Movies This Week: Welcome Tamara to the Cool Morning Skyline Gym Howl
Looking for a good movie to watch in an Austin theater this weekend? Here are the movies opening locally this week -- a nice mix of indies and wide releases.
Movies We've Seen:
Boxing Gym -- Premiering at Cannes and screening at AFF, this documentary by Frederick Wiseman about Richard Lord's Gym on N. Lamar and the people training there gets a week-long run in town. Wiseman last brought us inside La danse - Le ballet de l'Opéra de Paris. Read Jette's review from Cinematical for details. Special news: We just learned that Wiseman and Lord will be doing two Q&As at the 4:25 and 7 pm screenings on Saturday, and tickets are still available ... which is great since the Sunday screening with Wiseman is sold out. (Alamo South Lamar)
Morning Glory -- It's hard not to be reminded of Broadcast News. Writer Aline Brosh McKenna is responsible for 27 Dresses and The Devil Wears Prada, so even if it's flowery, it's probably entertaining. Elizabeth tells you why she liked it in her review. (wide)
Skyline -- Aliens with Cthulhu spaceships! Written by two newer screenwriters (Joshua Cordes and Liam O'Donnell) with extensive backgrounds in visual effects so you know it's going to be pretty. With the always watchable Eric Balfour (Six Feet Under, Haven). Mike saw it at midnight and has a review. (wide)
Welcome to the Rileys -- When a man tries to recover from a tragic loss in a strangers home, it's more than his life that gets turned around. This AFF selection stars Melissa Leo, James Gandolfini and Kristen Stewart. I'd watch it for Melissa Leo because she's an incredibly watchable actress, but the fact that director Jake Scott also directed Plunkett & Macleane clinches the deal for me. Don has the full scoop in his review. (Arbor)
Other New Movies:
Cool It (pictured at top) -- Global warming from an alternative approach, from documentarian Ondi Timoner who brought us We Live in Public and Dig! You can be sure it's a provocative film worthy of your time and money. Look for Debbie's review this weekend. (Arbor)
Howl -- The aGLIFF centerpiece film from this year returns to Austin for a regular theatrical run. James Franco stars as Allen Ginsberg in this docu-poem about the infamous obscenity trail surrounding the titular poem. (Alamo South Lamar)
The Man from Nowhere -- This Fantastic Fest 2010 selection is a Korean grindhouse thriller starring Bin Won (Mother). (Alamo South Lamar)
Tamara Drewe -- Stephen Frears is at the helm of the latest graphic novel adaptation, this time about a newswriter returning home as the house she grew up in is being sold. Stars Gemma Arterton and Dominic Cooper. (Arbor)
Unstoppable -- Denzel is off to save us again. From a train. Again. In a Tony Scott film. Again. Chris Pine costars. (Alamo South Lamar)
Our Picks This Week:
Debbie -- I was disappointed to miss Marwencol after reading Jette's review, but SXSW Presents offers several screenings this month to see this intriguing documentary. Be sure to see it at Alamo Ritz on Wednesday, November 17 and 24.
Don -- I missed Howl when it screened at aGLIFF earlier this year. But based on its enthusiastic reception at the festival, I definitely won't miss it this week at Alamo South Lamar. ;I'm a great fan of Beat literature, and the film's unusual structure (combining courtroom drama, quotes from a magazine interview with Allen Ginsberg, flashbacks and poetry reading) sounds intriguing.
Elizabeth -- Bogey's second-to-last film, The Desperate Hours, will be shown Tuesday night at Alamo South Lamar as the finale to the Austin Film Society's Essential Cinema Series focused on director William Wyler. Also starring Fredric March and Gig Young, this movie about a home invasion sounds very dark.
Jette -- Dear God, I have to pick just one? Because I want to see the digitally restored version of Dr. Strangelove at Alamo Village, running nightly Mon. through Thurs. next week. And Alamo Ritz is showing Horse Feathers, a Marx Brothers movie that I feel is woefully underrated, on Mon. night as part of their Cinema Cocktails series. Finally, tickets are still available for Frederick Wiseman's Titicut Follies at 4 pm Sunday at Alamo South Lamar, with the director in attendance. What a week!