting Actor, Woody Harrelson & Best Original Screenplay
The Messenger is a powerful and tender story about a returned war hero making his first steps toward a normal life. In his first leading role, Ben Foster stars as Will Montgomery, a U.S. Army officer who has just returned home from a tour in Iraq and is assigned to the Army's Casualty Notification service. Partnered with fellow officer Tony Stone (Harrelson) to bear the bad news to the loved ones of fallen soldiers, Will faces the challenge of completing his mission while seeking to find comfort and healing back on the home front. When he finds himself drawn to Olivia (Morton), to whom he has just delivered the news of her husband's death, Will's emotional detachment begins to dissolve and the film reveals itself as a surprising, humorous, moving and very human portrait of grief, friendship and survival. Featuring tour-de-force performances from Foster, Harrelson and Morton, and a brilliant directorial debut by Moverman, The Messenger brings us into the inner lives of these outwardly steely heroes to reveal their fragility with compassion and dignity. "91% Fresh."-Rottentomatoes.com. "4/4 Stars. This is a poignant war movie, but it's also a buddy movie with a difference, one that's both funny and bleak."-Minneapolis Star Tribune. "Messengers with the worst possible message, they nonetheless manage to be human and alive... In a film that itself bears sad tidings about the costs of war, that is an affirming, even an inspiring, gift."-NPR. "This is a fully felt, morally alert, marvelously acted piece of work. Despite the grim subject, it's a sweet-tempered movie, with moments of explosive humor -- an entertainment."-New Yorker. 105 min., Rated R.
Crazy Heart – 3 Oscar Nominations: Best Actor, Jeff Bridges, Original Song & Supporting Actress, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Four-time Academy Award nominee Jeff Bridges stars as the richly comic, semi-tragic romantic anti-hero Bad Blake in the debut feature film Crazy Heart from writer-director Scott Cooper. Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who's had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can't help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician. As he struggles down the road of redemption, Bad learns the hard way just how tough life can be on one man's crazy heart. "Playing a drunken, washed-up music legend reduced to playing small-town bowling alleys, Jeff Bridges is the whole show here as a cowboy-style crooner who wrestles with his demons in ways that easily engage an audience's sympathies."-Variety. "Bridges' guileless performance makes this piquant little indie tale of country music, redemption, and the love of a pretty younger woman such a sad-song charmer."-Entertainment Weekly. "It's a juicy, career-crowning role, and Bridges -- a master of subtle brilliance -- plays the hell out of it."-Rolling Stone. 112 min., Rated R.
The White Ribbon
2 Oscar Nominations - Best Foreign Language Film & Cinematography
A village in Protestant northern Germany. On the eve of World War I. The story of the children and teenagers of a choir run by the village schoolteacher, and their families: the baron, the steward, the pastor, the doctor, the midwife, the tenant farmers. Strange accidents occur and gradually take on the character of a punishment ritual. Who is behind it all? The village schoolteacher observes, investigates and little by little discovers the incredible truth. Are we being asked to consider whether these events heralded something that would explode years later with the rise of Nazi Germany? Did these events contain the germs of the tragedies that followed? "Though no violence worse than a slap is ever shown being committed, The White Ribbon is so steeped in the awful that the proper response is a shudder."-New York Post. "Don't let anyone tell you too much about this spellbinder from Austrian writer-director Michael Haneke. This haunting film never pushes itself on you. It trusts you to suss out the horror that lies beneath the veneer of innocence. You'll be knocked for a loop."-Rolling Stone. "A kind of mashup of "Our Town" and "Village of the Damned," the film is both draining and enthralling. Immaculately crafted in beautiful black-and-white and entirely absorbing."-Time. "4/4 Stars. Detailed yet oblique, leisurely but compelling, perfectly cast and irreproachably acted, the movie has a seductively novelistic texture complete with a less-than-omniscient narrator."-The Village Voice. 144 min., Rated R.
The Last Station – Opens 2/26
2 Oscar Nominations:
Supporting Actor, Christopher Plummer & Actress, Helen Mirren
After almost fifty years of marriage, the Countess Sofya, Leo Tolstoy's devoted wife, passionate lover, muse and secretary—she's copied out War and Peace six times...by hand!—suddenly finds her entire world turned upside down. In the name of his newly created religion, the great Russian novelist has renounced his noble title, his property and even his family in favor of poverty, vegetarianism and even celibacy. After she's born him thirteen children! When Sofya then discovers that Tolstoy's trusted disciple, Chertkov—whom she despises—may have secretly convinced her husband to sign a new will, leaving the rights to his iconic novels to the Russian people rather than his very own family, she is consumed by righteous outrage. This is the last straw. Using every bit of cunning, every trick of seduction in her considerable arsenal, she fights fiercely for what she believes is rightfully hers. The more extreme her behavior becomes, however, the more easily Chertkov is able to persuade Tolstoy of the damage she will do to his glorious legacy. "4/4 Stars. This production, directed by Michael Hoffman, is like a great night at the theatre--the two performing demons go at each other full tilt and produce scenes of Shakespearean affection, chagrin, and rage."-The New Yorker. "4.5/5 Stars. For those who enjoy actors who can play it up without ever overplaying their hands, The Last Station is the destination of choice."-Los Angeles Times. "Every second Helen Mirren is on-screen in The Last Station is a study in peerless talent."-USA Today. "A grandly entertaining historical drama."-Entertainment Weekly. "Helen Mirren outdoes even her Oscar-winning performance in "The Queen" with her tour de force as Countess Sofya Tolstoy in Michael Hoffman's delightful The Last Station."-New York Post. 112 min., Rated R.
Red Cliff
Legendary action cinema master John Woo and international superstar Tony Leung reunite for the first time since the 1992 classic Hard Boiled with this epic historical drama set based on a legendary 208 A.D. battle that heralded the end of the Han Dynasty. Red Cliff opens with power hungry Prime Minister-turned-General Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) seeking permission from the Han dynasty Emperor to organize a southward-bound mission designed to crush two troublesome warlords that stand in his way, Liu Bei (You Yong) and Sun Quan (Chang Chen). As the expedition gets under way, Cao Cao's troops rain destruction on Liu Bei's army, forcing the latter to retreat. Liu Bei's military strategist Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) knows that their only hope for survival is to form an alliance with rival warlord Sun Quan, and reaches out to Sun Quan's trusted advisor, war hero Zhou Yu (Tony Leung). Vastly outnumbered by Cao Cao's fast approaching, brutal army, the rebel warlords band together to mount a heroic campaign unrivalled in history that changes the face of China forever. A massive hit in Asia and the most expensive Asian film production of all time, Red Cliff is a breathtaking war epic that marks the triumphant return of John Woo. "Any war picture in which the heroine stalls the villain with a quiet, painstaking tea ceremony until the wind shifts direction and the good guys can firebomb the bad guys into oblivion is too ineffably Zen not to love."-New York Magazine. "Balances character, grit, spectacle and visceral action in a meaty, dramatically satisfying pie that delivers on the hype and will surprise many who felt the Hong Kong helmer progressively lost his mojo during his long years stateside."-Variety. "The spectacular battle scenes are the engorged heart of the delirious adventure. But Woo also gets maximum romantic value from Tony Leung as a war hero married to Chiling Lin as the tea-pouring beauty."-Entertainment Weekly. 140 min., Rated R.
Enlighten Up
Kate Churchill is a filmmaker and a dedicated yoga practitioner who insists that yoga can transform anyone. She decides to prove it. Her plan: select a subject, immerse him in yoga and follow him until he finds a yoga practice that transforms him. Her subject: Nick Rosen a skeptical, 29 year-old journalist living in New York City. Intrigued by the opportunity to peek behind the curtain of a 5.7 billion dollar "spiritual" industry, Nick signs on to investigate yoga for 6 months. Before he can say OM, he finds himself twisted up like a pretzel, surrounded by celebrity yogis, true believers, kooks, entrepreneurs and a gentle teacher from Brazil who leads his class with his feet behind his head. The more Nick investigates yoga the more contradictions he discovers, leading him to question whether yoga is anything more than a workout. As Nick searches for concrete facts and discards the lofty spiritual theories of his yoga teachers, he strays further from Kate's original plan. The two find themselves lost in Northern India, embroiled in a struggle between Kate's expectations and Nick's overt rejection of "spirituality." They circle the globe talking to mystics, gurus, mad men and saints searching for the true meaning of yoga. Ultimately, both Nick and Kate end up in places they never could have imagined. They don't find the answers to their questions, they find much more. "This is a peaceful kind of film, not terribly eventful, but I suppose we wouldn't want a yoga thriller. Relax. Let it happen."-Roger Ebert. "4/5 Stars. Enlighten Up! explores its subject with a light touch and welcome sense of humor."-New York Times. "This well-crafted film traverses the globe, interviewing a who's-who of gurus and investigating a wide range of regimens -- with Rosen as both questioner and body-contorting guinea pig."-Variety. 82 min.
North Face
A handful of men set aside their differences to conquer one of Europe's tallest mountains in this period drama inspired by a true story. In 1936, Nazi Germany is looking to shore up its reputation in the eyes of the world, and after a pair of German climbers died in an effort to climb the north face of the Eiger in the Swiss Alps, the state is looking to find another group who can succeed where the earlier team failed. Henry Arau (Ulrich Tukur), the publisher of one of Berlin's biggest newspapers, is a loyal son of the Third Reich, and when his editorial secretary, Luise Fellner (Johanna Wokalek), tells him she knows some climbers who would be willing to take on the Eiger, Tukur gives her a free hand to assemble a team and make this dream a reality. Close friends Toni Kurz (Benno Fuermann) and Andi Hinterstoisser (Florian Lukas) are serving in the German army when Fellner (who once dated Kurz) tries to persuade them to climb the Eiger; while Hinterstoisser is willing to take the risk in the name of patriotism, Kurz is cynical about the Third Reich and says he'll put his life on the line only for his own reasons and not to please Germany's leaders. Kurz and Hinterstoisser finally begin the climb in mid-summer, only to discover a pair of Austrians, Willy Angerer (Simon Schwarz) and Edi Rainer (Georg Friedrich), are now challenging them in a race to the top. "Transfixing. It is impossible not to put yourself in the boots of the mountaineers clinging to a sheer, icy rock face during a blizzard that threatens to send them into oblivion."-New York Times. "Cleverly playing on the genre's propagandistic ties to the Third Reich, the film reflects the tragic arc of National Socialism in each ominous crevasse and in every grandiloquent gesture."-Time Out New York. "Stolzl captures the period idealism and propaganda perfectly. The terrific footage of the climb is an almost unendurably tense watch."-Times (UK). 126 min.
That Evening Sun
An aging farmer fights to keep the home that is rightfully his after fleeing from a nursing home and discovering that his son has leased the family farm to his old nemesis. Placed in a nursing home by his son and promptly forgotten, Abner Meecham (Hal Holbrook) realized that waiting to die was no way to live. Determined to enjoy his last days, Abner packed his bags and set his sights on the family farm. At least there he could die on his own land, in familiar surroundings. But Abner is in for a rude awakening, because upon returning home he discovers that his son has leased the farm to Lorenzo Choat. Abner never cared much for Lorenzo, and when Lorenzo refuses to leave Abner takes up residence in an old tenant shack on the property. Before long, their dispute becomes volatile, each man believing himself to be in the right, and refusing to back down from their position. Betrayed by his son and haunted by dreams of his beloved, deceased wife, Abner draws a line in the sand in an attempt to reclaim his life. As threats are made and tension begins to brew, it's only a matter of time before the situation turns savage. "4/5 Stars. Holbrook's fierce, contained performance matches in depth and truthfulness his portrayal of a weary Army retiree who briefly becomes a surrogate father to Emile Hirsch's survivalist in Into the Wild. Holbrook strips the stereotype of the grumpy old man of sentimental shtick and cutesy old-codger mannerisms."-The New York Times. "Hal Holbrook was born to play sly, cantankerous rascals & he makes Abner a shining-eyed, noble crank."-Entertainment Weekly. 110 min., Rated PG-13.
The Tiger Next Door April 23
Experts estimate that there are more tigers in private captivity in the USA than there are roaming wild in the world. 24 of the m live in Dennis Hill's back yard. Dennis Hill is an ex-biker, recovering meth addict, convicted felon and breeder of exotic animals. Hill has been breeding, and selling tigers from his backyard in Flat Rock, Indiana for over fifteen years. Tigers, and other big cats, are simultaneously an occupation and an obsession for Hill. As the film begins, Hill has 24 tigers, 3 bears, 6 leopards and one cougar. He claims to know exactly what his animals are thinking by the look in their eyes. He is especially consumed with the prospect of breeding a stripeless white tiger. But now, after a surprise government inspection, he's lost the license that allowed him to keep exotic animals, and the state of Indiana is threatening to shut him down. He has just five days to find alternate homes for all but three of his brood and to bring his facilities up to code – or else lose what he considers to be his life's work. As Hill fights to hold on to his tigers over the days and months that follow, The Tiger Next Door follows him – exploring his motives, his past, and the curious, ethically-murky world he's created in his backyard. At the same time, the film ranges far beyond Dennis' animal compound, illuminating the connection between breeders like Hill, and the near-epidemic of wild animal keeping in the United States. 87 min.