Back from an unscheduled layoff, and hopefully in time for the weekend, here’s a run-down of this week’s cinematic openings. At the top of the list is Todd Haynes’ masterpiece I’m Not There. featuring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw as versions of the legend of Bob Dylan. I wasn’t expecting it be as funny as it is but once I recalibrated I enjoyed myself enormously. Paramount, Lighthouse Petone and Rialto.

Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher team up for romantic comedy about two individuals forced to become a couple in order to win a $3m slot machine prize. Dominion Post film reviewer Graeme Tuckett told me by text that he was surprised he liked it, but then he enjoyed Maid in Manhattan too. Vegas is all over the place: Readings, Empire, Regent-on-Manners.

Music Within is an indie American drama based on a true story about a deaf Vietnam veteran (Ron Livingston from “Band of Brothers”) who returned to the States and began a battle with the authorities for support for all Americans with disabilities. Rialto exclusive (and limited sessions due to the building work at the site so check in advance).

Finally, the Penthouse and Lighthouse (Petone) are playing an Irish film, set in a retirement home, called How About You, based on a short story by Maeve Binchy.

I'm Not There. and How About You have already been reviewed at Funerals & Snakes. The other two will appear next week.

Registration for this year's 'V' 48 Hours Furious Filmmaking competition closes in only 8 days and organisers are once again looking (somewhat apprehensively) at a record-breaking number of entries. 2007 saw more than 120 teams take part in the Wellington region alone, and this year extra capacity has been made available so no one will get turned away.

There are over $100,000 of prizes up for grabs including a special Wellington-only prize for Best Film Written or Directed by a Woman, donated by WIFT (thanks to the efforts of the wonderful Gaylene Preston). While the attractions of camera-gear, facilities vouchers, travel, movie tickets and guarana-infused fizzy drinks are obvious, most teams enter for the sheer joy of filmmaking and return again and again.

Teams will shoot their films on the weekend of 16-18 May and the Heat screenings (this year free of charge) take place at the Paramount from 20 May. The Wellington Grand Final will be at The Embassy, once again, on Wednesday 11 June.

First up, Lars and the Real Girl is delightfully odd indie starring Ryan Gosling as a lonely and damaged young man who finds love on the Internet. With a doll named Bianca. Paramount, Penthouse.

Also at the Paramount, just for Wahine Week is a documentary about the disaster called The Wahine Disaster. Another documentary, that I missed in my sweep last week, is John Pilger's The War on Democracy which is now playing at the Lighthouse Petone only. It was originally going to play at the Paramount as well but was cut by the owners for being 'too left wing'. Some Paramount customers have already begun a boycott protesting this simple-minded attack on free speech (not to mention an attack on the Paramount itself and it's grand history of showing films with a humanitarian and anti-establishment position). Feel free to voice your displeasure to the management.

[The rest of this week's new releases after the jump]

A swag of Wellington artists have produced video art for The Artists Film Festival, opening tonight at 5:30pm at the Film Archive (cnr Taranaki and Ghuznee Sts).

Curated by Wellington-based curator (and Listener art critic) Paula J Booker, the show promises an extreme mix of artworks....28 video works in total, possibly the largest video exhibition ever undertaken in NZ.

Highlights include someone singing to Janis Joplin until almost passing out, CHCH artist James Oram generating electricity by bike to power his own ME sign....it's all pretty entertaining/shocking/thought-provoking stuff.

EXHIBITION DETAILS
The Artists Film Festival
11 April – 17 May 2008

LIVE PERFORMANCE, Thursday 17 April, 7pm
The Twilight Drone by Johannes Contag (of Cloudboy fame) Tickets $8/6.

Contag explores the notion of the ambient film with live accompaniment to this film work shot in a snow-covered Austria...

After last week's pathetic attempt at weather forecasting, I will refrain from suggesting anything other than there are three new films at the movies this week.

First up, slipping in to the wee cinemas at the back of the Paramount is French romantic comedy Change of Address. Musician Emmanuel Mouret has arrived in Paris without accommodation and is approached by Frederique Bel about sharing her flat. Ignoring the life-rule that goes "Don't f*ck your flatmates, don't mix your drinks" they become, er, acquainted. Complications ensue. Change of Address is described by Urban Cinefile in Australia as "playful and amusing". Paramount only.

I saw Never Back Down yesterday and I'm not giving too much away if I tell you that it is then most repulsive and objectionable film I have witnessed in a long time. As Ken Duncum once said (in another context) not only should this film never have been made but all those responsible should have to atone for having made it. Readings (and maybe Regent-on-Manners but their web site is down).

Finally Definitely, Maybe is a romantic comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Abigail Breslin (relax, they're not the romantically entwined couple - give her a few more years yet). Breslin plays Reynold's 11-year-old daughter who wants to know why Daddy is getting divorced. Through the medium of extended flashback, Reynolds then tries to explain his life and how he and her mother fell in love. The twist: we don't find out which of his three significant former lovers is his one true love until the end. Readings.

I've slipped a bit behind in reviewing current releases thanks to the Showcase but these three plus Rambo, Bonneville and The Eye will be reviewed at Funerals & Snakes next Wednesday.

Looks like the weekend is going to be beautiful, again. Perfect weather for, ahem, sitting in a darkened air-conditioned room watching a flickering light on a screen. And Hollywood has come to the party with a couple of films that are going to make sitting in the sunshine seem like the most natural thing in the world.

Sly Stallone brings John Rambo out of retirement for his first film since 1988 at Readings and Regent-on-Manners. Living in quiet retirement in Thailand, Rambo is forced back into action to rescue Christian missionaries in Burma. In Rambo tradition it's rated R18 for violence and offensive language.

The second asia-horror-remake to come out in two weeks (Shutter was last week) is The Eye. Jessica Alba plays a blind woman who gets a haunted cornea transplant and can see more than she bargained for. Readings and Regent-on-Manners.

[The rest of this week's new releases after the jump]

The Festival of the Arts has been soaking up almost every spare minute of my working day so this is going to be a bare bones update.My highlight: Simon "Shaun of the Dead" Pegg back on screen in Run Fatboy Run about a marriage-shy waster who tries to win the love of his life (Thandie Newton) back by running the London Marathon. Readings, Empire, Regent-on-Manners, Lighthouse Petone, Penthouse.

For the kids who like those dance-as-a-substitute-for-gang-warfare movies we have Step Up 2 The Streets, sequel to the massive 2006 hit that launched Channing Tatum on an unsuspecting world. He returns for the sequel. Readings only.

[The rest of this week's new releases after the jump]

There's a couple of special screenings coming up this weekend to commemorate the 50th Anniversary, on 17 March 2008, of the return to New Zealand of HMNZS Endeavour with the members of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

The 1955–58 Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (CTAE) was Commonwealth-sponsored and successfully completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole.

Funded by the governments of the UK, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, as well as private and corporate donations under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth II, the expedition was headed by British explorer Dr Vivian Fuchs, with the late Sir Edmund Hillary leading a supply support team.

While Sir Ed's supply party beat the English led group to the South Pole (being only the third group to reach the Pole overland after Amundsen in 1911 and Scott in 1912), the expedition arrived at Scott Base on 2 March, 1958, having crossed 3,473 km of previously unexplored snow and ice in 99 days.

The programme, presented in association with Antarctic Research Centre (Victoria University of Wellington), includes footage of the departure and return of the CTAE expedition, stunning film from on the ice, as well as classic film segments celebrating New Zealand’s Antarctic connection over the last 50 years.

Friday 14, Saturday 15 March at 7pm
Entry by koha
75 mins

After the excitement of the pre-Oscar rush it's another quiet week at the cinema. Opening all over town (that's Readings, Empire, Penthouse, Regent-on-Manners and Lighthouse Petone) is the historical drama The Other Boleyn Girl featuring the dream team of Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson along with Eric Bana as 'Enery the Eighth.

Even more historical (at least in terms of distance if not accuracy) is 10,000 B.C. which stars our own Cliff Curtis as a character called Tic'Tic (I kid you not). Directed by Independence Day's Roland Emmerich, 10,000 B.C. was partially filmed in New Zealand last year and tells the story of a young mammoth hunter's desperate efforts to save his tribe. There's no sign of Raquel Welch but Camilla Belle (When a Stranger Calls) comes off the bench to play eye-candy: Readings and Regent-on-Manners.

If neither of these take your fancy, there are sneak previews again this weekend of the Simon Pegg rom-com Run Fatboy Run (directed by his good mate David Schwimmer). You'll find that at Readings, Empire, Regent-on-Manners and Penthouse today, Saturday and Sunday only.

All three of these titles will be reviewed at Funerals & Snakes next Wednesday (and in the Capital Times on the same day). Meanwhile, tickets have gone on sale for the 2008 World Cinema Showcase which is an absolute doozy this year - a worthy competitor to the main Festival. And the Film Society got under way on Monday which must mean that Summer is nearly over.

Just in time for the weekend, here's a quick run down of the films opening this week in cinemas across town.

Returning from last year's Film Festival is Lady Chatterley, a French adaptation of an earlier ("kinder, gentler" according to Ebert) version of D. H. Lawrence's famous erotic novel Lady Chatterley's Lover. It sounds like it could have been titled There Will Be Sex: Rialto only.

Also returning, but from the more recent French Film Festival is big-budget costume drama Molière, about the great dramatist played by Romain Duris.That one is a Penthouse exclusive.

Finally this week, 300's Gerard Butler romances Hilary Swank from the dead in P.S., I Love You. Described by one reviewer as having a "high ick factor". Readings and Regent-on-Manners.

All these films will be reviewed at Funerals & Snakes by next Wednesday (and in the Capital Times on the same day).

In 1998 Werner Herzog made an acclaimed documentary called Little Dieter Needs to Fly about German-born Vietnam hero Dieter Dengler and his adventures as a US Navy pilot. He obviously had a big connection to that story as he has now gone back and made a feature about the most amazing chapter of Dengler’s life: the escape from a jungle-bound Viet Cong prison camp after 6 months of near starvation. The Dark Knight’s Christian Bale stars. Rialto exclusive.

Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman star together as two old men on their last legs in The Bucket List, directed by Rob Reiner. It opens today at Readings, Empire, Lighthouse Petone and Penthouse. Also, from the commercial department is teleporting adventure Jumper starring Hayden Christensen and Samuel L. Jackson. Rumours that the proposed sequels to Jumper will be called Sweater and Pullover are simply reckless. Readings, Empire, Regent-on-Manners.

[The rest of this week’s new releases after the jump]

It’s a quiet week for quality releases so you can all go to No Country for Old Men. Alternatively, if you’ve already done that or want a palate cleansing in advance of There Will Be Blood, you can check out comedy-thriller-romance Fool’s Gold at Readings, Regent or Sky City Queensgate. Matthew McConaughey reunites with Kate Hudson (How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days) as an estranged couple who reunite to search for sunken treasure (as you do). Donald Sutherland and Ray Winstone are the good actors lending their name to the project.

John C. Reilly goes from sidekick (Talladega Nights, The Aviator) to front and centre in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Reilly plays the eponymous rocker in a biopic that follows his up and down career across five decades and spoofs classics like Ray and Walk the Line. Written by Judd Apatow (Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin), Walk Hard opened yesterday (Waitangi Day special) at Readings, Regent-on-Manners, Empire and Sky City Queensgate.

[The rest of this week’s new releases after the jump]

As we approach the apex of the international awards season the biggest week for quality cinema releases in memory is upon us. With 8 Oscar nominations, the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men leads the pack and opens today at Readings, Lighthouse Petone, Paramount, Sky City Queensgate and the Embassy. Based on a Cormac McCarthy gothic crime novel, No Country reportedly sees the Coen’s back in their finest form since Fargo . Josh Brolin (American Gangster) plays a hunter who stumbles on a suitcase full of money and decides to keep it. He doesn’t realise that one of the biggest badasses in screen history (Javier Bardem) is coming to get him - and the money.

George Clooney as Best Actor is one of seven Oscar nominations gained for Michael Clayton, a paranoia-thriller about a corporate fixer who uncovers a plot that cannot end well for his clients - or for him. Written and directed by first-timer Tony Gilroy (co-writer of the Bourne trilogy), Michael Clayton brings to mind 70s classics like The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor (directed by Sydney Pollack who stars in Michael Clayton). Readings, Empire, Lighthouse Petone, Penthouse and Sky City Queensgate.

[The rest of this week’s new releases after the jump]

There are at least two crackers in this week’s line-up. Firstly, Johnny Depp re-unites with Tim Burton for faithful adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s acclaimed musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Depp is in his finest form (despite not having a Broadway-strength voice) and is joined by a wonderful cast including Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall and Sacha Baron Cohen. Readings, Empire, Sky City Quensgate.

“The West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin returns to DC to script Charlie Wilson’s War: the true story of a renegade but principled playboy Congressman (Tom Hanks) who almost single-handedly funded the Afghan resistance to the Soviet invasion in the 1980s. I was surprised to see this wasn’t nominated for an Oscar in the Best Adapted Screenplay category but Philip Seymour Hoffman is in there as Supporting Actor for his excellent turn as impolitic CIA operative Gust Avrakotos. You can see this one at the Embassy, Readings and Sky City Queensgate.

[The rest of this week’s new release summarised after the jump...]

After a few weeks off listing new releases I’m returning to record a typically eccentric mix of blockbuster and art-house for you to while away those long, balmy summer evenings.

First up is Oscar-winner Ang Lee’s first film since Brokeback Mountain, an erotic espionage thriller set in wartime Shanghai. Already nominated in last week’s Golden Globes Lust, Caution is a Paramount exclusive.

New York gets yet another terrible pounding in Cloverfield, as a monster of some description rips the head off the Statue of Liberty among other atrocities. The catch here is that the entire tale is told by “ordinary people” with their camcorders, a little like Blair Witch a few years ago. It’s produced by J. J. Abrams (“Lost”) and directed by another t.v. alumni Matt Reeves (best known thus far as creator of “Felicity”). At Readings Courtenay Central and Sky City Queensgate.

Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan have been up nights devising yet more sadistic tortures for deserving and undeserving suckers and have come up with Saw IV. Jigsaw carked it at the end of Saw III but that doesn‘t appear to slow things down at all. You’ll find it at Readings, Sky City Queensgate and Regent-on-Manners: look for the teenage boys trying to sneak in on borrowed ID’s.

Bond villain Mads Mikkelsen crosses over to the side of the angels in Susanne Bier’s acclaimed After the Wedding (Paramount and Penthouse). He plays Jacob, an aid worker who returns to Denmark on a fund-raising mission but instead discovers a life-changing family secret. After the Wedding was nominated for an Oscar last year in the Best Foreign Language Flick category. Finally, a geriatric romance is on offer in Elsa and Fred, from Spain. Described by one critic as “simultaneously heartbreaking and heartening” this one seems tailor-made for the Penthouse.

Readings, in their wisdom, have decided not to offer the Capital Times any reviewer’s passes in 2008 which makes writing about their films very close to being more trouble than it's worth. So, Cloverfield and Saw IV may not be reviewed there (and thus also at Funerals & Snakes) next Wednesday but the others will.