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“An intense portrayal of elite soldiers who have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: disarming bombs in the heat of combat. When a new sergeant, James, takes over a highly trained bomb disposal team amidst violent conflict, he surprises his two subordinates, Sanborn and Eldridge, by recklessly plunging them into a deadly game of urban combat. James behaves as if he’s indifferent to death. As the men struggle to control their wild new leader, the city explodes into chaos, and James’ true character reveals itself in a way that will change each man forever.”

Note: The Brattle Theatre now serves CBC beer at the concession!

“Chain-smoking, wisecracking private eye Philip Marlowe drives a buddy from LA to the Tijuana border and returns home to an apartment full of cops who arrest him for abetting the murder of his friend’s wife. After Marlowe’s release, following the reported suicide in Mexico of his friend, a beautiful woman hires him to locate her alcoholic and mercurial husband. Then, a hoodlum and his muscle visit to tell Marlowe that he owes $350,000, mob money the dead friend took to Mexico. Marlowe tails the hood, who goes to the house of the woman with the temperamental husband. As Marlowe pulls these threads together, his values emerge from beneath the cavalier wisecracking.”

“Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet’s power problems.”

Director Paolo Sorrentino’s audacious and inventive biopic of Italian parliamentarian (and “Senator for Life”) Giulio Andreotti doesn’t make the Byzantine world of modern Italian politics any less confusing (non-Italian viewers may want to brush up on the topic beforehand), but the film illuminates, in great emotional detail, important events surrounding an early-1990s investigation in which the perpetual statesman was accused of having Mafia ties. The case was appealed and overturned several times, and Andreotti never served prison time, but it effectively marked the end of his centrist Christian Democratic party and forever changed the age-old relationship between the Mafia and the Italian government. Sorrentino’s fanciful use of titles, quick edits, multiple-perspective flashbacks, slow motion, extreme close-ups, and sublime musical accents–as well as star Toni Servillo’s brilliantly stylized acting–convert this airless and sinister piece of world history into a dynamic tale of moral ambiguity and seemingly invulnerable political power. Servillo plays Andreotti as an arrogant, deadpan Puck–an Italian Richard Nixon replete with easily mimicable physical tics and the conviction of his own rightness. In the film’s most memorable scene, Servillo allows his ironic veneer to crack just once, in a molten monologue where, spit flying, he justifies “perpetrating evil to guarantee good.” Another chilling sequence intercuts a crucial Mafia hit with shots of a particularly tense and triumphant horse race, while a punky blues number roars in the background. Sorrentino’s controlled and masterly storytelling won the 2008 Prix du Jury at Cannes.

“A Las Vegas-set comedy centered around three groomsmen who lose their about-to-be-wed buddy during their drunken misadventures, then must retrace their steps in order to find him.”

“By tying thousands of balloon to his home, 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen sets out to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America. Right after lifting off, however, he learns he isn’t alone on his journey, since Russell, a wilderness explorer 70 years his junior, has inadvertently become a stowaway on the trip.”

“In this haunting, inventive vision of the near future, the world is divided by closed borders, but connected through a digital network that ties together people around the world. Memo is a self-taught hacker living in a sleepy Mexican village. After his house is destroyed in a reckless remote-control bombing, and driven by feelings of guilt and a need to earn money, Memo heads to the massive border city of Tijuana to find work and help his family start again. On the way, Memo meets the beautiful Luz, an aspiring journalist who dreams of writing a story that might one day change the world, but makes her living off of selling her memories on the ‘net – a blog, straight from the brain. One anonymous buyer is strangely eager for memories of Memo, so Luz maintains her relationship with him by helping him get the implants necessary to work in the incredible factories where workers plug their nervous systems into machines doing construction in other countries. But these dangerous hi-tech workshops are a far cry from what Memo expected. The workers frequently toil until they collapse, earning the factories the nickname ‘sleep dealers.Â’ As Memo works, Luz sells more installments of his story to her mysterious reader. When the identity of Luz’s reader is revealed, a chain of events is set in motion that will connect three strangers, and change their lives – and maybe even the world – forever.”

“Love him or hate him, Mike Tyson is inarguably one of popular cultureÂ’s most fascinating figures. In this riveting documentary portrait of the controversial boxer, filmmaker and friend James Toback lets Tyson tell his own volatile story. It all started in a rough-and-tumble Brooklyn neighborhood, where Tyson was picked on and beaten up as a youngster. But when he turned his fear into anger, he realized that his fists had the ferocity to frighten everyone around him. As a teenager, Tyson moved upstate to live with trainer Cus DÂ’Amato, who became the devoted and compassionate father figure he never had. This support helped Tyson develop the strength and focus needed to become a devastating champion inside the ring. But when DÂ’Amato died, something inside Tyson died too, turning him into an even more dangerous monster outside of the ring. As Tyson speaks openly about the ups and downs in his tumultuous life–alternating between moments of sincere introspection and animalistic rage–Toback employs a split-screen approach to further emphasize his emotionally unstable nature. Mixed into this talking-head interview is striking archival footage that shows Tyson in his prime, when he was one of the most feared and idolized athletes on the planet. TYSON is an appropriately subjective journey into the mind of a massively complicated man”

“At 14, Toronto school friends Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow and Robb Reiner made a pact to rock together forever…But Anvil’s career took a different path—straight to obscurity. Director Sacha Gervasi has concocted a wonderful and often hilarious account of Anvil’s last-ditch quest for elusive fame and fortune. His ingenious filmmaking may first lead you to think this a mockumentary, but it isn’t. It’s fascinating to see the reality of their day-to-day lives as they struggle to make ends meet, take a misguided European tour, and engage in antics on the road—which is not always lined with fans.”—John Cooper, Sundance Film Festival

“Visionary director Hayao Miyazaki’s (Spirited Away) animated adventure brims with imagination, humor, action and romance. Sophie, a teenage girl working in a hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is swept off her feet by a wizard named Howl, and is subsequently turned into a 90-year-old woman by the Wicked Witch of the Waste. Embarking on an odyssey to lift the curse, she finds refuge in Howl’s magical moving castle. With Sophie’s love and support, Howl risks his life to help bring peace to the kingdom. Based on the novel by Diana Wynne Jones. Original Japanese version with English subtitles.”