Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire hits theaters riding an ever-growing wave of hype and praise, including major awards at Sundance and Toronto and a cover story in The New York Times Magazine. The question remains whether audiences will embrace the film’s heavily-lauded performances and story of against-all-odds uplift, or be turned off by such plot buzzwords as “multiple incestuous pregnancies” and “harrowing parental abuse.”
A Christmas Carol continues Robert Zemeckis’ foray into motion-capture animation with a re-telling of the classic holiday fable. Jim Carrey voices both Ebenezer Scrooge and the trio of spirits that haunt the old miser one fateful Christmas Eve.
The Box revolves about a couple who receives the eponymous object and must make a choice: if they push the large red button on top, a random person will die and they will receive one million dollars. But those expecting a standard-issue Cameron Diaz thriller be warned: this is the third feature from weirdo auteur Richard Kelly—the mastermind behind Donnie Darko and Southland Tales—so expect some major metaphysical madness.
The Men Who Stare at Goats tells the true-life story of the U.S. Army’s New Earth Army a military experiment that purportedly taught soldiers to use mind control and other paranormal techniques to achieve non-violent success on the battlefield. George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, and the too-little-seen Kevin Spacey all star as former members, with Ewan McGregor as the reporter investigating the defunct battalion.
La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet continues documentarian Frederick Wiseman’s career-long fascination with the inner workings of social institutions, large and small. His 38th feature, playing for two weeks at Film Forum, chronicles the rituals, routines, and performances of the eponymous ballet company.
That Evening Sun features a buzzed-about performance by the incomparable Hal Holbrook as an octogenarian Tennessee farmer locked in a battle of wills over his former farmland, which has been sold by his son to a local ne’er-do-well and his family.
The Red Shoes, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1948 masterpiece about the friction between personal happiness and artistic obsession, returns in all its blindingly beautiful Technicolor glory for a two-week run at Film Forum. Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker—a frequent Scorsese collaborator and Powell’s widow—will be on hand to introduce the new 35mm restoration at tonight’s 7 p.m. screening.
Sauve qui peut (la vie) (Every Man for Himself) will be at BAMcinématek on Sunday for one day only. Lead actress Isabelle Huppert will personally introduce the 6:30 screening of Jean-Luc Godard’s mid-career meditation on art, sex, and capitalism.
Best Boy, Ira Wohl’s acclaimed documentary portrait of caring for his mentally-challenged cousin, will get a 30th anniversary screening this Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Walter Reade Theater, with Wohl on hand to discuss his Oscar-winning film.
Iberoamérica: Our Way(s) celebrates the eponymous intergovernmental organization, instrumental in financially supporting contemporary Latin American, Spanish, and Portuguese cinema. with this week-long series of films. Highlights of the series—which includes several New York premieres—include Lisandro Alonso’s poetic drama Liverpool, which will be screened Saturday at 6 p.m. (with introduction by producer Luis Miñarro) and Monday at 8 p.m. (with introduction by Alonso).
