500 DAYS OF SUMMER isa traditional boy meets girl story but told from the point of view of the head-over-heels-in-love boy for a change. Split screens allow the audience to see the male and female versions of events both past and present

For those who know and study Coppola’s earlier films, there is a lot to savor in TETRO. For those under 25, it will be a much harder sell. This is something different, something “old fashioned,” with all the ambiguity that simple phrase can mean.

Professionals who search out new “faces” and movie locations will share how you (or your house, yard, or vehicle), could achieve that elusive 15-seconds of fame. Joining them will be local actors and “people in the street,” who got to be onscreen “extras” in locally filmed movies.

The power of THE HURT LOCKER is that constant level of uncertainty. Because James Bond and the Mission Impossible team have always managed to clip the correct colored wire with just a few seconds left on the digital clock, we have previously been lulled into a passive set of expectations when it comes to defusing bombs in movies. But director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal, know those artificial rules don’t apply in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they purposefully keep us on the edge of our seats.

THE HURT LOCKER actors who portray the bomb squad, and the director and script which guide them, never miss a step (both literally and figuratively), and the result is a level of filmmaking only seen once or twice in a decade.

Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast   New Releases 7/10/09     Bruno (R) Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen Director: Larry Charles The talented comedian who brought us “Borat” imports another visitor (this time it’s a gay Austrian dude), to trek across America and confound the natives. There are some laugh-out-loud moments, some thoughtful chuckling moments, and some wincing-in-discomfort moments, but Cohen certainly knows how to keep our attention. 3 pieces of choreographed discomfort Toast   I Love You Beth Cooper (PG-13) Starring: Hayden Panettiere, Paul Rust, Jack T. Carpenter, Lauren … Read More »

Vivien Hillgrove will show clips from her films to illustrate her editing secrets (and why they work), how music impacts a scene, and the ease and delight of editing in this digital age. “Film Editing: Putting the Puzzle Together,” is at 7:30, July 11th at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts