FILM LISTINGS Contact Anna Gaca listingsedit@gambitweekly.com 504.483.3110 | FAX: 866.473.7199
FILM FESTIVALS New Orleans Film Festival. Various locations; www. neworleansfilmfestival. org — The festival screens Brooklyn, Room and slates of features, documentaries and short, experimental and animated films and there are panel discussions, events and more. Non-member tickets range from $55-$135. Visit the website for schedule and details. Tuesday-Thursday. New Orleans Palestine Film Festival. Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center, 1618 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., (504) 827-5858; www.facebook.com/ neworleanspalestiniansolidaritycommittee — The inaugural festival features dramas, documentaries and animated films by Palestinian filmmakers, as well as a musical performance and panel discussion. Single-film admission $10, festival pass $40. Friday-Sunday.
The Amazing Nina Simone (NR) — Director Jeff L. Lieberman’s documentary includes archival footage and interviews about the legendary singer and activist. Elmwood Jem and the Holograms (PG) — The 1980s cartoon rock star uses holographic technology to reboot in live action. Clearview, Elmwood, West Bank, Slidell The Last Witch Hunter (PG-13) — Immortal Vin Diesel protects humanity from witches, splitting his time between the modern world and the set of Game of Thrones. Clearview, Elmwood, West Bank, Slidell Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (R) — The camera sees what the human eye cannot in the horror series’ sixth film (spoiler: it’s ghosts). Clearview, Elmwood, West Bank, Kenner, Slidell Rock the Kasbah (R) — Stranded in a foreign land
REVIEW
once again, professional washed-up character Bill Murray pins his fortunes to a teenage contestant in Afghanistan’s version of American Idol. Elmwood, West Bank, Slidell
NOW SHOWING 99 Homes (R) — Short on options in the midst of the foreclosure crisis, an evicted single father (Andrew Garfield) takes the only job in town: evicting other people. Elmwood Black Mass (R) — The World’s Most Ubiquitous Men (Johnny Depp and Benedict Cumberbatch) star as Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger and his brother, Massachusetts senator Billy Bulger. Clearview, Elmwood, West Bank, Regal, Canal Place Bridge of Spies (PG-13) — Bring out the big guns: Tom Hanks stars as a lawyer negotiating a prisoner exchange with the U.S.S.R. in a historical drama directed by Steven Spielberg and co-written by the Coen brothers. Clearview, Elmwood, West Bank, Kenner, Slidell, Regal, Canal Place Bruce Lee: The Fighter (NR) — Indian actor Ram Charan stars as Bruce Lee in this Telugu-language action flick. Elmwood Crimson Peak (R) — Guillermo del Toro channels the spirit of Emily Bronte as a young bride (Mia Wasikowska) moves to her new husband’s (Tom Hiddleston) remote, spooky Gothic mansion. Clearview, Elmwood, West Bank, Chalmette, Kenner, Slidell, Regal, Canal Place Freeheld (PG-13) — A dying police detective (Julianne Moore) fights for the right to leave her pension to her same-sex partner (Ellen Page) in a drama based on a true story. Elmwood Goosebumps (PG) — Grab a roll of Bubble Tape for the nostalgia trip based on your favorite series of kiddie horror novels by R. L. Stine (Jack Black). Clearview, Elmwood, West
Bridge of Spies
Bridge of Spies Directed by Steven Spielberg Starring Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan Wide release
There’s a moment in many Steven Spielberg films when emotions reach their peak and the soundtrack — often composed by the great John Williams — swells with an orchestral passion that deflates the scene and renders the moment hopelessly sentimental. For Spielberg’s detractors, the extraneous crescendo has come to symbolize the dangers of trying to cater to the broadest possible audience without necessary restraint. Why not trust your viewers to follow a good story and earn their emotional responses? Now 68, Spielberg has left those self-defeating tendencies behind. The director’s Bridge of Spies is a Cold War thriller that appears to emanate from a wondrous place where the perceived needs of the marketplace no longer apply. Old-fashioned in the best possible sense, Bridge of Spies employs superb craftsmanship to tell a riveting based-on-true-events story with which few people are familiar. Tom Hanks channeling Jimmy Stewart through a screenplay rewritten by Joel and Ethan Coen for a Steven Spielberg film? Yes, we’ll have some of that, please. In a chain of events known as the 1960 U-2 Incident, an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Pilot Francis Gary Powers, who was secretly working for the CIA, was captured by the Soviets, put on very public trial for espionage and sentenced to 10 years in prison. A year and a half later, circumstances arose that might allow Powers to return to the U.S. in exchange for a Soviet spy the FBI captured in New York City. Due to Cold War restraints, the secret mission to save Powers was necessarily conducted by a civilian — insurance claims attorney and master negotiator named James Donovan (Hanks). Bridge of Spies tells the unlikely hero’s little-known tale. Spielberg’s filmmaking career is filled with stories like Bridge of Spies about seemingly ordinary men who selflessly rise above expectation for the benefit of all. The casting of everyman Hanks in the film’s central role supports the entire project’s air of inevitability. In this case, doing the job he was born to do constitutes the ideal choice for everyone concerned — especially when combined with a screenplay that gently flouts the conventions of Hollywood spy thrillers. Hired to enhance a reportedly strong original screenplay by British playwright Matt Charman, the Coen brothers (Fargo, The Big Lebowski) lend Bridge of Spies a touch of their signature sardonic wit. Against all odds — given the politically charged nature of its story — Bridge of Spies finds the sweet spot between cynicism and flag-waving zealotry in its treatment of the Cold War’s central ideological conflict. The film manages a subtle warning that nationalism taken too far threatens to subvert the basic principles of democracy. “Shouldn’t we show our enemy who we are?” Donovan asks while mounting the constitutionally mandated legal defense for Soviet spy Rudolph Abel (Mark Rylance). That question came to the fore in a distant time and place recreated by Bridge of Spies, but it’s reflected in today’s headlines with alarming precision. — KEN KORMAN
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