2/13
The Squid and the Whale (US; 2005;
d. Noah Baumbach)
This film’s
title refers to an epic battle for survival between a whale and a giant squid
that is the subject of an exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. Director
Noah Baumbach uses this struggle as a metaphor for the lives of two writer/teachers
(played by Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney) in mid-1980s Brooklyn. As their marriage
falls apart, the couple’s two sons are caught in the crossfire. Darkly
comic and intellectual in a manner reminiscent of Wes Anderson (Rushmore,
The Royal Tenenbaums), this film is “tender, cruel, and very
funny,” writes J. Hoberman in The Village Voice. (R; 81 min.)
2/20
Junebug (US; 2005; d. Phil Morrison)
With its "bright dialogue, complex characters and moments of sheer
aching sweetness," Junebug is akin to "Chekhov with a side
of red-eye gravy," says Eleanor Ringel Gillespie of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Madeleine, a successful Chicago dealer in outsider art, travels with new husband
George to his rural North Carolina home. Her two goals for the trip are to charm
her husband's resistant family and to woo Wark, an eccentric North Carolina
artist whose work she wants to exhibit.
Madeleine, a cosmopolitan who was born in Japan and speaks with a British accent,
is everything his family is not. This "wise, beautifully acted comedy"
reminds us that going home is never easy, says Stephen Holden (The New York
Times).
(R; 107 min.)
2/27
Paradise Now (France/Germany/Netherlands/Israel;
200; d. Hany Abu-Assad)
In this compelling
thriller, director Hany Abu-Assad forces his audience–whatever their beliefs–to
challenge their assumptions in depicting the lives of Said (Kais Nashef) and
Khaled (Ali Suliman), two Palestinian mechanics who are recruited to become
suicide bombers. Paradise Now–shot on location in Nablus and
Nazareth–sets their actions both in the relatively familiar context of
the region’s politics, and in the context of the two men’s personal
lives. Rather than excusing or validating their actions, Kenneth Turan of The
Los Angeles Times writes that that the film shows “an uncompromising
determination to explain rather than justify or condemn, to put a human face
on incomprehensible acts.”
(PG-13; 90 min.)
3/6 Loggerheads (US; 2005; d. Tim Kirkman)
Presented in Partnership with Out at the Movies, the North Country LGBT Film Festival
Kirkman's
warm, loving film offers "beautifully shaded portrayals" (Kevin Thomas,
The Los Angeles Times) in three stories of interconnected lives deeply
affected by prejudice, intolerance, and restrictive adoption laws. Set in three
North Carolina towns in three successive years, the central characters are first
Mark, a young gay drifter protecting a nest of female loggerhead turtles near
coastal Kure Beach; Elizabeth, a minister’s wife in the town of Eden who
decides not to welcome new neighbors when she thinks they are gay; and finally
Grace, newly returned to Ashville and sadly recollecting the son she gave up
for adoption at 17. Kirkman brings these three stories together and “offers
a bighearted outlook on how to
absorb change and defeat,” says Michael Booth of The Denver Post.
(PG-13; 95 min.)
3/20
Far Side of the Moon/La Face cachée de la lune (Canada;
2003; d. Robert Lepage)
Philippe,
a forty-something eternal doctoral candidate in physics (played by director
Lepage) is reunited with estranged younger brother Andre (also played by the
director) when their mother dies. Is the gravitational pull between brothers
stronger than the twin forces of resentment and malaise? Adapted from his play
of the same name, “Lepage lyrically fuses childhood memories with present-day
sibling rivalry” and “spins a rich, moving film that acknowledges
humanity's power to break out of Earth's daily gravity; in the process, he leaves
audiences floating.” (Mark Peranson, The Village Voice)
(NR; 105 min.)
3/27
Darwin's Nightmare
(Austria/Belgium/France/Canada/Finland/Sweden; 2004; d. Hubert Sauper)
This “extraordinary work of visual journalism . . . on one of the central
stories of our time” (A.O. Scott, The New York Times) begins
with the effects of the introduction of the predatory Nile Perch to the waters
of Lake Victoria in Tanzania. Very quickly the film becomes a story not only
of predation leading to the decimation of native species, but also an informed
and critical look at relations between the economies of the northern hemisphere
and vulnerable populations in the south. Darwin’s Nightmare “turns
the fugitive, mundane facts that are any documentary's raw materials into the
stuff of tragedy and prophecy.” (NR; 107 min.)
3/3 Chain (US/Germany; 2004; d. Jem Cohen)
Guest Appearance by the Director, Jem Cohen 
Two
women in unnamed cities serve as our eyes onto global exurbia. Amanda is homeless
and aimless. She drifts from job to job, and between jobs hangs out in malls,
trying to avoid mall security. Tamiko, a workaholic Japanese businesswoman,
has been sent to the United States to gather information on American theme parks
for her employer. Filmed in malls and
other locations in multiple states and countries, Stephen Holden of The
New York Times calls Chain “visually haunting.” Chain
is “a dreamlike travelogue that transforms a mundane world into something
strange and new.” (Ed Halter, The Village Voice) (NR; 99 min.)
4/10
Boys of Baraka (US; 2005; d. Heidi
Ewing and Rachel Grady)
In September of 2002, twenty underachieving middle-school boys
from Baltimore's inner city schools were selected to attend Baraka School in
Kenya, for a two-year program at the experimental boarding school. Filmmakers
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady present an unflinching look at the failings of
Baltimore's inner-city schools and at the lives of four boys who participated
in this controversial, rigorous educational program. Winner of Best Documentary
Film Awards at the Chicago, Atlanta, and Newport film festivals, Boys of
Baraka "puts a human face on the toll poverty takes on America's disenfranchised
children," says Tamara Krinsky of Variety. (NR; 84 min.)
4/17
2046 (China/France/Germany/Hong Kong;
2004; d. Kar Wai Wong) ****
Hong
Kong director Wong Kar-Wai (Days of Being Wild, Chungking Express)
returns with a film that alludes—directly and indirectly—to much
of his previous work. Reprising his role from Wong’s previous film, In
the Mood for Love, Tony Leung plays Chow Mo-wan, whose faltering career
as a writer of pulp science-fiction novels is made bearable only through a series
of romantic encounters. The storyline of the film alternates between Chow’s
life in late 1960s Hong Kong and the dystopian future world about which Chow
writes. Sean Burns of The Philadelphia Weekly writes that the film
is “a gorgeous abstraction—an epically sustained . . . sigh of heartache
and regret.” Mahnola Dargis of The New York Times calls 2046
“an unqualified triumph” and praises its lush and powerful visual
imagery. (R; 130 min.) ****starts at 7:00 PM
4/24
Syrian Bride (France/Germany/Israel;
2004; d. Eran Riklis)
This bittersweet comedy
was shot on location in the Golan Heights on the Syrian-Israeli border. Mona
is smart, westernized, and about to enter into an arranged marriage. Marriage
will require her to cross the border into Syria, marry a man she has never met,
and become a Syrian citizen, giving away her right to cross back to see her
family. As wedding preparations and celebrations lead to the border crossing,
the members of Mona’s Druze family deal with their own conflicts. "The
Syrian Bride manages the rare feat of blending the personal and the political
in pitch-perfect fashion," says Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter.
(NR; 97 min.)
Cinema 10 is a non-profit, volunteer group which presents alternative film programming. We work to bring the best in American independent and foreign films to North Country audiences. If you have a suggestion or would like to get involved, please e-mail Holly Chambers. The Cinema 10 Board members are Chris Affre, Fran Bailey, Holly Chambers, Ed Clark, Viki Levitt, Anne Malone, Hilary Oak, Celine Philibert, Chris Robinson, Eric Schultze, David Sommerstein, Christino Tamon, and Donna Williamson.
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