Santa Cruz Good Times

Films This Week
Check out the movies playing around town.
With reviews and trailers.

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New This Week

THE ART OF GETTING BY
Former child actor Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland; The Spiderwick Chronicles) stars in ths indie romantic comedy as a lonely teenager about to graduate from high school without having done any real work who reorgianizes his priorities when he meets kindred spirit Emma Roberts. Michael Angarano and Alicia Silverstone co-star for rookie director Gavin Wiesen. (PG-13) 84 minutes. Starts Friday.  Watch film trailer >>>

MR.POPPER'S PENGUINS
Jim Carrey stars in this family comedy as a businessman whose life starts to go a little nuts when he becomes the caretaker for six rambunctious penguins. Carla Gugino, Madeline Carroll, and Angela Lansbury co-star in this adaptation of the childrens' book by Richard and Forence Atwater. Mark Waters (Mean Girls; The Spiderwick Chronicles) directs. (PG) Starts Friday.  Watch film trailer >>>

TROLLHUNTER
Forget those cute little frizzy-haired dolls. The creatures of Nordic legend are all too real—and really big—in this shoestring horror thriller about a bunch of Norwegian film students who set out to capture one on film (Blair Witch-style). Andre Ovredal directs. (Not rated) 90 minutes. In Norwegian with English subtitles. Starts Friday. Watch film trailer >>>

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MOVIE TIMES 6/17–6/23

Del Mar Theatre    469-3220
Midnight In Paris  1:45, 2:45, 4, 5, 6:15, 7:15, 8:30, 9:30 
+ Sat, Sun 11:30am, 12:30 & Fri, Sat 10:40
The Art of Getting By  1:30, 3:20, 5:10, 7, 8:50  + Sat, Sun 11:40am & Fri, Sat 10:30
The Tree of Life   “Baby Friendly Show”  Wed 06/22  11am

Nickelodeon    426-7500
The Tree of Life 12:30, 2, 3:30, 5, 6:30, 8, 9:30  + Fri-Sun 11am & Fri, Sat 10:40
Cave of Forgotten Dreams  1:15, 3:15, 5:15, 7:15, 9:20  + Fri-Sun 11:15am
Troll Hunter  12:50, 2:50, 4:50, 7, 9,   Fri-Sun 10:50am, & Fri, Sat 10:50

Aptos Cinema    426-7500
Mr. Popper’s Penguins   2:10, 4:20, 6:30, 8:40  + Sat, Sun  noon
Bridesmaids  2, 4:30, 7, 9:30 
Chinatown  Classic on the Big Screen Saturday, Sunday Matinee  11am

Green Valley Cinema 8    761-8200
Super 8   1:30, 4, 7, 9:30  + Sat, Sun 11am
X-Men: First Class  1, 4, 7, 10  + Sat, Sun 10am, 11am
Kung Fu Panda 3D  1, 3, 5:05, 7:15, 9:30 + Sat, Sun 11am
Kung Fu Panda 35mm  1:10, 3:10, 5:15, 7:25, 9:40  + Sat, Sun 11:10am
Green Lantern 3D  1:30, 4, 7, 9:30  + Sat, Sun 11am
Green Lantern  35mm  1:40, 4:10, 7:10, 9:40  + Sat, Sun 11:10am
Mr. Popper’s Penguins  1, 3, 5:05, 7:15, 9:30  + Sat, Sun 11am
Hangover 2  1:30, 4, 6:30, 9 + Sat, Sun 11am

Cinelux Scotts Valley Cinema    438-3260
Bridesmaids  1:20, 4:10, 7, 9:45
Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer  11am, 1:10, 3:30, 5:45          
Kung Fu Panda 2  11:30am, 1:45, 4:20, 6:45      
The Hangover Part 2   9
Midnight In Paris  12:20, 2:30, 4:55, 7:10, 9:30
Super 8   11:20am, 2, 4:40, 7:20, 8, 10
Mr. Popper's Penguins   11:45am, 2:10, 4:30, 7, 9:20
X-Men First Class  11:10am, 2:20, 5:20, 8:30     
Green Lantern  Wednesday 06/16  11:59
Green Lantern  11:20am, 12:10, 2, 2:45, 4:40, 5:30, 7:20, 8:15, 10:00
Yogi Bear   06/15-06/16  $1.00 Family Film   10am

Cinelux 41st Avenue Cinema    479-3504
Green Lantern  3D 06/16  11:59
Green Lantern  3D  11:30am, 2, 4:45, 7:30, 10:15
Super 8   11:15am, 1:45, 4:20, 7, 9:45
Kung Fu Panda 2   12:15, 2:30,
The Hangover Part 2   4:55, 7:20, 10
Ramona and Beezus  06/15-06/16 $1 Family Film  10am

Santa Cruz Cinema 9    (800) 326-3264 #1700
MET Summer Encore Series   Don Pasquale  Wed 6/22  6:30
The Fifth Element  Flashback Feature  Thu 6/23  8
DCI 2011 Tour Premiere  Mon 6/20  6:30               
Dudamel: Let the Children Play  Thu 6/23  7
Bad Teacher  Thu 6/23  12:01 AM
Green Lantern 3D  11:10am, 1:50, 4:30, 7:10, 9:50 
Green Lantern  11:50, 2:30, 5:10, 7:50, 10:30
Super 8  11am, 11:40, 1:40, 2:20, 4:20, 5, 7, 7:40, 9:40, 10:20
Mr. Popper's Penguins  11:30am, 2:10, 4:50, 7:30, 9:55
X-Men:  First Class  1:10, 4:15, 7:20, 10:25
Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom  11:20am, 2, 4:25, 6:50, 9:10
The Hangover Part II  12:30, 3, 5:30, 8, 10:40
Pirates of the Carribean:  On Stranger Tides  12:40, 3:40, 6:40, 9:45

Riverfront    (800) 326-3264 #1701
Bridesmaids  1, 4, 7, 9:50
Judy Moody  1:15, 3:45, 6:45, 9

 

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Film Events

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: CHINATOWN Jack Nicholson is outstanding as a wisecracking private eye who gets in way over his head with mysterious client Faye Dunaway in Roman Polanski's searing 1974 drama of water, power, and politics in 1930s Los Angeles. Robert Towne's smart, complex screenplay won an Oscar. John Huston contributes a chilling portrait of absolute moral corruption; John Alonzo's photography and Jerry Goldsmith's cool, jazzy score contribute to the atmosphere of elegant perversity. (R) 130 minutes. (★★★★)—Lisa Jensen. Sat-Sun matinee only. 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: THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS Wes Anderson directs this eccentric 2001 comedy about a dying billionaire (Gene Hackman) trying to reconnect with his estranged wife (Anjelica Huston) and former child-prodigy kids (Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow and Luke Wilson). Danny Glover, Owen Wilson and Bill Murray co-star. (R) 109 minutes. Tonight (Thursday, June 16) 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.

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Now Playing
BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK Everybody in New York knows Bill Cunningham, but nobody knows anything about him. The delightful subject of this Richard Press documentary is an 80-year-old NY Times photographer who bikes around the city all day snapping photos for  his two weekly Sunday Style columns—one on high-fashion society events, the other on the spontaneous style he finds in the streets—a gig he's had for 40 years. ("We all get dressed for Bill," says Vogue editor Anna Wintour.) Living a Spartan, single existence in a tiny flat above Carnegie Hall,  his entire life is his work, sniffing out style and creating and lionizing fashion icons in his weekly photo montages, all with chipper enthusiasm, self-deprecating aplomb, and no pretensions of any kind. Deep mysteries and melancholy are hinted at in his past and upbringing, but Bill emerges heroic as a person who persists, with good humor and high spirits, to march to his own unique drummer. (Not rated) 84 minutes. (★★★1/2)

BRIDESMAIDS One the best comedies of the year. Clever. Well written. Wonderfully executed. Kristen Wiig, who also cowrotes this comedy, plays a romantically-challenged woman suddenly caught in her best friend’s (Maya Rudolph) wedding arrangements.. Determined to be the best maid of honor, she, naturally, screws up. All that ensues is hilarious. But the film actually sports some real heart and, quite smoothly, delivers a sobering look at what women go through in relationships—of all kinds. This has to be one of the best supporting casts to hit the screen in a long tims. Beyond Rudolph, the typically tepid Rose Byrne outdoes herself. There’s Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ellie Kemper and an amazing Melissa McCarthy—watch out for this one! The late Jill Clayburgh also co-stars. Wiig co-Paul Feig directs. (R)  (★★★) Greg Archer

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS Werner Herzog explores two of his favorite themes—human obsessions, and the forbidding grandeur of Nature—in his stunning new doc, a tour of Chauvet Cave. This  recently discovered, 32,000-year-old cave buried under a massive rockslide in rural France contains the earliest known wall paintings made by human hands. The filmmaking stumbles abit; some crucial details don't interest Herzog enough to include them (like the media in which the artwork was produced), and we have to slog through some of the director's more bewildering ruminations. But the cave interiors are stunning. Shooting in 3D allows Herzog to capture the depth and mystery of images glimpsed in shadowy recesses or sprawling across unevewn surfaces. Sequences outside can be disorienting, but 3D captures the cave interiors with breathtaking fidelity. (Not rated) 90 minutes. (★★★) Lisa Jensen.

THE DOUBLE HOUR This twisty Italian thriller from director Giuseppe Capotondi involves a former cop who's unlucky in love, the Slovenian hotel chambermaid he falls for, a romantic getaway into the Turin countryside, and dark secrets from the past that come back to haunt them both. Filippo Timi and Kseniya Rapoport star. (Not rated) 95 minutes. In Italian with English subtitles.

EVERYTHING MUST GO Will Ferrell shows off some acting depth here in this comedy-drama about a guy who loses his job on the same day his wife kicks him out—she tosses  all of his belongings out on the lawn.  He opts to take up residence there, selling off his possessions in an ongoing yard sale. This is a tale about growing up, maturing and coming to terms with one’s shadow side.  It manages to succeed at that, for the most part, but there’s a downtrodden beat to the film that many may not embrace. It’s as if the writer—writer-director Dan Rush—went off his Zoloft. Still, the film works in showcasing some of Ferrell’s rarely-scene “real” side.  Rebecca Hall, Christopher Jordan Wallace, and Laura Dern co-star.. (R) 96 minutes. (★★1/2) —Greg Archer

THE HANGOVER PART II This is what you should know: Stay home and drink. There is no real reason for anybody to venture out for this embarassing rehash of the same jokes you’d find in the first movie. Some fun moments exist here but there’s nothing new brought to the bar. Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, and Justin Bartha return for another wedding and another unexpected night of mayhem—this time in Bangkok, Thailand. If you like smoking monkeys, small penises and hermaphrodites, climb on board. Othewise, meet me at the lounge. Todd Phillips directs. (R) (★1/2) —Greg Archer

INCENDIES As one character observes, "One spark sets everything off." And so it does, in this searing family drama from French-Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, an epic Greek tragedy of a film that's not for the fainthearted. Adapted from the internationally acclaimed stage play by Lebanese-born writer-actor-director Wajdi Mouawad, it examines the relentless cycles of violence and reprisals in the Middle East (and everywhere else)  from a uniquely personal viewpoint that's both powerful and horrifying. Lubna Axabal is exceptional  as a woman on a journey through hell who still vows to "break the chain of anger." (R) 130 minutes. (★★★) Lisa Jensen.

JUDY MOODY AND THE NOT BUMMER SUMMER The popular kid-lit book series by Megan McDonald inspired this family comedy in which the intrepid grammar school heroine (newcomer Jordana Beatty) has to invent her own summer adventures after all her vacation plans go awry. Heather Graham, Jaleel White, and Preston Bailey co-star for director John Schultz (Aliens in the Attic).  (PG) 91 minutes.

KUNG FU PANDA 2: KABOOM OF DOOM The bears are back in town; Jack Black returns as the voice of Po, cuddly Chinese panda-turned-mystic warrior, whose happy life guarding the Valley of Peace is threatened when he and his cohorts  must rally to stop a new villain. Jennifer Yuh directs this sequel to the hit animated family comedy. Jackie Chan, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogan, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dustin Hoffman join the large supporting voice cast. (PG)

L'AMOUR FOU The private life of celebrated French fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent is the subject of this Pierre Thoretton documentary, which explores the designer's enduring, long-term relationship with his lover and partner, Pierre Berge. (Not rated) 98 minutes. Catherine Deneuve and former French Minister of Culture, Jack Lang, are among those providing insights; Linda Evangelista, Andy Warhol, and Mick Jagger pop up in archive footage. (Not rated) 98 minutes. In French, with English subtitles.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS There's nothing not to love in Woody Allen's irresistible romantic comedy. The poster image of star Owen Wilson sauntering alongside the river Seine at night under Van Gogh's sprawling "Starry Night" says everything about the art, history, enduring fantasy, and cultural allure of Paris, issues Allen addresses with savvy brio in this marvelously inventive film. Wilson is great fun as a Hollywood screenwriter longing to writer serious fiction who's transported back to the era he idolizes, Pais in the 1920s, in this endlessly sharp and funny riff on our collective desire to embrace a past "Golden Age" we think we've missed when the present gets too complicated. Rachel McAdams and Marion Cotillard co-star, along with Corey Stoll (Ernest Hemingway), Kathy Bates (Gertrude Stein), and a great cameo by Adrien Brody as Salvador Dali. (PG-13) 100 minutes. (★★★★) Lisa Jensen.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES Little remains of Tim Powers' fantasy novel, On Stranger Tides, in this fourth Pirates movie. Still, incoming director Rob Marshall's film is a more seaworthy vessel than the leaky old rustbucket that was PotC 3. Johnny Depp's reeling and raucous Captain Jack Sparrow is having a blast. Penelope Cruz is on board as the daughter of Blackbeard—played with dark, ferocious brio by Ian McShane. Geoffrey Rush is back, stomping around on a peg leg as pirate Barbarossa-turned-privateer, and the action is more focused: everyone is searching for the Fountain of Youth. But scriptwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio don't so much craft a narrative plot as string a bunch of gigantic comedy set-pieces together; when it comes to basics, like character motivation, they're clueless. Jack is just along for the ride, and while he's an entertaining companion, you'd think that after nearly a dozen hours of screen time in four movies, the writers could develop a more complex character for Depp to play. He and Cruz argue and swordfight, but are never allowed to graduate into a grown-up relationship, or display any real camaraderie. Locations (mostly in Hawaii) are ravishing, and everyone seems to be having a hell of a good time; too bad there isn't a bit more there there. (PG-13) 137 minutes. (★★1/2)—Lisa Jensen. (Read a longer review at Lisa Jensen Online Express: ljo-express.blogspot.com)

SUPER 8 Steven Spielberg produced this retro mystery thriller set in 1979, where a bunch of kids in the Midwest shooting a home movie on Super 8 film inadvertantly capture something dangerous on film at the site of a train wreck. Elle Fanning, Amanda Michalka, and Kyle Chandler star for writer-director  J. J. Abrams. (PG-13)

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS The bones of a satisfying romantic suspense story underlie Francis Lawrence's evocative film adaptation Sara Gruen's bestselling novel about passion and mayhem under the Big Top during the Depression 1930s. The movie may not be one hundred per-cent effective in its storytelling or its central romance, but it's steeped in period atmosphere and conveys a keen sense of the knockabout gypsy life of a traveling circus. Robert Pattinson is appropriately youthful, stalwart, and gutsy as the veterinary student taken in to tend the circus animals. His relationship with Reese Witherspoon's glamorous bareback rider never quite catches fire (although Christopher Waltz's silky psychosis as her owner/ringmaster husband generates plenty of tension) but Pattinson's deep affection for Rosie, the soulful elephant, is most convincing. Theirs is the most passionate and tender relationship in the film, and hers the story we care most about. (R) 122 minutes. (★★★) Lisa Jensen.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS After the disappointing goulash that was the first X-Men"origins" movie, Wolverine, this entertaining prequel steers the franchise back on track. Helmed by incoming director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake), the character-driven plot is more focused (with new young mutants given more time to establish their personalities), and the moral dilemma between rising above vengeance and giving in to it more acute. James McAvoy brings warmth and humor to young Charles Xavier, son of privilege, on a mission to provide support and acceptance to outcast genetic mutants and teach them to harness their often scary powers. Michael Fassbender is a terrific young Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto), concentration camp survivor, on a mission to kill the ex-Nazi, Schultze, now Shaw (Kevin Bacon), who killed his mother and experimented on him. One big plot problem is it's never explained how Shaw himself becomes an uber-mutant, but when he brings the world to the brink of WWIII via the Cuban Missile Crisis (after which only mutants will survive), Xavier and Erik gather a team of young mutants to stop him—only to split into opposite factions over how to deal with humans who fear and oppress them. Jennifer Lawrence makes a sassy, yet vulnerable Mystique, January Jones a chilly Emma Frost; Nicholas Hoult (Beast) and Lucas Till (Havok) also have their moments.There's plenty of destruction, as usual, but Vaughn keeps character and relationships in the forefront throughout. (PG-13). 132 minutes. (★★★) Lisa Jensen.

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