CALENDAR ( COMMUNITY SPORTS ARTS FILM MUSIC) LISTING S GET LOW D: Aaron Schneider; with Robert preacher man who has gone legit. Now hoping to dancer (Schull), and decided that the cultural revolution w Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Bill Murray, Lucas Black, Gerald expose the tricks of his fraudulent trade, Marcus back home wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Based on travels to the farmstead of Louis Sweetzer Li’s autobiography, the end is never in doubt, although McRaney, Bill Cobbs. (PG-13, 103 min.) (Herthum), a taciturn drunk who claims his daugh- Beresford wrings the utmost suspense from a sequence Set in Depression-era backwoods Tennessee, ter, Nell (Bell), is possessed. Marcus brings the in which associates of the Chinese consulate attempt Get Low begins and ends with a crotchety, shotgun- camera crew along with him, and it all goes to to kidnap Li in an effort to force his return home. While wielding misanthrope by the name of Felix Bush. hell, of course. The cast, in particular Bell (whose Beresford’s film is hardly Breaker Morant or Tender Played by Duvall (effortlessly, flawlessly), Bush is performance is un-CGI-aided and all the more dis- Mercies, it is nowhere near as mawkish or cloying as it the kind of mysterious character who makes you concerting for it), is uniformly excellent and believ- could have been. (09/03/2010) – Marc Savlov wonder: What next? Next, actually, is the arrange- able as “documentary” subjects, and Stamm’s ★★★■Arbor ment of his funeral. Enter Frank Quinn (Murray), sense of what to reveal (or not) is as cunning as, the whiskey-snorting owner of the local funeral well, the devil. The shock ending sidesteps sev- parlor. Played with a savvy sort of gallows humor eral key questions, but never mind: It’s hellishly NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS D: Susanna by Murray, Quinn smells a business opportunity in fun. (08/27/2010) – Marc Savlov White; with Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rhys Ifans, Maggie Bush’s bizarre request to have the funeral before he ★★★★■CM Cedar Park, Southpark Meadows, Smith, Oscar Steer, Asa Butterfield, Lil Woods, Eros Vlahos, Rosie Taylor- dies, and the two seal the deal. And then there’s Lakeline, Metropolitan, Tinseltown North Ritson, Daniel Mays, Ralph Fiennes, Ewan McGregor. (PG, 109 min.) the return to town of the widowed Mattie Darrow In this second installment of films based on char- (Spacek). Duvall and Spacek give two of their finer D: Erik White; with Bow Wow, acters created in Christianna Brand’s Nurse Matilda performances here, but the film comes most to life LOTTERY TICKET books, Thompson again stars as the story’s titular Brandon T. Jackson, Naturi Naughton, Loretta Devine, Ice Cube, 732-2211 ext. 3 when the deadpan Murray is onscreen. Get Low nanny. The film is set in World War II-era England. As is unlike any other film I’ve seen this year. This is Gbenga Akinnagbe, Keith David, Terry Crews, Leslie Jones, Mike 3FTFBSDI#MWE4VJUFt"VTUJO the members of the Green family struggle to keep )XZBU#VSOFU3E BCPWF#MBDL&ZFE1FB director Schneider’s debut feature, and it’s a doozy, Epps. (PG-13, 99 min.) up their farm while their father and husband is off sweet and strange in equal measure, and just about Some discounts, coverages, payment plans, and features are not available in No gamble is made by the makers of Lottery in battle, the bedraggled wife and mom (Gyllenhaal) all states or in all GEICO companies. Government Employees Insurance Co. perfect. (08/13/2010) – Marc Savlov Ticket, but that doesn’t mean the film isn’t a receives an unexpected assist from Nanny McPhee. GEICO General Insurance Co. GEICO Indemnity Co. GEICO Casualty Co. ★★★★■Alamo Drafthouse South, Arbor, Metropolitan These companies are subsidiaries of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. GEICO insurance serviceable little laugher. All-grown-up music With her black, floor-length garb; snaggletooth; facial is not available in MA. GEICO: Washington, DC 20076. © 2007 GEICO. The crossover star Bow Wow heads this cast as Kevin GEICO gecko image © GEICO 1999-2007 GOING THE DISTANCE D: Nanette Burstein; Carson, who must hang on to the winning $370 with Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, million lottery ticket over a long July Fourth week- Christina Applegate, Jim Gaffigan, Ron Livingston. (R, 102 min.) end before claiming his money when the lottery office opens again on Tuesday. Partying ensues, Going the Distance doesn’t. Go the distance, that and so does chasing and pummeling. Kevin even is. The film is a wan romantic comedy about the dif- begins to distrust his best pal, Benny (Jackson), ficulties in long-distance relationships and touches and longtime friend Stacie (Naughton), the girl on every cliché in the handbook. The film has a who everyone but Kevin knows is right for him. Ice tin ear and sullied eye: Nothing sounds or looks Cube steps out of his usual light comedy zone to very good. In her transition to narrative filmmaking, play a hermitlike old geezer with a powerful right former documentarian Burstein has few trustworthy hook. Despite lots of solid laughs and a wealth of instincts. The script offers only a litany of familiar ensemble players, first-time director White’s film plot points: disapproving friends and relatives, doesn’t sustain a steady pace of jokes. Ultimately, phone sex, visits every few months, and panic that Lottery Ticket is no Friday, but that 15-year-old the other may be out with a new love connection. film’s vibe is clearly the model Lottery Ticket is This could have been mindlessly pleasant but for chasing. (08/27/2010) – Marjorie Baumgarten the disastrous decision to insert lots of unneces- ★★★■Highland, Metropolitan, Millennium, sary vulgarity – oftentimes totally tangential asides Tinseltown North about such things as dry-humping and oral sex. Despite all this, Barrymore and (“Mac Guy”) Long, as boyfriend Garrett, share some winning scenes, MACHETE D: Robert Rodriguez, Ethan although Barrymore would be better off pairing w Maniquis; with Danny Trejo, Robert De Niro, Jessica with a male co-star who is fully equal to her talent. Alba, Steven Seagal, Michelle Rodriguez, Jeff Fahey, Cheech (09/03/2010) – Marjorie Baumgarten Marin, Don Johnson, Lindsay Lohan. (R, 105 min.) ★★■Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, Alamo Drafthouse Machete is a movie that has been a long time South, Hill Country Galleria, CM Round Rock, coming, which gives this “Mexploitation” film Southpark Meadows, Highland, Gateway, Gold Class, an extra kick now that its arrival coincides with Tinseltown South, Westgate an American political climate that enhances its topicality. The plot kicks off when Machete (Trejo) I’M STILL HERE D: Casey Affleck. (NR, 107 min.) is double-crossed in Mexico and witnesses the gruesome murder of his wife and daughter by drug In his directing debut, actor Affleck films his kingpin Torrez (Seagal). Three years later we pick Oscar-winning brother-in-law Joaquin Phoenix during up his trail as a day laborer in Texas, where a rabid the period of time Phoenix announced his retire- anti-immigration movement is in full flourish, seen ment from acting and the assumption of a career primarily in the personages of a shoot-to-kill vigi- as a hip-hop artist. Perhaps what we are seeing is lante (Johnson) and De Niro’s Senator McLaughlin, truly a fly-on-the-wall documentary about a celebrity a racist who advocates for an electrified border undergoing a life crisis, or maybe it’s a hoax, just like fence. The film’s ultraviolence is leavened by its any other fabricated story that inserts fiction into humorous and creative edge. Yes, Machete is gra- the contours of reality. In any case, I’m Still Here is a tuitous and over-the-top, but the film’s self-aware- sad, troubling portrait of a brilliant actor in a state of ness keeps it from going over to the dark side. decrepitude and self-delusion. Certainly, there’s some In the end, Machete may not be all that original, truth in Phoenix’s desire to escape himself. But, holy but it is fresh – fresh as a steel blade to the gut. Joaq-a-mole: That’s hardly a unique situation. The (09/03/2010) – Marjorie Baumgarten inner self Phoenix reveals is an egocentric, abusive, ★★★★■Alamo Ritz, Alamo Drafthouse Village, CM untalented, disheveled boor. I’m Still Here may be Cedar Park, CM Round Rock, Southpark Meadows, either Phoenix’s best performance ever or a pathetic document of wasted talent. Either way, it’s hard not Highland, Gateway, Metropolitan, Tinseltown North, to feel punk’d and trapped amid the company of Westgate jerks. (09/10/2010) – Marjorie Baumgarten ★★ Alamo Drafthouse South MAO’S LAST DANCER D: Bruce Beresford; with Bruce Greenwood, Kyle MacLachlan, Joan Chen, Chi Cao, THE LAST EXORCISM D: Daniel Amanda Schull, Aden Young, Chengwu Guo, Huang Wen Bin, Wang w Stamm; with Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Louis Herthum, Suang Bao, Zhang Su, Ferdinand Hoang. (PG, 117 min., subtitled) Iris Bahr, Caleb Landry Jones, Tony Bentley, Shanna Forrestall. This biopic about Li Cunxin, a Chinese bal- SCREEN GEMSPRESENTS AN OLIVE BRIDGE ENTERTAINMENTPRODUCTION A WILL GLUCK FILM “EASY A” PENN BADGLEY (PG-13, 88 min.) let dancer who defected to the U.S. in 1981, is AMANDA BYNES THOMAS HADEN CHURCH PATRICIA CLARKSON CAM GIGANDET LISA KUDROW MALCOLM MCDOWELL ALY MICHALKA painless melodrama from its first image to the PRODUCED WRITTEN DIRECTED Every generation gets the devil it deserves, and STANLEY TUCCI BYZANNE DEVINE WILL GLUCK BYBERT V. ROYAL BYWILL GLUCK this faux documentary pulls few punches in its freeze-frame finale. Oscar-winning Aussie director nihilistic depiction of religious belief vs.