San Diego Unseen: An Urban Portrait
Tiny Furniture
Tiny Furniture might sound like typical mumblecore fare, but it isn’t. Though not much happens, the dialogue is crisp, smart and funny, blistering with pop culture but sincere without pandering. The film is nicely framed and elegantly shot.
Dunham clearly hasn’t made this film to make herself look good—she’s made it because she has something to say. She’s not ashamed to show her not-so-Hollywood body and to voice things many of us think but don’t say. And though it’s easy to feel real affection toward her, she rarely paints herself in a flattering light, regularly guilttripping her mother in hopes of forgiving her own bad behavior. There will be some who see it as self-indulgent, but I’m not one of them. To me, Tiny Furniture is a breath of fresh air, an assured film by a woman playing a version of herself who is spectacularly unassured. It opens Friday, Dec. 10, at the Ken Cinema.
OPENING
Black Swan: Natalie Portman has to find both sides of herself as a ballerina obsessed with playing the lead in Swan Lake in the new one from Darren Aronofsky. Well-directed, beautifully shot, completely bonkers. See our review on Page 16.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader: The franchise is reborn after Disney stopped making the films. There’s something quasi-religious about that, right?
Hemingway’s Garden of Eden: Taken from Hemingway’s novel, natch, this one stars Jack Huston as a WWI vet with a gorgeous wife (Mena Suvari) who has an even more gorgeous friend (Caterina Murino). You can imagine how that goes.
Queen of the Lot: An up-and-coming starlet really doesn’t want to let anything stand in the way of fame or true love. Or, maybe, both.
Samson & Delilah: A pair of Aboriginal teens leave their outback community after tragedy strikes. It won the Camera d’Or at Cannes.
Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation: It’s been three long years, but S&M are back with a new collection of short flicks that are bloody, nasty and also sick and twisted. It runs Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 8 and 9, at the Ken Cinema and Friday, Dec. 10, through Thursday, Dec. 16, at La Paloma Theatre in Encinitas.
The Tourist: Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp team up to kill a bunch of bad guys and rake in piles of money at the box office.
Whiz Kids: A
documentary about three 17-year-old American kids competing in the
country’s most prestigious science contest. And you thought American
kids weren’t into science.
ONE TIME ONLY
Make the Yuletide Gay: The FilmOut favorite kicks off at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 8, at the Birch North Park Theatre.
Life Cycles: Don’t worry, it’s about mountain biking, not woo-woo newage stuff. Screens at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 8, at La Paloma Theatre in Encinitas.
Die Hard: The granddaddy of Christmas action films. Yippie-kay-yay-insert- Bruce-Willis-joke here. Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 8, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma. Free.
Deeper: The latest snowboarding bash from Jeremy Jones screens at 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 9, at La Paloma Theatre in Encinitas.
Sex Magic: Documentary about Baba Dez, a renowned sex guru, who tries to will his best girl back to him by getting it on with lots of other ladies. Yes. A documentary. Screens at 10 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 9, at Reading Gaslamp Cinemas.
Christmas in the Clouds: The Oceanside Museum of Art continues its Culinary Cinema Series with a comedy about Native American yuppies. The film starts at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10, with a meal to follow. Reservations recommended.
Victim: A young man is kidnapped and tortured by a doctor and he has no idea why. Or does he? Screens at 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 10 and 11, at Gaslamp Reading Cinemas.
The Kids Are All Right: In one of the buzziest awards dramas, a married pair of lesbians (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore) have to sort out their family when their kids track down scruffily handsome sperm donor Mark Ruffalo. Screens at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 12, at the Central Library, Downtown. Free.
Artra: Inside the Life of an Artist: Documentary about the careers of several local artists, including Raymond Lafferty, whose work is heavily featured in the Oceanside Museum of Art’s (OMA) current exhibition, Defying Gravity: Contemporary Native American Art from the San Diego Region, which closes just as the film wraps up. Screens at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 12, at OMA.
A Muppet Christmas Carol: It’s nice that Michael Caine stepped up to play Scrooge, but the world has gone to hell since Jim Henson died. Screens at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 13, at the Encinitas Library. Free.
The Calling: Documentary about young people going into the clergy of a variety of faiths in today’s mad, mad, mad, mad world. Screens at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 13, at the Central Library, Downtown. Free.
Edward Scissorhands: The first of the Tim Burton / Johnny Depp mashups is one of the best. Depp is a boy with scissors for hands, which were created by Vincent Price in his final film. Anthony Michael Hall is the bad guy, Winona Ryder is the love interest and there’s actually some social commentary in the mix about being different. Screens at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 13, at the Reading Gaslamp Cinemas.
Gremlins: Don’t feed them after midnight. Screens at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 14, at the Reading Gaslamp Cinemas.
Scrooged: Before he got all serious, Bill Murray made his own version of A Christmas Carol. Screens at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 15, at the Reading Gaslamp Cinemas.
A Christmas Story: You’ll shoot your eye out at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 15, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma. Free.
NOW PLAYING
My Amnesia Girl: Filipino romcom about a guy who gets another chance to pursue his ex after she comes down with amnesia.
Four Lions: Like its protagonists, this satire about bumbling British jihadists doesn’t always hit its target. But when it does, it’s really funny.
Heartless: What’s Jim Sturgess to do when he learns that the London street toughs he’s kicking it with are actually demons?
The Nutcracker in 3-D: Not the next film in the Jackass franchise.
The Warrior’s Way: A deadly Asian warrior hides out in the American badlands after turning down a mission. Likely the first movie with both Geoffrey Rush and ninjas.
Welcome to the Rileys: James Gandolfini starts to sort out his marriage to Melissa Leo, which has suffered since the death of their daughter, through his platonic friendship with Twilight’s Kristen Stewart.
Burlesque: Can Cher help smalltown girl Christina Aguilera become the best burlesque dancer in L.A.? Yes.
Faster: After a string of family-friendly comedies, the Rock, aka Dwayne Johnson, is back to killing people.
Love and Other Drugs: Anne Hathaway falls for pharmaceutical salesman Jake Gyllenhaal and has an endless supply of Viagra.
Tangled: Disney’s take on Rapunzel is surprisingly terrific. Mandy Moore is the singing princess, Zachary Levi the dashing thief, and they’re both upstaged by an animated horse. And for once, the 3-D contributes to the movie.
Waste Land: This documentary follows artist Vic Muniz as he travels from Brooklyn to the landfills of Brazil, where he meets folks who live and create art out of waste. Ends Dec. 9 at Hillcrest Cinemas.
Wild Target: Hit-man comedy with Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt and Ron Weasley—er, Rupert Grint. Ends Dec. 9 at La Jolla Village Cinemas.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: The first half of the two-part final installment assumes viewers know exactly what’s going on as the film opens. It’s as slow as the first half of the epic book it’s based upon, but fans of the Potter franchise won’t want it to end—because when it does, they have to wait until July 2011 to watch the final battle between Harry and Voldemort.
127 Hours: Danny Boyle changes pace once again. Instead of the frenetic energy of Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours is pretty much a one-man show, with James Franco playing Aron Ralston, a hiker forced to cut off his own arm to survive.
Galapagos: An IMAX look at the islands and the animals that made Charles Darwin famous. We’re most fond of the blue-footed boobie. At the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park.
Leaving: Kristen Scott Thomas is in a loveless marriage with a successful doctor, so she fools around with a young ex-con working on their property. Ends Dec. 9 at La Jolla Village Cinemas.
Mademoiselle Chambon: A man falls for his son’s homeroom teacher, and the two do their best to keep their urges to themselves. You won’t be surprised to hear it’s in French.
The Next Three Days: Russell Crowe stars in Paul Haggis’ new thriller about a man framed for a murder he didn’t commit. No, wait. It’s his wife that didn’t commit the murder, and he’s got to bust her out of jail and clear her. There’s a twist for you.
Today’s Special: An aspiring chef (The Daily Show’s Aasif Mandvi) is forced to take over his family’s restaurant after his dad has a heart attack.
Unstoppable: Should be called “Denzel Washington and Captain Kirk versus the Death Train.”
Morning Glory: Cutie Rachel McAdams is charged with saving a flailing morning show, even though her two hosts—Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford—hate each other.
Due Date: Road-trip comedy stars Robert Downey Jr. as a guy desperate to get across the country, but the only way he can do it is by catching a ride with insane Zach Galifianakis. Directed by The Hangover’s Todd Phillips.
Fair Game: Naomi Watts is Valerie Plame and Sean Penn is Joe Wilson in this look at how CIA agent Plame’s identity was leaked to the press after husband Wilson authored a controversial op-ed in The New York Times. The acting’s good, but this should have come out years ago.
Megamind: A new 3-D animated flick with Will Ferrell as the misunderstood bad guy, Brad Pitt as the hero and Tina Fey as the funniest person in the room.
The Girl Who Kicked the hornet’s Nest: The vast conspiracy at the heart of Steig Larsson’s books might be a little far-fetched, but this makes for a nice conclusion to the adventures of Lisbeth Salander. At least until the Hollywood remake. Ends Dec. 9 at La Jolla Village and Hillcrest cinemas.
Inside Job: Matt Damon narrates Charles Ferguson’s exhaustive documentary about which people, exactly, were responsible for the recent global finance crisis.
Jackass 3-D: Shit is flying in 3-D. Literally.
Red: Action-comedy starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and, best of all, Helen Mirren, as retired spies some young whippersnappers are trying to kill.
Secretariat: Thoroughly family-friendly PG version of how one of history’s most famous racehorses got his start.
The Social Network: David Fincher’s new film about the early days of Facebook is more entertaining than 99.9 percent of status updates.
The Town: Ben Affleck directs himself (not a euphemism). He’s a Boston thug torn between bad-guy buddy Jeremy Renner and Blake Lively, a bank manager he once stuck up (also not a euphemism). Oh, and FBI man Jon Hamm is hot on his trail (still no euphemism).
Mao’s Last Dancer: Bruce Beresford directs this biopic of Li Cunxin, who was chosen by the Chinese government to become a world-class ballet dancer. Ends Dec. 9 at La Jolla Village Cinemas.
The Ultimate Wave Tahiti: The latest IMAX entry at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park follows super surfer Kelly Slater as he does his thing on some massive waves.
Hubble: Leonardo DiCaprio lends his pipes to this IMAX film, which uses CGI and real footage to take a close look at saturn’s rings. Just stay away from Uranus. At the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: The camp classic continues its ongoing run, Fridays at midnight at La Paloma Theatre in Encinitas.
