Lantern to screen ‘Official Competition’ … for real

Above : Penélope Cruz stars in “Official Competition.” (Photo/IFC Films)

It’s hard sometimes to keep up with what’s supposed to be opening at the Magic Lantern Theatre.

For example, the Greek film “Apples” was supposed to open last Friday. But it’s nowhere to be seen on the theater’s website. Instead, the Louis C.K. movie “Fourth of July” is playing.

And that film is getting few good reviews. Most are like this New York Times piece by Glenn Kenny : “The family dynamic here is so unrelentingly brutal that it’s an actual shock to see how glib the movie is in papering it over. Imagine a Dr. Phil producer doing a third-act rewrite of a Tracy Letts play.”

If you don’t quite understand that, well, I’m not sure I do either. But it isn’t positive.

So, when I write that the Spanish film “Official Competition” is supposed to open Friday at the Lantern, I’d take that with a bit of caution. After all, it was supposed to open there three weeks ago.

Anyway, the film – directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat – features Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas as movie people hired to make a film for a millionaire (played by Oscar Martinez).

Stephanie Zacharek of Time magazine wrote, “All three actors are clearly having a blast with this satire of actorly egos and vanity projects, but it’s Cruz who truly dazzles.”

Kate Taylor of The Globe and Mail added, “Cruz plays their aggressively eccentric director with a perfect blend of oddball, hauteur and deadpan. One of the many joys of this send-up of filmmaking is that, for all the director’s looniness, she is so often right.”

So, again, take it all with a bit of wariness. Exciting, right?