Stop-Loss

After a week with no additions to the LA Times recommended movies list, Kenneth Turan comes up with a recommendation for the movie "Stop-Loss" which tells the story of an American soldier who resists a so-called "stop-loss" order to return to Iraq. The movie, by the way, is the first by Kimberly Peirce since her movie "Boys Don't Cry".

Four thousand Americans and counting have died in Iraq, and the litany of unsuccessful films about that part of the world -- "The Situation," "Redacted," "Rendition," "The Kingdom," "In The Valley of Elah" among others -- is growing as well. Do not add “Stop-Loss” to that list. "Stop-Loss" is a film that does it right. Read the review of Stop-Loss by the LA Times' movie reviewer Kenneth Turan

Synopsis of Stop-Loss
Decorated Iraq war hero Sgt. Brandon King makes a celebrated return to his small Texas hometown following his tour of duty. Brandon tries to resume the life he left behind with the help and support of his family and his best friend, Steve Shriver, who served with him in Iraq.

Alongside their war-time buddies, Brandon and Steve try to make peace with civilian life. Then, against Brandon's will, the Army orders him back to duty in Iraq. This upends Brandon's entire world. The conflict into which he is thrown tests everything he believes in: the bond of family, the loyalty of friendship, the limits of love, and the value of honor.

Opened March 28, 2008 Runtime: 1 hr. 53 min.
Rated R for graphic violence and pervasive language
Cast: Ryan Phillippe, Abbie Cornish, Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Timothy Olyphant Director: Kimberly Peirce
Genres: Psychological Drama, Drama, War, Iraq War

Showtimes for Stop-Loss in your area from Fandango.com

Paranoid Park

In recommending "Paranoid Park" for LA Times readers, Carina Chocano gushes eloquent:

Youth and death meet again in Gus Van Sant’s "Paranoid Park," a gorgeously stark, mesmerizingly elliptical story told in the same lyrical-prosaic style that has characterized his latest films. Based on a young-adult novel by Blake Nelson, it's a study in angst and guilt made visible by the dreamy camera work of Christopher Doyle (and co-cinematographer Rain Kathy Li) and otherwise palpable by Van Sant's charged, simple direction.

Synopsis for "Paranoid Park"

Director: Gus Van Sant
Running Time: 1:18
Rated R

Beaufort

"Beaufort" garners a recommendation from the LA Times reviewer Kenneth Turan:

This multi-award-winning film, directed by Joseph Cedar, is a kind of Israeli "Apocalypse Now", a brooding examination of the nature and purpose of war that is a tribute to the traditional virtues of bravery and sacrifice as well as a painful admission of how futile those qualities can be. It presents a war where nothing is sacred and no one is safe, where goals mutate, leaders are fallible, and everyone is vulnerable to bombs, shells, and despair. In Hebrew with English subtitles.

Synopsis

Director: Joseph Cedar
Running Time: 2:00
Unrated

The Bank Job

"The Bank Job" gets a recommendation from LA Times reviewer Kevin Crust:

Leave ti to a trio of crafy veterans to pull a fast one with this lively heist drama set in early 1970s London and inspired by an incredibly strange true story.

Synopsis of "The Bank Job" by The Production at IMDB
In September 1971, thieves tunneled into the vault of a bank in London's Baker Street and looted safe deposit boxes of cash and jewelry worth over three million pounds. None of it was recovered. Nobody was ever arrested. The robbery made headlines for a few days and then disappeared - the result of a 'D' Notice, gagging the press. This film reveals what was hidden for the first time. The story involves murder, corruption and a sex scandal with links to the Royal Family - a story in which the thieves were the most innocent people involved.

Rated R
1:50 running time
Director: Roger Donaldson

Cast:
Jason Statham ... Terry Leather
Saffron Burrows ... Martine Love
Stephen Campbell Moore ... Kevin Swain
Daniel Mays ... Dave Shilling
James Faulkner ... Guy Singer
Alki David ... Bambas
Michael Jibson ... Eddie Burton
Georgia Taylor ... Ingrid Burton
Richard Lintern ... Tim Everett
Peter Bowles ... Miles Urquhart
Alistair Petrie ... Philip Lisle
Hattie Morahan ... Gale Benson
Julian Lewis Jones ... Snow
Andrew Brooke ... Quinn
Rupert Frazer ... Lord Drysdale

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer recommends "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day:

In the film, set in London in the days leading up to World War II, (Francis) McDormand plays Guinevere Pettigrew, a down-on-her-luck governess who has just been fired from her last job for being too intolerant of her employers' lax morals...Bharat Nalluri directs with a light touch and a great eye for costumes and sets, which are gorgeous enough to make up for any contrivances in the plot. It's pure romantic fantasy, and you won't believe it for a minute. But it's fun to watch Miss Pettigrew and Miss Lafosse live for a couple of hours. (Carina Chocano's full review of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day)

Synopsis of "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day"
In 1939 London, Miss Guinevere Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) is a middle-aged governess who finds herself once again unfairly dismissed from her job. Without so much as severance pay, Miss Pettigrew realizes that she must – for the first time in two decades – seize the day. This she does, by intercepting an employment assignment outside of her comfort level – as “social secretary.” Arriving at a penthouse apartment for the interview, Miss Pettigrew is catapulted into the glamorous world and dizzying social whirl of an American actress and singer, Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams).

Opened March 7, 2008 Runtime: 1 hr. 32 min.
PG-13 some partial nudity and innuendo
Cast: Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Lee Pace, Ciarán Hinds, Shirley Henderson
Director: Bharat Nalluri
Genres: Romantic Comedy, Period Film, Comedy
Showtimes for Miss Pettigrew from Fandango.com

Chicago 10

Carina Chocano recommends "Chicago 10", writing in her capsule review for the LA Times:

Brett Morgen's rousing and entertaining "Chicago 10" is a re-construction of the events surrounding the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago and of the conspiracy trial, a year later, of the activists and protesters known as the Chicago 7 (originally the Chicago 8: Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner and Bobby Seale). Morgen weaves the events together from archival footage and animated sequences voiced by well-known actors and underscores them with '60s protest music and more recent tracks.

Synopsis of "Chicago 10"

Interweaving footage of the brutal clashes between police and demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic convention with 3-D animated reenactments of the outrageous trial that followed it, Morgen turns the audience into eyewitnesses of violent turmoil and absurdist spectacle. Set to a blazing soundtrack that ranges from Black Sabbath and Steppenwolf to the Beastie Boys and Eminem, “Chicago 10” is a stirring account of young Americans taking a stand in the face of an oppressive government—a story with deep resonance to the world of today.

Opened February 29, 2008 Runtime: 1 hr. 40 min.
Rated R
Director: Brett Morgen
Genres: Law & Crime, History, Social History, Politics & Government
Showtimes and tickets for "Chicago 10" at Fandango

The Duchess of Langeais

A recommendation goes to "The Duchess of Langeais" from LA Times reviewer Kevin Thomas who writes in his capsule recommendation:

Jacques Rivette's film of the Balzac short story is a superb chamber drama, that for all its magnificent period interiors and polished repartee is constantly fluid. Jeanne Balibar plays an exquisite duchess in 1818 Paris who playfully ensnares a marquis (Guillaume Depardieu), a military hero, unaware that her refuge in the dictates of decorum and the pieties of religion reveal her to be imprisoned by social status and convention. Unwittingly, she sets both of them on a devastating journey of self-discovery.

Synopsis The Duchess of Langeais
Antoinette is the Duchess of Langeais (Jeanne Balibar), a married coquette who frequents the most extravagant balls in 1820's Paris during The Restoration, where hypocrisy and vanity reign. Upon the handsome general, Armand de Montriveau's (Guillaume Depardieu) first meeting with her, he realized it was true love from that moment on. Flattered by his attentions, the alluring Antoinette orchestrates a calculating game of seduction, but she repeatedly refuses Montriveau. Despite his sincere romantic declarations, Montriveau's passion remains unfulfilled. When the humiliated Montriveau eventually seeks his revenge, Antoinette's love awakens. But it may well be too late for the star-crossed lovers.


Opened February 22, 2008 Runtime: 2 hr. 17 min.
Cast: Jeanne Balibar, Guillaume Depardieu, Bulle Ogier, Michel Piccoli, Barbet Schroeder
Director: Jacques Rivette
Genres: Romantic Drama, Period Film, Romance

In French, with English subtitles. Unrated. Mature themes.



Showtimes for The Duchess of Langeais in your zip code at Fandango.com

A Walk to Beautiful

Another "Critic's Choice" award from LA Times Kenneth Turan this week, this one for the documentary movie from Ethiopia called "A Walk to Beautiful". Turan writes:

"A Walk to Beautiful" will leave you speechless two times over -- first with despair, then with joy. Neither unmentionable subject matter nor nonexistent commercial prospects can keep this documentary from having a power over your heart that is unparalleled. (Read Turan's review of A Walk to Beautiful)

Synopsis for "A Walk to Beautiful"

Documentary of Ethiopian women who suffer incontinence due to childbirth injuries and their new lives after receiving an operation to cure their injuries.

Directed by Amy Bucher

Tickets and showtimes in your area from Fandango

Summer Palace

The LA Time's reviewer Kenneth Turan gives "Summer Palace" a critic's choice recommendation stating:

AS politically provocative as it is sexually candid, the ambitious and assured "Summer Palace" is just the kind of film calculated to give the Chinese government fits. And it did. (Review of Summer Palace by Kenneth Turan)

"Summer Palace" Synopsis
Country girl Wei leaves her village to attend university in Beijing, where she soon discovers an intense world of sexual freedom. She falls madly in love with Zhou, another student and, driven by wild passion, they play dangerous games with each other. When he is sent to a military camp and then to Germany after a violent protest, she finds a job and a new lover but cannot forget him. Once unrest begins in Berlin, Zhou decides to return to China and to Wei.

Opened January 11, 2008
Cast: Hao Lei, Guo Xiaodong, Hu Ling
Director: Lou Ye
Genres: Romantic Drama, Period Film, Political Drama, Drama

Tickets and times for Summer Palace at Fandango