Say it loud

One of the best things about being a film critic in a city that averages one film festival a month is the never-ending stream of filmmakers on their way up who contact me in the weeks leading up to the event. I don’t often have the time to watch all the films or the space in the paper to write about them, but once in a while, something grabs my attention. Take LARRY (The Actor), for example, which was sent to me by director Eric Poydar and producer Brett Portanova after I caught the trailer and asked to see more.

LARRY, which screens at the San Diego Black Film Festival next week, stars Lionel Mark Smith as the title character. Smith is one of those guys whose name you probably don’t know but whose face you’ve undoubtedly seen. A regular in David Mamet’s films and a perennial guest star on TV, he plays a guy not unlike himself, an actor in Hollywood on the verge of tossing in his chips and leaving town after 20 years. It’s basically a 30-minute one-man faux-doc, but Smith, who’s usually standing next to the leading man, is charismatic and funny. It’s hard to take your eyes off him.

This is the sixth year for the SDBFF, and like most young festivals, it’s hungry and ambitious. More than 100 films will be screened at this year’s fest, which runs from Thursday, Jan. 29, through Sunday, Feb. 1 at the UA Horton Plaza. There are several features, a ton of shorts (including LARRY) and parties galore, including the Shaft / Superfly bash (can you dig it?). Celebs like Lou Gossett Jr. and Michael Jai White will be on hand to collect awards. The complete schedule can be found at www.sdbff.com.

Opening

Frozen River: Not many people saw this film the first time around, but Melissa Leo’s Best Actress Oscar nom has given it a second theatrical life. She’s a desperate single mom who ends up smuggling illegal immigrants through a reservation in the Northeast. It’s a dark movie and a terrific performance.

New in Town: Rom-com with Renee Zellweger and Harry Conick Jr. She’s the big-city consultant who lands in a small Minnesota town and learns some Important Lessons. Call it the anti-Wendy and Lucy.

Taken: Liam Neeson is a former CIA man whose daughter gets kidnapped by white slavers in Paris. So he goes to the city of lights and kills everybody. Simple, yeah, but Pierre Morel, who last made the kinetic District B13, crafts a brutally violent guilty pleasure that shows us what the rest of the world thinks we Americans are like.

The Uninvited: Elizabeth Banks is everywhere. She was in Zack and Miri and played Laura Bush in W. Now she’s a sociopath who kills David Strathairn’s wife to get with him. Can anything stop her? Maybe his daughters. And maybe, um, the ghost in their house.

The Wild Child: Another masterpiece from Francois Truffaut, though not nearly as well known as The 400 Blows, The Wild Child is about the French doctor Jean Itard, played by Truffaut himself, working to civilize a boy found living in the woods during the 1700s. 

Yonkers Joe: Chazz Palminteri is a conman gambler trying to make a killing in Vegas who suddenly finds he has to take care of his developmentally disabled adult son.  

One time only

Fargo: Sure, Frances McDormand is terrific as Marge Gunderson, the pregnant chief of police who foils a kidnapping / murder scheme. But don’t forget William H. Macy—though he didn’t win an Oscar as the so-called brains behind the operation, he probably should have. Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma. Free.

Competitor Film Festival: Competitor magazine debuts its first film festival with a one-day blitzkrieg of endurance-sports-themed films. Titles include The Long Green Line, Klunkerz, Victory Over Darkness, Ultramarathon Man and the classic Breaking Away. The films roll at 10:30 a.m. until a little after 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30, at La Paloma Theatre in Encinitas. www.endurancesportsawards.com.

Grindhouse: The combination of Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror and Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof bombed so badly at the box office that they weren’t even released together on DVD. Catch the original theatrical version, along with all the faux trailers from the likes of Eli Roth at midnight on Saturday, Jan. 31 at the Ken Cinema. Word of advice—don’t drink too much beforehand, ’cause this is a three-hour-plus exploitation endeavor.

The Deerhunter: Not everyone digs football. For those not into pigskin, catch Michael Cimino’s intense, epic Vietnam film, starring Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep, who were nominated, and Christopher Walken, who won the Oscar. The film took Best Picture, too, and Cimino nabbed the Best Director statue. Screens at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 1, at Café Libertalia in Hillcrest. Free.

San Diego Jewish Film Festival: Last year’s event was a terrific mix of films, many of which went on to regular theatrical runs, including The Band’s Visit, Beaufort, Jellyfish and Sixty-Six. We’ll have a breakdown next week of our faves for this year, but if you just can’t wait, check the entire lineup at www.lfjcc.org. The festival runs Wednesday, Feb. 4, through Sunday, Feb. 15.

Groundhog Day: The first big movie that convinced us Bill Murray was more than a smug asshole is still pretty damn funny and charming, even if everyone has that early-’90s hair. Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma. Free.

Now playing

Underworld: Rise of the Lycan: The third installment in the Underworld franchise is actually a prequel explaining exactly why the vampires and werewolves have been up in each other’s grills for so long.

Inkheart: A girl discovers that her writer dad (Brendan Fraser) can actually bring his characters to life. Too bad he’s written some nasty villains, like Paul Bettany’s Dustfinger.

Outlander: The year’s first Viking Alien Predator Dragon-slayer movie. Jim Cavezial (aka Jesus from The Passion of the Christ) crash-lands his spaceship during Viking times, bringing along some outer-space dragons he then has to kill with primitive Viking weapons. You know those sci-fi originals you watch when you come home drunk? This is like that, but it costs $10.50.

Wendy and Lucy: Michelle Williams gives an amazing performance as a young woman on the brink. Kelly Reichardt’s film moves slowly but is a tragic look at people living on the margins of society.

Notorious: Biopic about the Notorious B.I.G., the rotund rapper who was assassinated in 1997 at the tender age of 24 in the culmination of the now infamous East Coast / West Coast rap wars.

Defiance: The story of the Bielski brothers, played by Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell, is amazing: They took to the Bellarussian forests during World War II, fought the Nazis and eventually built a community of 1,200 Jews who survived the war. Director Ed Zwick, however, makes sure you know that you’re watching a Very Important Movie.

Hotel for Dogs: Good road-trip tip—all Motel 6s take dogs. This kid-friendly movie, on the other hand, makes bitches out of actors like Don Cheadle, Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon.

Last Chance Harvey: Emma Thompson is terrific as the woman Dustin Hoffman takes a shine to when he’s in the U.K. for his daughter’s wedding. A romance for The Bucket List set.

My Bloody Valentine 3-D: Pro: Slasher movie in 3-D! Con: It’s not Halloween, and Valentine’s Day is a month off.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop: Rent-a-cops across the nation rejoiced when they learned their story would finally be told. Then they found out Kevin James is playing Blart.

Waltz With Bashir: Considering the violence in Gaza, there’s no more timely film to see right now than Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir. The movie is essentially an animated documentary, as Folman works to recover his memories as a soldier during the 1982 Israel-Lebanon conflict and discover why he repressed them in the first place.

Bride Wars: Sadly, not an R-rated movie about women in wedding dresses duking it out in a steel cage. No, this first film of 2009 is about two BFFs—Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway—who become bitter rivals after they schedule their weddings on precisely the same day. For the 27 Dresses set.

Gran Torino: For all the buzz, Clint Eastwood’s new film is flawed. Yes, his cranky old guy, Walt Kowalski, manages to be the funny kind of equal-opportunity offender who finds some salvation by taking a good-natured Hmong neighbor under his wing. The problem is that it turns out he’s right about everyone he dislikes. Black, white, Asian, his own relatives—they’re all awful people in the world of Gran Torino, justifying Walt’s latent racism. Nice.

Revolutionary Road: Sam Mendes directs his wife, Kate Winslet, and Leonardo DiCaprio in what might be called American Beauty: The Early Years. It’s another look at the unspoken seamy underbelly of American suburbia in the 1950s, but it just doesn’t hold together. Unpleasantville.

The Unborn: Poor Casey was abandoned by her mom when she was a child. Turns out it was because of a nasty family curse that comes in the form of a demon that wants to possess her. What, we wonder, is Gary Oldman doing in this movie?

The Wrestler: Yes, Mickey Rourke is just as good as you’ve heard, playing Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a washed-up wrestler who was big 20 years ago and is now the old man on the high-school gym circuit. Occasionally, it veers toward sentimentality but never goes over the edge. Marisa Tomei, too, is great as the stripper he’d like to get closer to, and Evan Rachel Wood is perfect as the daughter who can’t find it in herself to forgive him.

The Reader: Kate Winslet is amazing as a grown woman who has an affair with a 15-year-old boy in post-war Berlin. Their paths cross again years later when she’s on trial for war crimes.

Valkyrie: He’s the greatest fighter pilot, the best race-car driver, the superest future cop, the coolest hustler, the awesomest drink mixer and the sharpest sports agent. So why can’t Tom Cruise kill Hitler? Huh? Why? Why?

Bedtime Stories: Remember that stupid Adam Sandler movie this summer, where he was a former Mossad agent-turned-New York gigolo hairdresser? Made $200 million worldwide. How much can he rake in with a family-friendly flick?

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Director David Fincher directs Brad Pitt as a man born old and growing young. Beautifully shot, the film is less about youth no longer being wasted on the young than it is about the decades long love story between the characters played by Pitt and Cate Blanchett, who are going in different directions.

Marley & Me: Jennifer Aniston bonds with Owen Wilson over a stinky dog.

Seven Pounds: Will Smith’s annual December movie is a feel-good film that doesn’t feel all that good. He’s an IRS agent trying to atone for past sins by giving, perhaps too generously, to strangers. Rosario Dawson is wonderful, though, as a girl with a weak heart, both literally and figuratively.

Doubt: Best. Catholic. Priest. Abuse. Movie. Ever. John Patrick Shanley adapted and directed his own Pulitzer Prize-winning play and landed a couple of acting heavyweights for the leads. Meryl Streep is a nasty nun who goes after popular priest Phillip Seymour Hoffman, because she A. doesn’t like him, and B. thinks he might be getting a little too close to one of his altar boys.

Frost/Nixon: Ron Howard is restrained in his take on the Broadway play about the interviews between then-lightweight talk-show host David Frost and President Nixon. Both Michael Sheen and Frank Langella reprise their stage roles as Frost and Nixon, respectively—Langella delivers a masterful performance of Mr. Not-a-Crook himself.

Yes Man: Jim Carrey dips back into the well (over-the-top funny with a sweet spot) that made him an A-lister, playing a dude who decides to say “yes.” To everything.

Milk: Sean Penn delivers yet another tremendous performance as the first openly gay elected politician in the country, Harvey Milk, who was assassinated, along with the mayor of San Francisco, in 1978. Gus Van Sant directs, but the movie is all Penn, and it is nothing if not timely in light of Prop 8.

Slumdog Millionaire: A young, uneducated Indian man is tortured by police who want to find how he knows all the questions he’s gotten right on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? The answers are all in his life story, which is full of poverty, abuse, hopes for true love, and the crossroads between coincidence and destiny.

Twilight: Never heard of Twilight? It’s like Harry Potter, with vampires, for tweens and their moms, all of whom react to it like desperate meth addicts. If you have heard of it, you know we speak truth.

Quantam of Solace: Remember how awesome the Daniel Craig ’06 James Bond franchise reboot was? Well, even though the new one takes place about 20 minutes after Casino Royale ended, this one isn’t awesome at all.

Rachel Getting Married: The herky-jerky handheld camera in Jonathan Demme’s new movie mirrors the emotional turmoil of Kym (Anne Hathaway), just out of rehab to attend her sister’s wedding. There’s Oscar buzz surrounding Hathaway, who is equal parts toxic and pathetic but ultimately someone worth pulling for.

Vicky Christina Barcelona: Will Woody Allen ever make another film in New York? After shooting the last two in the U.K., he moved his act overseas. Scarlett Johanssen and Rebecca Hall are tourists in Barcelona who find themselves infatuated with mysterious brooding painter Javier Bardem. When his crazy ex-wife (Bardem’s real-life honey, Penelope Cruz) enters the picture, the whole trip becomes a total bummer.

Ongoing

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center Space Theater: After undergoing significant renovations, the Fleet is re-opening its dome Imax theater, complete with a kick-ass new screen. Three films will run in rotation initially: Wild Ocean, Van Gogh: Brush with Genius and Animalopolis. Showtimes and prices can be found at www.rhfleet.org.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show: No, it’s not a time warp—the love-it-or-hate-it camp classic continues its midnight run in its 37th year of release. When the lead character of the film is a transvestite scientist named Dr. Frank-N-Furter, you know you’re in for some seriously trashy viewing. And, of course, this is the one movie where you want the audience shouting at the screen. Screens Fridays at midnight at La Paloma Theater in Encinitas.