Puss in Boots

"Puss in Boots": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

The stylish and fun 3-D animated movie mixes hard-boiled adventure, nursery-rhyme characters and a charismatic cat voiced by Antonio Banderas that you don't want to cross.

Dashing hat with debonair feather? Check. Footwear made for walking? Check. Alluring Spanish accent? Double check. The cat is back. After supporting roles in three "Shrek" movies, the feisty feline Puss in Boots finally has a film of his own, and those who have cried out for animated justice will be saying "It's about time."

A treat to experience visually (especially in lively 3-D) and verbally, "Puss in Boots" is a family film where the adventure and invention never flag and the tongue-in-cheek humor doesn't linger far behind.

Read Turan's full review of "Puss in Boots" at the LA Times

Puss in Boots 
Opened October 28, 2011 | Runtime:1 hr. 30 min.

Long before he met Shrek, Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas), having just been named a hero for saving a woman from a charging bull, is run out of town on suspicion of bank robbery, even though the true villain is Puss' friend, Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis). Though there is still animosity between them, Puss and Humpty reunite to steal a goose that lays golden eggs. Joining them for the adventure of nine lifetimes is notorious cat burglar, Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek).

Cast: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton, Amy Sedaris
Director: Chris Miller
Genres: Family, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Movie times and tickets from Fandango for "Puss in Boots"

Martha Marcy May Marlene

"Martha Marcy May Marlene": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:

Identity and the destructive power of cults on kids are played to perfection in Sean Durkin's existential thriller.

Elizabeth Olsen gives an edgy, raw turn. "Martha Marcy May Marlene," with a frightfully fearless Elizabeth Olsen playing all of those Ms, is a difficult title that perfectly suits this wonderfully difficult film. It'd be easy enough to say this is a drama about the destructive power of cults on youth, which it is, but really what writer-director Sean Durkin has given us is an existential thriller about identity and just how tenuous a grasp we have on who we really are.

Read Sharkey's full review of  "Martha Marcy May Marlene" at the LA Times

Martha Marcy May Marlene
Opened October 21, 2011 | Runtime:1 hr. 41 min.

After escaping from a cult, a young woman (Elizabeth Olsen) is haunted by her experiences there and fears that its vicious leader (John Hawkes) may be trying to find her.
Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Christopher Abbott, Brady Corbet, Hugh Dancy, Maria Dizzia
Director: T. Sean Durkin
Genres: Psychological Drama, Thriller

Movie times and tickets from Fandango for "Martha Marcy May Marlene"

Margin Call

"Margin Call": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

The Wall Street drama with a top-notch cast revisits the 2008 financial meltdown from the inside.

Starring a top cast including Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci and Paul Bettany, "Margin Call" returns us to where previous films, including the Oscar-winning documentary "Inside Job" and the HBO drama "Too Big to Fail," have gone before: the opening days of 2008's global financial crisis. But this time, it's different.

It's different because this confident, crisply made piece of work does an expert job of bringing us inside the inner sanctum of a top Wall Street investment bank in extremis, giving us a convincing and coolly dramatic portrait of what it must have been like when titans trembled.

Read Turan's full review of "Margin Call" at the LA Times

Margin Call 
Opened October 21, 2011 | Runtime:1 hr. 46 min.
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker
Director: J.C. Chandor
Genres: Art House/Foreign, Suspense/Thriller

Movie times and tickets from Fandango for "Margin Call"

Like Crazy

"Like Crazy": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

Director Drake Doremus' intensely wrought and immensely satisfying love story features star-making performances by Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin. "Love hurts," the classic song lyric insists, "love scars, love wounds and mars."

If you are experienced enough to understand love's fragility but still romantic enough to embrace its power, "Like Crazy" will put you away.

Deserved winner of the grand jury prize at Sundance, this story is as simple as two people mad about each other and as complex as intense relationships inevitably get.

Read Turan's full review of "Like Crazy" at the LA Times

Like Crazy
Opened October 28, 2011 | Runtime:1 hr. 29 min.

While attending college in Los Angeles, Jacob (Anton Yelchin), an American, and Anna (Felicity Jones), who hails from London, fall madly in love. However, the young lovers are forced apart when Anna violates the terms of her visa and must return to England. Jacob and Anna discover the difficulties of maintaining a long-distance relationship in the face of their changing lives. Yet, no matter how often circumstances pull them apart, they always find themselves back together again.

Cast: Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlie Bewley, Alex Kingston, Oliver Muirhead
Director: Drake Doremus
Genres: Romantic Drama, Drama

Movie times and tickets from Fandango for "Like Crazy"

Le Havre

"Le Havre": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

Finnish writer-director Aki Kaurismäki polishes his style of deadpan absurdism to a hilarious gloss in this tale of underdogs united. Buster Keaton isn't dead, he's alive and well in Finland, where under a new identity he pursues his own particular brand of deadpan absurdism to wonderful effect. If the name Aki Kaurismäki doesn't mean anything to you, it should, and "Le Havre" may be the film to make it happen.
Read Turan's full review of "Le Havre" at the LA Times

Le Havre
Opened October 21, 2011 | Runtime:1 hr. 43 min.
Kaurismäki's 16th feature concerns a young African refugee (newcomer Blondin Miguel) who is thrown by fate into the path of Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a well-read bohemian who works as a shoe-shiner. With innate optimism and the unwavering solidarity of his community, Marcel stands up to officials doggedly pursuing the boy for deportation.

In French with English subtitles.

Cast: André Wilms, Kati Outinen, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Blondin Miguel, Elina Salo
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Genres: Art House/Foreign, Comedy, Drama

Movie times and tickets from Fandango for "Le Havre"

Kawasaki's Rose

"Kawasaki's Rose": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

"Kawasaki's Rose" is about secrets and lies, about truths that have been hidden, then revealed, then hidden again. This intricate, powerful, unsettling film brings us into a world of profound moral complexities where facile judgments must be suspended because even the best people can become complicit in evil.

Directed by the veteran Czech team of director Jan Hrebejk and writer Petr Jarchovsky (responsible for the superb Oscar-nominated "Divided We Fall"), "Kawasaki's Rose" peels away layers to reveal even deeper ones. It's a film rich in psychological and political currents, sunken pools and treacherous eddies that can trap the unwary.
Read Turan's full review of "Kawasaki's Rose" at the LA Times

Cast
Lenka Vlasakova - Lucie Daniela Kolarova - Jana Martin Huba - Pavel, Lucie's Father Milan Mikulcik - Ludek, Lucie's Husband Antonin Kratochvil - Borek, an artist Petra Hrebickova - Radka, a TV reporter Ladislav Chudik - Kafka, an ex-secret police investigator Anna Simonova - Bara, Lucie's daughter Martin Schulz - Kristian, a television news editor Isao Onoda - Mr. Kawasaki Crew Jan Hrebejk -

Director Rudolf Biermann