DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.

Indie: Into the Wild
Annandale native Chris McCandless had just graduated from Emory University in 1990 when he donated his substantial life’s savings to charity and set out on the road under the name of “Alexander Supertramp.” His highly publicized disappearance ended two years later when his body was found in the Alaskan wilderness, and the publication of Jon Krakauer’s acclaimed 1996 book about McCandless’ adventure only added to public fascination. Sean Penn has brought the book to the screen, and in doing so has produced a film that is both his most accessible directorial effort, and his most profoundly touching.

Penn runs the episodic pieces of McCandless’ travels for the two years before he reached Alaska as a parallel storyline to the brief months he lived in a bus in the Alaskan wilderness, jumping back and forth between the two, and punctuating these with flashbacks and looks back at his family, narrated by his sister to supply more information on his character. The result is part On the Road, part Walden, and showcases beautifully the America that McCandless felt he had to withdraw from society to experience. The excellent soundtrack is dominated by solo songs by Eddie Vedder that range from surprisingly spare folk to vocal pieces that recall his earlier work with Qawwali legend Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Emile Hirsch, as McCandless, is a revelation, confident and sensitive in a role that is demanding both physically and emotionally. Into the Wild is a must-see.

View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at E Street Cinema, Bethesda Row Cinema, and Loews Cineplex Georgetown.

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Special Event: D.C. Asian Pacific American Film Festival
We know the real reason you’re excited about the Asian Pacific American Film Festival is the arrival in town of the director of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Justin Lin will be on hand for the kick-off of the Festival tonight, as he atones for past Hollywood sins with the local premiere of Finishing the Game, a mockumentary satirizing the famous decision of the producers of Bruce Lee’s final film, Game of Death, to finish the film with stand-ins for Lee after the actor died early in the filming. What follows tonight’s opening at the AFI Silver Theater is over a week of screenings of eclectic material from shorts to features to documentaries from a wide array of Asian Pacific American filmmakers. With selections ranging from romantic comedies to serious documentaries to zombie flicks, there’s a little something for everyone.

Tonight through October 6 at over a half dozen venues all around town. Check the full schedule for times and locations.

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