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<TITLE>Because of Winn Dixie and Star Wars Episode III at the Kenworthy</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana"><B>This week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre-<BR>
<BR>
</B>Tom and JoAnn Trail present<BR>
<FONT COLOR="#800000"><H2>Because of Winn Dixie (PG)<BR>
</H2></FONT><B>Wednesday, August 3<BR>
1:00 PM<BR>
</B>$1/child under 13, $4/adult<BR>
<B>(see REVIEW below)<BR>
</B><BR>
<FONT COLOR="#800000"><H2>Star Wars Episode III (PG13)<BR>
</H2></FONT><B>Friday, Saturday & Sunday, August 5, 6 & 7<BR>
7:00 PM<BR>
</B>$5 adult, $2 child under 13<BR>
KFS passes accepted for Sunday showing<BR>
<B>(see REVIEW below)<BR>
* * *<BR>
<BR>
</B><FONT SIZE="5"><I>Sirius Idaho Theatre</I> presents<BR>
</FONT><H2><I>The Beauty Queen of Leenane<BR>
</I></H2>by Martin McDonagh<BR>
<BR>
Directed by Forrest Sears<BR>
<BR>
<B>September 8-10 & 15-17 at 7:30 pm<BR>
September 10 & 17 at 2:00 pm<BR>
<BR>
</B>Performances at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre<BR>
<B><BR>
</B>Tickets available at Moscow Farmers’ Market every Saturday<B> </B>and at <I>BookPeople of Moscow<BR>
</I><B>$15 adults, $10 seniors, $5 students<BR>
</B><BR>
Set in the mountains of Connemara, County Galway, in western Ireland, <I>The Beauty Queen of Leenane</I> tells the darkly comic tale of Maureen Folan, a plain and lonely woman in her early forties, and Mag her manipulative ageing mother whose interference in Maureen's first and potentially last loving relationship sets in motion a train of events that is as extraordinarily funny as it is horrific. <BR>
<BR>
<I>The Beauty Queen of Leenane</I> received four Tony Awards in 1998.<BR>
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For more information about the play or to sign up as an usher for one performance, email John Dickinson <johnd@moscow.com> or visit the web site of <B><I>Sirius Idaho Theatre </I></B><FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U>http://www.siriusidahotheatre.com/<BR>
</U></FONT><B>* * *<BR>
<BR>
Next week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre . . .<BR>
</B><BR>
Wells Fargo Bank presents<BR>
<B>Robots (PG)<BR>
</B>Aug 10 at 1:00 PM<BR>
<BR>
<B>Mr. & Mrs. Smith (PG13)<BR>
</B>Aug 12 - 14 at 7:00 PM<BR>
<B>* * *<BR>
</B><BR>
<B>Also in August at the Kenworthy-<BR>
</B><BR>
Gritman Medical Center presents<BR>
<B>Madagascar (PG)<BR>
</B>Aug 17 at 1:00 PM<BR>
Aug 18 - 21 at 7:00 PM<BR>
<BR>
<B>Howl’s Moving Castle (PG)<BR>
</B>Aug 26 - 28 at 4:15 & 7:00 PM<BR>
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<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, Gritman Medical Center<BR>
<BR>
<B>Regular Movie prices</B>: $5 adult, $2 child 12 or younger. <BR>
<B>Wednesday matinee prices</B>: $4/adult, $1/child 12 or younger <BR>
KFS passes accepted year-round for Sunday movies!<BR>
<B>* * *<BR>
</B><BR>
<B>This week’s reviews-<BR>
<BR>
</B><H2>Because of Winn Dixie<BR>
</H2><BR>
Directed by Wayne Wang<BR>
Written by Joan Singleton, based on the novel by Kate DiCamillo<BR>
Rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). It includes mild profanity, some adult themes, including alcoholism and child abandonment. <BR>
Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes<BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by Mack Bates writing for thee Milwaukee Journal Sentinel<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
A lonely girl named Opal (AnnaSophia Robb) and her pal Winn-Dixie transform lives in a small Southern town in "Because of Winn-Dixie." <BR>
<BR>
Set in a small town in Florida, the story centers on the unexpected bond between a lonely girl named Opal and a scruffy little dog wise beyond his species. She names him Winn-Dixie, in honor of the supermarket where they first met.<BR>
<BR>
Opal and her father, Preacher (Jeff Daniels), are new to town and trying to fit into the close-knit, eccentric community.<BR>
<BR>
Preacher conducts his Sunday service at a local convenience store that doubles as his church, and he and Opal live in a trailer park run by a crotchety old man who doesn't allow tenants to have pets.<BR>
<BR>
With her mother gone and her father's calling consuming most of his time, Opal's fateful trip to the Winn-Dixie yields her the fast and steady friend that she's yearned for since arriving in town.<BR>
<BR>
It also brings about some complications, including convincing her father that she's capable of caring for a dog and getting around the "no pets" rule in their trailer park.<BR>
<BR>
Opal and Winn-Dixie charm as many of the locals as they leave aghast.<BR>
<BR>
Among the charmed are Otis (rocker Dave Matthews), a guitar-playing loner with a past who works at the pet store where Opal manages to finagle a summer job; Miss Franny (Eva Marie Saint), the town librarian who takes a shine to the precocious girl and her dog; and the reclusive Gloria Dump (Cicely Tyson), who other kids call "the wicked witch." In each relationship, Opal and Winn-Dixie's mere interest in the person seems to awaken something long-dormant that, in turn, has a positive effect on everything around them.<BR>
<BR>
Beautifully directed by Wayne Wang ("Anywhere But Here," "The Joy Luck Club") and adapted by co-producer Joan Singleton, "Because of Winn-Dixie" is the best of this year's family-friendly film explosion.<BR>
<BR>
Robb, reportedly chosen from among 650 girls vying for the role, makes a strong big-screen debut. It's a testament to her talent that she isn't blown clear off the screen by the movie's big-name supporting cast, led by Daniels, who shines as her father.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by Anita Gates writing for the New York Times<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
Were it not for a couple of cars, a little girl's pink poodle backpack and a reference to eBay, "Because of Winn-Dixie" could easily be mistaken for a film set in the 1950's. It has old-fashioned and heartwarming written all over it, in heavy black Magic Marker.<BR>
<BR>
Adapted from Kate DiCamillo's best-selling children's novel, this is the story of a girl, a dog, a single father and a circle of colorful supporting Southern characters. Opal Buloni is a very lonely 10-year-old since she and her father, a preacher, have moved to Naomi, Fla., a town so small (or odd) that church services are held in a convenience store. So when Opal sees a scruffy dog loose in a Winn-Dixie supermarket one day, knocking down bumbling adults and scattering fruit everywhere in movie-cliché fashion, she claims the animal, names him for the place where they met and takes him home to the trailer park.<BR>
<BR>
Once Opal has Winn-Dixie at her side, she makes friends easily. They include the librarian, who tells a story about a bear stealing a copy of "War and Peace"; Gloria Dump, known as the Witch but really just a nice blind woman who lives alone; and Otis, a gentle young man with a guitar who gives Opal a job at Gertrude's Pet Store. Opal feels so empowered that she begins pressing her emotionally shut-down father to tell her more about her mother, who ran away seven years ago.<BR>
<BR>
The dog that plays Winn-Dixie is cute enough, so it seems believable that normally sullen churchgoers might be won over when he disrupts services during the hymn "Just as I Am." Opal explains: "He just don't know the words, is all. But he sure is moved by the spirit." Ms. Robb, 11, is charming, and "Because of Winn-Dixie" is a harmless, pleasant comic drama<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by Peter Hartlaub writing for the San Francisco Chronicle<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
>From the opening credits, "Because of Winn-Dixie" is about as subtle as a half-eaten bowl of Alpo left in the sun for a few days. The star of the show is introduced in a dog-wreaks-havoc-in-a-grocery-store bit straight out of "The Brady Bunch" playbook -- and the scene is repeated later in a trailer home and a church. <BR>
<BR>
But like the foul-smelling, disobedient title character, "Winn-Dixie" has a way of growing on you. And as the mongrel racks up about $250,000 in property damage and potential lawsuit payouts, even the most curmudgeonly dog- haters will probably be shedding a few tears. <BR>
<BR>
Based on the Kate DiCamillo novel and directed by San Franciscan Wayne Wang, "Winn-Dixie" is about a dog named after a grocery chain, its 10-year-old owner, India Opal, and life lessons in a small Florida town. As Opal confronts her preacher father about her missing mother, Winn-Dixie helps her meet the town's well-cast collection of oddball characters, including the recluse Gloria and a town librarian, who once used a Tolstoy novel to fend off a bear. <BR>
<BR>
Wang deserves credit for making a film about a preacher's daughter in the most notorious red state, and avoiding conservative religious undercurrents on one side and "Footloose"-style conformity-bashing on the other. There's talk of God in "Because of Winn-Dixie," but more talk of tolerance, and you get the feeling that even the most spiritual characters would appreciate that controversial episode of "Postcards From Buster." <BR>
<BR>
The adult actors all make the extra effort to flesh out characters that don't get a lot of screen time, and Daniels is particularly good. But the real surprise is musician Dave Matthews in his second movie role, as a guitar- playing drifter who suddenly shows up behind the counter of the local pet store. Matthews holds his own with his experienced co-stars, and his half- talking/half-singing explanation of his criminal past is the movie's best scene. <BR>
<BR>
While the lead actress isn't exactly Tatum O'Neal, the lead canine is no Lassie, either. For the first third of the movie, it's unclear what the dog's attraction is, other than to move the plot forward. By the time Winn-Dixie bites a cop, members of the audience may sympathize with the various factions who want the dog sent to the pound. <BR>
<BR>
But the mutt has a couple of surprises, and so does this movie. There are a few small messes in "Because of Winn-Dixie," but it's easy enough to look the other way. <BR>
* * *<BR>
<I><BR>
</I><H2>Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith<BR>
</H2><BR>
Written and Directed by George Lucas<BR>
Director of photography, David Tattersall<BR>
Edited by Roger Barton and Ben Burtt<BR>
Music by John Williams<BR>
Special visual effects and animation, Industrial Light and Magic<BR>
<BR>
Rated PG-13. Some of its violent scenes are more intense and upsetting than those in previous episodes.<BR>
Running time: 2 hours, 22 minutes. <BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by A. O. Scott writing for the New York Times<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
Would George Lucas at last restore some of the old grandeur and excitement to his up-to-the-minute Industrial Light and Magic? Would my grown-up longing for a return to the wide-eyed enthusiasm of my own movie-going boyhood and my undiminished hunger for entertainment with sweep and power as well as noise and dazzle be satisfied by "Revenge of the Sith"?<BR>
<BR>
The answer is yeth!<BR>
<BR>
This is by far the best film in the more recent trilogy, and also the best of the four episodes Mr. Lucas has directed. That's right (<I>and my inner 11-year-old shudders as I type this</I>): it's better than "Star Wars."<BR>
<BR>
"Revenge of the Sith" ranks with "The Empire Strikes Back" as the richest and most challenging movie in the cycle. It comes closer than any of the other episodes to realizing Mr. Lucas's dream of bringing the combination of vigorous spectacle and mythic resonance he found in the films of Akira Kurosawa into American commercial cinema. <BR>
<BR>
Even as he has pushed back into the Jedi past, Mr. Lucas has been inventing the cinematic future, and the sheer beauty, energy and visual coherence of "Revenge of the Sith" is nothing short of breathtaking. <BR>
<BR>
The light-saber battles and flight sequences are executed with a swashbuckling flair that makes you forget what a daunting technical accomplishment they represent. Some of the most arresting moments are among the quietest. An evening at home with the Skywalkers, for example, as they brood and argue in their spacious penthouse overlooking a city skyline set aglow by the rays of the setting sun, or a descent into the steep, terraced jungle landscape of the Wookiee planet. The integration of computer-generated imagery with captured reality is seamless; Mr. Lucas has surpassed Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg in his exploitation of the new technology's aesthetic potential.<BR>
<BR>
But every picture, however ravishing, needs a story, and the best way to appreciate how well this one succeeds is to consider the obstacles it must surmount in winning over its audience. First of all, though there are a few surprises tucked into the narrative, everybody knows the big revelation of the end, since it was also the big revelation at the end of the previous trilogy: Darth Vader is Luke's father. We also know, for the most part, which of the major figures are going to survive the various perils they face. So an element of suspense is missing from the outset. <BR>
<BR>
More than that, the trajectory of the narrative cuts sharply against the optimistic grain of blockbuster Hollywood, in that we are witnessing a flawed hero devolving into a cruel and terrifying villain. It is a measure of the film's accomplishment that this process is genuinely upsetting, even if we are reminded that a measure of redemption lies over the horizon in "Return of the Jedi."<BR>
<BR>
"Revenge of the Sith" is about how a republic dismantles its own democratic principles, about how politics becomes militarized, about how a Manichaean ideology undermines the rational exercise of power. Mr. Lucas is clearly jabbing his light saber in the direction of some real-world political leaders.<BR>
<BR>
The rise of the Empire and the perdition of Anakin Skywalker, of course, are not the end of the story, and the inverted chronology turns out to be the most profound thing about the "Star Wars" epic. <BR>
<BR>
Taken together, and watched in the order they were made, the films reveal the cyclical nature of history, which seems to repeat itself even as it moves forward. Democracies swell into empires, empires are toppled by revolutions, fathers abandon their sons and sons find their fathers. <BR>
<BR>
Movies end. Life goes on.<BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by Luke Buckmaster writing for In Film Australia<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
Revenge of the Sith, a dazzling and gorgeously rendered send-off to one of cinema's most beloved science fiction franchises. In this eclectic mash of superhero ethos and digital wizardry Lucas at last rekindles his ability to tickle the imaginations of his viewers, a gift which has remained sadly dormant in his career for the good part of two decades.<BR>
<BR>
In terms of an ability to design blockbuster films for blanket universal audiences, Lucas is one of the world's most intuitive filmmakers, which is both a blessing and a curse for the artistry of his work. Here he swims against the tide, with two cruddy duds bogging down his recent reputation, legions of audiences restlessly hankering to be filled in on the missing details of the Star Wars universe, and with a plot working towards a bunch of resolutions that essentially have already been written.<BR>
<BR>
Remarkably, this Star Wars outfit sees Lucas -- one of tinsel town's fundamental engineers of the blockbuster module -- breaking one of the studio system's golden rules, which says that a Hollywood movie must have a happy ending.<BR>
<BR>
Taking all the films into account, Lucas' vision as a whole certainly ends happily -- who could forget those fireworks-filled Ewok celebrations at the end of Return of the Jedi (1983) -- but for a high-caliber film such as this, forcing audiences to look outside of the text for a reaffirming conclusion to its grim dramatics is a bold maneuver. We know that the good guys will lose the battle but, three films down the track, will win the war.<BR>
<BR>
But we don't know the specifics and it's the hows and whys and the small details attached that keep the ball rolling throughout Revenge of the Sith. The film sports a running time of almost two and half hours but the pace is fast, slick and smooth.<BR>
<BR>
There is a brooding cloak of darkness that overshadows Revenge of the Sith, hanging like an ominous grey sky looming above a picturesque lagoon -- silently threatening to boil over any time into a storm of doom, but still part of a scenic horizon that carries with it a prevailing sense of splendor and wholesomeness. Lucas has always been a technically orientated director, much more able to get his mind around architecture, effects and sets than writing and direction, but here the story threads nicely and the nooks and crannies and finer strokes of Lucas' canvas buzz from the heightened sense of atmosphere. <BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by Peter Keough writing for the Boston Phoenix<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
Maybe I’m going over to the Dark Side, or it’s at least clouding my mind. The final Star Wars episode not only won me over, it also made me reconsider the other five, which I never held in high esteem. <BR>
<BR>
Perhaps, like Greek tragedy, Revenge of the Sith enables us to achieve catharsis by observing characters whose fates we already know. Could what seemed out of tune in the other episodes be resolved by this middle movement into what Lucas has referred to as a "symphonic" completion?<BR>
<BR>
In 1977, Star Wars posed the fantasy of a kid from a nowhere planet who gets to fulfill his wish for adventure. Lulled by the disgrace of the Nixon years and the mediocrity of the Carter administration, filled perhaps with a premonition of the terrible events yet to come, millions then were glad to join him. Like Luke, they hoped to escape the mundane mire of politics, history, and responsibility. But as those perennial killjoys Obi-Won and Yoda keep pointing out, being a Jedi Knight has nothing to do with adventure or escape or future dreams. It’s about attending to the present and doing something about it.<BR>
<BR>
Isn’t that the reality the average Star Wars fan tries to avoid? Perhaps not any more. The press kit for Revenge of the Sith includes a handy time line comparing events in real life — Watergate, the death of Elvis Presley and, of course, President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, a/k/a "Star Wars" — with milestones in the genesis and creation of the series. Some might find parallels between Palpatine’s seizing power via dubious warmaking and certain current events. Doesn’t this spoil the whole thing for adolescents of all ages seeking escapist fantasy?<BR>
<BR>
Yet another Star Wars expert, Craig Winneker, age unknown (he confesses to "nearly 30 years as a Star Wars fan"), an editor of the financial Web site TechCentralStation.com, thinks it does. In the article "No Star Wars for Oil," he points to lines like "This is how liberty ends: with thunderous applause" as evidence that "Lucas suddenly felt the need to add . . . topicality into the story line . . . a recurring, anti-Bush, anti–Iraq War message."<BR>
<BR>
Was it so sudden? Or was the "topicality" there all along for those willing to find it? Unlike Anakin, but like Luke and Lucas himself, Star Wars fans have perhaps grown up and come to see that this vast, extravagant dream not only acts out their fears and desires but also reflects the world from which they try to flee. <BR>
<BR>
Maybe Revenge of the Sith is the best film in the series because it’s the last, and the adventure of a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away returns, inevitably, to the here and now.<BR>
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<I>Film reviews researched and edited by Peter Haggart<BR>
</I>* * *<BR>
<BR>
<B><I>Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre<BR>
</I></B>508 S. Main Street, Moscow, Idaho<BR>
For more information, call 208-882-4127 or visit http://www.kenworthy.org<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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