Films and art releasing in April and May 2015:
WOMAN IN GOLD
In 1903, Gustav Klimt was commissioned to paint a portrait of Viennese socialite Adele BlochBauer. The now-famous painting of the rosycheeked, ravenhaired beauty adorned in a gold leaf mosaic dress is referred to as the Mona Lisa of Austria. Woman in Gold tells the true story of BlochBauer’s niece, Maria Altmann, and her fight to reclaim her family’s artwork from the Austrian government decades after it was seized by the Nazis. Altmann (Helen Mirren) teams up with a young, passionate lawyer Randy Schoenberg (played by Ryan Reynolds) for what amounts to an eight-year legal battle against the Austrian government over ownership rights, and eventually leads to a 2006 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. Through flashbacks, we get a glimpse of Altmann’s youth in a preWWII Vienna followed by her traumatic memories of the Holocaust. The film artfully blends elements of a legal drama, a buddy comedy, a lesson in art history and a Holocaust survival story. Tatiana Maslany, Katie Holmes, Daniel Brühl and Elizabeth McGovern round out the ensemble cast. In theaters April 3
TRUE STORY
Christian Longo (James Franco) is a convicted killer currently on death row in Oregon for the 2001 murder of his wife and three children. Michael Finkel (Jonah Hill) is a former New York Times reporter who was fired in 2002 for fabricating a composite character in a story about child labor in West Africa. The two strangers’ lives intersect after Longo, a fan of Finkel’s writing, was found using Finkel’s identity as an alias while hiding out in Mexico after the murders. After Longo’s capture, the unlikely pair began a correspondence, which resulted in Finkel’s 2006 memoir, True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa. The film adaptation, True Story, is a legal thriller, which focuses on Longo’s 2003 trial. Finkel uses his unique connection with Longo in an attempt to discover the facts behind the horrific crimes, but the more time Finkel spends in search of the truth, the more he finds himself entangled in a psychopath’s web of manipulation. In theaters April 10
ROCK THE KASBAH
Borrowing its title from a 1982 hit song by The Clash, Rock the Kasbah stars Bill Murray as Richie Vance, a washedup music manager/producer who accompanies his only remaining client on a USO tour of Afghanistan. While there, Vance discovers a talented young girl and mentors her to success on the Afghan version of American Idol. The film’s narrative was inspired by MTV founder Tom Freston’s frequent visits to Kabul in the ’70s and ’80s and his subsequent love of the region and its people. Barry Levinson directs an allstar cast, which includes Bruce Willis, Kate Hudson, Zooey Deschanel, Scott Caan and Danny McBride. Yusaf Islam (aka Cat Stevens) ups the film’s old school cred factor by contributing four new original songs to its soundtrack. In theaters April 24
TOMORROWLAND
Disney World has long been making promises about the future, beginning with the opening of EPCOT Center (now Epcot) in 1982. Upon entering that giant Spaceship Earth dome, a soothing, omniscient voice informed guests that by the year 2000 flying cars would be a norm. Disney continues to explore an idealized futuristic world similar to what was imagined in that dome. This time it’s with the live action, scifi fantasy, Tomorrowland. Pixar’s star director Brad Bird teamed up with Damon Lindelof, creator of Lost, to develop the story of a teenage girl (Britt Robertson) who lives in a realistic present day, but finds herself in possession of a pin that can transport her to an alternate dimension, a utopian version of the future. George Clooney plays a genius exinventorturnedhermit who holds secrets to this dimension’s creation and existence. Here’s hoping Disney includes that promised flying car with the purchase of a movie ticket. In theaters May 22
