Based on Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin’s popular satirical novel, “The Nanny Diaries” stars Scarlett Johansson as a working-class woman from New Jersey who becomes a nanny to a wealthy Manhattan family – “The Nanny Diaries.”
STARRING: Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti, Donna Murphy, Alicia Keys, Chris Evans
DIRECTORS: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini
STUDIO: MGM & The Weinstein Co.
RATING: PG-13 (For strong language, adult situations)
“Eye Of The Dolphin” tells the story of fourteen year old Alyssa (Carly Schroeder: “The Lizzie McGuire Movie”, “Firewall”) who has been living with her Grandmother (Academy Award nominee Katharine Ross) since the death of her mother a year ago. Troubled and lost, it is decided she should go to the Bahamas to live with the father she never knew she had. Caught in the difficult realization of having a father, coupled with the adjustment to island culture, she seeks refuge in the discovery of the astonishing gift she has for communicating with dolphins. But when the powers-that-be threaten to close down her father’s dolphin research facility, it is Alyssa and her wild cetacean friend who hold the key.
STARRING: Carly Schroeder, Adrian Dunbar, George Harris, Jane Lynch, Christine Adams, Katharine Ross
DIRECTOR: Michael D. Sellers
STUDIO: Monterey Media
RATING: Not Rated
In the movie “Dedication,” Henry Roth is messed up. A New York children’s book author who tells kids that Santa doesn’t exist, he hates sleeping with – and next to – anyone, including his girlfriend and must lay on the floor, usually with heavy objects on top of him just to feel safe. His motto is “Life is nothing but the occasional burst of laughter rising above the interminable wail of grief.”
“Dedication,” a modern love story in which a misanthropic, emotionally complex author of a hit children’s book series (Billy Crudup) is forced to team with a beautiful illustrator (Mandy Moore) after his best friend and creative collaborator (Tom Wilkinson) passes away marks the directorial debut of Justin Theroux. As Henry struggles with letting go of the ghosts of love and life, he discovers that sometimes you have to take a gamble at life to find love.
STARRING: Billy Crudup, Mandy Moore, Harvey Keitel, Mia Farrow, Bob Balaban, Bobby Cannavale, Martin Freeman, Amy Sedaris, Christine Taylor, Tom Wilkinson
DIRECTOR: Justin Theroux
STUDIO: The Weinstein Co.
RATING: R (For language, sexual situations, adult situations, drug use)
“Closing Escrow” tells the story of three quirky families seeking to buy their next home. They’re all moving for different reasons-and none of them are getting along with their real estate agents. Negro attorneys Bobby and Tamika have hired Hillary Macella as their real estate agent. Hillary is a racially hyper-sensitive white woman dealing with more than her share of white guilt. That is until she gets mugged, and starts seeing the world quite a bit differently. Tom and Dawn are an unconventional couple. When they met, Tom was happily married to another woman. But thanks to Dawn’s unstoppable persistence (the police reports called it stalking, but Dawn doesn’t like to think of it that way), Tom was convinced to leave his wife and start his life over again in a new home with Dawn. They’ve wound up with a shady real estate agent with a knack for damaging homes to make them more affordable for his clients. This makes house hunting somewhat awkward for Tom and Dawn, not to mention a little dangerous.
STARRING: April Barnett, Rob Brownstein, Colleen Crabtree, Andrew Friedman, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Kirstin Pierce, Ryan Smith, Bruce Thomas, Patty Wortham, Cedric Yarbrough
DIRECTORS: Armen Kaprelian & Kent G. Llewellyn
STUDIO: Magnolia Films
RATING: PG (For language)
“The Invasion,” (originally entitled “The Visiting”) tells the story of a mysterious epidemic that alters the behavior of human beings.
A massive explosion lights up the skies from Dallas to Washington, DC, shattering the space shuttle Patriot into pieces that rain down across the U.S. The authorities are quick to seize control of the situation, but stories emerge about a strange substance found clinging to the wreckage — something that withstood the extreme cold of space and searing heat of reentry to get here. And the first to come in contact with it are the first to change…
But, in “The Invasion” no one wants to start a panic.
DC psychiatrist Carol Bennell does not connect what happened to the shuttle with the bizarre occurrences that seem to accelerate around her: one of her patients is terrified that her husband has been replaced by a stranger; violent outbursts on the streets are quickly subdued; and a very strange substance comes home in her son Oliver’s Halloween candy — something that might, in fact, be alive.
She tells her friend and fellow doctor, Ben Driscoll, that something is very wrong despite the fact that Washington does not seem concerned. The official word is that it’s simply a new form of flu, but before realizing the weight of what’s happening Carol lets Oliver spend the weekend with his estranged dad, a high-level official with the Center for Disease Control, who is in Washington investigating the crash and was one of the first people on the scene.
As the epidemic spreads, Carol discovers that the very people in charge of inoculation against it are spreading something far worse — a spore of unknown origin that attacks human DNA while the host sleeps, remaking it in the image of a lifeform that looks like us and talks like us, but with all human emotion drained away. Seemingly overnight, the people around her are transformed into hive-like beings with one imperative: to infect others and take control.
Doing everything in her power to stay awake, Carol embarks on a desperate journey into a changed world to stay alive long enough to find her son. To hide among them, she will have to remain calm…betray no emotion…and, most of all, not fall asleep.
STARRING: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam
DIRECTOR: Oliver Hirschbiegel
STUDIO: Warner Bros.
RATING: PG-13 (For violence, disturbing content and terror)
A dignified send-off for a loved one erupts into uproarious chaos when romance, jealousy, in-laws, hallucinogens, dark secrets, life-long yearnings and a spot of bold blackmail all collide in the irreverent British comedy “DEATH AT A FUNERAL.” Directed by Frank Oz (The Muppet Movie, In & Out) and featuring a cast made up of the cream of Britain’s crop, the film mischievously explores what happens on the day when a typically divided family is finally forced to come to terms with each other’s – bad behavior, outrageous faults, skeletons in the closet and all.
On the morning of their father’s funeral, the family and friends of the deceased each arrive with his or her own roiling anxieties. Son Daniel (MATTHEW MACFADYEN) knows he will have to face his flirty, blow-hard, famous-novelist brother Robert (RUPERT GRAVES) who’s just flown in from New York, not to mention the promises of a new life he’s made to his wife Jane (KEELY HAWES). Meanwhile, Daniel’s cousin Martha (DAISY DONOVAN) and her dependable new fiancé Simon (ALAN TUDYK) are desperate to make a good impression on Martha’s uptight father – a plan that literally goes out the window when Simon accidentally ingests a designer drug en route to the service, leaving him prone to uncontrollable bouts of delirium and nudity in front of his potential in-laws.
Then comes the real shocker: a mysterious guest (that midget, PETER DINKLAGE) who threatens to unveil an earth-shattering family secret. As riotous mayhem and unfortunate mishaps ensue on every front, it is now up to the two brothers to hide the truth from their family and friends and figure out how to not only bury their dearly beloved, but the secret he’s been keeping – a “Death At A Funeral.”
STARRING: Matthew Macfayden, Rupert Graves, Peter Dinklage, Alan Tudyk, Daisy Donovan, Kris Marshall, Andy Nyman, Jane Asher
DIRECTOR: Frank Oz
STUDIO: MGM
RATING: R (For language and drug content)
“The 11th Hour” explores what it will take for humans to make a difference ecologically before it is too late. A variety of leading scientists, thinkers and leaders are interviewed in the film, including Stephen Hawking, former CIA topper James Woolsey and former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. “11th Hour” is a documentary produced and hosted by Leonardo DiCaprio.
STARRING: Leonardo DiCaprio (Narrator, host)
DIRECTORS: Leila Conners Petersen, Nadia Conners
STUDIO: Warner Independent Pictures
RATING: PG (For some mild disturbing images and thematic elements)
In the movie “Rocket Science,” Hal Hefner is an average sophomore at Plainsboro High School in New Jersey. He stutters and suffers the daily indignities of a typical teenager. With only a little encouragement, Hal falls in love with the star of the debate team, Ginny Ryerson and finds himself suddenly immersed in her ultra competitive world of high school debating, with its players, its politics and its own set of rules.
STARRING: Reece Thompson, Anna Kendrick, Vincent Piazza, Nicholas D’Agosto, Aaron Yoo
DIRECTOR: Jeffrey Blitz
STUDIO: Picturehouse
RATING: R (For language and sexual situations)
“Bratz Movie” – The highly popular dolls Bratz finally come alive in “Bratz Movie,” the first live action feature film based on the chic fashion dolls. As the Bratz navigate their way through this story, we will see how the four young women represent honestly, camaraderie and most importantly friendship. As long as they can remember, Yasmin (Nathalia Ramos), Jade (Janel Parrish), Sasha (Logan Browning) and Cloe (Skyler Shaye) have been “BFF” – Best Friends Forever. Inseparable since they first met, the young girls have always supported each other’s individual personalities, talents and fabulous fashion styles. But now as the foursome enter Carry Nation High, Yasmin, Jade, Sasha and Cloe face a brand new world: a blackboard jungle, where for the first time they discover life as a teenager means dealing with a system of social cliques, all strictly enforced by senior Meredith Baxter Dimly. Finding themselves being pulled further and further apart, the girls band together and rise up as “the Bratz” to fight peer pressure, in turn learning how true empowerment means standing up for your friends, being true to oneself and living out one’s dreams & aspirations – “Bratz Movie.”
STARRING: Chelsea Staub, Anneliese van der Pol, Malese Jow, Stephan Lunsford, Jon Voight
DIRECTOR: Sean McNamara
STUDIO: Lionsgate Films
RATING: PG (For mild language)
