LIMITED RUN

Bread and Tulips

Sweet, dopey, predictable, and still charming, Bread and Tulips is the story of a housewife discovering why freedom is so much more romantic than life at home. (EMILY HALL) Central Cinema, Fri 7, 9:30 pm, Sat-Sun 4:30, 7, 9:30 pm.

Giants and Toys

You'll find caramel, advertising campaigns, and spokesmodels with bad teeth in this curious 1958 film from Japan. Savery Hall, Room 239, Thurs June 23 at 7:30 pm.

Lipstick & Dynamite

See Stranger Suggests. Northwest Film Forum, Fri 7:45 pm, Sat-Wed 7:45, 9:15 pm.

Masculin, FÉminin

When we think of the French New Wave, we tend to think of Jean-Luc Godard's innovative style more than Truffaut's sentimentality. We also think of the café culture of young adults in Paris, revolutionary sloganeering and casual flirtations, not to mention lots of people smoking, all of which are on shining display in Godard's 1966 film Masculin Féminin. At the center of the film is Paul (Jean-Pierre Léaud), an idealistic revolutionary who has just finished his requisite military service. While composing a poem in a café, he sees a pretty girl and starts talking to her. She is Madeline (Chantal Goya), a young woman who is trying to leave the magazine she works for in order to become a full-time pop singer. The two start dating, their friends are sometimes supportive and sometimes not, and everybody asks each other questions about politics and love. Ultimately, the movie is a love letter to irresponsible youth where the moral of the story is that when you settle down, you die. At least, that's how I read it. Godard's playful style is a self-reflexive one that consistently makes you aware that you're watching a movie. 40 years later, it still feels innovative. (ANDY SPLETZER) Varsity, Fri-Sun 1:45, 4:15, 7, 9:30 pm, Mon-Thurs 7:10, 9:40 pm.

The Other Indie: Dispatches From the American Underground

See review this issue. All films screen at Northwest Film Forum. Lo-Fi Landscapes: Films by Bill Brown & Thomas Comerford, Fri June 17 at 7 pm. Peripheral Produce: The Films of Matt McCormick, Sat June 17 at 7 pm. What the '70s Really Looked Like, Sun June 17 at 7 pm. Star Spangled to Death: Part I, Sat June 18 at 2 pm, Part II, Sun June 19 at 2 pm. Instrument, Sat-Sun 9 pm. Chain (plays with Lucky Three), Mon-Tues 7 pm. Benjamin Smoke, Mon June 20 at 9 pm. Lost Book Found and Amber City, Tues June 21 at 9 pm.

The Place Promised In Our Early Days

Beware the curse of high expectations, especially among the Giant Robot crowd: after just one short film, the reflective space battle opus Voices of a Distant Star, writer/director Makoto Shinkai has found himself placed in the unenviable pole position among potential successors to Hayao Miyazaki's anime crown. Although his first feature-length project certainly wins points for ambition, it soon falls prey to a frustrating feedback loop of a plot. Refreshingly, Shinkai's initial scenario eschews the standard deathdroids and fuzzy critters for a more grounded, hard SF approach: In a divided Japan of an alternate future, two teenage Braniacs set about building a plane in order to fly to a mysterious, reality-warping tower. Soon, however, their plans are disrupted by their mutual attraction to a schoolgirl oracle, as well as a peskily replicating series of parallel worlds. Potentially potent stuff for the tech-head set, but narrative inertia quickly sets in, due to an interminable series of plodding interior monologues and deja-vuey conversations. The director may very well have the chops for future greatness, but he still needs to learn the vital difference between telling and showing. (ANDREW WRIGHT) Grand Illusion, Fri 7, 9, 11 pm, Sat 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 pm, Sun 3, 5, 7, 9 pm, Tues-Thurs 7, 9 pm.

The Secret Garden

Take the kids to see Agnieszka Holland's beautiful and fully realized version of the beloved book. Central Cinema, Sat-Sun noon, 2:30 pm.

Sons of the Desert, Way Out West

Two Laurel and Hardy features. Movie Legends, Sun June 19 at 1 pm.

Spirited Away

Caution: This version shows with those annoying words at the bottom. In spite of its conspicuous cute deficiency, Spirited Away is by all means a striking visual composition-just make sure you're not drowsy going in. (ZAC PENNINGTON) Egyptian, Fri-Sat at midnight.

Supervan

To quote the blurb: "There was a time not so long ago when a van was a man's kingdom, his fortress of solitude, and a great place to get some action. If a man and his van are not worthy enough subject matter for a movie, what is?" Indeed. Northwest Film Forum, Fri-Sat 11 pm.

NOW PLAYING

The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl in 3-D

Though the ending is happy, the substance of the film is sad, which is why it's the best kid's movie Robert Rodriguez has so far made. (CHARLES MUDEDE)

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Woe be to the filmmaker who attempts to hijack a classic and fails. Where author Wilder dealt in clever symbolism and quiet metaphor, writer/director Mary McGuckian plays to the cheap seats, laying on unnecessary sentiment with a novelty-sized trowel. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Cinderella Man

Cinderella Man, the much-ballyhooed reuniting of the team behind A Beautiful Mind, takes a story that's almost too perfect for cinematic recounting-over-the-hill boxer Gentleman Jim Braddock's legendary comeback during the Great Depression-and goes relentlessly, ploddingly by the numbers. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Crash

Crash certainly doesn't want for hubris, but ultimately stands as a case of laudable ambition overwhelming still-developing narrative abilities. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

High Tension

Notable more for its nation of origin than anything else, the French slasher High Tension is pretty unremarkable-an awkwardly formulaic update of the slasher genre of the '70s and '80s (complete with cartoonish gore, unnecessarily loud florescent lights, creepy dolls, a gratuitous shower scene, and, of course, a dubious plot twist) unsuccessfully aimed at American horror audiences' bloodlust. It's a cheap, dubbed, and largely artless affair. (ZAC PENNINGTON)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The film suffers from the same problem as planet Earth: too many Americans. Still, whenever there are at least two British actors on-screen-especially Martin Freeman, AKA Tim from The Office, or the film-stealing Bill Nighy-the movie version mines big, warm, absurd laughs alongside its hyper-imaginative graphics, and quasi-mystical pop metaphysicality. SEAN NELSON

The Honeymooners

Cedric the Entertainer, who should now be called Cedric the Bore (or Cedric the Absolute Bore), the black version of The Honeymooners is just plain dumb. (CHARLES MUDEDE)

Howl's Moving Castle

Although reportedly considering retirement after completing the Oscar winning Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki was apparently intrigued enough by the prospect of adapting a novel by children's author Diana Wynne Jones to return to the drawing board. Now that the collaboration has finally made its way to the States, the results show that the material might actually have been too perfect a match for the director's patented sensibilities. For the first time, the Master's wondrous imagination feels slightly...familiar. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

The Interpreter

The Interpreter turns what could have been a smart and twisty political thriller-with heavy emphasis on political-into a bogged-down and bland mulling over of wounded souls and suppressed sexual attraction. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)

Kingdom of Heaven

It's hard to argue that for an epic crafted around the spectacle of violence, the amount of attention Ridley Scott has given to the meaning of God (and, in the case of the film's hero, the question of God), is surprising in these polemic times. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)

Ladies in Lavender

In this assemblage of implausible vignettes , Maggie Smith is the proper sister Janet, concerned with privacy and appearances. Judi Dench plays Ursula, a fragile little biddy stuck in a permanent state of childish desperation because-this is actually in the script-she's never been properly fucked. They like to garden and knit, and the camera likes to follow gulls as they soar majestically over the beach. Then, a hot teen boy (Daniel Brühl) washes up on the shore. Ursula goes crazy; Janet huffs and acts a little weird herself (her husband died long ago). The kid doesn't speak a word of English, and there's a brief moment when someone suspects he might be a German spy, but then that tangent trails off, and he's actually a Polish violin prodigy. Luckily, the sexy Franco-Russian girl next door has a famous maestro for a brother, and the movie ends with a rousing concert, which (like everything else in this film) is flimsy and unintentionally sad. (ANNIE WAGNER)

Layer Cake

The one-day-from retirement premise may draw cobwebs, but is given a new polish by director Matthew Vaughn's no-nonsense delivery and, especially, Daniel Craig's masterfully underplayed turn as a dapper businessman who is ultimately just smart enough to royally frig himself up. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

The Longest Yard

Adam Sandler is never funny, Chris Rock (as another convict) is sometimes funny, Nelly (the rapper) is very funny (not intentionally, however), and Burt Reynolds is always sad. (CHARLES MUDEDE)

Lords of Dogtown

Director Catherine Hardwicke's (Thirteen) thinly fictionalized film follows a tribe of ne'er-do-well skating gods as they empty pools, bust 180s, and break hearts throughout So Cal. The story may be authentically inspirational, but it ultimately proves too thin to support multiple tellings. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Mad Hot Ballroom

In terms of scope, the first-time director and writer may have bitten off a bit more than they can comfortably chew, as the scenes of the kids' ballroom dancing contest come off as alternately long-winded and confusing. Where their efforts ultimately soar, however, is in the rare moments between dances, as the camera is plunked into the corner and made privy to the unscripted and remarkably unselfconscious conversations between the students at home. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Millions

Danny Boyle has crafted a kid-friendly fable with enough sly modern-day relevance to keep adults from checking their watches. Every blade of grass is a nuclear Jolly Rancher green, bad guys block out the sun, tract houses quick assemble around the oblivious tenants, and landscapes stretch out for eons. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Monster-in-Law

The beginning of this movie is so horrible, so bland, so curdled, so... well, typical, as romantic comedies go, that once the prospective mother-in-law (Jane Fonda) digs her claws into the bride-to-be (Jennifer Lopez), you can't help cheering wildly. (ANNIE WAGNER)

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Director Doug Liman still knows how to shoot action-his loose, even careless style brought a surprising amount of realism to Bourne Identity, and here it adds a sense of playfulness to all the gunplay-but this time action is all he has to offer. Pretty people making pretty explosions does not a good movie make. Just ask that ultimate hack Michael Bay. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)

Mysterious Skin

Based on a 1995 novel by Scott Heim, Mysterious Skin is the first film by Queer Cinema bad boy Gregg Araki to come from a source other than one of his own scripts. In turning over the storytelling to a stronger narrative arc, he seems freed to explore characters and emotional resonance that his previous shock tactics wouldn't have allowed. Not that the story skimps on disturbing and provocative moments. It relates the parallel stories of two boys growing up in small town Kansas in the late '80s and early '90s. One believes that the nightmares and nosebleeds that plague him are the result of an alien abduction that occurred when he was 8 years old in the summer of 1981. That same summer, Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was molested by his Little League coach, and in the years since he has become a gay prostitute. Araki expertly balances dark humor and unflinching drama, and Gordon-Levitt gives a tough and powerfully understated performance. (NATE LIPPENS)

Saving Face

Seattle native Alice Wu's amiably low-key debut suffers a bit from the standard crowd-pleasing rom-com conventions, but stays afloat due to some effective wisecracks and the unforced, charming lead performance of the gorgeous Michelle Krusiec. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Sin City

To call the film an adaptation is a massive understatement; this isn't a translation, it's a cut-and-paste job, bringing Frank Miller's twisted vision directly to the screen in all its unfiltered glory. The result is one of the most daring and beautifully made films you'll ever see-too bad, then, that it's as thin as the pages the comic was printed on. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

The structure (in which four adolescent girls share a pair of miraculous pants) is a flimsy excuse to break the film into multicultural vignettes of self-discovery. Taken as a whole The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is too scattershot to make much of an impression. (ANNIE WAGNER)

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

The epic many of us grew up with has reached its end; a moment of silence, please, for both what was and what could have been. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

On paper, this documentary about the five-year relationship between a gentle, sporadically homeless hippie with no visible means of support and an unruly flock of birds sounds like a recipe for instant tooth decay. Darned if it doesn't work, though. (ANDREW WRIGHT)