January 2011 Movies

If I Want to Whistle, I Whis...

Romania's official selection for the 2011 Academy Award centers around an 18-year-old about to be released from a juvenile detention center.

Florin Serban, Catalin Mitulescu, Pistireanu George, Mihai Constantin, Ada Condeescu

Phil Ochs: There But For For...

A documentary about the folk singer Phil Ochs.

Kenneth Bowser

The Social Network

On the Harvard campus in 2004, sophmore Mark Zuckerberg starts the social networking site, Facebook.

David Fincher, Jesse Eisenberg, Michael De Luca, Andrew Garfield, Brenda Song, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, Scott Rudin

Season of the Witch

In 14th century France, a group of knights in 14th century France must transport a woman accused of witchcraft to a mountain abbey, where the monks will seek to understand and destroy her powers, believed to be the source of the Black Plague.

Nicolas Cage, Ryan Kavanaugh, Ulrich Thomsen, Alex Gartner, Tucker Tooley, Charles Roven, Claire Foy, Stephen Campbell Moore

Country Strong

A rising young singer-songwriter becomes involved with a fallen country singer. As they embark on a career resurrection tour with her husband and manager and a beauty queen-turned singer, romantic entanglements and old demons threaten to derail them all.

Jenno Topping, Shana Feste, Tobey Maguire, Garrett Hedlund, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Leighton Meester

I Love You Phillip Morris

When a local Texas policeman, Steve Russell (Jim Carrey), turns to cons and fraud to allow him to change his lifestyle (in more ways than one), his subsequent stay in the state penitentiary results in his meeting the love of his life, a sensitive fellow inmate named Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). What ensues can only be described as a relentless quest as Russell attempts escape after escape and executes con after con, all in the name of love.

Glenn Ficarra, Ewan McGregor, Jim Carrey, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro, Andrew Lazar, John Requa, David Jensen

Blue Valentine

"Blue Valentine" chronicles a disintegrating marriage between Dean (Gosling) and Cindy (Williams), told in flashback.

Michelle Williams, Ryan Gosling, Mike Vogel, Jamie Patricof, Derek Cianfrance, Lynette Howell, Alex Orlovsky, John Doman

The Absent

A high school teacher is forced to choose between his career and a love affair with one of his students. The pressure mounts when his twin brother, Oscar, returns after serving 25 years in jail for killing their parents.

Damon Abdallah, Sage Bannick, Chris Sivertson, Ari Bernstein

No One Killed Jessica

Jessica, a young attractive model trying her hand at bartending, is shot dead at a celebrity party for refusing to serve a drink after closing hours. The culprit Manish, son of a prominent politician, inebriated by a deadly cocktail of alcohol and a sense of entitlement, pulls the trigger in a fit of rage. With 300 of Delhi's swish set present at the party, many of whom are witnesses to the murder, Manish looks all set to go to the gallows. Except, that it doesn't quite turn out that way. Now two women, Jessica's sister, Sabrina and the feisty TV reporter, Meera will have to drum up every resource at their disposal to outwit Manish at his own game, if the truth is to have any chance of prevailing over money and political clout.

Raj Kumar Gupta

The Time That Remains

An examination of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 through to the present day.

Ali Suliman, Elia Suleiman, Saleh Bakri

The Dilemma

Set in Chicago and explores the fallout surrounding infidelity between lovers and friends.

Queen Latifah, Kevin James, Channing Tatum, Vince Vaughn, Winona Ryder, Jennifer Connelly, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer

The Green Hornet

Britt Reid (Seth Rogen), son and heir to Los Angeles’ largest newspaper fortune, is a rich, spoiled playboy who has been happy to maintain a direction-less existence. When his father James Reid (Tom Wilkinson) dies, Britt meets an impressive and resourceful company employee, Kato (Jay Chou). They realize that they have the resources to do something worthwhile with their lives and finally step out of James Reid’s shadow. Kato builds the ultimate weapon, The Black Beauty, an indestructible car with every weapon imaginable and Britt decides that in order to be heroes, they will pose as villains. With the help of Britts new secretary, Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz), they learn that the chief criminal in the city is named Benjamin Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz). He has united all the gangs under his power, and he quickly sees that the Green Hornet is a direct threat to the prosperous criminal underworld he controls.

Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Michael Peña, Cameron Diaz, David Harbour, Michel Gondry, Neal H. Moritz, Edward James Olmos

Ong Bak 3

Tien is captured and almost beaten to death before he is saved and brought back to the Kana Khone villagers.

Panna Rittikrai, Tony Jaa

Barney's Version

A man leads a reckless life highlighted by three marriages, two children and being a "person of interest" in the mysterious disappearance of his bosom buddy.

Rosamund Pike, Paul Giamatti, Dustin Hoffman, Scott Speedman, Robert Lantos, Rachelle Lefevre, Domenico Procacci, Minnie Driver

Burning Palms

Five dark and comedic stories that take place in Los Angeles.

Rosamund Pike, Paz Vega, Zoe Saldana, Nick Stahl, Lake Bell, Christopher B. Landon, Jamie Chung, Dylan McDermott

Every Day

Liev Schreiber and Helen Hunt play a couple whose troubled marriage escalates into crisis when a sexy colleague, played by Carla Gugino, enters the mix.

Carla Gugino, Eddie Izzard, Liev Schreiber, Brian Dennehy, Helen Hunt, Richard Levine

Enter the Void

Nathaniel Brown and Paz de la Huerta star in a visceral journey set against the thumping, neon club scene of Tokyo, which hurls the viewer into an astonishing trip through life, death, and the universally wonderful and horrible moments between.

Gaspar Noe, Nathaniel Brown

The Heart Specialist

Zoe Saldana, Wood Harris, Method Man, Dennis Cooper, Mya

Plastic Planet

Reveals the far-flung reaches of our plastic problem with interviews with the world’s foremost experts in biology, pharmacology, and genetics shed light on the perils of plastic to our environment and expose the truth of how plastic affects our bodies and the health of future generations.

Werner Boote

A Somewhat Gentle Man

An ex-convict released from prison tries to live a normal, quiet life but is also looking for vengeance against the snitch who put him in jail.

Stellan Skarsgard, Hans Petter Moland

The Way Back

A fact-based story centered on soldiers who escaped from a Siberian gulag in 1940.

Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Mark Strong, Saoirse Ronan, Jim Sturgess, Peter Weir, Nigel Sinclair, Guy East

No Strings Attached

Emma and Adam have the best relationship ever! They’re twentysomething pals who, you know, do it. A lot. But then Adam goes and falls in love with Emma and ruins everything.

Natalie Portman, Joe Medjuck, Ashton Kutcher, Olivia Thirlby, Gary Barber, Ivan Reitman, Tom Pollock, Kevin Kline

The Company Men

The impact of a corporate downsizing on both its casualties and survivors.

Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Craig T. Nelson, John Wells, Chris Cooper, Paula Weinstein

Dhobi Ghat

Four people from different background intersect in Mumbai and alter eachother's lives profoundly.

Kiran Rao

The Housemaid

A man's affair with his family's housemaid leads to a dark consequences.

Im Sang-soo, Jeon Do-yeon

Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not...

In the battle to prevent the apocalyptic Third Impact, Shinji and Rei were forced to carry humanity's hopes on their shoulders. As the onslaught of monstrous Angels escalates, a group of young Eva pilots find their burden shared by two new pilots: the fiery Asuka and the mysterious Mari.

The Rite

An American priest studies at an exorcism school in Italy.

Anthony Hopkins, Michael Petroni, Alice Braga, Richard Brener, Beau Flynn, Mikael Hafstrom, Ciaran Hinds, Toby Jones

The Mechanic

Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) is a well-paid assassin who executes people at the request of the American government. But after assassinating a former close associate, Bishop does something that's unprofessional and out of control: he takes on a apprentice (Ben Foster), the son of the man he just killed.

Jason Statham, Joe Gatta, Donald Sutherland, Irwin Winkler, Christa Campbell, Trevor Short, Boaz Davidson, Danny Dimbort

127 Hours

The story of Aron Ralston, a mountain climber who, while hiking Utah's back-country in 2003, had to self-amputate part of his arm with a dull knife when it was pinned by a boulder in an accident.

James Franco, Lizzy Caplan, Kate Mara, Christian Colson, Danny Boyle, Amber Tamblyn, Clemence Poesy

Biutiful

The story is about a troubled man who is confronted by a former friend, now a police officer.

Javier Bardem, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Maricel Alvarez

Kaboom

The story follows the sexual awakening of a group of college students.

Juno Temple, Thomas Dekker, Kelly Lynch, Rooney Mara, Gregg Araki, Roxane Mesquida

Ip Man 2: Legend of the Gran...

Set in Foshan, China, during the Sino Japanese War, one man rises to the fore, Grandmaster Ip Man. Upon refusing to teach his fighting art to the invading Japanese soldiers, he is forced to fight for the honor of his country in a series of battles that will culminate in a kill or be killed showdown with Japan’s greatest fighter, General Miura.

Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, Wilson Yip

From Prada to Nada

Two sisters, one a young beauty who chooses passion over logic, the other a law student whose fixed moral compass keeps her from following her desires, are uprooted from their luxurious home when their father suddenly passes away. Out of money and out of options, the women move into their Great Aunt Aurelia's modest, but lively home in the Latino-centric Boyle Heights neighborhood where they find themselves thrown into a world that, despite their heritage, seems completely foreign. Over time, they discover the beauty of the culture they once fought so desperately to hide. And in the process they find the one thing that had eluded them: love.

Alexa Vega, Wilmer Valderrama, Camilla Belle, Gigi Pritzker, Kuno Becker, April Bowlby, Adriana Barraza, Fina Torres

Seconds Apart

Judging by their privileged lifestyles, one would never guess that Seth and Jonah are murderous twins who share an evil kinship. Damned from the moment of their births, the brothers possess a gruesome talent for telekinesis - a power they use in the most horrific ways imaginable. As fellow students meet gory fates, local law enforcement begins to suspect the twins' connection to the depraved murders.

Orlando Jones, Edmund Entin, Antonio Negret, Samantha Droke, Gary Entin