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"How She Move" (PG-13, 1 hr., 31 min.)
This exuberant urban teen dance flick from Canada rises above its own predictable genre with infectious energy, arresting cinematography and a cast of truly talented young actors who seem to do all their own highly athletic step dancing. "How She Move" is OK for most teens, many of whom will be drawn by the music, the dance and the unusually good acting. It deals with drug issues, though gently, including verbal references to a death by overdose. Some high-school characters (not the protagonist) smoke and drink at a party and in another scene a few appear to smoke marijuana or perhaps even crack, but it's hard to discern. The dance routines contain rare miming of violence or sexual acts, but in a stylized way. There is also ordinary shoving and scuffling among teens. The script includes much use of the S-word, the B-word, and one instance of the F-word.
Raya Green (intense Rutina Wesley) comes from the Jamaican immigrant community in the Toronto housing projects. A gifted student, she has had to leave private school and return to the inner city in the wake of her sister's death by a drug overdose and because her parents can't afford her tuition. An old public school friend (Dwain Murphy) and a rival (Tre Armstrong) draw Raya into competitive team step dancing. She wants to win a big contest in hopes of paying her tuition and getting out of the old neighborhood, but her personal ambition riles her teammates. Singer Keyshia Cole and comic DeRay Davis emcee the finale competition.
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"Persepolis" (PG-13, 1 hr., 35 min.) (LIMITED RELEASE)
High-schoolers with an interest in art and the wider world should be gripped by this extraordinary animated film about a young Iranian woman's search for belonging. Just nominated for an Oscar, "Persepolis" is a moody mix of black-and-white line drawings and sharp, spare dialogue (in French with English subtitles). It has unusual depth of feeling and political sophistication. The film gets its title from the ancient capital of Persia (now Iran) and is based on the graphic novels of Marjane Satrapi, who co-directed. It is her personal story. Marjane, an expatriate, thinks back to her childhood in the late 1970s, when the Shah is overthrown and Islamic fundamentalist rule takes over. As a little girl, she overhears talk of political prisoners, executions and torture. The product of a left-wing intellectual family, she starts clashing with teachers and religious police in her early teens. Her parents send her to school in Vienna. Lonely, she gets into the punk lifestyle and starts acting out. Can she be happy back in Iran?
While the animation in "Persepolis" is subtle, it does show riot police hurting people, a man facing a firing squad, an imprisoned family friend, and the aftermath of bombing raids during the Iran-Iraq War. Blood and death are implied sparingly. The dialogue includes a verbal threat of rape and murder and a good bit of profanity, thanks especially to Marjane's beloved grandmother (Danielle Darrieux). The older Marjane (voiced as a teen and an adult by Chiara Mastroianni) smokes, drinks, tries pot and has sexual liaisons (never graphic). Depression is also a theme.
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BEYOND THE RATINGS GAME
-- OK FOR KIDS 6 AND OLDER:
"The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A Veggie Tales Movie" G -- This is the second feature based on the popular faith-based computer-animated videos. Again, talking cucumbers, leeks, asparagus and gourds hop about, armless and legless, and have a cheery adventure. Unlike the first film ("Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie," G, 2002), the tone here is less overtly religious, with a message about friendship and courage. The animation is not brilliant, nor the writing ultra witty, but little ones will be gently entertained. Three dinner theater busboys dressed as pirates are spirited back to the 17th-century high seas to help a princess rescue her brother from "real" pirates. There are mildly scary scenes with cannon fire, "Rock Monsters," a sea serpent, an ocean storm, nasty cheese curls with teeth, and toilet humor. OK for under-6's.
-- OK FOR KIDS 10 AND OLDER:
"National Treasure: Book of Secrets" PG -- This sequel (to "National Treasure" PG, 2004) is an overlong scavenger hunt that waters down history, but it moves briskly, and good actors in neat locations lend credibility to the silliness. Kids 10 and older should be entertained. Armed with factoids and ciphers, the heroes nose around Buckingham Palace, the Library of Congress, Mount Rushmore and the Oval Office. Treasure hunter Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) and his dad (Jon Voight) receive evidence that an ancestor was involved in the assassination of Lincoln. Ben and his cohorts aim to disprove it. The film re-enacts the assassination understatedly and shows another gun death, car and gun mayhem, foot chases, floods, sexual innuendo and toilet humor.
-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:
"How She Move" (NEW) -- Exuberant dancing, talented young actors, arresting camera work and infectious music lift this urban teen dance flick from Canada above its cliches. Set among a community of Jamaican immigrants in a Toronto housing project, "How She Move" is the story of Raya (Rutina Wesley), a gifted girl who leaves private school after her sister dies of an overdose and her parents can no longer pay the tuition. Back in public high school she keeps up with her scholastic ambitions, but is also drawn into competitive team step dancing. Some teen characters (not the protagonist) smoke and drink at a party. In another scene a few appear to smoke marijuana or perhaps even crack, but it's hard to tell. The dance routines contain rare miming of violence or sexual acts, but in a stylized way. There are also minor scuffles. The script uses lots of the S-word, the B-word, and one instance of the F-word. OK for most teens.
"Persepolis" (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE) -- A Iranian girl witnesses persecution of friends and relatives under the Shah in the late 1970s and the radical Islamist regime that follows in this beautifully hand-drawn animated film (now Oscar-nominated) in moody black-and-white. As an outspoken adolescent, she becomes a target of religious police and her worried parents send her to Europe, where she falls into self-destructive behavior. Based on the graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi about her own life (she co-directed the film), "Persepolis" (named for the capital of ancient Persia) makes history personal and poignant. The drawings portray riot police hurting people, a man facing a firing squad, and the aftermath of bombing raids. Dialogue includes references to torture and executions, a threat of rape and murder, and much midrange profanity. The older Marjane (voiced by Chiara Mastroianni) smokes, drinks, tries pot, has sexual liaisons (not graphic) and fights depression. For thoughtful high-schoolers. In French with subtitles.
"Cassandra's Dream" (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE) -- Writer/director Woody Allen's engrossing little drama has fine portrayals by Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell as London brothers prone to living and romancing beyond their means. A rich uncle (Tom Wilkinson) offers to save their finances if they do him an ugly little favor. Unlike the better-plotted but very violent sibling tragedy, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" (R, 2007), "Cassandra's Dream" is almost exclusively about watching smooth, vaguely amoral Ian (McGregor) and booze, pills, and gambling-addicted Terry (Farrell) disintegrate -- the latter in a really fine rendering of a weak man with a guilty conscience. The film contains brief, nongraphic violence, a suicide theme, drinking, smoking, bedroom scenes with only kissing shown and mild profanity.
"27 Dresses" -- Co-stars Katherine Heigl and James Marsden help this fizzy romantic comedy work its charms, despite a sometimes cringe-inducing retro view of modern womanhood. Heigl plays Jane, a perennial bridesmaid of big heart and low self-esteem. Marsden plays a cynical wedding columnist who finds her and her closetful of 27 bridesmaids dresses fascinating. The plot thickens when her vixenish younger sister (Malin Akerman) snares Jane's boss (Edward Burns), whom Jane not-so-secretly loves. The film includes rude sexual innuendo and slang, an implied sexual situation, occasional strong profanity, drinking, and toilet humor. It is less appropriate for middle-schoolers, but at least it demonstrates the foolishness of winning someone's heart through lies.
"Cloverfield" -- This dizzying fever-dream of a horror flick may be too much for middle-schoolers or anyone prone to motion sickness. For other cinema buffs it offers a terrific roller-coaster ride, imagining the decimation of Manhattan by a monster seen only through the viewfinder of a camcorder held very shakily by a character. There are rare computer-generated visuals of the giant creature, but the dread comes mostly via sounds and images of destruction, as well as a strong cast of young unknowns. The film starts quietly like a video shot on a camera shared among friends. A party is interrupted by a seeming earthquake as the attack begins. With a few briefly bloody exceptions, the movie displays little gore. It does deliberately echo the 9/11 terror attacks with buildings falling and dust clouds, and shows fighter jets pounding the monster. There is profanity, scatological humor, mild sexual innuendo and drinking.
"Mad Money" -- Teens may be surprised at how much they enjoy this quirky, well-written comedy. Diane Keaton plays an upper middle-class housewife whose husband (Ted Danson) loses his job and slumps onto the couch. Reduced to working as a cleaner at a Federal Reserve Bank, she becomes obsessed by the piles of old greenbacks headed for the shredder. She enlists two fellow cleaners, a single mom (Queen Latifah) and a young wife (Katie Holmes), into her low-tech plot to smuggle cash out the door. The film's implicit message that crime pays is offset a bit by its acerbic take on consumerism and the three-way friendship that develops. It contains midrange profanity, semi-crude sexual innuendo, a naked derriere, drinking and toilet humor.
"First Sunday" -- The laughs and sermons are laid on with a trowel in this comic morality tale, but it has nice moments. Two small-time ex-offenders, smart but sullen Durell (Ice Cube) and hyper nincompoop LeeJohn (Tracy Morgan), make a desperate attempt to rob an inner-city Baltimore church and instead are transformed by its members (chiefly Chi McBride, Loretta Devine, Malinda Williams, Olivia Cole). Katt Williams is also fun as the high-strung choir director. A subplot about Durell needing money for child support adds a message about dads staying in children's lives. The movie shows threats and brandished weapons but no real violence. It has mild profanity, comic sexual innuendo and drinking.
"The Bucket List" -- Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman lend their star power to this sentimental, slapdash bit of moviemaking, nudging its flaws into the background. A tale of two geezers is not a natural teen magnet, but some kids find their grandparents fascinating, so they might be tickled by Nicholson and Freeman cracking wise. Billionaire Edward (Nicholson) and auto mechanic Carter (Freeman) are terminally ill hospital roommates. Carter shows Edward a list he once made of things to do before he kicked the bucket, and off they go to do them -- skydiving, drag racing, the Taj Mahal, etc. The movie contains midrange profanity (mostly scatological), rude gestures, frisky nonexplicit sexual innuendo, drinking, smoking, toilet humor, and themes about divorce, infidelity and death.
"Juno" -- A smart 16-year-old named Juno (fab Ellen Page), with major attitude and a heart of gold, gets pregnant and chooses an ideal-seeming upscale couple (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) to adopt her child, then learns adults can disappoint. This comedy from way off-center is a blast of fresh air visually, verbally, musically and in its acting. There is one brief, mostly implied sexual situation, followed by a lot of teen discussion of sex and semigraphic sexual slang, toilet humor (pregnancy tests) and some profanity. The movie isn't really for middle-schoolers or even immature high-schoolers. Some parents may want to screen it first.
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