The Assassination of Richard Nixon at the Grand Cinema

The Assassination of Richard Nixon (95 min, Rated R)

As the Watergate scandal is breaking and President Nixon can be seen all over the television and newspapers, Sam Bicke (Sean Penn) struggles to earn money as an office furniture salesman as he tries to win back his estranged wife, Marie (a brunette Naomi Watts). He has grand plans of starting a mobile tire store with his friend Bonny (Don Cheadle), but he is so blinded by truth and honesty that he stands in the way of his own potential success. His rage continues to build as he sees another man spending time with Marie and the kids until he cannot control it any longer and resolves to kill Nixon, whom he blames for all of society's ills. The story is told through a series of flashbacks as Bicke dictates into a tape recorder the sad details of his life to composer Leonard Bernstein, the only person he thinks will understand him. From the way he covets his mustache to how he reacts when he's around Marie, Bicke, who sees himself as representative of the loss of the American dream, is a simple man on the verge of exploding. Based on true events, the film also deals with the racism and sexism that was rampant in the early-to-mid-1970s.
'The highest possible thumbs up for Penn and a big thumbs up as well for first-time director Niels Mueller.'
-- Richard Roeper, EBERT & ROEPER
'The Assassination of Richard Nixon is a triumph for its star and the writers, who make us cringe with empathy for a man who taps into the latent loser in all of us.'
-- Jan Stuart, NEWSDAY

Bad Education at the Grand Cinema

Bad Education (109 min, Rated NC-17)
Pedro Almodovar's (Talk to Her) latest film takes place in Madrid in 1980. Enrique Goded, a young director, is looking through the tabloids to find a subject for his fourth film when a man claiming to be his old classmate, Ignacio Rodríguez, suddenly appears at his doorstep. He has brought a short story called "The Visit," and gives it to Enrique. The story was inspired by their childhood together and tells of the kids’ discovery of the cinema. Enrique reads "The Visit" with great interest and decides to adapt it into a film, a move Ignacio is ecstatic about. However, Ignacio immediately insists upon one condition: he play the lead. Enrique is not convinced his friend would fit the role and refuses to give it to him. After a violent argument, Ignacio disappears completely. In the days following the argument, Enrique can"t get the mysterious visitor out of his mind and decides to do some investigating. In pursuit of the truth, he uncovers many more questions and finds that he will have to pay dearly for the answers.
"Almodovar has toyed with film noir before, most memorably in his 1997 film Live Flesh. But his newest movie, Bad Education, is a delirious, headlong immersion and re-invention of a style."
-- Stephen Holden, THE NEW YORK TIMES
"An Almodóvar film is always worth watching, and Bad Education is no exception."
-- Jean Lowerison, SAN DIEGO METROPOLITAN

The Woodsman

The Woodsman

The Woodsman (87 min, Rated R)
With a 12-year prison stretch reaching an end, Walter (Kevin Bacon) faces an uncertain walk back into the free world in THE WOODSMAN. Attempting to keep his past indiscretions sheltered from prying eyes, he tries to piece together his shattered life by finding a job and an apartment. Employment at a lumberyard comes easily thanks to his natural talent for woodcraft. An apartment comes less easily, but Walter manages to secure a roof over his head in a building, which--in a cruel twist of irony--is located opposite an elementary school. Walter's brother-in-law Carlos (Benjamin Bratt) remains the only member of his family willing to keep in contact with him. Meanwhile, Sgt. Lucas (Mos Def) keeps a watchful eye over Walter's activities while Walter makes faltering strides towards romance with his tough-as-nails co-worker, Vickie (Kyra Sedgwick). But as wary neighbors steal worried glances at him and gossip, Walter finds it inordinately difficult to keep his past life a secret. For this reformed character, the path to redemption comes strewn with cracked paving stones, which need to be carefully navigated with every tentative step he takes.

Beyond the Sea

Beyond the Sea (98 min, Rated R)

For BOBBY DARIN (Kevin Spacey), performing was his life. After suffering from rheumatic fever at the age of seven, Bobby is told he'll be lucky to live to be fifteen. Modern medicine and determination keep him alive, and by 20, with the help of his manager Steve Blauner (John Goodman), he's working his way up from tacky clubs to performing in Vegas, finally scoring a hit with 'Splish Splash'. "Mack the Knife" makes him the star he's dreamed of becoming, but never satisfied with success, he continues to reinvent himself. He falls for the actress Sandra Dee (Kate Bosworth) while filming a movie in Italy, and despite her mother's protests, Bobby and Sandy get married. Though they are the perfect-looking Hollywood couple, their life together is conflicted by her acting career and his touring. His dogged pursuit of fame and fortune isolates him from the very people who love him and believe in him. "A hugely entertaining, highly empathetic portrait." -- Kirk Honeycutt, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER "Beyond the Sea is a beautiful whirlwind musical homage to crooner Bobby Darin's remarkable career and astonishing life..." -- Emily Blunt, BLUNT REVIEW

The Grand Cinema, Tacoma WA

A Very Long Engagement

A Very Long Engagement (134 min, Rated R)
From the director and star of "Amelie" (Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Audrey Tautou) comes A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT, based on the acclaimed novel by Sebastien Japrisot. The film is set in France near the end of World War I in the deadly trenches of the Somme, in the gilded Parisian halls of power, and in the modest home of an indomitable provincial girl. It tells the story of this young woman's relentless, moving and sometimes comic search for her fiance, who has disappeared. He is one of five French soldiers believed to have been court-martialed under mysterious circumstances and pushed out of an allied trench into an almost-certain death in no-man's land. What follows is an investigation into the arbitrary nature of secrecy, the absurdity of war, and the enduring passion, intuition and tenacity of the human heart. "This ravishing, archetypal romance has such vitality and incandescent charm that it all comes together beautifully, without ever degenerating into kitsch." -- Timothy Knight, REEL.COM "A Very Long Engagement works on its own terms, as a showcase for Tautou and as a reminder of the kind of beauty that movies, at their best, can show us." -- Moira MacDonald, SEATTLE TIMES

Closer

Closer (98 min, Rated R)

Nominated for 5 Golden Globes
Based on the play by Patrick Marber, CLOSER is an intriguing story of passion, drama, love and abandonment involving two couples in London. Alice (Natalie Portman) and Dan (Jude Law) are strangers drawn together by a car accident. Anna (Julia Roberts) and Larry (Clive Owen) are a middle-class couple whose lives are turned upside down when Anna meets Dan. "It's a pleasure to see material this intelligent, a cast this inspired -- and Nichols in his Carnal Knowledge prime, operating with cold, silky expertise." -- Michael Wilmington, CHICAGO TRIBUNE "An intelligently written, well-acted, and thoughtful film about adult relationships." -- Pete Vonder Haar, FILM THREAT

Tarnation

Tarnation (88 min, Unrated)
Faced with the haunting remnants of his past, including a family legacy of mental illness, Jonathan Caouette returns to his native Texas to aid in his mother's recovery from a lithium overdose. Caouette has been documenting his life since he was eleven years old, and in TARNATION we watch him grow up on camera, seeking escape from family trauma through musical theater, grade-B horror flicks and the forging of his identity through popular culture. He weaves a psychedelic whirlwind of snapshots, Super-8 home movies, answering machine messages, video diaries, early short films, snippets of 80s pop culture and dramatic reenactments to create an epic portrait of an American family torn apart by dysfunction and reunited through the power of love. "As raw and personal as a movie can be, the equivalent of a cinematic journal or diary. But it's also artfully constructed and articulated, written, edited and musically designed with often jolting brilliance." -- Michael Wilmington, CHICAGO TRIBUNE "Caouette has taken the broken pieces of two lives and slowly, painstakingly, pasted them together -- and created one superb work of art." -- Stephen Whitty, NEWARK STAR-LEDGER

Sideways

A wine tasting road trip to salute Jack's (Thomas Haden Church) final days as a bachelor careens woefully sideways as he and Miles (Paul Giamatti) hit the gas en route to mid-life crises. The comically mismatched pair, who share little more than their history and a heady blend of failed potential and fading youth, soon find themselves drowning in wine and women (Sandra Oh and Virginia Madsen). Emerging from a haze of pinot noir, wistful yearnings and trepidation about the future, the two inevitably collide with reality. SIDEWAYS was directed by Alexander Payne (ABOUT SCHMIDT) who teamed with his longtime screenwriting partner Jim Taylor to adapt Rex Pickett's novel of the same name. "If film critics employed a 0 to 100 rating scale such as some wine critics do, then SIDEWAYS would rate about a 98." -- Kirk Honeycutt, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER "It's a joy to watch comedy unfold so naturally, the laughs gently teased out from our growing knowledge of the characters, their imperfections, doubts and, yes, emotional pain." -- Megan Lehmann, NEW YORK POST

The Machinist

Trevor Reznik, portrayed by a physically transformed Christian Bale, has been suffering from insomnia for a year. His nerves are frayed and his body is so gaunt he is accused of starting to disappear. After meeting a new worker at the machine shop where he works, Trevor makes an unforgivable mistake that results in a gruesome, career-ending accident for another co-worker. Ostracized by his fellow workers and eaten away by a devastating guilt, Trevor becomes increasingly paranoid that someone will try to exact revenge for his error. No one is exempt from Trevor's suspicion. When the only two people Trevor trusts begin to threaten him, Trevor finds himself alone, hunted, without options. He loses his job, and all hope of love. It seems there is no way out of his spiraling descent until he uncovers a hint that is perhaps the key to what is happening to him. It lies not among the suspects he has been investigating, but is buried in his disquieted psyche. "Anderson tightens the screws of suspense, but it's Bale's gripping, beyond-the-call-of-duty performance that holds you in thrall." -- Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE "The Machinist manages to forge something fresh and unique while clearly showcasing some affection for the film noirs and the twilight zones that came before." -- Scott Weinberg, EFILMCRITIC.COM

Kinsey

Academy Award.-winning writer-director Bill Condon (GODS AND MONSTERS) turns the microscope on Alfred Kinsey in a drama that is at once a portrait of a man driven to uncover the most private secrets of the nation, and a journey into the mystery of human behavior. Liam Neeson stars as Kinsey, who in 1948 irrevocably changed American culture and created a media sensation with his book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Asking thousands of people about the most intimate aspects of their lives, Kinsey lifted the weight of doubt and shame from a society in which sex was hidden, and knowledge was dangerous. His work sparked one of the most intense cultural debates of the past century - a debate that rages on today. "The strength of Kinsey is finally in the clarity it brings to its title character. It is fascinating to meet a complete original, a person of intelligence and extremes." -- Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES "Neeson pulls off something of a miracle here, creating a flesh-and-blood character who is innocent and obsessive, decent and selfish, committed to expanding the boundaries of knowledge but sadly lacking emotional wisdom." -- Colin Covert, MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

Directions to The Grand Cinema, Tacoma WA

The Grand Cinema is located in the Merlino Arts Building, 606 South Fawcett Avenue, Tacoma, WA 98402, near the corner of Sixth Avenue and South Fawcett Avenue.

Parking is free in the Grand Cinema parking lot after 5 pm.

Telephone: 253-593-4474

The Grand Cinema, Tacoma WA