Coming Attractions*
I Am Love - Coming Soon
Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Flavio Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Pippo Delbono, Diane Fleri
Rated R for sexuality and nudity. In Italian with English subtitles. 120 min.
View the Trailer: www.iamlove.com
 Amid all the luxuries on display in the Italian film I Am Love, nothing holds your gaze as forcefully as Tilda Swinton's alabaster face. The first time you see that vision, her character, Emma Recchi, a Russian who's married into a wealthy Milanese family, is stage-managing the lavish birthday party that opens the film. By the end of this often soaringly beautiful melodrama, Emma's face will have crumpled into a ruin. But it will also be fully alive, having been granted, like Pygmalion's statue, the breath of life.
It takes some time for the tears to flow in I Am Love, which initially registers as somewhat arid and analytic in its initial near-ethnographic scrutiny of a social class most of us only read about in glossy lifestyle magazines. The sense that you are watching a bygone era is underscored by what later happens to the Recchi family business. Mr Guadagnino does better when he keeps his focus on Emma, whose personality is at first obscured by her role as a young matriarch. Gradually, another woman emerges as if from a sleep, an awakening provoked by her discovery that her daughter, Elisabetta has fallen in love with a woman. Instead of putting words in Emma's mouth, Mr. Guadagnino lets his star react to the news as if she were alone without a camera: the beat of her breath changes, and her eyes widen with wonderment.
But while Emma's outward response seems relatively muted, she has been irrevocably shaken. Elisabetta's declaration augurs an equally profound transformation in Emma, who shortly thereafter begins an affair with a young chef. (Excerpted from The New York Times review by Manohla Dargis)
"An often soaringly beautiful melodrama." -The New York Times
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The Girl Who Played With Fire - Coming Soon
Directed by Daniel Alfredson
Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist, Annika Hallin, Per Oscarsson, Lena Endre
Rated R for violence. In Swedish with English subtitles. 129 min.
View the Trailer:www.playedwithfirefilm.com
 Those who need a break from the romantic travails of Bella Swan, will welcome the release of The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second installment in the Swedish trilogy based on Stieg Larsson's novels. Mr. Larsson's Girl books may not be great literature, but it would be foolish to deny that Lisbeth is a terrifically compelling character. She embodies so many cultural fantasies and anxieties that it is hard to imagine anyone who could resist her magnetism. Anti-social and deeply principled, a computer nerd with lethal fists, a chain-smoking sexual athlete and merciless scourge of sexual predators, Lisbeth elicits disparate instincts in viewers that are less contradictory than mutually reinforcing. Do you want to protect her? Sleep with her? Or be just like her?
And it is Ms. Rapace's fierce and sly performance, more than the themes or the plot, that sustains The Girl Who Played With Fire. But Ms. Rapace, tiny and agile, her steely rage showing now and then the tiniest crack of vulnerability, belongs to another dimension altogether. (Excerpted from The New York Times review by A.O. Scott)
"More gripping than Dragon Tattoo." -Entertainment Weekly
"Noomi Rapace is back in action and she's spectacular." -Rolling Stone
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Cyrus - Coming Soon
Directed by Jay Duplass & Mark Duplass
Cast: John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, Jonah Hill, Catherine Keener
Rated R for language and sexual material. 92 min.
View the Trailer:www.FoxSearchlight.com
 If you want to see a vital example of how the indie spirit can interface with Hollywood, check out the spiky and surprising Cyrus. It stars John C. Reilly as John, a big, doofy, slovenly, and lovable middle-aged loser, and Jonah Hill as Cyrus, the blandly hostile and two-faced 21-year-old offspring of John's new girlfriend, Molly (Marisa Tomei) -- in other words, the creepy, clinging son from hell. The moment they meet, with Cyrus putting on an expert show of bogus politeness, the two men kick off an escalating war of wills.
Cyrus may on some level be a stunt, yet the Duplasses' slightly sluggish, low-budget style allows this story to flower as both light-fingered lark and drama of suspenseful dysfunction.
Cyrus, who does nothing but hang out and compose spaced-out dance pop, has never outgrown his mom (nor she him), and Hill, with his deadpan parrot stare, makes the kid a brilliantly manipulative head case; he plays Molly's sympathies like a virtuoso. John, who knows that he's lucky to be with a woman this attractive, is in the vulnerable spot, but gradually he gains his power as a man, a journey that's less vengeful than touching. Cyrus cues us to expect it to go over the top, but the film never does. That may be its neatest trick. (Excerpted from Owen Gleiberman's Entertainment Weekly review).
"The summer's best, most original and crazily inventive comedy. You'll laugh 'til it hurts." -Rolling Stone
"Certifiably hilarious." -The Wall Street Journal
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The Kids Are All Right- Starts July 30
Directed by Lisa Cholodenko
Cast: Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska Josh Hutcherson
Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, language, and some teen drug and alcohol use. 106 min.
View the Trailer: www.kidsareallrightmovie.com
 Annette Bening and Julianne Moore play Nic and Jules, a married couple with teenage children, in The Kids Are All Right. The comfortable Southern California family has got problems like any other.
I don't know what's more delightful -- that The Kids Are All Right stars Bening, Moore, and Ruffalo at the top of their games in an irresistible story of lesbian marriage, sperm-donor fatherhood, sex, red wine, and teen angst. Or that this warm, funny, sexy, smart movie erases the boundaries between specialized "gay content" and universal "family content" with such sneaky authority. So let's say both, and give high fives to director Lisa Cholodenko and her co-writer, Stuart Blumberg, for using the components of a commercial dramedy to cross boundaries with such indie élan.
Guided by an outstanding script, everyone is able to go deep into her or his character. Particular huzzahs are due Bening for the precision she brings to the brusque yet emotionally expressive Nic. A famously natural, mature beauty in a Hollywood culture of youth-oriented artifice, Bening uses physical authenticity as a source of dramatic strength. Comfortable in her own skin, she's at ease inhabiting the body and exposing the soul of Nic, a complicated woman who also knows exactly who she is. (Excerpted from the Entertainment Weekly review by Lisa Schwarzbaum).
"A generous, nearly note-perfect portrait of a modern family." -The New York Times
"Grade: A. Funny, smart and sexy." -Entertainment Weekly
"Funny, smart & overflow- ing with love." -Los Angeles Times
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Get Low - Starts August 27
Cast: Robert Duvall, Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek
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*schedule subject to change |
