The benefits of following your dreams
A pair of family films are the headlining releases this week. Billy Bob Thornton stars as a farmer who continues to follow his dreams, even in the face of naysayers, banks, and the government in The Astronaut Farmer. The other family film this week is set in Seattle, scenically representing the Pacific Northwest: a brother and sister open a magical box and discover The Last Mimzy, an enchanted toy that gives the children powers that could be the salvation of mankind.
Winner of the Independent Spirit Award's Best Picture, Sweetland is both about immigration and a romance, about a German mail-order bride in the years following World War I. A documentary about the fictitious plague that wiped out most of the world, Ever Since the World Ended interviews survivors and sketches the strange new world. Based on his column in The Stranger, Police Beat is the story of a Seattle bicycle cop written by Charles Mudede. The Page Turner is a French thriller about grudges and revenge, starring Deborah Francois (L'Enfant) and Catherine Frot (The Dinner Game). A social worker is offered four million dollars, enough to keep his orphanage open, if he agrees to return to his native Denmark for the wedding of his benefactor's daughter in After the Wedding.
New television shows this week are the second season of Extras, the new installment of Ricky Gervais's (The Office) HBO show. Following the release of the popular Planet Earth we have also brought in Shark Week, the multi-part documentary from the Discovery Channel.
