Movies This Week: The Precious Blind Side Messenger

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It actually feels like fall, doesn't it?  More Oscar hopefuls are starting to crowd the theaters.  In case you need to take a break from watching your Blu-Rays of Up and Star Trek, there are several new movie options out there in theaters. 

Antichrist -- Chaos Reigns! Lars von Trier knows how to make two kinds of films: provocative and thoughtful, and provocative and pretentious. Antichrist wants to be the former, but it's really the latter. 

The Blind Side -- John Lee Hancock makes an inspirational film for the discerning filmmaker.  Yes, I am among the growing number of people saying they aren't ashamed to admit they really liked Sandra Bullock's latest movie.  The only flaw is that being based on the true story of Michael Oher, this football heartwarmer wasn't filmed in Texas. Read my review or check out Jette's review on Cinematical.The Messenger (pictured above) --  Ben Foster stars as a soldier who gets involved with a war widow. This drama co-stars Woody Harrelson, who seems to be in half the gala screenings in Austin this year. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't catch this at AFF, but I've yet to be able to clone myself and go to more than one screening at at a time. (Arbor)

Planet 51 -- You would think that with one of the writers of Shrek (Joe Hillman), this animated tale would be great. Unfortunately, it's just OK. As an alien invasion tale with a human as the invader, it relies too much on cultural references, and not enough on original story. The cultural references are not so much on the vintage sci-fi tales, but new ones. 

Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire -- Just because Tyler Perry and Oprah are listed as executive producers doesn't mean this is anything other than a powerful drama with some incredible performances.  Claireece "Precious" Jones, failed by everyone and everything in her life, suddenly is pushed to coming into her own.  For more, read my review. 

The Twilight Saga: New Moon  -- If you don't already know, you probably don't care.  But if you do, Debbie has a review. 

Until the Light Takes Us  -- A documentary about Norwegian black metal music. Anybody else think this should be on a double bill with The Story of Anvil? (Ritz)

Check our event calendar for special film events, and our personal picks below. Don't forget you can always alert us to special screenings, new film series, etc.

And now, our picks of the week:

Jenn -- I wasn't really sure, but a friend of mine has been raving about Times Square, playing at the Alamo Ritz. Rumor has it that it's going to be the last time this 35mm print is ever played before going back into the vault.

Jette -- aGLIFF's "Hey Homo!" series is sponsoring a screening of the documentary Grey Gardens on Tuesday night at Alamo Ritz. And you can still get tickets to the Harmony and Me screening on Saturday night at Dobie.

Debbie -- One of my sci-fi favorites, the Other Worlds Film Series continues at the Harry Ransom Center with Forbidden Planet (1956) on Monday, November 23, at 7 p.m.