This is England

One more catch-up for Kevin Crust's Best of 2007 movies is "This is England".


This is England - Synopsis

Shaun (Thomas Turgoose), who lost his father in the Falklands War, earns the respect of skinheads when he stands up to their teasing. He becomes part of the gang and enjoys hanging out with his new friends. Trouble starts with the return of Combo (Stephen Graham), a racist ex-convict. With the gang divided into two factions, Shaun sides with Combo and, unfortunately, finds in him a father figure.

Opened July 25, 2007 Runtime: 1 hr. 38 min.
Cast: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley, Andrew Shim, Vicky McClure
Director: Shane Meadows
Genres: Period Film, Drama, Coming-of-Age

Away From Her

I just noticed as I was reviewing my "best of 2007" tags that "Away From Her" was on LA Times reviewer Kevin Crust's "Best of 2007" list but that there was not post for the movie here. So this is a catch-up post. "Away From Her" was actually released back in May 2007.


Synopsis "Away from Her"

Long married Fiona and Grant find their mutual devotion tested by her struggle with Alzheimer's disease. When it becomes apparent that the condition is worsening, she checks into a rest home. Grant visits her a month later and finds that his wife has grown close to Aubrey, another resident. Jealous and hurt, Grant finally seeks help from Aubrey's wife when Fiona suffers a crisis. Based on a short story by Alice Munro.

Opened May 4, 2007 Runtime: 1 hr. 50 min.
PG-13 some strong language
Cast: Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, Olympia Dukakis
Director: Sarah Polley
Genres: Marriage Drama, Drama

4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days

"4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" gets a critic's recommendation from Kenneth Turan of the LA Times:

If you want to see the year's best foreign-language film, ignore the fact that it didn't get an Oscar nomination and see this exceptional Romanian film that won the Palme d'Or at Cannes as well as the European Film Award. (Review of 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days at LA Times Calendar Live)

Synopsis 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
The controversial story of this emotionally and cinematically gripping film is the 24-hour journey of two women as they negotiate for an illegal abortion in Romania during the final days of the communist Ceaucescu regime.

Opened January 25, 2008 Runtime: 1 hr. 53 min.
Not Rated
Cast: Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, Vlad Ivanov, Alexandru Potocean, Luminita Gheorghiu
Director: Cristian Mungiu
Genres: Drama, Slice of Life

Local screenings and tickets online from Fandango.com

The Counterfeiters

"The Counterfeiters" gets a critic's recommendation from Kenneth Turan of the LA Times:

Cultures make movies about the wars that matter to them. In this country, the catastrophe in Iraq is currently on everyone's mind, but in Europe, World War II remains the conflict of choice, and the engrossing "The Counterfeiters" is one result. This engrossing tale details the moral dilemmas inherent in a Nazi plot to use Jews to counterfeit British and American money. (Kenneth Turan's review of "The Counterfeiters" at the LA Times)

Synopsis of "The Counterfeiters"

During the last years of the war, as the German Reich saw that the end was near, the authorities decided to produce their own banknotes in the currencies of their major war enemies. They hoped to flood the enemy economy and fill the empty war coffers. At the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, two barracks were transformed into a fully equipped counterfeiters workshop. "Operation Bernhard" was born. Prisoners were brought to Sachsenhausen from other camps: professional printers, fastidious bank officials and simple craftsmen all became members of the top-secret counterfeiter commando. If they cooperated with the enemy, they had a chance to survive; if they sabotaged the operation, a sure death awaited them. Based on a true story.

Opened February 22, 2008 Runtime: 1 hr. 38 min.
Rated R - some strong violence, brief sexuality/nudity and language
Cast: Karl Markovics, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, Martin Brambach, Dolores Chaplin
Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Genres: War Drama, POW Drama, Drama

Get local showtimes and tickets online for "The Counterfeiters" at Fandango.com

Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show

In recommending "Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights - Hollywood to the Heartland", Kevin Crust of the LA Times says:

Its full title may be unwieldy and its humor a tad colorful for a family audience, but the film is surprisingly endearing and chock full of a genuine appreciation of the moment. The documentary, directed by Ari Sandel, chronicles the month-long odyssey of Vaughn and four stand-up comedians he recruited from L.A.'s Comedy Store as they zigzag across the nation's flyover zone in a tour bus.

Synopsis of "Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show"

Stand-up comics Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst and Sebastian Maniscalco join actor Vince Vaughn in a series of live performances. Blending comedy, improvisational sketches and music along with surprise celebrity guests, the group travels approximately 6,000 miles to bring their unique show to audiences in the South, West and Midwest.

Opened February 8, 2008
Runtime: 1 hr. 50 min.
R - pervasive language and some sex-related humor
Cast: Vince Vaughn, Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst, Sebastian Maniscalco
Director: Ari Sandel
Genres: Concerts, Comedy, Sketch Comedy, Standup Comedy

Showtimes and ticets online for Vince Vaughn Wild West Comedy Show at Fandango.com

In Bruges

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer gives "In Bruges" a recommendation.

As self-conscious as it is, "In Bruges" manages to toy with cliché while avoiding it entirely. If, as David Mamet has said, the difference between gangster films and film noir is that gangster films sentimentalize the gangster while film noir "depicts a Darwinian zero-sum world, a world without rules and without judgment," then "In Bruges" is a film noir in which there is plenty of judgment (including Hieronymus Bosch's painting of "The Last Judgment"), but none of it has any real or lasting consequence. Chocano's full reivew for "In Bruges"

Synopsis for the movie "In Bruges"

Bruges (pronounced “broozh”), the most well-preserved medieval city in the whole of Belgium, is a welcoming destination for travellers from all over the world. But for hit men Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson), it could be their final destination; a difficult job has resulted in the pair being ordered right before Christmas by their London boss Harry (two-time Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes) to go and cool their heels in the storybook Flemish city for a couple of weeks. Ken and Ray’s vacation becomes a life-and-death struggle of darkly comic proportions and surprisingly emotional consequences.

Opened February 8, 2008
Runtime: 1 hr. 41 min.
R - strong bloody violence, pervasive language and some drug use
Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clémence Poésy, Jérémie Rénier
Director: Martin McDonagh
Genres: Action Comedy, Buddy Film, Comedy

Showtimes for In Bruges at Fandango.com

Last Year at Marienbad

LA Times critic Kevin Thomas gives the re-release of the 1961 movie, Last Year at Marienbad

Alain Resnais' 1961 "Last Year at Marienbad" remains one of cinema's glorious enigmas, endlessly compelling and intriguing. It is a beautiful film, shot in superb black-and-white and set primarily in Munich's extravagant Nymphenburg Palace, which, along with several other locales, stands in for an ornate resort hotel.

Synopsis of "Last Year At Marienbad" by Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

A cinematic puzzle, Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad is a radical exploration of the formal possibilities of film. Beautifully shot in Cinemascope by Sacha Vierny, the movie is a riddle of seduction, a mercurial enigma darting between a present and past which may not even exist, let alone converge. The film stars Giorgio Albertazzi as an unnamed sophisticate attempting to convince a similarly nameless woman (Delphine Seyrig) that they met and were romantically involved a year ago in the same enormous, baroque European hotel. In the end, it hardly matters -- they're not characters so much as pawns anyway. Hypnotically dreamlike, Last Year at Marienbad is a surrealist parody of Hollywood melodrama, a high-fashion romance with a dark, alien underbelly. According to screenwriter Alain Robbe-Grillet, the movie is a pure construction, without a frame of reference outside of its own existence -- the lives of its characters begin when the lights go down, and conclude when they come back up.


Opened June 25, 1961
Runtime: 1:34
NR
Cast: Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi, Sacha Pitoeff, Francoise Spira
Director: Alain Resnais
Genres: Psychological Drama, Avant-garde / Experimental, Surrealist Film