Pierced to the Heart

The Secret of Kells
The Secret of Kells is a movie full to bursting with the pure potential of animation, an aesthetic experience so impeccably designed that style and substance are indistinguishable.…

A Serious Man (Coen Brothers, 2009 – In The Manner of Tractate Berakoth IX)
If the central question of this film rotates on Schroedinger's cat, the religious implication is this: If the tradition is the box, is God alive or is he dead?…

Roberto Rossellini’s “War Trilogy”
Finally, the Criterion Collection has brought out Rossellini's World War II triptych in a lavish box set. …

My Night At Maud’s (”Ma nuit chez Maud” 1969, Eric Rohmer)
Eric Rohmer died on Monday of this week at the age of 89. Filmwell pays tribute with a consideration of the French film maker's playful look at free will and determinism, sex and spirituality.…

Séraphine (Provost, 2009)
Surprisingly overlooked in 2009's parade of critics' awards and top ten lists, this remarkable film and its lead performance deserve closer examination.…

Combating Sugar Overload: A Christmas Tale and Notes on a Scandal
Movies to the rescue.…

The Sun (Sokurov, 2005)
It is hard to believe that this film made the festival rounds up to four years ago, but will now be popping up on critic’s lists for 2009 as it has finally had an actual theatrical run this year. The Sun is the final installment of a three part series of Sokurov biopics covering a [...]…

The Postman Story Apparently Can Be Made Twice
Two very different adaptations of the same story.…

Notes on Marie Menken (Kudlácek, 2009)
If you have never seen any of Marie Menken’s films, watch the three shorts included on the Icarus DVD release of Martina Kudlácek’s recent documentary about her kindly influence on the American avant-garde. These films will probably first strike you as overwrought, minor, or the practice footage of some film student with a Bolex. Glimpses [...]…

D’Est (Akerman, 1993)
But the initial dread I felt was that of the tourist, discomforted by an unexpected climate, a different way of negotiating crowds, or making it across town. The squat architecture of Moscow lends itself to a certain mythic eeriness in the winter months. As the film slowly moves towards Moscow, these milling groups of people Akerman are filming start to become denser and less interested in her tracking…

Updated: 10 Mar 2010, 19:00 UTC

Police, Adjective (2010)
My review of Police, Adjective is posted at Image. Here’s how it starts. I’ve just seen a hell of a film. Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective—hailed as the latest masterpiece of the Romanian New Wave—is likely to convince American moviegoers that they should avoid the Romanian New Wave. The movie moves at a snail’s pace. (The most energetic scene in [...]…

Letters to Father Jacob (2009) – guest reviewer N.W. Douglas
[Note: This review was submitted by N.W Douglas, an undergraduate film student at Simon Fraser University. He's fired up about a film he recently discovered, and his enthusiasm has certainly put the title on my list of films to see in 2009. I'll add more reviews as I come across them. - Jeffrey] • a guest review [...]…

Girlfriend Experience, The (2009)
a review by Jeffrey Overstreet • Magnolia Pictures. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Starring Sasha Grey, Chris Santos,Peter Zizzo, Glenn Kenny. Written by Brian Koppelman and David Levien. 77 minutes. Rated R (for sexual content, nudity and language). • No, I can’t say I found it fun to watch a real porn star (Sasha Grey) dramatize an expensive call-girl’s tedious, [...]…

Avatar (2009)
My review of Avatar is published at Image journal. In a few days, I’ll post an expanded version of the review. I also recommend Steven Greydanus’s review at Decent Films. …

Princess and the Frog, The (2009): Looking Closer’s Film Forum
I haven’t seen The Princess and the Frog yet, but I’m on the lookout for opinions from thoughtful critics. Check back, for I’ll post them as I find them. Steven D. Greydanus, National Register: The Princess and the Frog is the first real classic Disney of the 21st century. … None of the studio’s cartoons of the last 15 [...]…

Up in the Air (2009) – Looking Closer’s Film Forum
I’m not allowed to post my review of this film before its release date, due to studio policies. So I’ll wait. In the meantime, here are some reviews that have been online for a while now… 1. Amiable and innocuous, Up in the Air offers a disingenuously smooth flight over choppy waters and rugged terrain. … Up in [...]…

Serious Man, A (2009)
My thoughts on A Serious Man are published at Image. …

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
2009 UPDATE: It’s been more than five years since I wrote this review of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and my appreciation for this film has only deepened since then. It went on to become quite an important film to many of my colleagues, so important, in fact, that when the team of a dozen [...]…

The Road (2009)
a review by Jeffrey Overstreet* • Dimension Films presents a film directed by John Hillcoat. Written by Joe Penhall, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. Starring Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce Running time: 119 minutes. Rated R. • The Road isn’t like any holiday-season movie you’ve seen before. As the movie begins, a character called…

Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) – Looking Closer’s Film Forum
I don’t plan to spend any pennies on The Twilight Saga: New Moon after the living nightmare that was the sneak-preview screening of Twilight. So I refer you to the critic I trust most. (Check back: More reviews may be linked later.) Steven Greydanus – Decent Films: You can see why 14-year-old girls eat this stuff up. That [...]…

Updated: 13 Feb 2010, 12:00 UTC

82nd Annual Academy Awards Predictions
Best motion picture of the year Avatar The Blind Side District 9″ An Education The Hurt Locker Inglourious Basterds Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire A Serious Man Up Up in the Air WILL WIN: The Hurt Locker SHOULD WIN: A Serious Man Achievement in directing Avatar: James Cameron The Hurt Locker: Kathryn Bigelow Inglourious Basterds: Quentin Tarantino Precious: Based on…

Alice in Wonderland
When did you last see a truly great Tim Burton film? Sure, there have been respectable entries (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd), but the last truly exceptional Burton film was indubitably Edward Scissorhands, exactly 20 years ago. It cannot be argued that Burton picks quintessentially perfect material for his gothic, off-bubble sensibilities (what [...]…

The Ghost Writer
“One of these things is not like the other,” Big Bird used to croon on Sesame Street. “One of these things just doesn’t belong.” It is fairly obvious that Big Bird was playfully commenting on the fact that Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer is far too good a film for its February release date, a [...]…

Shutter Island
1/2 This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here. Sometimes the sign of a master artist is not how he produces a product of bracing originality, but how he interprets a long established genre. In tackling Shutter Island, only his second thriller since the 1991 remake [...]…

The Wolfman
This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here. Despite months of real life, on-set horror stories and presumptive bad press, I went into The Wolfman with the excitement that comes with seeing a good monster movie, especially one that follows in a long tradition of [...]…

Valentine’s Day
This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here. Valentine’s Day, I saw Love Actually, I knew Love Actually, Love Actually was a friend of mine. Valentine’s Day, you’re no Love Actually. Veteran director (which merely means he should have known better) Garry Marshall, the man [...]…

Dear John
This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here. If Mel Gibson is obsessed with suffering as some sort of Dark Ages redemptive penance, than Nicholas Sparks, on whose book the film Dear John is based, has a fetish for personal calamity, for creating sentimental, overly [...]…

From Paris with Love
1/2 From Paris with Love is like The Odd Couple with automatic weapons. This enjoyable, low rent Bourne actioneer may be preposterous, but that’s half its cheeky charm. James Reese (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), personal aide to the U.S. Ambassador in France with a comfortable life and a ravishing French girlfriend (Kasia Smutniak), also leads a double life [...]…

Edge of Darkness
This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here. Although he has directed two very successful films (including the behemoth The Passion of the Christ), Mel Gibson has not appeared on screen in nearly 10 years. Since that time, he’s been at the center of a [...]…

Creation
On one level, Creation is the story of the composition of one of the most important and controversial books the world has ever seen, “On the Origin of Species.” On another, it is a deeply personal story, caring far less about the details that make up the theory of evolution via natural selection and far [...]…

Extraordinary Measures
This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here. Extraordinary Measures is a terrific TV movie. Too bad it’s not on TV. Inspired by the book “The Cure” by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Geeta Anand, Extraordinary Measures is the true story of the Crowley family and their fight [...]…

Leap Year
This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here. Each year, there is a film that arrives like a thunderclap, ushering in a new cinematic era. Leap Year is that film. The era that is ending is the rich and rewarding season of holiday films that [...]…

Crazy Heart
Crazy Heart arrives at a theater near you polished to a high gloss with the gushing accolades of critics and industry insiders. Some of these honors the film most certainly deserves. Others it does not. It is true that Crazy Heart contains one of the best performances by an actor this year. But the film [...]…

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here. Though Terry Gilliam may call himself a film director, he has much more in common with the ringmaster under a circus big top. A Gilliam film is a psychedelic experience (think Fellini on hallucinogens), a surreal carnival [...]…

Youth in Revolt
This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here. Part Rushmore, part Porky’s, the coming-of-age comedy Youth in Revolt, based on a series of novels by C.D. Payne, is equal parts adolescent rebellion and first blush of love, but none of it manages to come together [...]…

My 20 Most Anticipated Films of 2010
Since independent and foreign films tend to sneak in under the radar throughout the year, lists of this nature are almost always Hollywood heavy. With that said, here are the films I am most excited to see in the coming year. The Tree of Life Release Date: pending Dir: Terrance Malick Starring: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn Synopsis: A young boy [...]…

The Best Films of the Aughts
Compiling a decade’s best list is a profoundly intimidating affair. Some films, especially the first handful, come instantly. They are as immovable as granite, as strong today as when they first appeared. But things get more complicated the further down the list you go. Some assume that one would simply review one’s Best Of lists [...]…

The Best Films of 2009
This may be the personally oddest and most eclectic “Best Of” list I’ve ever compiled. Half is strongly art-house and indie minded, while the other half is not simply mainstream, it is firmly entrenched in solid blockbuster territory. How to explain it? Simple. These were my favorite films of the year. These were the ones [...]…

Sherlock Holmes
I walked into Sherlock Holmes more than a little anxious. As a longtime fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famed detective and a voracious reader of his exploits, I was concerned that director Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) was going to transform the beloved literary icon into little more than a [...]…

A Single Man
A Single Man is a lavish and romantic examination of interrupted love, a chronicle of life and loss and everything that binds it together. Its mood is its truth and its imagery is all the narrative we need. It is one of the most beautiful things you will set eyes on all year. The plot of [...]…

Updated: 10 Mar 2010, 19:00 UTC

City of Angels Film Festival March 12-14 Directors Guild of America, Los Angeles
Check out the film slate at The City of Angels Film Festival There will also be an alternative track Founder’s Forays into Film Saturday, March 13 hosted by the City of Angels Film Festival co-founder, Scott D. Young. Theater 3, Directors Guild of America 1 pm FOR THE LOVE OF MOVIES Director, Gerald Peary Documentary on the (melo)dramatic story [...]…

Open Culture – free classic movies (and more) online
Very impressive online access to some fantastic movies…. www.OpenCulture.com …

Shutter Island
I saw this film yesterday and it haunts me still, not because it is a psychological thriller but because of how it questions the essence of what it is to be human and who has the power to define humanity and the human condition. A friend suggested that I look at it through the lens of [...]…

Sr. Rose’s Oscar Picks 2010
The Oscars 2010: Movies that Connect Us Forty-two feature films have been nominated in a variety of categories for the  82nd Academy Awards  that will take place at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles on March 7.  In a throw back to the 1930’s and 1940’s, when anywhere between eight and twelve films were nominated for [...]…

CineRose Awards 2009 films
Here is the link to my CineRose Awards 2009. My deadline for my St. Anthony Messenger column is early so I did not have a chance to see every film, such as AVATAR, in time for the issue. …

To Save A Life
Click here for my review: To Save a Life review by Sr. Rose Pacatte …

Extraordinary Measures the Film
Here is my full review that I wrote for St. Anthony Messenger, January 2010: Extraordinary Measures Review …

The Book of Eli: Prophecy or High Octane Action Flick?
Here is my review of Denzel Washington’s new film: The Book of Eli: Prophecy or High Octane Action Flick …

Avatar: Riffing with Myth
Avatar: Riffing with Myth By Sr. Rose Pacatte, FSP “People can say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that what’s we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within out [...]…

Precious: Based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire and The Blind Side reviews
Precious: Based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire – The newly emerging screen actress Gabourey Sidibe plays the teen girl Claireece “Precious” Jones in a film about courage, hope, physical and emotional child abuse, rape, incest, determination, tempered with a tiny touch of humor and humanity. Precious lives in Harlem with her no account mother, [...]…

Updated: 10 Mar 2010, 19:00 UTC

Alice in Wonderland
This is not your grandmother’s Alice. Though the title is the same, director Tim Burton did not film a new version of the classic novels by British clergyman and logician Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass. Instead, Burton and screenwriter Linda Woolverton have moved the action forward 13 years. Now Alice, almost 20, is attending a garden party…

Avatar
[National Review; December 20, 2009] In Avatar’s opening moments, hero-to-be Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is waking up on the planet Pandora after a cryogenic journey, and reflecting on the twists of fate. Here he is, a paraplegic Marine, filling in for the twin brother who actually trained for this mission. But right before Tommy was due to ship out, “a guy with a gun put an end to his…

Fantastic Mr. Fox
It’s the little things that count. Director Wes Anderson has always been good with the little things, filling movies like Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tennenbaums (2001), and The Darjeeling Limited (2007) with extraordinary, eye-catching detail. In Fantastic Mr. Fox the things are littler than ever, as the tallest actor is only 18” high. This film is an example of stop-motion animation, in…

As We Forgive
I brought a handkerchief. The occasion was a screening of the documentary As We Forgive, slated to kick off American University’s Human Rights Film Series this fall. It is the first film by Laura Waters Hinson, an AU alumna, and in addition to numerous festival awards it won a Student Academy Award. The film’s topic is the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which Hutus killed…

The Invention of Lying
What would it be like to live in a world without lying? I expected the universe depicted in this film to present a reverse image of the Jim Carrey comedy “Liar Liar,” in which the main character finds himself uncomfortably compelled to tell the truth. I expected, that is, one more brash, noisy, agitated film, replete with insults and gross-out jokes. I wasn’t expecting the sweetness…

All About Steve
You expect certain things from a Sandra Bullock comedy, and if that’s what you’re looking for, “All About Steve” will not disappoint. She’s perky and quirky, slim and lovely, and a very good sport about looking unglamorous (here she survives both a tornado and a fall into an abandoned mine). You’ll be unsurprised to learn that romantic complications arise, followed…

Motherland
Does this sound like a good idea for a movie? I can’t decide. Take six women who have suffered the loss of a child. Send them together to South Africa, to work with impoverished children. In the security of each other’s company, with a genuine need set before them, their grief is mitigated and healing is begun. As therapy, it’s a great idea. …

(500) Days of Summer
Summer Finn, we’re told, is an average woman in many ways—like height and weight, though slightly above average shoe size. (The narrator telling us this, in a wryly amused way, sounds like James Earl Jones, though I can’t find a credit for him.) Yet something about her arrests men’s attention. She gets an average of 18.4 double-takes per day. This is, we are told, “the…

$9.99
[Christianity Today Movies; June 19, 2009] Stars: 2 Rated: R Cast: Geoffrey Rush (Angel), Anthony LaPaglia (Jim Peck), Joel Edgerton (Ron), Ben Mendelsohn (Lenny Peck), Claudia Karvan (Michelle) A movie is like a parade: before you see the fullness of its pomp and circumstance, you see forerunners, standard bearers, that serve to herald the procession and hint at what is to come. And before you see…

Up
I knew Up was one of those rare first-rate movies when I found myself really yearning to see it for a second time. Actually, that wouldn’t have been so unusual, except that I was still sitting in the theater and had only gotten through 20 minutes of seeing it for the first time. It’s that good. And that in itself isn’t so unusual, considering that this is a film from Pixar Studios,…

O'Horten
How odd is Odd?  When we meet Odd Horten, he is driving the Oslo-Bergen express train through a blue-white snowy landscape. (This opening-credits sequence is gorgeous:  each dive into a tunnel, each returning plunge through a circle of searing white, is a cinematic marvel.) But a young railroad employee catching a ride up front with Odd finds that it’s very hard to draw him into conversation.…

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
[National Review Online: May, 1, 2009] I am not now, nor have I ever been, a fanboy. So why did I get such a kick out of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”? Because the title character is an interesting guy, with a complicated history and complicated feelings. Because the plot has some good twists, not all of which are straightened out before final credits roll. Because the story totes us around…

Earth
“Earth,” the first release from the Disneynature films, lives up to its publicity; this film is 85 minutes of jaw-droppingly beautiful clouds, waterfalls, icebergs, and savannahs; of graceful animals, scary animals, funny animals, and excruciatingly cute baby animals. James Earl Jones delivers a narration that is mild and accessible to children. (A typical line: after a shot of a penguin…

Hannah Montana: The Movie
[National Review: April 10, 2009] Whoever’s in charge of truth-in-labeling in Washington needs to take a look at the phenomenon called “Hannah Montana”. That’s the name of a fictitious world-famous pop star, who conceals her secret identity in order to live a normal life as fictitious high-schooler Miley Stewart; this way, she has “The Best of Both Worlds” (as Hannah-Miley’s…

The Tale of Despereaux
[National Review; December 22, 2008] There is so much to like about this film; it’s visually beguiling, it has some original characters, it’s free of crudity and pop-culture references, and it’s not screamy or exhausting. Why, then, did I find my interest evaporating within an hour of leaving the theater? I have a hunch—but let’s deal with the basics first. Despereaux…

Updated: 10 Mar 2010, 19:00 UTC

CT’s Favorite Films of 2009 (Part I)
As is, by now, our custom, the staff of CT Movies is unveiling not one but two lists of the year’s best films. The first list– our “most redeeming” movies– highlights the ten films from 2009 that are, in some way, redemptive, whether explicitly or subtley so. The list is available here, and includes a [...]…

Film Break: “Edge of Darkness”
My review of Edge of Darkness– the latest film from Casino Royale director Martin Campbell, and the, er, “comeback” of Mel Gibson– is posted now at CT Movies. …

Josh’s Favorite Films of 2009
I’ll remember it as a landmark year for animation. I’ll remember it as a watershed for children’s literary adaptations. I’ll remember it as the year we finally got a good Iraq war film. I’ll remember 2009 fondly, and vividly, thanks in no small part to these ten films. 10. The Princess and the Frog (Ron Clements [...]…

Josh’s Top Ten (or so) Films of the Decade, 2000-2009
Ten years, ten movies. I’m not sure how this process works for everyone else, but for me, it starts off very easy, then grows very difficult, and, in the end, becomes very easy again. When I first started thinking about which films I was going to honor as my favorites of the past decade, I jotted [...]…

The Top Ten (or so) Films of the Decade: #3 The New World (Malick, 2006)
I remember the first time I read T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland for a college English class– not getting it, not wanting to get it, ultimately hating it. I remember reading it again, baffled and bewildered by the professor’s in-class comments that suggested a depth I hadn’t even begun to fathom– laboring over it, taking copious [...]…

The Top Ten (or so) Films of the Decade: #4 Spirited Away (Miyazaki, 2002)
It was released in the same year as a Star Wars and a Lord of the Rings, and in a decade that gave us Pan’s Labyrinth and, uh, two more Lord of the Rings. But for me, Spirited Away is the defining work of fantasy on the big screen– a masterpiece of imagination that is [...]…

The Top Ten (or so) Films of the Decade: #5 No Country for Old Men (Coen, 2007)
I had a literature professor who offered a slight criticism of author Cormac McCarthy, that perhaps he was just a bit too fascinated by a particularly macho vision of violence and bloodshed. I’m not sure that the same could be said of the Coen brothers‘ adaptation of McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men; in fact, [...]…

Film Break: “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”
Fantastic may be the understatement of the year– Wes Anderson’s new film is flat-out stupendous, and in an already-historic year for Hollywood adaptations of childhood classics, ranging from Spike Jonze’s triumph of interpretation in Where the Wild Things Are to the zany inspiration of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Anderson’s Fox is the stone-cold [...]…

The Top Ten (or so) Films of the Decade: #6 Punch-drunk Love (Anderson, 2002)
Punch-drunk Love is Paul Thomas Anderson’s smallest film– it isn’t an epic, or a mosaic, it is a romantic-comedy, a miniature masterpiece that barely tops an hour and a half. It is also, arguably, his most sophisticated film: It’s a love story, but also a parable for a particularly modern malaise, a film in which [...]…

Film Break: “Pirate Radio”
My review of the terrific new rock and roll movie Pirate Radio is posted at Christianity Today. …

Updated: 10 Mar 2010, 19:00 UTC

Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suss opens March 10th, 2010 (limited)
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Severe Clear opens
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Our Family Wedding opens March 12th, 2010 (limited)
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Remember Me opens March 12th, 2010 (wide)
After the success of RACHEL GETTING MARRIED, screenwriter Jenny Lumet turns her talent to this romantic drama. MEMOIRS centers on a couple who struggle to forge a new relationship in the midst of hardship.…

Green Zone opens March 12th, 2010 (wide)
Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller is a rogue U.S. Army officer who must hunt through covert and faulty intelligence hidden on foreign soil before war escalates in an unstable region.…

Mother opens March 12th, 2010 (limited)
After the international success of THE HOST, director Bong-joon Ho turns his talent to this film that played at Cannes in 2009. In MOTHER, a woman is forced to investigate a murder after her son is wrongfully accused of the crime.…

Tales From The Script opens March 12th, 2010 (limited)
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Exploding Girl opens
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She's Out of My League opens March 12th, 2010 (wide)
TROPIC THUNDER and KNOCKED UP scene stealer Jay Baruchel gets a well-deserved starring role in this comedy. Kirk is just a normal guy with average looks and an average job until a stunning woman begins to think he's something special. HARD 10 also stars T.J. Miller, Mike Vogel, and Nate Torrence.…

She's Out of My League opens March 12rh, 2010 (wide)
TROPIC THUNDER and KNOCKED UP scene stealer Jay Baruchel gets a well-deserved starring role in this comedy. Kirk is just a normal guy with average looks and an average job until a stunning woman begins to think he's something special. HARD 10 also stars T.J. Miller, Mike Vogel, and Nate Torrence.…

Updated: 10 Mar 2010, 19:00 UTC

Ghost Town opens
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Mid-August Lunch opens
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Shutterbug opens
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Killing Jar opens March 19th, 2010 (limited)
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Runaways opens March 19th, 2010
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Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opens March 19th, 2010 (limited)
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Hubble 3D opens March 19th, 2010 (limited)
The filmmakers who brought you aboard the SPACE STATION 3D invite you to follow the Hubble Space Telescope on its mission to explore the farthest reaches of the cosmos. Follow astronauts up into space as they strive to get the powerful telescope prepared for a fantastic journey of discovery. Witness the birth of a star, and experience the awesome power of a supernova in stunning IMAX 3-D.…

City Island opens March 19th, 2010 (limited)
A dysfunctional family living on a picturesque island in the Bronx spares no expense in avoiding the truth about their messed-up lives in writer/director Raymond de Felitta's dark family comedy. The family patriarch, Vince (Andy Garcia) is a prison guard who is secretly plotting a new career as an actor. Meanwhile, as Vince takes acting lessons on the down low, his daughter moonlights as a stripper…

Diary of a Wimpy Kid opens March 19th, 2010 (wide)
Jeff Kinney’s hit tween book that straddles the fiction and comic-book genres makes a leap to the big screen with this adaptation.…

Repo Men opens March 19th, 2010 (wide)
Writers Eric Garcia and Garrett Lerner team with director Miguel Sapochnik to adapt Garcia's novel about a repo man named Remy whose body has been constructed almost entirely of artificial organs. When Remy (Jude Law) fails to keep up on payments for his recent heart transplant, his former partner vows to take back the organ by force if necessary. Meanwhile, Remy finds an unexpected ally in the form…

Neil Young Trunk Show: Scenes From a Concert opens
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Bounty Hunter opens March 19th, 2010 (wide)
Milo Boyd, a down-on-his-luck bounty hunter, gets his dream job when he is assigned to track down his bail-jumping ex-wife, reporter Nicole Hurly. He thinks all that's ahead is an easy payday, but when Nicole gives him the slip so she can chase a lead on a murder cover-up, Milo realizes that nothing ever goes simply with him and Nicole. The exes continually one-up each other -- until they find themselves…

Kimjongilia opens March 19th, 2010 (limited)
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Vincere opens March 19th, 2010 (limited)
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Greenberg opens March 19th, 2010 (limited)
A New Yorker relocates to Los Angeles in order to start over and re-prioritize his life. Of course, life is what happens while you are making other plans, and while housesitting for his brother, and he falls in love with his brother's assistant.…

Season of the Witch opens March 19th, 2010 (wide)
Nicholas Cage and his GONE IN SIXTY SECONDS director, Dominic Sena, travel back seven centuries for this period action film. In SEASON OF THE WITCH, a group of knights must journey with a young woman who is accused of infecting the world with the Bubonic plague.…

Sun Behind the Clouds opens
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Hot Tub Time Machine opens March 26th, 2010 (wide)
The laughs bubble over in this comedy about a hot tub that also doubles as a time machine. The men in HOT TUB TIME MACHINE realize that they just aren't as suave as they used to be, so they travel to the past to rediscover themselves.…

Harimaya Bridge opens
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Dream Boy opens
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How to Train Your Dragon opens March 26th, 2010 (wide)
Dreamworks Animation, the home of the Shrek and Ice Age films, hopes to continue its successful streak with this imaginative animated fantasy.…

Bluebeard opens
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I Love You Phillip Morris opens March 26th, 2010 (limited)
Jim Carrey pairs up with Ewan McGregor in this film based on a true story. Carrey stars as a family man who is sent to prison and falls in love with his cellmate, Phillip Morris (McGregor). When Morris is released from prison, his new love embarks on a series of escape attempts to reunite with Morris. BAD SANTA scribes John Requa and Glenn Ficarra return to black comedy with this darkly funny directorial…

Just Say Love opens
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Manuela Y Manuel opens
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Waking Sleeping Beauty opens March 26th, 2010 (limited)
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Chloe opens March 26th, 2010 (limited)
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Last Song opens March 31st, 2010 (wide)
Miley Cyrus stars as a teenager who reconnects with her father years after her parents go through a nasty divorce in this adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel. The novelist also provides the screenplay for the production, which is directed by Julie Ann Robinson.…

City of Life and Death opens March 31st, 2010 (limited)
Within the scope of Asian history, few events carry the ugly and sickening connotations of the Rape of Nanking. Japanese forces invaded that Chinese city on December 9, 1937, and in the six weeks that followed, soldiers raped thousands of women and annihilated hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Director Lu Chuan directs this black-and-white, docudrama account of that horrifying six-week period,…

Greatest opens April 2nd, 2010 (limited)
A heartbreaking end to young love is only the beginning in this drama. After teenage Bennett and Rose finally begin a romance after years of furtive glances, Bennett dies in a car accident. His parents, Grace and Allen, struggle to deal with the death of their son, but their attempts at peace are interrupted by Rose's announcement that she is pregnant.…

Updated: 10 Mar 2010, 19:00 UTC