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<FONT FACE="Verdana"><B>This week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre-<BR>
<BR>
</B><FONT COLOR="#800000"><H2>Million Dollar Baby (PG13)<BR>
</H2></FONT><B>Friday, May 27<BR>
7:00 PM<BR>
Saturday & Sunday, May 28 & 29<BR>
4:00 and 7:00 PM<BR>
</B>$5 adults, $2 children 12 and under<BR>
KFS passes accepted for Sunday shows<BR>
<B>(See Review below)<BR>
</B>* * *<BR>
<B><BR>
Next week at the Kenworthy-<BR>
</B><BR>
<B>Schultze Gets the Blues (PG)<BR>
</B>Friday, June 3<BR>
7:00 PM<BR>
Saturday & Sunday<BR>
June 4 & 5, 4:15 & 7:00 PM<BR>
* * *<BR>
<BR>
<B>June at the Kenworthy-<BR>
</B><BR>
<B>The Upside of Anger (R)<BR>
</B>June 10, 7:00 PM<BR>
June 11 & 12, 4:15 & 7:00 PM<BR>
<BR>
<B>Dear Frankie (PG13)<BR>
</B>June 17, 7:00 PM & 9:30 PM<BR>
June 19, 4:30 & 7:00 PM<BR>
<BR>
Wonderworks presents <BR>
<B>Cool Cat<BR>
</B>by Elizabeth Eagles, with music by Dan Bukvich<BR>
Saturday, June 18<BR>
7:30 PM<BR>
Tickets- $6 adults, children under 3 years are free<BR>
<BR>
<B>Melinda & Melinda (PG13)<BR>
</B>June 24, 7:00 PM<BR>
June 25, 4:45/7:00/9:15 PM<BR>
June 26, 4:45 & 7:00 PM<BR>
<BR>
<H2>Summer Matinee Series<BR>
Wednesdays<BR>
</H2><B>Coming in June-<BR>
<BR>
Shrek (PG)<BR>
</B>Wednesday, June 15<BR>
1:00 PM & 3:15 PM<BR>
<BR>
<B>Spongebob Squarepants (PG)<BR>
</B>Wednesday, June 22<BR>
1:00 & 3:15 PM<BR>
<BR>
<B>Fat Albert (PG)<BR>
</B>Wednesday, June 29<BR>
1:00 & 3:15 PM<BR>
<BR>
<B>Wednesday matinee prices: $4/adult, $1/child 12 or younger<BR>
</B><BR>
<U>Thanks to the following Wednesday matinee sponsors:<BR>
</U>Insty Prints & North Idaho Athletic Club, Tom & JoAnn Trail, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo Bank<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<B>Coming in July</B>: Ala Zingara, Racing Stripes, Millions, Two Brothers<BR>
<BR>
<B>Regular Movie prices</B>: $5 adult, $2 child 12 or younger. <BR>
Wednesday matinee prices: $4/adult, $1/child 12 or younger <BR>
KFS passes accepted year-round for Sunday movies!<BR>
</FONT><FONT FACE="Courier"><TT><BR>
</TT></FONT><FONT FACE="Verdana">Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre<BR>
508 S. Main Street, Moscow, Idaho<BR>
For more information, call 208-882-4127 or visit http://www.kenworthy.org<BR>
* * *<BR>
<BR>
<B>This week’s review-<BR>
<BR>
</B><FONT COLOR="#800000"><H2>Million Dollar Baby<BR>
</H2></FONT><BR>
Directed by Clint Eastwood<BR>
Starring Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, and Morgan Freeman<BR>
Running Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes<BR>
Rated PG-13: It has some very brutal fight scenes and some salty gym-rat language. Plus, the third act theme (<I>the main theme in “The Sea Inside”</I>) generated a lot of heated debate.<BR>
<I>Academy Awards: Morgan Freeman (Best Actor in a Supporting Role), Best Picture, Clint Eastwood (Directing), Hillary Swank (Best Actress in a Leading Role)<BR>
</I><BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by A. O. Scott writing for the New York Times<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" is the best movie released by a major Hollywood studio in 2004, and not because it is the grandest, the most ambitious or even the most original. On the contrary: it is a quiet, intimately scaled three-person drama directed in a patient, easygoing style, without any of the displays of allusive cleverness or formal gimmickry that so often masquerade as important filmmaking these days.<BR>
<BR>
At first glance the story, about a grizzled boxing trainer whose hard heart is melted by a spunky young fighter, seems about as fresh as a well-worn gym shoe. This is a Warner Brothers release, and if it were not in color (and if the young fighter in question were not female), "Million Dollar Baby," with its open-hearted mixture of sentiment and grit, might almost be mistaken for a picture from the studio's 1934 lineup that was somehow mislaid for 70 years. <BR>
<BR>
Which is not to say that Mr. Eastwood, who is of Depression-era vintage himself (who will soon be 75), is interested in nostalgia, or in the self-conscious quotation of a bygone cinematic tradition, or even in simplicity for its own sake. With its careful, unassuming naturalism, its visual thrift and its emotional directness, "Million Dollar Baby" feels at once contemporary and classical, a work of utter mastery that at the same time has nothing in particular to prove. <BR>
<BR>
Mr. Eastwood treats the conventions of the boxing-movie genre, its measured alternations of adversity and redemption, like the chord changes to a familiar song - the kind of standard that can, in the hands of a deft and sensitive musician, be made to yield fresh meanings and unexpected reservoirs of deep and difficult emotion. <BR>
<BR>
Mr. Eastwood plays Frankie Dunn, the owner of a tidy, beat-up gym tucked away in a shabby corner of Los Angeles. His best friend, who supplies world-weary voiceover narration to help the plot through its occasional thickets, is Eddie Dupris, (Morgan Freeman) a former fighter (nicknamed Scrap) whom Frankie managed long ago. <BR>
<BR>
Both men carry some heavy frustration and regret - Frankie has lost a daughter, Scrap has lost an eye - but they bear the weight gracefully and with good-humored fatalism, reconciled to loneliness and the diminishing returns of age. <BR>
<BR>
Frankie is the latest in a lengthening line of crusty old-timers Mr. Eastwood has played since he became eligible for AARP membership. Perhaps no American actor besides Gene Hackman has ripened with such relish, becoming more fully and complicatedly himself as he grows older. <BR>
<BR>
As a director, Mr. Eastwood's innate toughness has mellowed into a sinewy grace, and as an actor his limitations have become a source of strength. When, late in "Million Dollar Baby," Frankie sheds tears, the moment brings a special pathos, not only because we're unaccustomed to seeing Mr. Eastwood cry, but also because we might have doubted that he had it in him.<BR>
<BR>
Frankie, a gifted professional whose timidity - he prefers to think of it as common sense - has kept him away from the big time, receives a second chance in the unlikely person of Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank, in her best performance since "Boys Don't Cry"), a waitress who shows up at his gym and won't take no for an answer. Frankie insists that he doesn't train girls, and since Maggie is already 30, she's too old to have much chance for glory in any case. But her combination of eagerness and discipline (and Scrap's quiet expertise at manipulating his buddy's few remaining heartstrings) wear down Frankie's resistance, and he and Maggie are soon embarked on a classic underdog's journey toward triumph.<BR>
<BR>
Or so we are led to believe. Midway through the movie, after Frankie and Maggie have had a frustrating visit with her unpleasant family back home in Missouri, Mr. Eastwood ends a calm, relatively unimportant scene by fading to black - a subtle, simple and chilling harbinger of the greater darkness to come.<BR>
<BR>
Mr. Eastwood's universe is, as ever, a violent and unforgiving place, in which the only protections against nihilism are the professional regulation of brutality (in this case by the sweet science of boxing) and the mutual obligations of friendship. Mr. Eastwood is unusual among American filmmakers not only for his pessimism, but also for his disinclination to use romantic love as either a dramatic motive or as a source of easy comfort. The question of sex never arises between Frankie and Maggie, and while there is abundant love in "Million Dollar Baby," it is entirely paternal, filial and brotherly. It is also severely tested by circumstances and proves to be at once a meager and a necessary compensation for the cruel operations of fate.<BR>
<BR>
It seems fortuitous that Frankie is an admirer of William Butler Yeats, who in his later years developed a style of unadorned, disillusioned eloquence and produced some of his greatest poems: lyrics that are simple, forceful and not afraid of risking cliché. Late in the film, in his darkest hour, Frankie reads from "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," the younger Yeats's pastoral dream of flight and transformation, a choice that makes sense in context.<BR>
<BR>
Mr. Eastwood himself, though, is closer to the sensibility of a late poem like "The Circus Animals' Desertion," whose famous image of "the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart" might describe Frankie's gym. Or there is this stanza, from one of Yeats's "Last Poems," called "The Apparitions," which seems to me to capture the paradoxical spirit, at once generous and mournful, of this old master, Mr. Eastwood, and his new masterpiece:<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by Mick LaSalle writing for the San Francisco Chronicle<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
"Million Dollar Baby," the latest from Clint Eastwood, is about an old trainer who takes on a female boxer. Just saying that, of course, conjures up a host of images, most of them cliches, from every boxing movie ever made. But "Million Dollar Baby" is not a conventional boxing movie or even a conventional sports movie. Its concerns and ambitions are in a completely different direction. <BR>
<BR>
Part of what makes this film different is the story, which can't be talked about in detail without damaging the first experience of it. Other elements can be discussed -- for one thing, the movie's fablelike quality, which fully emerges only days after seeing it. "Million Dollar Baby" ages well in memory because it gradually seems to mean more. Its meaning can't be summed up in a sentence, but it has to do with a view of life as inexpressibly sad and yet always right. <BR>
<BR>
This is an old man's view, and it reminded me, not of anything from another movie, but of Lincoln's Second Inaugural, the part in which Lincoln, looking back on the bloodbath of the Civil War and anticipating more carnage to come, quoted Psalms: "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." Lincoln wasn't an old man, just an old soul, but the trainer is an old man, and so is Eastwood. The weight of years is in "Million Dollar Baby, " technically, artistically and philosophically. It has the gloom and transcendence of an old man's wisdom. <BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by Jon Niccum, Entertainment Editor for the Lawrence (KS) Journal-World<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
"It's the latest freak show out there," explains Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood), for why he refuses to train a female boxer and why she shouldn't have any trouble finding someone else who will. <BR>
<BR>
The fact that he believes the 31-year-old Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) is too old for the sport doesn't help matters. But the moonlighting waitress won't take no for an answer. <BR>
<BR>
Repeatedly working into the wee hours at Frankie's Hit Pit Gym gains Maggie an ally: Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris (Morgan Freeman), a former contender who now manages the place. Under Eddie's prodding, Frankie caves and decides to help sculpt this new fighter into a champion.<BR>
<BR>
"Million Dollar Baby" is a movie fully removed from the trite trappings of the sports genre. This film is a dramatic powerhouse, thanks to a jarring third act that explores themes far darker than "overcoming adversity" or "going the distance."<BR>
<BR>
Four-time Oscar nominee Eastwood gives one of his finest performances. The 74-year-old legend (who also directs) is more craggy voiced and confrontational than ever. Some of his choicest moments are the smaller ones, whether he's engaging in antagonistic conversations about religion with his long-suffering priest (Brian O'Byrne) or scolding the hazy-eyed Eddie about the holes in his socks. <BR>
<BR>
Fellow Oscar veteran Swank is restrained in a role that could be played as flashy. She renders Maggie as a person who is -- outside of boxing -- fairly unexceptional. Her very averageness grants the heroine credibility. Moreover, the actress really looks comfortable (and formidable), whether pummeling a heavy bag or decking an opponent. <BR>
<BR>
No body doubles needed here. <BR>
<BR>
As with Eastwood's been-through-it-all-before character, there's a lived-in feel to the movie. Every locale has a slightly dilapidated quality, and the picture's somber colors conjure the gritty feel of '70s indie cinema. But Eastwood also revels in light and dark extremes. There are enough shots of people half-obscured in shadows to fill a film noir from the '40s.<BR>
<BR>
In the early narration, Freeman intones, "Boxing is an unnatural sport. Everything about it is backward. Sometimes the best way to deliver a punch is to step back."<BR>
<BR>
That certainly applies to the subtle "Million Dollar Baby." Sometimes the best way to deliver a cinematic punch is to step back.<BR>
<B><BR>
</B><BR>
<I>Film reviews researched and edited by Peter A. Haggart<BR>
</I>* * *<BR>
<BR>
<FONT COLOR="#000080"><FONT SIZE="5"><U>Kenworthy Film Society Passes on sale<BR>
</U></FONT></FONT><BR>
<B>Kenworthy Film Society pass prices will increase on July 1</B> to $30 for a 10-punch card and $75 for a $30-punch card. <BR>
That's still only $3.00 and $2.50 per movie, respectively -- the best deal on movies in Moscow.<BR>
<BR>
Why are prices increasing? Specifically, because the cost of film shipping has increased. <BR>
Generally, because the cost of doing business has increased.<BR>
<BR>
<B>Passes can be purchased at the current prices through June 30, 2005, so get yours now.<BR>
</B>Passes are available at BookPeople and at the Kenworthy box office during regular showtimes.<BR>
<BR>
Thanks for your continued support of independent and foreign films on the Palouse!<BR>
* * *<BR>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<BR>
PAMELA PALMER, <B>Volunteer<BR>
</B><FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U>Mailto:ppalmer@moscow.com<BR>
</U></FONT>Film and Events Committee <BR>
Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre<BR>
<BR>
<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U>http://www.kenworthy.org<BR>
<BR>
</U></FONT>To speak with a KPAC staff member, <BR>
call (208) 882-4127<BR>
<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U>Mailto:kpac@moscow.com<BR>
</U></FONT>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <BR>
<BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U>http://www.kenworthy.org<BR>
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