The Beauty of Limited Releases

March 24, 2006

It's a much less busy week for limited releases than last week, with half as many new films. There's also not much here that looks like a massive break-out hit, meaning the per theatre charts will likely be dominated by holdovers and wide releases.

American Gun - Reviews
The film follows the after effects of a school shooting, dealing with how various people were affected by the events. An amazing cast is wasted on this film. It tries too hard to say its message in an emotionally dramatic way, and ends up losing all effectiveness as a result. American Gun opened on Wednesday at the Sunshine Cinema in New York City and expands to a few more theatres tonight.

The Beauty Academy of Kabul - Reviews
A group of American hairdressers travel to Afghanistan and start a beauty school there. It's a strange subject for a documentary, but it does help put a more human face on the war there. It is such a strange subject, however, that more than one critic has compared it to a Christopher Guest mockumentary. The Beauty Academy of Kabul opens tonight at the Angelika Film Center in New York City.

L'Enfant - Reviews
A petty criminal steals his girlfriend's baby in hope of selling it on the black market. Many are comparing this movie to Tsotsi, only with this movie the lead is far less sympathetic and the movie is therefore less compelling. L'Enfant is one of the widest limited releases this weekend opening in seven theatres in New York and Los Angeles including Quad Cinema in the former and a few theatres in the Laemmle chain in the latter.

Lonesome Jim - Reviews
Casey Affleck stars as the titular character, a man who has just returned to is small-town home after failing to make it in New York. Depressed and without direction, he finds a small amount of happiness when he meets Anika, played by Liv Tyler. Simple put, this film tries really hard to be 'indie' and while there is much to like in this film, it won't develop the word of mouth needed to escape the art house circuit. Lonesome Jim opens tonight at the IFC Center in New York City.

These Girls - Review
This Canadian movie was supposed to opened two weeks ago, but it got pushed back till this weekend. Normally it would be bad for that to happen, but in this case the schedule change was needed to give the film a wider opening. Hopefully this strategy works. The movie stars David Boreanaz as Keith Clark, a married man who is being blackmailed into having sex with not one but three underage girls. It's not often you see films with that subject matter made, especially not as a comedy. However, it is certainly a funny film and even though practically everyone reading this will have to wait till the home market release to see it, if you are lucky enough to live in Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto, or Vancouver, try and check it out. If you don't live in those cities, you can pick it up on DVD on May 16th.


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Filed under: Limited Releases, L'Enfant, Lonesome Jim, American Gun