Opening This Weekend: Damsels in Distress

Wanted: Rat-Playboy Operator
Ryan Metcalf

This weekend, moviegoers get to choose between seeing American Reunion, a sequel based on a film made popular by teenagers in the late 90s, or Titanic 3D, a film made popular by teenagers in the late 90s.  So much variety, so little time.  Have you seen The Hunger Games or 21 Jump Street yet?  The best reviewed limited releases: This Is Not a Film, The Kid with the Bike, and Footnote.  I've only seen Bike from the Dardenne brothers, which was really sweet.  And there's a whole slew of new fare coming your way (well, if you live in a metropolitan area).  My money is on Damsels in Distress and that rat-playboy operator Frank.

Whit Stillman is back!  And he has a new generation of actors he's cast in one of his conversational comedies about overprivileged young adults in Damsels in Distress.  Looks charming.  Then, we have overprivileged young adults trapped in a an ATM kiosk in the middle of Winter with a much too resourceful serial killer terrorizing them.  Did I just type that?  I guess the setting gives them more room to act than Phone Booth.

The Hunter screened at TIFF last Fall.  It concerns a man of the wild who must hunt down the last remaining Tasmanian Tiger in the pristine wilderness of Australia's island.  It was beautifully shot and there is one scene that is perhaps one of the most evocative and chilling seen in a while.  It's absolutely heartbreaking and happens about a half hour or so in.  It's an otherwise solid film, so I can't help but recommend it.

We the Party is using Facebook as part of their marketing strategy.  Mario Van Peebles directed this movie about high school teenagers trying to make it in L.A., because, you know, you can never get started to early.

A romantic comedy-drama set in a taxi cab going cross country in Take Me Home, where the destination is California.

Detention is a high school horror film that let's kids just be kids, while dodging a serial killer.  Here is the trailer.  Box-office Mojo reports that it opens this week, but the website suggests otherwise.

Low-budget black and white horror noir Keyhole has lots of stars.  And, just plain low-budget horror film: Purification.

Foreign
Italian filmmakers take you into the mind of Vatican's highest rank in We Have a Pope.  That title shouldn't court the controversy The Pope Must Die(t) from decades ago.

Documentary
Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope brought to you by the guy who did Super Size Me.

Anti-capitalist propaganda Surviving Progress likens man's place in today's world to that of a chimpanzee.

Finding info about This Binary Universe was like finding a needle in space.

What are you going to see this weekend?