‘No Place on Earth’ at Angelika Dallas

New indie releases and special screenings of note this weekend:

• No Place on Earth documents “the untold story of thirty-eight Ukrainian Jews who survived World War II by living in cold, damp caves for eighteen months.” (Angelika Dallas)
• Midnight’s Children. Salman Rushdie adapted his own novel and narrates “a lushly visual epic about two boys who are switched at birth and forever marked by history.” Directed by Deepa Mehta. (Angelika Dallas)
• The Source Family. “The Source Family’s outlandish lifestyle, popular celebrity-hangout restaurant, rock band, and beautiful women made them the darlings of Hollywood’s Sunset Strip; but their outsider ideals, controversial spiritual leader Father Yod, along with his 13 wives, instigated local authorities. They fled to Hawaii, leading to their dramatic demise.” (Texas Theatre)
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The first sequel picked up the pace with an exciting and personal story of treachery and revenge. In 35mm. (Texas Theatre)
• Upstream Color, the new film by Shane Carruth, has perplexed and divided critics and audiences since it debuted at Sundance. Now available on DVD and Blu-ray.

Opening in wide release:

• The Great Gatsby. Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan star in Baz Luhrmann’s resplendent, scintillating version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s bestselling novel. Recommended with reservations. (Reviewed here.)
• Peeples. Tina Gordon Chism wrote and directed this alleged comedy, starring Craig Robinson, Kerry Washington, and David Alan Grier. Not previewed.

Matteo Garone’s ‘Reality,’ at Angelika Dallas.

New indie releases and special screenings of note this weekend:

• Reality. Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone turns his perceptive lens from organized crime (Gomorrah) to reality television in his latest effort, described as a darkly comic piece. In Italian with English subtitles. (Angelika Dallas)
• Renoir. In 1915, the great painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and his son, filmmaker Jean Renoir, fall for the same woman, an enchanting artist’s model. In French with English subtitles. (Angelika Dallas, Angelika Plano).
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist. A drama about ‘the cultural divide that cracks open’ between a Pakistan man (Riz Ahmed) and an American woman (Kate Hudson) after 9/11. Directed by Mira Nair. (Landmark Magnolia)
• Kon-Tiki. A modern adventurer attempts to recreate the 1947 voyage of Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl across the Pacific Ocean. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. (Angelika Dallas)
• Upstream Color, the new film by Shane Carruth, has perplexed and divided critics and audiences since it debuted at Sundance. Continuing in limited release. (Angelika Dallas, Texas Theatre)

Opening in wide release:

• Iron Man 3. Robert Downey Jr. returns as the Marvel superhero, this time opposed by The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley). With the usual gang.

Terence Malick’s ‘Days of Heaven,’ at the Texas Theatre

The 43rd annual USA Film Festival kicked off this past Wednesday night and continues through the weekend at Angelika Dallas. Visit the official site to download the complete program. (I’m hoping to see John Carpenter’s They Live and Soi Cheang’s Motorway — review for the latter at my sister site A Better Tomorrow.) Other new indie releases and special screenings of note this weekend:

• Mud. The new film by Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter) features Matthew McConaughey. It’s the best American film I’ve seen this year. In limited release. Reviewed here.
• Starbuck. “As his lover announces her pregnancy, a fortysomething slacker receives other life-changing news: 142 people, all of them the result of artificial insemination, have filed a class action lawsuit against him, their biological father.” In French with English subtitles. (Landmark Magnolia).
• Upstream Color, the new film by Shane Carruth, has perplexed and divided critics and audiences since it debuted at Sundance. Continuing in limited release. (Angelika Dallas, Angelika Plano, Texas Theatre)
• Days of Heaven. Presented in 35mm, Terence Malick’s glorious classic should be a perfect companion piece, I would imagine, for Upstream Color. Then go see Mud. (Texas Theatre)

Opening in wide release:

• Pain & Gain, reviewed here.
• The Big Wedding. An ensemble comedy, from the director of Going Greek. Not previewed.

Shane Caruth and Amy Seimetz in ‘Upstream Color’

In the brief interval between the Dallas International Film Festival and the USA Film Festival, multiple indies compete for attention.

• Upstream Color, the new film by Shane Carruth, has perplexed and divided critics and audiences since it debuted at Sundance. Carruth will be on hand at the Angelika Dallas on Friday and Saturday following the 8 p.m. screenings for Q& A sessions, and will also introduce the 10:25 p.m. screenings each night; he will also be present on Sunday following the 5:25 pm. screening. (Angelika Dallas, Angelika Plano)
• From Up on Poppy Hill  is the latest animated feature from famed Studio Ghibli. Reviews have been generally favorable, though not wildly enthusiastic. (Landmark Magnolia)
• Chasing Ice  is a documentary that follows “National Geographic photographer James Balog across the Arctic as he deploys time-lapse cameras designed for one purpose: to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers.” Advance reviews have been quite positive. (Texas Theatre)
• To The Wonder has fewer critical champions that Terence Malick’s other recent non-narrative opuses, so a long theatrical run is not anticipated. Still, it’s Malick. Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, and Rachel McAdams star. (Angelika Dallas)

Opening in wide release:

• Oblivion, reviewed here.

Matt Damon in ‘Promised Land’

A light release schedule for the end of the year, but this trio of indies holds great promise.

• Promised Land. Matt Damon stars as a high-powered fracking salesman for a mighty corporation. Damon co-wrote the far too schematic and manipulative script with John Krasinski, who co-stars as an environmental activist. In this pre-fab world, all corporations are Evil and the little guy is always pure in heart — except when he’s not. It’s earnest, sincere, and altogether unconvincing. The issue of fracking deserves a better, more layered treatment. Gus Van Sant directs in straightforward manner; the film’s best assets are the fine supporting performances by Frances McDormand and Hal Holbrook. (AMC NorthPark)
• Rust and Bone.  Another highly-acclaimed drama from director Jacques Audiard, this drama follows the romance between Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenarts; she’s lost her legs in an accident, and he’s an impoverished single father. (Angelika Dallas)
• Barbara. Nina Hoss continues her collaboration with director Christian Petzold in Germany’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. She plays a doctor in 1980s East Germany who applies for an exit visa and is promptly banished to a rural community, where she falls in love and questions her future. (Angelika Dallas)

Recently opened in wide release:

• Django Unchained. Quentin Tarantino riffs on slavery in his most openly comic movie to date, albeit one with his usual devotion to the n-word and other profanity, as well as a more-than-generous helping of blood and excessive violence. He mixes 30s plantation dramas with 60s Westerns and 70s blaxploitation, drawing equal inspiration from Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci, and Fred Williamson. It’s lesser Tarantino, but still far more entertaining than most multiplex fare.
• Les Miserables. Not being a fan of the Broadway musical or its plaintive songs, I found the histrionic dramatics to be unearned and the talking/singing/growling/mewling of Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Sacha Baron Cohen, and company to be excessively “actorly.” Tom Hooper’s in-your-face direction merely calls attention to itself, without any particular style or rhythm. Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Samatha Burke, and Amanda Seyfried fare the best, but this is a musical best appreciated by those who have already memorized the songs.

Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in ‘Silver Linings Playbook’

Only one new indie film is opening this week, but two of the wide releases felt very indie to me, so I’m grouping these three together, mainly because these are ones that I’ve seen.

• Anna Karenina, the latest screen version of Leo Tolstoy’s classic of Russian literature, gets a highly-stylized, heightened theatrical treatment from director Joe Wright, a period specialist who seems to have been invigorated by making last year’s stylish action thriller Hanna. Filled with beauty and refreshing ideas that endeavor to bring modern meaning to a tragedy, not everything in the film works — it gets bogged down midway through — but the purity of the performances, led by Keira Knightley, allow the naked emotions to shine through. (Landmark Magnolia, Angelika Plano)
• Life of Pi  does not take place entirely at sea — the first act safely sets up the action from a land-based perspective — but it does seem to be entirely about the spiritual journey of a young man who embraces three of the world’s so-called “major” religions, and whose faith is then put to the test when he is shipwrecked at sea, the sole survivor of a tragedy that claims the lives of his close-knit family. He is stranded on a lifeboat in the company of a (completely computer-generated) Bengal tiger, which means that he spends a considerable amount of time racking his brain, trying desperately to stay alive. Augmented by wide-eyed optimism and — there is no other description that fits — visual effects that are magical, the young man’s journey becomes our own. Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay the film is that it feels very much at home as part of director Ang Lee’s ouevre. (In wide release)
• Silver Linings Playbook threatens initially to give people who suffer from Bipolar Disorder a bad name. Bradley Cooper is too nervously mannered to ever be entirely convincing as the Crazy Dude Who Drives Everyone Else Crazy, but Jennifer Lawrence is outstandingly nuanced as a potential paramour, and Robert De Niro makes the most of his best role in years. David O. Russell remains a better director than writer. (In wide release)

Also opening in wide release:

• Red Dawn, a remake of John Milius’ 1984 celebration of jingoism in the Reagan Era, has been described as a victim of MGM’s financial troubles, which left it rotting in a vault for a couple of years. But trusted friends who have seen it have confided that it should have been lost and/or destroyed; for one thing, the Asian invaders were changed from Chinese to Korean during the interim waiting period out of fear of losing the Mainland China market, or some-such nonsense. No thanks.
• Rise of the Guardians is an animated film that mixes popular characters like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy with less-familiar heroes like Jack Frost. Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin, Jude Law, Isla Fischer, and Hugh Jackman provide their celebrity voices. Advance reviews have been mixed, at best.

Denis Levant in Leos Carax’s ‘Holy Motors’

What is, in my opinion, the best movie of the year opens this weekend. And, no, it’s not the one with the glittering vampires.

• Holy Motors will infuriate and/or bore some, no doubt, but I was enchanted, moved, and fascinated by a day in the life of a man hired to play different roles throughout the course of a long day. Consider this episodic fable a comedy, a drama, a farce, a fantasy, a bold and ambitious failure, or the best film of the year. (Landmark Magnolia)
• A Royal Affair features a starring performance by the great Mads Mikkelsen as a German doctor who becomes personal physician and advisor to the Danish king; complications ensue when he discover that is more sympatico with the Queen, more morally and physically. A historical romance, as they say. (Angelika Dallas)
• The Other Son sets its tried-and-true story of sons switched at birth in the Middle East, which immediately gives it greater gravity and timeliness than one might otherwise anticipate. Directed by Lorraine Levy. (Angelika Plano)

This may be a good weekend to catch up with other limited releases still playing, or you may wish to indulge your latent Spielberg-mania at the multiplex.

Opening in wide release:

• Lincoln, the new film by Steven Spielberg, is said to be a talk-fest with a spellbinding performance by Daniel Day-Lewis as the 16th President of the United States. Having missed about a dozen press screenings, I have no excuse, but it is Spielberg and it is Day-Lewis, so that makes it pretty much essential viewing in a theater.
• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is the final installment of the love story between a human teenager and an ancient glittery vampire; if that’s your thing, enjoy! For those who plan to attend in order to support their partner, I’ve heard that the final, violent battle sequence will wake you up.

Kris Kristofferson and Isabelle Hupper in Michael Cimino’s ‘Heaven’s Gate’ (Lone Star Film Festival)

Our festival friends in Fort Worth are hosting a terrific showcase of films, while here in Dallas a trio of new indies provides alternative fare for those who are looking for something beyond Bond.

• Lone Star International Film Festival opened last night with Billy Bob Thornton’s Jayne Mansfield’s Car, and continues through the weekend. Tonight’s highlights include the classy drama A Royal Affair and the trashy 80s flick Miami Connection — sorry, you’ll have to choose between them — while Hyde Park on Hudson makes its local debut Friday night, Saturday features a rare screening of All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, and Sunday brings the restored director’s cut of Heaven’s Gate. It’s a wonderfully diverse lineup that will also present conversations with Thornton and the likes of Robert Duvall. It’s time for Dallas residents to be more than a little jealous of Cowtown, but that can be cured with a little time on the road. (Official site: lineup and ticket information.)
• A Late Quartet features fine actors — Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener — in a tale of death, lust, and competing egos. (Angelika Dallas)
• Cafe de Flore, from  director Jean Marc-Vallée (C.R.A.Z.Y.), follows two stories: a DJ going through a divorce in the modern day, and a mother (Vanessa Paradis) in 1969 Paris raising her son, who has Down’s Syndrome. (Angelika Dallas)
• This Must Be the Place stars Sean Penn as a wild-haired rock star in an absurd comedy from Paolo Sorrentino, the director of Il Divo. (Landmark Magnolia)

That’s a good spot of diversity right there. Though I haven’t seen any of this group, let your instincts and interests guide you, and you should be fine.

Opening in wide release:

• Skyfall, the newest installment in the venerable James Bond franchise, stars Daniel Craig as 007. My review will be up later, but suffice it to say that it looks gorgeous, features superior action and superb drama, and includes great turns by Dame Judi Dench and Javier Bardem. (Our recommended theatrical exhibitor is The Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff.)