“The Guard” stars Don Cheadle as an FBI agent and Brendan Gleeson as an unorthodox Irish cop in a comedy about murder. The Magic Lantern Cinemas launches its annual film festival Friday, Sept. 9. Courtesy photos
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It's coming into that time of year when cooler evenings have people looking for inside diversions. Just in time, the Magic Lantern Cinemas is bringing its annual Fall Film Festival back to Ketchum for its 23rd year.
The festival will screen new films each week beginning Friday, Sept. 9, through Thursday, Sept. 29.
"The film festival allows us to play a great many films that otherwise we don't have time for on the schedule," said Magic Lantern Cinemas owner and operator Rick Kessler. "There's an enormous appetite for films of substance."
Kessler said the festival raises awareness for films that might not be as well known to the public.
"These films are about something," he said. "They reveal stories about people and familiarize moviegoers with the unfamiliar. They are not always available and are limited to the public. Fall is the perfect time to show these independent and small films because films begin to move into award season and the quality of films will rise."
The festival opens with the much-anticipated Brad Pitt and Sean Penn film "Tree of Life," the latest production from acclaimed director Terrence Malick. The story centers around a Midwestern family with three boys in the 1950s. Malick, director of several classic films including "Badlands" and "Days of Heaven," scores with another bold and dazzling spiritual cinematic experience.
"Cave of Forgotten Dreams," by filmmaker Werner Herzog manages to gain access to the Chauvet Cave, sealed from humans for more than 20,000 years. Herzog captures the wonder and beauty of one of the most awe-inspiring sites on earth, all the while musing in his inimitable fashion about its original inhabitants, the birth of art and the curious people surrounding the caves today.
"Beginners" explores the hilarity, confusion and surprises of love through the evolving consciousness of main character, Oliver, played by Golden Globe Award-nominee Ewan McGregor. The film also stars Christopher Plummer and Mélanie Laurent.
Writer and director Mike Mills presents "A Better Life," a poignant, multi-generational story about a father's love and the lengths to which a parent will go to give his child the opportunities he never had.
On Friday, Sept. 16, the festival will continue with "The Guard" and "Project Nim." "The Guard" stars Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle in a comedy about murder, blackmail, drug trafficking and rural police corruption. An unorthodox Irish policeman and a straight-laced FBI agent try to take down an international drug-smuggling gang.
From the Oscar-winning team behind "Man on Wire" comes the story of Nim, the chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a landmark experiment that aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. "Project Nim" is an unflinching and unsentimental biography of an animal who was made to be human.
Starting on Friday, Sept. 23, the festival will wrap up with foreign and independent films "In a Better World" and "The Whistleblower."
The Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film, "In A Better World," presents the story of Anton, a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark and his work at an African refugee camp. In these two very different worlds, he and his family are faced with conflicts that lead them to difficult choices between revenge and forgiveness.
"The Whistleblower" was inspired by actual events. Kathy, an American police officer, takes a job working as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia. Her expectations of helping to rebuild a devastated country are dashed when she uncovers a dangerous reality of corruption, cover-up and intrigue amid a world of private contractors and multinational diplomatic double-talk. The film stars Monica Bellucci, Rachel Weisz and Vanessa Redgrave.
For details and showtimes, visit www.magiclanterncinemas.com or call 726-4274.
Worth noting, voters in the annual Sun Valley Guide's "Best of the Valley" deemed Magic Lantern Cinemas as the valley's best movie theater.
Jennifer Liebrum: jliebrum@mtexpress.com
