Short Subjectives February 10 2005

Opening Friday

GUERILLA: THE TAKING OF PATTY HEARST (NR)

HITCH (PG-13)

ONG-BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR (R)

POOH’S HEFFALUMP MOVIE (G) You can always trust your pre-Pixar-age kids with Winnie the Pooh and his neighbors, but the latest visit to the Hundred Acre Wood will prompt grown-ups to groan, “Oh, bother.” A heffalump scare puts Pooh and company in a tizzy until young Roo discovers that the elephantine critters are just plain folks. With sappy songs by Carly Simon, the film can’t tell outright treacle from the pleasing, gentle whimsy of the early Pooh films, but the toddlers won’t mind. - Curt Holman

UNCLE NINO (PG) A dysfunctional Chicago family (including Joe Mantegna and Anne Archer) draws closer together during a visit from long-lost Uncle Nino from Italy in this wholesome film for all ages.

Duly Noted

AFTER LIFE (1998) (NR) Acclaimed Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda ?presents a bittersweet, offbeat tale about limbo, in which the newly dead get ?to choose their happiest memory, which will take them to eternity. Great ?Japanese Filmmakers. Thurs., Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m. 205 White Hall, Emory University. ?Free. 404-727-5087. www.college.emory.edu.

BEFORE SUNRISE (1995) (R) A French gamin (Julie Delpy) and a ?young American (Ethan Hawke) meet on a train and spend a serendipitous night ?in Vienna talking about love, fate and cultural differences. Taken on its own, ?Sunrise alternates between romantic charm and annoying self-absorption. But ?when viewed as Act One of a tale that culminates with 2004’s Before Sunset, ?the characters’ youthful idealism takes on an added weight and poignancy. Feb. ?11-17. Cinefest, GSU University Center, Suite 211, 66 Courtland St. $5 ($3 until ?5 p.m.). 404-651-3565. www.cinefest.org. ?-CH

BEFORE SUNSET (R) Sequels are rarely as satisfying as this one, ?a wonderful reacquaintance with French pessimist Celine (Julie Delpy) and American ?Jesse (Ethan Hawke) who had one night of bliss in Vienna in Richard Linklater’s ?1995 original Before Sunrise. But if the prequel was defined by youthful possibility ?and its two ethereal, dewy leads, Sunset is enriched by its older, wiser performers, ?and Linklater has matured alongside them. He invests his film with real intellectual ?and spiritual weight as Jesse and Celine contemplate what might have been, while ?holding onto the profoundly romantic belief that human connection and love may ?be the best chance we have. Feb. 11-17. Cinefest, GSU University Center, ?Suite 211, 66 Courtland St. $5 ($3 until 5 p.m.). 404-651-3565. www.cinefest.org. ?-Felicia Feaster

CHARISMA (2000) (NR) Acclaimed Japanese horror filmmaker Kurosawa ?Kiyoshi presents the tale of a detective who accidentally causes a hostage’s ?death. When he takes a retreat in the mountains, he gets involved in a feud ?over a mysterious tree. Great Japanese Filmmakers. Feb. 17, 7:30 p.m. 205 ?White Hall, Emory University. Free. 404-727-5087. www.college.emory.edu.

CONTROL ROOM (NR) Egyptian-American documentarian Jehane Noujaim ?goes behind the scenes of independent Arab news network Al-Jazeera for the duration ?of the Iraq War. Control Room features three fascinating protagonists: a scathingly ?witty, skeptical reporter; a hard-boiled senior producer; and an American press ?officer who gradually grasps that the war’s complexities put U.S. values to ?the test. The film would benefit from more background and fact-checking about ?Al-Jazeera itself, but it intriguingly explores the difficulty of finding the ?truth in the fog of war. This screening features a Q&A with former Lt. Josh ?Rushing. Middle East Film Series. Thurs., Feb. 10, 2:30 p.m. Cinefest, GSU ?University Center, Suite 211, 66 Courtland St. $5 ($3 until 5 p.m.). 404-651-3565. ?www.cinefest.org. ?-CH

ELIXIR OF LOVE (2003) (NR) This fairy-tale plot set in ?11th-century China concerns a beautiful but odiferous princess courted by a ?poor but skilled aromatherapist, who goes on a quest to find rare flowers to ?cure his lady love. Hong Kong Panorama. Fri., Feb. 11, 8 p.m. Woodruff Arts ?Center, Rich Auditorium. 1280 Peachtree St. $5. 404-733-4570. www.high.org.

MIDDLE EAST FILM SERIES (NR) This diverse program of Middle-Eastern ?films includes the documentary Control Room, James’ Journey to Jerusalem ?and the Tunisian film The Magic Box. Middle East Film Series. Thurs., ?Feb. 10. Cinefest, GSU University Center, Suite 211, 66 Courtland St. $5 ($3 ?until 5 p.m.). 404-651-3565. www.cinefest.org. ?- CH

WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF FIRE? (2001) (NR) When a 20-year-old bomb explodes in an abandoned mansion in Berlin, the evidence points to a disbanded anarchist group from the 1980s, which must reunite and reconcile its newfound pragmatism with lost idealism. Recent Films from Germany. Wed., Feb. 16, 7 p.m. Goethe Institut Inter Nationes, 1197 Peachtree St., Colony Square. $4. 404-892-2388.

YOUR NAME POISONS MY DREAMS (1996) (NR) When a body is found in Madrid’s Retiro Park in 1942, a young police officer becomes embroiled in murder, political intrigue and the aftershocks of the Spanish Civil War. On the Side of Freedom. Sat., Feb. 12, 8 p.m. Woodruff Arts Center, Rich Auditorium. 1280 Peachtree St. $5. 404-733-4570. www.high.org.

Continuing

THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON (R) Sean Penn tries to offer his own Taxi Driver or The King of Comedy in this portrait of an alienated office furniture salesman who becomes obsessed with killing Richard Nixon. Though based on a real individual, Nixon never shows enough insight into its anti-hero to be more than a portrait of a nutjob, and Penn’s one-note performance relies too heavily on nervous tics. Naomi Watts and Don Cheadle get little to do in supporting roles, but Jack Thompson steals the film as Penn’s boss, a ruddy, beaming emblem of duplicitous U.S. salesmanship. - CH

BAD EDUCATION (NC-17) Borrowing influences from Fassbinder, Sirk, Hitchcock and Buuel, Spain’s Pedro Almodovar creates one of his most satisfying, emotionally fraught film fantasias to date. Centered on how the sexual abuse of a schoolboy (played as an adult by the astounding Gael Garcia Bernal) at the hands of a Catholic priest effects his grown-up relationship with a long-lost lover (Fele Martinez), the film moves back and forth in time and never quite assures us as to the truth or fantasy of the unfolding events. Loaded with melancholy and lensed in the director’s familiar candy-coated tones, Bad Education is a study in stirring, powerful contradictions. -FF

BEING JULIA (R) In this adaptation of Somerset Maugham’s novel Theatre, Annette Bening gives one of the year’s best performances as a 1938 London stage diva who falls in love with a much younger man and learns the difference between acting and living. Apart from Bening’s rich, rewarding portrayal, Being Julia offers a light-hearted but fairly frivolous melodrama about temperamental theater artists. But the story builds to a satisfying conclusion and Juliet Stevenson provides an amusing turn as Bening’s no-nonsense dresser. -CH

BOOGEYMAN (PG-13) Get boogie fever in this horror film about a man, traumatized by mysterious events from his childhood, who must face his demons when he returns to the old homestead. Lucy Lawless of “Xena: Warrior Princess” has a supporting role.

CALLAS FOREVER (NR) In this imaginary episode from the last year in the life of Maria Callas (Fanny Ardant), a punk rock promoter (Jeremy Irons, of all people) suggests the opera diva lip-sync to the classic recordings of her youth. Director Franco Zeffirelli actually directed on stage and television.

THE CHORUS (PG-13) Sure it’s a sack of clich&233;s that those with an intolerance to glucose will want to avoid. But if you’re in the mood for something unthreatening and mildly sweet, then this crowd-pleaser that made French audiences go gaga and Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee is an expectation-affirming diversion. The appealing G&233;rard Jugnot plays a failed musician who takes a job at a remote reform school for boys at the end of World War II. As one might guess from the title, he do-re-mi’s the delinquent children into a chorus of angels. -FF

HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS (PG-13) Chinese director Zhang Yimou (Hero) continues to apply his art-film aesthetics and critiques of violence to the Hong Kong action film in this romance set in 859 A.D. China as the Tang dynasty crumbles. Undercover cop Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) is assigned to track blind courtesan Mei (Zhang Ziyi) who may be a member of the underground rebel group, the House of Flying Daggers. Yimou’s treatment of two lovers struggling between weightless, acrobatic highs and earthbound obligations give the film a trace of substance amidst the requisite, often taxing martial arts fighting scenes. -FF

IMAX THEATER: Bugs! (NR) A praying mantis and a butterfly “star” in this documentary about the insects of the Borneo rainforest - some of whom will be magnified 250,000 times their normal size on the IMAX screen. Fernbank Museum of Natural History IMAX Theater, 767 Clifton Road. 404-929-6300. www.fernbank.edu.

MILLION DOLLAR BABY (PG-13) While America’s critics are busy hurting themselves trying to come up with more accolades for this “masterpiece” by American film “genius” Clint Eastwood, the rest of us scratch our heads in utter disbelief, wondering what all the fuss is about. This clich&233;-addicted boxing drama, laquered with a feigned working class melancholy cribbed from previous pugilist pictures, depicts a spunky blue collar boxer (Hilary Swank) who lives out her daddy fantasies when a grizzled boxing trainer (Eastwood) overcomes his aversion to girl fighters and coaches her to victory. -FF

MOOLAAD (NR) You wouldn’t necessarily think a film about female villagers in Burkina Faso standing up against ritual genital mutilation would be gripping drama, but in the hands of legendary African director Ousmane Sembene, it is. The 81-year-old director, whose films are marked by a powerful understanding of the ability of gender and money to shape destiny, specializes in stories so pared down but emotionally potent they take on the dimension of myth. Sembene’s film is shocking, gripping and an eye-opening look at how easily tradition and faith can be used for social control. -FF

THE PAINTING This below-the-radar indie may have its heart in the right place, but its approach to race is naive and its sense of drama excruciatingly amateurish. Heath Freeman plays Randy, a rich white kid in St. Louis being virtually raised by his black chauffeur (Clifton Davis) and his extended family. Randy grows up into a civil rights crusader who marries a black woman and apparently carries the burden of racial oppression on his narrow shoulders. Fearful of ambiguity, the directors can’t just make Randy a decent guy, they have to make him a super-hero blinding us with his virtue and pushing the many black characters to the side as he battles the forces of racism. -FF

PAPER CLIPS (G) In 1998, middle schoolers in the small Tennessee town of Whitwell looked outside of their white Protestant reality. A school project meant to teach them about the Holocaust quickly grew into a community building exercise in group empathy. The students began by collecting 6 million paper clips to represent the Jews killed in the Holocaust, but by the end of their project had also created a monument on school grounds and inspired journalists, Holocaust survivors and children around the world. Though they appear to have trained at the knee of “60 Minutes,” filmmakers Elliot Berlin and Joe Fab inspire genuine emotion despite an over-reliance on dry-as-dust documentary storytelling. -FF??