OPENING THIS WEEK
GOODNIGHT MOMMY
If you’re in the mood to be freaked out by a foreign horror film this Halloween, Goodnight Mommy has you covered. Two young brothers (Lukas and Elias Schwarz) live in a modern house in the middle of the country with their mother (Susanne Wuest), who recently had surgery that left her face covered in bandages. As the situation grows creepier, the brothers wonder if this person really is their mom. Rated R. 99 minutes. In German with subtitles. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Not reviewed)
HE NAMED ME MALALA
The latest documentary by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient
Truth) looks at Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who spoke out about granting young women the opportunity to pursue education, and was nearly killed by the Taliban as a result. In 2014, she became the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Rated PG-13. 87 minutes. Regal DeVargas.
(Not reviewed)
LADRONES
The Spanish-language comedy (the English translation is Thieves) from the Dominican Republic is the sequel to the 2007 film Ladrón que roba a ladrón (To Rob a Thief ). Fernando Colunga and Miguel Varoni return as two crooks who once more must steal from even bigger criminals who are exploiting the poor. Rated PG-13. 105 minutes. In Spanish with subtitles. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
MEET THE PATELS
Ravi Patel is an Indian-American man who is still single in his thirties. His parents back in India do not approve of this, and to appease them, he joins a matchmaking service. He and his sister Geeta film what happens next for this comedic documentary, which takes Ravi on the whirlwind of modern dating and cultural divides. Rated PG. 88 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Not reviewed)
99 HOMES
Celebrated indie director Ramin Bahrani (Chop Shop) attempts his most mainstream picture yet, a thriller about the unforgiving nature of modern American capitalism. Andrew Garfield plays a father who is evicted on one day’s notice by a cruel businessman (Michael Shannon). Desperately needing money, he ends up working for the businessman, and soon finds that one of his duties involves evicting other families from their homes. Rated R. 112 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Not reviewed)
PAN
Director Joe Wright (Atonement) takes a crack at a family film with a new version of the Peter Pan story, intended as a prequel to author J.M. Barrie’s iconic work. In this telling, Peter (Levi Miller) is whisked off to Neverland, and finds himself siding with the man who will someday be Captain Hook (Garrett Hedlund) to take down the ruthless pirate Captain Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman). Rated PG. 111 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. Screens in 2-D only at DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)
PEACE OFFICER
This documentary explores the excessive use of SWAT teams and military-grade equipment by local police departments. The quest for truth and justice by Dub Lawrence, a semi-retired police officer whose son-in-law was killed in a SWAT team raid, is the center of the film’s examination. Not rated. 105 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Not reviewed)
THE SANTA FE INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL
STATION TO STATION
This series of loose vignettes features a rotating community of artists who travel America aboard a train in search of unique art experiences — while collaborating on art of their own. The artists span a range of media, but musicians figure prominently, with Beck, Patti Smith, and Jackson Browne among the biggest names. Not rated. 71 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Not reviewed)
TIME OUT OF MIND
Not rated. 120 minutes. The Screen. See review, Page 54.
THE WALK
In 2008, the documentary Man on Wire told the story of Philippe Petit’s 1974 tightrope walk between the Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Center. Now, director Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump) gives a narrative account of the same feat. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Petit. Rated PG. 123 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. Screens in 2-D only at DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)
WES CRAVEN RETROSPECTIVE
On Aug. 30, 2015, genre movies lost one of their greatest giants when director Wes Craven passed away. Jean Cocteau Cinema has put together a small tribute, and it’s a fitting trio of films. The Last House on the Left (1972, not rated, 84 minutes), Craven’s first feature, centers on two young women who run into the wrong people on their way to a rock concert. The posters claimed that to avoid fainting, audience members should remind themselves “it’s only a movie.” A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984, rated R, 91 minutes) is Craven’s most iconic film. It introduced Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), the boogeyman who plagues teenagers’ dreams.
Scream (1996, rated R, 111 minutes) was Craven’s big later-career return to form, a horror film in which the victims and killer both offers commentary on horror moviemaking. Together, the three films display an arc that trends from gritty realism to slick postmodernism, but all have one thing in common: They’ll still scare the pants off of you. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Robert Ker)