film

Film listings are edited by Cheryl Eddy. Reviewers are Robert Avila, Meryl Cohen, David Fear, Dina Gachman, Susan Gerhard, Dennis Harvey, Johnny Ray Huston, Patrick Macias, and Chuck Stephens. See Rep Clock and Movie Clock, for theater information.

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

The 23rd annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival runs July 17-Aug 4. Venues are the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro, S.F.; Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph, Berk; CineArts, 3000 El Camino Real, Bldg Six, Palo Alto; and the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, 1118 Fourth St, San Rafael. For ticket information, call (925) 275-9490 or go to www.sfjff.org. For commentary see last week's Bay Guardian. All times p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Wed/23

Castro Galoot 10:30a. Shalom Ireland and The Last Jewish Town 1:30. My Life Part Two 4:15. Divan 6:45. Forget Baghdad: Jews and Arabs – the Iraqi Connection 8:45.

Thurs/24

Castro Caravan 841 10:45a. Blessings: Roommates in Jerusalem and My Four Children 12:15. Asesino and Thunder in Guyana 3. Kedma 5:45. Samy y Yo and "Four Short Films About Love" (short films) 8:15.

Sat/26

Wheeler Local Angel (free screening) 12:30. Purity and Tikkun (free screening) 2:30. Embrace Me and Taqasim 6:30. Manhood 8:45.

Sun/27

CineArts My Life Part Two 1:30. The Soul Keeper 4. Manhood 6. The Glow 8:15.

Wheeler For My Children noon. Kedma 2:30. Hiding and Seeking: Faith and Tolerance after the Holocaust 5. Caravan 841 7. The Burial Society 8:45.

Mon/28

CineArts Asesino and Thunder in Guyana 1:30. Welcome to the Waks Family and The Collector of Bedford Street 4. Detained and The Settlers 6. Embrace Me and Taqasim 8:45.

Wheeler The Last Letter and Foolish Me 11a. Divan 1. Have You Heard About the Panthers? 3:15. Forget Baghdad: Jews and Israel – the Iraqi Connection 6. The Soul Keeper 8:45.

Tues/29

CineArts Hiding and Seeking: Faith and Tolerance after the Holocaust 1. Shalom Ireland and The Last Jewish Town 3. Have You Heard About the Panthers? 6. Monsieur Batignole 8:30.

Wheeler Blessings: Roommates in Jerusalem and My Four Children 12:30. Detained and The Settlers 3. Close, Closed, Closure and It Is No Dream 6. Hand on the Pulse with "Maideles with Attitude: Lesbian Short Films" (shorts program) 8:45.

Opening

Bugs! This 3-D IMAX "live action nature drama" follows the goings-on of a mantid and a butterfly. (:40) Metreon IMAX.

Come Feel Me Tremble See Movie Clock. (1:30) Delancey Street Screening Room.

*Dirty Pretty Things See "Prick up Your Frears," page 41. (1:49) Embarcadero.

The Housekeeper A lonely sound engineer (Jean-Pierre Bacri) spies a posted ad for a house cleaner. He expects a dowdy older woman; what he gets instead is a 20-year-old girl (Emilie Dequenne) who's equal parts flirty disposition and emotional instability. She quickly moves from tidying up the apartment to dominating his life, quietly leaving psychic wreckage in her wake. May-December romances are de rigueur for French cinema, yet this odd little tale from filmmaker Claude Berri (Jean de Florette) is less about mid-life crises than a fear of male menopausal mindfucks. You're never sure whether we're meant to laugh at the hero's fall into folly or become complicit in the seduction, as the camera lingers over Dequenne's exposed flesh as if it were perusing a platter of ripened fruit. What's even more uncertain is whether the filmmaker meant to construct a gentle comedy of manners or a psychological pas de deux, a tension that alternately stimulates interest and frustrates interpretation even after the credits have rolled. (1:30) Empire, Oaks. (Fear)

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life The video game heroine (Angelina Jolie) returns to save the world again. (2:00) Jack London, Shattuck.

The Sea Is Watching A period soap opera of the Samurai variety, this tale of an Edo-era (Tokyo region, 1603-1867) prostitute seeking redemption feels touched by Aaron Spelling. O-Shin is a young and naïve – about ways of the heart, mind you – prostitute living in the red-light district of Okabasho. She falls for a disgraced samurai who convinces the working girl that her body will regenerate to a virginal state if she doesn't take clients for a while. O-Shin and her fellow prostitutes hope this will lead to marriage, but after rigorous abstinence, she finds out that the upper-caste samurai was just making a lame-ass suggestion. Not to worry, O-Shin has another chance with a different man and a very epic-size storm to help out with the purifying. Give me a break. Director Kei Kumai translates the late Akira Kurosawa's (The Seven Samurai) final screenplay into shrill and oddly dated melodrama. The film suffers from cartoonish performances and what I imagine was a fear of subjecting Kurosawa's last work to beneficial rewrites. (1:59) Opera Plaza. (Koh)

Seabiscuit Tobey Maguire, Chris Cooper, and Jeff Bridges star in this tale of the real-life racehorse who became an unlikely hero during the Great Drepression. (2:21) Century 20, Grand Lake, Jack London, Oaks, Orinda.

Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over Pint-size spy Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara) has been called in from the cold to rescue his sister (Alexa Varga), who's trapped in an online video game run by a megalomaniacal game programmer (Sylvester Stallone). The only way to get her out is to get Juni in the game himself and past the numerous 3-D (literally!) obstacles that stand in his way. The third time is not usually a charm when it comes to movie trilogies, but Robert Rodriguez's tales of junior league espionage have always had charm to spare; even this weakest entry in the series has just enough infectious, imaginative magnetism to put most average kids flicks to shame. Pulling the 3-D rabbit out of the hat usually signals a last-gasp gimmick, but the overall campfire-story giddiness here feels more like a filmmaker delighting in sharing ancient cinematic tricks with a new generation of popcorn munchers. (1:25) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Orinda. (Fear)

*The Weather Underground See "Follow the Leaders," page 36. (1:32) Castro, Shattuck.

Ongoing

Bad Boys II Recipe for Tasteless Blockbuster Casserole: Defrost and reheat congealed main ingredients of Bad Boys, that 1995 action-comedy about two trash-talkin' maverick Miami cops (Will Smith, Martin Lawrence) who refuse to "play by the rules" and have a knack for breaking into allegedly charming shtick, etc. Add creative brain trust of über-producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director-cinematic Antichrist Michael Bay to insure maximum lowest-common-denominator pandering and plague-of-frogs subtlety. Stir in enough story material for six films; be sure to include romantic interest (Gabrielle Union) in peril, lethal batches of ecstasy, stereotypical villains and over-the-top crime lord (Jordi Mollà, who should be paying Gary Oldman royalties). Spice liberally with gratuitously brutal violence and crass homophobic, racial gags to mask lack of flavor, wit, edge, or basic entertainment value. Cook for an inexplicable two and a half hours. Let simmer; serves millions (excluding critics and those who possess frontal lobes or love movies). Laugh all the way to bank, then scrape burnt mess off bottom of pan into garbage bin.(2:25) California, Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London. (Fear)

How to Deal If she keeps at it, Mandy Moore's on track to make everyone forget she was ever a blond pop tart with a hit single called "Candy." Claire Kilner's How to Deal suffers a bit from awkward pacing and an abundance of subplots, but it's exponentially better than your typical millennial teen flick (including Moore's previous effort, A Walk to Remember). High schooler Halley (Moore) faces an avalanche of crises – her parents just got divorced, her best friend is knocked up, her sister's getting hitched to an uptight guy, a schoolmate dies suddenly – and is able to cope with everything pretty well, until she unexpectedly, and unwillingly, falls for the floppy-haired guy (Trent Ford) who's earnestly pursuing her. A stellar supporting cast (including Allison Janney and Peter Gallagher as Halley's parents) adds depth, and the likable Moore easily holds her own as the film's emotional center. (1:41) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Shattuck.

I Capture the Castle For once a charming film about teenage love that does not explode with campy cheese (pay attention, Amanda Bynes, Hilary Duff, Mary Kate and Ashley, etc.: your fish-out-of-water-girl-got-chutzpah debacles have sadly formed a genre). I Capture the Castle, directed by Tim Fywell and based upon Dodie Smith's classic coming-of-age novel, takes place in 1930s England, where 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain (Romola Garai) lives with a vain older sister, a failed writer father, an eccentric stepmother, and a Harry Potter-ish younger brother in a dank and crumbling castle. The landlords are two young American brothers (Henry Thomas and Marc Blucas) who show up and provide young Cassandra with several refreshing lessons in love's ambiguities and disappointments. Garai does a fine job of playing the astute yet innocent Cassandra, and the character's musings on relationships resonate like distilled versions of grown-up frustrations. Some of Cassandra's wry observations are inevitably lost during the novel's translation to the screen, but aside from a few missteps – including a horribly miscast Blucas (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) – the film stays true to the author's overall tone. (1:53) Opera Plaza, Shattuck. (Koh)

Johnny English You loved him in Black Adder and as Mr. Bean, but when Rowan Atkinson broke out onto the silver screen, audiences found themselves torn between loyalty and discrepancy. Coming into Johnny English, I carried doubts, and although the role of a bumbling secret agent seems promising, it does not match Atkinson's comedic ability. Still, one cannot help but chuckle at the predictable pickles English struggles out of. Peppering the story line is a French supervillain who plots to steal the crown – overplayed by none other than John Malkovich. As well as one-hit wonder Natalie Imbruglia as Johnny's inevitable love interest. I'm still confused as to what Malkovich is doing here, but hey, we all gotta make a buck. More subtle than Mike Myers's hit Austin Powers trilogy, Johnny English takes a common play on the iconic Bond series and blends it with British buffoonery, more aligned with American humor, only a veteran such as Atkinson can own. The film grossed more than $100 million before its U.S. release, and although this amount eclipses the moderately positive critique I can offer, audiences could be wasting their money on a worse film. (1:24) Century Plaza, Century 20, Grand Lake, Orinda, Shattuck. (Pham)

Km.0 It's a hot, stick-to-vinyl day in Madrid, and the natives get randy in ways that include online dating, incest, prostitution, and the interference of a guardian angel. The cause of all of the sex-farce trouble is Kilometer Zero, the beginning point for area road measurements and the meeting place for 14 characters who, of course, bumble their connections in ways gay, straight, illegal, and legit. Cowriters and directors Juan Luis Iborra and Yolanda Garcia Serrano keep things light and breezy as a flapping skirt – this is situation comedy in which embarrassing misunderstandings form the heavy stuff. Unfortunately, who is having sex and who is enjoying it seems divided down gender lines, but really, that kind of analysis is better reserved for a less-effervescent flick. The characters are quirky in a one-dimensional ensemble manner, and most of the film is amusing, save an annoying Pretty Woman-style subplot. (1:45) Embarcadero, Shattuck. (Koh)

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's graphic novel was a wet dream for bibliophiles: gather together literary heroes from Stevenson, Stoker, Verne, and H.G. Wells, then pit them against famous Victorian-era villains. This big-screen adaptation lamentably strips the comic's intellectual properties down to its bare-bones high concept and bulldozes over viewers with bells and whistles turned up to paint-peeling volume. It'd be hard to completely catalog how director Stephen Norrington (Blade) managed to ruin such surefire material, though any partial list would have to include the gratuitous addition of characters (including everyone's favorite American secret service agent of letters ... Tom Sawyer?!?), action sequences favoring chaos over coherence, and squandering the inspired casting of Sean Connery as an autumnal Allan Quartermain. Worse, LXG commits the most venal of summer movies sins in that it lacks any sense of fun; its most "extraordinary" quality may be that it somehow succeeds in alienating bookworms, comic geeks, and Cineplex groupies in one fell swoop. (1:52) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London. (Fear)

*Madame Satã Brazilian director Karïm Ainouz's debut feature, Madame Satã – a portrait of street legend João Francisco dos Santos – is a prickly, evasive creature; it's just as explosive as Fernando Meirelles's City of God, albeit on a smaller scale. Hustler, murderer, and queen are just three of the labels alternately modeled and discarded by dos Santos, known simply as João (Lázaro Ramos) in the film. dos Santos was swapped for a mare by his mother when he was seven, and thus began an outlaw's journey – a 76-year odyssey punctuated by 27 years of prison time – that would ultimately be celebrated during the '70s in the pages of countercultural journals such as Pasquim. Though Ainouz is convinced of dos Santos's importance, he isn't concerned with making him likable, and in denying the built-in restrictions of various storytelling forms, the director winds up providing a brief glimpse of a long, full life. Madame Satã is a unique series of snapshots in motion, but it could have been so much more. (1:45) Opera Plaza. (Huston)

Northfork In the latest from Sacramento's Polish brothers, Mark and Michael (Twin Falls Idaho, Jackpot), the Montana town of Northfork is just 48 rapidly passing hours away from being flooded out of existence by a dam project. State agents (including Peter Coyote and James Woods) are dispatched to evacuate the last stubborn-holdout residents before modern technology drowns them. Meanwhile, sickly little boy Irwin (Duel Farnes) is redeposited by adoptive parents at the doorstep of Father Harlan (Nick Nolte), who views him as an "angel." Co-scenarists Michael (who also directs) and Mark (who costars) Polish's overcalculatedly mythological cinema would greatly benefit from a stronger storytelling sense, not to mention characters defined by human depth rather than conceptual fancy-dancing. Yet Northfork is a fanciful reverie made by born filmmakers, and the Polish brothers truly are doing something really, really different. Which counts for a lot. (1:34) Act I and II, Embarcadero. (Harvey)

Postmen in the Mountains Before he retires, a father (Teng Rujun) teaches his mail route to his son (Ye Liu). The 112-mile trek is mountainous to say the least – the perilous pilgrimage puts the United States Postal Service to shame. As the son embarks on his first journey through the Chinese countryside, he discovers his connection to the village communities he serves – and reaffirms the unbreakable bond that links father to son – in a film loaded with metaphor (for better and for worse). Postmen in the Mountains is not a perfect film; the subtitles (translated from Mandarin to English) seem to fall short of conveying the intended dialogue, and at times the script (adapted from the book by Peng Jianming) tells rather than shows. Postmen is at its best when simply showing, as when director Huo Jianqi frames a gorgeous ensemble of shots filmed in the rolling green utopia of south Hunan. (1:33) Four Star. (Pham)

*Swimming Pool Charlotte Rampling plays Sarah Morton, an author in the Patricia Highsmith mold – with an emphasis on mold – who ventures to a vine-laced villa in the south of France to begin work on the latest addition to her musty mystery series. Ludivine Sagnier plays Julie, the slutty daughter of Sarah's publisher, and an unwelcome surprise guest at Sarah's writer's retreat. The two don't waste any time invading each other's privacy. Whether that privacy is typed on a laptop or penned in girlie cursive, it's a key to asserting power over the other. Swimming Pool's "secrets" tease audiences; ultimately, the film is a poison-lensed love letter to director François Ozon's producer. It's time for this mildly naughty boy to make a wildly rude film that pleases no one but himself. (1:54) Albany, Clay, Piedmont. (Huston)