Julie and Julia

Both Kenneth Turan and Betsy Sharkey give a Critics' Choice Award to the movie "Julie and Julia" about cooks Julia Child and Julie Powell. Sharkey writes in her capsule review:

This perfectly puffed soufflé of a film, starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Amy Adams as the blogger who cooks through "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and lives-loves to tell the tale, is about as tasty a delight as any major studio has served up this summer. In a world where even fast food joints are forced to display their calories, it's great fun to be sauteed in butter and wine for a couple of hours absolutely guilt free. Streep fills out the towering, gangly cooking phenom quite remarkably; she's larger than life and yet completely embraceable. Meanwhile, Adams is spongecake light as the aimless young Manhattanite searching for a new recipe for life in Child's sauces. The film, and its performances, are exceedingly rich. Yum. -- Betsy Sharkey

In Turan's capsule review he writes:

New movies are like restaurants: They're hot when they first open and then, especially in Los Angeles, there's a tendency to forget that they're around. It would be criminal if this happens to "Julie & Julia," a film with its own intimate connection to food. A consummate entertainment that echoes the rhythms and attitudes of classic Hollywood, this story of how Julia Child (an irresistible Meryl Streep) achieved fame through a cookbook and Julie Powell (Amy Adams) did the same by following Child's recipes is a satisfying throwback to those old-fashioned movie fantasies where impossible dreams do come true. If you're an adult looking for a good time, search no further. Read Turan's full review of Julie and Julia

Synopsis Julie & Julia
A frustrated temp secretary (Amy Adams) embarks on a year-long culinary quest to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She chronicles her trials and tribulations in a blog that catches on with the food crowd. The film also covers the years Julia Child (Meryl Streep) and her husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) spent in Paris during the 1940s and 1950s, when he was a foreign diplomat who was eventually investigated by Sen. Joseph McCarthy for alleged communist ties

Opened August 7, 2009 Runtime:2 hr. 3 min.
Cast: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina, Linda Emond Director: Nora Ephron Genres: Comedy, Domestic Comedy

Showtimes in your area for Julie and Julia from Fandango.com

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Soul Power

Critics' Choice award for Soul Power from Kenneth Turan:

Most everyone remembers "The Rumble in the Jungle," the 1974 heavyweight championship fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, but who remembers "Zaire 74," the music festival that was organized to go along with it? "Soul Power," a vibrant and joyous new documentary, should end that anonymity. Among the highlights are B.B. King, Bill Withers, Celia Cruz, Miriam Makeba and the legendary Zaire ensembles OK Jazz and Orchestre Afrisa. The amazing thing about these 35-year-old performances is how fresh and alive they are. Kenneth Turan's review of Soul Power at the LA Times

Synopsis Soul Power

In 1974, the most celebrated American R&B acts of the time came together with the most renowned musical groups in Africa for a 12-hour, three-night long concert held in Kinshasa, Zaire. The dream-child of Hugh Masekela and Stewart Levine, this music festival became a reality when they convinced boxing promoter Don King to combine the event with “The Rumble in the Jungle,” the epic fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, previously chronicled in the Academy Award-winning documentary WHEN WE WERE KINGS. "Soul Power" is a verité documentary about this legendary music festival (dubbed “Zaire ‘74”), and it depicts the experiences and performances of such musical luminaries as James Brown, BB King, Bill Withers, Celia Cruz, among a host of others. At the peak of their talents and the height of their careers, these artists were inspired by this return to their African roots, as well as the enthusiasm of the Zairian audience, to give the performances of their lives.

Director: Jeffrey Levy-Hinte
Genres: Concerts, Music History, Music
Opened July 10, 2009 Runtime:1 hr. 33 min.

Showtimes for Soul Time from Fandango

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The Hurt Locker

A critics' choice award for "The Hurt Locker from LA Times reviwer Kenneth Turan:

The film has the killer impact of the explosive devices that are the heart of its plot: It simply blows you apart and doesn't bother putting you back together again. Overwhelmingly tense, overflowing with crackling verisimilitude, it's both the film about the war in Iraq that we've been waiting for and the kind of unqualified triumph that's been long expected from director Kathryn Bigelow. "The Hurt Locker" asks difficult questions about heroism's costs and demands, about what war does to soldiers, and about damage that may be impossible to rectify or repair. Click here to read the full review of "The Hurt Locker" by Kenneth Turan.

Synopsis The Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker is a riveting, suspenseful portrait of the courage under fire of the military's unrecognized heroes: the technicians of a bomb squad who volunteer to challenge the odds and save lives doing one of the world's most dangerous jobs. Three members of the Army's elite Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) squad battle insurgents and one another as they search for and disarm a wave of roadside bombs on the streets of Baghdad—in order to try and make the city a safer place for Iraqis and Americans alike. Their mission is clear—protect and save—but it's anything but easy, as the margin of error when defusing a war-zone bomb is zero. This thrilling and heart-pounding look at the psychology of bomb technicians and the effects of risk and danger on the human psyche is a fictional tale inspired by real events by journalist and screenwriter Mark Boal, who was embedded with a special bomb unit in Iraq.

Opened June 26, 2009 Runtime:2 hr. 11 min. R - language and war violence

Cast: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Genres: Action Thriller, Combat Films, War

Show times for "The Hurt Locker" at Fandango.com

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Afghan Star

Kenneth Turan writes:

If you believe that bringing the questionable virtues of "American Idol" to Afghanistan would do that beleaguered nation no favors, this remarkable documentary, a double prize-winner at Sundance, will change your mind in an instant. In the context of Afghanistan, the show's core idea becomes moving, dramatic and significant in ways ti simply isn't in the West. Review of "Afghan Star" by Kenneth Turan at the LA Times

Synopsis Afghan Star

Marking’s timely and moving film follows the dramatic stories of four young finalists—two men and two women—as they hazard everything to become the nation’s favorite performer. By observing the Afghani people's relationship to its pop culture, Afghan Star is the perfect window into a country’s tenuous, ongoing struggle for modernity. What Americans consider frivolous entertainment is downright revolutionary—and more human—in this troubled part of the world.

Note: Film is presented in Dari and Pashtun with English subtitles.

Cast: Rafi Naabzada, Lima Sahar, Fayez Hameed, Setara Hussainzada
Director: Havana Marking
Genres: Social History, Politics & Government, Social Issues, Culture & Society, Film, TV & Radio, Music

Opened June 26, 2009 Runtime:1 hr. 28 min.

Show times for Afghan Star at Fandango

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(500) Days of Summer

A Critics' Choice award for "(500) Days of Summer" from Michael Ordona:

...bristles with energy, emotional and intellectual, as it flits about the dizzying highs and weeping karaoke lows of a passionate entanglement. The films many virtues include an unusual storytelling conceit, a sharp sense of music, a lover's-eye view of Los Angeles and on-the-money performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. And it has the best closing line of any movie so far this year.

Betsy Sharkey also weighs in with a plug here.

Synopsis (500) Days of Summer
Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), greeting-card writer and hopeless romantic, is caught completely off-guard when his girlfriend, Summer (Zooey Deschanel), suddenly dumps him. He reflects back on their 500 days together to try to figure out where their love affair went sour, and in so doing, Tom rediscovers his true passions in life.

Cast: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Clark Gregg, Minka Kelly, Matthew Gray Gubler
Director: Marc Webb
Genres: Romantic Comedy, Comedy
Opened July 17, 2009 Run time:1 hr. 35 min.

Show times at Fandango

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