Children of Men
This 2006 world-gone-terribly-wrong thriller by Alfonso Cuaron, the man who polarized us all with Prisoner of Azkaban, features a scene in which Clive Owen is evidently crying so hard that he drools and spits all over the woods, where he's fumbling about in grief. Children of Men is a riveting movie, filmed with the docu-like immediacy of live war correspondence, but that scene with the drool — man — so memorable. It's the late 2020s and humanity has been rocked by an infertility crisis. England, anarchic and sort of old-school Fascist, has become the last bastion of civilization. Owen plays an apathetic functionary there who gets caught up in a radical quest when his ex-wife convinces him to abet in some refugee activism and a noble mission is revealed! (Ne'er has an accidental pregnancy). It's an edge-of-your-seat watching experience, gritty and powerful and freakishly chillingly plausible. It features one of the more talked-about single long takes of the decade. Michael Caine and Julianne Moore co-star. It plays tonight at 8:30 and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque as part of the theater's "Apocalypse Now" series. (Sam Allard)
11141 East Boulevard, 216 421 7450,
Friday apr 26Love Sick Love
Sleazy two-timing New York businessman Norman (Matthew Settle) is at the center of this new flick from director Christian Charles, who has mostly worked in TV prior to this. Norman has his hands full with the voluptuous Dori (Katie Winter) who desperately wants to tame his wild ways. While work buddy Andrew Blythe (Jim Gaffigan) provides a bit of comic relief to the storyline, his parts are minimal (and Gaffigan ain't much of an actor anyway). While the film takes a real twist mid-way through (Dori isn't exactly what she seems and she and her family are all kinds of crazy), it still feels like we're left with something that in the end comes off too much like a some kind of off-kilter soap opera and lacks the kind of depth you'd expect from an indie release. It opens today at Shaker Square Cinemas. (Niesel)
13116 Shaker Square, 216-921-9342,
The Company You Keep
This film about the "Weather Underground," a group of radicals who protested the Vietnam War, commences with vintage news footage from the '60s before flashing forward to the present-day where we see a woman getting her kids ready for school. The film then takes a turn as that woman, Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon), is suddenly arrested as she's pumping gas into her SUV. When a young reporter (Shia LaBeouf) at the local paper finds out about the arrest, he starts looking into the charges and questions a local lawyer (Robert Redford) associated with the case. The story focuses on such a narrow bit of history, it might not have wide appeal but the terrific cast, which also includes Terrence Howard, Nick Nolte, Stanley Tucci and Chris Cooper, carries the movie, which Redford also directed. It opens today at Valley View, Cedar-Lee and Crocker Park. (Niesel)
Saturday apr 27Curling
Set in rural Quebec, this French-Canadian film makes the most of its rural setting. In one of the film's first scenes, Jean-François (Emmanuel Bilodeau), a single dad who holds down a job at the local bowling alley, and his daughter Julyvonne (Philomene Bilodeau) walk down a deserted road as the wind blows snow with hurricane-like force. It's a stark scene (and one that's slightly reminiscent of Fargo) that sets the tone for this drama about how Jean-François tries to shield 12-year-old Julyvonne from the weird and wacky goings on in a secluded town. The film screens tonight at 9:30 and tomorrow night at 6:30 at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. (Niesel)
11141 East Boulevard, 216 421 7450,
SUNDAY apr 28Dr. Zhivago
This movie is 200 goddamn minutes long. Two hundred minutes, folks. That's three hours and 20 minutes. Maybe that's why the Capitol Theatre is offering a champagne intermission as part of the ticket price for its Sunday brunch series. Set against the backdrop of the Soviet Union during World War I, the film follows a young physician (Omar Sharif) and his sultry mistress (Julie Christie) as they get swept up in the Bolshevik revolution and every manner of romantic complication imaginable. Cleveland Cinemas is all over Director David Lean lately. Last month, they featured a digital restoration of Lawrence of Arabia, another mammoth historical epic, at the Capitol. That film also featured Sharif and Alex Guinness and is just as long. Lean's a master of the gigantic, and this film is big and bold in the way of history itself. Russia is considerably colder than Arabia, but Julie Christie remains smoking hot. The film screens at 10 a.m. (Allard)
1390 W 65th St., 216-651-7295, clevelandcinemas.com
Lou Harrison: A World of Music
Director Eva Soltes's documentary about the late American composer Lou Harrison begins with the man's childhood — his family suffered through the Depression while he was young and he relates how his mother became hysterical as a result. He recalls moving to another house every year. "The result was that I built myself a paper world," Harrison says. Harrison, who taught himself to play piano, soon started experimenting with the music of non-Western cultures. While Harrison's music isn't likely to appeal to even the most discriminating classical or avant-garde music fan, this is a fascinating portrait of a guy who wrote a number of concerto before he died in 2003. The film shows today at 1:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Museum of Art. (Niesel)
11150 East Blvd., 216-707-2465,
TUESDAY apr 30Fargo
In an Oscar-winning performance, Frances McDormand stars as the hugely pregnant, lovable Minnesota police detective Marge Gunderson in this snowy crime-dramedy from the Coen brothers. Fargo follows the folksy Gunderson as she investigates a hapless car dealer (played by an oh-so-flimsy, fabulous William H. Macy) who has conspired with shady criminals to orchestrate the capture of his wife so he can collect a percentage of the ransom. Filmed in America's Northern climes — Minneapolis, Brainerd, Fargo, Bismark — there's something exotically Scandinavian about everything. Alternately hilarious and dark, this is a '90s classic that never gets old. Also, the Swedish actor Peter Stormare, playing a violent criminal, with his platinum blonde hair, bears a striking resemblance to Ryan Gosling. Weeeeeird. It plays tonight at 7 at the Cedar Lee as part of the Laff Riot series. (Allard)
2163 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights,
216-321-5411, clevelandcinemas.com
