we recommend
ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL
See Film feature. (Edwards University, Irvine)
SIR! NO SIR!
David Zeiger's impassioned documentary remembers the GI anti-war movement of the 1960s and 1970s, a powerful phenomenon that's been more or less erased from the record by neo-con revisionists trying to put a heroic new face on the ugliness of the war in Vietnam. Zeiger's interviews with grizzled Vietnam vets—and Jane Fonda—recall everything from the poetry readings in the coffeehouses set up near military bases to the movement's most desperate measure (the “fragging” of officers in the killing fields). While the film recalls the follies and failures of one American war, disturbing parallels to the one now being waged by the Bush administration are inescapable: Iraq and Afghanistan, never mentioned here, nonetheless inhabit these 84 minutes like some deadly, creeping virus for which there's no cure. (Bill Gallo) (Edwards University, Irvine)
WATER
See Film feature. (Edwards South Coast Village, Santa Ana)
also showing
HOOT
The most important thing to know about this adaptation of Carl Hiaasen's children's book is that it's co-produced by Jimmy Buffett, who also appears in a small role and provides new music for the soundtrack. As one might expect from the king of the Parrotheads, Hoot is essentially a paean to hanging out on the beach in Florida. But because the target audience is a fair bit under 21, there aren't any margaritas or babes in bikinis—though the female lead, played by Brie Larson, is an all-purpose youth fantasy: a blonde bombshell who wears nerd glasses yet is also strong enough to terrify the school bully. Logan Lerman and Cody Linley play the two young teens who, along with Larson, fight a low-key eco-guerrilla battle against evil developers in order to save the burrowing owls whose habitat is in danger. Writer-director Wil Shriner has made Hiaasen's writing blander for the big screen, but it doesn't help matters that, of the three young leads, only Larson has any charisma. (Luke Y. Thompson) (Countywide)
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III
See Film feature. (Countywide)
THE PROMISE
See Film feature. (Countywide)
WIDESPREAD PANIC—EARTH TO AMERICA
Can't make it to one of Widespread Panic's four announced spring tour dates to promote their new album Earth to America? Don't harsh your mellow, man, just trip into the theater to catch this concert, broadcast live in high definition from Atlanta's Fox Theatre, by the heirs to both the Southern rock and Grateful Dead jam band mantles. (5 p.m. Tues. at Edwards “Big One” Megaplex, Spectrum, Irvine)
preview
POSEIDON
10 p.m. or 11:59 p.m. Thurs., May 11. (Countywide)
