Animation celebration

The Illusionist

By now, we all know that cartoons aren’t just for kids anymore, and there are four animated ventures hitting big screens around town this week. Some of them are kid-friendly, others not so much. But all of them are interesting:

The Illusionist: It’s refreshing to see an animated film that’s drawn by hand these days. Sylvain Chomet, who also gave us The Triplets of Belleville, brings that old-school style to The Illusionist, which opens Friday, Jan. 21, at Hillcrest Cinemas. French-cinema titan Jacques Tati wrote the script for his daughter, and you can feel Chomet trying to explore those unspoken emotions between parents and children that are almost impossible to put into words. The Illusionist is about a fading relic of a magician who performs wherever he can to earn his daily bread. In a backwater Scotland town, he meets Alice, a girl to whom he becomes something of a surrogate father once she follows him back to the big city. Her quest for self-discovery, life, magic and adulthood is supported by the Illusionist, even at the expense of his own career and comfort.

Summer Wars: I watched this at home and really wish I’d seen it on a big screen. Mamoru Hosoda’s new film starts off innocently enough, with teen math whiz Kenji (Michael Sinterniklaas) getting invited to spend a few days with Natsuki (Brina Palencia), his longtime school crush, and her family. He’s thrown when she passes him off as her boyfriend, but before the movie devolves into a teen romance, it heads off in an entirely unexpected artificial-intelligence-cyber-terrorism direction, as an unknown entity starts to take over Oz, the network that seems to be a combination of Second Life, Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the Internet.

Summer Wars, which opens Friday, Jan. 21, at the Ken Cinema, manages to be smart and funny and sweet by underscoring the importance of family and keeping track of our offline lives but also celebrating the incredible closeness we all share in today’s ever-so-online world. The no-name cast does a great job with the voices, even if the dubbing doesn’t come close. Still, the cyberspace battles are beautifully designed, and though I have no idea why it’s called what it’s called, when it was done, I didn’t want Summer Wars to end.

Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance: The second of four Evangelion animes, this one is visually incredible but probably requires watching the first to understand what the hell is going on. In a nutshell:

Brilliant teenagers are chosen to pilot massive mechanized warriors called Evangelions in hopes of staving off the Angels, a race of strange beings whose existence seems to be hazardous to our health.

It screens at 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 20, at UltraStar Mission Valley.

Spike & Mike’s Animation Festival: New Generation: After recent runs at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla and the Ken Cinema, Spike & Mike bring a collection of short animated films that skate the fine line between sophisticated and sick and twisted.

It starts at 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 20, at The Loft in UCSD Price Center.

OPENING

The Company Men: Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper are all downsized from the same company and have to sort out what to do with themselves in the new economy. See our review on Page 29.

Inspector Bellamy: Gerard Depardieu is the famous French inspector, who can’t even take a vacation without running into a mystery.

No Strings Attached: Can Natalie Portman keep things purely physical with Ashton Kutcher and avoid getting all emotionally attached? Probably not.

The Temptation of St. Tony: This black-and-white Estonian film, about a middle-management type experiencing an existential crisis, is an absolute trip. Think David Lynch plus Tom Waits multiplied by Camus and Sartre.

The Way Back: Based on a true story, Peter Weir’s new film was made entirely outside of the studio system. Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Colin Farrell and several other interchangeable actors escape from a Siberian prison during WWII and walk more than 4,000 miles to India.

ONE TIME ONLY

The Revolution Will Not be Televised: The film, however, about the 2002 coup in Venezuela, will be screened at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 19, at Free Skool in City Heights (4246 Wightman St.).

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?: The wonderfully nasty classic stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford as onetime successful actresses who can’t stand each other. It’s put on by FilmOut at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 19, at the Birch North Park Theatre.

1981: Filmmaker Richard Trogi’s semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age story is about a young boy who decides to become a liar when his family moves to a new neighborhood. Screens at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 19, at the Central Library, Downtown. Free.

Napoleon Dynamite: You don’t see many of those Vote for Pedro shirts anymore. Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 19, at the Pearl Hotel in Point Loma. Free.

Lezioni di Cioccolato (The Chocolate Lessons): The San Diego Italian Film Festival presents this comedy about a non-committal kind of guy who finds his way to true love through chocolate. Screens at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 20, at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park.

Gantz: Two high-schoolers are killed by a passing train only to find themselves transported into a situation where they have to hunt down and kill various aliens using futuristic weapons. This is a dubbed live-action version of the popular anime / manga, and it screens at several area theaters at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 20. Check fathom events.com for details.

Pretty Things: Midnight to Six: 1965-1970: An advanced screening of local production company Reelin’ in the Years’ latest doc, which looks at the U.K. rockers The Pretty Things. Screens at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 22, at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail: If you get it, you think it’s one of the funniest movies of all time. If you don’t get it, you think that people who do are total dorks. Both groups are correct. Screens at midnight, Saturday, Jan. 22, at the Ken Cinema.

The Child: Shantal Reich is a driven, 17-year-old San Diego filmmaker who’s premiering her seven-minute short, which is a combination of music video and narrative film, at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 23, at UltraStar Mission Valley.

North by Northwest: Cary Grant is an advertising man mistaken for a secret agent by espionage types in Hitchcock’s classic. Screens at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 24, at the Encinitas Library. Free.

For Once in My Life: A documentary about the Spirit of Goodwill Band, a group of 28 musicians, all of whom have serious disabilities. Screens at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 24, at the Central Library, Downtown. Free.

Adventures in Babysitting: Elisabeth Shue has enormous hair in this ’80s John Hughes knock-off about a suburban babysitter who packs up her three charges and heads into downtown Chicago. Screens at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 25, at Kensington Cafe. Free.

Cara de Queso: Part of the San Diego Latino Film Festival’s Jewish Latino showcase, this Argentinean film is about four young boys spending the summer at a Jewish country club. It screens at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, at the UCSD’s Price Center Theater.

My Cousin Vinny: Ostensibly, this was Joe Pesci’s movie, as he plays a green New York lawyer trying to defend Ralph Macchio and his buddy from a murder rap in Alabama. But it was Marisa Tomei who took home an Oscar for playing his smart, mouthy girlfriend. Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, at the Pearl Hotel in Point Loma. Free.

NOW PLAYING

Another Year: Mike Leigh’s film is about the ease with which longtime married couple Gerri (Ruth Sheen) and Tom (Jim Broadbent) navigate a turning of the seasons, while everyone else goes through enormous upheavals. Most affected is Mary, Gerri’s alcoholic coworker, played by Lesley Manville in an excellent performance.

The Dilemma: Ron Howard’s new film stars Vince Vaughn as a dude who learns his best friend’s wife is getting some on the side. This one irked LGBT groups for calling electric cars “gay.”

The Green hornet: Seth Rogen in a superhero movie written by Seth Rogen and the other guy who wrote Superbad. Directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). In 3- D. That’s a lot to take in.

The Heart Specialist: Romantic comedy about interns at a rundown South Florida hospital. Guess the title has a double-meaning.

Blue Valentine: Michelle Williams is just amazing as one half of a couple (along with Ryan Gosling) whose marriage has fallen apart.

Country Strong: Gwyneth Paltrow can actually sing, but it’s up to you to decide if you want to see her trying to be an up-and-coming country star.

Season of the Witch: Nic Cage and Ron Perlman are medieval knights tasked with transporting a woman the church suspects to be a witch. A very, very hot witch.

Somewhere: Sofia Coppola lets the camera linger on Stephen Dorff, a disengaged movie star who suddenly finds himself caring for the 11-year-old daughter he never sees. It’s slow and at times intriguing, but it’s tough to care about the existential condition of a famous actor.

Undertow: A small-town Peruvian fisherman must choose between his family and the ghost of his dead male lover. Ends Jan. 20 at the Ken Cinema.

Whales: Apologies in advance for this terrible joke: You’ll have a whale of a time at this IMAX flick. Screens at 7 p.m. Fridays at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park.

Casino Jack: Kevin Spacey is the lead in this fictional take on the fall of lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Dogtooth: Freaktastic Greek film about a family that keeps its kids isolated from the world, teaching them strange languages and values that are antithetical to what passes for normal these days. But it’s all relative, since they don’t know anything different.

Carlos: Édgar Ramírez is so good as nefarious terrorist Carlos the Jackal in this five-and-a-half hour biopic that you may forget the subject was one of the world’s most feared terrorists for decades.

Ahead of Time: Documentary about 99-year-old Ruth Gruber, who was the youngest person to earn a Ph.D. at 20, who escorted a thousand Holocaust survivors from Naples to New York in 1944 and who was the first journalist to enter the Soviet Arctic. Why isn’t she president?

Breaking Upwards: A New York couple experiments with not being monogamous—and finds it’s tough.

Gulliver’s Travels: Jack Black continues his shark-jumping. So does 3-D.

Little Fockers: Another one? Fock!

Miracle on 34th Street: New Yorkers wonder if Macy’s Santa is the real thing. As much free advertising for Macy’s as “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” is for Cracker Jack.

Rabbit Hole: Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart are a couple struggling with the death of their young son, eight months later. He’s all about celebrating the boy’s life while she just wants it to disappear.

True Grit: The Coen brothers adapt Clinton Portis’ novel, with Jeff Bridges playing Rooster Cogburn, the part that earned John Wayne his only Oscar.

The Fighter: For some, the acting of Christian Bale and Melissa Leo in David O. Russell’s working-class boxing movie is authentic and real. For others, it’s scenery-chewing.

Cropsey: Two Staten Island natives make a documentary about the serial killer who murdered kids in their neighborhood while they were growing up.

How Do You Know?: Reese Witherspoon can’t decide between corporate Paul Rudd and jock Owen Wilson. It’s a James L. Brooks movie, so you know Jack Nicholson figures into it somehow.

The King’s Speech: Though he should have taken a walk to the podium this year, Colin Firth will probably win an Oscar for playing King George VI, the monarch who led his people into WWII despite his almost-crippling stammer. Geoffrey Rush is great as his speech therapist.

I Love You Phillip Morris: Jim Carrey is as rubber-faced as ever, playing a gay conman who meets the love of his life, Ewan McGregor, in prison. Ends Jan. 20 at Hillcrest Cinemas.

The Legend of the Pale Male: Documentary about a young Belgian who spends two decades documenting the life of a rare NYC hawk. It includes just as much triumph, disappointment and heartbreak as any human being’s life.

Tron: Legacy: Disney’s big-budget, 28-years-later follow-up is far more style than substance, as Sam (Garrett Hedlund), the son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), enters the grid to rage against the machine. The light cycles are cooler than ever, but the story gets more and more ridiculous as the film progresses.

Yogi Bear: Going 3-D in today’s world just proves that Yogi is, in fact, smarter than the average bear. He’s voiced by Dan Aykroyd, while Boo-Boo gets Justin Timberlake’s pipes.

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.

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?

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. 

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.

Burlesque: Can Cher help small-town girl Christina Aguilera become the best burlesque dancer in L.A.? Yes.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Inside Job: Matt Damon narrates Charles Ferguson’s exhaustive documentary about which people, exactly, were responsible for the recent global finance crisis.

The Social Network: David Fincher’s new film about the early days of Facebook is more entertaining than 99.9 percent of status updates.

Winter’s Bone: Debra Granik’s noir thriller, set in a closed meth-cooking community in the Ozarks, is as intense and grim as its name. It’s well-written and well-made and features an amazing performance from Jennifer Lawrence, a 17-year-old who has to find her deadbeat father or she and her young brother and sister will lose their home.

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.