Movies This Week: April 6 - 12, 2012

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Still of the Hunter

The Austin Film Society begins a new Essential Cinema series Tuesday, featuring films from South East Europe. This year AFS welcomes Vera Mijojlic, director of the annual South East European Film Festival of Los Angeles (SEEFest) as curator of SEEFest: Austin. Her knowledge and experience of this multi-ethnic melting pot fuels her ability to educate and promote cultural diversity amongst film audiences. This year six films return along with one "TBA mystery film."

The first film in this series, Fuse (Gori Vatra) screens on Tuesday, April 10 at 7 pm at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. General admission tickets are $8 and AFS members pay just $5. Fuse is a satire that focuses on the tension in a rural town when U.S. President Bill Clinton is set to visit to witness the results of the peace accords. Bosnians and Serbs must be able to work together to convince the President as well as one another that they can truly live in peace.

Movies We've Seen:

Boy -- This bittersweet comedy is a timeless and often imaginative while brutally honest tale of a young boy desperate for a father. I highly recommend seeing this film -- read my review for details. (Regal Arbor)

Undefeated -- Elizabeth says in her review that she "started Undefeated as a skeptic, but as the film progressed, the story of these four guys and their football program drew me in. I don't watch many sports movies, but Undefeated is definitely one of the best I've seen." (Regal Arbor)

American Reunion -- The cast of the wildly successful teen sex flicks America Pie (1 and 2) and American Wedding reunite 13 years after the original film, and we'll see if Stifler's mom has held it together as well as the crude jokes of the past. J.C. says, "Fans of the franchise will be pleased with this fourth film in the series. It's got more than a few hilarious moments and great scenes with some of the classic smaller characters." Look for his review this weekend. (wide)

The Salt of Life -- I am intrigued by this film starring writer/director Gianni Di Gregorio as a gregarious retiree, especially after Chale states in his preview, "To be fair to his friends and his generation, he has taken the starring role himself, so every poke in the ribs and wink of the eye comes right back on the filmmaker, who has the rare gift of gentle mockery." (Violet Crown Cinema)

The Hunter (pictured above) -- The SXSW 2012 selection returns to Austin this week. Jette says, "I saw this at SXSW thinking it would be a fast-paced gory actioner and was happy to be wrong. The Hunter is a character-driven, suspenseful story about Willem Dafoe's title character on a hunt for an animal thought to be mythical, in a situation fraught with moral gray areas. Beautifully made." (Alamo Slaughter)

Other Movies Opening in Austin:

The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye --This documentary focuses on the transformation undertaken by artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and his wife and collaborator, Lady Jaye, for their Pandrogyne project, in which they had surgery to look like one another physically. (Arbor)

Housefull 2 -- This Bollywood film is a sequel to the poorly-received comedy Housefull which featured a young man whose persistent failure at love leads him to believe that he is jinxed.  From the trailer it appears to be a "Four Bollywood Brides for Four Brothers" scenario. Don't say that I didn't warn you with this trailer on YouTube. (Tinseltown South)

Titanic 3D -- John Cameron's blockbuster hit about an ill-fated voyage and romance aboard the Titanic returns in 3D. We'll see how much more thrilling it is to hit a 3D iceberg and watch the sinking of the ship. The appeal of Winslet's heaving bosom in three-dimensional glory will no doubt be a greater draw than a 100-year-old woman's wrinkled crevices. (wide)