Film Favorites and Calendar

Corpse Bride

I wasn't crazy about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (both too sweet and too sour), but I loved Tim Burton's last stop-motion animation, The Nightmare Before Christmas. This time he's got a guy (voiced by Johnny Depp) accidentally betrothed to a dead chick (Helena Bonham Carter) who just won't let him go. And haven't we all been in relationships like that? Opens Fri., Sept. 23.

A History of Violence

There's plenty of festival buzz on David Cronenberg's latest, starring Viggo Mortensen as an innocuous small-town husband and father with some dark secrets in his past. Of course at Cannes, the French always love anything that makes Americans look like psycho killers. And Cronenberg is Canadian. Hmmm. Opens Fri., Sept. 23.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Claymation rules! Nick Park and the Aardman Animations team expand the adventures of man and mutt to feature length. Here they must battle some kind of garden-raiding ghoul. And as we all know from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, rabbits can be fierce! Opens Fri., Oct. 7.

Elizabethtown

Part-time Northwest resident Cameron Crowe snagged a screenwriting Oscar for Almost Famous. His new rom-com pairs Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst, a very handsome couple, but we're guessing the real stars will be the words between them. After Crowe's Vanilla Sky, this looks like a return to terra firma. Opens Fri., Oct. 14.

Jarhead

I'm not sure, after Gunner Palace, if America is ready for more war movies. But under the direction of Sam Mendes (American Beauty), this adaptation of Marine Anthony Swofford's much-praised memoir of the first Gulf War should be noticed. Not that the current Gulf War is likely to be over by then. Opens Fri., Nov. 4.

The Matador

Bond is dead, long live Bond. Everyone at Sundance loved ex-007 Pierce Brosnan's louche, self-caricaturing turn as a hit man going to seed in Mexico. It's basically a mismatched-buddy comedy, with Greg Kinnear playing Felix to Brosnan's Oscar. This should also be about the right time in the fall to enjoy a flick that's not gunning for an Academy Award. Opens Fri., Nov. 4.

The New World

Every so often, Terrence Malick emerges from obscurity to prove he's a genius, and the recluse act sometimes works—as with The Thin Red Line. (Though it can be pushed too far, as with Kubrick.) This time he tackles the myth- encrusted 17th-century settlement of America, with Colin Farrell encountering our continent's original, rightful inhabitants. Shot by Emmanuel Lubezki (Sleepy Hollow) with mostly natural light, it's sure to be gorgeous, like all Malick works. Opens Wed., Nov. 9.

Film Calendar

Opening dates subject to change. Call theaters to confirm.