KPCC film critics Claudia Puig and Wade Major join Larry to review the week’s new film releases including Water for Elephants, Meek’s Cutoff, The Bang Bang Club, Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold and more. TGI-FilmWeek!
Guests:
Claudia Puig, film critic for KPCC and USA Today
Wade Major, film critic for KPCC and boxoffice.com
Films Reviewed:
Water for Elephants After the death of his parents, a veterinary student works for a circus and falls in love with one of the performers.
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson and Christoph Waltz
Written by: Richard LaGravenese
Based on the novel by Sara Gruen
Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Rated: PG-13
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Meek’s Cutoff
Three families struggle when they become stranded while traveling the Oregon Trail in 1845.
Starring: Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan and Shirley Henderson
Written by: Jonathan Raymond
Directed by: Kelly Reichardt
Rated: PG
Oscilloscope Pictures
Incendies
(Nominated for Best Foreign Film 2011 Oscars – lost to In A Better World from Denmark)
A set of adult twins embark on a journey to the Middle East to find their real father.
Starring: Lubna Azabal, Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette and Remy Girard
Written and directed by: Denis Villeneuve
Based on the play by Wajdi Mouawad
Rated: R
Sony Pictures Classics
Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
Documentarian Morgan Spurlock’s exposé on the world of advertising, marketing and product placement.
Starring: Ralph Nader and Morgan Spurlock
Written by: Jeremy Chilnick and Morgan Spurlock
Directed by: Morgan Spurlock
Rated: PG-13
Sony Pictures Classics
Meeting Spencer
A once-famous director returns to New York and tries to rekindle his Broadway career.
Starring: Jeffrey Tambor , Melinda McGraw and Jesse Plemons
Written by: Andrew Kole, Andrew Delaplane, and Scott Kasdin
Directed by: Malcom Mowbray
Rated: R
Paladin
Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
A vigilante pretends to be a rich playboy to help avert a Japanese invasion of Shanghai in 1925.
Starring: Donnie Yen, Shu Qi, Anthony Wong and Huang Bo
Written by: Gordon Chan, Cheung Chi Sing, Lui Koon Nam and Frankie Tam
Directed by: Andrew Lau
Rated: R
Variance Films
The Bang Bang Club
Based on the true story of four young war photographers who covered the end of apartheid in South Africa.
Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Malin Akerman and Taylor Kitsch
Written and directed by: Steven Silver
Not rated
Tribeca Film
The Warring States (Zhan Guo)
Two formerly allied military strategists become bitter rivals in ancient China.
Starring: Honglei Sun, Francis Ngand Kim Hee-seon
Written by: Shen Jian
Not rated
Distributor
African Cats
A documentary that follows the lives of two families of big cats on the African savanna.
Narrated by: Samuel L. Jackson
Directed by: Keith Scholey and Alastair Fothergill
Rated: G
Disneynature
Nostalgia for the Light
(Nuart)
Astronomers study the origins of the universe alongside women searching for the remains of loved ones who disappeared during Pinochet’s regime in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
Starring: Gaspar Calas, Lautaro Núñez and Luís Henríquez
Written and directed by: Patricio Guzman
Not rated
Icarus Films
Diary of a Country Priest (1951)
(A re-release of the classic French film playing April 22-24 at LACMA)
A young and sickly priest takes over a new parish and tries to help the residents of a small town in France.
Starring: Claude Laydu, Nicole Ladmiral and Jean Riveyre
Written and directed by: Robert Bresson
Based on the novel by: Georges Bernanos
Not rated
Rialto Pictures
DVDs
The King's Speech
Starring: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham-Carter and Jennifer Ehle
Directed by: Tom Hooper
Rabbit Hole
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest and Tammy Blanchard
Directed by: John Cameron Mitchell
Somewhere
A bad-boy actor stumbling through a life of excess at the Chateau Marmont is forced to reexamine his life with an unexpected visit from his 11-year-old daughter.
Starring: Stephen Dorff, Benicio Del Toro, Elle Fanning and Michelle Monaghan
Directed by: Sofia Coppola
The Way Back
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Colin Farrell, Ed Harris and Jim Sturgess
Directed by: Peter Weir
Vision
Starring: Barbara Sukowa, Heino Ferch and Hannah Herzsprung
Directed by: Margarethe von Trotta
Gulliver's Travels
Starring: Jack Black, Emily Blunt, Jason Segel and Chris O'Dowd
Directed by: Rob Letterman