Kristin Scott Thomas gives a remarkable lead performance, and Elsa Zylberstein as her sister is nearly as good. ★ ‘I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG’ (PG-13, 1:55, in French) The French novelist Philippe Claudel, making his debut as a director, shows sobriety and restraint in this story of a woman making her way back into normal life after serving a prison sentence for the murder of her son. (Dargis) ★ ‘HAPPY-GO-LUCKY’ (R, 1:58) Happiness is a complicated, difficult matter, and for the bopping bloom at the center of Mike Leigh’s generous, expansive new film a gurgling stream of giggles, laughs and words played by a glorious Sally Hawkins it’s also a question of faith.
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★ ‘GRAN TORINO’ (R, 1:56) Once again Clint Eastwood shows everyone how it’s done, with a sleek muscle car of a movie set in that industrial graveyard called Detroit about a racist who befriends a besieged Hmong family next door.
Playing an impoverished mother of two who smuggles illegal aliens across the Canadian border, Melissa Leo gives an awards-worthy performance. ‘FROZEN RIVER’ (R, 1:37) Venturing deep into the trenches where hard-working Americans struggle to put food on the table, Courtney Hunt’s powerful, somber film evokes a perfect storm of present-day economic and social woes. ‘FROST/NIXON’ (R, 2:02) It’s twinkle (Michael Sheen) versus glower (Frank Langella) in Ron Howard’s amusing, facile edition of the Peter Morgan theatrical smackdown.
(Best bits: battles with “Star Trek” fans.) But it is constructed on some awfully tired conventions, and over all feels as if it were years too late. ‘FANBOYS’ (PG-13, 1:30) This road comedy, set in 1998, about “Star Wars” geeks on a car trip to break into George Lucas’s ranch has enough funny moments to amuse cultists. ‘DOUBT’ (PG-13, 1:44) Adapted by John Patrick Shanley from his stage play, this drama about a Roman Catholic priest suspected of child molestation stars a tamped-down Philip Seymour Hoffman as the accused and an energetic, often wackily comic Meryl Streep as his accuser. ‘THE CLASS’ (No rating, 2:08, in French, with English subtitles) An artful, intelligent, heartfelt fiction film from the director Laurent Cantet about modern French identity and the attempt to transform young students of all sizes, shapes and colors into citizens through talk, talk, talk. But it’s a narrow epic, and while Benicio Del Toro, in the title role, offers a performance that’s technically flawless, the movie is politically naïve and dramatically inert. ‘CHE’ (R, 4:17, in Spanish and Englishshown in two parts 2:09 and 2:08) Nearly four and a half hours long and spanning more than a decade, “Che” surely deserves the overworked, frequently misapplied label of epic. This movie is crowded and sprawling, and if it rambles sometimes, that’s just fine. ★ ‘CADILLAC RECORDS’ (R, 1:48) This rollicking and insightful celebration of Chicago blues serves as a group portrait of a remarkable, volatile constellation of artists, including Muddy Waters (the impressive Jeffrey Wright), Chuck Berry (Mos Def) and Etta James (Beyoncé Knowles). ‘BRIDE WARS’ (PG, 1:34) Die, Bridezilla, die! (Manohla Dargis)
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Full reviews of all current releases, movie trailers, showtimes and tickets: /movies. Ratings and running times are in parentheses foreign films have English subtitles. Academy Theater, Lighthouse International, 111 East 59th Street, Manhattan, sold out. OSCAR’S NOMINATED SHORTS (Saturday) Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies hosts a noon screening of all 10 of the Oscar-nominated films in the animated and live-action short categories. (Dave Kehr)įADED GLORY: OSCAR MICHEAUX AND BLACK PREWAR CINEMA (Saturday through Thursday) This exhaustive retrospective devoted to the pioneering African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux and his contemporaries in the “race film” movement of the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s continues. 25.) Museum of Modern Art Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, (212) 708-9400, $10. A few highlights from the first week of programs: “The Flower Bridge,” Thomas Ciulei’s study of the major migration that is undermining the social structure of Moldova (Friday and Saturday) “Super, Girls!,” Jian Yi’s look at a hugely popular Chinese television show modeled on “American Idol” (Saturday and Sunday) “Exotic Exoticism: Plant Wars,” Asio Liu’s account of the nonnative plants that have been introduced in Taiwan and their effect on the local ecology (Monday) “Barcelone ou la Mort,” in which the filmmaker Idrissa Guiro follows one Senegalese man as he tries to emigrate to the Canary Islands (Thursday) and “A Horse Is Not a Metaphor,” Barbara Hammer’s first-person account of living with cancer (Thursday). DOCUMENTARY FORTNIGHT (Friday through Monday, and Wednesday and Thursday) The Museum of Modern Art’s annual survey of international nonfiction filmmaking this year includes more than 30 titles.