GOOD HAIR
Final Week! Ends Thursday!
Monday, Dec. 7 through Thursday, Dec. 10
Nightly at 7:10
Matinee Wednesday at 3:10
"The price of beauty — and its maintenance — has never come cheap. But in Good Hair, comedian Chris Rock delves into the roots of the problem and reveals that good hair is a much bigger business than many imagine. Rock is not only funny, he’s an affable and intelligent host in a documentary that is accessible, breezy and highly informative. When his adorable 5-year-old daughter asked why she didn’t have "good hair," Rock was moved to explore what makes hair appealing. He talks to hairdressers and their customers and learns about the exorbitant price (at least $1,000), time commitment (about six hours) and pain (hair loss, scalp burns) involved in acquiring a weave. He also finds out about harsh chemicals used in hair relaxing and meets an entrepreneur whose wealth derives from the manufacture and sale of creams that relax waves, curls and frizz. In a very funny and troubling bit, a chemist conducts a simple experiment that reveals just how caustic the hair-relaxing potions can be. One of the film’s most intriguing segments centers on the donors of a majority of the lustrous hair used for weaves and wigs. Rock travels to India and finds that much of the coveted "good hair" sold in the USA comes from the heads of devout Hindu women. Rock goes to Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York and India, talking to everyone from the Rev. Al Sharpton to poet Maya Angelou to actress Raven-Symoné. Singers Salt N’ Pepa recount how a hair-relaxing accident led to a signature hairstyle. Actress Tracie Thoms describes her natural hairstyle as being almost transgressive….Good Hair seamlessly follows Rock as he travels from manufacturing plants to salons and barbershops to an Indian temple. He approaches the subject with earnest interest and easy humor. It’s no wonder it won Sundance Film Festival’s special Jury Prize. Good Hair is cause for hope that Rock continues to make documentaries. His style is lively, smooth and up-to-date, like the most coveted ‘do."—Claudia Puig, Entertainment Weekly. PG-13. 98 Min.
THE DAMNED UNITED
Final Week! Ends Thursday!
Monday, Dec. 7 through Thursday, Dec. 10
Nightly at 5:10
Matinee Wednesday at 1:10
"There’s barely any on-field footage in The Damned United. What we get instead is fine acting and directing, splendid dialogue and a story too outrageous to be made up "–Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times. "As famed English football manager Brian Clough in The Damned United, Michael Sheen is a great deal more spirited than he was playing Tony Blair in The Queen or David Frost in Frost/Nixon. Clough cut a swath through the English football world in the 1960s and early ’70s before meeting his Waterloo as head coach of reigning champion Leeds United. Clough was an officious taskmaster who believed in playing by the rules. His new team specialized in bullying and bashing. The real match in this movie isn’t between the teams, it’s between Clough and Leeds United, and both give as good as they get. Director Tom Hooper keeps things lively on and off the field. Sheen is startlingly good here, and so is Timothy Spall as Clough’s trusted and much abused lieutenant"–Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor. R. 98 Min.
AN EDUCATION
Final Week! Ends Thursday!
Monday, Dec. 7 through Thursday, Dec. 10
Nightly at 6:50
Matinee Wednesday at 2:50
"Invariably funny and inexpressibly moving in the way it looks at a young girl’s journey from innocence to experience, An Education does so many things so well, it’s difficult to know where to begin when cataloging its virtues. This is a performance, and a film, to cherish for this year and always"–Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times. "Schoolgirl Jenny is 16 and a virgin. Sophisticated David is twice her age and ready to pounce. The time is 1961. The place is England just before it learned to swing. So begins An Education; a quiet miracle of a movie that quickly disabuses you of the idea that you’ve seen it all before. Prepare to be wowed by Carey Mulligan, whose sensational, star making performance as Jenny ignited film festivals from Sundance to Toronto. The incandescent Mulligan, 24, is a major find who makes Jenny’s journey from gawky duckling to sad, graceful swan an unmissable event. As David, Peter Sarsgaard is shockingly good at walking the line between charming opportunist and sexual predator. What’s the truth? Pay attention as Danish director Lone Scherfig (Italian for Beginners) works wonders with the coming-of-age memoir by British journalist Lynn Barber. This story about a girl is brilliantly adapted by About a Boy and High Fidelity author Nick Hornby"–Rolling Stone. R. 95 Min.
PIRATE RADIO
Friday, Dec. 4 through Thursday, Dec. 10
Nightly at 4:40 & 7:00
Matinees Wednesday at 12:00 & 2:20
Friday, Dec. 11 through Thursday, Dec. 17
Nightly at 7:10 Except NO Show on Monday!
Also Fri. & Sat. at 9:30
Matinee Wednesday at 12:30
The new comedy from filmmaker Richard Curtis (screenwriter of Four Weddings and a Funeral and writer/director of Love Actually) tells the fact-based tale of a seafaring band of rogue rock and roll deejays whose "pirate radio" captivated and inspired 1960s Britain. Playing the music that rocked a nation and a decade, the group boldly and hilariously defies the government that tries to shut them down. Broadcasting live 24/7 from an old tanker anchored in the middle of the North Sea (just beyond British jurisdiction), Radio Rock sends out a vibrant and unifying signal to millions across the nation. The Radio Rock roster, overseen by unflappable station owner (and ship’s captain) Quentin (Bill Nighy), includes a risk-prone American known only as The Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman); mystic deejay royalty Gavin (Rhys Ifans); and slyly amorous Dave (Nick Frost). Great fun! R. 116 Min.
NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU
Friday, Dec. 4 through Thursday, Dec. 10
Nightly at 4:50
Matinee Wednesday at 12:40
Friday, Dec. 11 through Thursday, Dec. 17
Nightly at 5:00
Matinees Sat., Sun. & Wed. at 2:50
"New York, I Love You takes the wrinkle-free, easy-travel concept first executed in the 2007 Gallic compilation Paris, je t’aime to a new city and styles itself like a themed issue of The New York Times Magazine. Here, a procession of hip filmmakers (from Allen Hughes to Shekhar Kapur) present intertwined vignettes about love, romance, and/or sex, all starring hip actors (from Natalie Portman to Ethan Hawke to Julie Christie), each set in a hip neighborhood (from Soho to the Upper West Side, with one outer-borough stop in Brighton Beach). In this rarefied NYC, every street is beautiful no matter how chaotic (Fatih Akin directs in Chinatown), and every body is beautiful no matter how frail (Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman steal the show as old Brooklynites). Tourists may notice that the film’s New Yorkers are all straight, and mostly white. But they’ll want to sightsee, especially when Bradley Cooper hooks up with Drea de Matteo, Chris Cooper and Robin Wright Penn flirt madly, and, in Brett Ratner’s nicely raunchy sketch, Anton Yelchin gets lucky with a wheelchair-bound Olivia Thirlby. These tales are as highly designed as fashion layouts. But they’re as relaxing to thumb through as those those NYT Magazine trend pieces about how chopsticks are the new forks, or how Eva Amurri is the new Christina Ricci–both of whom also wander through this Gotham travelogue"–Lisa Schwartzbaum, Entertainment Weekly. R. 103 Min.
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