Big weekend at the movies
(Posted Tuesday) As if a number of interesting movies weren’t already opening on Friday, this coming weekend will see one of my favorite Spokane film events of the year: the annual Spokane Jewish Cultural Film Festival. And judging from the three movies that the festival organizers have selected this year, the festival should be as good as ever. It’s at the Magic Lantern.
On Saturday, the festival will feature a 8 p.m. screening of “Bethlehem,” directed and co-written by Yuval Adler. More a police procedural with spy overtones, “Bethlehem” tells the story of Israeli intelligence services infiltrating various Palestinian militant groups and the often violent, and ultimately devastating, consequences. It centers on three figures: an operative for Israel’s secret service, the teenage Palestinian boy he recruits and the head of a Palestinian rebel group, all of whose fates are intertwined and lead to the film’s shattering climax. “Bethlehem” was Israel’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar and is a film you’re not likely to forget.
Finally, at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, the festival will screen the documentary “Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy.” Written and directed by Michael Kantor, the film – which has already aired on Public Television – tells the story of Jewish composers and lyricists such as Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein and how their work helped shape the modern Broadway musical.
Tickets to the films can be purchased in advance or at the Lantern box office a half hour before each screening. For more information, visit the Spokane Area Jewish Cultural Film Festival page on Facebook.
Dan Webster
Wes Anderson fans can rejoice: AMC River Park Square is planning to open “The Grand Budapest Hotel” on Friday, along with its regular mix of mainstream and art-house films. Here’s what’s tentatively coming:
“Noah”: Darren Aronofsky’s take on the story from Genesis, which he reportedly imbues with even more imagination than the original, will play in regular and IMAX formats (but, it seems, no 3-D).
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”: The trailers fool you into thinking that this film is a carbon copy of “Moonrise Kingdom,” but I have it on good authority (my daughter, who saw the film in New York) that this period-piece fable may be Anderson’s best effort yet.
“Sabotage”: Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a DEA agent whose team members, following a successful raid on a Mexican drug cartel, start dying one by one. At age 66, isn’t the big Austrian ready for retirement?
“Cesar Chavez”: Michael Peña plays the charismatic labor organizer whose efforts on behalf of farm workers helped change a nation’s consciousness.
“Bad Words”: And, finally, another anticipated film, this one a dark comedy about an adult (Jason Bateman, who also directs) who, through a technicality, forces his way into a regional spelling bee. Talk about arrested development.
Over at the Magic Lantern, in addition to hosting the Spokane Jewish Cultural Film Festival, the theater will open:
“Mistaken for Strangers”: This documentary tells the story of the indie music group The National as told in personal fashion by Tom Berninger, little brother of lead singer Matt Berninger.
“Enemy”: Denis Villeneuve (“Prisoners”) follows a man (Jake Gyllenhaal) who sees his double in a movie and obsessively sets out to track him down.
Dan Webster