Now Showing Saturday, November 7, through Friday, November 13

Key: Critic's Choice, Recommended, New and Free

(Untitled) As any New Yorker cartoonist can tell you, avant-garde artists present a wide target for mockery, and this dark comedy by screenwriters Jonathan Parker and … Pipers Alley and Renaissance Place

Afghan Star After the people of Afghanistan voted to lift restrictions on public singing and dancing in 2004, the independent Tolo TV channel, inevitably perhaps, launched a … Gene Siskel Film Center

African Adventure 3D: Safari in the Okavango A nature documentary (2007) on the Okavango Delta, the remnants of an ancient lake in the Kalahari Desert where plant and animal life abound. Ben … Navy Pier IMAX Theatre

All That Heaven Allows A masterpiece (1955) by one of the most inventive and recondite directors ever to work in Hollywood, Douglas Sirk. The story (which Rainer Werner Fassbinder … Gene Siskel Film Center

Amelia With any luck this biopic of Amelia Earhart will also vanish without a trace. Hilary Swank is sorely miscast as the legendary aviator, who disappeared … Crown Village 18, Niles ShowPlace 12, Renaissance Place and River East 21

Ann Arbor Film Festival Tour 2009 An annual showcase of experimental, documentary, animation, and narrative shorts by independent filmmakers. Film Row Cinema, Columbia College

Antichrist This grueling psychodrama by Lars von Trier (Dogville, Breaking the Waves) is the sort of movie that dares you not to take it seriously—it’s dedicated … Music Box

Arch of Repose and On Falling . . . Directed by Jan Bartoszek, founder of Hedwig Dances, Arch of Repose is a collaborative effort with composer Carol Genetti and "unfolds in a series of … Music Box

Astro Boy Osamu Tezuka’s groundbreaking 60s anime series gets a stylish CGI update in this sci-fi animation. A scientist (given voice by Nicolas Cage), distraught over the … Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, Gardens 7-13, Logan, Norridge, Pickwick and Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings

Black Gold If that $2 cup of Starbucks didn't jolt you awake, this documentary by Marc and Nick Francis might do the trick: zigzagging from the bright … DuSable Museum of African American History

Bliss Movies dealing with the Islamist subjugation of women are usually documentaries or bleak social dramas, so I was somewhat taken aback to see the idea … Gene Siskel Film Center

Broadway Bill Not exactly a lost film or an uncovered masterpiece, but still a pretty good indication of what Frank Capra (and some of his most talented … Univ. of Chicago Doc Films

Bruno After taking America by surprise with Borat (2006), Sacha Baron Cohen returns in another guise as the flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion model Bruno. Inevitably, this … Univ. of Chicago Doc Films

Capitalism: A Love Story Michael Moore catalogs some of the more grotesque outrages of the second Gilded Age: the predatory lending that led to the 2008 bank bailout, corporations … Highland Park and Landmark's Century Centre

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Tim Burton finally fulfills the promise of Beetlejuice (1988) with this imaginative masterpiece, adapted from the 1964 children's book by Roald Dahl but characterized by … Gene Siskel Film Center

Chelsea on the Rocks Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant) directed this 2008 documentary on the Chelsea Hotel, the legendary New York establishment that's hosted countless rockers, actors, and other artists. … Pipers Alley

A Christmas Carol Robert Zemeckis applies the 3-D motion-capture animation of Beowulf (2007) and The Polar Express (2004) to the well-worn Charles Dickens tale (19 screen adaptations and … 600 N. Michigan, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Davis, Ford City, Gardens 1-6, Gardens 7-13, New 400, Niles ShowPlace 12, Norridge, Pickwick, River East 21 and Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings

A Christmas Carol 3D Robert Zemeckis applies the 3-D motion-capture animation of Beowulf (2007) and The Polar Express (2004) to the well-worn Charles Dickens tale (19 screen adaptations and … Century 12 and CineArts 6, Cicero ShowPlace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Lake, Niles ShowPlace 12, River East 21, Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings and Webster Place 11

A Christmas Carol: An IMAX 3D Experience Robert Zemeckis applies the 3-D motion-capture animation of Beowulf (2007) and The Polar Express (2004) to the well-worn Charles Dickens tale (19 screen adaptations and … Navy Pier IMAX Theatre

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant Two teenage pals turn into vampires and prove too cool for school in this rousing adaptation of Darren Shan’s popular young-adult novels. Hell-raising Josh Hutcherson … Chatham 14, Ford City, Norridge and Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings

Classic Jazz Performances Performance footage of Jimmy Dorsey (1940), the Charlie Barnet Orchestra (1947), and jazz vocalists Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan at the 1962 Newport Jazz Festival. Northbrook Public Library

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs A lumpy stew of weak characterization, lame gags, ADD-afflicted storytelling, and dazzling visual invention, this computer-generated kid flick concerns a nerdy young inventor (voiced by … Gardens 1-6, Logan and River East 21

Coco Before Chanel Fashion is so consistently portrayed as a measure of money and status that one can easily forget it’s a means of personal expression, which may … Century 12 and CineArts 6, Landmark's Century Centre, Renaissance Place and River East 21

Couples Retreat A more helpful title for this date movie would have been Couples, Retreat! Vince Vaughn and Malin Akerman play a husband and wife sucked into … 600 N. Michigan, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Gardens 1-6, Gardens 7-13, Logan, Niles ShowPlace 12, River East 21, Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings and Webster Place 11

An Education In London during the early 60s, a precocious 16-year-old schoolgirl (Carey Mulligan) is seduced by a middle-aged grifter (Peter Sarsgaard) so good at his game … Century 12 and CineArts 6, Landmark's Century Centre and Renaissance Place

Festival of New Spanish Cinema See sidebar. Facets Cinematheque

For the Love of Movies Gene Siskel Film Center

The Fourth Kind Alaskan psychologist Milla Jovovich persuades fellow shrink Elias Koteas that most of their patients have been traumatized by extraterrestrial kidnappers, but local lawman Will Patton … 600 N. Michigan, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, Gardens 1-6, Niles ShowPlace 12, Norridge, River East 21, Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings and Webster Place 11

From the East (D'est) Chantal Akerman's haunting 1993 masterpiece documents without commentary or dialogue her several-months-long trip from east Germany to Moscow—a tough and formally rigorous inventory of what … Univ. of Chicago Film Studies Center

God's Smile, or the Odessa Story A Chicago student travels to Odessa, Ukraine to retrieve his ailing grandfather's cat and is transported back in time to 1954, where he competes with … Gene Siskel Film Center

Good Hair Prompted by his young daughter’s innocent question—“Daddy, how come don’t I have good hair?”—comedian Chris Rock investigates the multibillion-dollar black hair-care industry, a topic that … Chatham 14 and Pipers Alley

The Hangover Todd Phillips is no artist, but his lowbrow comedies (Road Trip, Old School) always hit the mark because they're so psychologically true: the superego tries … the Vic

The Horse Boy In this rotely inspirational documentary by first-time director Michel O. Scott, hippie travel writer Rupert Isaacson and his psychologist wife, Kristin Neff, take their four-year-old … Music Box

Horse Feathers It's Darwin versus Huxley, but in the world of the Marx Brothers, man descends on a fireman's pole. This 1932 release was the first Marx … Northbrook Public Library

The House of the Devil Sam is a pretty college sophomore, so desperate to earn some cash for a deposit on an apartment that she accepts a babysitting job … Music Box

The Hurt Locker Kathryn Bigelow's heart-stopping Iraq war drama follows a U.S. army bomb squad around Baghdad as it defuses IEDs, a job that places the men in … Univ. of Chicago Doc Films

In the Loop Adapted from the BBC series The Thick of It, this enormously witty satire follows a British diplomatic staff as they fly to Washington to confer … Highland Park

The Informant! The exclamation point is the whole problem. Adapted from Kurt Eichenwald's nonfiction book, this fact-based farce tells the story of Mark Whitacre, a high-ranking Archer … Gardens 7-13 and Highland Park

Inglourious Basterds Quentin Tarantino’s long-awaited action flick isn’t a World War II movie—it’s a movie about World War II movies and, by extension, how the Third Reich … Pipers Alley and the Vic

The Insider Based on Marie Brenner's 1996 Vanity Fair article “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” this 1999 docudrama exposes Big Tobacco with low-key fervor. It resists … Univ. of Chicago Doc Films

Invasion of the Body Snatchers Phil Kaufman's version of the Don Siegel SF classic is good as remakes go, but (why does it seem needless to say “needless to say”?) … Univ. of Chicago Doc Films

The Invention of Lying In an alternate reality where everyone tells the truth, Ricky Gervais learns the art of lying, a talent that gives him a considerable edge over … Highland Park

Johnny Guitar Nicholas Ray's great sur-western (1954, 110 min.), in which, as Francois Truffaut put it, the cowboys circle and die like ballerinas. For all its violence, … Music Box

Julie & Julia Writer-director Nora Ephron combines two cooking memoirs, Julia Child's My Life in France and Julie Powell's Julie and Julia, stirring briskly to keep them from … River East 21

Law Abiding Citizen Generally I don’t mind a little recreational fascism as long as it’s deep-fried in savory violent vengeance, but this overwrought mess gives vigilantism a bad … Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, Gardens 1-6, Lake, Niles ShowPlace 12, Norridge, River East 21, Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings and Webster Place 11

Lorna's Silence Terse and unsentimental, the movies of Belgian brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (La Promesse, Rosetta, The Son, L’Enfant) show a working-class world cruelly governed by … Tivoli Theatre

The Men Who Stare at Goats Inspired by Jon Ronson's nonfiction book, this genial but ultimately plodding farce looks at the bizarre outer reaches of the U.S. army's psychological operations. A … Century 12 and CineArts 6, Cicero ShowPlace 14, Crown Village 18, Davis, Gardens 7-13, Lake, New 400, Niles ShowPlace 12, Norridge, Pickwick, River East 21 and Webster Place 11

Mississippi Mermaid Francois Truffaut's free adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's masochistically doom-ridden Waltz Into Darkness, in 'Scope and color, yields an unsuccessful but sympathetic exploration of the filmmaker's … Univ. of Chicago Doc Films

Muppets Music Moments Musical numbers from The Muppet Show, with Harry Belafonte, Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, and others. 75 min. Gene Siskel Film Center

The Muppets Take Manhattan The Muppets' enjoyable third feature (1984) has Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the gang storming New York in search of a producer willing to give them … Gene Siskel Film Center

New York, I Love You French producer Emmanuel Benbihy refines the concept of his anthology film Paris, Je T’Aime (2006) with this valentine to New York, using recurring characters and … 600 N. Michigan, Highland Park and Landmark's Century Centre

Ong Bak 2: The Beginning Tony Jaa codirected and starred in this 2008 martial arts film about a young Thai boxer. In Thai with subtitles. R, 115 min. Music Box

Paranormal Activity Things go bump in the night for 99 minutes in this microbudget horror movie by Israeli immigrant Oren Peli. Harassed in their house by an … 600 N. Michigan, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, Lake, Niles ShowPlace 12, Norridge, River East 21, Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings and Webster Place 11

Polish Film Festival in America See sidebar. Facets Cinematheque

The Political Education of Maggie Lauterer Paul Stekler directed this 1996 documentary about the trials of an inexperienced politician running for Congress in North Carolina. 87 min. Collins Hall, Columbia College

Polyester John Waters tried to parlay his shrewdly developed media image as the master of bad taste into mass-market success with this 1981 parody of the … Delilah's

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire With Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey as executive producers, this drama about an obese, illiterate black teen in Harlem practically guarantees some emotional uplift. But … Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, City North 14, Ford City and River East 21

Public Enemies In his best seller Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34, Bryan Burrough set out to dispel the gangster … Univ. of Chicago Doc Films

Return to Waterloo Ray Davies of the Kinks wrote and directed this 1984 rock opera for British television. 60 min. Delilah's

Revisiting Hollis Frampton and Friends A program of experimental shorts from renowned avant-garde filmmaker Hollis Frampton, including Manual of Arms (1966), Artificial Light (1969), and Snowblind (1968). 75 min. Northwestern Univ. Block Museum of Art

Saw VI Will you look at the time? Why, it's already Saw VI! Kevin Gruetert, editor of the first five installments, directed. R, 90 min. 600 N. Michigan, Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, Norridge, River East 21 and Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings

The September Issue There’s something fishy about a documentary that takes its cues from a fictional movie, and this glitzy, lightweight effort, which tracks the five-month genesis of … Pipers Alley

A Serious Man After the unbridled misanthropy of Burn After Reading, Joel and Ethan Coen return to the more affectionate tone of their most endearing films (Fargo, The … Century 12 and CineArts 6, Crown Village 18, Lake, Landmark's Century Centre, Renaissance Place and River East 21

Stavisky... Alain Resnais' comeback in 1974 after five years' absence (precipitated by the commercial failure of Je t'aime, je t'aime), and like many other of his … Gene Siskel Film Center

The Stepfather Whereas the 1987 horror hit The Stepfather was top-notch drive-in fare, this perfunctory retread has a tame, made-for-TV feel, and not just because the humdrum … Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, Gardens 1-6, Niles ShowPlace 12, River East 21 and Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings

Sweet Smell of Success The characters of Alexander Mackendrick's 1957 Manhattan melodrama look as if they'd melt if exposed to sunlight. Burt Lancaster, a nightclub columnist, wants to break … Northwestern Univ. Block Museum of Art

This Is It Michael Jackson rehearses for his ill-fated comeback tour in this behind-the-scenes documentary, culled from more than a hundred hours of personal work tapes. Sony is … 600 N. Michigan, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Davis, Ford City, Gardens 1-6, Gardens 7-13, Lake, New 400, Niles ShowPlace 12, Norridge, River East 21, Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings and Webster Place 11

Touch of Evil Eternal damnation to the wretch at Universal who printed the opening titles over the most brilliant establishing shot in film history—a shot that establishes not … Northwestern Univ. Block Museum of Art

True Stories Talking Heads lead singer David Byrne sifted through the supermarket tabloids to come up with this 1986 assemblage of “true life” anecdotes about small-town bizarreness … Univ. of Chicago Doc Films

Variable Area: Hearing and Seeing Sound, 1966-78 Screening as part of the Experimental Sound Studio's Outer Ear Festival of Sound, this program focuses on "films that examine the relationship of avant-garde cinema … Gene Siskel Film Center

The Wall Directed by Jurgen Bottcher, this 1990 documentary looks at the Berlin Wall before and after its collapse. In German with subtitles. 96 min. Goethe-Institut Chicago

Where the Wild Things Are For anyone who grew up with Maurice Sendak’s magical 1963 picture book, the idea of its slim story being pumped up into a live-action Hollywood … 600 N. Michigan, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Cicero ShowPlace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, Gardens 7-13, Lake, New 400, Niles ShowPlace 12, Pickwick, River East 21, Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings and Webster Place 11

Witness for the Prosecution Billy Wilder's 1957 adaptation of Agatha Christie's famous stage thriller. The artificial plotting is all Christie's, but the film eventually becomes Wilder's—thanks to a trick … Univ. of Chicago Doc Films

Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love Singer Youssou N’Dour, a hero in his native Senegal and a major figure in world music, is the subject of this 2008 documentary. Director Chai … Chatham 14

Zombieland Scattershot but sharp, this postapocalyptic road comedy gives Shaun of the Dead a run for its money. Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland, The Squid and the Whale) … City North 14, Crown Village 18, Logan, River East 21 and Showplace 14 - Galewood Crossings