DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
Foreign: This is England
After receiving accolades galore at a number of major film festivals, British director Shane Meadow’s autobiographical film is receiving a limited one week run in D.C. starting on Friday. Based on his own experiences coming of age in the UK in the early 80’s, This is England follows 12-year old Shaun, a target for bullies and lacking a father figure since the death of his own Dad in the Falklands, as he hooks up with a group of skinheads who take him under their wings. A disturbing look at both the adolescent search for a place to belong as well as a turbulent time in Britain, and by all accounts a film that is not to be missed.
View the trailer.
Playing at E Street Cinema for one week only, starting this Friday.
—
Major Release: Superbad
Judd Apatow has finally cracked the code. After being the guiding force behind a number of excellent, critically acclaimed, but publicly ignored television series, Apatow has found the success denied him on the small screen on the silver. Which, on the one hand, is a shame, since it would be nice to see him try to capture the brilliance of Freaks & Geeks or Undeclared again, only this time with, well, an audience. On the other hand, wildly funny comedies like Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin more than made up for it. For Superbad, Apatow takes the producer’s reins, buddy and frequent actor Seth Rogan co-writes with former Ali G writer Evan Goldberg, and Greg Mottola, director of quite a few episodes of Undeclared (not to mention Arrested Development) takes the helm. We’re hoping that this story of a high-school graduation party gone horribly awry has all the laugh-til-you puke potential the creative team promises.
View the trailer.
Opens on Friday at a number of area theatres.
Random note: Last week the commenters took me to task for disparaging the film version of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust based just on the trailer and some advance reviews. After seeing the film, I stand by my non-recommendation. Stardust works for only about 30 minutes of its two hour running time. When it works, it’s wonderful, which only makes the fact that the rest is such a clumsy mess even more disappointing.
