New Releases for the Week of October 23, 2015

STEVE JOBS

(Universal) Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg, Katherine Waterston, Sarah Snook, Adam Shapiro. Directed by Danny Boyle

One of the brilliant visionaries of our time, Steve Jobs became the guru of technology although he was never an engineer so much as a marketing genius. Under his leadership, Apple became a juggernaut of a company, spearheading the personal computer revolution as well as creating markets for the iPhone, iPad and iPod. His personal life was more tumultuous as he was as a boss a demanding taskmaster and sundered personal relationships in his quest to change the world and gain market share. This driven man has already gotten a biopic and now a second, more prestigious one is coming along that has already garnered rave reviews and Oscar buzz for Fassbender in the title role.

See the trailer, clips, interviews and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Biographical Drama
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for language)

A Brilliant Young Mind

(Goldwyn) Asa Butterfield, Rafe Spall, Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan. A brilliant British math prodigy who is unable to navigate social behavior due to his autism finds comfort in numbers. Taken under the wing by an unconventional math teacher, he earns a spot on the British Math Team. There, while training in Taipei with the Chinese team, he meets a young Chinese girl and begins to develop unexpected feelings for her. The director based this fictional film on his own documentary about the training of the British math team.

See the trailer and a clip here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Drama
Now Playing: Enzian Theater
Rating: NR

Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon

(Magnolia) Henry Beard, Matty Simmons, Bruce McCall, P.J. O’Rourke. If you look at modern American comedy both on television and in the movies, the roots go back to National Lampoon magazine. Founded by a couple of Harvard grads who had worked at the venerable Harvard Lampoon, the magazine became a breeding ground for some of the most brilliant comedians and writers of our time. A favorite from this year’s Florida Film Festival, the film has since received distribution through major indie Magnolia and makes it to the Enzian for a brief run; read my Festival review of the film here.

See the trailer here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Documentary
Now Playing: Enzian Theater
Rating: NR

Jem and the Holograms

(Universal) Juliette Lewis, Molly Ringwald, Aubrey Peeples, Stefanie Scott. A young woman becomes an internet sensation when her sisters leak a video of her playing an original song onto a website. She soon becomes a global superstar and is made to jettison her band, which is made up of her other three sisters. Needing to make things right, she and her sisters soon go off on an adventure that she never expected to find. Based on the 80s Saturday morning cartoon.

See the trailer, interviews, clips, a featurette, a music video and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Musical
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG (for thematic material including reckless behavior, brief suggestive content and some language)

The Last Witch Hunter

(Summit) Vin Diesel, Elijah Wood, Rose Leslie, Michael Caine. For centuries, the evil creatures of the night – source of our most horrific legends – were battled by valiant witch hunters. When the Witch Queen is slain by Kaulder, the best of the witch hunters, she curses him with immortality, separating him from his beloved wife and daughter in the Afterlife. Now, hundreds of years later, he continues battling what few rogue witches are left, the last of his kind. When the Witch Queen is resurrected, an epic battle will ensue on which rests the future of the human race.

See the trailer, clips, interviews, a music video and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Horror Fantasy Action
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG (for scary and intense creature action and images, and for some rude humor)

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension

(Paramount) Chris J. Murray, Brit Shaw, Ivy George, Dan Gill. The most successful found footage franchise in history comes to an end as a pair of brothers find a box of videocassettes in their new house, as well as a camera that allows them to see the spirit world. When a daughter of one of the brothers opens a portal to the ghost dimension, all hell will literally break loose as all the loose threads from the previous films in the series will be tied up at last.

See the trailer, clips, featurettes and a promo here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Horror
Now Playing: AMC Altamonte Mall, AMC Disney Springs, AMC Loew’s Universal Cityplex, AMC West Oaks
Rating: R (for language and horror violence)

Rock the Kasbah

(Open Road) Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Kate Hudson, Zooey Deschanel. A washed up manager of rock performers is abandoned in Afghanistan by his last remaining client, then in a cave outside Kabul discovers the most amazing voice ever. Determined to help the beautiful woman who possesses that voice reach her dreams of winning Afghan Star (the local version of American Idol), he enlists a motley crew of allies to help him overcome cultural prejudices and take his new client all the way to the top. Incredibly, this is based on actual events and is directed by Oscar winner Barry Levinson.

See the trailer, clips and a featurette here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Dramedy
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for language including sexual references, some drug use and brief violence)

Victoria

(Adopt) Laia Costa, Frederick Lau, Franz Rogowski, Burak Ligit. The winner of the prestigious Silver Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival, this ambitious film was shot in a single night all in one take. It concerns a party girl who meets three guys and a night of wild fun turns into a bank robbery. Sebastian Schipper directs.

See the trailer, interviews and clips here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Crime Thriller
Now Playing: Regal Winter Park Village
Rating: NR

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New Releases for the Week of October 23, 2009

Sadly, despite all the hoopla the Airstream with wings never really took off.

AMELIA

(Fox Searchlight) Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, Mia Wasikowska, Joe Anderson. Directed by Mira Nair

One of the most iconic figures of the 20^th century was aviatrix Amelia Earhart. She blazed a trail for women back in the Depression for women to follow; she was fearless, confident and just as competent as any man in her chosen field. Sadly, that’s not what she is mostly remembered for today – not how she lived but rather, the mystery around how she (presumably) died. Acclaimed director Mira Nair intends to change that. While there have been biographical films about Earhart in the past, Nair seems to be out to show the human side of the hero and present her many accomplishments, many of which have been overshadowed by her mysterious disappearance during an attempted flight around the globe in 1937. This may very well be the first major entry in the Oscar sweepstakes for 2009.

See the trailer here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Rating: PG (for some sexuality, language, thematic elements and smoking)

A Serious Man

(Focus) Michael Stuhlbarg, Fred Melamed, Richard Kind, Adam Arkin. This is the latest from the Coen Brothers; that should be all you need to know to want to go see it right away. However, if you need a little more to get you into the theater, this is about a very neurotic Jewish professor at a small university in Minnesota during the 1960s who finds his life falling apart. His wife wants to leave him for an overbearing colleague; his feckless brother seems destined to spend the rest of his life on the couch in his living room, his children seem to be deliberately going out of their way to make him miserable and a mysterious letter-writer is trying to undermine his quest for tenure. He has come to realize he is a nebbish and needs advice on how to be a mensch – a serious man. However, the rabbis he consult cloud up the issue even further.

See the trailer here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Rating: R (for language, some sexuality/nudity and brief violence)

Astro Boy

(Summit) Starring the voices of Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Charlize Theron. Based on one of the very first Japanese animes, this sci-fi animated feature is about a young robot with amazing powers that has been given a more or less human face and form. However, the boy robot is isolated because he is different. He goes on a journey to find acceptance, battling killer robots and aliens on the way.

See the trailer here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Rating: PG (for some action and peril, and brief mild language)

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant

(Universal) John C. Reilly, Ken Watanabe, Chris Massoglia, Salma Hayek. Based on a popular series of young adult fantasy novels, Universal is hoping this will kick off a new franchise for them. A bored young teen, feeling his wife is being mapped out and ultimately wasted in his dreary suburban existence, is drawn to a strange sideshow full of creatures as misunderstood as he feels himself to be. In a moment of clarity, he realizes he belongs with the Cirque and becomes one of the undead. However, his inexperience at being a vampire inadvertently breaks a 200-year-old truce between warring factions and threatens his new found home. Perhaps he should have read the Twilight series first.

See the trailer here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Rating: PG-13 (for sequences of intense supernatural violence and action, disturbing images, thematic elements and some language)

Good Hair

(Roadside Attractions) Chris Rock, Maya Angelou, Nia Long, Kerry Washington. Hair is not merely what covers our head; it is our own personal signature. In the African-American community, hair can go even further, as a symbol of individual identity and often a tribute to African heritage. Comedian Chris Rock take an occasionally poignant and often hilarious look at the role of hair in African-American culture and tries to determine, once and for all, just what determines how hair can be “good.”

See the trailer here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Rating: PG-13 (for some language including sex and drug references, and brief partial nudity)

Saw VI

(Lionsgate) Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Shawnee Smith. The most successful horror franchise of the 21^st century returns with more diabolical traps, more gruesome murders, more elaborate games and, well, just more.

See the trailer here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Rating: R (for sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture, and language)