6 NOVEMBER

Amandla! A Revolution In Four Part Harmony (PG): Selected. Niche. 103 mins. D: Lee Hirsh. The power of song to communicate, motivate, console, unite and, ultimately, beget change: that ideal, gloriously realized, lies at the heart of director Lee Hirsch’s inspiring feature film documentary Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony. Winner of the Audience Award and Freedom of Expression Award at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, Amandla! tells the story of black South African freedom music and reveals the central role it played in the long battle against apartheid. The first film to specifically consider the music that sustained and galvanized black South Africans for more than 40 years, Amandla!’s focus is on the struggle’s spiritual dimension, as articulated and embodied in song. It is unlike any other film yet made on the subject of apartheid, and an electrically expressive portrait of South African life then and now. In form as well as content, Amandla! breaks new ground. Beginning with its dynamic opening title sequence, Amandla! harnesses the visual and sonic power of cinema to create a powerfully emotional viewing experience. 

Blackball (M): National. Icon. 97 mins. Comedy. UK. Paul Kay, Johnny Vegas, Vince Vaughn, Paul Kaye, James Cromwell, Alice Evans, Imelda Stauton.  D: Mel Smith (High Heels And Low Lives). Try as he might, the roguishly handsome Cliff Starkey, just can't keep out of trouble. In his sleepy home town on the English coast, nothing much inspires him...apart from bowls. Cliff has always preferred to play by his own rules much to the disapproval of the regimented, elderly bowls fraternity. Before long, the bad boy of bowls is turning the sedate and very English pastime upside down with hysterical results.  Don't mention Crackerjack! (Just send royalty checks to one M. Malloy). 

Hypnotic (TBA): Selected. Rialto. Thriller. Goran Visnjic, Paddy Considine, Shirley Henderson, Miranda Otto, Corin Redgrave.  Hypotherapist Dr Michael Strother has a dangerous gift; he gets flashes from inside of his patients’ minds. While trying to help a detective, he sees an image of a young girl floating below the surface of a stream. He is soon caught up in the detective’s pursuit of a ritualistic killer who believes he has found the secret of immortality. Now only Michael can help release her memories, and provide a clue to the whereabouts of the killer..

In This World (TBA): Selected. Dendy. UK. 90 mins. Jamal Udin Torabi, Enayatullah. D: Michael Winterbottom (Wonderland).  Striking a fine balance between the fictional and documentary, IN THIS WORLD tells the intimate and touching story of two Afghani cousins, Jamal and Enayatullah who place their lives in the hands of people smugglers and travel the old ‘Silk Road’ in search of a better life in the London. Filmed entirely on location with non-professional actors, IN THIS WORLD gives reign to the drama, allowing us to peer behind the headlines and take stock of the broader moral and political concerns while never loosing sight of the individual emotional journey. 

Le Divorce (M): National. Fox. 117 mins. Comedy. Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, Stockard Channing, Matthew Modine, Sam Waterston, Leslie Caron, Melvil Poupaud, Thierry Lhermitte, Bebe Neuwirth, Romain Duris, Stephen Fry. In this modern-day comedy of manners, American sisters Isabel (Hudson) and Roxy (Watts) come face to face with the complicated social mores of French society. Pregnant and jilted by her scoundrel husband, Roxy is headed for Le Divorce, while Isabel leaps into L’amour with a married French diplomat who happens to be the uncle of Roxy’s soon to be ex. Culture clash and scandal ensue as the sisters learn what it really takes to be an American in Paris.

The Matrix Revolutions (TBA): National. Warner Bros (Roadshow). Action/ Sci-fi. USA. Keanu Reeves (Neo), Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity), Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus), Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith), Jada Pinkett-Smith (Niobi), Monica Belluci, Collin Chou, Nona Gaye (Zee), Harry Lennix (Lock), Rupert Reid, Clayton Watson (The Kid). D: Andy & Larry Wachowski (Bound). The third movie in the Matrix series.  So what's it all about? Here's a quote from Keanu "The story kind of goes outside of the Matrix and starts to concern itself with the machines in Zion...So it's almost [that] what he can do in the Matrix is not enough. And he's still on the path of discovery and choice. He's told by the Oracle that...he has some choices that he'll have to make that will affect the survival of the human race."

13 NOVEMBER

Alien: The Directors Cut (M): Selected, Fox. 111 mins. Sci-fi. USA. Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Harry Dean Stanton, Veronica Cartwright, Yaphet Kotto, Bolaji Badejo, Helen Horton (voice). D: Ridley Scott.  In deep space, the crew of the commercial starship Nostromo is awakened from their cryo-sleep capsules halfway through their journey home to investigate a distress call from an alien vessel. After landing on a barren planet, Warrant Officer Ripley works to decipher the transmission and discovers that the signal is actually a warning, not an SOS. But it is too late to turn back as three members of the crew have already left to investigate the derelict ship. The terror begins when Kane encounters a nest of eggs inside the alien ship. An organism from inside an egg leaps out and attaches itself to his face, causing him to fall into a coma. Because of the facehugger's awesome defenses, the crew of the Nostromo cannot remove it without also killing Kane. As the crew searches for a way to save Kane, the facehugger dies and Kane wakes up, feeling fine. Or is he? P.S. All hell breaks loose.

Cabin Fever (MA): Selected. Icon. Horror. 92 mins. Jordon Ladd, Rider Strong, James BeBello, Cinina Vincent, Joey Kern. D: Eli Roth (TV's Chowdaheads). As a last hurrah after college, friends Jeff, Karen, Paul, Marcy and Bert embark on a vacation deep into the mountains. With the top down and the music up, they drive to a remote cabin to enjoy their last days of decadence before entering the working world. Then somebody gets sick. Karen's skin starts to bubble and burn as something grows inside her, tunneling beneath her flesh. The group is so repulsed, shocked and sickened watching their friend deteriorate before their eyes; they lock her in a shed to avoid infection. As they debate about how to save her, they look at one another and realize that any one of them could also have it. What soon began as a struggle against the disease turns into a battle against friends, as the fear of contagion drives them to turn on each other.

Elf (TBA) : National. Roadshow. Will Ferrell, Edward Asner, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Bob Newhart, Mary Steenburgen. A human baby raised as an elf. A city where no one remembers the true meaning of Christmas. Will Ferrell (Saturday Night Live, Superstar) stars as Buddy, a human raised in the North Pole to be an elf. After wreaking havoc in the elf community due to his size, Buddy heads to New York City to find his place in the world, and track down his father. But life in the big city is not all sugarplums and candy canes.

Formula 51(MA): Selected. UIP (Para). 93 mins. Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Carlyle, Emily Mortimer, Rhys Ifans, Meatloaf, Sean Pertwee, Ricky Tomlinson. D: Ronny Yu. "Formula 51" is the story of Elmo McElroy (Jackson), a streetwise American master chemist who heads to England to sell his special new formula - a powerful, blue concoction guaranteed to take you to “the 51st state.” McElroy’s new product delivers a feeling 51 times more powerful than any thrill, any pleasure, any high in history. But his plans for a quick, profitable score go comically awry when he gets stuck in Liverpool with an unlikely escort (Carlyle) and his ex-girlfriend (Mortimer) and becomes entangled in a bizarre web of double-dealing and double-crosses.

The Honorable Wally Norman (M): National. Becker. 84 mins. Comedy. Australia. Kevin Harrington, Shaun Micallef, Rosalind Hammond, Bryan Dawe, Greig Pickhaver. D:  Ted Emery (The Craic). A warm-hearted Aussie comedy that follows the battler hero who is accidentally nominated to run for federal parliament after the local meats works is closed down. When incompetent politicians accidentally nominate a poor, honest meatworker for federal parliament, ordinary values help him overcome all the odds to win office, stick one up slick party politics and restore a little dignity to the bush.

Sea Biscuit (TBA): National. Buena Vista. Drama. Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, William H. Macy, Chris Cooper. D: Gary Ross (Pleasantville). The true story of the 1930’s race horse, Seabiscuit, as depicted in the bestselling book “Seabiscuit: An American Legend” by Linda Hillenbrand. Former bicycle repairman, Charles Howard (Bridges) made his fortune introducing the automobile to the American West, and owned a small knobbly-kneed horse called Seabiscuit. Howard teamed up with a half-blind ex-boxing prize fighter, Red Pollard (Maguire), who became the horses jockey and a former mustang breaker Wild West performer called “The Lone Plainsman”, Tom Smith (Cooper), who became the horses trainer. As the United States struggled through the Great Depression, people around the country followed with rapt interest of the Seabiscuit story, leading to his win of the Horse of the Year honors in 1938.

20 NOVEMBER

Mystic River (TBA): National. Roadshow. Drama. D: Clint Eastwood (Play Misty For Me). Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney, Emmy Rossum. Three childhood friends, Sean (Bacon), Dave (Robbins) and Jimmy (Penn) are reunited in Boston 25 years later when they become linked together in the murder investigation of Jimmy's oldest daughter, Katie (Rossum). Sean is a police detective investigating the case (Fishburne plays his partner), while Dave is a man with psychological problems caused when he was kidnapped and sexually abused in 1975 when he was a child, who is now a possible suspect in Katie's death.

Nicholas Nickleby (M): Selected. Palace, Selected, Drama, UK. 133 mins. Charlie Hunnam, Jamie Bell, Jim Broadbent, Barry Humphries, Nathan Lane, Timothy Spall. D: Douglas McGrath.  Young Nicholas and his family enjoy a comfortable life, until Nicholas’ father dies and the family is left penniless.  Nicholas, his sister and mother venture to London to seek help from their Uncle Ralph, but Ralph’s only intentions are to separate the family and exploit them.  Nicholas is sent to a school run by the cruel, abusive and horridly entertaining Wackford Squeers but he escapes with a schoolmate  and sets off to reunite the family.  An intimately epic version of Dickens’ classic.

Once Upon A Time In Mexico (TBA): National. Buena Vista. Action. Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, Rubén Blades, Eva Mendes, Mickey Rourke, Danny Trejo, Gerardo Vigil, Enrique Iglesias, Cheech Marin.  D: Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi). The final installment of the adventures of the mythic guitar singing hero, El Mariachi, last seen in Desperado and played again in this new installment by Antonio Banderas. The saga continues as El Mariachi makes his way across a rugged landscape on the blood trail of evil cartel kingpin, Barillo (Dafoe), who has set in motion a plan to implement a coup d’etat against the president of Mexico. Enlisted by a corrupt CIA agent (Depp), El Mariachi demands retribution and the blazing action adventure begins against a backdrop of revolution, greed and revenge.

The School of Rock (PG): National. UIP (Para). Comedy/ musical. 108 mins. USA. Jack Black, Joan Cusack, Sarah Silverman, Mike White. D: Richard Linklater (Waking Life). Fired from his band, rock guitarist and vocalist Dewey Finn (Black) takes a job as a 4th grade substitute teacher at an uptight private school where his free livin' lifestyle, attitude, music and antics soon influences the students to explore other sides of themselves the school doesn't encourage. Finn's real goal in taking the job is to recruit a 9-year-old guitar prodigy, Yuki, to become the lead guitarist in a band that would be able to win a "battle of bands", solving Finn's money problems and re-establishing him as a respected rocker.

The Singing Detective (TBA): National. Icon. Musical. USA. Robert Downey Jr., Robin Wright Penn, Mel Gibson, Jeremy Northam, Katie Holmes, Adrien Brody, Jon Polito, Carla Gugino, Saul Rubinek, Alfre Woodard.  D: Keith Gordon (Waking The Dead).  The Singing Dectective tells the story of crime novelist Dan Dark (Robert Downey Jr.) who, languishing in his hospital bed, occupies his time by mapping out a screenplay in his head about a cynical private investigator who doubles as a singer in a dance band. His lead character is slowly drawn into a web of intrigue during the murder investigation of a prostitute in 1950s Los Angeles. Heavily medicated, the border between reality and fiction starts to blur in Dark's mind. The plot is woven together with his own painful childhood memories, and soon he is living in a fevered film-noir hell constructed by his own twisted psyche, where everyone is his enemy and no one can be trusted.

Uptown Girls (PG): National. Fox (MGM). 102 mins. Comedy. Brittany Murphy, Dakota Fanning, Heather Locklear, Jesse Spencer, Megan Corletto, Donald Faison, Marley Shelton. Molly Gunn (Murphy) is the freewheeling daughter of a late rock legend, and the toast of the Manhattan social scene. But when her inheritance is stolen, Molly is forced to do something she's never done before - get a job, Molly becomes a nanny to precocious Ray Schleine (Fanning), an "eight-year-old going on forty." Emotionally distant from her fast-paced A&R executive mother, Roma (Locklear), Ray has grown up with a revolving door of nannies and too little stability. Molly and Ray both feel painfully alone in the world, but as they try to make their new arrangement work, each discovers in the other a true friend.

27 NOVEMBER

Good Boy! (TBA): National. Fox (MGM). Family comedy. V: Hubble (Matthew Broderick), Wilson (Donald Faison), Nelly (Brittany Murphy), Shep (Carl Reiner). D: John Robert Hoffman. Film Format: Live action with CGI enhanced dog characters. 11 year-old Owen Baker is a born dog-lover who’s thrilled when he finally adopts his very own dog from the animal shelter.  To his amazement, he soon learns that his new pet is no ordinary dog.  Apparently, Hubble is on a mission from Sirius, the faraway dog planet, to ready a group of neighbourhood dogs for a visit from their leader, The Greater Dane.  If the earth dogs fail to impress the Dane, the consequences could be monumental.

My Boss' Daughter (M): National. Buena Vista. 86 mins. Comedy. Ashton Kutcher, Tara Reid, Molly Shannon, Andy Richter, Patrick Cranshaw, Jon Abrahams, Carmen Electra, Dan Joffre, David Koechner. D: David Zucker (BASEketball). The movie is about a young man (Kutcher) who is asked to housesit for his boss. He's had a crush on the boss's daughter (Reid) for a long time and uses this opportunity as a chance to get close to her and win her heart. But he doesn't plan on the long line of other houseguests that try to keep him from his mission. He also has to deal with the daughter's older brother (Richter), who is on the run from local drug dealers.

NOVEMBER

Dirty Pretty Things (MA): Selected. Buena Vista. Crime Thriller. 97 mins. Audrey Tautou, Chewitill Ejiofor, Sergio Lopez, Sophie Okenedo. D: Stephen Frears (High Fidelity). Chiwetel Ejiofor gives a remarkably understated performance in director Stephen Frears's offbeat and gripping drama DIRTY PRETTY THINGS. Ejiofor stars as Okwe, a Nigerian who is trying to make a new life for himself in London, where he works days as a taxi driver and nights as a hotel desk receptionist. When he discovers a human heart in a hotel-room bathroom, he cannot go to the police because he is an illegal alien with a mysterious past he refuses to talk about. Suddenly he is thrust into the middle of a dangerous situation that threatens to have tragic results for him and those around him. French ingenue Audrey Tautou costars as a Turkish woman who has sought asylum in England, where she is allowed to live but not work. But she must make money, so she works secretly while the government tries to catch her.