THE WASHINGTON POST • FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 2010
26 from previous page
in a deeply enmeshed relationship with his devoted mother, who has home- schooled him and encourages his techno- emo noodlings on synthesizer keyboards. When John meets Cyrus, his face reflects the very questions come up for the audi- ence: Is this kid gifted? Or is there some- thing darker at the core of his devotion to his mom? (R, 92 minutes) Contains profani- ty and sexual material. At AMC Loews Shirlington and Landmark’s E Street Cin- ema.
BBBDESPICABLE ME
The nasty streak that animates its pro- tagonist, a hollow-eyed supervillain named Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), is so deep and wide as to seem insur- mountable. But the film turns into an improbably heartwarming, not to men- tion visually delightful, diversion. After another evildoer impresses the world by stealing the Great Pyramid of Giza, Gru looks for his big comeback and hits on the idea of stealing the moon. He adopts three sweet girls from an or- phanage run by a sadistic Southern belle (Kristen Wiig), and, along with an army of tiny yellow “minions,” begins to bring his plan into action. Carell’s ex- pert timing is in full force as his charac- ter tries mightily to resist the parental tug of his three young charges. The film features some ace voice talent, includ- ing Russell Brand as Gru’s elderly henchman, Dr. Nefario, Jason Segel as Gru rival Vector and Will Arnett as the president of the Bank of Evil. (PG, 95 min- utes) Contains rude humor and mild ac- tion. Area theaters.
BB1⁄2 DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS — A.H.
This comedy of humiliation, starring Paul Rudd and Steve Carell, isn’t nearly as off- putting as it might have been. Rudd plays Tim, an ambitious young executive des- perate to impress his art-dealer girlfriend (the fetching Stephanie Szostak), who is invited by his icy boss (Bruce Greenwood) to attend one of his regular “dinners for idiots.” Each guest is supposed to bring the most pathetic idiot he can find. When Tim literally collides with Barry (Carell), the game is afoot. Buck-toothed and gog- gle-eyed, Barry makes neurotically de- tailed tableaux with stuffed dead mice. When he meets the blandly affable Tim, he becomes as creepily, bromantically in- clined as Jim Carrey in “The Cable Guy.” But the film keeps it breezy, with Barry embroiling Tim in a series of ever-more- mortifying mishaps, including a debilitat- ed back, a sundered romance, a reunion with a stalker and an IRS audit. (PG-13, 109 minutes) Contains sequences of crude and sexual content, partial nudity and profani- ty. Area theaters.
BFAREWELL — A.H.
Director Christian Carionwisely tried to make this story about the 1983 bust of Soviet spies with the code name “Fare- well” accessible by centering it on an ordinary man-turned-spy, but the intri- cate historical events still suffocate the film. The film begins in 1981 Moscow. U.S. and Soviet relations are ugly. A French family man named Pierre (Guil- laume Canet) is spying on the Soviets for the French and U.S. governments. Pierre starts getting hotter information about what the Soviets know, such as codes to get into the White House, the layout of Air Force One and a list of So- viet spies working in the West. Pierre
STEPHEN VAUGHAN/WARNER BROS. PICTURES
Ken Watanabe, top with Lucas Haas, seeks to have an idea planted in someone’s mind in “Inception.”
receives the intel from Sergei Grigoriev (Emir Kusturica), a KGB colonel who has become disenchanted with commu- nism under Leonid Brezhnev. Pierre and Sergei have to play hide-and-seek from the KGB: a good, old-fashioned case of bad guys chasing good guys. (NR, 113 min- utes) Contains violence (including torture), swearing and sex. In French and Russian
6 CESAR AWARDS BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR!
‘ INCLUDING “WHAT A BEAUTIFUL, SUBLIME MOVIE!
ONE OF THE BEST OF THE SUMMER!” -Jeffrey Lyons, KNBC/LYONS DEN RADIO
! (HIGHEST RATING)
HARD TO FIND AS A HERMIT IN THE WOODS.” -Joe Neumaier, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
MÉLANIE LAURENT “ROBERT DUVALL HOLDS YOU IN THRALL. WATCHING MURRAY SPAR WITH DUVALL IS PURE PLEASURE.
ONLY A FOOL WOULD WANT TO MISS THAT.” -Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE
EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT NOW PLAYING
SORRY, NO PASSES ACCEPTED FOR THIS ENGAGEMENT
“Smart Entertainment. You’d be a Schmuck to miss it.”
Richard Corliss DUVALL ROBERT SPACEK SISSY MURRAY BILL
SCREENPLAY BY CHRIS PROVENZANO AND C.GABY MITCHELL DIRECTED BY AARON SCHNEIDER
STORY BY CHRIS PROVENZANO & SCOTT SEEKE WWW.SONYCLASSICS.COM EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENTS START TODAY LANDMARK’S
E STREET CINEMA Washington, DC 202-452-7672
BETHESDA ROW CINEMA Bethesda 301-652-7273
LANDMARK’S AMC LOEWS
SHIRLINGTON 7 Arlington 888-AMC-4FUN
CINEMA ARTS THEATRE Fairfax 703-978-6991
VIEW THE TRAILER AT WWW.GETLOWTHEFILM.COM
CHECK DIRECTORIES FOR THEATRES AND SHOWTIMES Text DINNER to 33287 for movie times and mobile updates from Paramount!
BLACK LUCAS
SOUNDTRACK AVAILABLE ON
BETHESDA ROW CINEMA
LANDMARK’S Bethesda 301-652-7273 “MOVIES AS GREAT AS ‘GET LOW’ ARE AS
STEPHEN HOLDEN RAVES
“MÉLANIE LAURENT THE CONCERT’
IS RADIANT.” “‘
IS VERY FUNNY AND WITTY.
ABSOLUTELY CHARMING!”
JEFFREY LYONS, KNBC TV ,
with English subtitles. At Landmark’s Beth- esda Row.
BBTHE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE
In the second in a series of films based on Stieg Larsson’s best-selling mysteries, we learn a bit more about Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), the computer hacker
NOMINATED FOR — R.S.
and avenging angel introduced in the first film. “Fire” manages to reveal more of the old hurts that drive her. Having used her high-tech skills in to help her sometime lover, investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), solve an old murder, she has now fled Sweden, only to find that she has been implicated in a tri- ple homicide, in which one of the victims is her parole officer. (The others are a journalist and his girlfriend, both of whom were working with Mikael on an exposé) This pulls Lisbeth back into Mikael’s orbit. But for much of the film, the two remain apart, communicating only via e-mail while Mikael tries to clear Lisbeth’s name, and while Lisbeth tries to stay one step ahead of the law. (R, 129 minutes) Contains strong, violent imagery, sex, nudity, obscen- ity and smoking. In Swedish with English subtitles. Area theaters.
BB1⁄2 THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
— A.H.
At its simplest, this Swedish thriller based on the first in a series of three popular Stieg Larsson novels is the story of a 40-year-old missing-person investi- gation. Wealthy businessman Henrik Van- ger (Sven-Bertil Taube) hires investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyq- vist) to find out what happened to Van- ger’s favorite niece, Harriet (Ewa Froel- ing), who is presumed to have been mur- dered. No sooner does Mikael start to poke around than he is joined by multiply- pierced computer hacker Lisbeth Salan- der (Noomi Rapace), the tattooed girl of the title. Much of the film’s most critical detective work involves high-tech twists to the shoe-leather approach to PI work, and for once it really works. So many movies today use computers as a modern deus ex machina; in this one, anyone with a laptop can believe it. For fans of the thriller genre, it’s also one heck of a lot of fun. (Unrated, 152 minutes) Contains ob- scenity, violence, grisly crime scene photos, nudity, sex, rape and smoking. In Swedish with English subtitles. At AMC Loews Shir- lington.
BGROWN UPS
This summer male-bonding comedy star- ring Adam Sandler purports to be about a successful man in his 40s dealing with rue and regret with bittersweet laughs and maybe a few tears along the way. The film finds Sandler reverting to lunkhead- ed, lazy-laff form as a Hollywood super- agent named Lenny who reunites with his childhood friends after the funeral of their revered basketball coach. Eric (Kevin James), the fat-joke target, drives a Cadil- lac and has a pretty wife. Kurt (Chris Rock) is a househusband married to a tart-tongued career woman; Rob (Rob Schneider) is a New Age massage thera- pist married to a much older woman; and Marcus (David Spade) is the group’s skee- vy-looking Peter Pan. With its lame, guys- doing-guy-stuff humor, “Grown Ups” re- sembles the such bro-centric action pic- ture “The A-Team,” except that nothing blows up — unless you count a flatulent mother-in-law. (PG-13, 10298 minutes) Con- tains crude material, including suggestive references, profanity and male rear nudity. Area theaters.
BBBI AM LOVE
The film opens on a snowy evening in Mi- lan, where the wealthy Recchi family has gathered for the birthday of their elderly patriarch, Edoardo (Gabriele Ferzetti). At a dinner overseen with prim propriety by his daughter-in-law Emma (Tilda Swin- ton), the old man tells the assembled guests that he is handing over the family textile business to his son Tancredi (Pippo Delbono) and Emma and Tancredi’s eldest son, Edo (Flavio Parenti). Is that a look of alarm that passes across Emma’s face when Edo’s grandfather makes his an- nouncement? And just what events are set in motion when an acquaintance of her son stops by with an impromptu gift? Promising director Luca Guadagnino makes the most of a medium too often straitjacketed into shots of people talking to one another, using it to lead viewers to an entirely new realm of the senses, with unsettling, intoxicating results. (R, 120 minutes) Contains sexuality and nudity. Area theaters.
BBB1⁄2 INCEPTION
This highly anticipated science-fiction thriller by writer-director Christopher No- lan opens with a dramatic shot of huge waves breaking on a nameless shore. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) makes his living navigating the minds of other peo- ple, sharing their dreams and stealing
— M.O.
— M.O.
— A.H.
— A.H.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128