Railroad Square Cinema

A Dangerous Method

railroadsquare — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:20:55 +0000

Golden Globe nomination: Viggo Mortensen, Best Supporting Actor! “A drama that examines psychoanalysis in Zurich circa 1904 has no business being this riveting”—Us. “In this erotic mind-bender from director David Cronenberg, talk isn’t cheap, it’s what helped birth modern psychiatry at the start of the 20th century. Swiss therapist Carl Jung (an outstandingly good Michael Fassbender) is giving the “talking cure” to Russian Jew Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley), a howling sexual hysteric with an itch to shrink heads herself and get the married Jung to spank her, for starters. This goes against the belief of Jung’s Viennese mentor, Sigmund Freud (a purring Viggo Mortensen has a high old time playing a man who likes to have the last word). Screenwriter Christopher Hampton sets up a duel between the men with Spielrein as prime instigator. Leave it to Cronenberg to make the cerebral sizzle.”—Peter Travers, Rolling Stone. R. 99 Min.

Gift Cards

railroadsquare — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:51:42 +0000

Purchase a gift card next time you visit Railroad Square Cinema or call our office at 207-873-4021. For a small handling fee we’ll even mail! Gift cards can be purchased for any amount and can be used for movie tickets, concessions or anything we sell. Plus you can add an additional amount to a card at any time.

Circus Dreams

railroadsquare — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:44:08 +0000

Unity College presents the 8th annual MIFF in the Morning film series!

MIFF in the Morning is a fund-raiser for the Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) with six films screened on designated Saturday and Sunday mornings. Full Festival Pass (admission to all 6 films) $36; 4-Pass (admission to any 4 films of your choice) $28; Individual tickets are $8.00. For more information call 207-873-4021.

Here’s the line-up:

LE HAVRE Jan. 7 & 8 at 10:00 a.m.

LOUDER THAN A BOMB Jan. 21 & 22 at 10:00 a.m.

THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH Feb. 4 & 5 at 9:30 a.m.

HERMANO Feb. 18 & 19 at 10:00 a.m.

CIRCUS DREAMS (with the director in attendance!) March 3 & 4 at 10:00 a.m.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA March 17 & 18 at 9:30 a.m.

“Running away and joining the circus” was a classic path to independence and adventure—if not fame and fortune—during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Circuses are no longer the kings of extravaganza entertainment that they once were, but Circus Dreams shows that the entertainment art forms of the circus continue to work their magic spell on performers and circus goers alike. Signe Taylor’s delightful film captures teen performers on a journey of artistic and personal self-discovery as they fight to save Circus Smirkus, this country’s only traveling youth circus. “Circus Dreams brings us to a world we’ve never seen, charms us with young people dedicated to living their dreams, and enthralls us with their performances.”-CineSourceMagazine.com. “Viewers of all ages will be intrigued and entertained, even, perhaps, inspired to run away and join the circus themselves.”-The Enterprise Newspaper CapeNews.net. Unrated. 80 minutes.

A Separation

railroadsquare — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:07:07 +0000

Nominated for 2 Oscars—Best Screenplay and Best Foreign Film, a category in which it’s the odds-on favorite as we go to press—A SEPARATION has drawn, by actual count, THE best of reviews of any film released in the past year. A truly involving drama about an Iranian couple whose marriage dissolves over family loyalties, A SEPARATION is “…an urgently shot courtroom drama designed to put you in the jury box…. As the great Sam Fuller said,’ “The end of this story will be written by you!’“—J. Hoberman, Village Voice, “A world-class masterpiece…. Flawlessly crafted, brilliantly performed and elegantly photographed, it follows a succession of disastrous consequences that flow from the marital split, and that pose profound moral questions without venturing judgments”—Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal. In Farsi with English subtitles. PG-13. 123 Min.

Shame

railroadsquare — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:51:29 +0000

THIS is a cinema experience! From the director of HUNGER and from Michael Fassbender, whose great acting runs from X-MEN to A DANGEROUS METHOD, comes this thoroughly amazing piece of cinema, which may not be for everyone (and, in fact, no one under 18 will be admitted) but will transfix those with an open sensibility: “As a Manhattan executive who measures his days and nights by anonymous sexual conquests—not to mention dates with hookers, online chat sessions and regular old porn-fueled masturbation—Fassbender is stripped naked in SHAME in every sense of the word. SHAME is a Dante-esque journey through a New York nightworld where words are mostly useless or worse. Fassbender and Carey Mulligan both give massive, irresistible performances (the former won the acting prize in Venice) as people drowning in a hostile sea of commodified sexuality .SHAME is riveting, spectacular, passionate cinema”—Andrew O’Hehir, Salon. NC-17. 99 Min.

Pina

railroadsquare — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:55:51 +0000

Wow! “PINA, Wim Wenders’ shockingly beautiful and moving tribute to the late German choreographer Pina Bausch, is a dance movie that brings the audience to the performance in a way a traditional documentary could never do – and in ways that even being in a theater, watching live, won’t accomplish. This meditation on movement and space, transportation and transcendence is not to be missed. It’s a loving (and playful) eulogy, a celebration of a creative force. If the best dance performances mirror life, then Pina – nominated for a documentary Academy Award- takes the mirror image and magnifies it, vitalizes it. Wenders shoots the members of Bausch’s ensemble in the cars of a gliding monorail, on busy street corners, on the barren ridge of an industrial wasteland, in sleek modernist buildings and elegant gardens. Wenders says “until now, movement as such has never touched me.” He went on to explain how he had learned to value what body language, what human motion and force and grace, can do. With Pina, his revelation becomes ours”—Stephen Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer. In English and in German with English subtitles. PG. 106 Min.

Science vs Stigma

railroadsquare — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:22:06 +0000

Admission $8—All donations go to support medical marijuana patients through the Maine Cannabis Defense Fund and Maine Green Cross.

A new documentary from Emmy-nominated director Dave Wilkinson about the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, featuring Maine patients and Dr. Dustin Sulak. Music by Seth Pillsbury, Jim Stewart and Dave Wilkinson. Science vs. Stigma does a wonderful thing: It puts a human face on some of the collateral damage from the War On Drugs. The film does this by allowing medical marijuana patients to share their struggles to safely access a stigmatized medicinal herb that helps them survive. Directed by Witchgrass author Dave Wilkinson, Science vs. Stigma presents scientific evidence to support the plant’s effectiveness, and highlights the efforts of people to organize for safe access, featuring interviews with patients, politicians, and activists in Maine. Unrated. 68 Min.

In The Land of Blood and Honey

railroadsquare — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:04:12 +0000

Golden Globe nomination: Best Foreign-Language Film!

Angelina Jolie moves to the other side of the camera and reveals an amazingly compassionate and passionate eye in her directorial debut, a moving drama about the complex relationship between a Serbian soldier and a Bosnian woman held captive in the camp he oversees. A story of love against the most unlikely home for it, IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY is an unforgettable cinematic experience. “”…introduces the idea that war is very much about the violent domination of women and not just about nation-states, ethnic conflicts, historical grudges and men killing men….moves briskly and easily holds your attention…”—Manohla Dargis, N.Y. Times. In Bosnian with English subtitles. R. 127 Min.

Coriolanus

railroadsquare — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:46:00 +0000

With its warring factions, citizen uprisings, guerrilla insurgencies, political intrigue, bloody warfare, family tensions, and homoerotic subtext, CORIOLANUS is one of the year’s best political thrillers. It’s also nearly 500 years old. The Shakespearean tragedy from which the movie draws its textual heft, though, has received an utterly arresting, creative modern-day adaptation. The title refers to the name of honor bestowed on the Roman general Caius Martius (Ralph Fiennes), a fearless, hard-boiled military man rewarded for his service with political office for which he’s thoroughly unsuited. Ousted by the very populace he despises, he takes revenge by allying himself against his own city with the guerrilla leader Tullus Aufidius (a really good Gerard Butler, in a meaty role), the sworn enemy he loves as much as he hates. It gets worse from there: Caius’ lioness of a mother (Vanessa Redgrave) is angry with him too. Redgrave gives a towering performance, and it’s a measure of the production’s success (and the astute screenplay by Rango’s John Logan) that she is met at every scene by worthy costars, including 2011’s ubiquitous Jessica Chastain as Caius’ wife. With his shaved head and burning eyes ringed with streaks of blood, Fiennes not only makes a brilliant, fearsome Coriolanus — he also displays an exciting talent for filmmaking, based on this, his feature directorial debut. Shakespeare on a trip wire. A-.”—Lisa Schwartzbaum, Entertainment Weekly. R. 122 Min.

Albert Nobbs

railroadsquare — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:06:41 +0000

Academy Award Nominee: Glenn Close, Best Actress!

Glenn Close’s slam-dunk Best Actress Academy Award Nomination is just one of three earned by this memorable film. “Delicate business is being transacted in this tight and engrossing drama of sexual identity. Set in 19th-century Ireland, the film focuses on a woman who passes as a male butler in a Dublin hotel just to survive. Glenn Close plays Albert with transcendent restraint. Close has a history with the role. She won an Obie for Simone Benmussa’s 1982 off-Broadway play based on a story by George Moore. Her range, energy, originality, humor and intelligence merit serious Oscar attention. And then there’s Janet McTeer, who is pure pow as Hubert, a house painter also passing as a man. There’s a difference. Hubert has made a life for himself with a wife, while Albert stays closeted. It’s Hubert who gives Albert the courage to court a hotel maid (Mia Wasikowska). As directed with grit and grace by Rodrigo García, this quietly devastating film goes bone-deep.”—Peter Travers, Rolling Stone. R. 114 Min.