Flawless

MAY 14-20
WED-SAT 2:30, 7
SUN MAT 12:30
SUN-TUES 5, 9:30

At seemingly opposite stations in life, two employees conspire to loot a diamond company in 1960s London. Laura is an executive in crisis--grim, ambitious, friendless--not knowing she is about to be fired after her ideas have been stolen. Hobbs is the janitor, abject and looking harmless, but sneaking and with serious issues of his own. With mop and pail in hand, he steals easily into the executive suites. Rifling through personnel files, he discovers the company plans for Laura and thus can enlist her in his scheme to rob an employer far more corrupt than he is. From Laura he gains the combination to the vault that holds the diamonds only to discover the newly installed surveillance cameras. More complications follow. The executives argue over ransom. The insurance investigator finds Laura too attractive. The thieves struggle to hold their own relationship together.

Starring Demi Moore, Michael Caine
Directed by Michael Radford, 2008
PORTLAND PREMIERE
Running Time: 105 min Official Site

Beaufort

MAY 14-20
WED-SAT 4:30, 9
SAT MAT 12
SUN-TUES 2:30, 7

A small group of Israeli soldiers holds down a mountain outpost in southern Lebanon "that might as well be a space station," wrote the New York 'Times,' "marooned in a hostile galaxy." Eighteen years before, in 1982, Israel captured Beaufort Castle, built during the 12th-century crusades and a formidable fortress still. It is now 2000 and with the Israelis preparing to leave, Hezbollah intensifies the shelling to make "the long-planned evacuation look like retreat under fire." There are casualties, of course, along with questions of political and military purpose, as well as ambivalence toward the effect of peace activists. Personalities emerge along with cynicism, antagonism, friendship. 'Beaufort' is as much about the drama of human relationships as it is about combat. We do not see the enemy but the stress and suspense are there. Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Oscars, it is, said the Los Angles 'Times,' " a brooding examination of the nature of war, a tribute to the virtues of bravery and sacrifice as well as an admission of how futile these qualities can be." (In Hebrew) Academy Nominee: Best Foreign Film

Starring Oshri Cohen, Itay Turgeman
Directed by Joseph Cedar, 2007
MAINE PREMIERE
Running Time: 125 min Official Site

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation

MAY 21-29
WED-SAT 3, 7
SUN MAT 1
SUN-THURS 5, 9

Brazil in 1970 is caught up between ecstasy and fear, between a World Cup soccer team and political repression. Twelve-year-old Mauro is obsessed with the joy of one and oblivious to the other. But for his parents, life under a military dictatorship is not just dangerous; it is potentially fatal. As left-wing activists, they are the worst of the opposition. Forced on short notice to go underground to avoid arrest, they tell Mauro they are off on a brief vacation. Their plan is to leave the boy with his Jewish grandfather in Sao Paulo (his mother is Catholic though the parents practice neither religion). But without their knowing it there has been a drastic complication. In the few hours since they spoke that morning, the grandfather has suffered a sudden heart attack and died, and they stop only long enough to leave Mauro at the door of an empty apartment. Alone and bewildered, he winds up, through the intervention of the elders of the synagogue, in the grudging and irritable care of his grandfather's Orthodox bachelor neighbor, Schlomo. The pious man and the irreligious boy are at first mutually antagonistic, though the community does its best. Amidst the sounds and rhythms of the shops and courtyards, the synagogues and hallways, he makes friends with a smart, rebellious tomboy of a girl named Hanna who introduces him around the neighborhood and develops a crush on a voluptuous waitress who tries to ease his loneliness, responding to his playfulness and charm. In time, of course, the ice will thaw between a lonely man and a needy boy. (In Portuguese, Hebrew, and Yiddish)

Starring Michel Joelsas, Daniela Piepszyk
Directed by Cao Hamburger, 2008
MAINE PREMIERE
Running Time: 105 min Official Site

The Life Before Her Eyes

MAY 21-29
WED-SAT 5, 9
SAT MAT 1
SUN-THURS 3, 7

Chronologically the story begins with the high school friendship of Maureen and Diana as they are confronted in the girls' restroom by a teenage killer. By flashing forward fifteen years and back again between the moment of crisis and its aftermath, the film sustains its mystery of what happened when he offered them the sadistic choice of who shall live. Diana has become a wife and mother and a teacher and on this anniversary of the massacre is still overwhelmed with guilt, haunted by memories of the devoutly religious Maureen who was yet a devoted friend and supportive ally to the increasingly wild Diana. Past and present thread their way through the psyche of a profoundly troubled and wounded woman who has evolved from a free-spirited life to the near breaking point today as the community and school plan their commemoration of the event of fifteen years before.

Starring Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood
Directed by Vadim Perelman, 2008
MAINE PREMIERE
Running Time: 90 min Official Site

My Blueberry Nights

MAY 30-JUNE 12
(FIRST WEEK 5/30-6/5)
FRI-THURS 3, 5, 7, 9
SAT-SUN MAT 1
(SECOND WEEK 6/6-12)
FRI-THURS 3, 7:15

After the breakup, Elizabeth returns, as if to the scene of the crime, to the lunch counter here she caught her boyfriend with the other woman. She hangs out there, perhaps somewhat comforted by Jeremy who serves the dessert and coffee though she's too broken hearted to give him much encouragement. Needing time and space and distance, she leaves New York for Memphis where she takes work as a waitress and takes up with new people including a self-pitying cop and his sultry wife whose situation bears some resemblance to her own. But she eschews entanglements and, like a nomad, keeps moving, a passive witness to unfulfilled dreams and unrequited love, maybe learning from the failure of others and making herself ready to try again. Her next stop is Vegas with more work and more people and slowly the growing realization that the answer may be back in New York. Jeremy has been calling everyplace he can think of trying to find her but he is always a stop behind the postcards she keeps sending him.

Starring Norah Jones, David Strathairn, Jude Law, Natalie Portman
Written and Directed by Wong Kar-wai, 2008
PORTLAND PREMIERE
Running Time: 90 min Official Site

Honeydripper

JUNE 6-12
FRI-THURS 5, 9:15
SAT-SUN MAT 12:45

An itinerant young guitar player, Sonny Blake drifts into a small Alabama town a little before an anticipated regional blues sensation fails to show up at the Honeydripper Lounge, a dilapidated roadhouse struggling to survive. The near legendary bluesman was intended to bail the Honeydripper out of debt. Carrying a homemade electric guitar, an instrument no one has ever seen before, Sonny is looking for any kind of job or a handout, but at the Lounge there's nothing for him. He's arrested by the racist sheriff for vagrancy and put to work picking cotton. But when Guitar Sam doesn't show, Lounge proprietor Pine Top Purvis intercedes and rushes Sonny in to replace him and the young unknown shocks his unsuspecting audience with a new sound that astonishes and excites them. Not history but rather a pure fiction, the film borders on fable. "A ground-level human comedy," wrote Ebert in the 'Sun-Times,' "it is rich with characters and flowing with music." By the Director of 'Men with Guns,' 'Matewan,' 'Eight Men Out,' 'The Brother from Another Planet,' 'Return of the Secaucus 7,' 'Passion Fish,' 'Lianna,' 'The Secret of Roan Inish,' 'Baby, It's You"

Starring Danny Glover, Gary Clark, Jr., Keb Mo
Written and Directed by John Sayles, 2007
MAINE PREMIERE
Running Time: 122 min Official Site

Love Songs

JUNE 13-19
FRI-THURS 3, 7:15

Julie, her longtime boyfriend Ismael, and his bisexual coworker Alice live in a newly-arrived-at menage a trois which for Isnael is a fantasy come true, but for Julie it has other and dissatisfying facets. As she explains to both her sister and her mother, it troubles her that Alice has "taken root" and that Ismael seems not to mind. Julie wants one day to have children but her relationship with Ismael is now not quite the same. Yet his relationship with her family is stronger that even, and when disaster strikes they cannot let him go. Through all the shifting of intimacy and emotions, of loneliness and jealousy and passion, the characters begin quietly to sing, naturally and sincerely, to express their wide range of feeling. Avoiding the interruption of production numbers, Honore shoots songs as he shoots dialogue, allowing the story to push calmly and continuously forward. "An entertaining view of love in Paris," wrote 'Boxoffice' magazine, 'Love Songs' "becomes a compelling story of dealing with its loss."

Starring Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier
Written and Directed by Christophe Honore, 2008
MAINE PREMIERE
Running Time: 95 min Official Site

Bigger, Stronger, Faster

JUNE 13-19
FRI-THURS 5, 9:15
SAT-SUN MAT 12:45

The paradox, 'Variety' points out, is that "Americans set impossible performance standards but reject the 'cheating' required to achieve them." Christopher Bell's experience with steroids includes a little experimenting with them himself and the close, extended observation of his two brothers, one a pro wrestler, the other a power lifter, who depend on them. Throughout our culture, the film maintains, we define ourselves in the superlative, from our SUV's and McMansions to the portions on our plate, We are the biggest, strongest, fastest. Baseball fans just want home runs. Bell explores America's win-at-all-cost demand and says it's no wonder our heroes are on performance enhancing drugs. Hs disillusionment goes back before Bonds and Marion Jones to Stallone and Schwarzenegger. His discussion ranges from politics to science to pop culture. He implicates George W. Bush and Ben Affleck (as enablers, not users). He confronts Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis and speaks with a grieving father. He interviews a wide range of subjects and asks tough questions. A film as entertaining as Michael Moore's, said 'Variety,' but more scrupulous, "its early playfulness blooms into poignant observation."

Starring Mark Bell, Mike Bell, Rosemary Bell
Directed by Christopher Bell, 2008
MAINE PREMIERE
Running Time: 106 min Official Site

Flight of the Red Balloon

JUNE 20-26
FRI-THURS 2:45, 5, 7:15, 9:30
SAT-SUN MAT 12:30

Suzanne is a harried single Parisian mother who hires a Taiwanese sitter named Song to look after her seven-year-old son Simon whom we first see chasing a red balloon through the city and perching precariously on a railing trying to catch it. An actor doing voices for a puppet show and with too little time for parenting, Suzanne is a loving if somewhat neglectful mother, easily distracted from everything except her work, the only thing that keeps her focused. The two share a small flat in the extended absence of Simon's father, for the moment living in Montreal struggling with his novel. Suzanne rages against the troubles in her life, such as her irresponsible ex-husband (or lover) and the downstairs tenant who doesn't pay his rent. But her temper always subsides when she looks into the loving eyes of her angelic son. "Hou draws us into this household where little happens but everything seems interesting," said the Boston 'Globe.' "It's wonderful to see how charming he makes daily life." "This quiet, patient masterwork," wrote the Chicago 'Tribune,' "proceeds as a chamber piece of unusual lightness, its tinge of melancholy truly earned and never forced." Song is herself a film student, in fact making a piece about red balloons, inspired by the children's classic from the '50s. Suzanne's other child, Louise, a teenager living in Brussels where she takes care of her maternal grandfather, would rather be in Paris. 'Flight of the Red Balloon,' wrote 'Film Journal International,' is a "dazzling, quietly heartrending work." (In French) By the Director of 'Three Times,' 'The Puppetmaster'

Starring Juliette Binoche, Simon Iteanu
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2008
PORTLAND PREMIERE
Running Time: 113 min Official Site