[Reel Pizza] SCHEDULE Mar 5 - 25

Hi everyone

There are reports of crocuses flowering around town...in FEBRUARY....Happy Spring! 

Here is the upcoming schedule for Reel Pizza from March 5 - 25.  First I'll start out with a flurry of special events benefiting some great local causes, to which we hope you will consider lending support in the upcoming weeks.  Following that is the confirmed film schedule, and finally the coming soon titles.  Please remember for OSCAR SUNDAY (Mar 7), we will only screen afternoon MATINEES of both our regularly scheduled films.  Stay tuned for times and the other title.  Lots going on here this month; hope to see you soon!

-Lisa

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SPECIAL EVENTS

Sat March 6    ACADIA FIRE SOCCER CLUB BENEFIT for their scholarship program
VICTORY (PG)  116min  2:00pm
Michael Caine, Max von Sydow, Sylvester Stallone and soccer stars Pele and Bobby Moore star in director John Huston's rousing 1981 film about a soccer match between Allied prisoners of war and their German captors.  The Germans plan to use the match as a staged propaganda event, while the prisoners hope to escape during half time.  Suggested Donation $5.

Sun March 7   OSCAR NIGHT 2010 GALA CELEBRATION to benefit THE BAR HARBOR FOOD PANTRY 6:30pm until...?
The Academy Awards Ceremony hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin live from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood projected on both our screens!  Featuring local host Frank Bachman, delectable hors d'oeuvres and sweets from neighborhood chefs, and a complimentary glass of champagne.  Come in costume (formal or character-driven) for a chance to win great prizes;  We have screened many of the nominated films for you;  cast your ballot for the big winners~the most correct ballot wins a Grand Prize!  Sure to be a fun and fabulous time.  $15 tickets available at Reel Pizza.  See you here!

Sat March 20    BENEFIT for Emily Bracale
UNDER OUR SKIN  (NR)  104min  1:30pm
This dramatic exposé and gripping tale addresses one of the most serious epidemics of our times.  This eye-opening film investigates the untold story of Lyme disease, an emerging epidemic larger than AIDS.  Each year thousands go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, told that their symptoms are "all in their head." This award-winning documentary is unrated, but serious in content.  It is being shared to raise community awareness about Lyme disease and as a benefit for single Bar Harbor mom Emily Bracale who has been ill for several years.  Suggested donation is $10 per person.

Sat March 27  Women's Health Center FROCK SWAP and SING-A-LONG
Stay tuned for more details!
 
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Fri March 5 - Mon March 8
A SINGLE MAN  (R)  99min
Colin Firth (Mamma Mia!, Easy Virtue) gives an impressive performance as a closeted gay, British ex-pat, literature professor in 1962 Los Angeles.  He has decided that today will be his last; he can no longer contain the grief over the death in a car crash of his long-time lover (Matthew Goode) many months earlier.  His unremarkable day follows its usual pattern, teach class, run some errands, talk to a neighbor, visit an old friend (Julianna Moore), meet up with a promising student (Nicholas Hoult).  At the day's end, he intends to kill himself.  Based on the landmark Charles Isherwood novel, this first film from fashion designer Tom Ford is thoughtfully restrained, stunningly beautiful and powerful.  *ONE OSCAR NOM: Best Lead Actor.
 
Tues March 9 - Thurs Mar 11
THE MAID (NR)  94min  [in Spanish with subtitles]
This comic, humanist drama from young Chilean director Sebastian Silva won two jury prizes at Sundance, for world drama and for the performance of star Catalina Saavedra.  She plays Raquel, a housekeeper who has worked for the Valdez family for the past 23 years, and they consider her a part of their family, even though the relationships are complex.  She is also increasingly plagued by migraines, so Mrs. Valdez hires another domestic to help ease her load over her maid's strenuous objections.  Psychological warfare ensues as she struggles to maintain a hold on the only job she's ever done, and the only family she has. 
 
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Fri March 12 - Mon March 15
THE LOVELY BONES (PG-13)  135min
Based on Alice Sebold's critically acclaimed and best-selling novel, filmmaker Peter Jackson (LOTR) has made a fantastically beautiful, intelligently complex and memorably suspenseful film.  Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) stars as a teenaged girl in 1973 suburban Philadelphia, murdered by her unsuspected neighbor (Stanley Tucci), who remains in purgatory to watch over her family and try to help them heal their grief from the afterlife, even as her disappearance goes unsolved and her spirit guides advise her to let go.  *ONE OSCAR NOM: Best Supporting Actor.
 
Tues March 16 - Thurs Mar 18
THE MESSENGER  (R)  105min
Screenwriter Oren Moverman (I'm Not There, Married Life) moves into the director's chair in his powerful and tender story about a war hero making his first tentative steps toward a normal life.  Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma) stars as a wounded young veteran whose final three months of duty find him assigned to the Army's Casualty Notification Office, his job to personally notify the next of kin of a loved one's death.  Paired with career officer Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson) who is trying to stay on the wagon, Will is challenged by his girlfriend's pending marriage to another, and by the emotion of his work, especially when he is drawn to a war widow (Samantha Morton) whose subdued reaction to the news of her husband's death surprises and fascinates him.  This film is fully textured with humor, anguish and hope.   *TWO OSCAR NOMS: Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay.
 
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Fri March 19 - Mon March 22
CREATION (PG-13)    108min
Charles Darwin (Paul Bettany), world-renowned scientist and dedicated family man, is struggling to accept the death of his young daughter (Martha West) from scarlet fever.  Caught in a battle between faith and reason, he is torn between his love for his deeply religious wife (Jennifer Connelly) and his own growing belief in a world where God has no place.  Based on the biography Annie's Box by Darwin's great-great grandson from compiled letters and diaries, this intelligent, thoughtful and absorbing period drama from director Jon Amiel explores the conflict Darwin finds in his marriage as he continues his writing on The Origin of Species as therapy for his devastation after Annie dies; his challenge continues as he must decide whether or not to publish his surely controversial work. 

Tues March 23 - Thurs Mar 25
NORTH FACE  (NR)  126min  [in German with subtitles]
Inspired by a true story, this is a slow-burning, fully gripping adventure drama about a Nazi-sponsored competition to climb the then unconquered and infamously dangerous northern face of Switzerland's Eiger Mountain.  Heart-stopping action sequences are interspersed with scenes full of period details.  Two childhood friends Tony and Audi are apathetically serving in the German Army when they are offered this challenging opportunity.  They arrive at the base only to discover an Austrian team prepared to race them to the top.  Berlin's biggest newspaper publisher (Ulrich Tuker, Seraphine) and his editor Luise (Johanna Wokalek), an old friend of the climbers, arrive to chronicle the event, illuminating the dichotomy between the conditions the climbers face versus that of the media in the luxury motel.  Then the promising summer weather turns ugly. 
 
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COMING SOON ON OUR SECOND SCREEN:

SHUTTER ISLAND  (R)  138min
Martin Scorsese (The Departed) returns with his fourth collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio, a mesmerizing thriller based on Dennis Lehane's (Mystic River) novel.  The story follows two US Marshalls (DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) ho are summoned to a mental hospital for the criminally insane located on a forbidding and remote island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a woman murderer (Emily Mortimer) from her fortress-like cell.  Also part of the excellent cast, Ben Kingsley plays the medical director, with Max von Sydow and Patricia Clarkson playing members of his staff.  Be on the lookout for footage of Acadia's Otter Cliffs, filmed here two years ago.
 
VALENTINE'S DAY  (PG-13)  125min
This pleasing and light romantic comedy follows the intertwining storylines of a diverse group of Los Angelinos as they navigate their way through love and heartbreak over the course of one Valentine's Day.  Couples and singles experience the pinnacles and pitfalls of finding, keeping or ending relationships in a day in the life of love.  Directed by director Garry Marshall (Princess Diaries) the appealing all-star cast runs the gamut from veteran Shirley MacLaine to singer-songwriter Taylor Swift in her film debut, including also her real life boyfriend Taylor Lautner, both Jessicas Alba and Biel, Kathy Bates, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Julia Roberts and her niece Emma, Queen Latifa, Ashton Kutcher, Bradley Cooper, George Lopez, Patrick Dempsey and Anne Hathaway. 
 
THE LAST STATION  (R)  112min
Rich, funny and emotional, this historical drama follows two romances a century ago.  First is the nearly 50 year union between iconic Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer) and his devoted wife Countess Sofya (Helen Mirren).  In the name of a new religion championed by Tolstoy's trusted disciple Chertkov (Paul Giamatti) that espouses poverty, vegetarianism, communal living and celibacy, the cunning acolyte has convinced the old man to change his will giving his estate not to his family, but to the Russian people.  This has ejected some conflict into the long-standing relationship.  Tolstoy's worshipful new assistant Bulgakov (James McAvoy) is used by both sides of the property rights battle for information, even as his beliefs are overwhelmed by his feelings for another Tolstoyan (Kerry Condon).  Director Michael Hoffman has made a complex, dynamic, totally entertaining and unmissable film.  *TWO OSCAR NOMS:  Best Lead Actress,  Best Supporting Actor.
 
CRAZY HEART  (R)  111min
Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski) gives the performance of his career as the richly comic, semi-tragic, romantic anti-hero Bad Blake, a broken down, hard-living country singer-songwriter who is shamed by becoming second fiddle to his one time protégé, now a superstar (Colin Farrell).   Blake reaches for salvation through his relationship with an aspiring journalist and single mom (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who discovers the real man behind the boozed out musician, but he might not be strong enough.  First time writer-director Scott Cooper delivers a simple but authentic gem, based on the novel by Thomas Cobb and featuring terrific music mostly by T-Bone Burnett and the late Stephen Bruton.  *THREE OSCAR NOMS: Best Lead Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Music-Original Song.
 

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Coming Next Schedule:
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
AJAMI
COP OUT
THE WHITE RIBBON
FISH TANK
TOURNEES FESTIVAL OF FRENCH FILM
GREEN ZONE
Women's Health Center FROCK SWAP

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