THREE KINGS

Dir. David O. Russell (1999);  114 min

FRIDAY, May 10th  at 7 & 9:30pm

SATURDAY, May 11th at 7 & 9:30pm

SUNDAY, May 12th at 3pm

SYNOPSIS:

Four characters seeking personal gain are nearly sidetracked by altruistic impulses in this emotionally and politically responsible movie set in Iraq during the immediate aftermath of the gulf war—a damning yet idealistic satire about the motives behind U.S. foreign policy. The visuals are wild, the sound track has the audacity to underscore the subtext instead of just echoing the obvious, the comedy is irreverent and occasionally slapstick, and the metaphorical details are consistently strong. The movie even examines the conventions of star-studded actioners without stripping the leads of the charisma and apparent immortality of full-blown action heroes. Writer-director David O. Russell (Spanking the Monkey, Flirting With Disaster) has achieved it all: he's made a movie (1999) that's about filmmaking—and things that really matter. With George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, and Spike Jonze. ~ Chicago Reader

BIUTIFUL

Dir. Alejandro González Iñarritu (2010);  148 min

FRIDAY, May 3rd at 7 & 10pm

SATURDAY, May 4th at 7 & 10pm

SUNDAY, May 5th at 3pm

SYNOPSIS:

Javier Bardem cuts a tragic figure as a dying Barcelona lowlife who traffics in illegal immigrants and communes with the dead. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, working for the first time without screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, abandons their usual intersecting story lines (so fresh in Amores Perros, so stale by the time of Babel) to concentrate on Bardem's character as he struggles to provide for his children, manage his bipolar ex-wife (Argentine stage actress Maricel Alvarez), steer his African street vendors away from police, and keep Chinese sweatshop workers out of harm's way. Cinematographer Rodrigo Pietro grounds the ghostly encounters in grainy imagery, his unobtrusive handheld camera and deeply saturated colors best appreciated in a nightclub sequence that looks like something from Hieronymous Bosch. ~ Chicago Reader

ROSEMARY'S BABY

Dir. Roman Polanski (1968);  136 min

FRIDAY, April 26th  at 7 & 9:30pm

SATURDAY, April 27th at 7 & 9:30pm

SUNDAY, April 28th at 3pm

SYNOPSIS:

A supremely intelligent and convincing adaptation of Ira Levin's Satanist thriller. About a woman who believes herself impregnated by the Devil (in the guise of her husband), its main strength comes from Polanski's refusal to simplify matters: ambiguity is constant, in that we are never sure whether Farrow's paranoia about a witches' coven is grounded in reality or a figment of her frustrated imagination. Sexual politics, urban alienation, and a deeply pessimistic view of human interaction permeate the film, directed with a slow, careful build-up of pace and a precise sense of visual composition. Although it manages to be frightening, there is little gore or explicit violence; instead, what disturbs is the blurring of reality and nightmare, and the way Farrow is slowly transformed from a healthy, happily-married wife to a haunted, desperately confused shadow of her former self. Great performances, too, and a marvellously melancholy score by Krzysztof Komeda. ~ Time Out

THE MASTER

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson (2012);  144 min

FRIDAY, April 19th  at 7 & 9:30pm

SATURDAY, April 20th at 7 & 9:30pm

SUNDAY, April 21st at 3pm

SYNOPSIS:

A self-destructive loner (Joaquin Phoenix), discharged from the navy after serving in the Pacific in World War II, flounders back in the States before coming under the wing of a charismatic religious leader (Philip Seymour Hoffman) transparently based on L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. This challenging, psychologically fraught drama is Paul Thomas Anderson's first feature since the commanding There Will Be Blood (2007), and like that movie it chronicles a contest of wills between an older man and a younger one, as the troubled, sexually obsessed, and often violent young disciple tries to fit in with the flock that's already gathered around the master. This time, however, the clashing social forces aren't religion and capitalism but, in keeping with the era, community and personal freedom—including the freedom to fail miserably at life. The stellar cast includes Amy Adams, Laura Dern, and Jesse Plemons. ~ Chicago Reader

MISS BALA

Dir. Gerardo Naranjo (2011);  113 min

FRIDAY, April 12th at 7 & 9:30pm

SATURDAY, April 13th at 7 & 9:30pm

SUNDAY, April 14th at 3pm

SYNOPSIS:

What would you get if Michael Mann retooled Lucrecia Martel’s ‘The Headless Woman’ for the Guns & Ammo set? Gerardo Naranjo’s gobsmacking ‘Miss Bala’ is what: an abrasive, anything-can-happen dirge through Mexico’s dismal criminal underbelly as seen through the gorgeous peepers of the wannabe beauty queen of the title (Stephanie Sigman).

While visiting a grotty underground discotheque frequented by bent coppers, our feisty heroine is kidnapped by a band of faceless, nameless terrorists and coerced into carrying out their illegal bidding (and more). It’s then simply a case of watching in horror as she’s knocked around the city like a pinball, violated at regular intervals and with absolutely no one she can turn to for assistance.

On a purely technical level, this is a highly accomplished and original piece of work, with all the action delivered from the perspective of the simpering but tough Sigman. Narajo channelled Godard’s ‘Pierrot le Fou’ in his rough-edged previous feature, ‘I’m Gonna Explode’, and even though the tone is very different, this new work playfully evokes the spiralling descent into savagery of JLG’s ‘Week End’, or even the impulsive, tinpot revolutionaries that populate his ‘La Chinoise’ or ‘Prénom: Carmen’. Not that Narajo is particularly interested in fleshing out rational ideologies for either cops or bandits: his film is all the more disarming for the fact that it takes place in a society where politics appears redundant and money and power are gained through violent, minutely orchestrated coups.

So it’s not a political film, nor is it one that peddles a liberal news agenda about Mexico’s ongoing drug war. It does, however, allow us to take an objective look at various legal power structures, and it helps us to understand that whoever wins this battle, we lose.

~ Time Out

THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD

Dir. Andrew Dominik (2007);  160 min

FRIDAY, April 5th at 7 & 10pm

SATURDAY, April 6th at 7 & 10pm

SUNDAY, April 7th at 3pm

SYNOPSIS:

Where does criminality end and celebrity begin is the question posed by Australian director Andrew Dominikwhose stunning second film – after 2000’s excellent (and not entirely dissimilar) ‘Chopper’ – sets the Western genre barn ablaze to deliver a gripping, Gothic tête à tête between two of American history’s most morally perplexing folk heroes. Kicking off with an expertly choreographed train robbery which acts as both a narrative nub and tonal barometer for the director’s bucolic, mournful mise en scene and script, the film then ruefully traces the interlocking paths of Jesse James and his young admirer Robert Ford. Early word suggested that Casey Affleck’s Ford was the man to keep an eye on come awards season, but this is unquestionably Pitt’s film, his James insouciantly radiating a piercing, unreadable intensity redolent of Joe Pesci’s work with Scorsese, a truly enigmatic presence constantly obscured behind warped glass, thick smoke, or even his own visibly battered visage. Though, in the end, the film’s main intention is to have you query every element of its mischievous title (and you probably will), it’s a journey of immense emotional foreboding and, flabby coda aside, a red-raw classic.

~ Time Out

13 ASSASSINS

Dir. Takashi Miike (2010);  141 min

FRIDAY, March 15th  at 7 & 9:30pm

SATURDAY, March 16th at 7 & 9:30pm

SUNDAY, March 17th at 3pm

SYNOPSIS:

Likely to tan the high-concept hides of every Hollywood action flick this year, this majestically violent film from ultra-prolific Japanese maestro Takashi Miike’s probably the closest modern cinema has come to Akira Kurosawa’s mud-and-blood-caked Samurai showdowns. 

The first hour is a pure, slowburn tease. One plot strain demonstrates the outlandish barbarism of a feudal lord, while another has a select unit of fighters hatching a grand plan to take him down. The film is built as a long crescendo, opening at a level of considered, Zen-like reflection and ending with a prolonged cacophony of elaborate, town-wide annihilation. 

There are occasional dashes of CGI for elements that couldn’t be staged for the camera (cue rampaging herds of burning bulls), but Miike’s film is all the more triumphant for offering elaborate, tangible sets, elegant period attire, hardboiled dialogue and rolling oceans of glorious, rosy red blood. Pure joy. ~ Time Out

THE BIG CHILL

Dir. Lawrence Kasdan (1983); 105 min.

FRIDAY, March 8th at 7 & 9:30pm

SATURDAY, March 9th at 7 & 9:30pm

SUNDAY, March 10th at 3pm

SYNOPSIS:

A funeral reunites a group of friends from the idealistic '60s who have gone their separate ways in the pragmatic '80s. Over the weekend they eat a lot, argue, go jogging, try to bed one another, and reminisce endlessly to the accompaniment of a host of '60s greats on the soundtrack. However, the script deftly avoids the twin pitfalls of solemnity or sentimentality which threaten such a scenario; instead it's perceptive, affectionate and often very funny.

~ Time Out

INTO THE ABYSS

Dir. Werner Herzog (2011); 107 min.

FRIDAY, March 1st at 7 & 9:30pm

SATURDAY, March 2nd at 7 & 9:30pm

SUNDAY, March 3rd at 3pm

SYNOPSIS:

Think of Herzog and you think of monomania. He tends towards stories of single-minded individuals embarking upon insane projects to bend an indifferent world to their desires, or facing off against preposterous odds in pursuit of brute survival. Beneath such tales is the tug of ecstasy – a rapturous state of standing outside the self whose dark twin is a kind of obscene oblivion, an intimation of existential futility that links Kaspar Hauser and the unknown artists of last year’s ‘Cave of Forgotten Dreams’.

‘Into the Abyss’ is a Herzog film focused not on an individual but a situation: the conviction of two men for the horribly banal 2001 murder of a Texan nurse, her son and his friend, and the impending execution of one of those convicted. As well as interviewing the prisoners, Herzog talks to their loved ones; to the victims’ families; and to people in Texas’s capital punishment system.

The result is gripping, moving and revelatory, an unabashed if implicit critique of the death penalty. The abyss looms dark indeed but the picture pulses with the insistent peculiarities of life as it is lived by wilful individuals. For while Herzog shows appropriate sobriety, he couldn’t make a solemn film if he tried: the most moving observation comes in an anecdote about a squirrel and a golf cart. ~ Time Out

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER

Dir. John Badham (1977); 118 min.

FRIDAY, February 22nd at 7 & 9:30pm

SATURDAY, February 23rd at 7 & 9:30pm

SUNDAY, February 24th at 3pm

SYNOPSIS:

John Travolta found the escape hatch from Welcome Back, Kotter with this 1977 update of Rebel Without a Cause; he acquits himself honorably as a teenager dead-ended in Brooklyn who finds his only chance to shine at the local disco. Director John Badham, a refugee from TV movies, gets a firm grip on a slippery Norman Wexler screenplay and turns up some unusual New York locations. A small, solid film, made with craft if not resonance. ~ Chicago Reader