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Sunday, February 28, 2010

Shutter Island

Shutter Island"Shutter Island": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:

In "Shutter Island," director Martin Scorsese has created a divinely dark and devious brain tease in the best noir tradition with its smarter-than-you'd-think cops, their-tougher-than-you'd-imagine cases to crack, and enough nods to the classic genre for an all-night parlor game. It's 1954 when Leonardo DiCaprio's U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, played by Mark Ruffalo, are dispatched to an asylum for the criminally insane to investigate a dicey disappearance. But there are deeper mysteries here and it turns out that Scorsese has a lot more on his mind than a crazy inmate on the loose. Meanwhile, Teddy has a few skeletons of his own. There are flaws, but none lethal and, in the end, Scorsese gives us a new noir classic with DiCaprio -- brilliant as Teddy -- racing to solve the case and hang onto his sanity at the same time. Read Sharkey's full review of "Shutter Island" at the LA Times


Shutter Island
The project centers on a U.S. marshal (Mark Ruffalo) who along with his new partner (Leonardo DiCaprio) travels to a Massachusetts island to investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane. During their inquiry , the two encounter a web of deceit, experience a hurricane and become involved in a deadly inmate riot that leaves them trapped on the island. Ben Kingsley will play Dr. Cawley, the hospital's enigmatic chief physician who must reluctantly play host to the two U.S. marshals.

Opened February 19, 2010 Runtime:2 hr. 18 min.
Rdisturbing violent content, some nudity and language
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow
Director: Martin Scorsese
Genres: Thriller


Movie times and tickets for "Shutter Island" from Fandango



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The Ghost Writer

Ghost Writer"The Ghost Writer": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Reviewer:

Made by a filmmaker suddenly returned to the height of his powers, this is a thriller wrapped around a roman à clef about contemporary politics wrapped around director Roman Polanski's trademark cynicism. An effortless blending of personal preoccupations with audience preferences that recalls the classic work of Alfred Hitchcock. Read Turan's full review of "The Ghost Writer" at the LA Times
The Ghost Writer
When a successful British ghostwriter, The Ghost, agrees to complete the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang, his agent assures him it's the opportunity of a lifetime. But the project seems doomed from the start-not least because his predecessor on the project, Lang's long-term aide, died in an unfortunate accident. The Ghost flies out to work on the project, in the middle of winter, to an oceanfront house on an island off the U.S. Eastern seaboard. But the day after he arrives, a former British cabinet minister accuses Lang of authorizing the illegal seizure of suspected terrorists and handing them over for torture by the CIA-a war crime. As The Ghost works, he begins to uncover clues suggesting his predecessor may have stumbled on a dark secret linking Lang to the CIA-and that somehow this information is hidden in the manuscript he left behind.

Opened February 19, 2010 Runtime:1 hr. 35 min.
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall, Olivia Williams, Tom Wilkinson
Director: Roman Polanski
Genres: Political Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Thriller

Movie times and tickets for "The Ghost Writer" from Fandango



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Ajami

"Ajami": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:
One of the five foreign-language Oscar finalists, this look at cultures in conflict in today's Israel has a complex, elliptical structure and uses unconventional filming techniques to tell a bleak and fatalistic story that's conveyed with an unnerving sense of verisimilitude.
Read Turan's full review of "Ajami" at the LA Times

Opened February 3, 2010
Director: Scandar Copti,Yaron Shani
Genres: Drama

Movie times and tickets for "Ajami" from Fandango


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Monday, February 22, 2010

North Face

"North Face": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:
It is almost impossible not to be caught up in the spell of "North Face." As riveting and exhilirating as it is heartbreaking, the film is loosely based on the 1936 attempt by two mountain-climbing teams to be the first to summit the Swiss massif dubbed Eiger, the ogre.

German writer-director Philipp Stölzl has managed to so blur the line between reality and fiction that if you let yourself it can feel as if you're clinging to the frozen side of "Murder Wall" alongside them, with a 2,000-foot death drop just one misstep away.
Read Sharkey's full review of title at the LA Times


North Face
Based on a true story, "North Face" is a gripping adventure drama about a competition to climb the most dangerous rock face in the Alps. In 1936, Nazi propaganda urges German alpinists to conquer the unclimbed north face of the Swiss massif, the Eiger, bringing two reluctant climbers, Toni Kurz (BENNO FÜRMANN) and Andi Hinterstoisser (FLORIAN LUKAS), to begin their daring ascent and attempt to scale the infamous rock face, often called the Murder Wall.

Opened January 29, 2010 Runtime:2 hr. 1 min.
Cast: Benno Fürmann, Florian Lukas, Johanna Wokalek, Ulrich Tukur, Simon Schwarz, Georg Friedrich, Erwin Steinhauer, Petra Morzé, Hanspeter Müller-Drossaart, Branko Samarovski
Director: Philipp Stölzl
Genres: Adventure Drama, Period Film, Adventure


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Sunday, February 7, 2010

A Town Called Panic

"A Town Called Panic": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

To really understand the zany and surreal comic mashup you're going to have to see it for yourself. The first stop-motion animated feature to be an official Cannes selection, "Panic" is the offshoot of a French language Belgian tv series that has quite the following all across Europe. Made with an anarchic, anything goes spirit, this is truly a film, not to mention a town, where you never know what's going to happen next.
Read Turan's full review of "A Town Called Panic" at the LA Times
A Town Called Panic
A plastic cowboy, Indian, and a horse embark on a surreal journey through strange lands.

Opened December 16, 2009 Runtime:1 hr. 15 min.
Cast: Stéphane Aubier, Jeanne Balibar, Nicolas Buysse, Francois de Brigode, Véronique Dumont, Bruce Ellison, Christine Grulois, Frédéric Jannin, Bouli Lanners, Christelle Mahy, Eric Muller, Francois Neyken, Vincent Patar
Director: Stéphane Aubier
Genres: Children's/Family


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Fish Tank

"Fish Tank": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:
Mia is 15, all elbows and anger, going at her life in a rundown apartment complex in Essex as if it were one long skirmish in British filmmaker Andrea Arnold's exceptionally well-crafted drama, "Fish Tank." Featuring newcomer Katie Jarvis, the 17-year-old so completely captures the innocence, cynicism and rage of a child of poverty and divorce on the edge of adulthood that it feels as if you are spying on Mia, so achingly real, so tangible does her world seem here. Again, the award-winning filmmaker gives us another sensitive and compelling story of Britain's underclass. Read Sharkey's full review of title at the LA Times
Fish Tank
Fifteen-year-old Mia (Katie Jarvis) is in a constant state of war with her family, her school and her neighbors, without any constructive creative outlet for her energies save a secret love of hip-hop dancing. When she meets her party-girl mother’s charming new boyfriend Connor (Michael Fassbender), she is amazed to find him returning her attention, and believes he can help her start to make sense of her life—though his seemingly tender demeanor may hide a much more treacherous interior. A clear-eyed, potent portrait of teenage sexuality and vulnerability, Fish Tank confirms writer/director Arnold’s stature as one of the leading figures of new British cinema.

Opened January 15, 2010 Runtime:2 hr. 2 min.
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Griffiths, Katie Jarvis, Sydney Mary Nash, Harry Treadaway
Director: Andrea Arnold
Genres: Drama, Coming-of-Age


Movie times and tickets for "Fish Tank" from Fandango


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