Aloha everyone
We are back from our traveling at long last, relaxed and refreshed and ready (almost) to start showing film. We had a wonderful time away, and Hawai'i is a difficult place to leave, but we are glad to be back among all our friends here in Bar Harbor ...even if it has been rather wintery since our return. We are presently making some upgrades to our sound systems in the theatres, selling a few gift certificates, and generally sprucing things up. We look forward to greeting you all properly starting next Saturday.
The printed schedules will be in the mail on Monday, so look for them next week. What's playing??? I will delay no longer. We wish you all a brilliant Solstice, and a very Merry Christmas, and we'll see you all soon.
-Lisa, Chris, Pierce, Chloe, and all our great crew
12/26 - 12/31
FANTASTIC MR FOX (PG)
6:00 and
8:00
and
NEW MOON (PG-13)
5:30 and
8:15
1/1 - 1/7
A SERIOUS MAN (R)
6:00 and
8:15
1/1 - 1/4
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (PG)
5:30 and
8:00
1/5 - 1/7
BRIGHT STAR (PG)
5:30 and
8:00
Saturday Dec 26 - Thurs Dec 31
FANTASTIC MR. FOX (PG) 87min
6:00 and
8:00
Roald Dahl's wonderful short story of a thieving fox with a dysfunctional family who tangles with a trio of mean and ugly farmers has been made into a clever, witty and totally captivating film for all ages. Using old-fashioned stop-motion animation and his endearing script written in collaboration with Noah Baumbach, director Wes Anderson (Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tennenbaums) has found a perfect medium for his storytelling and visual gifts. Voices include George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzbaum, Michael Gambon and Willem Dafoe. It is one of the year's best films, animated or not.
and
NEW MOON (PG-13) 130min
5:30 and
8:15
In the second installment of Stephenie Meyers' popular Twilight series, directed by Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass), the vampire family moves away from Forks WA, taking away Edward Cullen (Rob Pattinson), the love of human Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) in an attempt to protect her from the dangers of their world. But she is left heartbroken and alone, until she discovers she sees visions of Edward when she takes risks that put her life in jeopardy. She is befriended by a local boy Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), an old family friend who has strong feelings for her, but he also harbors his own secrets. Then one risk too many sets off a string of events that has her running for her life, and Edward's.
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Fri Jan 1 - Thurs Jan 7
A SERIOUS MAN (R) 105min
6:00 and
8:15
Brother filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, The Big Lebowski) tackle the Old Testament Book of Job with this pseudo-autobiographical farce set in 1967 Minnesota. Larry Gopnick (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a physics professor looking for tenure, with a wife, family and comfortable life that he believes he deserves, which is all about to fall apart. He subsequently goes to several spiritual advisors for some kind of guidance as to why all this is happening and what it could mean, only to become more befuddled. Balancing light and dark in their own enigmatic way, this is a fully entertaining and provocative film.
Fri Jan 1 - Mon Jan 4
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (PG) 101min
5:30 and
8:00
Using Maurice Sendack's classic picture book as a starting point, unique filmmaker Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) has made a breath-taking, thoughtful, fantastical film about childhood. After Max (Max Records, The Brothers Bloom) argues with his mom (Catherine Keener) he retreats to a neighbor's sailboat and is off. On his adventure he meets a community of wild things (James Gandolfini, Forest Whitaker, Catherine O'Hara, Paul Dano) who also like to rumpus and decide Max should be their king. After accepting, Max realizes it is not as easy as he thought keeping everyone happy.
Tues Jan 5 - Thurs Jan 7
BRIGHT STAR (PG) 119min
5:30 and
8:00
The words of Romantic poet John Keats are heard as if for the first time in filmmaker Jane Campion's (The Piano) visually splendid, intensely emotional film based on letters he wrote to his muse Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) during their two-year, unconsummated relationship. Seen from her point of view, the story follows this proud, vapid seamstress's discovery of love with the doomed, impoverished young poet (Ben Whishaw), even as his patron and friend Charles Brown (Paul Schneider) objects to and interferes with their romance.
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Fri Jan 8 - Mon Jan 11
AMELIA (PG) 111min
Actress Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby) transforms completely into pilot, celebrity and feminist Amelia Earhart. Director Mira Nair's (The Namesake, Monsoon Wedding) sweeping and beautiful biographical film follows this pioneer's momentous final decade as she becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, propelled to instant prominence and a life of product endorsements by her promoter and eventual husband George Putnam (Richard Gere), through her clandestine affair with TWA founder Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor) and into her ill-fated, round-the-world flight with her talented but alcoholic navigator Fred Noonan (Christopher Eccleston). Her extraordinary life of adventure, fame and mystery come to light in this thrilling account of the aviation pioneer.
Tues Jan 12 - Thurs Jan 14
YES MEN FIX THE WORLD (NR) 96min
Pranksters Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum return with another series of performance-art-as-antiglobalization-activism pieces in their new film. In their first outing, the Yes Men presented themselves as representatives of the World Trade Organization and publicly made outrageous and false claims against the stated policies of the group, and nobody caught on. This time around, one of their ruses is they present themselves as spokespeople for Dow Chemical and report on live BBC television that Dow will finally clean up the largest industrial accident in history, the Bhopal pesticide catastrophe, which has never been responsibly dealt with. People worldwide cheer and Dow's stock value plummets before the mischief is discovered. Their sincere, socially progressive acts are nervy, the delayed reactions, or lack of them, are outrageously funny, and their hope for change is honorable.
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Fri Jan 15 - Mon Jan 18
PIRATE RADIO (R) 115min
Radio Caroline was broadcast in the mid-1960's from a ship moored just outside of British territorial waters, playing rock'n'roll music in defiance of a government ban. Richard Curtis' (Love Actually) new comedy and its soundtrack of great songs of the era (including Jimi Hendrix, Dusty Springfield, David Bowie, The Who, The Stones, and more) exuberantly capture the spirit of the times. The station owner (Bill Nighy) and his DJs (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Nick Frost and Rhys Ifans) party on while they battle wits against the government (Kenneth Branaugh) who are set to shut them down and restore high culture to the airwaves.
Tues Jan 18 - Thurs Jan 21
PARIS (R) 130min [in FRENCH with subtitles]
Although Paris is a sprawling metropolitan area, it is also a very intimate. Director Cédric Klapsich (When the Cat's Away, L'Auberge Espagnole) makes many connections in his delightful episodic ensemble film. Juliette Binoche is a single mom with three kids who comes to stay with her ailing brother (Romain Duris) who is on a waiting list for a heart transplant. He watches the city and its inhabitants as he contemplates his future. A famous historian (Fabrice Luchini) has become obsessed with a pretty young student (Melanie Laurent) and anonymously is sending her romantic text messages that he watches her read. Yet he is scornful of his younger brother (François Cluzet) who is about to become a father. This small, richly textured film perfectly captures the magic that is Paris.
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COMING SOON ON OUR SECOND SCREEN?
AVATAR (PG-13) 163min
James Cameron (Terminator, Titanic) returns with his long-awaited next feature, an ecological, science-fiction adventure set in 2154, with special effects from Weta (Lord of the Rings). Sam Worthington plays a paraplegic ex-Marine who is sent to infiltrate a native population of giant, blue-skinned, forest-dwelling Na'vi on a distant planet by undergoing a mind-meld with a human-Na'vi clone, which returns to him the freedom of movement. The Na'vi homeland is preventing the humans from mining a much-needed energy mineral so they need to be convinced to move. It's an imaginative, gorgeous and entertaining spectacle that will transport you to another world.
UP IN THE AIR (R) 109min
One of the most well-received movies of this year is the third film from young, Oscar-nominated director Jason Reitman (Juno, Thank You for Smoking). George Clooney, in top form, stars as a carefree, loner businessman, a career transition counselori.e. hatchet manwhose company has just hired a cost-effective new trainee (Anna Kendrick, Twilight) to learn his job so she can fire people via video-conferencing. Besides not being able to reach his nearly-attained elitist goal of ten million frequent flyer miles if he is grounded, he will see much less of another frequent traveler (Vera Farmiga) who has caught his eye. This loose adaptation of Walter Kirn's clever novel is surprising, smart, timeless and original.
SHERLOCK HOLMES (PG-13) 128min
Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) and Jude Law (Cold Mountain) take on the roles of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous sleuth and his stalwart partner Dr. Watson in this modern update from director Guy Richie (Snatch, RocknRolla). Downey's Holmes is eccentric and brainy, but also brawny, while Law's Watson is not bumbling, but witty and charming. Their nemesis is Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) who uses black magic to advance his nefarious intentions, upon which the fate of the world rests. This action-packed re-imagining is explosively fast-paced and innovative fun.
Coming Next Schedule?
INVICTUS
THE LOVELY BONES
NINE
MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS
THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG
PRECIOUS
THE ROAD
BLIND SIDE
and more....
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