In Cinemas: October 11 - 17

CURRENT RELEASES:

* The much-loved music documentary SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN is back from NZFF, playing now at Rialto, Bridgeway and the Capitol. Details of Detroitian folk musician Rodriguez' on-stage suicide vary and now a pair of uber-fans set out from South Africa (turns out he was Big in Cape Town) to discover the truth. Heart-warming, tear-jerking, a real crowd-pleaser, filled with beautiful Rodriguez songs.

* "First they took his daughter. Now they're coming for him"…Yep, it got a sequel. Like the first one, TAKEN 2 is co-written by Luc Besson, although this one is directed by his TRANSPORTER 3 pal, Mr. Megaton. It opens in multiplexes across the country today and while it looks to be filled with handguns, cellphones and Rade Serbedzija, what we're really hoping for is some classic Neeson improvisational comedy:

* There's not much else in the way of new general releases this week; we've got the new Bradley Cooper thing that nobody seems to like, called THE WORDS and a Hindi rom-com by the name of AIYYAA.

* If the stack of great specialty screenings below aren't your thing, the following films are still playing at the mutliplexes and arthouses 'round town; DREDD, LOOPER, TAI CHI 0 3D, WHERE DO WE GO NOW?, GOD BLESS AMERICA, MOONRISE KINGDOM, YOUR SISTER'S SISTER, to name just a few...

REPERTORY/ONE-OFF SCREENINGS

* It's Wurlitzer time again! Hollywood Cinema in Avondale will be playing Buster Keaton's silent film STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. (1928) while Ron Clark plays the keys right in front of us. The entire program usually runs near 3hrs and has sold out before, but we hope to see you there, 2PM Sunday afternoon.

* With John Davies finishing up at The Academy this weekend, he's got all sorts playing. ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975), Pink Floyd's THE WALL (1982), BEETLE JUICE (1988) and LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1986), plus he's chosen to close up shop with CINEMA PARADISO (1988) at 9:30PM on Sunday night if you want to go say goodbye. There are a couple of films playing under the Macedonian Film Festival heading this weekend; the new film by BEFORE THE RAIN director Milcho Manchevski, MOTHERS (preceded by the short LITTLE MATCH GIRL), as well as PUNK'S NOT DEAD. And there is even something called THE KOOKY WORLD OF ONLINE ANIMALS playing for the next few mornings, which appears to be a compilation of silly pets from YouTube?

* Film Society has Jean-Pierre Melville's 1949 film LE SILENCE DE LA MER playing on 35mm next Monday at 6:30PM. A German soldier is holed up with a Frenchman and his niece who both refuse to talk to him, and phrases like "devastatingly beautiful" and "technical brilliance" make this tale sound fascinating.

* Wednesday sees Monterey kick back in with its classic films on the big screen. David Lean's epic LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) plays at 12:30PM and hopefully they'll have their Maurice Jarre cranked up loud:

* The Changing Minds festival is spending the day at The Kenneth Myers Centre in Auckland Central this Saturday. There are free screenings of A HISTORY OF MADNESS THROUGH NZ TV AND CINEMA (1PM) and MENTAL NOTES (preceded by the 17min short BLACK & WHITE at 4PM) before a panel discussion entitled “How can film-makers represent diverse human experience in order to create positive social change?” at 5:40PM.

* AUCKLAND - CITY OF SAILS (12PM & 2PM Saturday), FOUNDATION, FORM, FUNCTION (12PM & 2PM Sunday) and LITTLE POLYNESIA (3:30PM Sunday) all play for free again this weekend at the Auckland Art Gallery.

* In fact, there are a whole bunch of one-off screenings playing in small venues around town this weekend;

- Stuart Townsend's star-studded BATTLE IN SEATTLE (2007) plays at Unite Union in Kingsland at 7PM Thursday and includes a forum afterwards.

- There is a free screening of FAUN VARIATIONS (NZ '87) down at the Gus Fisher Gallery 1PM Saturday and also includes a discussion with artist Sriwhana Spong.

- ANNE FRANK REMEMBERED (1995) plays for free at the Auckland War Museum 7:45PM Wednesday with guest speakers beforehand (kick-off at 6PM).

- PICTURES OF SUSAN is back from NZFF 2012 to play at 12:30PM & 7:30PM on Tuesday at the Hawkins Theatre in Papakura.

* And if all of that isn't enough, the Italian Film Fest has a few more days, Event has a Film Squad screening of FRANKENWEENIE 3D ($10 with combo) Sunday 3PM if for some reason you don't come for the aforementioned Wurlitzer extravaganza, Rialto have a Film Club preview of THE SESSIONS at 6:30PM on Thursday and there are preview screenings of THE INTOUCHABLES at Albany Event & Rialto all weekend. So good luck with all of that!


All times above are accurate at the time of publication. Your best bet would be to check Flicks or the theatre website before attending. Please let us know in the comments if you spy anything we've messed up/missed out!