|
|||||
Check out the latest exclusive engagements and premieres, including the best in new indies, foreign films, documentaries and restored classics, by downloading a PDF of the Midtown Art Cinema Movie Guide, with all-new programming from December 18 to April 1! |
![]() |
| From visionary director Tim Burton comes the epic fantasy adventure Alice in Wonderland, a magical and impressive twist on some of the most beloved stories of all time. Johnny Depp stars as the Mad Hatter and Mia Wasikowska as 19-year-old Alice, who returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting her with her childhood friends: the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course the Mad Hatter. Alice embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen's reign of terror. Also starring Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter and Crispin Glover. Director Tim Burton (Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Edward Scissorhands) captures the wonder of Lewis Carroll's beloved Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871) with stunning, avant-garde visuals and some of the most charismatic characters in literary history. Official Web Site |
|

![]() |
| Romania’s official Oscar selection and winner of a 2009 Cannes Jury Prize and FIPRESCI international critics’ prize, writer/director Corneliu Porumboiu’s whip-smart, dryly funny follow-up to his acclaimed debut 12:08 East of Bucharest centers on a police officer on a surveillance mission who has a crisis of faith. Cristi (Dragos Bucur) is a young undercover cop pressured to arrest a teenager who offers pot to two of his schoolmates. Not wanting to ruin the life of a young man he considers merely irresponsible, Cristi must either allow the arrest to be a burden on his conscience, or face censure by his superior (Vlad Ivanov of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) for whom the word “conscience” has an entirely different meaning. Porumboiu wields his camera like a well-aimed weapon, revealing his story with little dialogue and gradually increasing tension, until the unexpected conclusion. Official Web Site |

![]() |
| After a run of bad luck, John (Steve Buscemi), a compulsive gambler, runs away from Las Vegas and into the straight world, taking a nondescript position in an auto insurance company in Albuquerque. When his boss, Mr. Townsend (Peter Dinklage, The Station Agent ), asks John to accompany his top fraud debunker, Virgil (Romany Malco), on an investigation of a dubious car "accident" near Vegas, John sees an opportunity to get a promotion, though he's concerned about returning to the gambling game. Before leaving he becomes involved with his eccentric co-worker Jill (Sarah Silverman), a dalliance that has the potential to become a real relationship. Soon John is on the road with Virgil, where they encounter a series of offbeat characters, including a wheelchair-bound stripper (Emmanuelle Chriqui), a nude militant (Tim Blake Nelson), a park Ranger (Jesse Garcia), and a carnival human torch (John Cho). First time writer/director Hue Rhodes' Saint John of Las Vegas follows the wild and funny trip a guy has to take to discover there's more than one way to hit the jackpot in life. Official Web Site |
![]() |
| In 1954, U.S. marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), are summoned to the hospital for the criminally insane on remote and barren Shutter Island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the disappearance of a female murderer. Marshall Daniels is especially keen on cracking the case, for he has personal matters at stake. He suspects rampant unsavory (and illegal) treatment practices at the institution, but then clashes with Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kingsley), who refuses him access to hospital records. As a fierce storm cuts off both communication with and escape to the mainland, and dangerous criminals break loose on the island, Daniels’s grasp of the clues, his memory, his trust in his partner, and his wits begin to unravel. From Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese. Also starring Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Michelle Williams and Max von Sydow. Official Web Site |

![]() |
|
Don't miss this rare opportunity to see all five Academy Award nominees in
the category of Best Animated Short and more! Program includes: French
Roast (France), in which an uptight businessman in a fancy Parisian café
who is about to pay his check finds out that he has lost his wallet; Granny
O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty (Ireland), in which a grandmother loses the
plot as she tells her version of "Sleeping Beauty" to her terrified
granddaughter; The Lady and the Reaper (Spain), in which a sweet old
lady who is waiting for death so she can see her beloved husband once again
is invited to enter death's domain—if someone doesn't ruin it for her;
Academy Award winner Logorama (Argentina), featuring spectacular car chases, an intense
hostage crisis, and wild animals rampaging through the city; and A Matter
of Loaf and Death (UK), the latest adventure from Nick Park, in which
Wallace & Gromit start a new bread baking business. Although business
is booming, Gromit is concerned by the news that a dozen local bakers have
'disappeared' this year, so he turns sleuth to protect his master and solve
the escalating murder mystery. Program also features three bonus shorts: Pixar's
Partly Cloudy (USA), Poland's The Kinematograph and Canada's
Runaway. Official
Web Site Curt Holman's Creative Loafing review... |

![]() |
|
Don't miss this rare opportunity to see all five Academy Award nominees in
the category of Best Live Action Short! Program includes: The Door
(Ireland), about a father who attempts to come to terms with the devastating
affects of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster; Instead of Abracadabra (Sweden),
about a man named Tomas who is a bit too old to still be living at home with
his parents, but his failure to become a magician leaves him with no other
choice. At his father's 60th birthday party Tomas gives him, and all his guests,
a quite bizarre show; Kavi (India/USA), in which a boy in India who wants
to play cricket and go to school is instead forced to work in a brick kiln
as a modern-day slave. Unsatisfied with his fate, Kavi must either accept
what he's always been told, or fight for a different life even if he's unsure
of the ultimate outcome; Miracle Fish (Australia), in which 8-year-old
Joe has a birthday he will never forget. After friends tease him, he sneaks
off to the sick bay, wishing everyone in the world would go away. He wakes
up to find his dream may have become a reality; and Academy Award winner The New Tenants
(Denmark/USA), in which a prying neighbour, a glassy-eyed drug dealer, and a husband
brandishing both a weapon and a vendetta make up the welcome wagon. Amidst
the as-yet-unopened boxes and the hopes for a fresh start for the two men,
it might just be the worst moving day ever. Their new apartment reveals its
terrifying history in a film that is by turns funny, frightening and unexpectedly
romantic. Vincent D'Onofrio and Kevin Corrigan star. Official Web Site Curt Holman's Creative Loafing review... |

![]() |
|
The Hurt Locker is a riveting, suspenseful portrait of the courage under fire of the military’s unrecognized heroes: the technicians of a bomb squad who volunteer to challenge the odds and save lives doing one of the world’s most dangerous jobs. Three members of the Army’s elite Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) squad battle insurgents and one another as they search for and disarm a wave of roadside bombs on the streets of Baghdad—in order to try and make the city a safer place for Iraqis and Americans alike. Their mission is clear—protect and save—but it’s anything but easy, as the margin of error when defusing a war-zone bomb is zero. This thrilling and heart-pounding look at the psychology of bomb technicians and the effects of risk and danger on the human psyche is a fictional tale inspired by real events by journalist and screenwriter Mark Boal, who was embedded with a special bomb unit in Iraq. In Iraq, it is soldier vernacular to speak of explosions as sending you to “the hurt locker.” Acclaimed director Kathryn Bigelow brings together groundbreaking realistic action and intimate human drama in a landmark film starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty, with cameo appearances by Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, Evangeline Lilly and Guy Pearce. Winner of 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Official
Web Site Director Kathryn Bigelow on the importance of casting the perfect actor |
![]() |
| Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman, The Princess Diaries) directs the intertwining storylines of a group of Los Angelinos as they find their way through romance over the course of one Valentine's Day. The film’s star-studded cast, including Jennifer Garner, Jessica Alba, Ashton Kutcher, Anne Hathaway, Kathy Bates, Jamie Foxx, Jessica Biel, Queen Latifah, Taylor Swift, Shirley MacLaine, George Lopez and Julia Roberts, show that there can be as many different approaches to love as there are minutes in the day. Official Web Site |
![]() |
| From Jason Reitman, the director of Juno and Thank You for Smoking, comes a dramatic comedy starring George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, a corporate hatchet man who loves his life on the road but is forced to fight for his job when his company downsizes its travel budget. He is required to spend more time at home, just as he is on the cusp of a goal he's worked toward for years—reaching ten million frequent flyer miles. When he falls for a simpatico fellow traveler (Vera Farmiga), his boss (Jason Bateman), inspired by a young, upstart efficiency expert (Anna Kendrick), threatens to permanently call him in from the road. Faced with the prospect of being grounded, which is at once terrifying and exhilarating, he begins to contemplate what it might actually mean to have a home. Official Web Site |
![]() |
|
An Education is the story of a teenage girl's coming-of-age set in
1961 London, a city caught between the drab, post-war 1950s and the glamorous,
more liberated decade to come. Jenny (Carey Mulligan) stands on the brink
of becoming a woman: a brilliantly witty and attractive 16-year-old whose
suburban life is about to be blown apart by the utterly unsuitable 30-something
David (Peter Sarsgaard). Urbane and witty, David manages to charm her conservative
parents Jack (Alfred Molina) and Marjorie (Cara Seymour). David introduces
Jenny to a glittering new world of classical concerts and late-night suppers
with his attractive friend and business partner, Danny (Dominic Cooper) and
Danny's girlfriend, the beautiful but vacuous Helen (Rosamund Pike). Just
as Jenny's family's long-held dream of getting their brilliant daughter into
Oxford seems within reach, Jenny is tempted by another kind of life. Written
by Nick Hornby (About a Boy, High Fidelity) and directed by Lone Scherfig
(Italian for Beginners). Official
Web Site Roger Ebert's Chicago Sun-Times review... |
![]() |
| Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93) re-team for their latest electrifying thriller in Green Zone, a film set in the chaotic early days of the Iraqi War when no one could be trusted and every decision could detonate into unforeseen consequences. During the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad in 2003, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Damon) and his team of Army inspectors were dispatched to find weapons of mass destruction believed to be stockpiled in the Iraqi desert. Hurrying from one booby-trapped and treacherous site to the next, the men search for deadly chemical agents but stumble instead upon an elaborate cover-up that inverts the purpose of their mission. Spun by operatives with intersecting agendas, Miller must hunt through covert and faulty intelligence hidden on foreign soil for answers that will either clear a rogue regime or escalate a war in an unstable region. At this blistering time and in this combustible place, he will find the most elusive weapon of all is the truth. Official Web Site |
![]() |
| Tyler (Robert Pattinson, Twilight) is a rebellious young man in New York City who has a strained relationship with his father (Pierce Brosnan) ever since tragedy separated their family. Tyler didn't think anyone could possibly understand what he was going through until the day he met Ally (Emilie de Ravin) through an unusual twist of fate. Love was the last thing on his mind, but as her spirit unexpectedly heals and inspires him, he begins to fall for her. Through their love, he begins to find happiness and meaning in his life. But soon, hidden secrets are revealed, and the circumstances that brought them together slowly threaten to tear them apart. Remember Me is an unforgettable story about the power of love, the strength of family, and the importance of living passionately and treasuring every day of one's life. Directed by Allen Coulter. Official Web Site |

![]() |
| Hilarious and frequently surreal, this stop-motion extravaganza has endless charms and raucous laughs. Based on the Belgian animated cult TV series (which was released by Wallace & Gromit’s Aardman Studios), A Town Called Panic stars three plastic toys named Cowboy, Indian and Horse, who share a house in a rural town that never fails to attract the weirdest events. Cowboy and Indian’s plan to give Horse a homemade barbecue backfires when they accidentally order 50 million bricks. Whoops! This sets off a perilously wacky chain of events as the trio travel to the center of the earth, trek across frozen tundra and discover a parallel underwater universe of pointy-headed (and dishonest!) creatures. With panic a permanent feature of life in this papier-mâché burg, will Horse and his equine paramour—flame-tressed piano teacher Madame Longray—ever find a quiet moment alone? A non-stop whirlwind of inspired silliness that will leave you smiling. Voices by co-directors Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar, as well as Jeanne Balibar and Benoit Poelvoorde. Please note: Despite occasional bad language in the subtitles, the French-language film is entirely appropriate for children. Official Web Site |

![]() |
|
In 1922 Dr. Albert C. Barnes created The Barnes Foundation in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, five miles outside of Philadelphia. His astounding collection of Post-Impressionist and early Modern art, intended to serve as an educational institution, includes 181 Renoirs, 69 Cezannes, 59 Matisses, 46 Picassos, 16 Modiglianis, and 7 Van Goghs. Dr. Barnes deliberately built his Foundation away from the city and cultural elite who scorned his collection as "horrible, debased art." But tastes changed, and soon the very people who belittled Barnes wanted access to his collection. When Barnes died in 1951, he left control of his collection to Lincoln University, a small African-American college, with strict instructions that the paintings may never be removed. More than fifty years later, a powerful group of moneyed interests have gone to court in a rancorous, Machiavellian attempt to take the art—recently valued at more than $25 billion—and move it to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Official Web Site Director Don Argott on the passion of Dr. Albert C. Barnes |

![]() |
| The latest film from award-winning Korean director Bong Joon-ho (The Host) is a unique murder mystery about a mother's primal love for her son. Mother is a devoted single parent to her simple-minded twenty-seven-year-old son, Do-joon. Often a source of anxiety to his mother, Do-joon behaves in foolish or simply dangerous ways. One night, while walking home drunk, he encounters a school girl who he follows for a while before she disappears into a dark alley. The next morning, she is found dead in an abandoned building and Do-joon is accused of her murder. An inefficient lawyer and an apathetic police force result in a speedy conviction. His mother refuses to believe her beloved son is guilty and immediately undertakes her own investigation to find the girl’s killer. In her obsessive quest to clear her son’s name, Mother steps into a world of unimaginable chaos and shocking revelations. Official Web Site |