Big week, for the fun and serious:
The big story this week is not the usual releases, but that Netflix has obtained Andrei Konchalovsky’s Runaway Train, a powerful film based on an Akira Kurosawa story. With Jon Voight playing the best role of his career, mining the depths of brutal existentialism while teaching young Eric Roberts how to not be a “sucka”, this is one for anybody who loves depth with their action. A wonderful, hard-to-find film.
Milton Glaser: To Inform & Delight: an affectionate portrait of the NYC artist by director Wendy Keys.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Terry Gilliam’s whimsical Faustian fantasy, deserves better than it got. Check it out; you won’t be disappointed.
District 13: Ultimatum is not too different from the original District 13…lots of jumping, racing against the clock, and social message hammers to the skull. Still, pretty fun if you haven’t seen the first one.
The Descent: Part 2 also mirrors its predecessor, but requires the attention of hardcore fans. Nothing new here, but if you need a brutal, claustrophobic fix, you’ve come to the right place.
Disgrace showcases John Malkovich as a South African professor caught up in an affair with one of his students while coming to grips with the changes impacting the country.
Five Minutes of Heaven finds Liam Neeson facing an old vendetta in Northern Ireland; with James Nesbitt (Bloody Sunday).
Dallas Film Now. 