Directed by the Dutch expatriate filmmaker Rolf de Heer, this sometimes bawdy (remember: "Never trust a man with a small prick"), always beguiling work of imagination begins with a group of Aboriginal tribesmen setting out on an annual goose-hunting expedition, fashioning canoes from barks and sleeping in makeshift camps perched high in trees. Along the way, an elder member of the tribe, Minygululu, regales his restless young companion, Dayindi — who happens to covet one of Minygululu's three wives — with a cautionary tale about another young man smitten by similar desires and the hard-gotten wisdom of being careful of what you wish for. Then this story within the story within the story starts to unfold before our eyes. If the moral of Ten Canoes is familiar, the getting there is anything but. To watch this movie (shot in breathtaking wide-screen by cinematographer Ian Jones) is to enter into a whole new language of symbols and meaning, the likes of which I have rarely encountered in cinema outside of the African tribal films of Ousmane Sembene. And yet, as in Sembene, we are never lost, for as much as anything else, Ten Canoes is a celebration of the art of storytelling, and of the power of stories to transcend all barriers of space, time, and language. (S.F.)
JULY 20
The Simpsons Movie, set in winter, ready for summertime release.
Anne Hathaway plays Jane Austen in Becoming Jane.
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HAIRSPRAY
Cast: John Travolta, Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken
Director: Adam Shankman
Filmmaker John Waters' lifelong dream of invading the suburban multiplexes of America finally comes true with this big-budget version of the hit Broadway play, which in turn was based on Waters' non-musical 1988 comedy. In full drag, John Travolta plays a '50s mom, continuing a tradition set by the late, great, and much-missed drag queen Divine, to whom the part will always truly belong.
INTERVIEW
Cast: Steve Buscemi, Sienna Miller
Director: Steve Buscemi
Buscemi stars as a hardened political reporter who's sent to interview a soap star (Miller). As their interview stretches into a long night, each discovers unexpected depths in the other. Buscemi directs from a screenplay that he co-adapted from one written by Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was on the verge of directing Buscemi and Miller in the movie when brutally murdered by an Islamic extremist.
JULY 27
THE SIMPSONS MOVIE
Director: David Silverman
Well, it took long enough. Other, less venerable animated TV shows went to the big screen much more quickly, such as South Park and Beavis& Butthead. Sheesh, even Aqua Teen Hunger Force cut a feature-length flick, for Jebus' sake. Now in its 18th season, the show isn't as funny as it used to be. Can the movie really improve on the TV show? A PG-13 rating suggests it can at least use four-letter words like ... d'ohh? Ahh, even if it sucks, you know you'll buy the DVD anyway. (Will Harper)
AUGUST 3
HOT ROD
Cast: Andy Samberg, Isla Fisher, Sissy Spacek, Ian McShane
Director: Akiva Schaffer
Saturday Night Live star Samberg plays Rod Kimble, a motorcycle stuntman who plans to jump 15 buses to raise money for a life-saving operation his abusive stepfather (McShane) desperately needs. Once said stepfather is healthy, Rod plans to kick his ass.
AUGUST 10
BECOMING JANE
Cast: Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, James Cromwell, Maggie Smith
Director: Julian Jarrold
This costume drama from the director of Kinky Boots imagines that at age 20, budding English novelist Jane Austen (Hathaway) had a romance with a penniless but handsome young lawyer (McAvoy), an affair that in the film's conceit became Austen's model for Pride & Prejudice.
TWO DAYS IN PARIS
Cast: Julie Delpy, Adam Goldberg
Director: Julie Delpy
In a comedy that marks the directorial debut of actress Delpy, the filmmaker brings her American boyfriend (Goldberg) to meet her parents in Paris. Things do not go well. Delpy's real-life mom and dad, Albert Delpy and Marie Pillet, portray her on-screen parents, and early word has it that they give terrific performances.
AUGUST 17
FANBOYS
Cast: Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, Dan Fogler, Jay Baruchel
Director: Kyle Newman
A comedy about four sci-fi geek best friends who travel cross-country in order to break into George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch and somehow screen the as-yet unreleased Star Wars, Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. One suspects that Mr. Lucas does not make a cameo.
PENELOPE
Cast: Christina Ricci, Catherine O'Hara, Peter Dinklage, James McAvoy, Reese Witherspoon
Director: Mark Palansky
A modern-day fable about a young woman afflicted with a pig snout of a nose, the result of a family curse that can only be broken if she finds love, within herself as well as from without. SUPERBAD Cast: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Seth Rogen, Bill Hader Director: Greg Mottola A coming-of-age comedy about two lifelong buddies (Cera and Hill), nerds and virgins both, who head off to separate grad schools, and on one fateful night try to score with beautiful women. The screenplays is based on a script Rogen co-wrote with a buddy when he was only 13. You decide whether that's a good thing. SIETE DIAS Cast: Eduardo Arroyuelo, Martha Higareda, Jaime Camil Director: Fernando Kalife A small-time concert promoter who dreams of bringing U2 to his Mexico town places a large bet with a mob boss and loses. The only way to save himself is to organize the concert in seven days. AUGUST 31 DEATH SENTENCE Cast: Kevin Bacon Director: James Wan A new adaptation of a 1975 novel by Brian Garfield, which was a sequel to Garfield's earlier novel, Death Wish, the book that spawned a hit film for tough guy Charles Bronson. In this updated version, a businessman (Bacon) turns vigilante after a street gang attacks his family. Bronson, Bacon, same diff. Sicko Harry Potter Revenge of the Sequels
