a S. OSCILLOSCOPE FILMS Michelle Williams challenges a guide who leads a wagon train into the desert of eastern Oregon in "Meek's Cutoff." Following the leader into desolation 'Meek's Cutoff' retells story of an ill-fated Oregon wagon train By Nicolas Rapold New York Times NEW YORK In 1845, a new trail across the wilds of Oregon was blazed by a wagon train under the guidance of one Stephen Hall Meek. Or to put that another way, in 1845 desperate settlers followed a notorious mountain man on a journey marked by death, confusion and varying degrees of upheaval. The route came to be known as the Meek Cutoff (aka but a new film by Kelly Reichardt inspired by the events joins the travelers midjourney, when the outcome remains in terrible doubt. "Reading the journals, you're, like: 'Why did they just keep going? Why didn't they turn back?" says Reichardt, whose "Meek's Cutoff" opens next 'Friday in San Francisco and May 13 in the South Bay.
"You do get the idea of God's country. Shot in what Reichardt called the "beautiful and prickly" yet grueling desert expanses of eastern Oregon, the period drama of perseverance joins a small group of families as they ford a stream and lumber along in squeaky ox-pulled wagons. The men periodically gather to discuss what to do about their guide, who leads with bluster but with varying sense of direction; the women, peering out of fearsome bonnets, speculate from afar. Manifest Destiny a term coined the year of the actual crossing seems an outsize majestic notion for the group's daily struggle against privation and the elements and the equal toll of uncertainty. Their travails become an identifiably American story of faith, in the sense of religion, blind NEW FILMS If you must see "Arthur." choose a theater that serves alcohol.
You'll be needing it. Like a 3-D adventure, this fiasco is best viewed through beer goggles. A team of moviemakers takes millions of dollars, a classic comedy and a sheet of tracing paper, and produces a travesty. They had the blueprint for a great movie in the 1981 Dudley Moore-John Gielgud "Arthur." Sublime performances. Wicked jokes.
The soulful relationship between the rich, spoiled drunk and his sarcastic guardian. The whole algorithm was there. Their job was just to faithfully reproduce it. And they couldn't. (Colin Covert.
Minneapolis Star Tribune.) PG-13 (alcohol abuse. sexual content, language). 1 hour, 49 minutes. Robert Redford's latest film, "The Conspirator." explores a time in American history that most of us probably never knew about, or at least forgot: the 1865 trial of Mary Surratt, a boardinghouse owner whose son was suspected of helping John Wilkes Booth assassinate Abraham Lincoln. It should be tense and thrilling, full of rich, powerful performances; instead.
it'll make you feel like you should be taking notes in preparation for a high school exam. And like the last film Redford directed, the terrorism drama "Lions for Lambs," it's painfully preachy and sanctimonious. (Christy Lemire. Associated Press.) PG-13 (violent content). 2 hours.
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WRITTEN BY JEREMY CHILNICK MORGAN SPURLOCK DIRECTED BY MORGAN SPURLOCK WWW.SONYCLASSICS.COM STAGE SONY PICTURES STARTS TODAY! CAMERA 7 PRUNEYARO ROW CINEARTS ALTO SQUARE 1975 Bascon Avenue, 2088 Disen Drive, San Jose 3000 El Canine Reai. Palio Alto Campbell 408: FANDANGO 50 FANDANGO VIEW THE TRAILER AT WWW. THEG e-Edition Everything in the paper without the paper D5 hope or even just swaggering confidence. "Meek for me embodies the most rugged individualism of that American type," says Jonathan Raymond, a writer of the HBO miniseries "Mildred Pierce," who wrote the screenplay for "Meek's Cutoff," Reichardt's first ensemble drama, in close collaboration with her. "I think of the others as more middle class in their dispositions, more good citizens on some level, but he's a real mystic wanderer." Meek (played by Bruce Greenwood) is the grizzled guide to the stolid Tetherows (Michelle.
Williams and Will Patton), the anxious young Gatelys (Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano) and the beleaguered, biblically inclined Whites (Shirley Henderson and Neal Huff, with Tommy Nelson as their child). "There was a quote I remembered that I had liked when I was 18 or something, that popped into my head: I'll go where my own nature would be Williams says of her character, Emily Tetherow. The verse, by Emily which continues, "It vexes me to choose another guide," proves peculiarly apt for Tetherow, who emerges as Meek's prime skeptic and becomes an unusually vocal opponent. 'The actual diaries of women migrating West were also a source of inspiration for Williams. She says she marveled at the effort spent on writing at "the end of the longest day you could imagine." The forbearance and point of view in the journals come out in Reichardt's shading of events through the women's perspective.
Besides the constant visual metaphor of the obscuring bonnets, there are the intervening moments devoted to their chores (laundry, grinding coffee) and wide shots from their point of view keeps this story of revenge and survival moving in stylish, pulsating fashion. And he has one long, breathtaking tracking shot. which has become his signature. But at its core, this is actually a comingof-age drama, whose great performances from a strong cast make you care whether these people live or die. (Christy Lemire, Associated Press.) PG-13 (violence, sexual content.
language). 1 hour. 54 minutes. "In a Better' The Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier has a potent gift for turning abstract, moral questions like these into edge-of-your-seat compelling dramas that examine. with devastating effect, the complex web of feelings that make us who we are.
With "In a Better World." which deservedly won this year's best foreign language Oscar, she has outdone even herself. (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times.) (violence, language). 1 hour; 58 minutes. In Danish with subtitles. "Madea's Big Happy The quarterly dividend from Tyler Perry Inc.
is out, and will be happy to see that the company has renewed its focus on its core business, putting Perry in a wig, dress and oversized glasses. "Madea's Big Happy Family" is stuffed to the gills with Perry's mix of the sacred and the silly and a serious dose of selfhelp for the self-absorbed. It's as messy as any of Perry's Madea comedies assorted characters doing weakly connected one-off scenes that are little more than extended riffs. And there's the feeling that Perry's ambitions are pulling him away from this character and this world. (Roger Moore.
Orlando, Fla. Sentinel.) 'Meek's Cutoff' Opens: Next Friday in San Francisco, May 13 in South Bay Rating: PG (for thematic material) Cast: Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Zoe Kazan and Shirley Henderson Director: Kelly Reichardt Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes that suggest their exclusion from major decision-making, such as when Meek and the men consult upon arriving at a lake that proves unpotable. But it's also Emily Tetherow who first spies an Indian (Rod Rondeaux) who becomes another competing voice of authority as they drift along in increasing distress and disagreement. Indeterminacy has become a constant in Reichardt's films, most recently in the wanderings of the character Wendy (also played by Williams) in "Wendy Lucy" and before that the reunion hike by two erstwhile buddies in "Old Joy." (Both films also unfold in Oregon.) "Meek's Cutoff' announces the theme early with a shot of a character carving the word "Lost" into a log, one of many details plucked from history. The ambiguity extends to the leadership of Meek, whose motives are questioned in the film as they were in real life.
"In a way, Meek is living in a fantasy he's created for himself about his abilities as a frontiersman, his acumen as a guide, his sixth sense," says Greenwood, who in the film sports a rambling beard worthy of the real Meek. Raymond, who came across the Meek saga during an unlikely housing-boom job concocting place names for PG-13 (language, thematic material). 1 hour, 44 minutes. A lot of passion and personal feeling clearly went into "Rio," the 3-D animated adventure from director Carlos Saldanha, who devised this story as a love letter to his Brazilian hometown. It's strikingly gorgeous, bursting with big images and vibrant colors.
And the use of 3-D. which so often feels so needless and like such an afterthought, is surprisingly effective in the hands of Saldanha (director or co-director of the "Ice Age" movies) and his team. (Christy Lemire. Associated Press.) (good family fun). 1 hour.
36 minutes. "Scream Back in 1996. scaremeister Wes Craven and scribe Kevin Williamson gleefully splattered a fresh coat of blood on horror with "Scream." Jampacked with geeky film references and anchored by one of the best opening sequences in film history "Do you like scary movies?" it became a gold standard for the genre. A couple of sequels later one solid, the other much less so they've dusted the cobwebs off their franchise. Given the big gap since "Scream 3" thudded into theaters in 2000, the big question is.
has the "Scream" franchise has lost its relevance, especially to a new generation? The answer is: No, but with qualifications, (Randy Myers. Bay Area News Group.) (violence, language). 1 hour. 43 minutes. "Source Duncan Jones' first film.
the mesmerizing, sci-fi character drama "Moon" from 2009. was a marvel of efficiency, tension and pacing. It signaled the arrival of an artist with an appreciation for the past but also with his own clear, unique voice. a branding company, says, "That was the debate going on among the pioneers: Is he doing it on purpose, or does he have no idea what he's doing?" The script came in 2007, deep into a presidency. that saw similar ing among its critics, but its choices of doubting a leader and making group decisions have a perennial relevance.
The spectacular eastern Oregon landscapes also inevitably evoke the visual and cultural heritage of the Western, as does the power struggle that goes on among Meek, Tetherow and the Indian (who is never named and speaks no English). But Reichardt largely keeps the tension diffuse, rendering the escalation of turmoil en route as a slow burn under the hot sun punctuated by frustrated or panicked outbursts. "There are a lot of Westerns that I like, except the macho element gets so tiresome," she says. "These constant completely heightened moments, as if that's all a day is: moments of confrontation where people outman themselves. That part of the Western is not interesting to me." Her fidelity to the settlers' experiences, rendered on a modest production budget, extended to what might be called ambient elements of the filmmaking: preferring boom-recorded sound over radio mikes, which "brought a feeling that was not period," or pushing a Steadicam on a dolly to avoid the sensation of a motorized glide.
Yet as with a Western, the greatest eloquence can come from the silent expanses of virgin territory that confront the pioneers at every turn: undiscovered country that presents a glorious but unyielding vision of what's to come. "It's very hard to be surprised in the desert," Reichardt said. "You can see for tomorrow and the next ready to leave a distinctive stamp on the culture. "Source Code" represents his evolution as a director, now that he has a bigger cast and more expensive toys to play with. It's swifter, glossier, more ambitious.
And for a long time, it's a thrilling and challenging puzzle based on a clever Idea until it pushes its central gimmick and gets too greedy at the end, that is. (Christy Lemire. Associated Press.) PG-13 (violence, language). 1 hour. 33 minutes.
"Water for For a long time now, romantics have been hankering for Hollywood to make more old-school love stories. This spring. with "Jane Eyre" and the new "Water for Elephants." their wishes are coming true. Based on Sara Gruen's bestselling novel, the atmospheric and traditionally-told "Water for Elephants" puts us under the Big Top and into the tangled lives of three complex characters. It all could easily have turned Hallmark-card sappy.
But while there are couple of lines of dialogue that might make your eyes roll, you probably won't mind. After all, most of us have said a variation of those words. (Randy Myers. Bay Area a News Group.) PG-13 (violence, sexual content). 2 hours.
Early in the medieval stoner adventure "Your Highness." there's a scene in which a haughty prince dons an ostentatious suit of armor. Then he tumbles clattering down a flight of stairs. That labored pratfall is the template for this movie. It is a pox on comedy. (Colin Covert.
Minneapolis Star Tribune.) (sexual content, language, nudity). 1 hour, 42 minutes..