Casablanca

Opening

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATED SHORT FILMS—Two programs of those short films that you otherwise never get to see except during the three seconds of clip when the nominations are read. Reviewed this issue. Market Arcade

JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND—The Jules Verne oeuvre is raided again for this more-or-less sequel to 2008’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, with Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson replacing Brendan Fraser. Co-starring Michael Caine, Josh Hutcherson, and Vanessa Hudgens. Directed by Brad Peyton. Aurora, Flix, Maple Ridge, Market Arcade, New Angola, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

SAFE HOUSE—Ryan Reynolds as a CIA agent put incharge of safeguarding fugitive Denzel Washington. With Vera Farmiga, Brendan Gleeson, Sam Shepard, and Rubén Blades. Directed by Daniel Espinosa. Flix, Maple Ridge, Market Arcade, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

SHAME—NC-17 rated film starring Michael Fassbender as a Manhattan financial worker whose patterns of sexual compulsion are interrupted by an unannounced visit from his sister (Carey Mulligan). Directed by Steve McQueen (Hunger). See the feature article this issue. Amherst

THE VOW—Channing Tatum has to regain the love of his wife (Rachel McAdams) after an accident impairs her memory. Didn’t they already make this movie with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore? Co-starring Jessica Lange, and Sam Neill. Directed by Michael Sucsy (the HBO remake of Grey Gardens). Flix, Maple Ridge, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

ETC:

CASABLANCA (1941)—Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in what is by general consensus Hollywood’s greatest romance. Call it a miracle of studio craftsmanship, a whole that exceeds the sum of its parts, and an almost mythological example of why we love movies so much. Directed by Michael Curtiz. With Paul Heinreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, S. Z. Sakall, and Dooley Wilson. Screening Room

EVEN DWARVES STARTED SMALL (Germany, 1970)—The dwarves who inhabit an institution revolt against their keepers and destroy the place in the second feature directed by Werner Herzog. Opening “Midnight Beacon,” a new series of midnight films. Market Arcade

ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS—A hit at the Buffalo International Film Festival, this French comedy is set at a chocolate factory, where a shy woman (Isabelle Carré) takes a job as a sales rep and enters an uncomfortable romance with the company’s equally bashful owner (Benoît Poelvoorde). Screening Room, Screens

SENSO (Italy, 1954)—Fully restored version of the epic melodrama (released in the US missing 20 minutes as The Wanton Contessa) starring Alida Valli as a countess who betrays her country to Austria in the pursuit of a doomed love affair. With Farley Granger, Christian Marquand, and Massimo Girotti. Directed buy Luchino Visconti (The Leopard). Presented as part of the Buffalo Film Seminar. Market Arcade.

THREE STOOGES FILM FEST—Curly, Larry, Moe and probably Shemp too, because as the endless Republican primary debates demonstrate, you can never have too many Stooges. Angola Screening Room

WITHIN THE WHIRLWIND—True story based on the memoirs of Evgenia Ginzburg, a Russian teacher who spent ten years in Stalin’s Siberian gulag. Starring Emily Watson, Ian Hart, and Ulrich Tukur. Directed by Marlene Gorris (Antonia’s Line). With the short film “I Was the Child of Holocaust Survivors.” Opening this year’s International Women’s Film Festival. Thu Feb 16, 7pm. Market Arcade