[Reel Pizza] schedule

Good beautiful day to all,

Here is Reel Pizza's next schedule which runs April 11th through May 1st!  I found some crocus coming up in my yard yesterday afternoon, so maybe this long winter will soon be over.

Don't forget that next Saturday, April 12th, is the 3rd Annual Women's Health Center Film Benefit,  Sing-Along Sound of Music.  You know you know all the words (if you don't, they will be on the screen), and there will be prizes for the best costumes (is anyone daring enough to come as Rolf???), plus a silent auction in the adjacent auditorium.   Doors open at 11am and the film starts at noon.  All proceeds will be used by the Women's Health Center to improve the health of women in the MDI Region. 

see you soon,
-Lisa and Chris
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Fri Apr 11 - Mon Apr 14
IN BRUGES  (R)  107min 
Belgium's best preserved medieval city is the destination for two hitmen, paternal Ken (Brendan Gleeson, The General) and impulsive Ray (Colin Farrell, Phone Booth) sent to cool off for a few weeks after their last job went somewhat awry.  As they wait for a call from their boss (Ralph Feinnes) Ken enjoys his time being a tourist, but Ray is going stir crazy.   The longer they stay, though, the more surreal their experiences become, as they have weird encounters with beautiful drug dealers, Dutch prostitutes, and a dwarf film director.  Tony-nominated playwright Martin McDonagh (2006 Oscar winner for best live action short) makes his feature debut as writer and director.  With sharp, entertaining dialogue, he has made an impressive, surprising, darkly funny and at times, touching, gangster film.
 
Tues Apr 15 - Thurs Apr 17
CARAMEL  (PG)  96min  [in Arabic and French with subtitles]
A Beirut, Lebanon beauty salon is a colorful, sensual microcosm of the city, where five women, a cross-section of generations, religions, and attitudes, come together talking and confiding in one another.  This charming ensemble comedy-drama is the feature film debut of music video director Nadine Labaki who weaves together the stories of the romantic lives of this group.  She also stars as the salon's Christian owner, stuck in an unhappy affair with a married man.  Her closest employee, a Muslim about to be married, is worried about the reaction of her fundamentalist fiancé when he discovers she is not still a virgin.  The seamstress next door is attracted to a nice man, but she is torn between her own happiness and her responsibility taking care of her ailing, older sister.
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Fri Apr 18 - Thurs Apr 24
BE KIND REWIND  (PG-13)  101min  (this is the week-long movie)
Mos Def is a clerk in a small failing corner video-rental store in a run-down part of Passaic NJ.  One day his buddy (Jack Black), who is on a rampage against the local power plant, gets inadvertently magnetized and when he comes into the store, he erases all the rental cassettes.  But when their one loyal customer, a ditzy, elderly lady (Mia Farrow) comes in wanting to rent Ghostbusters, these two friends decide to recreate a 20 minute, home-made version on the blank tape.  As they continue through the collection- Rush Hour, Men in Black, Driving Miss Daisy, 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Lion King, Back to the Future, their "sweded" versions (because they say they have to be imported from Sweden) become the hottest rentals around.  Michael Gondry (Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) has made a sweetly wacky, laid-back film that celebrates the creative process, the support of social change through art, and building community to fight homogenized gentrification.

Fri Apr 18 - Mon Apr 21
CJ7  (PG)  86min  [in Cantonese with subtitles]
One of our family's favorite directors is Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer, Kung-Fu Hustle).  His latest film, full of his trademark visual, slapstick humor, is a goofy, offbeat and imaginative homage to E.T.  Chow stars as a poor widower who works long hours on a construction crew so that he can send his son (played with excellence by new actress Xu Jiao) to elite private school.  But without the current, cool toys, the boy is ostracized.  Then one day at the junkyard, dad finds a mysterious fluorescent green orb, that morphs into an alien pet with extraordinary powers.  Hoping to impress his classmates, he brings it to school, but chaos ensues.  This is a unique, memorable and entertaining fantasy-comedy for the whole family.  A good bit of the film is visual gags which require no reading for full understanding.
 
Tues Apr 22 - Thur Apr 24    for EARTH DAY!
SHARKWATER (PG)  89min
Driven by a life-long passion for sharks, filmmaker Rob Stewart debunks historical stereotypes of sharks as blood-thirsty monsters, revealing the reality that these ancient creatures are pillars of the ocean habitat.  He also exposes the most dire threat to these fascinating creatures, the insatiable Asian appetite for shark fin soup.  The global trade in shark parts, and the illegal industry supported by organized crime has caused a 90% decline in the shark population worldwide, threatening these resilient animals with extinction and consequently unbalancing the ocean's ecosystem with far-reaching consequences.   Joining rogue conservationist Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society who is tracking poachers in Costa Rica, the filmmaker hopes that his passionate and awe-inspiring film with its gorgeous underwater footage will inspire people to advocate protection for this vital piece of our world's ocean habitat.
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Fri Apr 25 - Mon Apr 28
THE BAND'S VISIT  (PG-13)  89min  [partly in Arabic and Hebrew with subtitles]
The members of the Alexandria (Egypt) Ceremonial Police Orchestra, striking in their powder blue uniforms, are scheduled to play in Israel at the opening of an Arab cultural center.  Stranded at the airport without a ride, they decide to take public transportation, but communication difficulties cause them to take the wrong bus and they are deposited in a remote desert town where they end up spending the night at the invitation of the local café owner.  First-time Israeli filmmaker Eran Kolirin's refreshing and winning gem of a film is full of unforced warmth and observant humor, as the locals and the visitors make acquaintance.  This wonderful film was disqualified from the race for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for being too much in English, the default language used by the Arabs and Israelis to communicate with each other. 
 
Tues Apr 29 - Thurs May 1
4 MONTHS 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS (NR)  113min  [in Romanian with subtitles]
Winner of last year's Palme d'Or at Cannes, and widely, critically acclaimed, this second feature from Romanian New Wave director Christian Mungiu is a riveting masterpiece of social realism.  This artful and powerful drama features long single-take scenes filmed by cinematographer Oleg Mutu (The Death of Mr. Lasarescu) as it follows a gripping twenty-four hours in the life of two college students in late 1980's Bucharest near the end of the tyrannical reign of Nicholai Ceau escu.  The immature and irresponsible Gabita is pregnant and is relying on her roommate, pragmatic and resourceful Otilia to obtain for her a highly illegal, black-market abortion.  This harrowing story is inspired by real-life events.
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COMING ON THE SECOND SCREEN?
MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY (PG-13) 92min
Miss Guinevere Pettigrew (Frances Mc Dormand, Fargo), a proper middle-aged governess unemployed again and laid off from her employment agency, boldly intercepts a job assignment outside of her qualifications.  She finds herself hired as a social secretary for American singer Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams, Junebug, Enchanted) whose pre-WW2 life is a glamorous social whirl complete with three competing beaus and high hopes for a leading lady role in a new production.  While she sorts out her new employer's complicated life with her old-fashioned common sense, Miss Pettigrew blossoms and is noticed by a gallant clothes designer.  This charming and fun romantic fantasy is an adaptation of Winifred Watson's 1938 novel by David Magee (Finding Neverland) and Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty) directed by Bharat Nalluri. 

HORTON HEARS A WHO  (G)  88min
Inventive and rewarding, this animated adaptation perfectly captures the timeless eccentricities that epitomize the genius of Theodor Geisel's Dr. Seuss.  With the Blue Sky Studio team behind the ICE AGE films, directors Jimmy Hayword (veteran of Pixar) and Steve Martino (art director of ROBOTS) have made a gorgeous, playful and faithful film without annoying product placement.  Three generations of comic actors join forces to make this brilliantly simple story come alive.  Jim Carrey is Horton the faithful elephant, Steve Carell is the mayor of Who-ville, the town on the dustspeck, Carol Burnett is the feisty kangaroo whose suspicious disregard of the unknown has her committed to the failure of Horton's mission of mercy.  Seth Rogan, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler and Isla Fisher voice supporting characters. 
 
NIM'S ISLAND  (PG)  94
Based on the award-winning book by Wendy Orr, this funny, high-energy adventure film with a heart-felt twist stars Jodie Foster, Gerald Butler and Abigail Breslin.  Nim is a young girl who lives with her father on a remote, magical island.  Her favorite literary character, Alex Rover, has a similar life, but comes from the imagination of a reclusive, agoraphobic author who lives isolated in a city apartment.  When Nim's dad goes missing and her island is threatened, the girl reaches out to her hero through the author, who struggles to find the courage to help her number one fan. 
 
LEATHERHEADS (PG-13)  114min
George Clooney and Renee Zellweger star in Clooney's third film as director (Good Night and Good Luck), a fun, screwball romantic comedy set in 1925 at the very beginnings of the professional football league.  He is a charming, brash football hero who is determined to guide his team from bar brawls to packed stadiums.  But when the team loses its sponsor, he convinces a collegiate star, and a war hero to boot, to join his ragtag team and help the struggling sport finally capture the country's attention.  A spitfire newswoman suspects there are holes in the young man's war story and begins to snoop.  But while she digs, the two teammates start to become serious off-field rivals for her fickle affections.

COMING ON THE NEXT SCHEDULE?
Taxi to the Dark Side
The Counterfeiters
Under the Same Moon
Shine a Light
Smart People
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
 and more...
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