Festival favorites roll into movie houses

Planning a visit to your local art-house theater? You know; the one with the sticky floors and the seats that feel like they haven’t been reupholstered since the 1970s. This season offers a slate of festival favorites, from the Cannes jury winner “Persepolis” to the Cannes director prize winning, “The Diving Bell and Butterfly.” And watch out for the little lady from “Teeth” — her bite is as bad as they say.

“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”
Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josée Croze
Director: Julian Schnabel
Story: Film tells the true story of former Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby (Amalric), who is diagnosed with “locked-in syndrome” and manages to communicate by using only his left eyelid, blinking once for “yes” and twice for “no.” He manages to dictate his memoir to his speech therapist letter by letter.
Buzz: Schnabel (“Before Night Falls”) took home the best director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Critic Emmanuel Levy called this a “powerful and touching film.” L.A. Weekly critic Scott Foundras admired the film but also wrote “Schnabel’s film wants you to know that it’s art with a capital ‘A.’ It’s also disability porn with a capital ‘D.’”
Web site: NA
Release date: Nov. 30

“Honeydripper”

Emerging Pictures

Starring: Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Stacy Keach, Mary Steenburgen, Yaya DaCosta, Sean Patrick Thomas
Director: John Sayles
Story: Set in 1950s Alabama, Tyrone Purvis (Glover) is deep in debt and about to lose his tavern, the Honeydripper. He decides to try to get celebrity Guitar Sam to play his club to raise the money to pay off his debts. But Sam never shows. A mysterious musician (Gary Clark Jr.), who has an electric guitar, which no one in the town has ever seen, offers to play Purvis’ club, but the sheriff (Keach) has him arrested for vagrancy.
Buzz: Director Sayles (“Lone Star,” “Matewan”) has a way of dropping viewers into worlds that feel like they’ve been inhabited long before the cameras ever roll. Variety’s John Anderson called this “one of Sayles best films.” But while the Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt praised the film, he also wrote that “the film makes you at times uncomfortable with black and Southern stereotypes.”
Web site: http://www.emergingpictures.com/honeydripper.htm
Release date: Dec. 28

“Teeth”

Lionsgate

Starring: Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Josh Pais, Hale Appleman
Director: Mitchell Lichtenstein
Story: Here’s one you don’t hear ever day. High-school student Dawn (Weixler) has a toothed vagina. Confused by her own body — plus a bit horrified by an early incident that left her stepbrother (Hensley) with an injured finger — she decides to join a chastity club. There, she meets Tobey (Appleman), who really shouldn’t pressure her to have sex, but does.
Buzz: Weixler won an a jury acting prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Critic Emanuel Levy described this film as “part horror film, part feminist fable, part erotic high school yarn” and called it “always intelligent, and often darkly humorous.” Variety’s Todd McCarthy is more critical, writing that the film “bites off more than it can chew.”
Web site: http://www.teethmovie.com/film.html
Release date: Nov. 30

“Persepolis”

Sony Picture Classics

Starring: Sean Penn, Gena Rowlands, Catherine Deneuve, Iggy Pop, Chiara Mastroianni
Director: Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
Story: Based on the autobiographical graphic novels by Satrapi, this film tells the coming-of-age story of Marjane, an outspoken Iranian girl, growing up during the Shah’s regime. She discovers punk rock, ABBA and Iron Maiden, all while the Iraq/Iran war is going on. At age 14, her parents decide to send her to school in Austria, where she must deal with stereotypes. After school, she returns to Iran. But it no longer feels like home.  
Buzz: This film won the Jury prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and currently has a 100 percent rating at Rotten Tomaotes.com. Critic Jim Emerson wrote, “It’s a movie that makes you glad to feel alive.” Time magazine’s Richard Corliss wrote that the film is a “funny, sometimes dark, always affecting story of surviving the worst through a sense of humor.”
Web site: http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/persepolis/
Release date: Dec. 25

“Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten”

IFC Films

Starring: Bono, Steve Buscemi, John Cusack, Johnny Depp, Matt Dillon, Peter Cushing
Director: Julian Temple
Story: From his early life as a diplomat’s son, to the height of his Clash success, to his death in 2002, the film tells the story of Joe Strummer, a man who couldn’t quite handle his own fame. Old friends, band members and fans (Cusack, Bono, Depp) add their recollections.
Buzz: The Hollywood Reporter’s Sura Wood wrote that the film is “a visually exciting, high-octane, rock history of the band and its charismatic frontman and songwriter, Joe Strummer. Simply said: It's terrific.” Director Temple also helmed the 2000 Sex Pistols documentary, “The Filth and the Fury” as well as last year’s Glastonbury Festival documentary.
Web site: http://www.joestrummerthemovie.com/
Release date: Nov. 2

“Flakes”
Starring: Zooey Deschanel, Aaron Stanford, Izabella Miko
Director: Michael Lehmann
Story: Miss Pussy Katz (Deschanel) and Neal Downs (Stanford) are a couple of slackers who sell caustic T-shirts and run a cereal bar. But when a smarmy businessman decides to steal their restaurant concept, it’s up to the slackers to save the cereal bar. 
Buzz: Cinematical critic Scott Weinberg disliked the film, writing, “This flick’s about as satisfying as a bowl of soggy Corn Flakes.” Director Lehmann is the closest thing the movie industry has to a one-hit wonder. He directed the wonderful “Heathers” and hasn’t made a decent film since. You may remember Stanford for his roles as Pyro in “X-Men: The Last Stand” and as the title character on the short-lived ABC series “Traveler.”
Web site: NA
Release date: Dec. 19

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