DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
Marjane Satrapi’s acclaimed graphic novel about her adolescence during the Iranian Revolution quickly reached the status of modern classic, and it appears the filmed version is headed in the same direction. Satrapi herself co-directed the adaptation, and instead of attempting to three-dimensionalize her bold black and white artwork, she and co-director Vincent Paronnaud opted to transfer directly the look of the book’s artwork. The result is a defiant and unapologetically politically charged coming of age story that makes this year’s Best Animated Feature race at the Academy Awards into a much more diverse contest than usual.
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at E Street and Bethesda Row.
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Sylvester Stallone surprised critics and audiences last year with a return to the Rocky series that not only didn’t suck, but was a surprisingly subtle sendoff for the Italian Stallion. While it hewed close to inspirational sports-movie formula, the snapshot of the aging fighter looking for one last shot at glory had a sensitive sentimentality that steered clear of maudlin territory. We’d do well not to expect the same from Rambo, which sees Stallone resurrecting his other franchise player, the half-crazy ‘Nam vet with a tendency to stand up for the rights of the oppressed by blowing up lots of stuff. When even the movie’s trailers are showing full-on beheadings, it’s a safe bet that subtlety isn’t on the menu. In this installment, the aging killing machine is called back from a quiet life of working boats in Southeast Asia when a group of American missionaries disappears and Rambo is forced into the middle of the Burmese Civil War to get them out. Why should you care about what could easily be written off as a mindless shoot-’em-up? Check out this excellent essay by Bob Brumfield that comes to us by way of the Heck’s Kitchen blog about how Rambo can make you, too, into a better person. As Brumfield says, “There is no better measure for how the Collective American Penis is doing than Rambo.” If that’s the case, we may be in trouble.
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at theaters all around the area.
