This Week in Film: April 12th 2008

Opening in Vancouver this week is Smart People, starring Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church and, Juno herself, Ellen Page. If an actor grows a beard and wears a brown sport coat, a la Robin Williams, they must be portraying someone in a respectable profession playing against type and, coincidentally, Quaid plays a widowed professor who falls for one of his former students, played by Parker. Church plays an art house goofball, just like the one in Sideways, and Page plays a sassy, ahead-of-her-years teenager, just the like the one in Juno, but you know the old saying, if it worked once...

Playing in an exclusive engagement at Tinseltown is the Academy-Award nominated animated film Persepolis. It's about an Iranian girl coming of age through the turbulent Iranian Revolution of 1979. It's supposed to be fantastic and I will definitely be first in line to see it this weekend.

From writer/director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde comes the acclaimed USA/Mexico co-production Bella, starring Eduardo Verastegui, Tammy Blanchard and Ali Landry, telling the interweaving story of how a single day can change the lives of three New Yorkers forever.

David Ayer, the man who brought us the atrocious Harsh Times, which accomplished a major feat by actually making Christian Bale look bad, brings his new film Street Kings to Vancouver cinemas. Ted "Theodore" Logan, err, Keanu Reeves, stars as a troubled alcoholic cop fighting the corruption that is plaguing the Los Angeles police department. Also cashing large cheques for what I've heard is the most unintentionally hilarious film of the season, is Hugh Laurie and recent Academy-Award winner Forest Whitaker. Keep stackin' the cash, fellas.

This weekend's teen slasher flick Prom Night also opens, which stars TV actress Brittany Snow. From the official synopsis: "Donna's senior prom is supposed to be the best night of her life, one of magic, beauty and love. But when the night turns from magic to murder there is only one man responsible, the man she thought was gone forever." Sounds awesome!

Playing over at Vancity is the Brazilian film Alice's House, which has been getting rave reviews. It's been screened at numerous festivals around the world and it's playing until Tuesday.

At Pacific Cinematheque on Sunday, Cinema Sunday presents cult classic The Iron Giant, which was shunned when first released but has since grown a steady fanbase on DVD. It's on at 1:00 and tickets are $8.

Also running at Cinematheque are two classic Italian comedies by Pietro Germi: Seduced and Abandoned and Divorce Italian Style. Check out www.cinematheque.bc.ca for more details on this double bill.