Desert Flower

Opening in theaters this weekend: Desert Flower, directed by Sherry Hormann

In Theaters: The Runaways

Hello daddy, hello mom! I'm your ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!

Opening this weekend: The Runaways, directed by Floria Sigismondi

Netflix It: Cadillac Records

Available on Netflix: Cadillac Records, written and directed by Darnell Martin

Synopsis from AllMovie.com:

Directed by TV veteran Darnell Martin, the musical drama Cadillac Records documents the compelling true-life story of the Chicago record label that helped the world discover such legendary artists as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and Chuck Berry. Founded in 1950 by Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody), Chess Records quickly gained a reputation as home to some of the most talented and influential blues artists ever to step into a recording studio. But giving these musicians an opportunity to bring their music to the world was no easy task, because along the way there was enough sex, drugs, and rock & roll to ensure that things around Chess Records never got boring. Featuring Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters, Gabrielle Union as Geneva Wade, Beyoncé Knowles as Etta James, Mos Def as Chuck Berry, Cedric the Entertainer as Willie Dixon, and Eamonn Walker as Howlin' Wolf.



And the real Etta James:

The Runaways

Showing at Sundance: The Runaways, written and directed by Floria Sigismondi

Synopsis from the Sundance website:

Of all the bands to come out of the 1970s Los Angeles music scene, The Runaways are by far the most uniquely fascinating. This is partially due to their music but more so to the fact that they were teenage girls whose wild and reckless lifestyle was the stuff of legend.

Focusing on the duo of guitarist/vocalist Joan Jett and lead vocalist Cherie Currie as they navigate a rocky road of touring and record-label woes, the film chronicles the band's formation as well as their meteoric rise under the malevolent eye of an abusive manager.

Acclaimed video artist Floria Sigismondi directs from her own script, and her luscious camerawork captures every sweaty detail—from the filthy trailer where the women practice to the mosh pits of Tokyo. What really makes the film cook are the sizzling performances by Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart. Not to be missed, The Runaways is an ode to an era and a groundbreaking band.

Netflix It: Boys Don't Cry

#21 - Boys Don't Cry

Available from Netflix: Boys Don't Cry, written and directed by Kimberly Peirce

Synopsis from AllMovie.com (one that, by the way, does not respect Brandon Teena's choice of pronoun):

Based on a true story, this drama was adapted from the life of Brandon Teena, born Teena Brandon, a woman who chose to live her life as a man and suffered tragic consequences as a result. In 1993, 20-year-old Brandon (Hilary Swank) leaves Lincoln, Nebraska for the nearby community of Falls City, where she sports a crew cut, favors jeans and boots, and is regarded as a man by most of the people in town. While Brandon's friend Lonny (Matt McGrath) warns her that sexual outsiders aren't looked upon kindly in Falls City, she develops a reputation for being something of a ladies' man, and is soon living with a single mother named Candace (Alicia Goranson). But when Brandon meets teenage Lana (Chloe Sevigny), the two become romantically involved almost immediately. Brandon makes friends with Lana's mother (Jeanetta Arnette) and a burly ex-con named John (Peter Sarsgaard). John and his buddy Tom (Brendan Sexton) run with a rough group of men who like to drink and carouse, and they accept Brandon as one of their own. However, when Brandon ends up in jail on a traffic violation, her secret comes out, and, while Lana stands by Brandon's side, John and Tom feel betrayed -- and their anger soon boils over into violence. A distinguished feature debut for director Kimberly Peirce, Boys Don't Cry was enthusiastically received in its showings at 1999 film festivals in Venice, Toronto, and New York.

Amelia

Opening this weekend: Amelia, directed by Mira Nair

Synopsis from the film's website:

Amelia stars two-time Academy Award-winner Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhart, the legendary aviatrix and enigmatic symbol of the American free spirit, who was guided by a profound curiosity for everything life had to offer.

Earhart's early aviation triumphs and meteoric rise to fame and fortune were propelled along by her tempestuous partnership and eventual marriage to publisher George Putnam. Bound by mutual ambition, admiration and, ultimately a great love, their bond could not be broken even with her brief passionate affair with Gene Vidal.

Ms. Earhart was the first woman to solo the Atlantic and was the first pilot, man or woman, to fly unaccompanied across the Pacific. In Amelia's attempt to be the first to fly around the world in an equatorial flight. Her life was tragically cut short with her mysterious and untimely disappearance over the South Pacific in 1937.

Coco Before Chanel

Now in theaters: Coco Before Chanel, directed by Anne Fontaine

Synopsis from the film's website:

A little girl who is sent with her sister to an orphanage in the heart of France, who waits in vain every Sunday for her father to come for her...

A cabaret performer with a weak voice who sings to an audience of drunken soldiers...

A humble seamstress, who stitches hems at the back of a provincial tailor's shop...

A young, skinny courtesan, to whom protector Etienne Balsan offers a safe haven, amongst the idle and decadent...

A woman in love who knows she will never be anyone's wife, refusing marriage even to Boy Capel, the man who returned her love...

A rebel who finds the conventions of her time oppressive, and instead dresses in her lovers' clothes...

This is the story of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, who begins her life as a headstrong orphan, and through an extraordinary journey becomes the legendary couturier who embodied the modern woman and became a timeless symbol of success, freedom and style.

Netflix It: Talk to Me

Available on Netflix: Talk to Me, directed by Kasi Lemmons

Synopsis from the New York Times:

In 1966, when we first meet them, Petey Greene (Don Cheadle) and Dewey Hughes (Chiwetel Ejiofor) present an easy, obvious contrast. Dewey, rising fast in the management ranks of a Washington R&B radio station, favors trim suits and dark ties. When he speaks on the air, listeners are apt to mistake him for a white man. Petey, serving 10 years for armed robbery in a Virginia penitentiary, is a man of an altogether different — and, to Dewey, much lesser — sort. His speech is laced with profanities and put-downs, and he manages to look flashy even in prison, where he accessorizes his state-issued denims with bright red shoes and a flowery neckerchief. Their subsequent friendship, which spans an era of social upheaval and fashion turmoil, is at the center of Talk to Me, Kasi Lemmons’s funny, earnest, affectionate new film. Talk to Me starts out broad and schematic only to surprise you with its subtlety as it unfolds. The result is a movie that offers uplift without phoniness, history without undue didacticism and a fair number of funny, dirty jokes. — A. O. Scott



A clip of the real Petey Greene:

Vision

Showing at the Toronto International Film Festival: Vision, directed by Margarethe von Trotta

Synopsis from the TIFF website:

One of the major auteurs to emerge from New German Cinema and a leader in feminist filmmaking, Margarethe von Trotta returns to the Festival with Vision, a study of the remarkable Hildegard von Bingen. Composer, scientist, healer, author and visionary, this Benedictine nun has been rescued in recent years from the shadows of history. Played here with both strength and nuance by the great Barbara Sukowa, Hildegard emerges as a Renaissance woman before there was a Renaissance.

Brought as a child to Disibodenberg abbey in what is now Germany, Hildegard is raised by the kindly Jutta the Holy (Mareile Blendl). Over the years, she observes both the cloister and the natural world around her, becoming a wise and pious woman. When the time comes for the sisters to choose a new magistra, Hildegard is the overwhelming favourite. She is already a natural mother to all, teaching the sisters about the power of herbal remedies and soothing the sick with her song.

Aware that women are forbidden to preach or interpret scripture, she is careful with her gift of visions, a conduit to God that tells her to disseminate this wisdom throughout the world. She faces great risks bringing these visions before a council of church elders, with some even accusing her of being the mouthpiece of the devil. Through her resolute strength and quiet fortitude, she breaks boundary after boundary, even rising to correspond directly with the pope.

This is the fifth time that von Trotta has worked with Sukowa, and their chemistry together is tangible. Sukowa brings a potent drive to Hildegard; the more resistance she meets, the more radical she becomes.

Von Trotta's cinema has always explored the complex relationships among communities of women – in fact, theorist Thomas Elsaesser has noted that her film Sisters could very well share its title with several of her other films. In this case, the focus comes to rest on triangles within the abbey and the eternal struggle of two daughters for the love of a mother. As always with von Trotta, it is fascinating to watch.

Trailer (without subtitles):

Desert Flower

Showing at Venice Film Festival this weekend: Desert Flower, directed by Sherry Hormann

Synopsis from IMDb.com:

Based on the world best-selling book Desert Flower by Waris Dirie - the autobiography of a Somalian nomad circumcised at 5, sold in marriage at 13, who became an American supermodel and is now at the age of 38, the UN spokeswoman against circumcision.