Prodigious Songcraft Blooms in Sarah Jarosz - The Austin Chronicle

CALENDA R ( COMMUNITY SPORTS ARTS F ILM MUSIC) LIST I N GSThe LandThe Land (1969) D: Youssef Chahine; withHamdy Ahmed, Yehia Chahine, Ezzat El Alaili,Mahmoud El-Meliguy. (NR, 130 min.) Austin FilmSociety: Children of Abraham/Ibrahim 4 – Filmsof the Middle East and Beyond. Named the bestEgyptian film ever made in a poll by Egyptian filmcritics, The Land is adapted from AbderrahmanCharkawi’s novel of the same name, and chronicles asmall peasant village’s struggles against the carelessinroads of a large local landowner. @Alamo DrafthouseSouth, Tuesday, 7pm; $6, AFS members free.CLOUDY WITH A CHANCEw OF MEATBALLS D: Phil Lord, ChrisMiller; with the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, AndySamberg, Bruce Campbell, Mr. T, Neil Patrick Harris, Benjamin Bratt,Al Roker, Lauren Graham. (PG, 90 min.)The wildest fantasy of every hamburger-happy kidis realized in this zippy, lippy animated adaptation ofthe popular children’s book. When a misunderstoodinventor named Flint Lockwood (voiced by Hader)cooks up a contraption that converts water into food,causing all matter of epicurean delights to fall fromthe sky, he transforms overnight from town pariahto boy hero. The smart, lightly snarky Cloudy With aChance of Meatballs is a visual feast, impressivelyrendering in 3-D ingenious sights such as a spaghettitornado and a Jell-O funhouse. And the sounds– including cheeky voice work by Mr. T, Harris, andBratt – are a blast. All told, this is spirited playwith unlabored lessons about good citizenship andthe power of pluck that slide down as easily asthe ice cream snowdrifts that blanket the ground.(09/18/2009) – Kimberley Jones★★★★■Movies 8COUPLES RETREAT D: Peter Billingsley; withVince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Jon Favreau, Faizon Love, MalinAkerman, Kristin Davis, Kristen Bell, Kali Hawk, Jean Reno, PeterSerafinowicz, Carlos Ponce, John Michael Higgins, Ken Jeong.(PG-13, 113 min.)Intelligence is insulted at every turn in this datemovie from former “swingers” Vaughn and Favreau,who now write themselves roles as middle-agedmen grown flabby in both body and spirit. Vaughnalso produces and, as the film’s top-lined star,plays the only happily married man in this story’squartet of couples who attend a weeklong couplesretreat. Random sequences follow in succession:a badly choreographed shark attack, a massagethat requires a self-serve happy ending, ridiculoustherapy sessions, a Fabio look-alike yogainstructor (Ponce) who provides the requisitehomophobic sight gags, and a renegade excursionto the singles’ side of the resort where, magically,everything resolves. Logic and credibility aredefied at almost every opportunity. Even so, someof this might have worked if the script was,say, funny. The scenery looks good enough tobe a screensaver, as one of the charactersexclaims, and of course, the background offersan endless array of scantily clad hardbodies.(10/09/2009) – Marjorie BaumgartenMovies 8wCRAZY HEART D: Scott Cooper; withJeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall, JackNation, Ryan Bingham, Colin Farrell. (R, 111 min.)You’d never guess that Crazy Heart is the workof a first-time filmmaker, but it is, and while thestory is as old and true as the broken-down country& western balladeer at the heart of it, nearlyeverything about Cooper’s debut feels intimate andimmediate and as emotionally raw as every countrysong that ever mattered. That’s due almost entirelyto Bridges’ searing and sorrowful turn as thealcohol-basted and nicotine-stained C&W has-beenBad Blake. It’s a performance that’s magnificent inits road-weariness, and it’s a measure of just howtruly great an actor Bridges has matured into overthe years. Backed (and haunted) by a blazingly finesoundtrack courtesy of T Bone Burnett and the lateStephen Bruton and a theme song (and screenappearance) by rising star Ryan Bingham, Bridgesmakes this sozzled and desperate ex-desperado– a cliché by any other name – as fresh and vitalas one final shot at cowboy-poet redemption.(01/08/2010) – Marc Savlov★★★★■Alamo Drafthouse South, ArborDAYBREAKERS D: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig;with Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Claudia Karvan, Sam Neill,Michael Dorman, Isabel Lucas, Jay Laga’aia. (R, 98 min.)The populace of Daybreakers are vampires in atopsy-turvy world where children bus to school at2 in the morning and the local coffeehouse slingsblood like java brew. But the vampire communityis in crisis: With humans hunted to near extinction,there’s a serious food shortage, which is whyhematologist Edward Dalton (Hawke) labors roundthe clock to come up with a blood substitute.Dalton is a mournful, moral-high-horse kind of guywho gets by on animal blood and hates the rah-rahmilitarism of his little brother Frankie (Dorman).When a small enclave of human resistance rightlysenses Dalton is a sympathizer, he goes off thegrid to help manufacture a cure to vampirism.It’s a little bit silly – as is Dafoe’s Kentucky-friedcowboy mechanic named Elvis – but silly is fun. Infact, one wishes it were sillier still; Daybreakers isan ingeniously conceived, designed, and dressedpiece, but whither the sex and the humor, huh?(01/08/2010) – Kimberley Jones★★★ Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, AlamoDrafthouse Village, Barton Creek Square, CMCedar Park, Hill Country Galleria, CM Round Rock,Southpark Meadows, Highland, Gateway, Lakeline,Tinseltown North, Tinseltown South, WestgateDISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROLD: Robert Zemeckis; with Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth,Cary Elwes, Robin Wright Penn, Bob Hoskins, Daryl Sabara.(PG, 96 min.)The initial “gee, whillikers” reaction toZemeckis’ motion-capture rendition of theDickens classic eventually turns to “bah, humbug”as the film’s technological novelty givesway to narrative mundanity. So absent is anyemotional content that it’s as though Dickens’ultimate cautionary tale is a mere afterthoughtonto which Zemeckis can drape his live-action/computer-animated visual hybrid that he hasWho Is KK Downey?Who Is KK Downey? (2008) D: Darren Curtis and Pat Kiely; with Curtis,Kiely, Kristin Adams, Matt Silver, Dan Haber. (NR, 90 min.) Feral Cinema. This filmby Montreal’s Kidnapper comedy troupe is based on the “real-life” story of JTLeRoy, a pseudonym and persona concocted by another writer to create mystery.The short film “Tortured by Joy” (Henry Griffin, 2009) will also screen. @UnitedStates Art Authority, Thursday (1/21) 8pm; $5.now used on his third sequential movie (followingBeowulf and The Polar Express). Scrooge (Carrey) isstill the same miserly old coot we know him to be,but instead of the transformative effect of Scrooge’sglimpses into his past, present, and future, thisfilm emphasizes the phantasmic elements of theghosts and the pliable mechanics they use toshow Scrooge such privileged viewpoints of his life.Carrey, never a slouch when it comes to his output,plays all three ghosts in addition to Scrooge. Theactor sheds his usual silliness and adopts moreof the tone and breeding of a British thespian.(11/06/2009) – Marjorie Baumgarten★★ Movies 8, MillenniumwFANTASTIC MR. FOX D: WesAnderson; with the voices of George Clooney, MerylStreep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Wallace Wolodarsky, EricChase Anderson, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe. (PG, 87 min.)Certainly the source material appears, at firstglance, far afield of Anderson’s usual lens-finder.But instead of bending to the will of the source,Roald Dahl’s 1970 children’s book about a turf warbetween farmers and foxes, Anderson has insteadmade it conform rather giddily to his own sensibilities.This is an animated film that happily hasroom for both an existentialist dread of death anda grinning joie de vivre. Clooney voices the titularMr. Fox, a former thief made to go straight by hiswife (Streep) when they give birth to a son, Ash(Schwartzman). But Mr. Fox is too visionary and, well,prankish to stay settled down, so he mastermindsone last caper. Fantastic Mr. Fox is rendered in traditionalstop-motion animation – a style nearly bygonein these digital days – and both the antiquity and thelaboriousness of that process are perfectly suitedto Anderson. There’s a terrific amount of talent corralledhere. (11/27/2009) – Kimberley Jones★★★★ Alamo Drafthouse Village, DobiePARAMOUNTCLASSICFILM SERIESBURTON AND DEPP –– JANUARY 14Ed Wood (1994)Depp, Martin Landau, S.J. ParkerTHU AT 7EdwardScissorhands (1990)THU AT 9:30BAZ LUHRMANN –– JANUARY 16-17WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’SRomeo + Juliet (1996)Leonardo DiCaprio, ClaireDanes, John LeguizamoSAT AT 7; SUN AT 4:30Moulin Rouge! (2001)No Laws. No Limits.One Rule. Never Fall In Love.Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregorSAT AT 9:20; SUN AT 2Galaxy Theatres presents "Book of Eli"in DBox Motion Seats. We are the only theater in Texaswhere you can experience movies like never before.Tickets on sale now in Theater and Online.THE BOOK OF ELI (R)DBox Motion Chairs Fri. - Thu. 12:00 2:305:00 7:30 10:00DAYBREAKERS (R) Fri. & Sat. 12:00 2:10 4:35 7:00 9:25 11:50Sun. - Thu. 12:00 2:10 4:35 7:00 9:25YOUTH IN REVOLT (R)Fri. & Sat. 12:30 2:45 5:00 7:15 9:30 11:30Sun. - Thu. 12:30 2:45 5:00 7:15 9:30LEAP YEAR (PG) Fri. & Sat. 12:05 2:20 4:45 7:10 9:35 11:45Sun. - Thu. 12:05 2:20 4:45 7:10 9:35AVATAR 3D (PG–13) Fri. & Sat. 12:30 1:00 3:45 4:15 7:00 7:30 10:15 11:00Sun. - Thu. 12:30 1:00 3:45 4:15 7:00 7:30 10:15SHERLOCK HOLMES (PG–13) Fri. - Thu. 1:30 4:20 7:10 9:50 10:00ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL (PG)Fri. & Sat. 12:35 2:50 5:05 7:20 9:35 11:50Sun. - Thu. 12:35 2:50 5:05 7:20 9:35a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m JANUARY 15, 2010 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E 65