Santa Cruz Good Times

Sunday
May 19th
Text size
  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size

Movies & Film Events: Week of Nov. 11

Thursday, 11 November 2010 11:12 GTWebmaster Film - Reviews and Times
 E-mail
film_guide_iconFilms This Week
Check out the movies playing around town.
With reviews and trailers.








NEW THIS WEEK

movies_coolit
COOL IT Doc director Ondi Timoner travels the world with Bjorn Lomborg (author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist," and founder of the Copenhagen Consensus Center scientific think tank) on Lomborg's quest to develop rational, sensible, and economically viable solutions to global warming. (Not rated) 88 minutes. Starts Friday. Watch film trailer >>>










movies_fairgame
FAIR GAME Naomi Watts stars as CIA op Valerie Plame, outed by the Bush Administration for telling the truth about the Iraqi WMD scam by which the government was propelling us into war. Sean Penn co-stars as her husband, diplomat Joseph Wilson, whose op-ed piece the New York Times about his wife's investigation cost Plame her career and the protection of her covert identity. Lest we forget: Bush-era politics at their sleaziest. Doug Liman directs.   (PG-13) 106 minutes. Starts Friday. Watch film trailer >>>








movies_thegirlwho



THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST Reviewed this issue. (R) 147 minutes. In Swedish with English subtitles. Starts Friday.










movies_monstersMONSTERS This inventive and imaginative tale is full of surprises. You might believe it’s just a take off of last year's headturner District 9, because it gives us a tale about alien life forms in the modern world—yes, aliens have crash-landed and been ghettoized in Central America. Enter a beleaugered journalist who agrees to escort a trapped American tourist through a hazardous infected zone in Mexico to the U. S. border. The film has some fine suspense, but what will surprise you the most is how cleverly it hits you on an emotional level. It’s not all about guts and gore. We walk away questioning our humanity, yes, but better still, we walk away contemplating our built-in assumptions and prejudices, in general. An attention-grabber at many film fest, you really do want to check this winning story out. Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy star for writer-director Gareth Edwards. (R) 94 minutes. Fri-Sat late shows only at the Del Mar. (★★★)  Greg Archer Watch film trailer >>>


movie_skyline


SKYLINE When irresistible lights from an unknown source start beaming down on L. A., a plucky band of survivors fights back before the entire population is sucked up in a sinister rapture in this sci-fi thriller from directors Colin Strause and Greg Strause. Eric Balfour and Scottie Thompson star. (PG-13) Starts Friday. Watch film trailer >>>








movies_unstoppable




UNSTOPPABLE It's Denzel Washington vs. a half-mile long, runaway train packed with combustible toxic chemicals and heading for the city in this action thriller from director Tony Scott. Chris Pine and Rosario Dawson co-star. (PG-13) Starts Friday. Watch film trailer >>>






Film Events
SPECIAL EVENT THIS WEEK: BAG IT! Suzan Beraza directs this wry and timely doc about America's love affair with the plastic bag and its consequences. Onscreen tour guide Jeb Berrier will be on hand to discuss the making of the film. Pre-sale tickets available at www.saveourshores.org/ Tickets are $5 online up to Nov 15, or $7 at the door. At the Del Mar, Wednesday only (Nov 17) 7 p.m.

CONTINUING SERIES THIS WEEK: THE MET: LIVE IN HD AT THE CINEMA 9 Digital broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera projected live, onscreen, Saturday mornings throughout the season (with repeat encore re-broadcasts, as noted). Tickets: $24 general, $22 senior for the live broadcasts; $18 for everyone for the encores. This week: DON PASQUALE  Donizetti's comic opera is lustily sung by Anna Netrebko and John Del Carlo in this acclaimed new production by Otto Schenk. James Levine conducts. LIVE: Saturday, November 13th, 2010 at 10:00 a. m.

CONTINUING SERIES: MIDNIGHTS @ THE DEL MAR Eclectic movies for wild & crazy tastes plus great prizes and buckets of fun for only $6.50. This week: EDWARD
SCISSORHANDS Johnny Depp brings sweetness, gravity, innocence and an accomplished sense of physical comedy to the role of a mechanical youth with pruning shears for hands—the ultimate outsider—in Tim Burton's wacko and wonderful 1990 comic fable. The emotions are pure and primal, the mood lyrical and the humor deliciously absurd. But it's Depp's lovely performance as Edward—forsaken by his creator (a droll Vincent Price), seduced and then rejected by the "normal" world—that speaks to the frog prince, misfit teen or misunderstood artiste in all of us. (PG-13) 105 minutes. (★★★★)—Lisa Jensen. Fri-Sat midnight only. At the Del Mar.

CONTINUING SERIES: WEEKEND  MATINEE CLASSICS AT APTOS CINEMA If you've only ever seen them on TV, don't miss this series of classic movie matinees unspooling each weekend at Aptos Cinema. This week: THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI Psychological tension and sprawling action highlight David Lean's 1957 epic about Allied prisoners in a Japanese POW camp at odds with their captors and each other over building a bridge. Oscars went to the film itself, Lean, Pierre Boulle's script, Malcolm Arnold's famous whistling march theme, and star Alec Guinness as a by-the-book British officer cracking under the strain. William Holden, Jack Hawkins, and Sessue Hayakawa co-star. (Not rated) 161 minutes. (★★★)—Lisa Jensen. (Sat-Sun matinee only, 11 a.m. Admission $6. At Aptos Cinema.

CONTINUING SERIES: FLASHBACK FEATURES Oldies and goodies on Thursday nights at the Cinema 9, presented by your genial host, Joe Ferrara. $5 gets you in. This week: BEING JOHN MALKOVICH John Cusack, Catherine Keener, a secret portal into the mind of John Malkovich, and a street corner marionette version of Abelard And Heloise—what's not to like? All from the gloriously twisted brain of writer Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze. (R) 112 minutes. (★★★1/2)—Lisa Jensen. Tonight (Thursday) only, 8 p.m., at the Cinema 9.

CONTINUING EVENT: LET'S TALK ABOUT THE MOVIES This informal movie discussion group meets at the Del Mar mezzanine in downtown Santa Cruz. Movie junkies are invited to join in on Wednesday nights to discuss current flicks with a rotating series of guest moderators. Discussion begins at 7 pm and admission is free. For more information visit www.ltatm.org.
Now Playing
CONVICTION Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell act their hearts out in this true story of Betty Anne Waters and her brother Kenny:  she's a high school dropout who puts herself through law school to free him from a life sentence in prison for a murder she's sure he didn't commit. Minnie Driver is wonderful as  wisecracking fellow law student. Tony Goldwyn directs at a brisk pace in this humane, unsurprising, but satisfying drama. (R) 107 minutes. (★★★)
Lisa Jensen

DUE DATE  Director Todd Phillips (The Hangover) delivers a wild outing but fails to give Due Date the same seemless flow as his previous film, which was also an outlandish endeavor. The Hangover worked so well because it seemed to know when NOT to play things over the top. There were more subleties whereas in Due Date, things tend to cause an eyeroll. Still, this is one funny ride and thanks to the great turns by Robert Downey Jr.—playing an expectant father desperately hoping to get home in time for the birth of his first kid—and Zach Galifianakis, you can’t walk away not enjoying yourself. Michelle Monaghan, Juliette Lewis, and Jamie Foxx co-star. (R) 95 minutes. (★★1/2)  Greg Archer

FOR COLORED GIRLS Stage-to-screen auteur Tyler Perry offers up his take on the beloved Ntozoke Shange stage hit. What was originally a seven-woman collection of poetic monologues is now performed by full cast of women and men, headed by Kimberly Elise, Anika Noni Rose, Janet Jackson, Thandie Newton, Loretta Devine, Kerry Washington, Phylicia Rashad, Whoopi Goldberg, and Macy Gray. (R)

HEREAFTER Three poignant stories converge in Clint Eastwood's thoughtful and absorbing meditation on life, death, and what may follow. With a solid script by Peter Morgan, it stars the poised, lovely Cecile de France as a Parisian newswoman whose near-death experience alters the course of her life, and Matt Damon as a San Francisco forklift driver "cursed" with the ability to communicate with the dead. Frankie and George McLaren make an impressive debut as a working-class London schoolboy coping with loss and searching for answers. Eastwood directs with grace and authority, allowing the story and characters plenty of room to take root and transport us. The notion of a "conspiracy of silence" from entrenched organized religion about the true nature of the afterlife keeps viewers intrigued, and the storytelling engages throughout —from the subtle, playful eroticism of  blind food-tasting in a SF cooking class to the spectacular staging of a rogue tsunami. Unlike 98% of the movies coming out of Hollywood these days, this one leaves you wanting more. (PG-13) 129 minutes. (★★★1/2) Lisa Jensen

INSIDE JOB The shady scenario by which the American financial services industry crashed the U.S. economy and fomented international financial collapse in September, 2008, is examined in excoriating detail in Charles Ferguson's cogent documentary. Operating on the principle that we, the people, can't get even unless we get good and mad, Ferguson's succinct and important film scrutinizes the unholy alliance of banks, insurance providers, savings and loan companies, financial rating services, and Wall Street insiders placed inside the Treasury Department, and the 30-year process by which they all conspired to ruin the American economy and bilk U.S. tax-paying citizens out of billions in the name of corporate greed. (PG-13) 110 minutes. (★★★1/2) Lisa Jensen

MEGAMIND In this animated 3-D comedy from DreamWorks, when a superhero (voice of Brad Pitt) hangs up his cape, it's up to his longtime adversary, scheming villain Megamind (voice of Will Ferrell) to save the city from an even more diabolical evildoer. Tina Fey and Jonah Hill also contribute voices. (PG) 96 minutes.

MORNING GLORY Rachel McAdams stars in this romantic comedy as a plucky young TV producer attempting to revive the lowest-rated national morning show by teaming up a veteran hard-news anchor (Harrison Ford) with the show's perky, fluff-journalist host (Diane Keaton). Patrick Wilson and Jeff Goldblum co-star for director Roger Michell (Notting Hill). (PG-13) 107 minutes.

NOWHERE BOY Celebrate the early years that made John Lennon such a complex, driven, caustic and vital man in this ambitious biographical drama. Skillfully directed by Sam Taylor Wood, from a sensitive script by Matt Greenhalgh, the focus is not on the birth of an icon, but on the struggle of a conflicted teenage boy to become himself; emotionally as well as musically, the film hits all the right notes. Aaron Johnson as John gives a performance bursting with sass, heart, and deadpan bravado; he finds his own emotional truth every moment he's onscreen. Kristin Scott Thomas is marvelous as his fiercely loving, yet undemonstrative Aunt Mimi. Raucous, moving and full of fine (pre-Beatle) R&B music. (R) 98 minutes. (★★★★) | Lisa Jensen

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 Tod Williams takes over as director in this hasty sequel to Oren Peli's 2009 no-budget horror mega-blockbuster. Peli produces this new tale of skullduggery in the dark, captured on the family webcam. This time, a dog, AND a baby are involved. Yikes. (R) 91 minutes.

RED Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, and John Malkovich make for a fun entourage of ex-CIA ops in this cheeky take of the DC Comics graphic novel. The plot finds their lives in jeopardy—somebody is trying to silenece them. A fun ride although a far stretch for the imagination, Robert Schwentke’s direction pays off. So too does Mary-Louise Parker in a costarring role.. (PG-13) 111 minutes. (★★1/2) Greg Archer

SAW 3-D Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, and Betsy Russell head the cast in yet another installment of the blade-happy horror franchise. Kevin Greutert directs. (R) 90 minutes.

SECRETARIAT Another famous racehorse gets the biopic treatment. Diane Lane stars Penny Chenery, the housewife and mother who reluctantly takes over her father’s stables in 1973, and helps foster the young horse who will become the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years. John Malkovich co-stars as trainer Lucien Laurin. Randall Wallace directs. (PG)

STONE Robert DeNiro plays a parole officer looking forward to retirement, and Edward Norton is a wily convicted murderer coming up for a parole hearing who needs to convince him he's reformed in this drama of passion and betrayal, crime and punishment. Frances Conroy and Milla Jovovich co-star as the women in their lives. John Curran directs. (R) 105 minutes.

Comments (0)Add Comment

Write comment
smaller | bigger

busy
< Prev   Next >
 

Share this on your social networks

Bookmark and Share

Share this

Bookmark and Share

  • Search

    •  

    Bring Your Own Bag

    Single-use plastic bag bans are underway Shoppers in Capitola, Watsonville, the City of Santa Cruz, and the unincorporated parts of the county are, by now, becoming accustomed to the absence of plastic bags. On Sept. 20, 2011, Santa Cruz County became the first local jurisdiction to pass an ordinance that banned single-use plastic bags and implemented a fee for paper bags, which took effect last spring. Watsonville, Capitola, and Santa Cruz followed suit with similar actions: Watsonville’s ordinance went into effect last September, and, as of last month, the bans in Capitola and the City of Santa Cruz are now in place.

     

    The Maya-Ixil Move Forward

    Local nonprofit works to educate and create opportunity for indigenous communities in Guatemala In an isolated region of the Guatemala mountains called Ixil, the indigenous Maya population was devastated by a civil war between the government and leftist guerrilla factions that spanned 1960 to 1996. During that 36-year war, the Guatemalan military eradicated entire Mayan communities. In what amounted to genocide, soldiers burned Mayan farmlands and homes, raped and tortured the people, and scattered families. By the end of the war, 200,000 Mayans had been killed, 7,000 of whom were Maya-Ixil.

     

    Public Thinking

    Watsonville teens host TEDx event Santa Cruz County is no stranger to the TED brand. TED—which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design—talks have come to the area through independently organized events 10 times since 2011. This month, the gathering returns to the county with a new twist, thanks to the Watsonville Youth City Council. TEDxYouth@Watsonville, which will take place Sunday, May 19 at the Henry J. Mello Center for the Performing Arts in Watsonville, will feature only speakers younger than 19 years old and will traverse topics from racial stereotypes and renewable energy to traditional Mexican dance.

     

    The Tilt

    Although Jesse Malley, lead singer of the outlaw country, blues and rock ’n’ roll band The Tilt, no longer lives in Santa Cruz, she was born and raised here and this is where her love of music and performance began. “My dad worked at The Catalyst for 27 years, so I got to see a lot of music acts come through town,” she says. “Music always seemed to me to be such an incredible way to express yourself that I just stumbled upon my voice and jumped into it.” That jump eventually led to Malley heading down to San Diego to pursue a music career, and her band The Tilt has just released their full-length debut, Howlin’.

     

    Whole Lotta Blues

    The 11-piece, husband-and-wife-led Tedeschi Trucks Band headlines the Santa Cruz Blues Festival Guitarist Derek Trucks and vocalist/guitarist Susan Tedeschi, the husband-and-wife team at the helm of The Tedeschi Trucks Band, have learned that in a band as well as in a marriage, the best way to keep things running smoothly is sometimes to take a step back. That’s especially true when you’re dealing with an 11-piece group that, in addition to its namesakes, features two drummers, a keyboardist/flautist, a three-piece horn section and two harmony vocalists.

     

    Beck to the Future

    In celebration of Beck’s solo acoustic show at The Rio, GT explores Song Reader, the alternative rock icon’s most ambitious interactive art piece yet. Here’s an odd little paradox of the digital revolution: The more sophisticated our technology gets, the more our musical milieu begins to resemble that of a bygone era, when song ideas were passed around from musician to musician, perpetually taking on new twists. Dozens of different YouTube users might try their hand at setting somebody’s rant about cats or double rainbows to music, or you might hear the Belgian musician Gotye turning the many and varied covers of his song “Somebody That I Used to Know” into a virtual orchestra (see below).

     

    Land of Lions

    New research provides foundation to look at protecting mountain lions, particularly when it comes to Highway 17 An adult male mountain lion called simply “Number 16” by the Santa Cruz Puma Project led a scientifically interesting life for the more than two-year period he was tracked by the UC Santa Cruz-based research project. According to Chris Wilmers, associate professor of environmental studies at UCSC and head of the Puma Project, the group initially caught and collared Number 16 in Loch Lomond. He then proceeded to cross Highway 17 several times, where he was eventually was hit, but survived. In an unusual move for an adult male, Number 16 then shifted his home range to the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park. Recently, the lion’s tracking collar went on “mortality mode.” The day before Wilmers spoke to Good Times, the researchers found his skeleton.

     

    So Sleep (Pralaya) Does Not Overtake Us

    Sunday is Pentecost, a festival of the Holy Spirit (Ray 3 of Divine Intelligence). Pentecost is the name given to the descent of the Holy Spirit as tongues of fire appearing above the heads of Christ’s (Piscean World Teacher) Disciples (students) in an upper room (plane of the Mind). Pentecost is not a simple bible story. It’s an actual experience for each individual as the Light of the Soul begins to direct the personality with spiritual gifts and virtues – wisdom, understanding (all ideas, all hearts), knowledge and Right Judgment (directing the intellect), wonder, fortitude/courage and respect/reverence (directing our willingness to serve).

     

    Legal Battles Drag On

    More than a year after the 75 River St. occupation, four defendants remain embroiled in ongoing case  More than a year and a half since a group occupied the former Wells Fargo building on River Street in an act of protest, felony charges linger on for four of the original defendants and a trial may be imminent. Gabriella Ripley-Phipps, Brent Adams, Cameron Laurendeau and Franklin Alcantara were scheduled to begin trial May 13 in connection with the late 2011 protest. That trial now has been pushed back to September due to scheduling conflicts. The four face a felony charge of vandalism and a misdemeanor for trespassing.

     

    Bringing the Message Home

    Former mayor and UCSC student recap their experiences at the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women While traveling to New York for the 57th United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), seasoned local activist Jane Weed-Pomerantz had a notion of what to expect. But, with the vast scope of worldwide women’s rights violations presented at the commission, she knew she would still be taken aback at times. “I was worried because I had a feeling I would be finding out what I did find out about women and girls in the world,” says Weed-Pomerantz. “I was trying to brace myself for the knowledge of the reality, because we are really very protected in this country.”
    GTemail_tileTomorow's GTW Today.
    Sign up for Tomorrow's Good Times Today
    Upcoming arts & events

    Latest Comments

     

    May Day in the Alps

    When my daughter returns to Santa Cruz from her new home in Los Angeles, she comments on how quiet it is here. It was even more so during a trip to Ben Lomond, when we set out for a sample of her second favorite macaroni and cheese. Sitting at the front of the Tyrolean Inn restaurant, the green tarp with plastic windows kept out the chill as well as the noise of an occasional passing car. A new draft beer celebrating the German spring, Maibok ($6) was refreshing, served in a hefty glass stein, but specialty cocktails are unique as well.

     

    The Power of Conversation

    Local author Cecile Andrews emphasizes importance of community engagement in newest book Cecile Andrews, author of the new book “Living Room Revolution: A Handbook for Conversation, Community and the Common Good,” probably wouldn’t get along too well with Larry David’s character from HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, known for hiding his face and avoiding communication with anyone he runs into on the street. Andrews is a longstanding part-time Santa Cruz (part-time Seattle) resident who says something that’s struck her about this town over the years is people's willingness to participate in a practice she’s dubbed the “Stop and Chat”—which is exactly what it sounds like.

     

    What are you a total sucker for?

    A cold beer after a long bike ride, gossip, and fighting over politics. Kyle McKinley Santa Cruz | Lecturer

     

    Best of Santa Cruz County

    The 2013 Santa Cruz County Readers' Poll and Critics’ Picks It’s our biggest issue of the year, and in it, your votes—more than 6,500 of them—determined the winners of The Best of Santa Cruz County Readers’ Poll. New to the long list of local restaurants, shops and other notables that captured your interest: Best Beer Selection, Best Locally Owned Business, Best Customer Service and Best Marijuana Dispensary. In the meantime, many readers were ever so chatty online about potential new categories. Some of the suggestions that stood out: Best Teen Program and Best Web Design/Designer. But what about: Dog Park, Church, Hotel, Local Farm, Therapist (I second that!) or Sports Bar—not to be confused with Bra. Our favorite suggestion: Best Act of Kindness—one reader noted Café Gratitude and the free meals it offered to the Santa Cruz Police Department in the aftermath of recent crimes. Perhaps some of these can be woven into next year’s ballot, so stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy the following pages and take note of our Critics’ Picks, too, beginning on page 91. A big thanks for voting—and for reading—and an even bigger congratulations to all of the winners. Enjoy.  -Greg Archer, EditorBest of Santa Cruz County Readers’ Poll INDEX | Shops | Food & Drink | Arts & Entertainment | Health & Fitness | Professionals | The Rest |

     

    Vine & Dine: Pine Ridge Vineyards

    Chenin Blanc + Viognier 2012 On a recent trip to Palm Springs, I came across Pine Ridge Vineyards’ Chenin Blanc + Viognier at a new downtown restaurant called Lulu. Superbly decorated in Hollywood-esque style and with a very hip vibe, this California bistro is one of the hottest new dining spots—and the Chenin Blanc was just the right wine to pair with some of Lulu’s Happy Hour tapas-style food. And eating outdoors in the desert’s warm night air makes a chilled white wine taste even better.

     

    Making Sense of Soul

    Allen Stone wants to give R&B back some of its depth Whether fairly or unfairly, R&B and soul music often get typecast. Much of the music is groove-inducing and has an overtly romantic, sensual or sexual side to it, and the suggestive lyrics only reinforce this mood. That is fine and well, but for R&B and soul singer Allen Stone, it is not enough. “I love music that’s about love, and I love R&B songs, but I also like songs that have influence on culture,” Stone says. "I believe that if you’re given a microphone you need to use it in a positive way, and I feel like pop culture, more often than not, doesn’t. I think that [pop stars] are very bad stewards of the microphone they’ve been given, and the voices they’ve been given, and they tend to talk about pretty futile and shallow things, rather than subjects which uplift the children in our culture, or the teenage culture, or the young adult generation. If you’re given a microphone, you should say something that’s deeper than, ‘I’m going to the club and I’m going to drink cognac.’”

     

    Step on up to the Bar

    Here in Santa Cruz County, we are privileged to have farm-fresh greens year-round. Making a nightly salad at home is a snap since the emergence of pre-washed greens, and vinaigrette dressing is made easily with your favorite vinegar and small spoon of Dijon mustard whisked with a bit of olive oil.

     

    Exposed

    David Cay Johnston’s new book explains how big companies rob us blind In his late teens David Cay Johnston started to ask questions. “Why do we have these guys in uniforms with guns driving around in cars all day?” “Why is the Santa Cruz County Courthouse being built in such an unusual shape?” He wrote an article, while still living in his hometown of Santa Cruz, proving that the off-kilter courthouse building, which officials had promised would save money, actually cost more than a conventional building.

     

    Do you unplug often enough? Or do you need help?

    Santa Cruz | Caregiver