Primer
Starring Shane Carruth, David Sullivan.
Directed by Shane Carruth
Rated: PG-13
The smell of popcorn lingers under your nose, the sound of the stranger to your right slurping on his giant soda echoes in your ear, the feel of old gum strategically placed by the asshole who had your seat last rubs against your fingertips.
Shall We Dance
Starring: Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez
Director: Peter Chelsom
Rated: PG-13
After 19 years of marriage, John Clark (Richard Gere), an outwardly content accountant, decides he is missing something in his life.
Close your eyes and think of the words "Canadian music." Suddenly, images of Bryan Adams singing that Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves song and Celine Dion running down the hall of a castle to the tune of "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" appear, right?
Unfortunately for the average music fan, the words "Canadian music" are forever linked with the year 1995.
Taxi
Director: Tim Story
Starring Queen Latifah, Jimmy Fallon
Rated: PG-13
Sometimes it's nice to turn your brain off and watch a shallow comedy with a brainless plotline.
Let's say you happened to have five guys that look like they belong in different bands. Hand them some instruments, let them roam free with their ideas and allow for some serious harmonizing.
When one hears the name Joan Crawford, an image of a frenzied Faye Dunaway sporting a green sleeping mask with larger-than-life eyebrows might come to mind, accompanied by the phrase, "no more wire hangers!" How could an actress whose celebrity outlasted the average movie star's by at least four decades suffer such a rapid and humiliating post-mortem decline of reputation?
Star Wars Trilogy DVD Box Set, featuring Episode IV, V, VI and Special Features
Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
Director: George Lucas (IV), Irvin Kershner (V), Richard Marquand (VI)
Rated: PG
Why has it taken so long for the original Star Wars Trilogy to come out on DVD?
In this era of reality-obsessed film and television, it came as quite a shock that The Motorcycle Diaries has nothing to do with either leather chaps, burly biker-boys or roaming the Midwest in search of a brawl.
Any movie that is based on a self-help novel for women should be approached with caution, but Woman Thou Art Loosed succeeds in telling a story about finding peace and acceptance.
"It's kind of like this. Listen."
Plucking away on a spankin' new guitar just purchased at a 7th street pawn shop, Jason Schwartzman musically describes his new film, I Heart Huckabees. Shortly after picking a string, he retunes it and giddily shows how the note ascends.
There is nothing creepier than watching a movie in which the main character discovers that she is schizophrenic and has imagined every event in her life (you know you were paranoid after A Beautiful Mind). There is nothing more enthralling than watching a cheesy alien movie (you've seen Independence Day. Don't lie). The Forgotten, contrary to what one might think, is neither.
Tim Corrigan, chair of Penn's brand new Cinema Studies major, gives the program two thumbs up.
Tell us about the new film major at Penn.
There's been a film program and minor at Penn for about five years now.