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DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
Sergeant Michelle Brookfield Wilmot on guard duty in Ramadi, Iraq from the documentary Lioness. Photograph by Spc. Miranda Mattingly.
The Iraq war has seen the introduction of an important, if unintentional, change in the way the military wages war. While women are still technically forbidden from ground combat positions, the reality of a different kind of warfare in Iraq is that soldiers in "support" positions are now frequently called upon to fight shoulder to shoulder with the front line infantry. Many of these soldiers are women, who often arrive unprepared for this combat, not through any inherent deficiency, but rather because of the military's unwillingness to train them for a job they technically aren't allowed to do. Filmmakers Meg McLagen and Daria Sommers profile five such soldiers, the "lionesses" of the Iraq war, to examine the role women play in the modern American military, and their impact not only on the war itself, but the impact of that role on their own lives. These are women who, because they cannot be officially recognized as combatants, often put their lives at risk with no recognition of their achievements; this isn't just an insult, but has serious career ramifications for soldiers who are restricted from moving up the chain because their contributions are consistently ignored and undervalued.
View the trailer.
Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Library of Congress' Mary Pickford Theater.
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The AFI, along with the TransAfrica Forum and afrikafe, are presenting their fifth annual celebration of new cinema from Africa (or dealing with African issues), with a special addition this year of several classic, newly restored films from the continent. That latter category includes Ahmed El Maanouni's 1981 Moroccan music documentary Transes, and the 1973 Senegalese film Touki Bouki, one of the most famous African films ever made. The newer films encompass nine selections. Highlights include tonight's opening night selection, 13 Months of Sunshine, about Ethiopian immigrants in Los Angeles, and Shoot the Messenger, a controversial Nigerian/British film that was well received at the 2006 Tribeca festival.
Opens tonight the AFI and runs through March 25. See the full schedule for dates, times, and film list.
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German documentarian and film essayist Helmut Bitomsky takes as his subject something most of us take for granted except when buying cleaning supplies, as well as something that we'd probably think would make for an entirely dull subject. Dust might not seem like the most gripping documentary topic, but Bitomsky's poetic and philosophical take on the most mundane of substances has given his film legs enough to take it all over the festival circuit, including last year's SILVERDOCS festival. Bitomsky combines the standard documentary approach: interviews, talking heads, fact-finding, with a more whimsical essayist tone that seeks to make viewers look at a substance we largely ignore in a different light.
View the trailer.
Sunday at 4:30 at the National Gallery.
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The writer/director of Michael Clayton returns with yet another corporate intrigue thriller, though this time around it looks to be more in the tone of Charade than The Parallax View. Julia Roberts and Clive Owen get to once again play lovers on shaky ground, but it looks like they get to have a little more fun than Mike Nichols let them in Closer. Both play former government operatives—CIA for her, MI6 for him—who've traded in public service for more lucrative careers doing corporate spying for rival companies. Once they meet up, they decide to scheme for themselves and hatch a plot to screw over both their employers. This being Tony Gilroy, you can expect enough plot twists and double crosses to get anyone not paying close attention completely lost, but to do so in an enormously entertaining fashion. And Gilroy's tendency to write dialogue that feels very "written" — some would say "overwritten", but not me — has the potential to work quite well in the context of a Grant/Hepburn-style thriller/love story.
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at theaters all over the area.
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It's Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, and Rashida Jones in a raunchy comedy about love between straight men, arrested male development, and the ever-forgiving women who populate these men's lives. Man, that Judd Apatow just keeps churning them out, doesn't he? Except that despite the regulars from Apatow's acting stable, and his signature plot devices, Apatow's name appears nowhere on this one. That this is, on the surface, a ripoff of his style isn't necessarily a bad thing, though. Writer/director John Hamburg, who has worked with Apatow, as a director on Undeclared, isn't quite as consistently hilarious as his mentor, but he does improve on Apatow's somewhat fantastical trope concerning hot women falling for schlubby slobs. Paul Rudd's character, a guy who's so devoted to the women in his life that he never really had time for male friends, and is now in need of a best man, is a definite change in formula, and Rashida Jones brings a welcome show of strength and added dimension as his fiance. Jason Segel, as the slovenly free-spirit who is the subject of Rudd's newfound bromance, probably would have been the hero of this had Apatow directed, but in this version he's loveless, mostly alone, and largely fine with that. And despite some rather predictable developments in the third act, I Love You, Man is pretty damn funny, particularly the cast of supporting players, including Andy Samberg and the always great J.K. Simmons. And as a side note, for the benefit of IMGoph and Over the River, we must mention that this film includes the music of Rush as a significant and extensive plot device; they'll want to attend based solely on that, we're sure.
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at theaters all over the area.
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Looks like an unusually strong major-release week. Lioness sounds awesome; I hope I'll get another chance to catch it. Michael Clayton ensured I'd be first in line for whatever Gilroy cooked up next. And the only question I have about I Love You, Man is whether its use of "the music of Rush as a significant and extensive plot device" is more significant or extensive than the use of the music of KISS was in Role Models.
I would say that Rush is more important in this movie than KISS was in Role Models. Plus, Rush actually appears in this movie. I Love You, Man was HILARIOUS - even though there was very little plot, and what plot was there was very predictable.
Any film with Rush and Lou Ferrigno is a-okay in my book. That sad, walking-away-song from "The Incredible Hulk" that plays over the credits still makes me weep like a little bi**h, man.
FYI, Lioness originally aired on PBS's Independent Lens http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/lioness/ (although WETA always buries Indie Lens at, like, 1 a.m.)
You can add DCist Sriram to the list of Rush fans who'll want to attend based solely on their cameo. Plus I find the Apatow crew pretty damn funny.
ian: oh jesus christ, i am so fucking there! i'll be the annoying guy singing along with every song!