Big Momma’s House 2 (99 mins.; PG-13: sexual humor, drug
reference) In this comedic sequel, Martin Lawrence jumps back into
the fat-old-lady suit as an undercover FBI agent trying to solve a
murder. Fiesta 5
• Brokeback Mountain (134 mins.; R: sex, nudity, language,
violence) This uncommonly sensitive and moving story pairs Heath
Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as gay cowboy lovers, who clandestinely
meet through the years, even once they’ve established their own
families. A majestic yet introspective love story, this socially
important film works with Ledger’s minimalist acting and Ang Lee’s
sweeping direction. (JW) Fiesta 5/Camino Real
• Caché (117 mins.; R: violence) In this Michael Haneke film,
Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche play parents in France who are
sent creepy, bloody childlike drawings and videotapes showing
surveillance of their house. Aside from being an unusually
introspective thriller, it also raises moral questions about the
social backdrops of terrorist acts. There’s no tidy Hollywood
ending in sight. (JW) Riviera
• Capote (98 mins.; R: violence, language) Capote works, in
part, because it limits its story to a chapter in the writer’s
life—the time that Truman Capote spent writing and researching the
Kansas murders that led to his masterpiece In Cold Blood. Even more
so, Capote grabs you because of its Capote, Philip Seymour Hoffman,
who is in his finest screen work to date. (JW) Starting Mon., Feb.
13: Metro 4
The Chronicles of Narnia (140 mins.; PG: battle scenes, fright)
For three quarters of an hour, this film is gorgeous and
enthralling. The rest is kind of odd. This amalgamation of
religious allegory and unfettered Freud among other late Victorians
feels like having a system full of contradicting stimuli. Coffee on
top of too much beer, say. (DJP) Cinema Twin
• Glory Road (106 mins.; PG: racial violence, language) This
film is an exciting, straightforward account of how a determined
white basketball coach led a mixed-race team from obscurity through
various levels of resistance, prejudice, and scorn to the final
game of the NCAA championship in a single season. (GC) Cinema
Twin
• Good Night, and Good Luck (93 mins.; PG: language) George
Clooney presents the story of one American news team during a time
of persecution and fear—CBS News and the “anti-Communist” bullying
of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. In Good Night, and Good Luck,
the American society reflected bears, with a few exceptions, a
striking resemblance to the situation in which we now find
ourselves. But the main difference between them and us is that they
had Edward R. Murrow to tell them the truth. (GC) Starting Mon.,
Feb. 13: Metro 4
Hoodwinked (80 mins.; PG: mild action) This animated “true story
of Red Riding Hood,” whose humor and drama sounds to be just as
much for adults as for children, features the voices of Glenn
Close, Jim Belushi, and Anne Hathaway. Camino Real
• King Kong (187 mins.; PG-13: peril, violence) Possessing an
energy rarely seen in movies, King Kong has been created by
somebody madly in love with movies, and Peter Jackson’s
unrestrained enthusiasm is in every frame. It is the most
thoroughly pulse-pumping, intoxicatingly kick-ass film you’re gonna
see this year. (RD) Cinema Twin
• The Matador (96 mins.; R: sexual content, language)
Inconceivable without a breathtaking performance by Pierce Brosnan
as an aging hitman, this buddy-esque film, which also stars Greg
Kinnear as a salesman and Hope Davis, is pretty good. But even if
it wasn’t, it would be worth seeing for Brosnan’s character, which
is masterfully both attractive and despicable. (GC) Fiesta 5
• Match Point (124 mins.; R: sexuality) Word on the street has
it that Match Point—an uncommonly quiet chilling suspense number
set in London (not Woody Allen’s usual Manhattan) about love,
death, wealth, guilt, and moral queasiness—is the director’s finest
work in many years. And so it is. Maybe Allen should get out of
town more often. (JW) Fri.-Sun.: Paseo Nuevo/Mon.-Thu.: Metro 4
• Memoirs of a Geisha (145 mins.; PG-13: mature, sexual content)
There are three compelling reasons to see Geisha: Zhang Ziyi,
Michelle Yeoh, and the vertiginously sorrowful presence that is
Gong Li, set in a floating world of cinema. Who knew the director
of cheesy Chicago could make so much subtle cultural imperialism
seem like such a blatant wonder? (DJP) Starting Mon., Feb. 13:
Metro 4
Mrs. Henderson Presents (103 mins.; R: nudity, brief language) A
rich widow (played by Judi Dench) revamps an old London theater to
present, and later become famous for, the all-nude revue. Plaza de
Oro
Munich (164 mins.; R: graphic violence, sex, nudity, language)
There’s just something about Steven Spielberg’s films that comes
across as superficial. It’s a problem here, reducing the volatile
topic of Jews vs. Arabs to the familiar turf of Bond and Bourne.
But problems aside, Munich is well stocked with Spielberg’s
cinemagic spiel. In the end, the film’s strongest message may be
that vengeance takes its toll on the macro and micro level. (JW)
Starting Mon., Feb. 13: Metro 4
Nanny McPhee (97 mins.; PG: rude humor, brief language) It’s
like a third-generation copy. Neither Mary Poppins nor The
Simpsons’ Sherry Bobbins need worry. The great actors here must
have wanted to humor their friend Emma Thompson, who wrote the
screenplay about this magical governess without considering that
kids today need more than a food fight to sit through a period
piece. (DJP) Camino Real/Paseo Nuevo
The New World (135 mins.; PG-13: battle scenes) This film about
Pocahontas, John Smith, and the start of the new world’s
colonization—so ravishingly beautiful at times—is great Terrence
Malick but a dud film, deadly boring to people interested in seeing
a good story. (DJP) Plaza de Oro
Something New (100 mins.; PG-13: sexual references) When Sanaa
Lathan’s career woman character starts falling for Simon Baker’s
free-spirited landscape architect character, their worlds change in
this dramatic comedy. Fiesta 5
• Transamerica (103 mins.; R: sexual content, nudity, language,
drug use) Armed with glowing reviews and a Golden Globe for
Felicity Huffman, Transamerica—about a transsexual who drives
cross-country to save her son—boldly tackles the taboo of
alternative sexuality. But beyond any such sociological baggage,
it’s just a rowdy and disarmingly touching good time. (JW)
Fri.-Sun.: Plaza de Oro/Mon.-Thu.: Metro 4
Underworld: Evolution (106 mins.; R: violence, gore, sexuality,
language, nudity) Both gory and boring, if you’re a 12-year-old boy
who likes playing video games where blood spurts out of bullet
wounds, this film might have some appeal. But the story fails to be
engaging on any level. Perhaps the filmmakers should’ve spent less
money on fake blood and more money on real writers. (MF) Cinema
Twin
• Walk the Line (136 mins.; PG-13: language, drugs) As a whole,
Walk the Line is a sweeping yet intimate wonder, fanning the flame
of Johnny Cash’s mystique and bringing us closer to his humanity.
It keeps a close watch on that heart of his—no easy feat. (JW)
Paseo Nuevo