200805091044.jpg 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.