Thinking Outside the Multiplex

by MIKE MACCOLLUM

Imports from Norway, Britain and India open in Indiana theaters this weekend, but aren’t likely to appeal to most art house patrons – the first two films (Hidden and The Reeds) are part of Horrorfest, and the third, Goa, apparently lacks English subtitles. A limited-release film from the US, Preacher’s Kid, also starts Friday in Indiana – and while there is no new art film at the Keystone Art Cinema this week, several of them are holding over there…. and next week brings yet another possible appearance of the American version of John Woo’s Red Cliff at the Keystone Art Cinema. Read on below for more on these films, and this week’s complete listing of films opening in limited release around the country.

[Follow the links in the Outside the Multiplex: Moviegoing in the Hoosier State section of the sidebar for showtimes, directions and other such information about the Indiana theaters appearing in this week's column.]

LIMITED RELEASE THEATRICAL FILMS OPENING IN INDIANA THIS WEEK

After Dark’s Horrorfest IV – This annual series of “eight films to die for” starts Friday at two theaters in Indiana: The Hamilton 16 and IMAX in Noblesville and the ShowplaceCinemas East in Evansville; visit each theater’s site for times. This year’s films:

– Dread – Author Clive Barker produced this film about a trio of college students who have a class assignment to make a documentary about what others fear. What two of them don’t realize is that their partner saw his parents get murdered when he was a child – and now may want to force other people to go through the same terror that he experienced. Jackson Rathbone (from the Twilight films) plays one of the students.

– The Final – After facing years of taunts, insults, and worse, a group of unpopular high-school students in Texas decide to get even with the in-crowd students by giving them a different kind of “final exam.”

– The Graves – Sisters Megan and Abby Graves get lost while traveling through Arizona, and decide to visit the supposedly abandoned mining town of Skull City – where they find that they must battle both human psychos and supernatural horrors. Clare Grant and Jillian Murphy play the sisters; Bill Moseley and Tony Todd are in the supporting cast.

– Hidden – Kai escaped from his mean-spirited mother and the small Norwegian town in which he was raised nineteen years ago. Now that his mother has died and left the house to him, Kai comes home – but must face both a number of secrets from his past and mysterious events that are plaguing the town following his return. (I have no idea if this is dubbed or subtitled, by the way – the trailer on the Horrorfest site has no dialogue!)

– Kill Theory – An unknown psycho forces six college students to play a twisted game – if they kill each other off, the last student still alive will be allowed to live…. but if more than one student is living by the deadline, then the psycho will kill them off himself. Agnes Bruckner (from Blue Car) and Daniel Franzese were the only cast members whose names I recognized here.

– Lake Mungo – After the drowning death of Alice Palmer, her family finds that the sixteen-year-old Alice had been leading another life that she had kept secret from them – and they start to experience a very odd, frightening series of events with no rational explanation.

– The Reeds – A group of six friends in their twenties decide to take a boating trip through the Norfolk Broads area of England – and soon wish that they didn’t: the friends get lost, have an accident, and run aground. After they realize they can’t escape from the area, things go from bad to really, really bad….

– Zombies of Mass Destruction – Flesh-eating zombies attack an isolated, conservative town, and it’s up to a band of folks who don’t exactly fit in to save the community. This one sounds like it mixes some satire in with the gore – but the gore is apparently still there, since the trailer on the AfterDark site has a content warning on it.

Goa – Three young men run away from their controlling families in a traditional village to travel to the Indian tourist city of Goa, where they plan to have a good time doing all of the things they were never able to do at home. Goa will have at least three showings this week at the Georgetown 14 in Indianapolis, according to manoranjaninc.com: on Sunday, January 31, at 3, 6 and 9 PM; Goa also starts Friday, January 29, in at least five theaters in the Phoenix Big Cinemas chain. According to manoranjaninc’s site, Goa is in the Tamil language, and does not have English-language subtitles. (According to the IMDb, this is an “adventure” movie, by the way – but the one user review that has been posted says it is a pure comedy….)

Preacher’s Kid – Angie is a twenty-something young woman who is indeed the daughter of a preacher. Her father is a community leader in their small Georgia town; since her mother died when she was young, Angie has been watching over her father’s health for many years, in addition to accompanying her dad to church several times a week, singing in the choir, and doing various church missions. Longing for a chance to see the outside world, Angie jumps at the chance to join a traveling play with gospel music – even though her father wants her to have nothing to do with it. After a number of harsh experiences, Angie starts to think about going home, but is scared that she might find that her father does not love her any more. Preacher’s Kid starts Friday, January 29 at the ShowPlace 12 at the Glendale Mall, the ShowPlace 12 at Washington Square Mall, the Eagle Highlands 10, and the Greenwood Park 14 (all in or near Indianapolis).

THEATRICAL HOLDOVERS, FILM FESTIVALS, REVIVAL SCREENINGS, AND OTHER SPECIAL SHOWINGS IN INDIANA THIS WEEK

Abraham Lincoln – Walter Huston stars in the title role of this 1930 biopic, which was one of the few talkies directed by pioneer filmmaker D. W. Griffith. Abraham Lincoln will be shown at 8 PM on Saturday, January 30, at the Garfield Parks Art Center in Indianapolis; the screening is part of the “Black Pearls” Black History Month Exhibit. An opening reception begins at 5 PM, and film historian Eric Grayson will give a presentation before the screening. The notice for this event in this week’s NUVO says that a “suggested $2 donation for the film may be made at the door.”

Adhurs - This Telugu-language film from India (which is not subtitled in English, according to the manoranjaninc site) returns to the Georgetown 14 this week with a Friday night show at 9 PM and two shows (at 2 and 9 PM) on Saturday.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans – Werner Herzog, Nicolas Cage and company return to Indiana with an engagement at the Carmike 20 in Fort Wayne, where this film starts Friday. It will also be playing at the Cinema Center @ Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne through Tuesday, February 2 – which seems odd, since that means that BL:PoCNO will be at both a commercial movie theater and a non-commercial house in the same city, in the same week. So the off-kilter nature of this film extends to its bookings as well, apparently….

Bloomington Pride Festival – This event – which is described on its official site as a “cinematic celebration of the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgendered, queer and intersex community in Bloomington, Indiana” that “features more than 20 films from all over the world – shorts and features, animation, documentaries, comedy, and drama” – runs through January 31 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater and other venues in Bloomington; for the titles of the films, click here.

Bold & Fresh Tour 2010 – Conservative talk-show hosts Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck team up for this event; O’Reilly speaks first, followed by Beck – and then the two are on stage together. The live screening of this event takes place at 8 PM on Saturday, January 30 at the ShowPlace 16 and IMAX, the Castleton Square 14, and the Galaxy 14 in Indianapolis, along with the Hamilton 16 and IMAX in Noblesville, and five other theaters across the state (at least as of January 7- that was the latest update available when I checked the Fathom Events on Thursday afternoon). There will also be an encore showing at 8 PM on Tuesday, February 2, at the Castleton Square 14 and the Galaxy 14 in Indianapolis, along with the Hamilton 16 and IMAX in Noblesville, and five other theaters across the state.

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day – Continues this week at the Starplex Coventry 13 in Fort Wayne, with two shows per day (at 6:50 and 9:25).

Broken Embraces – Penelope Cruz stars in Pedro Almodovar’s latest film, which holds over for another week at the Keystone Art Cinema in Indianapolis (but for only two shows per day, at 1:10 and 6:50 PM) and the Cinema Center in Fort Wayne.

Carmen – The Metropolitan Opera’s production of Georges Bizet’s work about the tragic, passionate relationship between the hot-tempered Carmen and a young soldier will have an encore screening in HD on Wednesday, February 3, at 6:30 PM. The Kerasotes ShowPlace 16 and IMAX, the AMC Castleton Square 14 and the UA Galaxy 14 in Indianapolis will be showing Carmen, along with the Hamilton 16 and IMAX in Noblesville and eleven other theaters across the state. For more information, go to the Fathom Events site.

Coming Out – This film is part of both the Bloomington Pride Film Festival mentioned above, and the series of films from the last days of East Germany’s DEFA film studio that started a few weeks ago. Coming Out was the only feature-length film from DEFA on the topic of homosexuality, and is about a male teacher who is edging closer to a romantic relationship with a female teacher from his school – until an encounter with a childhood friend causes him to realize he is actually gay. Bloomington’s Buskirk-Chumley Theater will show Coming Out at 7 PM on Sunday, January 31; admission to the film is free, and the screening will be followed by both a panel discussion and a question and answer session.

Crazy Heart – This drama about a former country star whose life is at a low point holds over for another week at the Keystone Art Cinema in Indianapolis. Likely Academy-Award nominee Jeff Bridges plays the singer, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall, and Colin Farrell are in the supporting cast.

An Education – Carey Mulligan stars in Lone Scherfig’s drama, which holds over this week at the ShowPlace East 11 in Bloomington; it is also scheduled to return to the Keystone Art Cinema in Indianapolis on Friday, February 5.

The End of Poverty? – Martin Sheen narrates this documentary, which investigates the causes of global poverty – and why it is so hard to eradicate – by interviewing social activists, government leaders, professors, and Nobel-Prize-winning economists. The End of Poverty will be shown at the University of Notre Dame’s Browning Cinema at 6:30 and 9:30 PM on Saturday, January 30; it’s part of the “Worldview” film series.

Four Sheets to the Wind – The University of Notre Dame’s Browning Cinema will screen director Sterlin Harjo’s Oklahoma-set film about the members of an eccentric Native American family – and the changes they go through following a death in their ranks – on Friday, January 29, at 7 PM. Admission is free, but tickets are required; go to the Browning’s site for more information. Tamara Podemski won a Special Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival for her performance in Four Sheets to the Wind, and the film won both Best Actor (Cody Lightning) and Best Director (Sterlin Harjo) at the 2007 American Indian Film Festival. I couldn’t find an official site for the film, but a youtube trailer is here. Also, director Sterlin Harjo – who also made a short film (Goodnight, Irene) that premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival – will be present at the screening, and will give a talk (presented by Notre Dame’s Department of Film, Television, and Theatre) at 3 PM on January 29, again at the Browning Cinema. As with the film itself, admission is free, but a ticket is required; the Browning’s site has the number to call if you want to attend.

The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo – Director Lisa Jackson is scheduled to be present for a screening of this documentary about the violence against women in the war that has been taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1998. The Greatest Silence will be shown at 7 PM on Thursday, February 4, at the University of Notre Dame’s Browning Cinema; the screening is part of the Browning’s “ScreenPeace” film series.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus – Terry Gilliam’s latest film – and Heath Ledger’s last one – holds over for another week at the Keystone Art Cinema in Indianapolis, where it will show at 3:50 and 9:50 PM daily.

Lewis and Clark: The Great Journey West – This 2002 film will be showing this week at the IMAX Theater in downtown Indianapolis’ Indiana State Museum.

M (1931) – Peter Lorre stars in Fritz Lang’s classic film about the hunt for a serial killer of children; it will be shown at 3 PM on Saturday, January 30, at the University of Notre Dame’s Browning Cinema.

The Maid – Raquel, the longtime maid to an upper-class Chilean family, has worked for them for such a long time that she almost seems like part of the family – but not quite. Although devoted to her work, she is increasingly plagued by headaches and other health issues – not to mention a gloomy, downcast state of mind. The family tries to help out Raquel by hiring a series secondary maid to assist her – but Raquel has other ideas, and tries to drive them away…. until the family hires Lucy, who may help Raquel turn her life around. The Maid will be shown on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Bloomington, by way of The Ryder Magazine and Film Series.

Mall of America and 0% Down – These two short films by Josephine Meckseper will be shown simultaneously (on different walls of the same gallery) at the Indianapolis Museum of Art through Sunday, February 7, 2010.

More Than a Game – Five basketball players from Akron, Ohio – the most famous of them being none other than LeBron James – are the subject of this documentary, which follows their lives over a period of seven years. Don’t expect very much about James’ career in the NBA, however; from what I’ve read, the film focuses on the time before he turned pro. More Than a Game continues this week at the Cinemark Movies 8 Washington Market in Indianapolis, where it will have three shows per day (at 5:25, 7:45 and 10 PM).

Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs – Christopher Lee – who played a mummy himself back in the day – narrates this 2007 documentary, which will be showing this week at the IMAX Theater at the Indiana State Museum in downtown Indianapolis.

No Impact Man – The Bloomington-based Ryder Magazine and Film series will have more showings of this documentary on Friday, Saturday and Sunday; for show times and more info on the film itself, go to The Ryder’s site.

Omer Fast: The Casting – This fourteen minute, four channel video installation continues at the Indianapolis Museum of Art through February 21, 2010. The piece intercuts excerpts from the artist’s conversations with a soldier about to leave for his second tour of duty in Iraq with footage of actors mimicking the dialogue.

A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor – For those of you who thought that Robert Altman’s film strayed too far from the “real” Prairie Home Companion, here is a big-screen PHC that may be more to your liking – a live performance of the show from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, with several musical guests (including Elvis Costello) and the show’s regular performers (such as Sue Scott and Tim Russell). This event will be shown at 8 PM EST on Thursday, February 4, at the ShowPlace 16 and IMAX, the Castleton Square 14, and the Galaxy 14 in Indianapolis, along with the Hamilton 16 and IMAX in Noblesville, and eleven other theaters across the state; for more information, go to the Fathom Events website.

The Road – Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce and Charlize Theron face the end of the world this week at the Starplex Coventry 13 in Fort Wayne.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show – The seventies cult perennial screens again at the Georgetown 14 in Indianapolis this Saturday night at 10 PM.

A Single Man – Colin Firth stars with Julianne Moore in this drama, which continues for another week at the Keystone Art Cinema in Indianapolis, and starts Friday at the Yes Cinema in Columbus.

35 Shots of Rum – The Ryder Magazine and Film series of Bloomington brings back Claire Denis’ French drama for more showings this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Go to The Ryder’s site for show time and movie information.

Thomas & Friends: Thomas & the Runaway Kite – From what I’ve been able to find online, this sounds like two or three episodes from the Thomas the Tank Engine TV show grouped together under one umbrella title. All of the Thomas fans out there can check it out for themselves at 12:30 PM this Saturday and Sunday at the Rave Metropolis 18 in Plainfield.

3 Idiots – Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, and Boman Irani are in the cast of this comedy/drama from India, which is currently scheduled to be shown at the Georgetown 14 in Indianapolis at 5:30 PM on Friday and Saturday.

Times and Winds – The Indianapolis Museum of Art will show this 2006 Turkish film at 7 PM on Thursday, February 4; it’s part of the IMA’s “Screen Zenith” series of “award-winning films from around the globe” and will be shown on DVD. Time and Winds is about the life and times of a small village on Turkey’s northwest coast, as viewed through the perspective of three young villagers; it was awarded a Golden Tulip prize for Best Film at the Istanbul International Film Festival in 2006.

To Save a Life – This drama about a teen who is a popular, successful student at his high school – but finds he must reevaluate his life after a tragic incident involving one of his childhood friends – holds over for another week at the Galaxy 14 and the ShowPlace 16 and IMAX (both in Indianapolis), the Greenwood Park 14, the Metropolis 18 in Plainfield, the Mounds Mall 10 in Anderson, the ShowPlace 12 in Kokomo, the ShowPlace 12 in Columbus, the ShowPlace West 12 in Bloomington, the Eastside 9 in Lafayette, the ShowPlace 16 in Schereville, the Honey Creek West 8 in Terre Haute, and the Bones Cinema 4 in Columbia City.

Touch of Evil – The 1998 restoration of Orson Welles’ classic film noir will be shown (in 35mm) at 7 PM on Friday, January 29, at the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Toby Theatre – but there’s more going on here as well. Director, actor, and writer Peter Bogdanovich (whose series of interviews with Welles are presented in the book This Is Orson Welles) will give a talk before the movie, and he and James Naremore – IU Emeritus Professor of Film Studies, and the author of The Magic World of Orson Welles – will answer audience questions about the film after the screening. Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Akim Tamiroff, Dennis Weaver and Welles himself are all in the cast of the film – and there are some cool cameo appearances as well. Additionally, the University of Notre Dame’s Browning Cinema will show Touch of Evil at 3 PM on Sunday, January 31.

Under the Sea 3D – This 2009 IMAX documentary will be showing this week at the IMAX Theater in the Indiana State Museum.

Winter Daydreams – This animated pair (or trio?) of short films for young children will be shown on at 1 and 2:30 PM on Saturday and Sunday only at the Georgetown 14 in Indianapolis; at the Studio 10 in Shelbyville, it will show at 1:00 and 3:30 PM on Saturday and Sunday. The Carmike 20 in Fort Wayne will show Winter Daydreams at 1 PM on Saturday and Sunday, while the Carmike Encore Park 14 in Elkhart will show Winter Daydreams at 12 noon on Saturday and Sunday – and the Rave Jefferson Pointe 18 in Fort Wayne has it at 11:30 AM on those same days. The only theater in Indiana with daily showings of Winter Daydreams again this week seems to be the Showplace East in Evansville; the show time there is 11:00 AM.

Wishes Fulfilled – Dr. Wayne Dyer – whose Wikipedia page notes that he is a “self-help advocate” and the author of the seventies best-seller Your Erroneous Zones – is the star of what this event’s site describes as an “empowering exploration of the dynamics of our thought process” and a “‘Spiritual Workshop’” in which Dyer “will reveal how the ancient wisdom of the Tao Te Ching helped him shift from ambition to a new kind of meaningful consciousness.” Wishes Fulfilled will have a repeat showing at 7:30 PM on Thursday, February 4, at the Encore Park 14 in Elkhart and the Carmike 20 in Fort Wayne. The site for this film/event says that it will also be at the Metropolis 18 in Plainfield and the Jefferson Pointe 18 in Fort Wayne on February 4 – but when I checked the online schedules for those theaters on that date, I found no listing for Wishes Fulfilled.

The Young Victoria – Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Jim Broadbent, Miranda Richardson, Paul Bettany and Thomas Kretschmann are in the cast of this period drama, which holds over for another week at the Keystone Art Cinema in Indianapolis and the Cinema Center in Fort Wayne. It also starts Friday at the Capri Cinemas 8 in Crawfordsville, the Encore Park 14 in Elkhart, the ShowPlace East 11 in Bloomington, the ShowPlace 7 in Muncie, the Honey Creek West 8 in Terre Haute, and the ShowPlace 7 in Kokomo. (The Young Victoria‘s US theatrical distributor is Apparition, which has a home video distribution deal with Sony. Thus, a week after Sony Pictures Classics sent An Education to theaters in a number of “smaller” markets in the state, Apparition – with support from Sony? – does the same for TYV. If this is an experiment on Sony’s part, I hope it continues.)

OPENING ELSEWHERE – As noted below, Rann is scheduled to play at the Georgetown 14 in Indianapolis next week. North Face and Saint John of Las Vegas may have a small chance of playing at least one theater in Indiana – but the other titles below seem likely to bypass theaters in our part of the world.

American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art – As its title hints, director Merle Becker’s documentary makes the point that the illustrations for rock posters constitute a distinct art movement – one that is uniquely American. Becker travels across the country to interview thirty-plus artists who have provided illustrations for posters from the sixties through today, and demonstrates how these posters are inspired by – and embody – the time period and locale in which they are made. American Artifact started Friday, January 29, at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, but has apparently been in theatrical release for some time now – its official site says that it opened at the Clinton Street Theater in Portland, OR, on January 22, while the IMDb has a release date of June 20, 2009 (which may or may not be correct – there was nothing on the film’s site about this, as far as I could tell).

Cousins (Welad Ela’am) – This Egyptian film was apparently a big hit in its homeland; it starts Friday, January 29, at the AMC Empire 25 in New York City. The film is about Selwa, a (supposedly) happily married Egyptian woman with two children. Near the start of the film, however, Selwa’s husband Daniel drugs her – and she awakens to find that he is an undercover Mossad agent who has taken her and the children to Tel Aviv. Daniel tells Selwa that she can go back to Egypt, but only if she lets the children stay with him; under the circumstances, Selwa decides to stay even though she is deeply unhappy in Israel. Eventually, the Egyptian intelligence service decides to send its own undercover agent to Tel Aviv in an effort to help Selwa and her children get back to Egypt…. I couldn’t find a site with much English language wording on it for this one, but the official site for the film (almost entirely in Arabic, as far as I can tell) is here, and the unsubtitled trailer is here – while the film’s Facebook page (which does have some English on it) is here.

Falling Awake – Young, Bronx-based Latino musician Jay lives in a crowded house led by his father, who is not a happy man. Although Jay has friends in his neighborhood, he also has some violent enemies – and when he meets an attractive woman from Manhattan, his urge to escape into the outside world – and achieve success with his music – grows even stronger…. Falling Awake starts this Friday, January 29, at two theaters (the Bill Cosford Cinema and the Miami Beach Cinematheque) in Miami; it opens next week in New York.

For My Father – Tarek is a Palestinian who feels that the only way he can redeem his family name is to become a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv. After the explosive vest he is wearing does not detonate, Tarek must stay in Tel Aviv for a weekend, waiting until the malfunctioning fuse is repaired. While there, he meets – and surprisingly, gets along with – a number of Israelis on the lower rungs of Tel Aviv society. Tarek is especially interested in Keren, an attractive woman who has severed ties with her Orthodox family. As the two lonely people talk, a romance develops – and Tarek must make a very difficult decision about his future…. For My Father started Friday, January 29, at the Quad Cinema in New York City.

Ishqiya – Two crooks who are trying to get away from their boss flee to the rural home of an old friend, hoping that he will let them hide out there. They find that their friend is dead – but his widow, Krishna, is still living in the house. During their stay, both men find they are interested in Krishna – although one is looking for love, while the other just lusts after the widow. Not surprisingly, this leads to tension, conflict, betrayal, and revenge…. This Hindi-language Indian film started Friday, January 29, at six theaters in the Phoenix Big Cinemas chain (two in New Jersey, and one each in Michigan, Virginia, Georgia and California), two venues in the Texas-based FunAsia chain, and two other theaters – one in North Brunswick, NJ, and the other in Lakewood, CA. By the way, in addition to the official site for the film linked in the title above, you can also go to this site for the film from its production company, which has some different information/visuals from the film’s official site.

Kathai – Naren is a popular, Booker Prize winning author who specializes in fiction about women. He discovers a soul mate in Kavya, a violinist, and the couple get married. Kavya soon discovers that Naren is using many details from their lives – including their sexual encounters – in his writing, and is understandably very upset. Kavya also starts to think that Naren may be too possessive – and then he asks a long-time friend to enter their lives…. This Tamil-language film from India – which sounds like it’s a drama that takes a turn into suspense/thriller territory at some point – started Friday, January 29, at the Indian Movie Center 6 in San Jose and the FunAsia Irving in Irving, TX (which gives the title as Kadhai). I couldn’t find an official site for the film, or even a trailer – the closest thing that I could find online is a youtube video of a song from the film which uses still photos for the visuals.

Love Record (Khairiin Record) – This Mongolian-language movie is mostly a mystery to me, since the site I found is mostly in Mongolian, with only a limited amount of English. The trailer makes it look like a broad action/romantic comedy – but the film doesn’t seem to be on the IMDb, and my attempts to learn more about it by way of search engines went nowhere. In any event, Love Record started Friday, January 22, at the Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles, IL; the site for its US distributor says that it will open later on in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

North Face – In the mid-thirties, the Nazis decide to boost German national pride by setting up a competition to climb the north face of the Swiss mountain, the Eiger. It hasn’t been climbed before, due to the extreme danger; this film follows the struggles of two not-overly-enthusiastic German climbers to finally conquer the Eiger. North Face – “a suspenseful adventure film” that was “[b]ased on a true story,” according to its US site – started Friday, January 29, at two theaters in New York City and one in Santa Fe, NM.

Off and Running – High school track star Avery lives in Brooklyn with her Jewish lesbian parents and two brothers, both of whom are adopted. Avery decides to explore her African-American heritage by trying to get in touch with her birth mother. This leads to what the film’s website refers to as a “complicated exploration of race, identity, and family that threatens to distance her from the parents she’s always known,” Avery also starts to misbehave, and her dreams of going to college may be in danger. This documentary started Friday, January 29, at the IFC Center in New York City.

Parking – Chen-Mo, a man who lives in Taipei, is estranged from his wife. In an attempt at reconciliation, Chen-Mo has set up a date with his wife – but when he stops at a store to pick up a cake, somebody double parks their car next to his, so he can’t leave. Chen-Mo then spends the rest of the night trying to find out who owns the other car, and winds up in a series of odd events with a number of unusual characters. This 2008 comedy/drama from Taiwan started Friday, January 29, at the Kahala 8 in Honolulu. (I couldn’t find an English-language site for this one, but a French site is here, a youtube trailer – with subtitles – is here, and the film’s Wikipedia page is here.)

Rann – The founder of India’s first independent news channel (played by Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan) is an idealist who believes in integrity and principles over the profit motive – which means that he is very much an odd man out in modern India. His own son thinks their channel should make money, and hates the fact that they are being bested in the ratings by a newer, flashier channel that is more than willing to sensationalize any story, no matter the cost to the nation. The head of the rival news channel and a very ambitious politician are also players in this story, which the film’s director sees as an expose of how news operations in capitalist societies can be changed by the profit motive. Rann starts Friday, January 29, at forty theaters across the US – eight in New Jersey, five in Texas and California, four in New York, two each in Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut and North Carolina, and one each in Arizona, Minnesota, Michigan, Kansas, Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, and Washington state. Rann also starts Friday, February 5, at the Georgetown 14 in Indianapolis, per manoranjaninc. (The G14 usually gets Bollywood films at the same time they open elsewhere in the US; I wonder why Rann is getting delayed by a week….)

Saint John of Las Vegas – Steve Buscemi plays John, a compulsive gambler who flees Las Vegas in search of a more stable life. He finds a job with a New Mexico insurance company and tries to resist the urge to buy lottery tickets. When his boss asks him to go back to Vegas to investigate a car “accident” that may be nothing more than an insurance scam, John is worried that he might be tempted to gamble again – but he also sees a chance for a possible promotion. As John and his coworker Virgil travel to Las Vegas, they meet a number of quirky characters – and John decides that he must actually confront his problem, rather than running away from it. Peter Dinklage, Sarah Silverman, Tim Blake Nelson, Emmanuelle Chriqui, John Cho and Romany Malco are also in the cast of this comedy, which is a very loose modern-day adaptation of Dante’s Inferno (note the character name “Virgil” and the references to temptation); it started Friday, January 29 at The Landmark theater in Los Angeles and the Angelika Film Center in New York City.

Still Bill – That’s Bill as in Bill Withers, who wrote or co-wrote a number of classic songs – including “Just the Two of Us,” “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Lean on Me” and “Lovely Day.” This documentary about Withers started Wednesday, January 27, at the IFC Center in New York City.

Typeface – As the small town of Two Rivers, WI struggles with rising unemployment, a resident of the city devises a plan to create several small museums in order to attract tourists and business. This documentary is about the most successful of these efforts, a museum/print shop in a former printing factory, where artists from around the world and the factory’s former employees meet for printmaking workshops and discussions of the past (and future) of the craft. Typeface started Friday, January 29, at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago.

The Widow Colony: India’s Unsettled Settlement- The “colony” of this documentary’s title is in Tilak Vihar, an area on the west side of New Delhi. The women who live here are the widows of Sikh men who were killed in November, 1984, following Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination. The film’s official site says that it “explores the suffering of these women, their battle for justice and their struggle for survival.” The Widow Colony had several screenings on Saturday, January 23, at the Phoenix Big Cinemas Movie City 8 in Edison, NJ; I didn’t include it on last week’s list because I didn’t know about it at the time.

Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives – The Anthology Film Archives in New York City presents a re-release of this 1978 documentary, which features interviews with twenty-six gay men and women about their lives – and which was the “first feature-length documentary about lesbian and gay identity made by gay filmmakers,” according to its official site.

Note: Each week, I usually find at least one title on some site or other that is supposed to be out in theaters that week – but I can find no evidence that the film(s) in question is/are actually in American theaters, so I usually don’t mention these movies. This week, however, there are four such titles: Paintball, Delete3, Winter in Wartime and The Weathered Underground. Paintball is a Spanish-produced thriller about a group of eight expert paintball players (all of them strangers to each other) who gather in an isolated forest for a game of paintball – only to find that someone is shooting more than just paint. (In other words, the old “someone is playing the game for real/for keeps” plot shows up yet again.) Paintball was an Official Selection of the Tribeca Film Festival, and was supposed to be in New York City theaters this week – but I couldn’t find any listing for the film after wading through 24 pages of Fandango’s theater listings for NYC. (I suspect that there may be other NYC theaters – in other boroughs – not covered in that Fandango search, but I didn’t have time to check that out this week.) The Weathered Underground – an action comedy about a young man who bounces back and forth between a variety of odd characters he meets on one strange evening after he breaks up with his girlfriend – will come out in DVD, IPod and IPhone versions on March 2, according to its official site. That same site describes the film as “interactive motion picture” that allows you to use “your remote control (DVD) or IPOD/IPHONE to choose what happens next” – so I’m not sure how this would play in a theater…. And while the The Weathered Underground‘s site notes that there is a “theatrical trailer,” it says nothing about the film actually being in theaters this week (as far as I could tell). Winter in Wartime is a Dutch WW2 drama – the official submission from the Netherlands for a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nomination – that has had some festival play in the US, but if it is in theatrical release here, I don’t know where. And as for Delete3 – well, I have no idea what that is (several attempts to Google the title turned up nothing useful), besides the fact that Variety.com says that it was theatrically released in the US on January 23. If it turns out that any of the above actually did get released in the US this past week, I’ll let you know in a future column.

NEXT WEEK AND BEYOND

The Keystone Art Cinema’s web page now says that they will get Red Cliff on February 5; I hope that this turns out to be true, after several earlier dates (announced on the film’s site and/or the theater’s page) came and went. The only other news on the theater’s site this week is that An Education will be coming back, also on February 5 – possibly in anticipation of an Academy Award nomination for lead actress Carey Mulligan.

As noted above, Manoranjaninc now says that Rann will start at the Georgetown 14 on February 5. Only two showings are scheduled right now, but I suspect that more will be added later on.

And the Indianapolis edition of Metromix had some (potentially) good news this week: The White Rabbit Cabaret – a 200-seat (plus or minus) performance space that is going to showcase vaudeville and cabaret style music and dance shows, “along with classic films” – is set to open at 1116 Prospect Street (in the Fountain Square area of Indianapolis) sometime in March. The venue has a website up already, but there isn’t much on it yet.

Other films and events for next Friday:

Americana – Two high-school seniors who will enlist in the Army after graduation are the subject of this documentary, which will be screened at 6:30 PM on Friday, February 5, at the University of Notre Dame’s Browning Cinema. This showing is part of the Browning’s “ScreenPeace” film series.

The Dirty Dozen – Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, John Cassavetes, Charles Bronson, Robert Ryan, Jim Brown, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland and George Kennedy are just some of the names in the cast of Robert Aldrich’s 1967 war film. The Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Toby Theatre will show The Dirty Dozen on Friday, February 5, at 7 PM.

Film, Television and Theater Talks – Director Danielle Beverly will present excerpts from her 2005 film Learning to Swallow and the forthcoming Project: Rebirth (which she field produced) at 4 PM on Friday, February 5, at the University of Notre Dame’s Browning Cinema.

Pete Seeger: The Power of Song – This documentary about the veteran folk singer will be shown at 9:30 PM on Friday, February 5, at the University of Notre Dame’s Browning Cinema; it’s part of their “ScreenPeace” film series.

**********

Commentary Track reviews of movies featured in this week’s edition of Thinking Outside the Multiplex:

An Education
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
A Single Man