Artsy-fartsy

Director Erich Weiss will be on hand for a screening of Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry, a documentary about Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins, the legendary tattoo artist whose work appeared on the bodies of thousands of soldiers during World War II (and beyond, of course). Based in Honolulu, Collins’ work was a blend of American folk art and Japanese artistry, and his parlor was the place to go when the sailors wanted to get stewed, screwed and tattooed. The film screens at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, at the Ken Cinema. Tickets can be obtained at www.horismoku.com. 

The Teeny Tiny Pit Orchestra will perform with King Vidor’s 1928 silent film The Crowd, one of the first films to express the alienation of the individual within society. It’s like an American Metropolis that takes a look at the epic tragedy that is life. James Murray is Johnny, born on the fourth of July in 1900, whose dreams of success are swallowed up by his faceless job and his responsibilities to his family. It’s nicely paired with a Laurel and Hardy short at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25, in the Seuss Room in the Geisel Library on the UCSD campus. Free.

Oh, and I’ll be introducing Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky at the Museum of Photographic Arts on Wednesday, Oct. 28, and moderating a post-screening Q&A with the director, Dmitry Trakovsky, immediately afterwards. Tarkovsky, of course, is the legendary Russian director behind films like Andrei Rublev and Solaris, and the film takes a look not just at his body of work, but also at how he managed to create that sort of freethinking artistry within the confines of the Soviet system. You can meet both Tarkovsky and Trakovsky (and little old me) at 7 p.m. at MoPA in Balboa Park.

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Opening

Amelia: Hilary Swank plays the famous dominatrix—er, aviatrix. Yeah, aviatrix.

An Education: Nick Hornby of High Fidelity fame wrote the script and does a 180 by writing about a girl who desperately wants to grow up and thinks she may have found a shortcut in a good-looking charmer twice her age. See our review on Page 24.

Bronson: The touching tale of a bald sociopath with a monstrous mustache and his 30 years of solitary confinement in prison. 

Astroboy: Animated version of the famous manga about a robot boy who has machine guns coming out of his ass. Oh, yeah, it’s for kids.  

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant: Plenty of big names, like John C. Reilly, Salma Hayak and Ken Watanabe, appear in this tween film trying to cash in on the vampire craze.

Good Hair: Chris Rock made this documentary after his daughter asked him why she didn’t have good hair. 

Munyarungabo: A boy orphaned in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 leaves Kigali on a search for justice. 

The Nightmare Before Christmas: The precursor to Coraline gets the holiday-release treatment. Jack Skellington, mayor of Halloween Town, tries to get the beasts and demons into the Christmas spirit, with disastrous results. 

Saw VI: There have been six of these? Seriously? 

One Time Only

Walk the Line: Question: Would the Man in Black approve of this movie? Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma. Free.

San Diego Asian Film Festival: There’s still a solid week of movies to go at the 10th annual SDAFF. Details at www.sdaff.org, or just swing by the UltraStar at Hazard Center and see what’s on. Through Oct. 29. 

MountainFilm on Tour: Traveling collection of short films dealing with the environment. And mountains. Starts at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, at La Paloma Theater in Encinitas. 

San Diego Italian Film Festival: There are entries into the festival’s Paolo Virzi retrospective on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 22 and 23, and the bulk of the fest kicks off next Saturday, Oct. 31. 

South Pacific Sing-along: The classic musical on the big screen, and for once you don’t have to be shy about joining in. Screens at 7 p.m. Oct. 22, at the Jewish Community Center in La Jolla. 

Notorious: It’s got all the elements. Hitchcock directs Ingrid Bergman as a floozy approached by government man Cary Grant, who recruits her to spy on Nazis in South America. Screens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, through Saturday, Oct. 24, at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills.

Tampopo: Noodles are so sexy. And since this is part of UCSD’s ArtPower! Film program, they’ll also be provided. Screens at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, at The Loft @ UCSD.

No Pants, Just Shorts: The film contingent of the used-record fair / barbeque / art show consists of half a dozen films whose numbers include A Day at Disneyland on Acid and Bunny Gets Slapped. Screens at 9 p.m., 10 p.m. and midnight, Sunday, Oct. 25, at Kava Lounge. The filmmakers will do a post-screening Q&A after the 9 p.m. show. 

War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death: The very long title makes this description unnecessary. Screens at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25, at the Central Library, Downtown. Free.

Scanners: This David Cronenberg flick will make your brain explode. And any movie with Michael Ironside as the bad guy rules. Screens at 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25, at Whistle Stop Bar in South Park. Free. 

Copyright Criminals: Downloading music illegally is not a crime! Unless you get caught. Screens at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, at the Central Library, Downtown. Free.

Between: A Chicago lawyer heads to Tijuana to find her missing sister. That’s the premise, but the end result is a tricky Memento-like puzzle. Screens at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27, in Room 125 of Markstein Hall at CSU San Marcos. Free.

The Shining: Don’t you love it when Jack Nicholson screams “Heeere’s Johnny!” No, wait, Heeeere’s Jay. Hang on, it’s Conan now, right? Heeeere’s Conan. Nope, just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma. Free.

Now playing

The Damned United: Peter Morgan, who also wrote The Queen and Frost / Nixon, pens another historical film starring Michael Sheen, this time about Brian Clough, the legendary U.K. soccer coach and his terrific flameout at the reins of Leeds United. 

Fuel: Sure, it’s another green documentary, but this look into the massive war machine that is the petrochemical industry won the Best Documentary Audience Award at Sundance this year. Seriously, bring on the affordable Tesla. 

Law Abiding Citizen: Jamie Foxx is a Philly D.A. trying to stop sociopath Gerard Butler, who is somehow blowing shit up while serving a prison term.  

More Than a Game: Sharp documentary about five high-school friends who won the 2003 national basketball championship. Oh, right, one of them is called Lebron James. 

New York, I Love You: The sequel to a similar project about Paris, these 11 short films are about the beast that is New York, all tied together. There are plenty of high-profile actors, including Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman, Orlando Bloom, Chris Cooper and Julie Christie, but the nature of the project guarantees that the whole is uneven. See our review on Page 24.

The Stepfather: Dude comes back from military school to find out his mom’s married to Nip / Tuck’s Dylan Walsh—who, it turns out, is evil.

Where the Wild Things Are: Let the wild rumpus begin! Scroll down at Lastblogonearth.com to find Anders Wright’s review.

A Serious Man: The Coen brothers offer up an examination of faith that moves in mysterious ways.

Couples Retreat: Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell make a dumb romantic comedy.

From Mexico with Love: A migrant worker who boxes on the side teams up with a crusty old trainer to beat the snot out of a nasty rancher’s nasty son.  

Paranormal Activity: The buzziest horror film of late, touted as the next Blair Witch Project, was shot in San Diego on a shoestring budget by a first-time director.

Amreeka: A single mom and her teenaged son move from the West Bank to small-town Illinois. 

The Boys are Back: Clive Owen’s wife dies, leaving him to care for their children and his teenaged son from a previous marriage. 

Capitalism: A Love Story: You may not always agree with Michael Moore’s filmmaking methods, but it’s hard to argue with his message. Rise up, people. 

Coco Before Chanel: Audrey Tatou plays the famed designer in her pre-fame years. She’s pouty, but she lights up the screen when she smiles. 

The Invention of Lying: Ricky Gervais stars in his own U.S. directorial debut. He lives in a world where everyone always tells the truth, until one day he doesn’t. 

Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3-D: The first of Pixar’s movies and its sequel will double-feature for the price of one. 

Zombieland: Woody Harrelson. Zombies. Rated R. ’Nuff said. 

Bright Star: Jane Campion’s latest period piece creates a very real person out of Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), the country girl who’s long been considered the tart who fooled around with poet John Keats before his death.

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell: Biopic about Tucker Max, self-proclaimed drunken asshole.  

Pandorum: Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster come out of suspended animation with no memory and no idea why people are trying to kill them.  

Paris: Juliette Binoche shows up with her three kids at the doorstep of her brother, who’s desperately waiting for a heart transplant. 

Surrogates: In the future, Bruce Willis will try to solve the murder of robot surrogates, which will provide the only means for us to interact with each other. Like Facebook.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs: Sure, this 3-D adaptation of the beloved children’s book looks cheesy. But it’s great, and any cheese involved makes it taste even better. Seriously, one of those rare children’s films that’s equally awesome for adults. And it includes Neil Patrick Harris voicing a monkey.

The Informant! Steven Soderberg directs a pudgy, mustachioed Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre, a ’90s-era whistleblower with aspirations of greatness and a propensity for bending the truth. 

Jennifer’s Body: Megan Fox stars in this Diablo Cody-penned horror film about a hottie who acquires a serious taste for men. Literally.

Love Happens: Will Jennifer Aniston be the woman who helps widower Aaron Eckhart cope with his loss? Yes.

Extract: Comeback kids Mike Judge and Jason Bateman team up for a comedy about a factory owner (Bateman) hoping to have an affair with one of his employees (Mila Kunis).

It Might Get Loud: Documentary about the art of guitar as played by Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White. Turn it up. 

Inglourious Basterds: Tarantino’s new brutal, bloody, hysterically funny WWII movie isn’t gonna be for everyone, but it certainly is for us. Take that, Hitler!

District 9: This terrifically fun Peter Jackson-produced sci-fi flick has two messages. One, discrimination sucks. Two, alien guns rule.

Julie & Julia: Meryl Streep is Julia Child, and Amy Adams is her biggest fan, Julie Powell, who got through life with the help of Child’s My Life in France.

The Hangover: They cut a good trailer for Todd Phillips’ new film, about three buddies—Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis—who wake up the morning after a brutal bachelor party with no memory of what happened or where the groom is.

Ongoing

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center Space Theater: After undergoing significant renovations, the Fleet is re-opening its dome Imax theater, complete with a kick-ass new screen. Films vary week-to-week. Showtimes and prices can be found at www.rhfleet.org.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show: No, it’s not a time warp—the love-it-or-hate-it camp classic continues its midnight run in its 37th year of release. When the lead character of the film is a transvestite scientist named Dr. Frank-N-Furter, you know you’re in for some seriously trashy viewing. And, of course, this is the one movie where you want the audience shouting at the screen. Screens Fridays at midnight at La Paloma Theater in Encinitas.