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doglighting and bad owners, not bad
breeding Followed by a discussion
ed by Richard Rice or the Humane
Society of the United States The Mm
Kicks oft the 2nd Annual Film Festival
on Animals and Society sponsored
by Speak Out for Species iwww uga
edu/sos/Tilmfest) Shows Monday 2/5
(UGA SIC)
OPEN SEASON (PG) As the voice
of Elliot, a mule deer exiled from his
nerd, Ashton Kutcher goofs around
the woods for an hour and a halt
Unappealing voicework and animation
mar Sony Pictures Animation's first
full-length feature Ends Thursday
(Georgia Square 5)
PAN S LABYRINTH (R) In Pans
Labyrinth, the Spanish Civil War means
to slice youth from out the gullet, a war
crime Guillermo del Toro's gothic fairy
tale can only delay but not deny Yeung
Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) discovers an old
stone labyrinth and a taun who asks
of her three tasks The adventures ot
OTefia—a Spanish Alice in a terrifying
Wonderland, a desperate Dorothy es
caping war-torn Kansas tor a darkened
Of—have alt the tropes of fantasy
fiction but the magic realism causes
the little girl s success *o mean so very
muen to her and the audience The
not-remotefy-tor-children film broke
my heart As a writer del Toro has
matured well beyond h.s previous ef
forts all underserved somewhat by his
structure, pacing and characterizations
I'm a! the end ol the line tor doling
out post-2006 best ol accolades but t
would be remiss not to include Pans
Labyrinth the greatest fantasy film m
quite some time Nominated lor six
Academy Awards (Beechwood)
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
(PG-13) Devoted father and salesman
Chris Gardner (Oscar nominee Will
Smith) finds himsell homeless, but
with pluck, moxie and a little luck he
lands on his leet when Dean Witter
otters him a job after an unpaid intern
ship In adapting the real Gardner's life.
Steven Conrad sickeningly reifies most
Americans' belief that me plight ot the
homeless can be eradicated through
hard work. (Carmike)
THE QUEEN (PG-13. Helen Mirren
brings ail her graceful control and
ice-cold radiance to a Royal Majesty
bungling the sudden death ot constant
thorn in her crown Diana Peter
Morgan's screenplay posits what
transpired in the private chambers
of the monaxhy w th a deftly light
comic touch that detracts nothing from
its dark gravity Nominated tor six
Academy Awards (Beechwood)
ROCKY BALBOA
loneliness to be the one opponent ne
can t keep on the mat, but true relief
comes frem a computer-generated bout
between Rocky and the current cham
pion The bittersweet Rocky Balboa is a
winner (Highway 17 Theatres)
SANDLOT(PG) 1993 Myyounger
brother loved this summer baseball
flick about a gang ot boys and the
Beasf behind the fence of their local
sandlot If you're in Tate's under-25 tar
get demographic. I'm sure a weekend
piayd3te in The Sandlot will do you just
fine Shows Friday 2/2 (Tate)
SMOKIN'ACES ■■
Joe Carnahan's Narc was one of 2002 s
most overlooked treasures, but Joe
Cs hipped out return to the big screen
doesn't measure up to his first major
feature When Las Vegas entertainer/
wannabe Mahoso Buddy 'Aces' Israel
('Entourage"s Emmy winner Jeremy
Pivent turns stoolie a million-collar
bounty is placed on his head—or more
specifically, his heart—and a bevy of
contract killers descend on the Reno
suite where Israel ;s holed up with
hookers, blow and his own guilty con
science Carnanan may just be another
Tarantmo neophyte but he’s one ot
the most talented His early dialogue
is crisp and withy, and he clearly and
amazingly gets his many plot plates
spinning with at least a halt-dozen
narrators Sadly. Carnahan mistakenly
believes he's made us care tor his cut
and paste stereotypes, constructing too
many scenes that require emotional
attachment to be anything but boring
Still. Aces is a decent enough hand to
wm your money back (Beechwood
Carmike)
STOMP THE YARD (PG-13) Stomp
the Yard follows DJ (Columbus Short)
from underground street dancing m
L A to the beautiful campuses ot the
Atlanta University Center A talented
dancer DJ soon tinds rival fraterni
ties fighting ever his skills to ensure
a victory at the national step show
competition Stomp the Yard may just
be a good old competition movie but
the choreography's fly and the sur
rounding melodrama not out of step
(Beechwood. Carmike)
STRANGER THAN FICTION (PG-13) \
As Harold Crick, an IRS agent who
hears of his impending death horn the
English woman narrating his life, Wilt
Ferreil does a nice job being dramatic
Fiction is no stranger, and a lot better,
than your typical congenial diversion
(Georgia Square 5)
UNACCOMPANIED MINORS (PG) A
group of kids are stranded in an airport
for Christmas Hot much in Minors
appeals to adults, but this standard
Christmas story is strangely joyous
Starts Friday (Georgia Square 5)
VOLVER R) See Movie Pick Ends
Thursday (Beechwood)
WHAT S EATING GILBERT
GRAPE 7 PG-t 1993 Lasse
Hallstrom directed this adaptation
of Peter Hedges novel about Gilbert
(Johnny Depp) who must cafe for
his autistic brother Arnie (Leonardo
DiCaprio) and obese mother DiCapriO
received his first nomination for his
poignant portrayal ot Arnie Shows
Thursday 2/1 (Tate)
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MOVIE PICK
CRUZ CONTROL
VOLVER (R) Alt right, it's time for some true con
fessions. ! am a mouth-breather; I was rooked
into buying every one of Creed's albums (but I've
thankfully not fulten into the Nickelback trap);
and until Volver. I had only seen one Almodovar
film. Bad Education. Shameful, isn't it? It's not
that I haven't tried. I set up a wishlist on my
TiVo and actually recorded but never watched All
About My Mother. Kika and the Academy Award
winning Talk to Her. If they actually licensed film
critics. I'm sure I would have my status revoked;
mayhap I would never have been approved.
Due to my nearly virginal Almoddvarian nature,
the auteur's second Palme d'Or nominee, Votver.
stunned me with its beauty (and no, I don't just
mean Best Actress candidate Penelope Cruz), its
wit. its frank sexuality, its cultural quirks, and its
powerful femininity.
with the all-purpose answer of “women's trou
bles"), could lead a lesser filmmaker astray. On
Almodovar's map. it's just a rest stop at which he
can dump the film's remaining male before trav
eling further toward resolving the “Holy shit!"
revelations that await Irene, Raimunda, and kind,
dying neighbor. Agustina (Portillo). The Academy
should have nominated Almodovar's Cannes
Award-winning screenplay, filled as it is with les
sons of life, death, and the cultural shortening
of the gulf between the two in a village where
it's perfectly natural for the dead to take care of
those they left behind.
What the Academy did get right was providing
Cruz with her first nomination. She is the some
times hard heart of Almodovar's not so surreal
comedy (though she stands absolutely no chance
against Helen Mirren). After unsuccessfully at
Penelope Cruz
I hate to imagine how lost many filmmak
ers would get traveling VolveYs twisty narrative
backroads, lefts and rights abounding with little
signage to ensure the proper route to the desired
destination. Beginning in the graveyard of a tiny
village plagued by wind, fires and insanity, two
sisters, Raimunda (Cruz) and Sole (Lola Duenas
of Talk to Her), clean the grave of their deceased
parents along with Raimunda's teenage daughter
Paula (Yohana Cobo). Votver could travel nearly
anywhere in Almodovar's Spain. It could—and
does—venture back to the house of the sisters'
blind and senile Aunt Paula (Chus Lampreave),
where not only the smell of dead matriarch
Irene (Carmen Maura. Women on the Verge of a
Nervous Breakdown). but also her manifested
spirit, lingers. Then, the film returns to Madrid
where Raimunda must cover up the death of her
unemployed husband Paco (Antonio de la Torre),
and Sole, who runs an illegal hair salon out of
her apartment, employs their mother's ghost as
a hair washer. Wherever in modern Spain Volver
travels, Almodbvar insists powerful, single wom
en, none of whom sit back waiting for a man to
save them or to support them, reside there. He's
created a world of bonded sisterhood.
Such narrative four-wheeling requires incred
ibly deft tonal downshifting lest the film lose
traction (see either of Tyler Perry's Madea films).
Almodbvar's script and direction confidently
slide from comedic first gear to suspenseful
second before finishing in heartfelt dramatic
third. Paco's death, a sequence imbued with
Hitchcockian suspense by the strikingly dis
cordant, Bernard Herrmann-inspired score of
Alberto Iglesias (an Academy Award nominee
for The Constant Gardener) and a splash of l.u-
mor (Raimunda, blood smeared on her neck like
strawberry jam, deflects her neighbor's queries
tempting to translate her powerful, confident
acting into English. Cruz regally returns home
to Spain. The camera of Almodovar and cinema
tographer Jose Luis Alcaine (Bad Education),
absolutely loves the Spanish beauty; she's abso
lutely radiant in every shot, be it long, medium
or extreme close-up. Her cleavage so purpose
fully dominates the film that Almodovar has
both Raimunda’s mother and the neighborhood
prostitute sweetly mock it. As central as Cruz is.
Volver is no one-woman show, and the Cannes
Film Festival one-upped the Academy by award
ing all six of the equally important primary ac
tresses—Cruz. Maura. Duenas. Cobo, Lampreave
and Portillo—a collective Best Actress prize.
With Curse of the Golden Flower. Pan’s
Labyrinth and Volver opening on back-to-back-
to-back weekends, Athens cinema has been
reawakened by the vibrancy of world cinema at
the best possible time. Winter desolation—if
I haven't somehow erased them from my mind
by Oecember, five of the year's worst films may
already have been released—is now awash in
visual splendor, wonderfully deep characters and
imagination. If you haven't already seen one
of these films (your chances to see Flower, the
weakest of the three, have dried up), go as soon
as possible, not only because you'll feel better
about the state of cinema (I do), but so as to
ensure the financial viability of Beechwood's
continued support of foreign cinema. And hope
fully, downtown arthouse theater Cin£ will
open up even more opportunities to expand our
filmed horizons beyond amnesiac janitors, pitiful
parodies, and bloody, chocolate werewolves. It
may take time to appreciate VolveYs many, many
charms, but at least it has charms to appreciate.
Orew Wheeler
NEWS & FEATURES I ARTS & EVENTS 1 MOVIES I MUSIC I COMICS & ADVICE I CLASSIFIEDS
JANUARY 31,2007 ■ FLAGPOLE.COM 15