Wednesday, November 14, 2012

In Cinemas: November 15 - 21


CURRENT RELEASES:

Turns out that I 'unfortunately' missed the TWILIGHT: BREAKING DAWN double-feature all over town Wednesday night, and marathoning was the only way you'd've tricked me into seeing those things. So while that mammoth clogs the multiplexes all this week, it's up to the arthouses to come to the rescue...


* After the crooning in last week's screening of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, I'm unsure how ready I am for 83 minutes of concentrated Christopher Plummer thesping in BARRYMORE this week. It's based on the play with Plummer as the titular John Barrymore, trying to recapture his Richard III fame and looks to take place entirely on-stage. Rialto is charging $25 to see it in their e-cinema, but it's normal pricing at the Monterey (meaning $8.50 Monday and Tuesday).

* DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL (NZFF 2012) is a documentary about the enigmatic fashion editor, and I hear it's definitely worth a look regardless of how uninteresting that sounds (to me). At the Capitol, the Monterey, Bridgeway and in Rialto's e-cinema.

* Local documentary SONG OF THE KAURI (NZFF 2012) has returned at both The Vic and in Rialto's e-cinema (what do they play on their other five screens?!). Rialto also squeeze filmmaker Mathurin Molgat into that room at 6 PM on Friday for a Film Talk session.

* Grandma-cinema meets sci-fi heist film? Not sure, but ROBOT & FRANK is at most arthouses this week (including Rialto cinema 5, from the look of it, answering my question above). With Frank Langella (Skeletor/Nixon), James Marsden (Cyclops), Liv Tyler, Susan Sarandon, Peter Sarsgaard and a robot. I'm hoping for some creepy Actroid-F action or perhaps some mean dance moves;


* There will be 'sneak previews' of MONSIEUR LAZHAR (NZFF 2012) around town this weekend. The right folks are loving this French-Canadian drama about a teacher and his students, so I'm guessing I'm gunna enjoy it too, despite being another film with subject matter that fails to grab me.

* There're some other slightly older options, too. A few Event cinemas still have adorable-looking Taiwanese film WHEN A WOLF FALLS IN LOVE WITH A SHEEP (南方小羊牧場), Hong Kong police actioner COLD WAR (寒戰) is still at Sylvia Park Hoyts, and while Bridgeway seems to've dropped the indie flick ELECTRICK CHILDREN, Rialto still has it...in their e-cinemas. In fact, Academy might still have it as well; they haven't updated their listings just yet and are probably even still playing the painfully funny KLOWN (KLOVN - THE MOVIE). You can also still catch the tail-end of JGL vs. Bruce Willis in LOOPER, the other wonderful time-travel flick SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED, local peeping-tom-rom-com HOW TO MEET GIRLS FROM A DISTANCE...


REPERTORY / ONE-OFF SCREENINGS:

Auckland Art Gallery's "Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 - Present" exhibition has a few more film screenings this weekend. Good ol' The Band gets a bunch of special guests on stage for their finale show in Scorsese's THE LAST WALTZ (1978), which plays at 2 PM Saturday. And IN BED WITH MADONNA (aka MADONNA: TRUTH OR DARE from 1991) will be playing at lunchtime on Sunday. Both of those're free.

NITRO CIRCUS 3D is on for four days only at Pukekohe 3Event and Hoyts. It appears to be almost identical to JACKASS, but I love how well nonsense like this utilises the 3D technology, so count me in!

"A gay detective who always gets his man"...Number 8 Films have their monthly Gay Film Night this week; THIRD MAN OUT is about "America's First Gay Detective" (according to the poster) and will be at Rialto Newmarket 6:30 PM Thursday.

* The Peace Place in Auckland's CBD has a screening of the new FOUR HORSEMEN documentary at 7:30 PM Monday (entry by koha/donation). Loads of clever fellows like Noam Chomsky talk on film about how the world really works.

Japanese Film Week continues underneath the General Library at Auckland University. On Friday night, they play Studio Ghibli's ARRIETTY (借りぐらしのアリエッティ), which was at last year's International Film Festival. That will be proceeded by PROTECTING TODAY (きょうを守る), a documentary about last year's major Japanese earthquake. Kick-off at 5:40 PM. But even before that, 7 PM Thursday sees Takeshi Kitano return to yakuza films with OUTRAGE (アウトレイジ) from 2010 (which already has a sequel in Japan). This guy scares the shit outta me; I'd even drink Pocari Sweat if he asked me to, and I don't even know what a Pocari is;


* National Theatre's LAST OF THE HAUSSMANS is on again Friday and Sunday at Rialto, Friday and Monday at Bridgeway, plus a screening at Capitol and one at the Monterey. With Narcissa Malfoy and Mrs. Weasley from the HARRY POTTER flicks, and some other dude I don't know.

* A collection of episodes from Cartoon Network oddity THE AMAZING WORLD OF GUMBALL has another weekend of early screenings at Event coming up. And while I won't be at Hoyts' continuation of MY LITTLE PONY: IT'S A PONY PARTY with the bronies, I'd kinda like to try this Gumball thing out. If I'm alive at that time...

* Monterey's weekly Pixar flick is TOY STORY 2 (1999) at 9:30 AM this Saturday and Sunday. I do love that film to bits. They also finish their David Lean retrospective with one more screening of RYAN'S DAUGHTER (1970), 2 PM Sunday.

* The Banksy documentary EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (2010) has some screenings over at The Vic all week. In fact, they've got a lot planned over the next seven days! There is Vincent Ward's RAIN OF THE CHILDREN (2008) still at The Vic for Thursday and Friday; another screening of Mads Mikkelsen in A ROYAL AFFAIR (EN KONGELIG AFFÆRE) at 3:45 PM on Sunday; what appears to be a collection of short documentaries about pottery-folk under the heading 3 POTTERS will play at 4:30 PM Monday; there are five screenings of 3-2-1 A PORTRAIT OF KURT JACKSON, which I imagine is a doco about the British painter; OPEN AT PAGE 100 is a Robin Kewell doco about the teacher Robin Child and plays this weekend; and there are two different Michael Heath documentaries about the same NZ-born painter - EDITH COLLIER: A LIGHT AMONG SHADOWS (NZFF 2007) plays on Tuesday and VILLAGE BY THE SEA (NZFF 2012) on Wednesday.

All sessions 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!

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