 Alec Baldwin and Matthew Broderick star in Jeff Nathanson's directorial debut, "The Last Shot." (Globe Photo) |
"Bright Leaves"
Ross McElwee may be the anti-Michael Moore: A documentarian whose films roll discursively, amusingly, and unjudgmentally around raw topics. Here, the Cambridge-based filmmaker looks at tobacco's effects on the social fabric of his native North Carolina, with tangents touching upon Hollywood distortions and family history (his great-grandfather created the Bull Durham blend).
"First Daughter"
The president of the United States has a daughter who gets fed up with all those Secret Service agents following her around -- wait, didn't we see this already? No, that was the Mandy Moore movie "Chasing Liberty," which came out last spring. This stars Katie Holmes, with Marc Blucas as her G-man love interest and Michael Keaton as the president. That's right, Mr. Mom is the president. It gets weirder: Actor Forest Whitaker directs from a script by actor Jerry O'Connell. That's right, the husky kid from "Stand by Me" wrote the script.
"Head in the Clouds"
After her Oscar-winning turn as homely Aileen Wuornos, Charlize Theron returns to glamour with this period romantic drama that casts her as a fashion photographer living in Paris. Her idyllic life is disrupted with the arrival of World War II, which changes her two most important friendships. With Penelope Cruz and Theron's sweetie Stuart Townsend. Written and directed by John Duigan ("Flirting").
"September Tapes"
This thriller follows an American journalist who goes looking for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan a year after Sept. 11, 2001. A buzzed-about movie at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
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 Julianne Moore (Globe Photo) |
Continuing her series of weepy mommy parts ("Boogie Nights," "A Map of the World"), Julianne Moore fronts this sci-fi-looking yarn, playing a woman whose son is abducted or dead or a figment of her imagination. With Anthony Edwards, Alfre Woodard, and Dominic West ("The Wire") as a fellow confused parent. Will this be the hit that makes Moore more than the art-house fave?
"The Last Shot"
A filmmaker (Matthew Broderick) discovers that his moneyman producer (Alec Baldwin) is actually an undercover Fed trying to ferret out union mobsters. Hey, it could happen -- in fact, it did, in Providence, in the 1980s. Screenwriter Jeff Nathanson ("The Terminal," "Catch Me If You Can") makes his directorial debut with this comedy, and the cast runs deep: Tony Shalhoub, Toni Collette, Calista Flockhart, Tim Blake Nelson, and Ray Liotta.
"Reconstruction"
Danish filmmaker Christoffer Boe won the award for best new director at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, and his avant-garde meta-romance has been cause for happy head-scratching at film fests around the globe ever since. Fans and foes alike compare it to the work of David Lynch.
"Shaun of the Dead"
A British zombie comedy that knocked 'em dead -- sorry -- in the home country this spring, it's by all reports a bloody pint of bitter for those who felt all that was missing from "28 Days Later" were the laughs.
Also opening: "The Leopard," "Bush's Brain"
