Arts & Entertainment
Kam’s Kapsules: Movies Opening Friday, Dec. 5
By Kam Williams
For The Skanner News
BIG BUDGET FILMS
The Pyramid (R for vio-
lence and gruesome images)
Subterranean horror flick
about a team of archaeolo-
gists who find themselves
hunted by an evil creature
after getting lost while
exploring a labyrinth inside
a lost pyramid discovered in
Egypt beneath the Sahara
Desert. Co-starring Garsha
Arristos, Joseph Beddelem,
Omar Benbrahim and James
Buckley.
Top Five (R for sexuality,
nudity, crude humor, perva-
sive profanity and drug use)
Chris Rock wrote, directed
and stars in this star vehicle
about a standup comic try-
ing to become a serious
actor. With Gabrielle Union,
Tracy Morgan and Rosario
Dawson.
INDEPENDENT &
FOREIGN FILMS
The Barefoot Artist
(Unrated) Poignant portrait
of 73 year-old Lily Yeh, the
Chinese artist-turned-global
humanitarian who, based on
a belief that access to art is a
fundamental human right,
created a foundation which
transformed abandoned lots
and buildings into parks,
gardens, theaters, studios
and educational facilities for
poor kids in Philadelphia,
Rwanda, Kenya, Ecuador
and elsewhere around the
world.
By the Gun (R for sexual-
ity, nudity, graphic violence,
pervasive profanity and
drug use) Mafia drama, set
in Boston, about an ambi-
tious
mobster’s
(Ben
Barnes) effort to become a
made man. With Harvey
Keitel, Toby Jones and
Leighton Meester.
Comet (R for profanity,
sexual references and drug
use) Time-travel adventure
set in a parallel universe and
chronicling a star-crossed
couple’s (Emmy Rossum
and Justin Long) tempestu-
ous relationship. With Eric
Winter, Lou Beatty, Jr. and
Kayla Servi.
Concerning
Violence
(Unrated) Liberation retro-
spective,
narrated
by
Lauryn Hill and inspired by
Frantz Fanon’s “Wretched
of the Earth,” recounting
nine African nations’ fights
for freedom from European
colonial rulers in the Sixties
and Seventies. (In English,
Swedish, French and Por-
Top Five
father’s (James Remar)
tuguese with subtitles)
medical bills. Co-starring
Dying of the Light (R for Stacey Dash, Mariel Hem-
profanity and violence) ingway, Carmen Electra and
Revenge thriller about a Nia Peeples.
CIA agent (Nicolas Cage)
Life Partners (R for pro-
who goes rogue, rather than
and
sexuality)
retiring as ordered, in order fanity
to track down the terrorist Romantic comedy revolv-
(Alexander Karim) who tor- ing around a couple of
tured him years earlier. With BFFs, one gay (Leighton
Anton Yelchin, Irene Jacob Meester), one straight
(Gillian Jacobs), whose
and Adetomiwa Edun.
long-term friendship is test-
The Foxy Merkins ed when the latter starts
(Unrated) Unlikely-buddies dating a doctor (Adam
Support
cast
comedy about a cash- Brody).
strapped, asthmatic, lesbian, includes Gabourey Sidibe,
wannabe whore (Lisa Haas) Abby Elliott, Greer Gram-
who learns the ropes of the mer and Kate McKinnon.
business from a straight,
Night Will Fall (Unrated)
wealthy, seasoned street-
documentary
walker (Jackie Monahan) Holocaust
well-versed in picking up culled from recent found-
and satisfying women. With footage shot in 1945 by
Frances Bodomo, Diane Alfred Hitchcock and Sid-
ney Bernstein in liberated
Ciesla and Claudia Cogan.
concentration camps in Ger-
Lap Dance (Unrated) many.
Greg Carter wrote and
Pioneer (R for profanity)
directed this semi-autobio-
graphical drama about an Fact-based political thriller,
aspiring actress (Ali Cobrin) set in the Seventies, about a
who gets permission from grieving diver’s (Aksel
her fiance (Robert Hoffman) Hennie) attempt to expose a
to moonlight as a stripper to corporate and government
pay her cancer-stricken conspiracy to cover up the
truth about how his brother
(Andre Eriksen) died during
the installation of a gas
pipeline in the North Sea.
With
Wes
Bentley,
Stephanie Sigman and
Jonathan LaPaglia. (In Nor-
wegian and English with
subtitles)
Poverty, Inc. (Unrated)
“The more things change,
the more they stay the same”
documentary questioning
whether Western nation’s
anti-poverty industrial com-
plex has been at all effective
in alleviating the suffering
of Third World peoples.
She’s Beautiful When
She’s Angry (Unrated)
Female Empowerment doc-
umentary recounting the
rise of the women’s move-
ment in the Sixties.
Featuring appearances by
Muriel Fox, Ellen Willis,
Congresswoman Eleanor
Holmes Norton, Kate Mil-
lett, Susan Brownmiller and
Linda Burnham.
A Spell to Ward Off the
Darkness (Unrated) Surre-
See MOVIES on page 11
Page 6 The Portland and Seattle Skanner December 3, 2014