Butler's Cinema Scene

"Chico & Rita"...not for the kids

“CHICO & RITA” My rating: B (Opening April 13 at the Tivoli)

94 minutes | No MPAA rating

Animation has so long been the domain of the family crowd that when we encounter something aimed at grownups (“Persepolis,” “Waltz With Bashir”) it’s easy to go overboard.

The Irish-made, Spanish-language “Chico & Rita” is a musical love story spanning a half-century. It was one of the films nominated this year for the Oscar for animated feature, but lost to “Rango” (which isn’t precisely a family film, either, though kids no doubt enjoy it).

“Chico…” is clearly not for the kids. Not with animated nudity and sex. And in any case, this effort from directors Tono Errando, Javier Mariscal and Fernando Trueba is about emotions way over the heads of children, who will quickly grow bored.

But for music- and romance-loving adults, it’s a small feast.

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Cecile de France and Thomas Doret

“THE KID WITH A BIKE” My rating: B

87 minutes | No MPAA rating

Nobody ever seems like they’re acting in the films of siblings

Jean-Pierre and Luc  Dardenne. Everything is so natural and unforced

that any actorish method would stand out like a pimple on the face of

the Mona Lisa.

Maybe that’s because the Belgian duo invariably center their films on

children, usually portrayed by untrained first-timers who are so good at

just being that acting would be superfluous.

The troubled title character of “The Kid With A Bike” is Cyril (Thomas

Doret),  who as the movie begins is living in a group home for

youngsters.

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Yilmaz Erdogan and Firat Tanis in "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia"

“ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA” My rating: A- (Opening April 6 at the Tivoli)

153 minutes | No MPAA rating

I cannot begin to explain how “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” does what it does.

That’s part of its greatness, the way in which it slowly worms its way into our consciousness and blossoms, not in big melodramatic moments but in little ripples of thought and suppressed emotion that create a mood unlike just about any film I can recall.

After a brief prologue that shows three men drinking in what appears to be a run-down car repair shop, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s unforgettable drama begins at night in the rolling hills outside a medium-sized Turkish city.  In a wide shot we see three pairs of headlights in the distance. They finally pull to a stop and men get out, some in uniforms, some carrying shovels, a couple in handcuffs.

We soon surmise that this is a police investigation. Two men have been charged with murdering a third; this expedition was organized to find the body.

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“IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY” My rating: B (Opens March 30 at the Screenland Crown Center)

128 minutes | MPAA rating: R 

There’ s nary a girly moment in “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” Anjelina Jolie’s hair-raising, heartbreaking love story set amid the horrors of the Bosnian war.

In fact, Jolie’s name doesn’t appear until the end of the film…almost as if she’s hoping we’ll discover the movie without knowing that it was made by one of the world’s most famous and

desirable women.

This gruelling effort follows the parallel lives of Danijel (Goran Kostic), a Serbian police officer, and Ajla (Zana Marjanovic), a Muslim artist. In the film’s early moments the two enjoy a night out dancing at a Sarajevo nightclub. The revelries end when a bomb goes off near them. The war is officially underway.

With Sarajevo under siege by rampaging Serb forces, Ajla hunkers down in an apartment with her mother, sister and infant nephew. One day truckloads of Serbian soldiers pull up and order everyone out of the building. The Muslim men are summarily shot. The women, at least the attractive ones, are carted off to a barracks where they work as cooks, seamstresses, waitresses and prostitutes for Serbian soldiers. Rape and beatings are a daily occurence.

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“THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD” My rating: B (Opening March 30 at the Tivoli)

109 minutes | No MPAA rating

Though he has grown up in a dirt-poor rural community in Albania,  Nik (Tristan Halilaj) isn’t all that different from teenage boys anywhere else. He’s a modern adolescent, one who obsesses over his favor sports teams, dreams of opening an internet cafe, texts his friends and ponders the mystery of girls.

But while his eyes may be set on the future, Nik must contend with a present that is very much rooted in a barbaric past.

In “The Forgiveness of Blood” this youngster finds himself caught up in a Hatfields-and-McCoys feud that could very easily end his life before it really gets started.

Early in Joshua Marston’s film, Nik’s father and uncle get into a fight with a neighbor over access to a private road. The confrontation leaves the neighbor dead, the uncle in jail and the father in hiding.

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