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Home , Bandslam, Jennifer Connelly, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Martin Landau, Melanie Lynskey, Nora Ephron

Student Union Building, UVic JAN - FEB 2010

University of Victoria Students’ Society, conceived Admission Prices as an inexpensive alternative for students, the (GST included) University community and the public. The UVSS Students $5.25 theatre is in the Student Union Building at Jan/Feb special for UVSS students UVic. The following buses come to UVic: 4, 7, 11, 9pm shows (or later) $2.50 14, 26, 33, 39, 51. $6.00 Seniors, Children (12 & under) $5.25 Other Students $6.00 The university charges a at fee of $2.00 for parking Cinemagic Members $6.00 on campus after 6pm and all day on Saturdays. There is no charge for parking on Sundays and holidays. and guests (1 only) of above $6.00 Non-members $7.25 Tickets and memberships go on sale 40 24-hour Info Line: 250-721-8365 Matinees (all seats) $4.25 minutes before . Please arrive early Cinecenta O ce: 250-721-8364 to avoid disappointment. Manager: Michael Ryan TEN FILM DISCOUNT PASS Programmer: Michael Hoppe UVSS Students, Seniors $45.00 where noted. Films are 35mm prints unless other- $52.50 wise indicated. Design: Joey MacDonald (Unavailable to non-members.) DAILY SHOW INFO: 250-721-8365 www.cinecenta.com

sunday monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday KIDS MATINEE Sun 1:00! NOV 6 & 7 (3:00 matinee & 7:00) KIDS MATINEE Sat 1:00! WALLACE & GROMMIT: CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT NOV 4 & 5 (7:10 & 9:10) G-FORCE NOV 3 one show only at 7:15 JULIE & JULIA SOUL Director: Nora Ephron (USA, 2009, 123 min; PG) NOV 1 (3:00 matinee & 7:00) POWER Cast: , , Stanley Tucci, NOV 2 (7:00 only) Director: Jeffrey Levy-Hinte Chris Messina. (USA, 2009, 93 minutes; PG) “DELICIOUSLY FUNNY!” –Empire Meryl Streep takes on the larger-than-life character of Julia FOOD, INC. “DAZZLING!” –The Onion Director: Robert Kenner (USA, 2008, 93 minutes; Child with smashing success in this Nora Ephron movie that rated G) “VIBRANT AND JOYOUS!” tells Child’s life story in tandem with a modern-day tale about – Times personal empowerment. Amy Adams plays real life blogger “ESSENTIAL VIEWING!” – An annual Cinecenta event, this is a , a woman who worked her way through Child’s special advance sneak preview of a brand new recipes. — Katherine Monk “EXPERTLY CRAFTED DOCUMENTARY!” “EXPLOSIVELY EXCITING!” –Philadelphia Inquirer One of the gentlest, most charming American movies of the –The Village Voice feature film. So new, it hasn’t yet been released in Victoria, but will be opening soon. We’re sure that past decade. Its subject is food as the binding and unifying ele- “A scary movie that’s also funny, touching “ONE OF THE MOST ENERGTIC MUSIC ment of dinner parties, friendship, and marriage. –The New everyone will enjoy this year’s choice! DOCS IN YEARS!” –The Village Voice and good for you.”—Baltimore Sun Back by hungry demand! Yorker A partial list of the reasons to see Soul Power See it. Bring your kids if you have them. Bring some- NOV 6 & 7 (9:30 only) separate admission Be among the first exclusive few to see a new film might go as follows: James Brown, Celia Cruz and the Fania All-Stars, B. B. King, Miriam Makeba, the Spinners and Bill Withers. A one else’s kids if you don’t. The message is nothing new if you’ve read Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation or Michael Pollan’s The partial list, as I say, of performers captured with remarkable sonic brilliance and visual immediacy on an outdoor stage in Kinshasa, Omnivore’s Dilemma (both are in the film). But every frame makes you choke on your popcorn—if for no other reason than the specially selected for Cinecenta’s smart audience! Zaire (now Congo), in 1974. If you have any knowledge of these musicians, you must see this extravagantly entertaining documen- THE HANGOVER Todd Phillips (USA, 2009, 103 min; 18A) focus on government-underwritten corn and the companies who put it into everything from soda to Midol to the gassy bellies of It could be a comedy or drama or documentary; it tary, assembled by Jeffrey Levy-Hinte from a trove of hundreds of hours of footage captured by some of the world’s finest cinéma Cast: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, factory-farmed cows. The sheer scale of the movie is mind-blowing—it touches on every aspect of modern life. It’s the docu- vérité camera operators some 35 years ago. — mentary equivalent of The Matrix. –New York Magazine could be in English or have subtitles…. Leap into Justin Bartha, and Jeffrey Tambor In 1974, the most celebrated American R&B acts of the time came together with the most renowned musical groups in Africa for a Four guys go to Vegas for a bachelor party weekend that they will never forget. Smart and gripping, this muckraking documentary transcends anticorporate demonology to build a visceral but rea- the unknown! And then tell your friends that 12-hour, three-night long concert held in Zaire. SOUL POWER is a verité documentary about this legendary music festival. Unfortunately, they forget it. Finding out what exactly happened becomes the adven- soned case against modern agribusiness. –Chicago Reader –Mongrel Media YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST! ture.—Premiere BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! KIDS MATINEE Sun 1:00! NOV 10, 11, 12 (7:00 & 9:10) NOV 13 & 14 KIDS MATINEE Sat 1:00! G-FORCE The best British comedy in years! From the makers of the BBC show ‘The Thick of It.’ (3:00 matinee & 7:00 & 10:00) SHORTS ?IN THE LOOP INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS NOV 8 (3:00 matinee & 7:00) NOV 9 (7:30 only) FREE ADMISSION! Director: Armando Iannucci (UK, 2009, 106 minutes; 18A – frequent coarse language) (USA, 2009, 154 minutes; 18A – explicit violence) MARKING THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE FALL OF THE WALL! Cast: Tom Hollander, , Anna Chlumsky, Steve Coogan, Chris Addison, Peter Capaldi, and Paul Higgins JULIE & JULIA Starring , Melanie Laurent, . Director: Nora Ephron (USA, 2009, 123 min; PG) THE WALL / DIE MAUER “THE FUNNIEST MOVIE ALL YEAR AND ALSO THE SMARTEST!” –Christian Science Monitor “ENERGETIC, INVENTIVE, SWAGGERING FUN!” –The Village Cast: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, Chris Director: Jürgen Böttcher (Germany, 1991, 99 minutes; DVD) “A SHARPLY WRITTEN, FAST-TALKING, ALMOST DEMENTEDLY ARTICULATE SATIRE!” –The New York Times Voice Messina. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion. “THE LANGUAGE IS BRILLIANT, and the laugh lines come so quickly that you’d have to watch the movie twice to get them all.” A documentary about the deconstruction of the Berlin Wall A violent fairy tale, an increasingly entertaining fantasia in PLEASE SEE NOV. 6-7 FOR DESCRIPTION – which makes no use of vocal commentary but instead focus- which the history of World War II is wildly reimagined so that the cinema can play the decisive role in destroying the es on visual elements. From the Potsdamer Platz to the The Brits long ago lost their status as major players on the globe’s political scene. Happily, what hasn’t gone is their wicked wit – they Third Reich. –Variety Brandenburg Gate, the camera captures the historic events still know how to speak sharply and carry a big satirical stick. Of course, political satire is a dying art. But that’s why In the Loop feels from all sides and different angles: on the one hand there are so refreshing: The brainchild of British director Armando Iannucci, it takes on the politicians at their own dirty game, daring to out-spin Tarantino’s big, bold, audacious war movie will annoy some, reporters and tourists from all over the world, children selling the spin doctors. startle others and demonstrate once again that he’s the real pieces of the wall, and people celebrating; on the other we At the outset, the place is London, and the time is some vague period before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. A minister in a junior cabinet post, thing, a director of quixotic delights. For starters, he provides see abandoned subway stations and officials with blank looks Simon Foster (the slyly wonderful Tom Hollander) is giving a radio interview on the vexing problem of diarrhea in the Third World. Straying World War II with a much-needed alternative ending. From the on their faces… from this fascinating topic, he goes off script to opine casually that war in the Middle East is “unforeseeable.” That remark is the peb- sound of the Ennio Morricone opening music to a movie The exhibition “From Peaceful Revolution to German Unity” ble in the pond, and, often hilariously, the rest of the movie tracks the ripple effect. theater, the film embeds Tarantino’s love of the movies. Above will be in the Cinecenta foyer. Chief among those ripples is Malcolm Tucker, the PM’s director of communications and the meanest mouth in the land. Peter Capaldi all, there are three iconic characters: the Hero, the Nazi and the Sponsored by UVic’s European Studies Program and the and his Scottish burr are the Coltrane of invective, the Ella of scatology, giving verbal abuse a time signature and a toe-tapping beat – Girl. These three, played by Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz and Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies, the his language may be blue but, my, his rhythm is golden. It’s gloriously nasty, it’s vicious fun, and it’s almost all unrepeatable. Melanie Laurent, are seen with that Tarantino knack of taking a Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in —The Globe and Mail character and making it larger than life… Tarantino films have Vancouver, and the Goethe-Institut Montréal. a way of growing on you. It’s not enough to see them once. “TREMENDOUS FUN!” – –

Four Faces of the Documentary Film Intense. Informative. Inexpensive. Email [email protected] for series information.

camosun.ca/ce

Cinecenta b&w 3” wide x 3” high (possible spot colour) Due: October 13, 2009 Run: November 1 - December 19, 2009 Filename: CamCol-CECT_Cinecenta-Nov-Dec09 email: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] sunday monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday KIDS MATINEE Sun 1:00! NOV 18 & 19 (7:15 & 9:00) KIDS MATINEE Sat 1:00! SHORTS BURMA VJ—REPORTING FROM NOV 20 & 21 THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS NOV 15 (3:00 matinee & 7:00) (3:00 matinee NOV 16 (7:00 only) A CLOSED COUNTRY Director: Anders Østergaard (Denmark, 2009, 84 minutes; & 7:15 & 9:30) TAKING WOODSTOCK English & Burmese with subtitles WINNER OF AWARDS AT FESTIVALS WORLDWIDE! DISTRICT 9 Director: (USA, 2009, 121 minutes; 14A) Director: Neill Blomkamp Cast: Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Imelda Staunton, Henry “#####! ESSENTIAL VIEWING!” –Empire (USA/, 2009, 113 min; 18A – explicit violence) Goodman, Jonathan Groff, Mamie Gummer, , Danish filmmaker Anders Ostergaard was in Myanmar to do a half-hour and Liev Schreiber portrait on a young member of the Democratic Voice of Burma, an “MADLY ORIGINAL & ALTOGETHER underground group of video journalists determined to document the EXCITING!” — Don’t be misled by the title of Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock. NOV 17 (7:00 & 9:25) get ready for New Moon! oppressive conditions in the country, when suddenly, in September This likable, humane movie is not an attempt to recreate the 2007, the Buddhist monks’ rebellion broke out. It had been sparked by ####! An extra-terrestrial race has epochal Woodstock Music and Art Fair captured in Michael TWILIGHT the military government’s decision to lift fuel subsidies, causing prices crash-landed on earth and is ghettoized in Wadleigh’s documentary Woodstock. It is essentially a small, to jump as much as 500% overnight. “Burma VJ” — for video journal- slum-like conditions in South Africa. Hard- intimate film into which is fitted a peripheral view of the land- Director: Catherine Hardwicke (USA. 2008, DVD, 122 min; PG) ist — is filmmaking at its most fearless, with Ostergaard creating a hitting and subversive, this apartheid alle- mark event that took place in August 1969. Most of the concert Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Peter suspenseful, harrowing account of his original key subject, known only gory is a sci-fi thriller with a lot on its mind. takes place out of sight of the camera. The little bit of the con- Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Cam Cigandet, Nikki Reed, and as “Joshua,” whose face is never seen, and his colleagues risking their –Monday Magazine cert that is shown is a glowing, golden circle glimpsed in the far Jackson Rathbone lives to record the “Saffron Rebellion” and its dire consequences in distance amid a throbbing acid haze outside the van of a gentle order that the whole world could see for itself a brave attempt to chal- Easily one of the sharpest pieces of sci- hippie couple. Although it shows an immense traffic jam, fields Bella Swan has always been a little bit different, never caring lenge one of the most brutal and repressive military dictatorships on ence fiction to hit a big screen since Star littered with trash and hippies gleefully sliding through mud, about fitting in with the trendy girls at her high school. Then the planet. (DVB was able to transmit its images via satellite to Oslo.) Trek. This focuses on the years after first Taking Woodstock pointedly shies away from spectacle, the she meets the mysterious and beautiful Edward Cullen, a boy The public, with large numbers of students, began joining the monks in contact, when aliens have been living as better to focus on how the lives of individuals caught up by his- unlike any she’s ever met. Edward is a vampire, but he does- their demonstrations…While several of his colleagues were caught and face life imprisonment, Joshua survived to continue to dedi- refugees on Earth for more than 20 years. tory are transformed. —The New York Times n’t have fangs and his family choose not to drink human blood. cate his life to showing what’s really going on in his country. —Los Angeles Times The social satire stands front and centre, Intelligent and witty, Edward sees straight into Bella’s soul. ensuring the movie has humour, but the ethical undercurrents are always palpable as we watch one man attempt to relo- Ang Lee’s sympathetic spirit extends the generous message “How we view the relationship between traditional and new media should forever be changed by Anders Østergaard’s Soon, they are swept up in a passionate, thrilling and unortho- cate the ostracized alien race to a new “facility” run by a morally bankrupt corporation. Smart and dramatically breathless, of the hippie era like a passed joint. –St. Louis-Post Dispach terrific documentary!” –The Village Voice dox romance. – District 9 is a must-see for any fan of the genre. — Katherine Monk. KIDS MATINEE Sun 1:00! NOV 24 (7:15 & 9:10) KIDS MATINEE Sat 1:00! THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS NOV 22 (3:00 matinee & 7:00) NOV 23 (7:00 only) DR. STRANGELOVE: NOV 28 (3:00 matinee & 7:15 & 9:00) OR, HOW I LEARNED TO STOP NOV 25 & 26 (7:00 & 9:10) FIERCE LIGHT: WHEN SPIRIT MEETS ACTION WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB Stanley Kubrick (UK, 1963, BluRayDVD, 94 min) LORNA’S SILENCE Velcrow Ripper (Canada, 2008, DVD, 97 minutes; PG) 9 Starring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott Le silence de Lorna Acclaimed filmmaker Velcrow NOV 27 (7:00 & 9:00) Director: (USA, Kubrick’s cynical Ripper (Scared Sacred) takes Directors: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne (Belgium, 2009, 107 min; 2009, 80 min; PG – violence; vision of the progress Please note: Cinecenta prices & passes not in effect. an inspirational look at change French/Albanian with subtitles; 14A) may frighten young children) of technology and motivated by love. Called “soul Celebrated Belgian writer-directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Mt. Cain Ski Hill presents human stupidity is Voices of , force” by Gandhi and “love in Dardenne’s Lorna’s Silence confirms the brothers’ status in the wedded with comedy, WARREN MILLER’S , Martin action” by Martin Luther King, top rank of filmmakers in world cinema with their grasp of the in this case Terry Landau, Christopher spiritual activism’s historical workings of the human heart and ability to make visually elo- Southern’s sparkling DYNASTY Plummer, John C. Reilly, and roots are examined and illus- quent films of the utmost economy. Lorna’s Silence is a gritty, script in which the Crispin Glover trated by interviews with spiri- deceptively low-key, no-fuss, no-frills movie of consistent origi- For more info: www.skitheworld.com world comes to an The CG-animated fantasy-adventure 9 is a tale of trust, tual luminaries Thich Nhat Hahn nality and surprise in which suspense arises straight up from the The 60th annual ski and snowboard film from Warren Miller end thanks to a mad bravery, and cooperation among a scrap-heap tribe of sur- and Desmond Tutu, and with heroine’s evolving character. Arta Dobroshi’s Lorna is a beautiful, Entertainment US general’s paranoia vivors, set in a desolate near-future where an overarching activists including Alice Walker dark-haired young Albanian working in the impersonal city of about women and Dynasty revels the past, present, and future of winter sport. artificial intelligence has turned human-built contraptions and bell hooks. We join Ripper Liège, prepared to do anything to secure Belgian citizenship and commies. The result Want drama? Watch Chris Davenport bring his obsessive into oppressors. Our protagonist displays qualities of com- as he contemplates his place in open a snack bar with her Albanian boyfriend (Alban Ukaj). To this is scary, hilarious and mountaineering to Norway's gnarliest peaks. Want excite- passion and leadership, and is voiced by Elijah Wood to the universe, and his drive to end, she has committed to an elaborate scheme that involves her nightmarishly beauti- ment? Try a young gun invasion of British Columbia's prove it. The crusty naysayer known as 1 (Christopher make the world a better place. marriage to addict Claudy (Jérémie Renier) as its first step. ful, far more effective Monashee Mountains by Chris Benchetler and Cody Plummer) is a proud old war veteran. 7 (Jennifer Connelly) Ripper takes us on an interna- ..Lorna appears to be determinedly ruthless, but a tiny flicker of in its portrait of insan- Hawkins. Want some perspective? Chris Anthony goes is a fearless, feminist dream of a wonder woman. Acker’s tional journey that explores the conscience surfaces, gradually growing and taking the entire film ity and call for disar- beyond deep into the mountains of central China in search of handsome 9 is, for all its visual flights of fancy, grounded in reaches of spiritual activism. In Oaxaca, friend and fellow journalist Brad Will is shot while documenting the 2006 uprising. In in unexpected directions. As Lorna commences her self-discovery, the film brings to mind the films of Robert Bresson with their mament than any skiing's roots dating back to 2000B.C. Once again hosted by an apocalypse-proof message. We should all share our Quebec City, people protest the Free Trade Agreement. In Los Angeles, a peaceful occupation takes place to save North America’s remorseless yet glowing spiritual odysseys.” –Los Angeles Times number of worthy anti-nuke documentaries. —Time Out Jonny Moseley, this year's film finds epic snowfall, insane big resources to fight back against oppressors, trust girls to largest urban garden… Fierce Light is a visually powerful and incredibly moving documentary, a spiritual experience in itself, Retains its satiric slash years later. Deliciously, wonderful- “A stunning study of one desperate woman’s conscience.”. –Entertainment Weekly mountain lines, and huge air in places like Washington's have really good ideas, and repurpose household items about the impact and the necessity of spiritual action in today’s world. —Vancouver International Film Festival ly funny! —Edmonton Journal “If you’re new to the Dardennes, ‘Lorna’s Silence’ will serve as a fine introduction.” – Crystal Mountain. whenever possible. —Entertainment Weekly KIDS MATINEE Sun 1:00! KIDS MATINEE Sat 1:00! BANDSLAM “A SEARING OUTCRY AGAINST THE EXCESSES OF A CUTTHROAT TIME!” A CHRISTMAS STORY DEC. 1, 2, 3 (7:00 & 9:30) –Entertainment Weekly CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY Director: Michael Moore (USA, 2009, 128 minutes; PG) “MOORE’S FIREBALL OF A MOVIE COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE. It had me laughing NOV 30 (7:00 & 9:10) with tears in my eyes.” – “With the global economic meltdown affecting just about everybody, the film is per- LET THE RIGHT ONE IN tinent, and hugely entertaining!.” –Premiere Director: Tomas Alfredson (Sweden, 2008, 110 minutes; DVD; The big blowhard Michael Moore is a hugely successful left-wing carnival barker in a cul- Swedish with subtitles; 14A) ture of right-wing carnival barkers, and for that he deserves our admiration. He rarely “MESMERIZING! THIS IS A VAMPIRE MOVIE LIKE NO stoops to the level on which his rivals permanently reside: He’s obnoxious but not corrupt. NOV 29 (3:00 matinee & 7:15) OTHER.” –Newsweek He doesn’t spew talking points. He’s out there, on the streets, corralling evidence to sup- port his thesis. And he is, point for point, difficult to refute. His new cinematic circus is the Twelve-year-old Oskar lives in a bleak section of Stockholm. film to which he has been building for the last two decades. It’s sprawling, scattershot, DEC 4 & 5 (3:00 matinee & 7:10 & 9:15) 9 One night, Oskar meets the new girl who just moved in next and, in one instance, exploitative. It’s brazenly one-sided. But Moore calls questions that door. Eli, pale and self-possessed, might smell a little odd, but no one else in the mainstream corporate media goes near. His other films focused on Director: Shane Acker (USA, 2009, 80 min; she’s dying of loneliness—as well as the need for human blood. symptoms. This one tackles what he sees as the disease. TRAILER PARK BOYS: COUNTDOWN TO LIQUOR DAY PG – violence; may frighten young children) Director Tomas Alfredson has reinvented the vampire film with Director: Mike Clattenburg (Canada, 2009, 102 mins; 18A)Starring Robb Wells, John Paul Tremblay, Mike Smith Voices of Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, , sly wit and surprising sweetness. Alfredson’s particular genius His conclusion: “Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil.” That’s enough to give , John C. Reilly, and Crispin Glover is apparent in small perfect touches. The scene where Eli and anyone pause, especially in light of the sorry history of other political and economic sys- It’s freedom, sweet freedom yet again for Julian, Ricky and Bubbles. With the trio out of jail and back among the overgrown Oskar dance to bad Swedish disco is a particular standout, but tems. lots at Sunnyvale, this latest and purportedly last instalment of the Nova Scotia boys’ misadventures plays their particular SEE NOV. 28 FOR DESCRIPTION. the film is filled with wonderful grace notes. A massive hit on the brand of immature wit on key. Countdown wins by doing dumb smart. The film’s many sight gags — funny haircuts! Men genre film circuit, it reminds you of the power that horror cine- I wouldn’t use the term “documentary” to describe this film: It’s a barbed comic monologue with big jolts of pathos. Moore’s greatest weapon is the pathetic case the other side makes for itself — dressing as ladies! Wangs! — work well as straight slapstick, but are delivered with a note of ironic absurdity that has an “Sci-fi fans will find heaven in Shane Acker’s feature- ma, done right, can have. —Vancouver International Film like The Wall Street Journal editorialist’s admission that “Capitalism is more important than democracy.” appeal beyond the locker room… Countdown is both a fulfilling cap for long-time TPB fans and a functional stand-alone film debut.” –The Globe and Mail Festival No one else would make Capitalism: A Love Story. The title doesn’t begin to do the movie justice, since the love is incestuous and unnatural, vile. —New York Magazine movie in its own right. –eye Weekly KIDS MATINEE Sun 1:00! DEC 9 & 10 (7:00 & 9:30) There’s Oscar buzz about ’s A CHRISTMAS STORY TETRO performance! DEC 6 (3:00 matinee & 7:00) Director: (USA/Argentina, 2009,127 minutes; English & Spanish & French with subtitles; not yet classified) DEC 7 & 8 (7:00 only) Cast: Carmen Maura, Maribel Verdu, Vincent Gallo, Alden Ehrenreich, and DEC 11 & 12 (7:00 & 9:10) BRIGHT STAR “EXHILARATING! ‘TETRO’ SNEAKS UP ON YOU.” –St. Louis Post-Dispatch THE INFORMANT! Director: Jane Campion (UK/Australia, 2009, 119 minutes; rated G) Like Orson Welles, Francis Ford Director: (USA, 2009, 108 min; PG) Coppola has gone from being the film- Cast: Ben Whishaw, Abbie Cornish, , and Kerry Fox maker of his time to becoming an indie Cast: Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Melanie Lynskey free-shooter. In this scrappy, elegant- “LUMINOUS!” –San Francisco Chronicle looking family saga, Vincent Gallo, with A sly and sometimes wacky comedy about corporate his serpent-eyed hostility, plays a tor- malfeasance by Steven Soderbergh. The whistleblower is “EXTRAORDINARY!” –The New Yorker mented blocked writer living in Buenos (Matt Damon), a chemist-turned-vice-presi- Aires who has cut himself off from his dent working for a huge agri-business. Whitacre, sporting a “THE RARE FILM ABOUT THE LIFE OF AN ARTIST THAT IS ITSELF A WORK OF ART.” –Slate domineering musician father (Klaus dorky mustache, helps his company make zillions of dollars Bright Star satisfies a hunger we may not have known we had, a hunger for an exquisitely done, emotional love story Maria Brandauer) — and pretty much by transforming corn into an additive for modern foods and that marries heartbreaking passion to formidable filmmaking restraint, all in the service of a romantic belief in “the holi- everyone else. Gallo’s brother shows up products. The plot takes off when the FBI gets called in over ness of the heart’s affections.” (he’s played by Alden Ehrenreich, who’s a case of corporate sabotage—and Whitacre suddenly like Leonardo DiCaprio crossed with blurts out that company executives are involved in global The affections in question are those of the poet who wrote those words, John Keats, perhaps the greatest of England’s Emile Hirsch), and what follows in Tetro price-fixing on a massive scale. Encouraged to go undercov- 19th century Romantics, and Fanny Brawne, literally the girl next door. They met in 1818, when Keats was 23 and Brawne fuses the awkward and the ripely oper- er and “wear a wire,” the nervous Whitacre thinks he’s 18, a little more than two years before his death from tuberculosis. The intensity of their fervent connection brought forth atic. –Entertainment Weekly but behaves like Maxwell Smart. Although some of Keats’ greatest work, including the poem that gives the piece its title, and motivated filmmaker Jane Campion A DELIRIOUS SURPRISE! IT HAS THE based on a true story, the facts and characters ultimately to create one of the most moving, most transporting love stories in memory. SIZZLE AND VIM OF COPPOLA’S GREAT become so absurd that Informant! plays like a breezy Campion, who won an Oscar for writing The Piano, which she also directed, has not always wanted her filmmaking to WORK! This film’s hypnotic black and satire: Soderbergh keeps the pot boiling and the laughs be as pulled-back as it is here. She understood that the Keats-Brawne love affair was such an emotional juggernaut that white makes you feel as if his camera coming. And the pudged-up Damon is Oscar worthy for his telling it in a restrained way only increased its power. –Los Angeles Times lens refracts emotion and light simulta- portrayal of an All-American nerd with some fascinating “BRIGHT STAR IS A THING OF BEAUTY AND A JOY FOR A MOVIE SEASON THAT NEEDS IT.” – Globe neously. –Baltimore Sun skeletons in his closet. —Monday Magazine DEC 18 (7:00 only) DEC 17 (7:15 & 9:00) An entertaining documentary about the practice of yoga, A CHRISTMAS TALE filmed in Hawaii and India. Un Conte de Noel DEC 13 & 14 (7:00 only) Directed by Arnaud Desplechin (France, 2008, 153 min; ENLIGHTEN UP! DVD; French with subtitles; PG) Starring COLD Director: Kate Churchill (USA, 2008, DVD, 82 minutes; PG) “EMOTIONALLY RICH AND CINEMATICALLY THRILLING!” Kate Churchill, a –Seattle Post-Intelligencer SOULS yoga enthusiast, came up with a Nothing could be Director: Sophie Barthes (USA/France, 2009, 102 min; PG) DEC 16 (7:00 & 9:20) project that she more energizing, felt would be both more captivating, DEC 19 (7:00 only) ALL SEATS: $4.25 “YOU’LL LAUGHT TILL IT HURTS!” more pure pleasure –Rolling Stone JULIE & JULIA fascinating and DEC 15 (7:00 only) challenging: select on screen. Three How fitting that the fictional “” played by the Director: Nora Ephron (USA, 2009, 123 min; PG) an ordinary person generations of a IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE real Paul Giamatti is rehearsing Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya DEPARTURES and see if over a family are gather- (USA, 1946, 129 min; DVD) Cast: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci. ing under one roof when he decides his soul is too heavy to bear! He’s the six-month period One of the most treasured films in history. Jimmy Director: Yojiro Takita (Japan, 2008, 131 min; DVD; Japanese to celebrate the perfect customer for a shady outfit that promises relief “DELICIOUSLY FUNNY!” –Empire that person could Stewart, and Lionel Barrymore star in Frank with subtitles; rated G) holiday and endure from unbearable being through the neat extraction and undergo a trans- Capra’s sentimental tale about a small-town everyman who, each other. What storage of one’s pesky, heavy essence. Departures was 2009’s surprise Oscar winner in the for- Meryl Streep takes on the larger-than-life character of formation on the one Christmas Eve, comes to think of his life as a failure. As results is a capti- Writer-director Sophie Barthes’s darky funny, twisty-cool eign language category. See it and you’ll understand why. with smashing success in this Nora Ephron movie that tells Child’s basis of yoga. She he ponders suicide, an angel intervenes to show him the ter- vating portrait of existential tragi-comedy, loaded with smart notions and When Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) loses his gig as cellist in a fail- life story in tandem with a modern-day tale about personal choose Nick, a 29- rifying world that would exist in his absence. This film has the most gorgeously fractious dysfunctional family. All the filmed like a surrealist dream, really takes off after “Paul” ing orchestra, he and his wife (Ryoko Hirosue) move to his empowerment. Amy Adams plays real life blogger Julie Powell, a year-old journalist. become synonymous with the spirit of the season. Happy love and hostility, warmth and mistrust is on display, as is deposits his excised soul (it looks like a chickpea) in the childhood home in small-town Japan. He takes a job assist- woman who worked her way through Child’s recipes. — Enlighten Up! is a Holidays, Movielovers! the complexity of the human nature we all share. In achiev- lab’s vault. Bad luck: He discovers that soullessness leads ing in the funeral ritual in which the deceased is cradled gen- Katherine Monk thought-provoking treatment of one of the most widespread spir- ing all this the director is helped mightily by his superb cast, to lousy acting… The inventiveness of Barthes’s story is tly, dressed and prepared for burial. Sounds like a bummer, One of the gentlest, most charming American movies of the itual developments of our time. Among the many teachers, mys- including such well-known names as Catherine Deneuve, matched by a sense of visual fluidity that’s especially but at times Departures is totally hilarious. Shot and written past decade. Its subject is food as the binding and unifying ele- tics, and gurus appearing in the documentary are B.K.S. Iyengar Cinecenta closed Dec. 20 – Jan. 4 Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) and striking in a first feature. Just as important, Barthes with brilliant economy, it’s mostly just profound and deeply ment of dinner parties, friendship, and marriage. –The New Yorker of Iyengar Yoga and Pattabhi Jois of the Ashtanga Yoga Research Emmanuelle Devos. . –Los Angeles Times knows a good joke. —Entertainment Weekly beautiful. #####! —Now Magazine Institute. —Spirituality and Practice Peace on earth