Arts & Nightlife :: film those sublime details is the “lucky” (undersized) fin that the neophyte of the title (voiced by Alexander Gould) is blessed with. As a result, the little white-and-orange-striped clown fish (the species is supposed to be funny, but Nemo’s dad can’t tell a joke to save his tail) isn’t a very good swimmer and isn’t supposed to leave the safety of the reef, but when he does, he’s nabbed by a diver and relegated to an aquarium in a dentist’s office. Marlin (Albert Brooks), Nemo’s widowed father, sets off to retrieve his son, in the process forming an unlikely alliance with a batty blue tang fish who’s impaired by short-term memory loss (deftly done by Ellen DeGeneres). Along the way they encounter a trio of sharks who are trying to give up their piscean diet (“Fish are friends, not food”) and a 150-year-old turtle who articulates in affected surfer speak (“Yah dude!”). You know exactly how this one ends; yet getting there is such an enjoyable delight. › 101m › Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Chestnut Hill + Arlington Capitol + suburbs THE FUNHOUSE › 1981 › Horror schlocker from director Tobe Hooper staring Elizabeth Berridge, Cooper Huckabee, Largo Woodruff, and Miles Chapin as a group of teenage friends who opt to spend the night in a carnival funhouse as a prank. After they witness a brutal murder, they suddenly find themselves being stalked by a deranged killer in a Frankenstein mask. › 96m › Coolidge Corner: Fri-Sat midnight HABIBI [HABIBI RASAK KHARBAN] › 2011 › See Peter Keough’s review on page 69.› Arabic › 85m › MFA: Fri ++ HANNA › 2011 › For some reason, teenage and pre-teen girls have become the new action hero. It can only improve the genre, despite the poor use to which Joe Wright puts Saoirse Ronan in this contrived, overwrought splat of
arty hackwork. As the relentless tween assassin of the title, she glows like a towheaded changeling, conveying a wild child’s feral wonder at such things as fluorescent lights whenever she isn’t snapping necks or outrunning wounded caribou. Trained by her father (Eric Bana) in their subArctic refuge, she’s let loose on a mission that involves vacant lots in Berlin and a CIA handler (Cate Blanchett) who demonstrates her wickedness by brushing her teeth until her gums bleed and by collecting shoes. Never content with an arresting image when he can overwhelm it with a rotating camera and a blast of music from the Chemical Brothers, Wright takes a taut, brainy, Salt-like thriller and turns it into an exercise in faux irony and metaphor. › 105m › Brattle: Fri - HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 91m › Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Chestnut Hill + Arlington Capitol + suburbs + HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 101m › Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Somerville Theatre + suburbs ++ ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 94m › West Newton: Sat-Sun +++1/2 THE INTOUCHABLES › 2011 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › French › 112m › West Newton ++1/2 IT IS NO DREAM: THE LIFE OF THEODOR HERZL › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix. com/movies for a full review. › 97m › West Newton ++ LAWLESS › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/ movies for a full review. › 116m › Boston Common + Fenway + suburbs ++1/2 LIBERAL ARTS › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 97m › Kendall Square
THE SCARIEST FILM OF THE YEAR .
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– RollinG Stone
A MUST- SEE MOVIE
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THE BEST AMERICAN HORROR FILM IN YEARS.”
– Rich Juzwiak, GawkeR
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STARTS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5 72 10.05.12 :: THEPHOENIX.cOm/fIlm
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+++ LOOPER › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/ movies for a full review. › 118m › Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Somerville Theatre + Embassy + suburbs THE MACKINTOSH MAN › 1973 › Paul ++1/2 MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE’S MOST WANTED › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 85m › West Newton: Sat-Sun ++++ THE MASTER › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix. com/movies for a full review. › 137m › Boston Common + Fenway + Kendall Square + Coolidge Corner + Embassy +++ MINISTRY OF FEAR › 1945 › Fritz Lang, whose early German films heavily influenced Hitchcock, completes the circle with his adaptation of the most Hitchcockian of all the novels of Graham Greene. An innocent man (Ray Milland) in London during the Blitz unwittingly unravels a secret code, and soon he’s enmeshed in a subterranean chase, pursued by hidden Nazis, clandestine police, and a lovely woman (Marjorie Reynolds) who might or might not be a spy for the Germans. It’s expressionist fun in noir-shadowed England. › b&w › 85m › Brattle: Mon ++++ MODERN TIMES › 1936 › Not only one of Charlie Chaplin’s funniest films but a remarkably prophetic satire of the Machine Age: when the Tramp does battle with a newfangled feeding machine, the gadget looks no more ludicrous than half the products currently advertised on late-night television. This movie marked the first appearance of Chaplin’s voice on a soundtrack — singing gobbledygook. › b&w › 87m › Brattle: Sun ++++ MOONRISE KINGDOM › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 94m › Embassy ++++ THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER › 1955 › In his only directorial effort, Charles Laughton created an unforgettably spooky atmosphere, filled with childlike wonder and dread, in which to tell the story of wolf-in-preacher’s-clothing Robert Mitchum, who seduces Shelley Winters for her former husband’s money, only to find her small children have escaped with the cash, and their lives. They flee by way of a virtually psychedelic river odyssey that takes them to a home for children presided over by Lillian Gish. Written by James Agee and lushly photographed by Stanley Cortez, this film suggests a wondrous and terrifying dream world hidden within the everyday. › b&w › 93m › Brattle: Sun +++ OSS 117: LOST IN RIO [OSS 117: RIO NE RÉPOND PLUS] › 2009 › This sequel to the hilarious OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies supplies the further adventures of Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, a secret agent so chauvinistic, he pities anyone not lucky enough to be French. The character, who appeared in novels that predate Ian Fleming’s 007, is deliciously spoofed by director Michel Hazanavicius and hunky star Jean Dujardin. In this outing, which is set in 1967, Agent 117 is sent to Brazil to secure a microfilm list of Nazi collaborators. (Hubert’s protestation that all French people were in the Resistance is met with awkward silence on the part of his boss.) Once there, he teams up with a female Israeli spy (Louise Monot) to track down an escaped-Nazi wrestling promoter. Although it drags a bit, Lost in Rio offers plenty of quips and sight gags as Hubert’s Old World brio clashes with the Israelis’ earnestness. Dujardin has flawless comic timing as the hero who may stumble but — with the arch of an eyebrow and a flash of a grin — always rises to the defense of the République. › French › 101m › Brattle: Wed +++ PARANORMAN › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix. com/movies for a full review. › 93m › Fresh Pond + suburbs THE PEOPLE AND THE OLIVE › 2012 › See Peter Keough’s review on page 69.. › 70m › MFA: Sun +++ THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 103m › Kendall Square +++ THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES › 2012 ›
Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 100m › West Newton: Sat-Sun 1/2 RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 95m › Boston Common + Fenway + suburbs THE ROOM › 2003 › Tommy Wiseau wrote, directed, and stars in what’s been called “the Citizen Kane of bad movies.” Banker Johnny (Wiseau) is ga-ga over his blonde fiancée, Lisa (Juliette Danielle). But is Lisa worthy of his trust? Where does Johnny’s best friend, Mark (Greg Sostero), fit in? And Lisa’s mother, Claudette (Carolyn Minnott)? What about orphaned neighbor Denny (Philip Haldiman)? And will this truly be the worst movie you’ve ever seen? › 99m › Coolidge Corner: Fri midnight ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD › 1990 › Gary Oldman and Tim Roth star as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two relatively minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, given lead duties here as they follow King’s orders to figure out what’s troubling Hamlet. Tom Stoppard directs this adaptation of his own absurdist stageplay. › 117m › ArtsEmerson: Sat +1/2 SAMSARA › 2011 › Visit thePhoenix. com/movies for a full review. › 102m › Kendall Square +++ SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 86m › Coolidge Corner + West Newton +++ THE SILENCERS › 1966 › The tacky answer to James Bond, Dean Martin plays womanizing, cocktail-imbibing Matt Helm, ace private eye who makes his mod scene in a world of kitsch op art. This highly enjoyable inspiration for Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery has a better director, Phil Karlson, than anyone who made the Bond movies. › 102m › Brattle: Wed +++ SLEEPWALK WITH ME › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 90m › Kendall Square + Coolidge Corner + West Newton ++ STARS IN SHORTS › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 113m › Kendall Square TAKEN 2 › 2012 › Sequel to the 2008 actioner, once again staring Liam Neeson as retired CIA operative Bryan Mills. This time the tables are turned as the father of one of the kidnappers Mills killed while trying to rescue his daughter in the first installment has taken Mills and his wife (Famke Janssen) hostage. Now it’s on his daughter (Maggie Grace) to help rescue her parents before it’s too late. Oliver Megaton directs. › 91m › Boston Common + Fenway + suburbs +++ 10 YEARS › 2011 › Visit thePhoenix.com/ movies for a full review. › 100m › Boston Common + suburbs TOKYO DRIFTER › 1966 › After the deactivation of his gang, Tetsu (Tetsuya Watari) and his boss (Ryuji Kita) swear to live out the remainder of their life on the straight and narrow. That is until a rival gang attempts to recruit Tetsu. When he turns them down, pledging allegiance to his boss, they come after him, forcing him to flee town and live the life of a drifter. Seijun Suzuki directs. › Japanese › 89m › Brattle: Sat ++ TO ROME WITH LOVE › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 112m › West Newton + Arlington Capitol ++1/2 TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 111m › Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Chestnut Hill + Arlington Capitol + suburbs + VULGARIA › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/ movies for a full review. › Cantonese › 92m › Boston Common +++ THE WELL DIGGER’S DAUGHTER › 2011 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 107m › West Newton: Sat-Sun +1/2 THE WORDS › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix. com/movies for a full review. › 96m › Chestnut Hill + suburbs