Entertainment News and Events

Film Series

BREADLINES AND CHAMPAGNE (Friday through Thursday) Film Forum kicks off a monthlong festival of films made during the Great Depression on Friday with Mae West’s outrageous 1933 “I’m No Angel,” offered at the equally outrageous admission price of 35 cents — the average price of a Manhattan movie ticket in 1933. On Saturday and Sunday a double bill demonstrates how deeply Hollywood was concerned with the social issues of the day: Frank Borzage’s glorious romance “Man’s Castle,” with Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young as unemployed residents of a Central Park shantytown, and Frank Capra’s didactic comedy “American Madness,” in which a heroic banker (Walter Huston) resists a run on his establishment. The pleasures continue through March 5, with many of the Warner Brothers titles shown in newly struck prints from the original camera negatives in the Library of Congress. Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, west of Avenue of the Americas, South Village, (212) 727-8110, filmforum.org; $11. (Dave Kehr)

FADED GLORY (Friday through Wednesday) With 35 titles offered, this has to be one of the largest retrospectives of the independent black cinema — a k a “race movies” — ever assembled in New York. The program begins on Friday at 7 p.m. with a screening of a new 35-millimeter print of Spencer Williams’s magnificent work “The Blood of Jesus,” a 1941 film that energetically tramples the rules of Hollywood storytelling as it tries to translate the style and substance of a religious revival meeting into cinematic terms. The film scholar Jacqueline Stewart will introduce the program. At 9:30 p.m., there’s “God’s Step Children” (1938), the first of several films in the program by the indomitable Oscar Micheaux, one of the earliest and certainly the most persistent creator of films for African-American audiences. Micheaux’s 1925 “Body and Soul,” which will be screened at 8 p.m. on Saturday, with musical accompaniment by the pianist Donald Sosin and the bass singer Kevin Maynor, is probably the director’s most fully realized work. It is a parable about twin brothers — one an alcoholic thief, the other a college-educated inventor — both played by Paul Robeson. Other highlights include Richard Maurice’s “Eleven P.M.” (Sunday), a rarely screened experimental feature from 1928; Richard Norman’s “Flying Ace” (Wednesday), a 1926 action film produced by the Florida-based Norman Film Manufacturing Company; Murray Roth’s “Yamekraw” (Tuesday and Wednesday), a one-reel vision of African-American history, based on James P. Johnson’s composition and filmed in 1930 at Warner Brothers’ Brooklyn studios; and Edgar G. Ulmer’s 1939 “Moon Over Harlem” (Sunday and Tuesday), a gangster film shot in a New Jersey warehouse on a budget of $8,000. The series runs through Feb. 19. Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 875-5600, filmlinc.org; $11. (Kehr)

MOVIES

Ratings and running times are in parentheses; foreign films have English subtitles. Full reviews of all current releases, movie trailers, showtimes and tickets: nytimes.com/movies.

‘BRIDE WARS’ (PG, 1:34) Die, Bridezilla, die! (Manohla Dargis)

★ ‘CADILLAC RECORDS’ (R, 1:48) This rollicking and insightful celebration of Chicago blues serves as a group portrait of a remarkable, volatile constellation of artists, including Muddy Waters (the impressive Jeffrey Wright), Chuck Berry (Mos Def) and Etta James (Beyoncé Knowles). This movie is crowded and sprawling, and if it rambles sometimes, that’s just fine. (A. O. Scott)

‘CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA’ (PG-13, 2:20, in Hindi, Cantonese and Mandarin) The immensely popular Akshay Kumar stars in this genial mash-up of Bollywood and kung fu. Too frantic at the beginning, “Chandni” settles down to become an enjoyable if slight Saturday matinee picture. It was financed and distributed by Warner Brothers, a first for Bollywood. (Rachel Saltz)

‘CHE’ (R, 4:17, in Spanish and Englishshown in two parts 2:09 and 2:08) Nearly four and a half hours long and spanning more than a decade, “Che” surely deserves the overworked, frequently misapplied label of epic. But it’s a narrow epic, and while Benicio Del Toro, in the title role, offers a performance that’s technically flawless, the movie is politically naïve and dramatically inert. (Scott)

‘THE CLASS’ (No rating, 2:08, in French, with English subtitles) An artful, intelligent, heartfelt fiction film from the director Laurent Cantet about modern French identity and the attempt to transform young students of all sizes, shapes and colors into citizens through talk, talk, talk. (Dargis)

‘THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON’ (PG-13, 2:47) A hothouse blossom of romance, intrigue and breathtaking digital effects from David Fincher (“Zodiac,” “Fight Club”). Brad Pitt stars as a man who ages backward, but it is Cate Blanchett who provides the film’s delicate, graceful emotional center of gravity. (A. O. Scott)

‘DOUBT’ (PG-13, 1:44) Adapted by John Patrick Shanley from his stage play, this drama about a Roman Catholic priest suspected of child molestation stars a tamped-down Philip Seymour Hoffman as the accused and an energetic, often wackily comic Meryl Streep as his accuser. (Dargis)

‘FROST/NIXON’ (R, 2:02) It’s twinkle (Michael Sheen) versus glower (Frank Langella) in Ron Howard’s amusing, facile edition of the Peter Morgan theatrical smackdown. (Dargis)

‘FROZEN RIVER’ (R, 1:37) Venturing deep into the trenches where hard-working Americans struggle to put food on the table, Courtney Hunt’s powerful, somber film evokes a perfect storm of present-day economic and social woes. Playing an impoverished mother of two who smuggles illegal aliens across the Canadian border, Melissa Leo gives an awards-worthy performance. (Stephen Holden)

★ ‘GRAN TORINO’ (R, 1:56) Once again Clint Eastwood shows everyone how it’s done, with a sleek muscle car of a movie set in that industrial graveyard called Detroit about a racist who befriends a besieged Hmong family next door. (Dargis)

★ ‘HAPPY-GO-LUCKY’ (R, 1:58) Happiness is a complicated, difficult matter, and for the bopping bloom at the center of Mike Leigh’s generous, expansive new film — a gurgling stream of giggles, laughs and words played by a glorious Sally Hawkins — it’s also a question of faith. (Dargis)

‘HOTEL FOR DOGS’ (PG, 1:40) Children and dogs: those two magic words distill the appeal of this cuter-than-cute, sweeter-than-sweet family film about animal-loving kids who embark on a crusade to rescue all the stray pooches in a fictional city. (Holden)

‘INKHEART’ (PG, 1:43) A movie about books coming to life that never manages to do so itself. (Scott)

★ ‘I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG’ (PG-13, 1:55, in French) The French novelist Philippe Claudel, making his debut as a director, shows sobriety and restraint in this story of a woman making her way back into normal life after serving a prison sentence for the murder of her son. Kristin Scott Thomas gives a remarkable lead performance, and Elsa Zylberstein as her sister is nearly as good. A climactic plot twist cheapens and diminishes the film somewhat, but it is still, for the most part, a powerful and subtle melodrama. (Scott)

‘JUST ANOTHER LOVE STORY’ (No rating, 1:40, in Danish) As this twisty Danish thriller zigzags between austere realism and surreal gore, you have the not unpleasant sense of being taken for a ride. It may not go anywhere in particular, but it is as exciting as a trip through a well-equipped, scary fun house. (Holden)

‘LAST CHANCE HARVEY’ (PG, 1:38) Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson don’t make a lot of sense as a screen couple, but there’s something irresistible about watching two people fall in love, even in contrived, sniffle- and sometimes gag-inducing films like this one. (Dargis)

★ ‘LET THE RIGHT ONE IN’ (No rating, 1:54, in Swedish) A charming and chilling Swedish love story directed by Tomas Alfredson about a lonely boy and the girl next door who may just happen to be a vampire. (Dargis)

‘LUCK BY CHANCE’ (No rating, 2:26, in Hindi and English) This enjoyable Bollywood offering spends a lot of its time wittily satirizing Bollywood itself as it tells the story of two young actors finding and losing romance as they try to find movie fame. Farhan Akhtar is a find as the male lead; Zoya Akhtar, his sister, wrote and directed. (Neil Genzlinger)

★ ‘MAN ON WIRE’ (PG-13, 1:34) Philippe Petit’s 1974 tightrope walk between the towers of the World Trade Center might have seemed, at the time, like a crazy stunt, but James Marsh’s beautiful documentary understands it as a work of art. (Scott)

‘MARLEY AND ME’ (PG, 2:05) The bland, obsequious screen adaptation of John Grogan’s best-selling 2005 memoir of his up-and-down relationship with an unruly Labrador retriever has a surefire tear-jerker ending. But the bond between human and pet and what they can learn from each other remains unexplored. (Holden)

★ ‘MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY’ (No rating, 1:27) The day after a one-night stand, two young, black San Franciscans (Wyatt Cenac and Tracey Heggins) muse on matters of love, race and urban life in Barry Jenkins’s modest, witty and self-assured first feature. (Scott)

‘MEMORIAL DAY’ (No rating, 1:33) Spring-break delirium is equated with the excesses at Abu Ghraib in this dubious exercise in mock-documentary conceptualism. (Nathan Lee)

★ ‘MILK’ (R, 2:08) Gus Van Sant’s film about Harvey Milk (1930-78), the San Francisco City supervisor who was one of the first openly gay elected officials in the country, is less a standard biopic than a sharp, lyrical history lesson, touching not only on a crucial decade in the gay-rights movement but also on the rough and tumble of big-city politics and the tricky ways of love. Sean Penn outdoes himself as Milk, balancing his intense conviction with an unusual and welcome playfulness. The large supporting cast is also excellent, and includes James Franco as Milk’s lover and campaign manager, Scott Smith, and Josh Brolin as Dan White, Milk’s colleague on the Board of Supervisors and also his murderer. (Scott)

★ ‘MOSCOW, BELGIUM’ (No rating, 1:42, in Flemish) You may have observed the characters’ banal situations in countless other movies, not to mention in your own life, but it is unusual to find them explored with such matter-of-fact truthfulness. (Holden)

‘MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D’ (R, 1:41) Adding an extra dimension to the fondly remembered 1981 Canadian slasher about a rogue slayer in a small mining town, “My Bloody Valentine 3D” blends cutting-edge technology and old-school prosthetics to produce gore you can believe in. And if the gas-masked villain is less than terrifying, his pursuit of a naked young woman (Betsy Rue) is inspired. If there were an award for acting full-frontally while wearing sky-high stilettos, Ms. Rue would surely teeter away with it. (Jeannette Catsoulis)

‘NOT EASILY BROKEN’ (PG-13, 1:39) Directed by Bill Duke and based on a novel by the megachurch minister T. D. Jakes, this story of a marriage under stress is hokey and sometimes clumsy, but anchored in an earnest engagement with the lives of its characters, who have the good fortune of being portrayed by a fine cast. (Scott)

‘NOTORIOUS’ (R, 2:02) The legend of Biggie Smalls, the Brooklyn-born rapper who was murdered in 1997, is given the full epic-melodrama-biopic treatment in this uneven, rarely dull film, among whose producers are Smalls’s mother, Violetta Wallace, and his friend and mentor Sean Combs. Those two important figures are played by Angela Bassett and Derek Luke, while Smalls is impersonated by Jamal Woolard, whose faithful mimicry compensates for some of his limitations as an actor. (Scott)

‘PAUL BLART: MALL COP’ (PG, 1:30) Fat people are funny. Fat people who run into things are funnier. Fat people who run into things and have humiliating working-class jobs? Stop, you’re killing me! (Lee)

★ ‘RACHEL GETTING MARRIED’ (R, 1:54) Anne Hathaway plays Kym, furloughed from rehab to attend her sister Rachel’s wedding. The director, Jonathan Demme, working from a script by Jenny Lumet, takes a fairly conventional family-therapy drama and packs it with exuberant vitality. There is ample sorrow and recrimination at this party, but nonetheless you’ll be sorry when it ends. (Scott)

‘THE READER’ (R, 2:03) You have to wonder who, exactly, wants or perhaps needs to see another movie about the Holocaust that embalms its horrors with artfully spilled tears and also asks us to pity a death camp guard. Kate Winslet plays the guard; Stephen Daldry directs. (Dargis)

‘REVOLUTIONARY ROAD’ (R, 1:59) Sam Mendes directs Kate Winslet and a fine Leonardo DiCaprio in a waxworks edition of the corrosive, furiously unsentimental novel by Richard Yates about an unhappy marriage in the mid-1950s. (Dargis)

‘SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE’ (R, 2:00) A modern fairy tale from Danny Boyle“Trainspotting”) about a pauper angling to become a prince, this sensory blowout largely takes place amid the squalor of Mumbai, India, where lost children and dogs sift through trash so fetid that you swear you can smell the discarded mango as well as its peel. (Dargis) (

★ ‘SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK’ (R, 2:04) To say that Charlie Kaufman’s feature debut is one of the best films of the year or even the one closest to my heart is such a pathetic response to its soaring ambition that I might as well pack it in right now. (In other words: Go!) (Dargis)

‘THE UNBORN’ (PG-13, 1:40) There’s a dybbuk loose, and Gary Oldman is the rabbi who must stop it. (Dargis)

‘UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS’ (R, 1:32) Michael Sheen howls up a storm in this prehistory to the first two “Underworld” flicks, which rewinds to when the werewolves rebelled against their vampire masters. (Dargis)

‘THE UNINVITED’ (PG-13, 1:27) Regrets only. (A. O. Scott)

★ ‘VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA’ (PG-13, 1:36) A rueful comedy from Woody AllenScarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall) who, during a summertime European idyll, savor numerous Continental delicacies, some provided by the equally alluring Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz. (Dargis) about two young American women (

★ ‘WALTZ WITH BASHIR’ (R, 1:27) Ari Folman’s animated documentary about Israeli soldiers haunted by memories of the 1982 Lebanon war is part memoir, part dream, part combat picture and altogether amazing. (Scott)

★ ‘WENDY AND LUCY’ (R, 1:20) In Kelly Reichardt’s latest film Michelle Williams plays Wendy, a lonely young woman who encounters a run of bad luck while drifting through Oregon and Washington with her dog, Lucy. At first glance the film seems like little more than an extended anecdote, but underneath this plain narrative surface is a lucid and melancholy inquiry into the current state of American society. (Scott)