[Reel Pizza] SCHEDULE Oct 22 - Nov 8

Dear friends,

We are nearly arrived at the end of another great year.  This new schedule takes us up to that time when we close up for a few weeks of recharge and repair.  We have thoroughly enjoyed all the events we have presented over the past 12 months: benefit programming, film festivals, late night events, senior matinees, topical discussions, filmmaker presentations, an array of artist's works gracing our lobby walls, and of course, our regular lineup of Hollywood, Foreign Language, Documentary and Independent films.  Whew!   It's almost exhausting just thinking about it.  Here's a tidbit to make you all feel old right along with me.  On our closing day, Pierce and Chloe will become TEENAGERS!  Seems like only yesterday.....

Never fear, we are already planning our reopening on Sunday Dec. 26th with some more community entertainment, screening the "good stuff" that has been released while we were dark, and the limited releases we haven't been able to book yet.  And we still have a month to go, with a schedule of wonderful films to watch before you have to make use of your friends and neighbor's DVD collections, or catch up (via your favorite rental method) with films you missed this year .  And remember that if you want to get Reel Pizza gift certificates for holiday giving while we are closed, it is no problem; please call (288-3828) and leave a message or email lisa@reelpizza.net, and we will get back to you. 

Additionally, we have teamed up with the ABBE MUSEUM to sponsor their NATIVE AMERICAN FILM SERIES, which has already started (the October film has already happened, oops).  You can learn about the November offering here and the December film here. 

And we still have some special programming.  On Saturday October 23 at 2pm we will be screening a film, the new Alex Gibney documentary CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY, sponsored by the Maine Citizens For Clean Elections, a nonpartisan coalition of groups and individuals who work in the public interest to advocate for, increase public support for, defend and improve the Maine Clean Election Act and related campaign finance law.  When mega-lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to jail in early 2006, he was seen as the personification of corruption, along with Tom DeLay and Bob Ney. But as this entertaining and provocative documentary shows, Abramoff and the individuals associated with him were just the tip of the iceberg. Filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) takes the same approach to its topic that his previous documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in The Room does, looking at the roots of the main character, and how deregulation led to the outright buying of elected officials.   The most important topic that the documentary brings up is that this is neither "a few bad apples" nor a conspiracy. This happened because the American people let it happen by neglecting to take democracy seriously. Prevention of such events in the future requires the American people to stay vigilant of their government, and of corporations.

And have you seen the beautiful new ART IN THE LOBBY by Dima Karabchievsky of Northeast Harbor.  His statement: "In my work, I try to combine the  power of color as structural and emotional in order to represent the world that moves me.  I'm also Influenced by the ideas expressed in French music, as well as by the French writer A. de Saint-Exupery.   My primary influences are post-impressionists, as well as German and Austrian expressionists.  I rely more on my feelings rather than on thoughts, and consider our subconscious and intuition to be more important and rich than our brain or intellect alone. I also believe that the mysterious process of creation of art is connected with a higher (divine) power.  Rationalizing this process is always limited. The artist can't really explain why he does this or that in his art.  Ideally, the artist (and consequently the viewer) is transformed in that process just like a religious person may be transformed through prayer."

See you soon
-Lisa and Chris


Here's our film schedule:

Friday Oct 22 - Thurs Oct 28
THE TOWN  (R)  123min  6:00 and 8:30
Ben Affleck's second outing as director proves his initial success (with Gone Baby Gone) was no fluke.  In this smart, compelling heist drama based on the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan, set in Boston of course, he stars as a thug who falls for the sunny bank manager (Rebecca Hall) who was briefly taken hostage while he was robbing her vault with his buddy (Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker).  He's kicked alcohol, and, now in love, he wants to beat crime.  But he's being chased by the FBI, and getting out means turning his back on his best friend, and his heritage, as his dad (Chris Cooper) taught him his trade.   And then a local crime kingpin (Pete Postlethwaite) gives them a job they can't refuse. 

Fri Oct 22 - Mon Oct 25
EASY A  (PG-13)  92min   5:30 and 7:45
Like high school satire Election, this inventive, engaging and witty comedy features smart, sharp dialogue, and like Clueless, shares an inspirational literary relationship with a classic, this time Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter." A talented supporting cast (Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Lisa Kudrow, and Thomas Hayden Church) keeps right up with the winning performance of young star Emma Stone.  She plays Olive, a school nobody who is transformed to the school tramp after she fibs to her best friend about losing her virginity over the weekend, instead of the boring truth.  Her conversation is overheard by the class morality queen (Amanda Bynes) and the news spreads virally among her peers.  But instead of shying away, she embraces her new status, and uses it to help her peers gain social mobility.
 
Tues Oct 26 - Thurs Oct 28
LAST TRAIN HOME  (PG)  85min [in Mandarin with subtitles]   5:30 and 7:45
This remarkable and riveting film documents the world of the Chinese migrant worker by following a single couple who left home years ago to work in a jeans factory, leaving the care of their children (now teens) to their grandparents one thousand miles away in Sichuan Province.  These two work seven days a week to earn enough money to send their children to school, and only can come home during the Chinese New Year, when 130 million other migrants are making the same trek, the largest human migration on the planet.  Chinese-born, Canadian filmmaker Lixin Fan (Up the Yangtze) spent three years with the Zhang family and has made an extraordinary and universal portrait of parents who sacrifice for their children, only to see their children come up with their own ideas of the future.

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Fri Oct 29 - Mon Nov 1
WALL STREET: Money Never Sleeps  (PG-13)  136min
Director Oliver Stone (W, Nixon, JFK) returns Gordon Gekko to the screen in this sequel to his 1987 hit film.  Michael Douglas reprises his Oscar-winning role as the now disgraced corporate raider who is just emerging from a lengthy prison term.  He finds himself on the outside of a world he once dominated and is looking to repair his damaged relationship with his daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan).  Gekko forms an alliance with her fiancé Jacob (Shia LaBeouf), but its unclear if  Jacob and Winnie can really trust the ex-financial titan, whose relentless efforts to redefine himself in a different era have unexpected consequences.
 
Tues Nov 2 - Thurs Nov 4
MAO'S LAST DANCER  (PG)  127min
Oscar-nominated director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Tender Mercies) uses the inspirational story of internationally renowned Chinese dancer (now Australian stockbroker) Li Cunxin (Chi Cao of the Birmingham Royal Ballet) to weave a moving tale about the quest for freedom and the courage it takes to live one's life.  From a poor upbringing in rural China, young Li is chosen at age 11 by Madam Mao to train in her ballet.  His extraordinary journey continues when the Houston Ballet's director (Bruce Greenwood) invites him to the US for a cultural exchange.  He sees that the Chinese propaganda against the USA is false, falls in love and chooses defection and exile rather than return to China.  This rich and rewarding film features exquisite ballet sequences and won the Audience Choice Award at this year's Maine International Film Festival.

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Fri Nov 5 - Mon Nov 8
LEGEND OF THE GUARDIAN: The Owls of Ga'Hoole  (PG)  90min
Based on the first three books in Kathryn Lasky's beloved series, a favorite in our house, this visually sumptuous and exciting fantasy adventure, directed by Zach Snyder (300, The Watchmen), follows Soren, a young barn owl who is pushed out of his nest by his brother, captured and taken to an orphan camp deep in a forbidding canyon to be trained for a sinister army run by the evil Pure Ones.  But Soren longs to be part of the legendary Guardians of Ga'Hoole, mythic warriors featured in his father's stories who fought a great battle to keep the owl kingdoms free.  With his new friends Gylphie, Twilight and Digger, they must make a daring escape and fly across the sea to find the great tree, home to his heroes, and save their world.  This feature is preceded by a new Roadrunner cartoon!
 
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SOUL KITCHEN  (NR)  99min  [in German and Greek with subtitles]
Zinos (co-screenwriter Adam Bousdoukos) is a disorganized and lovesick restaurant owner in suburban Hamburg with an irresponsible brother (Moritz Bleibtreu, Run Lola Run) just out of jail who needs a job -- but one that requires no work, a temperamental new chef whose opinionated ideas about cuisine are driving his regular customers away, and a beautiful girlfriend who is moving to Shanghai.  This multi-cultural, irresistibly zany, inspired and big-hearted screwball farce from Turkish-German director Fatih Akin (Across the Bridge, The Edge of Heaven), a prize-winning hit in Europe, includes delectable food scenes and a buoyant soundtrack of American soul, ethnic Greek and techno German music.  

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Coming on our second screen?

THE SOCIAL NETWORK  (PG-13)  120min
Director David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) teams up with screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) making a resonant, compelling and mesmerizing dramatization about the beginnings of the internet phenomenon known as Facebook, and the legal and personal repercussions that grew along with the business's popularity and profitability.  The story begins with geeky Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg, Adventureland) reeling from a date with his girlfriend where she calls him not so nice names and breaks up with him.  His revengeful reaction to this rejection leads him to create an imaginary world where anyone can have the illusion of a relationship, even someone with no social skills.  He is financially assisted by his only friend (Andrew Garfield, the "new" Spiderman) only to leave him behind for the advice of Napster's creator (Justin Timberlake) as the venture thrives. 
 
SECRETARIAT (PG)  116min
Diane Lane stars as suburban housewife Penny Chereny, a novice who takes over her ailing father's stables, to her family's dismay.  With the help of a colorful veteran horse trainer (John Malkovich), her dad's stable hand (Nelsan Ellis), and his secretary (Margo Martindale) this unlikely woman, fighting an uphill battle in a man's world, fosters a precocious colt named Big Red into a winning race horse that, if it becomes the first in 25 years to win the Triple Crown, will save the farm.  Director Randall Wallace (screenwriter of Braveheart) has made an old-fashioned, feel-good, crowd-pleasing film, successfully taking a predictable story about a legend that everyone knows the ending to and imbuing it with suspense and excitement. 

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