Boondocks, Babysitters and Broncos

Irish vengeance, sci-fi writers and Patrick Swayze and Michael Jackson's last films are on tap.

“Jump!”
After being released in much of the world on DVD, the late, great Patrick Swayze’s final film will make it onto the big screen in the U.S. Joshua Sinclair’s period drama stars Swayze as Richard Pressburger, a defense lawyer battling the specter of Nazism in 1928. Based loosely on the real-life trial of acclaimed photographer Philippe Halsman, this British-Austrian co-production finds Halsman (Ben Silverstone) in his youth, accused of murdering his father during a hiking trip through the Alps. Realizing that the judge harbors prejudice against the Jewish boy, Pressburger must decide whether to fold or to stand on principle and risk sharing a cell with his client for contempt.
Opens in Los Angeles.

“Labor Day”
A constant and painful thorn in the side of the Republican Party, the labor unions have become a staunchly blue bedrock for the Democrats. Two-time Oscar nominated documentarian Glenn Silber and Claudia Vianello step into the historic 2008 presidential election to chart the enthusiastic campaigning of the two-million-strong Service Employees International Union. Silber and Vianello shine a light how America’s fastest-growing labor union orchestrated a voter turnout effort to ensure their candidate Barack Obama emerged victorious and what they have to gain from his election.
Opens in New York and Chicago.

“Looking for Palladin”
Ben Gazzara stars as a once-iconic actor now living as a recluse in Guatemala in this cross-cultural values dramedy from Polish writer/director Andrzej Krakowski. David Moscow, who once played the young Tom Hanks in “Big,” is all grown up as the Los Angeles talent agent who is sent down south to talk the hermetic Hollywood star out of hiding and retirement, but finds his own prickly exterior gently eroded by the warm local color and gentle pace of life outside of Tinseltown. Talia Shire and “The Sopranos”’ Vincent Pastore co-star.
Opens in New York.

“Skin”
The feature debut from TV helmer Anthony Fabian, this politically charged drama contrasts the eve of South Africa’s first free and open elections in 1994 with the country’s long struggle for social justice personified here by one white family’s battle for acceptance three decades earlier. Based on the true story of Afrikaner girl Sandra Laing (played by Sophie Okonedo), the film follows her rough upbringing as the dark-skinned daughter of white parents (Sam Neill and Alice Krige), who fight for her reclassification to the nation’s highest court, even if it threatens to tear the family apart.
Opens in limited release.

“Storm”
Combining more than two years of research with the objectivity of outsiders, German director Hans-Christian Schmid and co-writer Bernd Lange combine to tackle the topic of war crimes following the Bosnian conflict in this docudrama that won a trio of awards at the Berlin Film Festival. Kerry Fox stars as a dogged prosecutor at the Hague whose pursuit of evidence to convict a Serbian general uncovers a shocking secret that threatens to derail the entire proceedings, while Stephen Dillane plays her more politically attuned boss. In English, Serbian, German and Bosnian with subtitles.
Opens in New York.

“This Is It!”
The mad, shameless dash to bring the final performance of Michael Jackson to theaters (and thus reap the benefits) ends here, with frequent MJ collaborator and choreographer Kenny Ortega attempting to recreate the show that the singer was scheduled to perform at London’s O2 Arena before his untimely death in June. Given the sad truth that we’ll never see The King of Pop take the stage again, the hundreds of hours of rehearsal footage from his sold-out and subsequently canceled “This Is It” concerts that has been edited down into a 112-minute concert movie will have to suffice. Not surprisingly, thousands of showings for this limited, two-week theatrical run are already reported to have sold out.
Opens wide.

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