LIMITED RUN

Bend It Like Beckham
Just in time for Keira Knightley's star-making turn in Pride & Prejudice, Central Cinema gives us her almost-debut role (The Hole technically came first) in this sweet soccer movie with sweet interracial homoerotic subtext. Gurinder Chadha (Bride & Prejudice) directs. (ANNIE WAGNER) Central Cinema, Sat-Sun noon, 2:20, 4:40 pm.

Deeply Creepy: The Films of David Cronenberg
The Canadian wizard David Cronenberg gets a nearly complete retrospective of his feature films from 1979 to the present (minus only 1988's Dead Ringers and this year's A History of Violence). For tickets, call 464-5830. All films in the Deeply Creepy series screen at Seattle Art Museum. The Dead Zone, Fri 5 pm, Sun 11 am. Videodrome, Fri 7 pm, Sun 1 pm. The Fly, Fri 9 pm. Spider, Sat 5:30 pm. Naked Lunch, Sat 7:15 pm. M Butterfly, Sat 9:15 pm. The Brood, Sun 3 pm. Scanners, Sun 5 pm. Crash, Sun 7 pm. eXistenZ, Sun 9 pm.

The FBI's War on Black America
A documentary about the FBI's 1960s-era Counterintelligence Program, sponsored by the Black Panther film series. Central Cinema, Wed Nov 16 at 7, 9 pm.

The File on Thelma Jordan
Barbara Stanwyck plays Thelma Jordan in this 1950 film noir from Robert Siodmak. Seattle Art Museum, Thurs Nov 10 at 7:30 pm.

The Fucking Fabulous Film Festival
See review this issue. All films in the Fucking Fabulous series screen at RUNG Theatre, Fri-Sun. For complete schedule and details, see www.fuckingfabulous.org.

Garçon Stupide
See review this issue. Varsity, Fri-Sun 12:50, 2:55, 5, 7:15, 9:30, Mon-Thurs 7:15, 9:30 pm.

Harold and Maude
A morbid young man named Harold (Bud Cort) falls in love with an older woman named Maude (Ruth Gordon), all over again for the first time. Central Cinema, Thurs-Sat 7, 9:15 pm (late show 21+).

Lady Snowblood
A movie about a woman bent on bloody revenge for the massacre of her family. Gowan Hall #201, UW campus, Thurs Nov 10 at 7:30 pm.

The Little Foxes
A 1941 adaptation of the Lillian Helman play, with Bette Davis in the lead role. Movie Legends, Sun Nov 13 at 1 pm.

Lynn Hershman Leeson Shorts
See "Solicitation," p. 35. Short films exploring identity, gender, and technology. Henry Art Gallery, Sun Nov 13 at 2 pm.

The Ninth Day
A Luxembourgian man of the cloth (Ulrich Matthes, doing an impressive 180 from his previous turn as Goebbels in Downfall) is given a miraculous reprieve from the horrors of Dachau, only to be presented with a hellish choice: either convince his bishop to publicly show his support of the new regime, or do nothing and allow his family and fellow prisoners to suffer the consequences. While agonizing over his decision, he engages in an increasingly passionate theological battle with an up-and-coming S.S. officer, bent on convincing the priest that Judas had the right idea. Based on fact, Volker (The Tin Drum) Schlöndorff's film suffers from a unfortunate heavy hand, with booming soundtrack rattles and flashy camera tricks often threatening to overshadow the compelling central angst. Flawed, yet still worth watching, even if only for the amazing presence of Matthes, an unlikely saint with the beetle-browed, hollow-cheeked features of a Dick Tracy henchman made flesh. (ANDREW WRIGHT) Grand Illusion, Fri 7, 9 pm, Sat 3, 5, 7, 9 pm, Sun-Thurs 7, 9 pm.

Open Screening
Anything goes, so long as it's under 10 minutes. 911 Media Arts, Mon Nov 14 at 7 pm.

Palestine Film Festival 2005
In The Inner Tour the director of the haunting 1999 Dachau documentary Martin delivers another moving and discomforting look at history's forging heat on identity. The film was shot in September 2000 just before the Intifada would have made it impossible. Alexandrowicz follows a mixed group of displaced Palestinians across the green line on their first trip to Israel on a three day bus tour. It's an excellent and resonant glimpse into the frictions and multiple meanings of an impossible situation. (NATE LIPPENS) All films in the Palestine Film Festival series screen at Ethnic Cultural Theater. The Inner Tour, Sat Nov 12 at 7 pm. Soraida: Woman of Palestine, Tues 7 pm. The Detainee, Wed 7 pm. Arna's Children, Thurs Nov 17 at 7 pm.

Rectuma
A pain in the ass leads to peculiar complications when a radioactive rear end develops a hellish will of its own, detaches itself from its possessor, and begins to rampage, Godzilla-style, through Hollywood. The geeky owner of the monster derriere and a handful of rather annoying characters must defeat the rampaging ass, resize and somehow reattach it, etc. Although it seems no budget was involved in the making of this film whatsoever (all 95 poopy minutes of it could have been accomplished with a camera phone and a Mac—and if the actors got paid, it's a tragedy), I can absolutely guarantee one thing: Rectuma is one of the shittiest films ever made, anywhere, for oh so very many different reasons. A gargantuan white butt crashing through L.A. on a murderous mission of vengeance might sound like a lark, but actually, well. Crappy? You have no idea! (ADRIAN RYAN) Grand Illusion, Fri-Sat 11 pm.

Rise of the Superbugs
The global health film series continues with this documentary about germs that have become resistant to antibiotics. Capitol Hill Library, Wed Nov 16 at 6 pm.

Silent Running
Director and visual effects guru Douglas Trumbull introduces his 1972 science fiction film about, among other things, giant greenhouses in outer space. JBL Theater, EMP, Sun Nov 13 at 4 pm.

Sneak Films
The Sneak series of film previews continues. Metro, Wed Oct 16 at 10:30 am.

Soon-Mi Yoo: Exorcising History
Korean documentary filmmaker Soon-Mi Yoo's no-frills, matter-of-fact style conceals a deep sucker punch of emotion. Beginning with a recounting of the Vietnamese belief in 74 separate categories of death, her ssitkim: talking to the dead masterfully compresses its tragic subject material into a dense, engrossing, deceptively modulated 34 minutes. Exploring South Korea's wartime involvement in Vietnam (at U.S. behest), which resulted in the mass killings of civilians, Yoo links dreamy aerial footage, scratchy archival material (including a botched assassination), and modern-day interviews into a quietly devastating gestalt. As historical document and personal diary, it both sings and stings. Note: the director is scheduled to attend the screening, which includes two other shorts (1999's faith and 2004's ISAHN). (ANDREW WRIGHT) Northwest Film Forum, Sat Nov 12 at 2:30 pm.

Syriana
The New Yorker College Tour presents an advance screening of the new feature film about oil politics in the Gulf and backroom deals in Washington. George Clooney and Matt Damon star. HUB Auditorium, UW Campus, Tues Nov 15 at 8 pm.

Teen Witch
"I'm king and they know it. When I snap my fingers everybody says show it. I'm hot and you're not, but if you wanna hang with me I'll give it a shot. Top that, top that. You can do all you can but you'll never top that. Top that, top that. You can try until you blow but you'll never top that. Supersonic, idionic, disconnected, not respected, who would really wanna go and top that? Such a waste, a pretty face, but hanging in your nowhere space, I wish you would take a look and really stop that. Top that, well stop that. I don't really give uh! about trying to top that." (MEGAN SELING) Egyptian, Fri-Sat midnight.

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
Robert Greenwald (Outfoxed) directs this agit-doc about Sam Walton's evil empire. Grand Illusion, Sun 3, 5 pm, Wed 7 pm. Continues through Nov 20. Also at Central Cinema, Sun Nov 13 at 7, 9 pm (late show 21+).

We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen
We Jam Econo is a love letter to the band—Mike Watt, D. Boon, and George Hurley, all of whom are interviewed in this film. (Boon was killed in a car crash in 1985, but there is vintage footage of the guitarist from the band's early days). The hardcore Minutemen appreciation society will most likely appreciate the little details that come out of the film's extensive scope—like how Boon and Watt met as kids when Boon fell out of a tree, or how Watt went into a music store not knowing what a bass was (somehow) after already starting to play the instrument. (JENNIFER MAERZ) Northwest Film Forum, Fri-Sat 11 pm.

William Eggleston in the Real World
This feature on the photographer William Eggleston is cluttered with pseudo-intellectual art theory (care of voiceover from director Michael Almeryeda), and the digital format doesn't do justice to the color photographs (most of which were printed using a time-consuming dye-transfer process), but there's something to it nonetheless. Eggleston, described as "laconic" by one of his friends, is a compelling screen presence. I often get annoyed when artists can't talk about their work, but when Eggleston responds to one of Almereyda's pretentious comments (a commonplace about photography being permanent and reality fleeting) by saying "You know what? That doesn't mean a thing to me," I nearly cheered. Almereyda will be in attendance Thursday and Friday; Thursday's 7 pm screening will be introduced by Elizabeth Brown, the chief curator at the Henry. (ANNIE WAGNER) Northwest Film Forum, Thurs-Wed 7, 9 pm.

Winter Soldier
This rarely seen documentary about the the Winter Soldier Investigation, organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War in 1971, is both horrifying (when the former soldiers stoically recount the ingrained culture of callousness they encountered in Vietnam) and heartbreaking (some of the young men can barely bring themselves to utter 10 words about why they've come to bear witness). More than thirty years after the hearings, the details of the Vietnam War atrocities described by these witnesses are obviously relevant today: On Monday President Bush had to make the claim that "We do not torture"; Democrats in the Senate are pressing for a special investigation into abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody; and the Supreme Court has agreed to look into the legality of using military tribunals to try accused terrorists. But what makes the documentary truly fascinating is the way it depicts debates raging in the margins of the anti-war movement then, from a black man who insists that the veterans won't achieve justice until they confront their own racism to the wife of an activist who silently watches her baby as her husband talks to journalists. You can almost hear the 1960s creaking into the 1970s; you can almost see people's consciousnesses being raised on screen. (ANNIE WAGNER) Northwest Film Forum, Weekdays 7, 9 pm, Sat-Sun 5, 7, 9 pm. Continues through Nov 23.

NOW PLAYING

Capote
Capote is a restrained film about a man whose life and work were anything but. Despite its limited scope—it addresses only the years that Truman Capote was writing his groundbreaking In Cold Blood, about a Kansas robbery turned quadruple murder—you want to call the film, after the fashion of ambitious biographies, "A Life." Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Truman Capote, and his is an enveloping performance, in which every flighty affectation seems an invention of the man rather than the impersonator. His pursed lips and bons mots and the ravishing twirls of his overcoat become more and more infrequent until all that's left is alcohol and a horrible will to power. (ANNIE WAGNER)

Chicken Little
Really this movie is about the cutest chicken ever and an effing hilarious goldfish who doesn't even talk but does some of the funniest shit ever. (MEGAN SELING)

Derailed
Two married business executives having an affair are blackmailed by a violent criminal. See www.the-stranger.com for review.

Good Night, and Good Luck.
Documenting the Red Scare clash between Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) and Joseph McCarthy, George Clooney's second trip behind the lens is a largely terrific picture: a scathing social document submerged within a deeply pleasurable entertainment. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

A History of Violence
A History of Violence looks like a straightforward mobster flick, but what keeps the film mesmerizing is Cronenberg's style—at once detached and tense—combined with the brutal beauty of Viggo Mortensen as the stoic central character. (SHANNON GEE)

In Her Shoes
Introduced with a lulu of a thong shot, Cameron Diaz's barely literate Philly party girl clashes with her type-A attorney sister (Toni Collette), as she lifts cash, boyfriends, and clothes at every opportunity. After a final transgression banishes Diaz to the Florida doorstep of her estranged grandmother (Shirley MacLaine, still possessing atomic-clock timing), the irradiated family unit must find a way to reunite. Character arcs are broad but reasoned, plot devices are conveniently timed, yet never annoyingly so, and there isn't a single damned group sing-a-long to be found. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Jarhead
William Broyles Jr.'s script follows a third-generation marine (Jake Gyllenhaal) on his downward slide toward would-be killing machine, from boot camp humiliations (via tough-ass lifer Jamie Foxx) and the further depersonalization of sniper training to eagerly awaiting his chance to go kick Saddam's ass. Despite the occasional voiceover, Gyllenhaal's character largely remains a cipher, with a near-to-total lack of backstory. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Shane Black's directorial debut, is a riotously meta piss-take on Hollywood excess. The plot—low-rent thief turned actor (Robert Downey Jr.) makes his way to L.A., gets tangled up with Val Kilmer's proudly out sleuth—is loopy enough on its own, but what makes it a blast is the director's sly violation of the genre's old corpses. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

MirrorMask
Taken on a shot-by-shot basis, Dave McKean's talents for design are more than evident, with bizarro cityscapes and oddball characters rendered even more impressive by the miniscule $4 million budget. On a whole, however, the results are less Lewis Carroll and more Labyrinth. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Nine Lives
Consisting of nine single-shot vignettes (most only tenuously connected), writer/director Rodrigo García's Nine Lives is full of wonderful moments, but constrained by the rigid novelty of its structure. Focusing on different facets of the modern L.A. woman, García's brief, sparsely populated scenarios draw marvelous performances from the likes of Holly Hunter, Sissy Spacek, Amy Brenneman, and Robin Wright Penn. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

North Country
As a miner who endures cosntant sexual harrassment, Charlize Theron rarely makes it through a scene without her eyes filling with bravely suppressed tears, and the film keeps flashing forward to the courtroom drama that will bring her vindication. Unfortunately, the film blows its trial-by-jury conceit early, with a truly climactic showdown in the miners' union hall. The actual court dramatization (involving wanton witness-badgering, spectators rising in unison, etc.) is melodramatic and contrived. (ANNIE WAGNER)

Paradise Now
Paradise Now follows Palestinian mechanic Said (superb newcomer Kaid Nashef) and his amiably goofy friend as they are chosen to carry out a terrorist act in Tel Aviv. As we watch Said shave his beard and cast off all ties in preparation, it becomes frighteningly easy to grasp the nature of his rage and to see how people can be pushed by their environment until they literally become bombs. As this terrific film makes clear, the fuse was lit long before any device was fashioned. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Prime
As far as the main girl-boy-mom love triangle goes, Prime has a surprisingly light touch. She's a rich older WASP, he's a Jewish wannabe painter who still lives with his grandparents. And her therapist Lisa (Meryl Streep) is his mother. Prime isn't guilt-free entertainment, but with some nice Manhattan locations and a "Palestinians Do It Better" T-shirt to sweeten the deal, it isn't unpleasant either. (ANNIE WAGNER)

Proof
Though it's not as grossly heavy-handed as A Beautiful Mind, this film suffers from a similar failure of specificity. Of course Jake Gyllenhaal isn't convincing as a math graduate student—but it's not because he's sexy. It's because his character never talks directly about math. (ANNIE WAGNER)

Saw II
Saw II thinks it has something to say—some hack philosophy about yelling at your kids and being a junkie and taking life for granted—but don't be fooled. It's really just about the worst things you can do to an eyeball. (LINDY WEST)

Shopgirl
Adapted by Steve Martin from his novella of the same name, Shopgirl is a film with strangely divided loyalties. Mirabelle (Claire Danes) is a lonely, sensitive Vermont native, stuck behind the rarely frequented glove counter at Saks Fifth Avenue in L.A. The film borrows the deliberate pace and resolutely postmodern ennui of Lost in Translation, along with aspects of that film's plot. But in most of its particulars, Shopgirl betrays a fetish for the past. (ANNIE WAGNER)

The Squid and the Whale
Writer/director Noah Baumbach's semi-autobiographical tale of a disintegrating Park Slope family unit in the '80s is one of those rare films in which everything feels right, from period detail, to sympathetic yet unsentimental characterizations, to the way that family conversations can shift from funny to sad to terrifying. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
The humor is just as funny as the classic Loony Tunes (which were funny!) but even smarter because it's not actually American-made. (MEGAN SELING)

The Weather Man
Chicago news fixture Dave Spritz (Nicolas Cage) is living out an existence that might make Ziggy weep: bitter, soon-to-be-ex wife, space-case kids, and a disdainful Pulitzer-winning dad (Michael Caine). Things get worse. Cage and director Gore Verbinski deserve credit for going all the way into their subject's doldrums, but their commitment doesn't exactly make for a fun view. (ANDREW WRIGHT)