Movies in Theaters This Friday, May 17, 2013: Star Trek Into Darkness, Black Rock, Francis Ha, and More
May has been loaded with huge movies. And we still have the big 3-day holiday weekend next week! Iron Man 3 started it off, then The Great Gatsby released last weekend. Starting yesterday, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness lands in theaters.
Into Darkness adds Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC’s Sherlock) to an already impressive returning cast, including Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto (as the tried and tested best friends Captain Kirk and Spock). Abrams’ sequel to the immensely popular (and critically-lauded) Star Trek will definitely be a huge box office draw.
Smartly, other wide releases have stayed away from this weekend. In limited release, there are a few notables, including Katie Aselton’s directorial debut Black Rock. Starring her, Kate Bosworth, and Lake Bell, it tells the horror story of three women running for their lives on a deserted island. The movie was written by Aselton’s husband Mark Duplass.
Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale) also releases his newest film, titled Frances Ha. Frances is played by Greta Gerwig (Damsels in Distress) and the indie comedy is about a dancer suddenly on her own when her best friend moves out.
The best of the rest includes 33 Postcards, Augustine, Aurangzeb, Becoming Traviata, The English Teacher, Erased, Hating Briebart, Pieta, and State 194.
Which movie are you seeing? My guess: Star Trek Into Darkness.
In Summer 2013, pioneering director J.J. Abrams will deliver an explosive action thriller that takes Star Trek Into Darkness. When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.
For ten years, Chinese orphan Mei Mei dreams of meeting her Australian sponsor – Dean Randall – and his ‘perfect family’.
At 16, when her orphanage travels to Australia to attend the Australian Choir Festival, Mei Mei takes the opportunity to look him up. What she finds, however, is far from the idyllic life he depicted in his postcards.
Initially mismatched and disconnected – the two begin a journey in search of belonging, family, redemption, love and acceptance.
A look at the relationship between pioneering 19th century French neurologist Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot and his star teenage patient, a kitchen maid who is left partially paralyzed after a seizure.
AURANGZEB stars Arjun Kapoor, in a double role, along with Prithviraj, in lead roles in this intriguing and gripping drama. The film boasts of an enviable and dynamic ensemble star cast of Rishi Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Sikandar Kher, Amrita Singh, Deepti Naval, Tanvi Azmi, Swara Bhaskar and also launches Sasha Aagha.
Following world famous French soprano Natalie Dessay from the first repetitions until the premiere under the direction of Jean-Francois Sivadier, we meet a very special woman, a piece of art, a myth: LA TRAVIATA
Three childhood friends set aside their personal issues and reunite for a girls’ weekend on a remote island off the coast of Maine. One wrong move turns their weekend getaway into a deadly fight for survival.
An English teacher’s life is disrupted when a former student returns to her small town after failing as a playwright in New York.
An ex-CIA agent and his estranged daughter are forced on the run when his employers erase all records of his existence, and mark them both for termination as part of a wide-reaching international conspiracy.
A story that follows a New York woman (who doesn’t really have an apartment), apprentices for a dance company (though she’s not really a dancer), and throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as their possible reality dwindles.
From ACORN to Weinergate, HATING BREITBART tells the story of one man with a website who forever changed the media paradigm, upending the traditional press and changing the ground rules of political journalism. He opened the floodgates to an army of citizen journalists who used new media to completely rewrite the narrative. In the process, he repeatedly found himself the target of a media feeding frenzy as the old paradigm’s supporters pushed back.
Andrew Breitbart was a polarizing figure whose legacy is still being debated. Loved and hated, Andrew was a jovial prankster and a one-man wrecking ball who used his unique understanding of both traditional and new media to change the way that information flows in the modern era.
The HATING BREITBART filmmakers enjoyed exclusive, behind-the-scenes access to Andrew Breitbart during his various confrontations with the media, like the firestorm that erupted after Breitbart released the infamous ACORN videos, showing a purported pimp and prostitute visiting multiple offices of community organizing group ACORN looking for assistance.
Filmmakers capture Breitbart’s journey onto the national stage after publishing the videos, documenting the paradigm shift as more scandals unfolded. We see Breitbart become a celebrated speaker at Tea Party events with powerful enemies and legions of supporters who, in the wake of his sudden death at the age of 43, now carry his picture at rallies across the country.
HATING BREITBART is a dramatic account of a media figure with a larger-than-life personality evocative of the great newspaper titans of generations past.
Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2012 Venice Film Festival, Pieta is the acclaimed film from the celebrated and controversial Korean director Kim Ki-Duk (Bad Guy; Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… And Spring; 3-Iron). In this intense and haunting story, a loan shark living an isolated and lonely existence uses brutality to threaten and collect paybacks from desperate borrowers for his moneylender boss. He proficiently and mercilessly collects the debts without regard to the pain he causes his countless victims. One day, a mysterious woman appears in front of him claiming to be his long-lost mother. After coldly rejecting her at first, he gradually accepts her in his life and decides to quit his cruel job and seek a decent, redemptive life. However, he soon discovers a dark secret stemming from his past and realizes it may be too late to escape the horrific consequences already set in motion from his previous life.
In 2009, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad launched a plan to demonstrate that his people were deserving of statehood, inspiring them to change their destiny and seek UN membership. Since then, they’ve made remarkable progress, but the political quagmire–and Fayyad’s recent resignation from office–may destroy the most promising opportunity for peace in years.
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