“All is Lost” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. PG-13, 1:46, four stars out of four.
Robert Redford says very few words in “All is Lost,” and two of them are “I’m sorry,” repeated three times in a single message delivered in voiceover at the beginning of the film.
“Let the Fire Burn” screens at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art as part of its Spotlight Cinema series. Not rated, 1:35, three and a half stars out of four.
Jason Osder’s documentary “Let the Fire Burn” opens with what looks like some kind of natural disaster, a massive inferno that engulfed a Philadelphia neighborhood in 1985, destroying 61 homes and killing 11 people, five of them children.
Pick of the week: “Blancanieves”: My full review is here. This sumptuous Spanish film reimagines the Snow White legend as a silent black-and-white film set in the world of toreadors. If you liked “The Artist,” you’ll love this.
“I want to thank Tales for being the kind of festival that will play both ‘Chasing Ice’ and ‘Planet of the Apes,'” filmmaker and Tales From Planet Earth film festival programmer Alex Rivera said (according to the festival’s Twitter feed) on the festival’s opening night on Friday.
All week
“Ender’s Game” (Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema, Cinema Cafe) — My full review is here. Audiences who expect a sci-fi action movie might be surprised to be served up a thought-provoking morality play instead, as a gifted boy is trained to lead Earth forces against an alien threat.
“Ender’s Game” opens Friday in Madison at Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema and Cinema Cafe. PG-13, 1:54, three stars out of four.
“Children in the flower of youth,
Heart in heart, and hand in hand,
Ignorant of what helps or harms,
Without armor, without arms,
Journeying to the Holy Land!”
–Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Children’s Crusade”
“Big Sur” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. R, 1:21, three stars out of four.
Think of “Big Sur” as the counterpoint to Walter Salles’ fevered, rapturous adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” that came earlier this year. Salles’ movie mythologizes Kerouac’s book (and the real-life characters and events that inspired it), as much about the book’s impact on the world as the book itself.
In 1994, director Neil Jordan adapted Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire” for the screen. It was elegant and clever, if a little overwrought and overburdened with star power (Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise). But one thing it definitely wasn’t was a horror film. There were no jumps or jolts to be had, but rather a moody, mordant take on the pluses and minuses of immortality.
I’m kind of a wuss when it comes to horror movies, which makes me that much more susceptible and appreciative when a good one comes along. In honor of Halloween, here are five recent horror films that did the trick for me.
“Mr. Nobody” is now available on video-on-demand and for rent on Amazon and iTunes. It opens theatrically in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, November 1. A Madison date has not yet been set. R, 2:28, two and a half stars out of four.
Think of “Mr. Nobody” as a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book for grown-ups, but read straight through as if it were any other book, so the reader keeps skipping across alternate storylines. On Page 28, the hero gets eaten by a dragon; on Page 29, he’s alive again, having decided not to go into the dragon’s cave after all.
Madison Movie 