What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Academy Award Nominated Animated Shorts Academy Award Nominated Live-Action Shorts Wow, this is totally cool: the Ritz at the Bourse is actually screening all the animated and live-action short films that have been nominated for Oscars this year. These films are usually quite difficult to see, so this is a really neat opportunity. Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse George Romero's Diary of the Dead It's......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Persepolis This film adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel, which was co-directed and co-written by Satrapi herself, along with Vincent Paronnaud, is getting amazing reviews. It follows the trials and tribulations of an outspoken Iranian girl during the Islamic revolution. The English language version of the film being screened here features the voices of Sean Penn, Gena Rowlands, and Iggy Pop, with Catherine Deneuve and......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. The Savages - Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman play siblings who are forced to live together again with their estranged father when his mind goes and there's no one else to take care of him. Not surprisingly, they drive each other crazy, but ultimately "start to realize what adulthood, family and, most surprisingly, each other are really about." Which sounds kind of corny. But with......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains - A documentary by director Jonathan Demme following Jimmy Carter on his recent book tour for his controversial book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. A great director and an interesting subject should make for a good film. Trailer Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten - Another documentary opening at the Ritz at the Bourse this weekend......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend My Kid Could Paint That - A documentary about child painter Marla Olmstead, and the questions about aesthetics that her story brings to the forefront. She and her family went on a rollercoaster ride of fame and infamy. Her paintings were hailed as great works of abstract expressionism by some, and started selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. She appeared on many national news programs.......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With - Jeff Garlin plays a rather pathetic Chicago actor who lives with his mother, and who, in the opening scenes of the film, gets dumped by his girlfriend, loses a part to Aaron Carter, and leaves an Overeaters Anonymous meeting to go to an ice cream parlor. When he falls for a girl there (Sarah Silverman), it could mean......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Most Likely to Suck: Freshman Orientation - Oh, lovely. Another comedy where a straight guy pretends to be gay for some stupid reason. We're already really tired of this genre. This one is also crossed with another of our least favorite genres, the college sex comedy. A freshman guy discovers that a freshman girl is trying to get into a sorority, and in order to do......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Inside Paris or Dans Paris - The story of a man who is left suicidal and depressed after his marriage breaks up. He goes back home to live with his divorced dad and his younger brother. Although they try to cheer him up, the only thing that actually makes him happier is a visit from his distant mother. Eventually, of course, he finds something to live......

What's new and/or interesting at Philly theaters this weekend. 2 Days in Paris - Julie Delpy wrote, directed, and starred in this romantic comedy about a couple - Marion and Jack (Delpy and Adam Goldberg) - who are stopping in Paris to visit Marion's parents after a "romantic" vacation to Venice that ended up driving them further apart. After meeting Marion's parents, her friends, and innumerable exes on the streets of Paris, Jack begins to......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Rocket Science - When a film is described as "inspirational," we immediately approach it with suspicion, but this one at least has an interesting premise: a 15-year-old high school student (Reece Thompson) with an uncontrollable stutter decides to work through his disability by joining the debate team at school. The film is directed by Jeffrey Blitz, who overcame a speech impediment of his own as a......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. The Boss of It All - A comedy about working in an office by... Lars von Trier?! It seems impossible, but here it is. This film was at the Philadelphia Film Festival; you can read our reviews of the film here, here, and here. Trailer Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse Vitus - The story of a child genius who also happens to be a piano......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Black Sheep - Thought they'd already made a "scary animal" horror movie for every animal in the animal kingdom? Well, you were wrong there, mister! Behold, evil sheep! A guy scared of sheep comes back to the family farm only to discover that his brother is doing genetic experiments on the sheep. When one of the mutant lambs is released by animal activists, suddenly thousands of......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Broken English - This romantic comedy by first-time writer/director Zoe Cassavetes, and starring Parker Posey and Gena Rowlands, already hit Philly a while back during the Film Festival; you can read our review right here. Trailer Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse Brooklyn Rules - The story of three life long friends set against the backdrop of mobster John Gotti's rise to power in the '80s.......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend (and next week). Opening Today Sicko - In the long-awaited follow-up to Fahrenheit 9/11, controversial filmmaker Michael Moore takes on the American healthcare system. Moore is infuriating to some and a champion to others, but his films, even if they are not always entirely factually accurate, do tend, at the very least, to move their audiences to strong emotions. We expect this one will be alternately......

What's new and/or interesting in local theaters this weekend. Brand Upon the Brain! - Odd Canadian (is that redundant?) indie filmmaker Guy Maddin puts out another puzzler. We don't feel capable of paraphrasing the plot summary; we recommend you click here and read it for yourself. The film appears to be black and white, silent, and very, very strange. But it's also sitting at 93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and it sounds incredibly creative and......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. The Hip Hop Project - This documentary, produced by Bruce Willis and Queen Latifah, is about Kazi, a once-homeless teenager who now works with teenagers in New York City to craft hip hop songs from their personal lives as "a vehicle for self-development and personal discovery." Russel Simmons has helped to fund the Hip Hop Project, even, along with Bruce Willis, donating a recording studio......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. The Flying Scotsman - Apparently the long, slow process of Philadelphia Film Festival movies getting "real" releases has begun, as here's The Flying Scotsman, a Film Festival film that tells the true story of Graeme Obree, an untrained amateur who broke the world one-hour record on a bike in 1993 using a bike he built himself out of scrap metal and washing machine parts. Sounds like......

Film: Fair Play Future Screenings: No future screenings scheduled. I actually like this year's festival trailer. From what I've observed, I think most people do. But it's been funny listening to audiences during it, as the Festival has progressed. The first couple of days, there was actually some pretty serious laughter. That gave way to polite chuckles, maybe a titter or two. By this late in the Festival, though, you can tell who's been catching......

Films: Zoo, VHS - Kahloucha, Viva Future Screenings: Zoo: No future screenings scheduled VHS - Kahloucha: No future screenings scheduled Viva: No future screenings scheduled I was overly-ambitious this weekend, and eventually traded sleep (and a glass or two of vino) for films. Did I miss out on some stellar movies? Probably. Do I regret it? No: sometimes, it's nice to not be sitting alone in a darkened room. Zoo I'm not actually entirely sure......

Films: Dead Daughters, Trigger Man, Severance, The Burglar, Ten Canoes Future Screenings: Dead Daughters - Mon, April 16, 9:30PM at the Ritz East; Tue, April 17, 9:30PM at the Bridge Trigger Man - Mon, April 16, 9:30PM at the Bridge Severance - Tue, April 17, 9:30PM at the Ritz Five The Burglar - None Ten Canoes - None Whew. Okay. This thing has been going on for a while now, and I don't know about......

Film: The Kovak Box Future Screenings: Saturday, April 14, 5PM, Ritz East After a while, you kind of start to recognize some people in Film Festival audiences. You've seen them at other screenings. You've stood in line together. You might never speak, but it's still a little like seeing a movie with old friends. The Kovak Box Film festivals are funny: movies that are quite mainstream in the countries where they're produced sometimes seem to......

Films: The Bothersome Man, The Kovak Box Future Screenings: The Bothersome Man - None The Kovak Box - Sat, April 14, 5PM at the Ritz East; Wed, April 18, 6:15PM at the County Theater, Doylestown Well, crap. I did indeed jinx myself, as I feared I might, when I said in my last diary entry that I hadn't seen a bad movie yet. Because last night, I saw my first "Poor" of the festival, The......

Films: Day Night Day Night; The Boss of It All Future Screenings: Day Night Day Night: April 10, Ritz East 2 at 2:15PM The Boss of It All: No future screenings scheduled The initial festival excitement is beginning to wear off, as it usually does. Exhaustion is starting to set in, and today I had my first bad movie experiences of this year’s festival. That was bound to happen but it still deflates my enthusiasm......

Films: Hula Girls, The Guardian’s Son, Life Support Future Screenings: Hula Girls, Saturday, April 7th, Ritz East at 9:30PM The Guardian's Son, Saturday, April 7th, Ritz East at 2:15PM Life Support: Sunday, April 8th, Ritz East 2:30PM This is the first time I have become involved with the Film Festival and honestly, I don't know why it took me so long. I enjoy film and thoroughly enjoy watching films from around the world. For my......

Movie: Invisible Waves Future Screening: Sunday, April 8, 7:30 PM, Ritz East 1 I see a fair number of pretentious, art-house movies at the festival every year (see, for example, Invisible Waves), and I’m continually amused by the variety of euphemisms that festival programmers and blurb-writers employ when they essentially mean either “slow,” “boring,” or both. However, I assume that some of you may be festival neophytes who, for whatever reason, are not exactly sitting......

Films: Tazza: The High Rollers, Red Road, The Curse of William Penn Future Screenings: Tazza: The High Rollers, April 7 (tonight), The International House at 9:15PM; April 8, Ritz East at 12PM Red Road, April 8, Ritz East at 4:45PM The Curse of William Penn, April 8, The International House at 4:30PM I had a great first day at the festival. The two movies I'd scheduled were both good, and since I happened to get......

Films: Boy Culture, Monkey Warfare (with "The Saddest Boy in the World") Future Screenings: Boy Culture: Monday, April 16, 9:30PM, The Prince Music Theater Monkey Warfare: Sunday, April 8, 3PM, The Ritz East My day didn't go as planned, at all: it was a series of missed connections and plan cancellations. That's okay, though. It meant seeing two films, when I wasn't planning on seeing any. The first, Boy Culture, was actually screened at the......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Puccini for Beginners - The concept: an operatic screwball romantic comedy. A New York writer and opera addict (Elizabeth Reaser) gets dumped by her lesbian lover because she can't commit, and ends up starting secret relationships with two other people - a philosophy professor named Phillip and a girl who used to be straight named Grace (Gretchen Mol). Little does she know that Phillip and Grace......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Breaking and Entering - Oh no! Another movie about three people whose lives intersect! Still, this one does sound rather intriguing, as it features Jude Law as a landscape architect who decides to start investigating the repeated thefts at his state-of-the-art offices in inner-city King's Cross (a seedy area of town he's trying to help rejuvenate), and ends up stumbling outside the confines of his familiar......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Mutual Appreciation - Read our review here. Trailer Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse Bobby - Using both archival and newly shot footage, Bobby tells the story of 22 different fictionalized characters (played by a host of Hollywood stars, including Harry Belafonte, Emilio Estevez [who also directs], Laurence Fishburne, Heather Graham, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, David Krumholtz, Ashton Kutcher, Shia LaBeouf, Lindsay Lohan, William H. Macy,......