[Reel Pizza] schedule

Autumn Greeting!
So much for getting you this listing last Wednesday...Sorry. 
Here now is the Reel Pizza schedule that runs from Friday Sept 26 through Thursday October 16th.  There are many fine films coming  that you may not have heard of, but should give a chance. 
I don't know what is coming Friday, yet, but will send out a brief email later today when we are booked.
Hope to see you soon.
-Lisa & Chris

Friday Sept 26 - Monday Sept 29
TRANSSIBERIAN (R) 111min
Emily Mortimer (Lars and the Real Girl) and Woody Harrelson star as a missionary couple returning from a few weeks in Beijing and travelling by train to Moscow on their way home.  An attractive backpacking couple is sharing their train compartment, but slowly Jessie comes to believe they are not all they seem.  Then her husband, who misses re-embarking at a stop, shows up at the next station having befriended a Russian narcotics detective (Ben Kingsley).  And the web has been spun in this clever, suspenseful and atmospheric thriller from co-writer and director Brad Anderson (Next Stop Wonderland, The Machinist).  He superbly builds the tension while developing the characters fully.
 
Tues Sept 30 - Thurs Oct 2
ELSA AND FRED  (PG) 108min [in Spanish with subtitles]
This sweet, magical romantic comedy is about the irresistible power of love as two people discover it is never too late to dream.  Elsa's (China Zorilla) dream for the last sixty years is the Fontana di Trevi scene in Fellini's La Dolce Vita, but she has had no true love to take the Marcello Mastroiani role.  Then she meets Alfredo (Manuel Alexandre), recently widowed and pushed around by his daughter and son-in-law.  He is meticulous, lonely and confused, but everything changes when he meets the whirlwind Elsa, who insists he should enjoy every minute left of his future.  Their awkward romance reveals universal truths about life and love. 
 
Friday Oct 3 - Monday Oct 6
TRAITOR (PG-13) 114min
This intelligent and effective thriller stars Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Crash) who gives a remarkable performance as an ambiguous character.  He is Samir, Sudanese-born to an American mother, who devoutedly embraced his Muslim roots while serving as a US Army advisor in Afghanistan and now sells plastic explosives to terrorists free-lance.  He is also linked to terrorist attacks in Yemen, Nice and London, and is being pursued by the FBI, led by a quiet southerner (Guy Pierce) and his hot-headed partner (Neal Mc Donough).  Saïd Taghmaoui (The Kite Runner) is also excellent as a Swiss-educated cell leader who recruits Samir to his deadly group.  In his directing debut, screenwriter Jeffrey Nachmanoff (Day After Tomorrow), with co-writer Steve Martin, has made a gripping and thoughtful film.

Tuesday Oct 7 - Thurs Oct 9
TUYA'S MARRIAGE (NR) 96min [in Mandarin with subtitles]
Winner of the 2007 Berlin Film Festival, this comic and heartbreaking film from young Chinese director Quanon Wang recalls the early movies of Zhang Yimou (The Story of Qui Ju, Red Sorghum).  Set in the picturesque but harsh steppes of Inner Mongolia, the story, co-written by the director and Lu Wei (Farewell My Concubine) captures a disappearing traditional way of life in a caring community threatened by government pressure.  Beautiful, charismatic actress Yu Nan (Speed Racer) stars as a hardworking woman who has supported her family for several years since her husband became disabled.  When she gets hurt, they must divorce so she can marry someone to take care of the children, but she demands that her new husband will have to take in her beloved ex also.
 
Friday Oct 10 - Monday Oct 13
MAN ON WIRE (PG-13) 94min
At 7:15 AM on August 7, 1974, a young French street performer named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire, illegally rigged between the tops of the New York's brand new twin towers 1350 feet above Manhattan.  After nearly an hour dancing on the wire, he was arrested, taken in for psychological evaluation, and charged with disturbing the peace, before finally being released.  Using rare footage and flawless reenactments, James Marsh's extraordinary documentary, constructed like a thriller as it details the preparations, brings Petit's daring adventure to life through the testimony of Philippe himself, as well as with some of the co-conspirators who helped him over seven years to create this unique and magnificent spectacle. 

Tuesday Oct 14 - Thurs Oct 16
TELL NO ONE (NR) 125min [in French with subtitles]
Eight years after his childhood sweetheart wife (Marie-Josée Croze, Diving Bell and Butterfly) was murdered, new evidence surfaces incriminating a still devastated but kindly pediatrician (François Cluzet).  Simultaneously he also received an anonymous email, with video showing his beloved wife apparently still alive, containing the ominous message "tell no one".  Kirsten Scott Thomas plays his best friend and confident, who is also his sister's lover.  Based on the mystery thriller by Harlan Coben, this intricate and absorbing puzzle, the second film of French actor and director Guillaume Canet, was nominated for nine French Oscars, winning four. 
 
COMING ON OUR SECOND SCREEN?

VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA  (PG-13)  97min
In this exhilarating, captivating comedy spiced with tragedy, filmmaker Woody Allen takes us on summer vacation to Barcelona Spain with two best friends.  Straight-laced Vicky (Rebecca Hall) is engaged to be married at the end of summer, while recklessly free-spirited Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) is sexually adventurous.  At a restaurant, they meet celebrated carefree artist Juan Antonia (Javier Bardem) who invites both girls to join him in Oviedo for a weekend get-away.  Soon they meet his unstable and insanely jealous ex-wife (Penélope Cruz).  The provocative and fluid sexual entanglements and yearnings of these characters change their lives forever.

BURN AFTER READING (R) 96min
Rebellious filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen about-face from their Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men into sheer silliness with a wildly comic thriller/sex-farce.  Full of wacky characters and terrific one-liners, and starring Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, and Richard Jenkins, the story follows two fitness center employees who find a file of the memoirs of a just fired CIA analyst, and try to turn it into cash to pay for some cosmetic surgery, attempting first to blackmail the analyst, with a backup plan of selling it to the Russians.  It is darkly funny and total nonsense. 
 
GHOST TOWN (PG-13) 103min
Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais), a fussy, curmudgeonly dentist, has a near death experience during a routine hospital visit.  After he is miraculously revived, he discovers, with much annoyance, that he can see ghosts, especially since these pesky spirits all want something from him.  Recently deceased Frank (Greg Kinnear) promises that he can get all the other ghosts off his back, if he will only just break up the impending marriage of his widow (Téa Leoni).  This endearing, quirky new movie from screenwriter (of Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones 4) and director (of Secret Window) David Koepp is charming, smart and winning.
 
FROZEN RIVER (R) 97min
Involving and gripping, this Sundance winner follows two ordinary women, both single-moms driven by severe economic hardship and a desperate love of their young children, who form an unlikely partnership to make ends meet.  These women, one white, one Native American, uneasily join forces to smuggle illegal immigrants across the frozen St. Lawrence River from Canada into the Mohawk Reservation in upstate New York.  Melissa Leo (21 Grams) and Misty Upham both give powerful performances in the debut feature film by Courtney Hunt.  This dramatic, entertaining film is a complex portrait of family bonds and struggling women facing ethical choices in an authentically unforgiving world.
 
ELEGY (R) 108min
Celebrated NPR culture critic and part-time college professor David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley) abandoned any desire for commitment years ago when he left his wife and young son for the sexual freedom of a string of casual encounters with former students.  This year he has his eye on a beautiful Latina grad student (Penélope Cruz), a tryst which to his surprise, turns into a passionate, long-term relationship.  But, overwhelmed with her beauty and his much greater age, he becomes a jealous lover, and remains distant, believing they have no future together.  The fine supporting cast includes Patricia Clarkson as a long-time occasional lover, Dennis Hopper as his Pulitzer-prize winning best friend and Peter Sarsgaard as his now grown son.  Spanish director Isabel Croixet has made an intelligent, affecting and unforgettable adaptation of Philip Roth's short novel The Dying Animal.

COMING NEXT SCHEDULE?
Towelhead
The Pool
Nights in Rodanthe
The Duchess
Appaloosa
City of Embers
Rachel Getting Married