Philadelphia Film Festival Shorts

Week One Reviews (A-L)

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Published: Apr 4, 2007

Click for movies titled M-Z.

Following are reviews of movies, titled A-L (click here for M-Z), premiering in the first week of the Philadelphia Film Festival, April 5-11. Up to the day of the show, tickets may be purchased in person at TLA Video locations (11 a.m.-10 p.m.), by phone at 267-765-9700, ext. 701 (10 a.m.-9 p.m.), and online at www.phillyfests.org (up to 24 hours in advance). Same-day tickets are available only at the screening venue. Single ticket prices are $9-$10, $7-$8 for matinees until 4 p.m., and $7 for children 12 and under. Service fees may apply.

Denotes a movie recommended by City Paper critics.
Denotes a highly recommended movie.

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After the Wedding

In the spirit of Danish director Susanne Bier's recent films, After the Wedding juggles themes of honesty, difficult decisions and personal dilemmas. Focusing on the idea that the best surprises are those we're least prepared for, the film journeys to a struggling orphanage in India run by a fiercely devoted Dane (Mads Mikkelsen), who says he'll "never leave the children." He considers returning to Copenhagen only when a mysterious benefactor offers him a great sum of money that could ultimately save his orphanage. Told with bone-dry realism and a shaky camera, Mikkelsen meets the arrogant businessman and is then asked to attend his daughter's wedding; a shattering revelation arises and the Dane is catapulted into an uncoincidental juncture of past and future, and a family he never knew existed. —Amy Strauss (Sat., April 7, 7 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.)

August the First

The debut feature from Jersey-born filmmaker Lanre Olabisi draws on the director's Nigerian roots, but fails to flesh out its ideas beyond what feels like a first draft. The film takes place entirely during a graduation party for Tunde (Ian Alsup), the youngest son of an American mother and a Nigerian father, who left the family a decade prior. Unbeknownst to his unwelcoming siblings, Tunde has invited his father to the party, hoping to accompany him back to Africa. The father's hidden motives are the crux of the film, but aren't mysterious or surprising enough to sustain the narrative as family dramas erupt around the house. —Shaun Brady (Fri., April 6, 7:15 p.m., International House, 3701 Chestnut St., scheduled appearance by director or other guest; Sat., April 7, 5 p.m., National Constitution Center, Kirby Auditorium, Sixth and Arch sts., scheduled appearance by director or other guest)

Between Love and Hate

What lies Between Love and Hate? A lot of smashed bottles and slapped faces, as lovers Youn-ah (played marvelously by Jang Jin-Young) and Young-woon (Kim Seung-Woo) fight and yell their way through a four-year relationship kept secret from Young-woon's fiancée — miraculously, it would seem, considering all of the public rages. (The movie is, however, quite stingy with makeup sex.) Maybe it's the poor subtitling, but the scenes of Young-woon and his no-good friends carousing start to seem the same, and why would complicated, fiery Youn-ah let her heart get broken by someone who's good at hitting his stuttering brother but can't stand up to his mother when she sets the date for his wedding on the sly? —Rachel Frankford (Fri., April 6, 2:30 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.; Sat., April 7, 4:30 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.; Sun., April 8, 7 p.m., The Bridge: Cinema DeLuxe, 4012 Walnut St.)

Beyond the Walls: The Road to Redemption

The face of violent crime isn't just that of the murdered — it's their families, friends and killers, too. When the walls of poverty and racism rise up everywhere, it takes great strength to turn anger into a force for good. In Beyond the Walls, eight Philadelphians who've been affected by violent crime join together to break the cycle. These people are not actors; their pain is real, and their strength is an inspiration. Victims, families and ex-convicts who shared the stage at the Philadelphia Cathedral in 2005 are now sharing the screen in this powerful blend of documentary and spoken-word performance. Originally produced as a play by TOVA Artistic Projects for Social Change, Beyond the Walls is a moving testament to the power of forgiveness and the possibility of progress. —Mary Wilson (Wed., April 11, 9:15 p.m., International House, 3701 Chestnut St.)

Big Dreams Little Tokyo

Big Dreams follows the tribulations of recent college grad Boyd Wilson (writer/director Dave Boyle), the luckless CEO of his own upstart enterprise. Along the way, he falls in love with a peppy nurse (Rachel Morihiro) and ropes his friends — a sumo wrestler wannabe (Jayson Watabe) and a Mexican cook in a Japanese restaurant (Drew Knight) — into working for him. Unfortunately, Boyle lacks Wes Andersen's self-assuredness, and the more absurdist humor he borrows from Rushmore (another ode to overachieving underdogs), the more his film gets lost in translation. —Mickey Jou (Wed., April 11, 2:30 p.m., The Bridge: Cinema DeLuxe, 4012 Walnut St., scheduled appearance by director or other guest; Thu., April 12, 9:15 p.m., The Bridge: Cinema DeLuxe, 4012 Walnut St.)

The Boss of It All

Lars von Trier appears reflected in window glass at the outset of his latest, arguing that "the film won't be worth a moment's reflection." Of course, the Danish provocateur can never be taken at his word, but the lightweight comedy shows little depth, even if it does start out Brechtian and deconstruct from there. The in-joke-laden script ("Life is a Dogme film — the words are hard to hear but still important") is a parody of the director's famously hostile relationship with actors, but it is another formal experiment that truly draws attention: All decisions on framing and camera movement were made by a computer in a process called Automavision, creating a jump-mad multitude of cuts that keep audiences alert and searching the constantly shifting frame. —S.B. (Sat., April 7, 5 p.m., Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St.; Sun., April 8, 7:15 p.m., Ritz Five, 214 Walnut St.)

The Bothersome Man

Forty-year-old Andreas (Trond Fausa Aurvaag) is mysteriously dropped off in a strange dystopia, a blue-gray world of sterility and disconnection where nothing tastes like anything and everyone's perfectly "nice." While most in this town are satisfied with banal dinner parties and lunch-break debates about IKEA sofas, Andreas longs to break free. Norwegian director Jens Lien's Bothersome is no doubt a commentary on our desensitized, post-modern world — but it's a bit clouded in genre and message. It's evident that for Andreas, though, clouds would certainly be preferable to a clear, complacent sky. —Elisabeth Holm (Fri., April 6, 10 p.m., The Bridge: Cinema DeLuxe, 4012 Walnut St.; Wed., April 11, 5:15 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.)

Boy Culture

Alternately self-doubting and cocky, X (Derek Magyar) narrates his adventures as a prostitute like he wants to be Christina Ricci in The Opposite of Sex. But even as he anticipates your assumptions and works hard to be, well, hard (in all kinds of ways), he's really looking for love. Based on Matthew Rettenmund's novel, Q. , Allan Brocka's movie is clever, but follows a conventional course. X is aided in his pursuit of happiness by familiar types, including his roommates — luscious Andrew (Darryl Stephens) and too-young Joey (Jonathon Trent) — as well as a new regular client, Gregory (Patrick Bauchau). As X juggles yearnings, deceptions and self-delusions, he learns new tricks, too. Predictable as it is, the film is stylish and sometimes smart. —Cindy Fuchs (Fri., April 6, 2:30 p.m., National Constitution Center, Kirby Auditorium, Sixth and Arch sts.; Mon., April 16, 9:30 p.m., Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St.)

The Cats of Mirikitani

Sheltering a homeless Soho artist in the days after 9/11, Linda Hattendorf discovers that her elderly house guest is a Japanese-American who was interned in an American concentration camp during World War II. The movie is named for the spare but colorful feline portraits drawn by Tsutomu (Jimmy) Mirikitani, but his art also depicts his days in California's Tule Lake camp, apparently to the confusion of passers-by. Hattendorf matches the painful uncovering of Mirikitani's past, which includes being pressured by the U.S. government to renounce his citizenship, with a running commentary of news accounts detailing growing hostility toward Arab-Americans. The parallel is cutting, especially when Mirikitani spurns his Social Security benefits because it would mean reaching out to a country that once turned him away. Tragic, heartwarming and deeply maddening, Mirikitani's story is an object lesson in the price of racial profiling on a massive scale. —Sam Adams (Fri., April 6, 7:15 p.m., National Constitution Center, Kirby Auditorium, Sixth and Arch sts., scheduled appearance by director or other guest; Tue., April 10, 7 p.m., International House, 3701 Chestnut St., scheduled appearance by director or other guest)

Change Of Address

Romantic comedies? Cute. Romantic comedies in French? Totally adorable. But even in the land of croissants and berets, movies of this genre follow a tried-and-true formula. Change of Address is no exception, but it makes up for its cliches with likable leads, namely French horn instructor David (Emmanuel Mouret, who also wrote and directed the film) and Anne (Frederique Bel), a flighty blonde seeking a roommate. Anne tricks David into moving in with her, and they quickly compromise their living arrangement by sleeping together. The duo is fun to watch, especially when they trade stories about their respective love interests. (David claims to be in love with his 19-year-old student; Anne pines for a customer at the photocopy shop where she works.) While the story is often predictable and improbable, it's got that certain je ne sais quoi that makes it the ideal date movie. —Erin Brodbeck (Fri., April 6, 5 p.m., Ritz Five, 214 Walnut St.; Mon., April 9, 9:30 p.m., Ritz Five, 214 Walnut St.)

A Comedy of Power

Claude Chabrol's films are inevitably hit-or-miss prospects; his lean, efficient style ends up being claustrophobic for his characters or his audience, as in this stiflingly cataleptic procedural. Based on the Elf Aquitaine scandal (a French Enron — just add mistresses), Power offers little more than the prospect of Isabelle Huppert putting the screws to a series of cartoonishly corrupt execs. The particulars of the case are left to confused generalities, as Chabrol is more concerned with the case's effects on Huppert's home life; unfortunately, what's left offscreen seems more thrilling than what's let on. —S.B. (Wed., April 11, 7:30 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.; Sat., April 14, 2:30 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.)

Comrades in Dreams

This engaging, meditative documentary looks at the significance cinema plays in small and often isolated communities around the world. Director Uli Gaulke focuses on a woman-run propaganda cinema in agrarian North Korea, a wildly popular movie tent in India, a burgeoning open-air theater in Burkina Faso and an old-school movie house in rural Wyoming called The Flick. We also meet the owners of these establishments, who are equally passionate about their work. Though the film never advances beyond its basic premise, it's a fascinating comment on the enduring appeal of the big screen. —Elisa Ludwig (Sun., April 8, 5 p.m., National Constitution Center, Kirby Auditorium, Sixth and Arch sts.; Fri., April 13, 7:15 p.m., National Constitution Center, Kirby Auditorium, Sixth and Arch sts.)

Consequences

If you've ever wanted to get back at those oversexed, skirt-chasing, keg-chugging high school jocks but never got around to it, Cherry Hill native Stephen M. Stahl's low-budget gory thriller does it for you. Five childhood friends, four with wives at home, reunite in Philly for an Eagles game and some womanizing — until they suddenly get tangled up in the visceral shock-film business. Shackles, strap-ons and high-voltage sex toys are just the beginning. Even though the dialogue is dull and as embarrassingly cliched as a sophomore's creative writing assignment, Consequences makes up for it with gritty scenes of the city, nightmarish bloodstained settings and plenty of drawn-out suspense. —Tom Namako (Sat., April 7, 9:45 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St., scheduled appearance by director or other guest; Mon., April 9, 5 p.m., Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St.)

Crazy Love

Director Dan Klores' Crazy Love examines the bizarre and incredible 50-year love affair between New Yorkers Burt Pugach and Linda Riss. But don't go Googling the documentary's real-life protagonists before you actually see the film; the story's suspenseful twists and turns will surprise you. Made with old photographs, home videos and recent interviews, Crazy lacks a strong sense of direction and pace, but it more than compensates with its wacky-but-true tale of one man's obsessive — and indeed crazy — love for a woman. —Termeh Mazhari (Sun., April 8, 7:15 p.m., National Constitution Center, Kirby Auditorium, Sixth and Arch sts., scheduled appearance by director or other guest; Thu., April 12, 7 p.m., Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 Lancaster Ave.)

A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash

What if the world's oil supply runs out? Critical for transportation, food production and the economy, oil is our most important nonrenewable resource; and yet our exploitation of it has caused it to rapidly diminish. In a frenzied search for alternative energy sources, directors Basil Gelpke, Reto Caduff and Ray McCormack probe multinational energy corps for answers. Responses are sung to the tune of "Oil is the instrument of the devil"; "Money doesn't make the world go around — cheap energy readily available does"; and "Only one-tenth of the world's population will be able to afford future transportation." We can't play stupid any longer, and Crude's scientific experts force us to face the sucked-dry facts. —A.S. (Wed., April 11, 7 p.m., The Bridge: Cinema DeLuxe, 4012 Walnut St., scheduled appearance by director or other guest; Fri., April 13, 5 p.m., National Constitution Center, Kirby Auditorium, Sixth and Arch sts.)

Cruel Winter Blues

Cruel Winter Blues pokes at the eternal question posed by every mob film: Do the crooks have hearts? Turns out they do — they just beat at a different pace. Kyung-gu Sol plays Jae-moon, a temperamental gangster scumbag who vows to avenge the slaughter of a colleague. He travels to the murderer's rural hometown with reluctant underling Chi Guk (Han-seon Jo), but the plan is complicated by Jae-moon's odd bond with a lonely restaurant owner (Mun-hee Na) — his target's mother. Jeong-beom Lee excels at peppering his clean-lined photography with methods from South Korea's resurgent noir movement — atmospheric devices like heavy, sudden rain act as harbingers of malevolence. But a harried, too-twisted Greek tragedy of a third act weakens what is an otherwise tactful take on loyalty, filial or otherwise. —Drew Lazor (Sun., April 8, 4:30 p.m., The Bridge: Cinema DeLuxe, 4012 Walnut St.; Mon., April 9, 7 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.; Tue., April 10, 9:30 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.)

The Curse Of William Penn

Kevin Bacon's dad, erstwhile Philadelphia City Planner Edmund Bacon, warned against it. And ever since 1984, when Liberty Place was contracted to tower over Billy Penn, the city has not won a single major sports championship (and Smarty Jones lost the Belmont). Assembled by Phrustrated Phans (Bob Marcolina, Mikaelyn Austin and Dan Borkson), this documentary is disorganized and repetitive (even at 62 minutes), but also earnest and enthusiastic. Whether remembering that hoary Santa-snowballed story or marveling at Rocky's endurance, interviewees (including Stephen A. Smith, Angelo Cataldi, Pat Croce and assorted fans) weigh in on why the management/luck/teams/fans/run have been so bad for 22 years. —C.F. (Fri., April 6, 9:30 p.m., Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St., scheduled appearance by director or other guest; Sun., April 8, 4:30 p.m., International House, 3701 Chestnut St., scheduled appearance by director or other guest)

Day Night Day Night

An unnamed young woman (Luisa Williams) spends most of Julia Loktev's feature preparing to blow herself up in Times Square. Shot in off-center close-ups by Benoit Debie (Irreversible, Innocence), the movie is sparing with further details: The masked figures who prepare her for detonation are conspicuously multiracial, and the movie cuts away as she prepares to record a videotaped statement of purpose. Too often, Loktev tries to pass off coy evasion as abstract rigor; if she really wants to remove discussion of suicide bombers from its most obvious context, why do the bomber's preparations so closely mimic those of Islamic extremists, right down to the ritual ablution and shaving of body hair? Why, for that matter, make New York the target? Williams' performance is the only warm spot, bringing out a very teenage obliviousness that cuts against the movie's fatalistic chill. —S.A. (Sun., April 8, 4:45 p.m., Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St.; Tue., April 10, 2:15 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.)

A Dirty Carnival

If it has the ultra-violence of a Korean gangster flick and the drunken karaoke singing of a Korean gangster flick, then it must be a Korean gangster flick, right? Sort of. A Dirty Carnival has the goods to make it into the gangster canon, but casting a film director who interviews gangsters for research for his new film indicates that the film shouldn't be labeled by the genre it explores. Instead, it's a tragedy depicting the underlying class struggles of gangsterhood and the tensions between reality and artistic representation. In any case, Carnival blows its load quickly — the epic gang war fought with baseball bats and knives in the mud takes place within the first 15 minutes — to allow ample room for the protagonist's tragic ambition to grow and strangle him along with everything he loves. —Sam Tremble (Wed., April 11, 4:30 p.m., Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St.; Fri., April 13, 5 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.; Sun., April 15, 9:30 p.m., The Bridge: Cinema DeLuxe, 4012 Walnut St.)

End of the Line

In the most famous line of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, a character remarks: "They're us." In End of the Line, they are, indeed, us — perhaps after watching way too much Jerry Falwell. A group of late-night subway riders encounter a strange crew of frumpy white people in tan shirts who, after receiving a mysterious page, whip out crucifix-daggers and start slashing away. No, it's not a new SEPTA pass perk. Instead, the gore-soaked assault seems to be the work of a religious celebri-zealot who believes that the only way to save people from Armageddon and a subsequent infestation of demons is to re-enact several key scenes from Friday the 13th. (And speak dialogue as wooden as the True Cross.) Much blood is spilled in the name of Jesus, and in proper slasher-flick tradition, the cast shrinks at the rough rate of one per five minutes of screen time. Still, director Maurice Deveraux offers up a fresh take on the escape-from-the-rabid-dead subgenre, showcasing monsters who are not rotting corpses jonesin' for brains, but misguided members of the middle class, trying to do what they fervently believe is right. (Well, mostly.) And the kicker is... who's to say they're not? —Duane Swierczynski (Sat., April 7, 9:30 p.m., National Constitution Center, Kirby Auditorium, Sixth and Arch sts.; Mon., April 16, 7:15 p.m., The Bridge: Cinema DeLuxe, 4012 Walnut St.)

Fair play

Fair Play assumes that life is a game and succeeds to startling effect in proving that, in corporate France, the converse is true, as well. In the final canyoneering (you know, for fraternité) scene, pain is a truth serum that threatens to destroy the rules and shatter the boundary between sport and real life. The lousy subtitles are the only unintentional addition to the constant tension — struggling to figure out what the hell is going on and read white subtitles against a waterfall while Charles (Eric Savin) tries to intimidate Nicole (Marion Cotillard) into withdrawing her sexual harassment suit isn't nearly as rewarding as watching Alex welt his boss with a racquetball after proclaiming he's slept with his wife in an attempt to keep his job. —S.T. (Wed., April 11, 2:30 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.; Fri., April 13, 2:30 p.m., The Bridge: Cinema DeLuxe, 4012 Walnut St.; Mon., April 16, 7:15 p.m., Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St.)

Fantasia

There's a slight eat-your-vegetables quality to Walt Disney's 1940 omnibus. Marrying animated vignettes to classical tunes, the movie feels like a forerunner of the "Classical Baby" series, a way to trick kids into imbibing culture. As an impressionistic response to music, it pales beside Chuck Jones' "What's Opera, Doc?" to say nothing of Norman McLaren's live-wire animations. But for sheer golden-age craftsmanship, it's a constant wonder, in some ways the high-water mark of the Disney animators. The Philadelphia Orchestra's score is equally impressive, especially coupled with the star treatment given conductor Leopold Stokowski, so famous at the time that the movie's ads gave him above-the-title treatment. —S.A. (Fri., April 6, 6:45 p.m., Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St., scheduled appearance by director or other guest)

Fay Grim

Hal Hartley's sequel to Henry Fool minimizes the mannered philosophical rants for a spy-film parody that treats post-9/11 geopolitics with the director's trademark ironic deadpan. As the title suggests, this installment moves the focus to Parker Posey, who deftly handles the transition from the original's shiftless nymphomaniac to overwhelmed mother and reluctant femme fatale with her unique, awkward grace, and carries the film even when it gets bogged down in muddled plot. Grim also benefits from the presence of Jeff Goldblum, whose off-kilter cadences fit snugly into Hartley's milieu, and Thomas Jay Ryan, reprising Henry in a fierce if too-brief cameo. —S.B. (Sat., April 7, 5 p.m., The Bridge: Cinema DeLuxe, 4012 Walnut St.; Sun., April 8, 7 p.m., Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St.)

Feel

Four men converge on an NYC massage parlor one afternoon for a bit of the old rub-and-tug. They've each been assigned a Japanese masseuse, seemingly based on Fantasy Island rules of getting what you deserve: Old Widower gets the youngest woman; Rich Guy gets the budding entrepreneur; Lonely Chauvinist gets the woman with body image issues (who's also secretly a psych researcher); and Henpecked Salesman gets the temptress (or would, if he ever finds the courage to show up for his appointment). Written, directed and edited by music video director Matt Mahurin, Feel is slow-moving but polished, well acted and often charming. That it becomes something of a love story may not be surprising given the subject industry's penchant for happy endings. —Ryan Godfrey (Sat., April 7, 7:15 p.m., National Constitution Center, Kirby Auditorium, Sixth and Arch sts., scheduled appearance by director or other guest; Mon., April 9, 4:30 p.m., Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 Lancaster Ave., scheduled appearance by director or other guest)

The Guardian's Son

After a prank for his Candid Camera-style show goes awry, Markos ends up trapped in his parents' remote village in the Pindos Mountains of Greece. The village is dying; all but the old and a few misfits have left for the cities, and those who remain know very well they are the last inhabitants. Everything that ought to happen in a movie about the death of traditional rural life happens, as do a few deeply weird episodes of dress-up. At the end, we know the blank-faced and baffled Markos has been changed by his stint in the village of his ancestors because he got all broody and doesn't want to party with his fat, cheerful friend. —R.F. (Fri., April 6, 3 p.m., The Bridge: Cinema DeLuxe, 4012 Walnut St.; Sat., April 7, 2:15 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.)

Hula Girls

Based on the true story of a Hawaiian resort that opened in a Japanese coal-mining village, Hula Girls follows the Full Monty/Calendar Girls formula — small-town sorts undertaking an unlikely enterprise despite small-town moral objections. Where its models get by on cheeky Brit humor, the Japanese substitute cutesy sentimentality. Along the way, minds are sure to be opened, bonds formed and tragedies faced (Has there ever been a movie set in a mining town where there isn't a collapse?), all in the name of pulling the most giving of heartstrings. —S.B. (Fri., April 6, 5:30 p.m., The Bridge: Cinema DeLuxe, 4012 Walnut St.; Sat., April 7, 9:30 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.)

I Don't Want To Sleep Alone

The first film Ming-liang Tsai has made in his native Malaysia is a gorgeous, gentle meditation on violence, desire and the pains of intimacy. The filmmaker's signature compositions — stationary camera, lush color, enticing shadows — frame intersecting stories and diverse backgrounds. Beaten by thugs in Kuala Lumpur, homeless Hsiao-kang (Kang-sheng Lee) is nurtured by Bangladeshi worker Rawang (Norman Bin Atun), then seduced by waitress Chyi (Shiang-chyi Chen) and her cranky employer (Pearlly Chua). As the city air grows thick with heat and perspiration, the film gradually exposes delicate but undeniable connections where they would otherwise seem impossible. —C.F. (Sun., April 8, 12:30 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.; Mon., April 9, 7:15 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.)

Invisible Waves

As a leading man, Asano Tadanobu possesses a magnetism that wants no part of your boorish American refrigerator door. Sad, then, that Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's Invisible Waves sticks him in an arthouse hamster wheel. Tadanobu plays Kyoji, a cook who happens to be screwing his superior's wife. The affair ends when his boss orders Kyoji to kill his spouse, a deed for which he is "rewarded" with a cruise to Phuket. Kyoji is eventually tripped up by intrigue, but any momentum is squelched by Ratanaruang's insistence on using long, panning shots of inanimate objects. The director approaches deep focus as a discipline instead of a technique, burdening what little action there is with impassive shots that are more concerned with the walls than the characters they house. —D.L. (Fri., April 6, 5 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.; Sun., April 8, 7:30 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.)

Just Sex and Nothing Else

After the humiliating discovery that her boyfriend is married, 32-year-old Dora (Hungarian actress Judith Schell) gives up on relationships and decides she needs a man for one purpose only: conception. Along with Dora's quest to get pregnant, the story takes in the romantic and sexual troubles of Dora's friends and colleagues at the Budapest theater where she works. The plot doesn't stray too far from romantic-comedic convention, but it's witty and smart like the characters, who, even in moments of broad slapstick, are a refreshing change from the corn-fed buffoons and wriggly anorexics who populate so many Hollywood templates of the same genre. —R.F. (Sun., April 8, 5 p.m., Ritz Five, 214 Walnut St.; Tue., April 10, 9:30 p.m., Ritz Five, 214 Walnut St.)

The King of Kong

Picking up where Sundance entry Chasing Ghosts left off, Seth Gordon's documentary sets up a battle royale between long-reigning Donkey Kong champ Billy Mitchell and newcomer Steve Wiebe. A shifty self-mythologizer with a string of broken records behind him, Mitchell, whose DK record has stood since 1982, styles himself as the king fish in a very small pond, a coven of old-time arcade fanatics who treat Pac-Man records like holy writ. Wiebe, an unemployed family man who took up the game in his garage, makes a natural underdog, particularly as the arcade establishment (yes, there is one) seems to coalesce around their longtime figurehead Mitchell and rebuff Wiebe's efforts to take the crown. Gordon takes too many cheap shots at his subjects' expense (like they need help looking foolish), but the appealing Wiebe makes regaining your self-respect through video games seem like a natural. (Note: Should the movie's ending leave you unsatisfied, try Googling the major players.) —S.A. (Mon., April 9, 7:30 p.m., The Bridge: Cinema DeLuxe, 4012 Walnut St.; Tue., April 17, 9:15 p.m., International House, 3701 Chestnut St.)

Kurt Cobain About A Son

There isn't a single note of Nirvana's music in AJ Schnack's documentary, but Kurt Cobain's voice is present throughout. Narrated by audio from interviews conducted by Rolling Stone writer Michael Azerrad for his Nirvana bio, About a Son reveals and obscures Cobain's personality in much the same way that his songs did. Schnack gathers images from the places where the singer lived, creating a meditative portrait with its subject strangely absent. By depicting the landscape of Cobain's life, the film echoes his protests about the universality of his own story. When Schnack focuses on the faces of bored punks in Aberdeen and bored-er hipsters in Seattle, it's hard to argue the point, and impossible not to. —S.B. (Fri., April 6, 9:30 p.m., International House, 3701 Chestnut St.; Thu., April 12, 2:30 p.m., The Bridge: Cinema DeLuxe, 4012 Walnut St.)

Life Can Be So Wonderful

That title seems to promise weepy affirmations, and the opening shots of leaves and butterflies don't contradict that. But the five vignettes that follow underline the fact that the title offers only a possibility, not a declarative. The seemingly unrelated quintet of tales, mostly impressionistic renderings of emotional moments in life, never lose the melancholy realization that no matter how wonderful it can be, life is definitely going to be short. Each piece manages to find some beauty through its protagonists' eyes, rendering even a drunken back-alley urination something to cherish, given the proper perspective. —S.B. (Sat., April 7, 2:30 p.m., Ritz Five, 214 Walnut St.; Tue., April 10, 2:30 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.)

Life Support

Trudging the streets of Brooklyn on aching feet, a wheeled suitcase full of condoms and sex-ed literature forever at her side, Queen Latifah cuts an imposing swath through writer Nelson George's directorial debut. Working from the story of his sister, an HIV-positive AIDS activist, George crafts an affectionate but rarely glib tribute to indomitable black womanhood, with script assistance from urban neorealists Jim McKay and Hannah Weyer. The movie clearly admires Latifah's Ana, but she's hardly a ghetto saint. Her determination often turns to sudden anger, threatening her relationship with her resentful daughter (Rachel Nicks) and her equally strong-willed mother (Anna Deavere Smith). Watching Latifah and Smith butt heads is one of the movie's great pleasures, allowing vulnerabilities and fears to crack the surface of their inspirational facades. Life Support is cut from familiar cloth, but its resonant performances and pitch-perfect sentimentality lift it above the fray. —S.A. (Fri., April 6, 7:45 p.m., The Bridge: Cinema DeLuxe, 4012 Walnut St.; Sun., April 8, 2:30 p.m., Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.)

Click for movies titled M-Z.

The Little Things

Not unlike the post-collegiate life this movie aims to depict, The Little Things is painfully sophomoric. During the course of a New York City summer, idealist public school teacher Miranda (Sarah Megan Thomas) and "intense" photographer Michael (Adam D. Scheinman) fall for each other, much to the chagrin of their respective significant others. Despite fleeting moments of authentically awkward dialogue, the film fails to bring anything new or inventive to the "young city-kids-experience-love-and-life" genre. —E.H. (Sat., April 7, 2:30 p.m., National Constitution Center, Kirby Auditorium, Sixth and Arch sts., scheduled appearance by director or other guest; Mon., April 9, 7 p.m., Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 Lancaster Ave., scheduled appearance by director or other guest)

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Philadelphia Film Festival: Blood Ties
Philadelphia Film Festival Shorts
Not without Merritt