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Year One / * (R)
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"Year One" (PG-13, 100 minutes). Jack Black and Michel Cera playing themselves, as tribal hunter-gatherers who advance all the way to royal security guards. Dreary and cheerless slapshtick. One star per year.
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The Proposal / *** (PG-13)
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"The Proposal" (PG-13, 107 minutes). Sandra Bullock is back in form, as a tyrannical boss from Canada who is threatened with deportation and commands her long-suffering assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her. He has motives of his own, and takes her home to Sitka, Alaska, where his family takes the "engagement" seriously. Predictable of course, but charming. Betty White and Mary Steenburgen sparkle. Three stars.
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Seraphine / **** (No MPAA rating)
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"Séraphine" (Unrated, 126 minutes) The story of an early 20th century French artist known as Séraphine de Senlis (Yolande Moreau) , a self-taught artist who mixed her own paints, painted in secret, and is now represented in major museums. When a famous critic and art dealer (Ulrich Tukur), she was his maid. He encourages her, but eventually loses her top her delusions. Winner of seven Cesars from the French Academy, including best film and best actress. Four stars.
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Food, Inc. / ***1/2 (PG)
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"Food, Inc." (PG, 94 minutes) Alarming documentary that says our food is produced on assembly lines by multinationals, and the "family farm" is a myth. Paints an overall picture more frightening because the situation has grown out of control. Do you realize the odds are the steak you eat came from beef cattle raised on concrete floor and standing more than ankle deep in manure? Three and a half stars
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Moon / ***1/2 (R)
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"Moon" (R, 97 minutes). Sam Rockwell plays a man serving the end of a three-year tour of duty on a lonely mining outpost on the far side of the Moon. What kind of a man would volunteer for such duty? What kind of a corporation would ask him to? We find out. Superior hard-science fiction. Three and a half stars.
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Tetro / *** (No MPAA rating)
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"Tetro" (Unrated, 127 minutes). Francis Ford Coppola returns to form with an operatic family melodrama set in Buenos Aires. Newcomer Alden Ehrenreich is charismatic as a younger brother reunited after years with his mysterious sibling, an exile well-played by Vincent Gallo. Family secrets, generations at war, melodrama, romance and violence. Beautifully filmed in b&w. In English. Three stars.
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Of Time and the City / ***1/2 (No MPAA rating)
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"Of Time and the City" (Unrated, 77 minutes). An elegaic portrait of Liverpool by its native son filmmaker, Terence Davies, combining archival footage, classical and pop music, and his own deep, rich voice for poetry-speckled narration. Evokes a reverie of time past. Three and a half stars.
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The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 / **1/2 (R)
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"The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" (R, 106). Denzel Washington and John Travolta in a remake of the 1974 film that takes place in a less interesting New York City, with less juicy characters and hyperkinetic special effects that can 't be believed. Directed by Tony Scott. Two and a half stars
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Away We Go / ***1/2 (R)
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"Away We Go" (R, 97 minutes). Verona and Burt (Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski) are 30-somethings with a bun in the oven, ready to abandon their Impoverished Student lifestyle and settle down to grown-up lives. They engage in visits to family and friends in the U.S. and Canada, doing some lifestyle comparison shopping, in a whimsical, charming, sometimes heart-tugging movie of both edge and charm. Written by the novelists Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, directed by Sam Mendes ("American Beauty"). Three and a half stars
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Imagine That / **1/2 (PG)
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"Imagine That" (PG, 107 minutes). Eddie Murphy teams with the charming 7-year-old Yara Shahidi to play a desperate investment adviser who relies on Wall Street advice from her imaginary friends. Thomas Haden Church is his rival, an American Indian broker who relies on native wisdom for his insights. Pleasant, amusing, but too predictable for grown-ups and not broad enough for children. Two and a half stars.
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Tulpan / **** (No MPAA rating)
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"Tulpan" (Unrated, suitable for teenagers, 100 minutes). A deadpan comedy about an unmarried young man searching for a bride on the desolate steppes of Kazakhstan. Life in this outpost is astonishing; nothing can be seen to the distant horizon in every direction. it is hard, yet filled with humanity and humor, and the film is richly enjoyable. Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes 2008. Four stars.
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Enlighten Up / *** (No MPAA rating)
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"Enlighten Up" (Unrated, 82 minutes). Director and yoga practitioner recruits Nick Rosen, downsized journalist, to go on a six-month search for the secrets of yoga in America and India. Many fascinating yoga instructors, fabulous India locations, not much excitement. Nick is really too laid back to get into yoga, if such a thing is possible. Pleasant enough. Three stars.
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Great Movie: Tender Mercies (1983)
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by Roger Ebert
"Tender Mercies" won Robert Duvall his only Academy Award in six nominations. It contains one of his most understated performances. It's mostly done with his eyes. The actor who shouted, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning!" here plays a character who wants to be rid of shouting. The film itself never shouts. Its title evokes its mood, although this is not a story about happiness. "I don't trust happiness. I never did, I never will," Mac Sledge tells Rosa Lee, in a scene framed entirely in a medium-long shot that possibly won him the Oscar.
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Movie Answer Man: Who you calling a robot?
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Q. You refer to the dogs in “Up” as robotic. I believe the dogs were just normal dogs equipped with special “translating” collars that produced their speech, collars that I took to be inventions of Muntz’s brilliance. I do not recall any explicit reference made either way in the movie, but I think many details support the non-robotic argument: gray-furred dogs, the clear mention of Muntz’s beloved dog pack in the movie’s opening “archival” footage, and the extremely organic animation style of the “Dug” character in particular.
Rob Worman, Minneapolis, MN
A. Apart from Dug, I thought they seemed robotic, but not robots. Imprecise word choice.
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