++1/2 The boX :: 2009 :: First-semester social-science students would wince at the overreaching metaphors in Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly’s latest Rorschach test. The parallels between the tall tale’s namesake execution cube and Stanley Milgram’s shock apparatus are as subtle as a boner in sweatpants, and so are the cheap references to the Bible and O. Henry’s “Gift of the Magi.” When 1970s Virginia suburbanites Arthur (James Marsden) and Norma (Cameron Diaz) are told by the mysterious Arlington Steward (Frank Langella) that they can earn $1 million by activating the box they’ve received (which will then remotely cause a stranger’s death), their poor judgment sends them onto a morbid choose-your-own adventure thoroughfare. The Box, though masterfully illustrated, fails to think outside one. :: 116m :: BPL: Mon
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++ The CAmPAiGN :: 2012 :: Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. :: 85m :: Boston Common + Fenway + Somerville Theatre + Embassy + suburbs ++ CelesTe ANd Jesse Forever :: 2012 :: Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. :: 91m :: Kendall Square + Embassy ChiNA heAvYWeiGhT :: 2012 :: Documentary highlighting a duo of rural teenagers living in China’s Sichuan Province and training for the forthcoming Olympics. Together, they team up with former boxing champion Qi Moxiang to battle the weight of potential failure that arrives tenfold when living in a country like China. Yung Chang directs. :: Chinese :: 94m :: MFA: Fri-Sun +1/2 The Cold liGhT oF dAY :: 2012 :: Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. :: 93m :: Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + suburbs +++ ComPliANCe :: 2012 :: Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. :: 90m :: Somerville Theatre CouNCil oF love [liebesKoNZil] :: 1982 :: Werner Schroeter’s take on Oskar Panizza’s 1895 play of the same name concerning the first recorded outbreak of syphilis, which Panizza satirically depicted as a punishment from Satan for being sexually active. For his efforts, Panizza was tried for obscenity. The trial is dramatized here by Schroeter, spliced between scenes of the play. With Antonio Salines as Panizza. :: German :: 94m :: HFA: Fri
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+++ dArK horse :: 2011 :: Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. :: 86m :: Brattle: Thurs +++1/2 The dArK KNiGhT rises :: 2012 :: Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. :: 165m :: Boston Common +
Fenway + Fresh Pond + Somerville Theatre + Chestnut Hill + Embassy + suburbs The deATh oF mAriA mAlibrAN [der Todd er mAriA mAlibrAN] :: 1972 :: Experimental offering from German director Werner Schroeter that, despite bearing the name of a famed Spanish opera singer in the title, does not play like anything resembling a biopic. Rather, the film consists of “a series of tableaux, primarily featuring pairs of performers in static, dramatic poses.” With Magdalena Montezuma, Candy Darling, and Ingrid Caven. :: German :: 104m :: HFA: Fri +++ deTroPiA :: 2012 :: Visit thePhoenix. com/movies for a full review. :: 90m :: MFA
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eiKA KATAPPA :: 1969 :: Debut feature from German director Werner Schroeter presented as a collage of dramatic scenes each with a different take on love, suffering, and death and each set to a well-known piece of classical, operatic, or rock music. With Gisela Trowe, Magdalena Montezuma, and Carla Aulaulau. :: German + Italian + Spanish :: 144m :: HFA: Sun +1/2 The eXPeNdAbles 2 :: 2012 :: Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. :: 102m :: Boston Common + Fenway + suburbs
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+++ FAreWell, mY QueeN :: 2012 :: Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. :: French :: 100m :: Brattle: Mon +++ FiNdiNG Nemo 3d :: 2003 :: With Pixar’s fish tale about family ties, it’s the clever details, enchanting emotional nuances, and cheeky humor that make Finding Nemo swim. Marlin (Albert Brooks), Nemo’s widowed father, sets off to retrieve his missing 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). 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 ++1/2 FolloW me: The YoNi NeTANYAhu sTorY :: 2012 :: Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. :: 87m :: West Newton: Sun +1/2 For A Good Time, CAll... :: 2012 :: Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. :: 85m :: Coolidge Corner ++++ FuNNY Girl :: 1968 :: Decked out in a magnificent new print, William Wyler’s film is a sweet memento of what the movie musical used to be when it was at its best. And its star, Barbra Streisand, was poised on the cusp of the old and the new Hollywood. The title character is Fanny
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