Artvoice: Buffalo's #1 Newsweekly
Home Blogs Web Features Calendar Listings Artvoice TV Real Estate Classifieds Contact
Previous story: Movie Times (Friday, March 19 - Thursday, March 25)
Next story: See You There!

Film Now Playing

Opening This Week:

THE BOUNTY HUNTER—Rom-com starring Gerard Butler as a bounty hunter whose current target is his ex-wife (Jennifer Aniston), an investigative reporter. With Gio Perez, Joel Garland, Jason Sudeikis and Christine Baranski. Directed by Andy Tennant (Fool’s Gold). A review will be posted at Artvoice.com on Thursday. Flix, Maple Ridge, Market Arcade, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID—Live-action adaptation of a popular children’s book. Starring Zachary Gordon, Robert Capron, Rachael Harris and Steve Zahn. Directed by Thor Freudenthal (Hotel for Dogs). Flix, Maple Ridge, Market Arcade, McKinley, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Walden Galleria

THE GHOST WRITER—Roman Polanski directed this thriller starring Ewan McGregor as a ghost writer hired to work on the memoirs of a former British prime minister (Pierce Brosnan) who has been accused of illegal rendition. Co-starring Kim Cattrall, Olivia Williams, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Hutton, Eli Wallach and James Belushi. Reviewed this issue. Amherst, Eastern Hills

REPO MEN—Thriller set in a future where replacement organs can be purchased by those who can afford them, starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker as the guys who repossess them if you don’t pay your bill. With Alice Braga, Liev Schreiber and Carice van Houten. Directed by Miguel Sapochnik. Flix, Maple Ridge, Market Arcade, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

ETC:

FREAKS (1932)—The film that essentially killed director Tod Browning’s career: he used real circus freaks as actors in a melodrama about a conniving vixen who sets out to seduce one of the performers for his fortune. The fuss was misplaced, as Browning’s sympathies are with the shunned performers, though the ending is as disturbing a sequence as you’re likely to see on film. Mon. 8pm. Sugar City Arts Collaborative, 19 Wadsworth St.

LIFEBOAT (1944)—The first and most successful of Alfred Hitchcock’s usually self-defeating experiments in restricting his cinematic canvas. A lifeboat in the Atlantic ocean holds nine people: eight survivors of a ship torpedoed by a German submarine, and one of the sub’s crewmen. The war propaganda aspect dates it (even Spielberg might consider the Nazi caricature a bit excessive), but it remains interesting as an exercise in style, and a rare chance to see Tallulah Bankhead at her best. With William Bendix, Walter Slezak and Hume Cronyn. Fri 7:15 pm Sun 8pm, Tues 8pm. The Screening Room, Northtown Plaza in Century Mall, 3131 Sheridan Drive, Amherst (837-0376) www.screeningroom.net

UNDER GREAT WHITE NORTHERN LIGHTS—Documentary of the White Stripes tour across Canada in 2007, often playing unannounced shows at odd venues like bowling alleys and buses. Fri 9:15 pmThe Screening Room, Northtown Plaza in Century Mall, 3131 Sheridan Drive, Amherst (837-0376) www.screeningroom.net

A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE (1974)—Fascinating and exasperating, often at the same time, John Cassavetes’ portrait of the marriage of a woman (Oscar-nominated Gena Rowlands) suffering a nervous breakdown and her husband (Peter Falk) who is mad in his own ways. Presented as part of the Buffalo Film Seminar. Tues 7 pm, Market Arcade Film and Arts Center, 639 Main St. (855-3022).

XXY—Argentine drama about an intersex teenager coming of age on the secluded island where her parents have taken her to live. Starring Ricardo Darín and Inés Efron. Directed by Lucía Puenzo. Reviewed last issue. Presented by the International Women’s Film Festival. Thurs March 18, 7pm. Market Arcade Film and Arts Center, 639 Main St. (855-3022).