Winter's Bone

"Winter's Bone": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

In summer, when a raft of new movies floats into theaters each Friday, it's easy to miss the small indie films. So you might not have seen "Winter's Bone," a very un-summery sounding film, but try to catch it before it slips away. This finely wrought drama about a teenager's fight to take care of her family in the drug-infected and poverty-saturated Ozark Mountain back country is sure to be an Oscar contender. Director Debra Granik captures the beauty and the pain of the region, Jennifer Lawrence's performance as 17-year-old Ree Dolly is heartbreaking and John Hawkes' as her uncle, Teardrop, is fearsome, as is the deadly crystal meth culture — the making and dealing and dying. Read Turan's full review of "Winter's Bone" at the LA Times

Winter's Bone

Facing the loss of her home and siblings if she fails, a gutsy teenager (Jennifer Lawrence) sets out on a dangerous quest to learn the fate of her missing father.

Opened June 11, 2010
Runtime:1 hr. 40 min.

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Kevin Breznahan, Dale Dickey, Garret Dillahunt, Sheryl Lee
Director: Debra Granik
Genres: Detective Film, Post-Noir (Modern Noir), Drama, Family Drama
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I Am Love

"I Am Love": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:

It is always such a treat to see the excellent Tilda Swinton, one of our finest contemporary actresses, with countless awards and an Oscar for her intensely drawn attorney in "Michael Clayton." Rare, though, that a movie is tailor-made to showcase her many talents, but that's exactly what director Luca Guadagnino has done with the sumptuous "I Am Love."


Set in Italy at the beginning of the 21st century, the film serves up a feast of emotions, issues and choices for Swinton -- and she digs into all of them. As Emma, an upper-class wife and mother of a wealthy Milan textile merchant with three grown children, she's trying to figure out the rest of her life. To complicate things a bit more, she's a Russian emigre, which leaves Swinton speaking Italian with a slight Russian accent, no mean feat.

There to help her is a passionate and inventive young chef, Antonio, portrayed by Edoardo Gabbriellini, who proves he is more than up to the task of playing off the great force field of Swinton. He teases her taste buds with his exotic dishes, tempts her heart with his searing soul and makes the case that love should never be denied.

Suffering from an empty nest and very much at loose ends with her life, Emma's journey of self-rediscovery is filled with joy, passion, empathy and pain. It's a performance to savor in a film to remember. And it's expanding beyond just a handful of art houses to the multiplex this weekend to make the pleasure of consuming it all that much easier.

Read Sharkey's full review of "I Am Love" at the LA Times

Synopsis I Am Love


Set in Milan, I AM LOVE tells the story of the wealthy Recchi family, whose lives are undergoing sweeping changes. Eduardo Sr., the family patriarch, has decided to name a successor to the reigns of his massive industrial company, surprising everyone by splitting power between his son Tancredi, and grandson Edo. But Edo dreams of opening a restaurant with his friend Antonio, a handsome and talented chef. At the heart of the family is Tancredi’s wife Emma (Tilda Swinton), a Russian immigrant who has adopted the culture of Milan. An adoring and attentive mother, her existence is shocked to the core when she falls quickly and deeply in love with Edo’s friend and partner Antonio, and embarks on a passionate love affair that will change her family forever.

Opened June 18, 2010




Runtime:1 hr. 42 min.

Cast: Tilda Swinton, Flavio Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Pippo Delbono, Maria Paiato, Diane Fleri, Mattia Zaccaro, Waris Ahluwalia, Gabriele Ferzetti, Marisa Berenson, Chiara Tomarelli

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Genres: Drama, Family Drama, Ensemble Film

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Mademoiselle Chambon

"Mademoiselle Chambon": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

People fall in love in every country, but nowhere is the experience put on film with the consistent style, empathy and emotion the French provide. "Mademoiselle Chambon" is the latest in that line of deeply moving romances, an exquisite chamber piece made with the kind of sensitivity and nuance that's become almost a lost art.


Starring the top-flight acting team of Vincent Landon and Sandrine Kiberlain, actors who were once married to each other but are now divorced, "Mademoiselle Chambon" is about the power of love to disturb as well as elevate, about the profoundly disconcerting experience of falling terribly in love when that's the last thing you want to do.

Impeccably directed by Stephane Brize, "Mademoiselle Chambon" is less concerned with the protagonists' ultimate resolution than with bringing us into the journey, showing us how it came to be that these people fell and how they reacted. This would be a welcome film any time of the year, but to have it during the dog days of summer is something like a miracle.

Read Turan's full review of "Mademoiselle Chambon" at the LA Times

Synopsis Mademoiselle Chambon
Véronique Chambon (Sandrine Kiberlain) leads a quiet, unassuming life in provincial town, earning her living by teaching primary school and seemingly spending much of her free time in the quiet of her rented apartment. Having asked the parents of her pupils to visit her classroom and talk about what they do, one day she meets Jean (Vincent Lindon), a class parent and home builder who somewhat shyly explains his daily routine. Somehow, a certain spark ignites between the reclusive teacher and the gruff contractor. Both sense that their budding attraction is impossible, yet neither will totally let it fade. Stéphane Brizé carefully constructs the elegant, moving tale of unexpected romance with enormous patience and delicacy, sensitive to the rhythms of this special relationship full of misconstrued signals and ambiguous feelings.

Opened May 28, 2010
Runtime:1 hr. 41 min.
Cast: Sandrine Kiberlain, Vincent Lindon, Aure Atika, Jean-Marc Thibault, Arthur Le Houérou
Director: Stéphane Brizé
Genres: Romantic Drama,Drama

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