I’ll be in New Orleans in less than 24 hours, which is why I wrote about movies this week earlier than usual. So it would be particularly cool of me to tell you about the movies opening in New Orleans this week, and the special film events in that town, wouldn’t it?
But I haven’t lived near New Orleans for so long that I have no idea where to look for that information. Besides, most of you don’t care.
My sister wants us all to go to a movie on Christmas Day this year, because the family doesn’t seem to have very much planned, and her film-geek boyfriend would enjoy it. I agreed to see anything they like except Meet the Fockers, which her boyfriend wants to avoid too. My boyfriend, on the other hand, is probably watching the movie right now while he’s enjoying a Jette-free week in Austin. I’m actually hoping we can all see The Life Aquatic, since that’s a movie my boyfriend isn’t thrilled about seeing.
Alamo Downtown is closed on Dec. 24 and 25. The other Alamo theaters are open, though. Arbor at Great Hills appears to be premiering most of the new movies this week. But either you’re the kind of person for whom movies are the last thing on your mind this week, or you’re going to try to figure out how many movies you can see during the time off work. If you’re the latter, I am so envious of you. Enjoy.
New movies in Austin this week:
The Aviator—Opens Sat. 12/25. The much-discussed biopic of Howard Hughes, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese. I don’t know if I can deal with Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn, although I like the idea of Jude Law as Errol Flynn … and Edward Herrmann, who played Hearst in Cat’s Meow, now playing Joe Breen (who ran the Production Code office in Hollywood). Tons of well-known actors, very prestigious … but any good? I’m not a big Scorsese fan so I’ll be interested to hear what people think after they see it.
Darkness—Opens Sat. 12/25. Anna Paquin stars in what looks like a standard creepy horror/thriller/fantasy film about a family that moves into a house with a terrifying secret. This movie was released in Spain in 2002 and is being released in the US only now.
Fat Albert—Opens Sat. 12/25. Why? Why do we need a live-action, feature-length movie based on the 1970s animated TV show? I said that about Scooby-Doo too, I know. And The Flintstones. And I still wonder why.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou—Opens Sat. 12/25. I’m hoping to convince my baby brother to see this movie with me, and we can get all geeky about Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums) together.
The Phantom of the Opera—Opened Wed. 12/22. Joel Schumacher directed this adapation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. The cast includes Miranda Richardson and Minnie Driver. I don’t particularly care for Webber’s musicals myself … and damn, 143 minutes long! With no intermission, like you’d get in the stage musical, either.
A Very Long Engagement—Opened Wed. 12/22. My boyfriend made faces when we saw the trailer for this movie and noted that it was billed as A Motion Picture Event, which is always a bad sign. Also, he loathed Amelie. But I love Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s films (Delicatessen, Amelie) and I’d like to see this one. Besides, Audrey Tautou has a much less perky hairstyle in this one, won’t that help?
Notable events/revivals in Austin:
Border Bandits—Playing at Alamo Village on Mon. 12/27. Documentary about an incident in Texas history, in which 3,000-5,000 Mexican-Americans were killed in the lower Rio Grande Valley. Screening followed by a Q&A session.
Forbidden Animation—Playing at Alamo Downtown on Tues. 12/28. I don’t know if this is anything like the “Banned Toons” collection that Alamo showed in the summer of 2003 (an event I can hardly forget for sappy sentimental reasons), but that was a good line-up and well worth seeing.
High for the Holidays film festival—Various movies playing at Alamo Downtown 12/26-30. Someone thought it would be funny to show a bunch of movies about people under the influence, just in time for New Year’s Eve. Hee. Films include Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, Half Baked, and Drunken Wu Tang.
I am bringing Elf to New Orleans with me to watch with the family, because somehow on Christmas night we always want to watch something and never can find something tolerable. I have no idea what else I might be watching in the next week, other than interesting family incidents … but those are live and in person.