Religulous movie’s festival film toronto

BRAD Pitt will drop in, as will Bryan Brown. Hollywood veteran
Jonathan Demme has a new film to show, the family drama Rachel Getting
Married; so does Melbourne actor Matthew Newton, who will present his
second feature behind the camera, Three Blind Mice.

If it’s early September, it must be the Toronto International Film
Festival, one of the largest, most respected and tightly run movie
bazaars in a world suddenly full of such events. The numbers are
startling: 312 films from 64 countries; 249 features, with three-
quarters of those billed world, international or North American
premieres (this is an important distinction in the world of film
festival bragging rights). Sixty-one are films from first-time
directors, and Australia will be represented by six features.

In all, the festival is promising more than 500 filmmakers, writers
and actors from across the world, on hand to present their work,
answer audience questions, participate in gruelling press interview
sessions and hobnob at exclusive parties.

Polling colleagues from across the world, one Toronto-based film
journalist has concluded the five must-see movies, based on buzz, are
Steven Soderbergh’s two-part revolutionary epic Che; Joel and Ethan
Coen’s CIA satire with Pitt, Burn After Reading; Canadian Bruce
McDonald’s zombie romp Pontypool; and Religulous, the documentary from
Borat director Larry Charles, in which comedian-commentator Bill Maher
traverses America in search of definitions of piety and faith.

Screenings run from 9am to well past midnight. Distributors and film
critics will jostle for seats with the Canadian public.

It’s a daunting 10 days. Depending on what business one has at TIFF,
it’s possible to see five films a day, or three times that number if
one is simply sampling the vibe by hopping from one cinema to the
next. At the other extreme, many festival-goers never set foot in a
cinema. Toronto has become a crucial stop for movie buyers and
sellers, with deals done in the members-only industry centre and on
napkins in upscale restaurants.

Programmers from festivals across the world — including Sydney Film
Festival executive director Clare Stewart — come to Toronto to pre-
screen movies for their events.

The festival, in its 33rd year, has had a torrid love affair with
Hollywood for the past decade. After Sam Mendes’s American Beauty
surfed its overwhelmingly positive 1999 festival buzz to a best-
picture Oscar win, studios in subsequent years have scrambled to get
their end-of-the-year award hopefuls into the Toronto schedule before
commercial release.

Studios are pruning their lavish budgets for travel, lodgings and
splashy parties to promote these films. As a result, Toronto is locked
in competition with the overlapping Venice film festival for high-
profile pictures and A-list stars. Sometimes films play at both
festivals, such as Burn After Reading. Often, films given a big push
in one city are conspicuously absent from the other.

In fact, as comprehensive as TIFF is, the list of films not showing is
also noteworthy. Oliver Stone’s W., with Josh Brolin as the incumbent
US president, apparently wasn’t finished in time, even though it’s
scheduled to open in the US scarcely a month after the festival
closes. Word has it films from prominent directors Darren Aronofsky
(The Wrestler, with Mickey Rourke) and Jim Sheridan (Brothers, with
Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire) weren’t even submitted. (Unlike the
Cannes festival, where anyone with enough money can rent a screen and
show their film in the market section, Toronto screens only what
Toronto invites.)

Laurent Cantet’s high school drama The Class, which won the Palme d’Or
at Cannes last May, was scheduled to play Toronto but was pulled when
the film was selected as the opening-night gala by the New York
festival, which opens later this month. Toronto also apparently lost
Clint Eastwood’s Cannes favourite Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie,
to New York’s demand for exclusivity.

Director Steve Jacobs’s new Australian film Disgrace, adapted from the
novel by J.M. Coetzee and starring John Malkovich, will open near the
festival’s halfway point. Baz Luhrmann’s anticipated Australia is not
finished. Other Australian films in various sections of the festival
include the stop-motion animated $9.99, a co-production with Israel
and featuring the voices of Geoffrey Rush, Anthony LaPaglia, Joel
Edgerton and Ben Mendelsohn; the documentary Yes Madam, Sir, with
narration by Helen Mirren; and two films in the cult Midnight Madness
program, the horror thriller Acolytes and the Ozploitation documentary
Not Quite Hollywood. Brown co-stars with Sam Neill and Peter O’Toole
in writer-director Toa Fraser’s British-New Zealand co-production Dean
Spanley, from the novel by Lord Dunsany.

But in the end and beyond the hype, attending Toronto or any film
festival isn’t so different from checking session times on a Friday
afternoon: all anyone’s really looking for is a good movie.

From here you can use the Social Web links to save Toronto’s casts of
thousands to a social bookmarking site.

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Staff writers THE Australian competition watchdog said today it would
not oppose BHP Billiton’s proposed takeover of rival mining giant Rio
Tinto.

Andrew Colley IT took a few days but Hutchison 3 Mobile customers
finally have access to popular websites such as BigPond and Hotmail.

FAST food chain McDonald’s has consolidated its $65 million
advertising account with DDB, dumping rival agency Leo Burnett.

Bernard Lane THE University of New England may move to elect a new
chancellor as early as next month in the long-running leadership
crisis.

Michael Bloomberg will seek to overturn a term limits law so he can
run New York for another four years.

Mark Dodd AN Australian delegation visiting Croatia will today meet
its leaders to press for help in resolving the fate of Britt
Lapthorne.

Paul Kelly, Editor-at-large ROSS Garnaut’s report will be anathema to
the environmental lobby but it focuses on the achievable.

Avril Groom in Milan WITH couture taking a clobbering, shoes and
accessories are now at the pointy end of fashion

Maher film soderbergh in religulous movie

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Yet film festivals being the sometimes blissfully random things they
are, I found myself watching first a four-hour biography of one and
then, soon after, a documentary featuring clips of the others.

And pondering a lot of what the filmmakers had to say, and a lot of
what they didn’t dare to. And how both films were not only about
people who had no doubts, but demanded that we in the audience put our
own questions aside.

The first movie is Steven Soderbergh’s long-awaited “Che,” a literally
epic biography of the Argentine doctor turned world revolutionary.
Made with the director’s typically calm attention to detail, and
careful use of style (mixing film stocks and aspect ratios) it’s his
most masterful film since “Traffic.”

Soderbergh – who’s also been gifted by a commanding, authentic and
refreshingly unmannered performance from Benicio Del Toro – has
carefully constructed his script, too. The first half follows Che from
his arrival in Cuba to the triumph of their revolution; the second
half follows him from his arrival in Bolivia to the collapse of
theirs.

All of this, I’m sure, has been painstakingly thought through by
Soderbergh; the two halves mirror each other, from their similar
prologues to complementary incidents. Yet by skipping over the entire
first half of the `60s in between those two parts, Soderbergh also
skips over the bloodiest years of Che’s life, as Cuban society was
roughly re-ordered, and many went into exile, into prison, or to their
death.

How necessary was this violence? How much guilt did Che carry for it?
And why, finally, did he leave Cuba? It is a matter of some angry
debate even today, but Soderbergh avoids the entire question,
preferring to present his warrior in purely heroic terms. This Che is
a true believer, who never questions his ideology – and whom,
apparently, we should never question, either.

There’s much to like in this film, including its steady accumulation
of detail – after several hours, you really begin to feel that you’re
in the jungle too. But by reducing everything about his hero to black-
and-white-and-Red, Soderbergh eliminates any interesting shadows;
instead of a portrait, we’re given the same old silk-screened poster.

On the other hand, Bill Maher’s film “Religulous” is fast, often
funny, and at first glance, altogether different; one of those op-ed
pieces masquerading as a documentary, it takes the stand-up comic and
libertarian iconoclast on a tour of America, Europe and Israel, where
he devotes himself to talking to religious people and telling them,
basically, that they’re idiots. “Religion is detrimental to the
progress of humanity,” he declares.

Yet while it espouses freethinking, the movie’s just as sure of itself
as the agents of intolerance it pursues.

The film is directed by Larry Charles, however, who last made “Borat”
and like Sacha Baron Cohen, Charles and Maher don’t really like the
idea of a fair fight. So they rig the odds in their favor. When it’s
time to debate points of Christian theology, Maher interviews an actor
in a theme-park Passion Play; when he wants to talk to a rabbi, he
picks the one who happily participated in an anti-Semitic Holocaust
“conference” in Iran.

Maher gets off some good jokes – after 30 years of doing stand-up and
talk shows, he’s fast on his feet. And there are entertaining (or
maybe just horrifying) old clips of religious zealots from Pat
Robertson on down, all saying some pretty remarkable things. But Maher
never confronts them, preferring to go after the unsophisticated
instead. And what’s the real challenge there? Or the benefit?

Maher declares his willingness to do battle (“The plain fact is
religion must die for mankind to live”) but the real plain fact is
that, by only talking to rank-and-file fundamentalists and fringe
characters, he wins his own war without firing a shot. It all won easy
laughs from this hip film-fest crowd, but even a committed atheist
would have to admit there are thoughtful theologians out there who
could, at least, have given Maher a spirited debate partner.

But Maher doesn’t want that, because he doesn’t really want a debate.
He doesn’t need one, because he knows he’s right. And yet he doesn’t
see the similarities between his own immovable convictions and his
targets’ unquestioning faith, his own orthodoxy and their
unquestioning beliefs – or, I’m sure, why “Religulous” and “Che” ended
up making such an unexpected, yet perfect pairing this week in
Toronto.

Film u.s films in religulous movie

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Just as the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival got underway this
past weekend, industry attendees received a sobering statistic on
Monday morning: The weekend box-office in the U.S. was the lowest-
grossing in five years — about $67.6 million compared with $66.7
million since the same post-Labor Day period in 2003, according to
Media by Numbers. The bad news served as yet another reminder of the
film industry’s current precarious status, but those in Toronto were
determined to reinvigorate the movie-going audience.

The first such title to energize buyers: “The Wrestler,” an intimate
look at a burned-out ’80s wrestling star (played by Mickey Rourke),
which premiered in Toronto on Sunday night and was sold in an
overnight bidding war to Fox Searchlight for approximately $4 million.
The price tag makes it one of the biggest sales in the festival’s
history.

Several distribution companies clamored for the film, despite the fact
that the low-budget movie will need a careful and cautious theatrical
rollout. In the days after the screening, Mr. Rourke has been the talk
of the town as a possible Oscar contender. Fox Searchlight has
committed to releasing the film this December. (Fox Searchlight is
owned by ., which also owns The Wall Street Journal.)

At the world premiere of “The Wrestler,” director Darren Aronofsky
alluded to the fact that the movie was passed over by U.S. film
companies. He and his producer, Scott Franklin, sought financial
backing from the French foreign sales company, Wild Bunch, which has
increasingly become a prolific backer of filmmaker-driven titles
looking for funds.

Wild Bunch also backed another somewhat risky investment, Steven
Soderbergh’s four-hour Che Guevera epic, “Che,” which had its world
premiere in Cannes last May and is screening in Toronto in a slightly
shorter version. An unconventional biopic that cost a reported $60
million, the film made much of its budget back in international sales,
and finally closed a U.S. distribution deal with Cablevision’s IFC
Films on Wednesday morning. After Cannes, the film received two firm
offers from U.S. buyers, according to Wild Bunch sales head Vincent
Maraval, but the company has been holding out for significant money
upfront and a marketing commitment that specifically looks to the
Spanish speaking audience in the U.S. The film will be released for a
one-week awards- qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles in
December, then be available in theaters in January and via video-on-
demand.

Now that “The Wrestler’s” fate has been sealed, companies looking to
fill up their 2009 release schedules are turning to other available
films. Film buyers were generally upbeat about the quality of the
films on display. Though sales weren’t exactly brisk, negotiations
were heating up on several titles.

Summit Entertainment, the fledgling independent film studio backed by
, purchased U.S. rights to Katheryn Bigelow’s bomb disposal thriller,
“The Hurt Locker,” shortly after its North American premiere on Monday
night, even though the film is set in Iraq — a subject that has been
a curse at the box-office lately (look to last year’s “Lions for
Lambs” and “In the Valley of Elah”).

IFC Films, which acquired several films in Cannes, announced it had
acquired North American rights to the Swedish film “Everlasting
Moments” for its video-on-demand and theatrical releasing operations.
Even smaller films, such as the Filipino family drama “Serbis” and the
Chinese documentary “24 City” found small U.S. theatrical slots,
indicating that the art-house business is continuing to operate as
usual, despite concerns of changing audience habits and flattening DVD
sales.

Some smaller film distributors, including IFC, were also pursuing the
Irish film “Kisses,” a bittersweet movie about pre-teens on the run in
Dublin. Other films generating interest, according to sales agents and
acquisitions executives, include Richard Linklater’s period film “Me
and Orson Welles,” the Jennifer Aniston comedy “Management,” “Is There
Anybody There?,” starring Michael Caine, and a number of
documentaries, including “Soul Power,” about a , and “Every Little
Step,” a look at the making of the musical “A Chorus Line.”

The Toronto festival also gave a boost to a number of films already
set for release in U.S. theaters — including Sony Pictures Classics’s
“Rachel Getting Married,” Fox Searchlight’s “Slumdog Millionaire” and
Sony’s “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” — by generating positive
word-of-mouth.

Also looking for a publicity bump was Lionsgate’s “Religulous,” which
previewed in Toronto and opens in U.S. theaters on Oct. 3. Starring
comedian Bill Maher who sets out to question and poke fun of the
world’s religions, the film follows in the footsteps of several other
controversial documentaries that have screened in the festival,
including the smash hit “Borat,” directed by “Religulous’s” Larry
Charles, the creator of “Seinfeld.” The festival also hosted the world
premiere of “Food, Inc.,” a damning investigation into industrial-food
production from the producers of “An Inconvenient Truth.”

“Political films with a sharp edge have always had a place here at the
Toronto International Film Festival, ever since Michael Moore’s ‘Roger
& Me’ won the People’s Choice Award here 20 years ago,” said Toronto
documentary programmer Thom Powers.

But while the North American premiere of “Religulous” was well
attended, it did not produce the kind of fervor that had accompanied
the “Borat” and Michael Moore screenings in years past.

Outside the theater, the multi-denominational Canadian Coalition for
Organized Religion organized a protest of about a dozen people with
signs reading “Don’t Mock My Religion” and chanting “Pray for Bill” as
Mr. Maher walked by. Many of those going into the screening wondered
whether it was all a stunt organized by Mr. Charles and the comedian.
At a Q&A after the premiere, where Mr. Maher took jabs at Pentecostal
Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, he set the record
straight: “It wouldn’t have been so lame if I had hired them,” he
said.

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Directed film story in tim brown ideo

In Hollywood, like the National Basketball Association, it’s the
fourth quarter that matters. Hollywood holds back its best (as in most
likely to snag the attention of Academy Award voters ) for last. So
welcome to the annual fall film preview. That doesn’t mean the
following films will be any good. We’ve only seen a handful of
them, and we trust the buzz less this year than any in recent memory.
Most will be opening on or around the dates listed here. You might
want to take appropriate measures. This list is not comprehensive: At
this writing there’s no release date for Steven
Soderbergh’s Guerrilla — the first half of his five-hour
Che Guevara bio-pic — more specific than 2008. Gomorrah, which
won the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival, has no U. S.
release date set for 2008. And it’s likely we missed some movies
that will escape the vaults over the next few months. With that in
mind, the following is presented for entertainment purposes only. No
gambling please.

FRIDAY An American Carol. Kelsey Grammer as George S. Patton in a
satire of Michael Moorestyle agitprop documentaries. With Trace
Adkins, Jon Voight; directed by David Zucker. Appaloosa. It’s
Lonesome Dove meets High Noon in this enjoyable, traditional Western
with canny performances from Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris as peace-
keeping partners, Jeremy Irons as the villain and Renee Zellweger as
the girl. Directed by Harris. It’ll probably arrive in Arkansas
later in the month.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua. The progenitor of the most obnoxious trailer
in movie history has a Lady and the Tramp-style plot involving two
Chihuahuas: upscale Chloe (voice of Drew Barrymore ) and streetwise
Papi (voice of George Lopez ) in a south-of-the-border romantic
adventure. With Piper Perabo, Jamie Lee Curtis, Placido Domingo;
directed by Raja Gosnell.

Blindness. While it was widely panned at Cannes, the word at the
Toronto International Film Festival was that Fernando Meirelles’
film of the Jose Saramago novel isn’t bad. Guess we’ll
see. With Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Gael Garcia Bernal.

The Duchess. Georgiana Spencer, the Duchess of Devonshire, leads the
life of a troubled celebrity in late-1700 s England. The filmmakers
wanted to emphasize the parallels between the lives of G. and her
descendant Princess Diana, but current events may have audiences
thinking Sarah Palin. With Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes; directed by
Saul Dibb.

Flash of Genius. A torn-from-the-headlines story of a college
professor whose invention ends up in every car in the world but,
thanks to the auto industry, provides him with little benefit. With
Greg Kinnear, Lauren Graham, Dermot Mulroney; directed by Marc
Abraham.

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People. A British journalist, hired by
a trendy New York magazine, manages to offend just about everyone he
encounters on his high-society beat. With Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst,
Gillian Anderson; directed by Robert B. Weide.

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. While it’s more Valley
Girl than Juno, the chemistry of stars Michael Cera and Kat Dennings
redeems this story of romantic discovery between a broken-hearted bass
player and a girl searching for a secret show by an obscure band.
Directed by Peter Sollett. Rachel Getting Married. A recently
rehabilitated ex-model comes home for the wedding of her sister. Some
who saw it in Toronto were disappointed, while others thought it tough
and funny. It likely won’t make it to Arkansas for a few weeks.
With Anne Hathaway, Debra Winger; directed by Jonathan Demme.

OCT. 10 Body of Lies. The film version of Washington Post columnist
David Ignatius’ 2007 novel about a CIA operative who discovers
information about a terrorist leader supposedly operating out of
Jordan. With Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe; directed by Ridley
Scott.

City of Ember. The lights that illuminate a city are fading, and
it’s up to two teenagers to help the residents escape before
they disappear forever. With Bill Murray, Tim Robbins, Saoirse Ronan,
Mary Kay Place; directed by Gil Kenan.

The Express. The story of Ernie Davis, the first black football player
to win the Heisman Trophy. With Dennis Quaid, Rob Brown; directed by
Gary Fleder.

Happy-Go-Lucky. A cheery schoolteacher, when her bike is stolen, takes
up driving with lessons from a morose and cynical instructor. With
Sally Hawkins, Alexis Zegerman; directed by Mike Leigh. Quarantine. A
TV reporter and cameraman are trapped in an apartment building where
an unidentified illness forces a sudden quarantine. With Jennifer
Carpenter, Dania Ramirez, Jay Hernandez; directed by John Erick Dowdle
and Drew Dowdle.

OCT. 17 Max Payne. Based on the video game, this stars Mark Wahlberg
as an obsessive Drug Enforcement Administration agent looking to
avenge the murders of his family and partner. With Christopher
“Ludacris” Bridges, Mila Kunis; directed by John Moore.
Morning Light. A documentary about 15 young sailors who race a 52-foot
sloop in a 2, 300-mile ocean sailing competition. Directed by Mark
Monroe.

The Secret Life of Bees. Big budgeted, well-intentioned and lacking in
nuance, this is the story of a 14-year-old girl who, in 1964 South
Carolina, is rescued from a lonely motherless home by three beekeeping
sisters. Based on Sue Monk Kidd’s best-selling novel. With Queen
Latifah, Dakota Fanning, Alicia Keyes, Jennifer Hudson; directed by
Gina Prince-Bythewood. Sex Drive. An 18-year-old hits the road to lose
his virginity before he goes to college. With Josh Zuckerman, James
Marsden, Clark Duke; directed by Sean Anders. W. Oliver Stone’s
take on the life of George W. Bush. With Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks,
Thandie Newton, Scott Glenn and KATV, Channel 7, reporter Anne Pressly
(as Anne Coulter ).

OCT. 24 Changeling. A woman in 1920 s Los Angeles is relieved when her
kidnapped son returns, but soon realizes it’s not her child.
With Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich; directed by Clint Eastwood. High
School Musical 3: Senior Year. The singing and dancing high school
students make their way to the silver screen. Zac Efron, Vanessa
Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Corbin Blue, Monique Coleman; directed by
Kenny Ortega. Pride and Glory. A family of New York policemen gets
stuck between loyalty to each other and devotion to their work. With
Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight; directed by Gavin
O’Connor. Saw V. The fifth film in the Saw series carries on
Jigsaw’s legacy. With Tobin Bell, Meagan Good; directed by David
Hackl. Synecdoche, New York. Writer Charlie Kaufman makes his
directorial debut with this typically metafictional tale of a theater
director whose art begins to imitate life a little too closely. With
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams.

OCT. 31 Rocknrolla. A thickly accented sex, thugs and rock
’n’ roll return to form for British director Guy Ritchie.
A Russian mobster’s “lucky painting” is the Mc-
Guffin in this good-naturedly violent film about Russian billionaires
and London real estate values. With Gerard Butler, Thandie Newton, Tom
Wilkinson. Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Two debt-ridden pals round up
their friends to put together a pornographic movie that results in
unexpected emotional expenses. With Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks;
directed by Kevin Smith.

NOV. 7 Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (conventional theaters and IMAX ).
A reunion with Alex the lion, Marty the zebra and the other New York
zoo critters, still marooned in Madagascar. Animated with voices of
Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Cedric the Entertainer; directed by Eric
Darnell and Tom McGrath. Role Models. A couple of salesmen who abuse a
company truck discover that a courtordered mentorship program might be
tougher on them than jail time. With Seann William Scott, Paul Rudd,
Elizabeth Banks; directed by David Wain. Soul Men. Two backup singers
who’ve had no contact for 20 years travel across the country
together to perform at a concert honoring their former bandleader.
With Samuel L. Jackson, Bernie Mac, Isaac Hayes; directed by Malcolm
Lee.

NOV. 14 Quantum of Solace. The second James Bond movie with Daniel
Craig as 007. With Jeffrey Wright; directed by Marc Forster.

NOV. 19 Slumdog Millionaire. An impoverished Indian teen wins big on
the Hindi version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire ? A favorite at the
Toronto International Film Festival. Directed by Danny Boyle.

NOV. 21 Bolt. (conventional and 3-D ). A canine TV superhero
doesn’t realize he’s playing a role until he’s
forced off his soundstage into the real world. Animated with voices of
John Travolta, Miley Cyrus; directed by Chris Williams and Byron
Howard. The Soloist. A drama based on the true story of Nathaniel
Ayers, who, after developing schizophrenia in his second year at
Juilliard, plays violin and cello while homeless in downtown Los
Angeles. Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey Jr.; directed by Joe Wright.
Twilight. A vampire and a human find love in the modern world. With
Kristen Stewart, Nikki Reed; directed by Catherine Hardwicke.

NOV. 26 Australia. A sweeping action adventure set Down Under just
before World War II. With Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackson; directed by Baz
Luhrmann.

Four Christmases. A San Francisco couple is forced to abandon romantic
holiday getaway plans and attend four family get-togethers. With Vince
Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Duvall, Mary Steenburgen; directed
by Seth Gordon.

The Road. The film version of Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic
novel about a father and son struggling to survive in a badly damaged
world. With Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Kodi Smit-
McPhee; directed by John Hilcoat.

Milk. Sean Penn stars as openly gay San Francisco city supervisor
Harvey Milk. Penn’s being touted for a Best Actor Oscar for his
role. Directed by Gus Van Sant. Transporter 3. Jason Statham returns
as high-risk delivery expert Frank Martin. Directed by Olivier
Megaton.

DECEMBER Crossing Over. The lure of the American dream attracts
immigrants to Los Angeles. With Harrison Ford, Sean Penn, Ashley Judd;
directed by Wayne Kramer. Defiance. Three Jewish brothers join Soviet
partisans to fight Nazis in this film adaptation of the true story of
the Polish Bielski brothers. With Daniel Craig, Jamie Bell, Liev
Schreiber; directed by Edward Zwick. Extreme Movie. A comedy about the
ups and downs of teenage sex. With Ryan Pinkston, Michael Cera;
directed by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson.

Frost / Nixon. David Frost interviews Richard Nixon in 1977. From
Peter Morgan’s acclaimed play, with stars Frank Langella (Nixon
) and Michael Sheen (Frost ) reprising their roles. Directed by Ron
Howard.

Punisher: War Zone Vigilante Frank Castle returns to take on a vicious
mob boss. With Ray Stevenson, Julie Benz; directed by Lexi Alexander.

The Day the Earth Stood Still. A redo of the 1951 sci-fi classic with
Keanu Reeves as an alien whose arrival here causes a large uproar.
With Jennifer Connelly; directed by Scott Derrickson.

Nothing Like the Holidays. A family goes through upheavals during a
reunion in Chicago’s Humboldt Park. With Luis Guzman, Freddy
Rodriguez, Debra Messing; directed by Alfredo De Villa.

Seven Pounds. Will Smith reunites with the director and producers of
The Pursuit of Happyness to portray a man who affects the lives of
seven strangers. With Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson; directed by
Gabriele Muccino.

The Tale of Despereaux. An animated big-eared mouse intends to make
the most of living in the age of chivalry. With the voices of Matthew
Broderick, Frank Langella, Sigourney Weaver; directed by Sam Fell.

Yes Man. A mediocre existence improves mightily thanks to a self-help
program that encourages the use of the word “yes” whenever
“no” seems like a more reasonable response. With Jim
Carrey, Zooey Deschanel; directed by Peyton Reed.

Bedtime Stories. A hotel maintenance worker discovers that the stories
he tells to lull his young niece and nephew to sleep are coming true.
With Adam Sandler, Guy Pearce, Keri Russell; directed by Adam
Shankman.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. A man, born in his 80 s, ages
backward. From a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. With Brad Pitt, Cate
Blanchett, Tilda Swinton; directed by David Fincher.

Doubt. A Catholic high school principal accuses a priest of being a
pedophile. With Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams;
directed by John Patrick Shanley.

Gran Torino. A Korean War veteran (Clint Eastwood ) sets out to reform
his teenage Chinese-American neighbor who attempts to steal the
vet’s vintage Ford. Directed by Eastwood.

Marley & Me. A neurotic dog changes the meaning of family for a
couple. With Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston; directed by David Frankel.

The Reader. A story of sexual obsession set in postwar Germany with
Kate Winslet as a former concentration camp guard on trial for crimes
committed during the Holocaust. With Ralph Fiennes. Directed by
Stephen Daldry.

Revolutionary Road. Sam Mendes directs Leonardo Di-Caprio and Kate
Winslet in this highly anticipated film version of Richard
Yates’ novel about young lovers who flee American conformity for
a bohemian existence in Paris in the 1950 s (this one won’t make
it to Arkansas until 2009 ).

The Spirit. Adapted from Will Eisner’s comic book series about a
rookie policeman who comes back from the dead. With Gabriel Macht,
Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson; directed by Frank
Miller.