With the heaping helping we got last Friday and on Christmas Day, we certainly don’t need any new movies today — and Hollywood was glad to oblige! Nothing opens wide today. Next week, only one thing opens wide (“One Missed Call”), and it’s barely being screened. So you have some time to catch up on what you’ve missed without falling behind.
“In the Dark” this week focuses on three limited-release pictures, all of which are worth seeking out (or waiting for, as the case may be).
Sure to be an Oscar contender is “There Will Be Blood,” starring Daniel Day-Lewis as a devious early 20th century oilman. It’s from Paul Thomas Anderson, director of “Magnolia” and “Punch-Drunk Love,” and it’s even better than both of those films.
Also generating buzz is “Persepolis,” an animated film about a young girl growing up during the Iranian Revolution of the late 1970s. It’s France’s submission for the foreign-language category at the Oscars, and it’s sure to be nominated in the animation category, too. It’s a marvelous little movie.
Finally, there’s “The Savages,” about two grown-up siblings figuring out what to do with their aging father. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney star. It’s funny and poignant and stuff.
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