Honolulu Weekly

Unattributed film synopses indicate movies not yet reviewed by HW staff.

❦ Indicates films of unusual interest

Opening

❦Adoration A teenage orphan is convinced that a news story about a terrorist who planted a bomb in his girlfriend’s luggage is about his family. A study in identity, perception and existentialism.

❦Fame If you thought regular high school was bad, cue the stage lights and watch the drama unfold at the New York City High School of Performing Arts. A modern spin on the 1980 Oscar-winner of the same name, which followed students as they sang, danced and acted their way toward a shot at fame.

❦It Might Get Loud As millions of finger-plucking couch potatoes can attest, the guitar is one hell of an instrument. A tribute to rock music’s most prominent instrument by way of profiling three legendary players: Jack White of The White Stripes, the Edge of U2 and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.

❦Pandorum After waking from hyper-sleep, two astronauts find themselves in a spacecraft that appears to be empty…or is it? Strange noises emanate from the spaceship’s chamber, apparently from intergalactic creatures threatening to–dun dun dun–destroy the human race. It’s up to Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster to save the planet.

❦The September Issue A behind-the- scenes look at fashion’s most notorious ice queen, Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine and the muse for The Devil Wears Prada. Watch Wintour give birth to her nearly five-pound baby, aka the September 2007 issue, which clocked in at 840 pages, the biggest magazine ever published.

❦Surrogates If this vision based on the comic series by Robert Venditti comes true, in eight years we’ll be living our lives through robotic surrogates–think better looking, smarter versions of ourselves. Sounds peachy right? Wrong. Bruce Willis stars as a FBI agent who must venture outside of the safety of his avatar-self in order to solve the first human murder in years.

Continuing

❦9 Unfortunately, when the haunting images fade, the paper-thin plot shows its true colors…One only wishes the sophistication and effort given to its look matched the story behind it.
–Dean Carrico

All About Steve _ _ n _ _ _

_ _ _ _ o _ _, star of Miss Congeniality, plays a crossword puzzle writer who falls for Steve, a news cameraman, and follows him cross country in pursuit of love. Along the way Bullock meets a cast of characters who embrace her eccentricities.

❦Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Forecast: Kiddy flick with a chance of nostalgia. This animated adaptation of the famous children’s book has all the raining sausages and drizzling pizzas you could possibly stomach, but beware–they’ll be coming at you in 3-D, too!

❦Cold Souls See review on page 20.

❦Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone First of four films released in the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy based on the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion–which is long-winded manga speak for: Go see this if you’re into anime because it was written and directed by an icon of the genre, Hideaki Anno.

❦Gamer Fake video game + Real life players = sci-fi action thriller starring Gerard Butler and a barrage of high-grade explosives. Butler plays an imprisoned, modern day gladiator who’s forced into being a pawn for a popular online game.

❦The Informant! Even though it’s about whistle-blowing, it’s a slight movie, lacking the damning graveness of The Insider, the hypnotic driving ambition of Michael Clayton,or even the dramatic star power of Soderbergh’s own earnest Erin Brokovich. Because no one else in the production takes things seriously, neither do we. –Ryan Senaga

❦Inglourious Basterds Won’t come close to saving the world–it’s too polarizing and self-aggrandizing. But the world will see it, and will be talking about it. And as such, Tarantino unites us all.

–D.C.

Jennifer’s Body See review online at [honoluluweekly.com]

Love Happens as do maudlin romance films. A widowed, self-help guru (Aaron Eckhart) can’t follow his own advice. That is until he meets Eloise (Jennifer Aniston), a hotel florist who helps him come to terms with his loss.

❦My One and Only Loosely inspired by the life of Hollywood icon George Hamilton. Renée Zellweger continues what she started in Bridget Jones’s Diary, playing Hamilton’s mother, a damsel in distress in search of love.

❦Ponyo The most perplexing movie of the summer…Newcomers to Miyazaki will definitely be put-off. Old-comers may be weirded out as well. –R.S.

❦Sorority Row When a prank goes, like, totally wrong at Theta Pi Sorority, leaving one sister dead, a hooded killer seeks revenge. A throwback to slasher films from the ’80s.

Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself An adaptation of the play that introduced us to Madea, America’s favorite pistol-packing matriarch in drag (played by Perry).

Whiteout With six million square miles of ice and six months of darkness, Antarctica is like a serial killer utopia–save for the fact that no one really lives there. No matter, a serial killer is on the loose and it’s up to Kate Beckinsale, the continent’s only law enforcement officer, to catch them.

Doris Duke Theatre

Honolulu Academy of Arts, 900 S. Beretania St., $8 general, $7 seniors/students/military, $5 Academy members, [honoluluacademy.org], 532-8768

❦Beautiful Son (2007) See review on page 21.

Thu 9/24, Fri 9/25 & Sun 9/27, 1pm, 4pm & 7:30pm. Tue 9/29, 1pm & 7:30pm.

❦Manhattan Short Film Festival

The films’ (18 minutes or shorter) cover thematic ground that’s as diverse as their countries of origin–with stories about family dynamics, self-image, government control and more (though it’s notable that the prevailing quality is one of whimsy and human resilience). –Adrienne LaFrance

Wed 9/23, 1pm, 4pm & 7:30pm.

Movie Museum

3566 Harding Ave. #4, $4 members, $5 general, 735-8771

❦Alice’s House (Brazil, 2007) Secrets unfold in Alice’s apartment, a messy, male-dominated abode that the manicurist shares with her taxi driver husband, their three thieving children and her mother. When a lover from Alice’s past appears, she’s left with the opportunity to start a new life. The winner of 12 international film awards.

Thu 9/24, 12:30pm, 2:30pm, 4:30pm, 6:30pm & 8:30pm.

❦Tulpan (Germany, Kazakhstan, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, 2008) Asa, a sailor who’s been discharged from the Russian navy, takes residence with his sister in a barren wasteland in Kazakhstan. He falls in love with the landscape and decides he’d like to start a life there herding sheep. For this to happen, he must marry his neighbor, Tulpan, the only available woman for miles. Winner of the Best Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Fri 9/25 & Sun 9/27, 12:30pm, 2:30pm, 4:30pm, 6:30pm & 8:30pm.

❦Lymelife (2008) Set in a suburb of Long Island in the ’70s, Lyme disease spreads, setting off a chain reaction of unfortunate–if not funny –events. A dark comedy about the fallacy of the American dream and a winner at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Sat 9/26, 12:30pm, 2:30pm, 4:30pm, 6:30pm & 8:30pm.

❦Live and Become (France, Belgium, Israel, Italy, 2005) In 1984, 80,000 Ethiopian Jews were sent to Israel to escape an impending famine. One 8-year-old boy who’s raised Christian, is sent. and is forced to reconcile this new culture with his African roots. Winner of three awards at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Mon 9/28, 12:30pm, 3pm, 5:30pm & 8pm.

University of Hawaii

Spalding Auditorium, 2500 Campus Rd., 223-0130

❦Jermal (Indonesia, 2009) Jaya, a 12-year-old scoolboy, is sent to live with his father on a jermal, or an isolated fishing platform, following his mother’s death. The move proves to be transformative for both the grieving boy and the father who has a past he’d rather forget.

Wed 9/23, 6:30pm, Korean Studies Auditorium.

The Soul Saviour Film Festival

Consolidated Ward Theaters Auditorium, 1044 Auahi St., $10 general, [soulsaviour.com], 593-3000

Created by local filmmaker Jeff Katts, this festival showcases original short films, music videos and experimental works based on an on-going, supernatural series about regular people chosen by God to save human souls. This year there are 10 films, with everyone from Tony Silva, one half of the local comedy group Da Braddahs, to Miss Hawaii 2004 Olena Rubin Heu making an appearance. Local artists will also showcase their artwork and the Honolulu Dance Company will put on a live performance outside of the theater.

Wed 9/23, 7pm.