Check out the latest exclusive engagements and premieres, including the best in new indies, foreign films, documentaries and restored classics, by downloading a PDF of the E Street Cinema Movie Guide, with all-new programming from September 11 through December 3!


Now Playing at the Bethesda Row Cinema

In this quirky dark comedy inspired by a real life story you will hardly believe is actually true, astonishing revelations about a top-secret wing of the U.S. military come to light when a reporter encounters an enigmatic Special Forces operator on a mind-boggling mission. Reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is in search of his next big story when he encounters Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a shadowy figure who claims to be part of an experimental U.S. military unit. According to Cassady, the New Earth Army is changing the way wars are fought. A legion of "Warrior Monks" with unparalleled psychic powers can read the enemy's thoughts, pass through solid walls, and even kill a goat simply by staring at it. Now, the program's founder, Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), has gone missing and Cassady's mission is to find him. Intrigued by his new acquaintance's far-fetched stories, Bob impulsively decides to accompany him on the search. When the pair tracks Django to a clandestine training camp run by renegade psychic Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey), the reporter is trapped in the middle of a grudge match between the forces of Django's New Earth Army and Hooper's personal militia of super soldiers. An eye-opening and often hilarious exploration of the government's attempts to harness paranormal abilities to combat its enemies, inspired by Jon Ronson's non-fiction bestseller of the same name. Official Web Site
Roger Ebert's Chicago Sun-Times review...





Now Playing at the E Street Cinema


Julius Shulman was, as many experts agree, the world's greatest architectural photographer. Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, Visual Acoustics celebrates the life and career of this brilliant artist and highlights not only the iconic images that made the man, but the magnetic character behind those images. Shulman captured the work of virtually every modern architect since the 1930s, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Frank Gehry. His work epitomized the singular beauty of Southern California's modernist movement and ushered modern architecture into the American mainstream. This fascinating portrait is a testament both to the evolution of modern architecture and to the joyful, whip-smart gentleman who captured its indelible images. Taking its aesthetic cues from Shulman's own sensual and nuanced photography, the narrative of director Eric Bricker's film is built from a blend of Shulman's own images as well as in depth interviews with architect Frank Gehry, designer Tom Ford, artist Ed Ruscha, actress Kelly Lynch, writer Mitch Glazer, publisher Benedikt Taschen, Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Dante Spinotti, and a host of others. Official Web Site
Philip Kennicott's Washington Post review...


Now Playing at the E Street Cinema


The award-winning drama Skin tells one of the most unusual and moving true stories to emerge from apartheid South Africa. Sandra Laing (Sophie Okonedo, The Secret Life of Bees) is a black child born in the 1950s to white Afrikaners (Sam Neill, Alice Krige) who are unaware of their black ancestry. Her parents are rural shopkeepers serving the local black community, who lovingly bring her up as their 'white' little girl. But at the age of ten, Sandra is driven out of white society. The film follows Sandra's thirty-year journey from rejection to acceptance, betrayal to reconciliation, as she struggles to define her place in a changing world. Official Web Site
Michael O'Sullivan's Washington Post review...


Now Playing at the E Street Cinema


A fashionable contemporary art gallerist in Chelsea, New York falls for a brooding new music composer in this comic take on the state of contemporary art. Adam Goldberg (Two Days In Paris) plays the composer, whose work calls for paper crumpling, glass breaking and bucket kicking. Marley Shelton (Grindhouse) plays the gorgeous Chelsea gallerist, whose latest show features an artist (Vinnie Jones, Snatch) who employs taxidermy and household objects. Further complicating the affair is the composer's brother Josh (Eion Bailey, "Band of Brothers"), whose highly commercial art work—the financial backbone of the gallery—is sold to corporate clients discreetly out of the gallery's back room. Directed and co-written by Jonathan Parker (Bartleby). Official Web Site
Director/co-writer Jonathan Parker on creativity and success
Michael O'Sullivan's Washington Post review...


Now Playing at the Bethesda Row Cinema


In the new comedy from director/co-writer Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre), Michael Angarano stars as Benjamin, a teenager being home-schooled by his eccentric mother (Jennifer Coolidge). A loveable loner, Benjamin's passion for writing leads him on an offbeat and hilarious journey as his story first gets ripped off by legendary fantasy novelist Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement), and then is adapted into a disastrous movie by the small town's most prolific homespun filmmaker. Official Web Site


Now Playing at the Bethesda Row Cinema
and E Street Cinema

An Education is the story of a teenage girl's coming-of-age set in 1961 London, a city caught between the drab, post-war 1950s and the glamorous, more liberated decade to come. Jenny (Carey Mulligan) stands on the brink of becoming a woman: a brilliantly witty and attractive 16-year-old whose suburban life is about to be blown apart by the utterly unsuitable 30-something David (Peter Sarsgaard). Urbane and witty, David manages to charm her conservative parents Jack (Alfred Molina) and Marjorie (Cara Seymour). David introduces Jenny to a glittering new world of classical concerts and late-night suppers with his attractive friend and business partner, Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Danny's girlfriend, the beautiful but vacuous Helen (Rosamund Pike). Just as Jenny's family's long-held dream of getting their brilliant daughter into Oxford seems within reach, Jenny is tempted by another kind of life. Written by Nick Hornby (About a Boy, High Fidelity) and directed by Lone Scherfig (Italian for Beginners).
Official Web Site
Ann Hornaday's Washington Post review...


Now Playing at the E Street Cinema


Raquel (Catalina Saavedra), age 42, has worked over twenty years for the well-to-do and numerous Valdes family, and on the surface seems like the perfect maid, almost part of the family. But she is controlling and territorial, carrying on a private war with the family's headstrong teenage daughter, and suffering frequent headaches and dizziness. The mother cannot bear to fire the woman who helped raise her children, so instead she hires a second maid to help Raquel. This alarms Raquel, who sees the newcomer as a threat and instantly sets out to drive her away. Her childish but ruthless tactics quickly succeed, but the family then hires an older and tougher maid who proves much harder to oust. Raquel meets her match with the third new maid, Lucy (Mariana Loyola), an enthusiastic and self-confident young woman who, attacked by Raquel, retaliates with affection and humor, helping her to find a new outlook on life. Saavedra is magnificent as the grumpy Raquel, seething with loneliness, anger, and jealousy, yet always managing to retain our sympathy. Winner of two prestigious awards at the Sundance Film Festival. Official Web Site
Jan Stuart's Washington Post review...


Now Playing at the Bethesda Row Cinema

An extraordinary life of adventure, celebrity and continuing mystery comes to light in Amelia, a vast, thrilling account of legendary aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart (two time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank). After becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, Amelia was thrust into a new role as America's sweetheart—the legendary "goddess of light," known for her bold, larger-than-life charisma. Yet, even with her global fame solidified, her belief in flirting with danger and standing up as her own, outspoken woman never changed. She was an inspiration to people everywhere, from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Cherry Jones) to the men closest to her heart: her husband, promoter and publishing magnate George P. Putnam (Richard Gere), and her long time friend and lover, pilot Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor). In the summer of 1937, Amelia set off on her most daunting mission yet: a solo flight around the world that she and George both anxiously foresaw as destined, whatever the outcome, to become one of the most talked-about journeys in history. Directed by Mira Nair (The Namesake, Monsoon Wedding). Official Web Site


Now Playing at the E Street Cinema


A grieving couple retreat to 'Eden,' their isolated cabin in the woods, where they hope to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse… Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg (winner of the Best Actress Award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival) give brave, outstanding performances in the new provocation from writer/director Lars von Trier (Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville). Antichrist is a totally uncompromising psychological horror film conceived and made while the director was experiencing emotional challenges in his own life. Reviewing the intense and controversial film at its Cannes premiere, Roger Ebert called it "powerfully made" and continued: "The performances by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg are heroic and fearless…Von Trier's visual command is striking…And if you can think beyond what he shows to what he implies, its depths are frightening…Von Trier has reached me and shaken me." Official Web Site


Now Playing at the Bethesda Row Cinema

Set in 1960s and 1970s England, The Damned United tells the confrontational and darkly humorous story of Brian Clough's doomed 44-day tenure as manager of the reigning champions of English football, Leeds United. Previously managed by his bitter rival Don Revie (Colm Meaney), and on the back of their most successful period ever as a football club, Leeds was perceived by many to represent a new aggressive and cynical style of football—an anathema to the principled yet flamboyant Brian Clough (Michael Sheen, Frost/Nixon), who had achieved astonishing success as manager of Hartlepool and Derby County, where he built teams in his own vision with trusty lieutenant Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall). Taking the Leeds job without Taylor by his side, with a changing room full of what in his mind were still Don's boys, would lead to an unheralded examination of Clough's belligerence and brilliance over 44 days. Official Web Site
Desson Thomson's Washington Post review...


Now Playing at the Bethesda Row Cinema
and E Street Cinema

Since the birth of movies, New York has long been cinema's dream city—its teeming populace of one-of-a-kind characters, its stone-and-glass skyscrapers rocketing towards the heavens, its subterranean cultures and its rooftop love affairs all making for the perfect backdrop to all manner of action, comedy, drama and poetry. Directed by an eclectic group of some of today's most imaginative filmmakers, including Mira Nair, Yvan Attal, Brett Ratner, Natalie Portman and Fatih Akin, New York, I Love You is a collective film that invites the audience into the intimate lives of New Yorkers as they grapple with, delight in and search for love. Their stories are woven together to form a colorful, lyrical collage not only of the city—but of the deep yearning for love and human connections that sustain everyone within it. All-star cast includes Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha, Andy Garcia, Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, Orlando Bloom, Christina Ricci, Ethan Hawke, Anton Yelchin, James Caan, Olivia Thilrlby, Julie Christie, John Hurt, Shia LaBeouf, Shu Qi, Burt Young, Chris Cooper, Robin Wright Penn, Eva Ammuri, Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman. Official Web Site
Kelly Jane Torrance's Washington Times review...


Now Playing at the Bethesda Row Cinema
and E Street Cinema

The new dramatic comedy from the Coen Brothers (Burn After Reading, Fargo) is the story of an ordinary man's search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and "F-Troop" is on TV. It is 1967, and Larry (Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous colleagues, Sy (Fred Melamed), who seems to her a more substantial person than the feckless Larry. Larry's unemployable brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is sleeping on the couch, his son Danny (Aaron Wolf) is a discipline problem and a shirker at Hebrew school, and his daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) is filching money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job. While his wife and Sy blithely make new domestic arrangements, and his brother becomes more and more of a burden, an anonymous hostile letter-writer is trying to sabotage Larry's chances for tenure at the university. Also, a graduate student seems to be trying to bribe him for a passing grade while at the same time threatening to sue him for defamation. Plus, the beautiful woman next door torments him by sunbathing nude. Struggling for equilibrium, Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis. Can anyone help him cope with his afflictions and become a righteous person—a mensch—a serious man? Official Web Site
Sonny Bunch's Washington Times review...


Now Playing at the Bethesda Row Cinema
and E Street Cinema

A little girl who is sent with her sister to an orphanage in the heart of France, who waits in vain every Sunday for her father to come for her… A cabaret performer with a weak voice who sings to an audience of drunken soldiers… A humble seamstress, who stitches hems at the back of a provincial tailor's shop… A young, skinny courtesan, to whom protector Étienne Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde) offers a safe haven, amongst the idle and decadent… A woman in love who knows she will never be anyone’s wife, refusing marriage even to Arthur 'Boy' Capel (Alessandro Nivola), the man who returned her love… A rebel who finds the conventions of her time oppressive, and instead dresses in her lovers' clothes… This is the story of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (Audrey Tautou, Amélie), who begins her life as a headstrong orphan, and through an extraordinary journey becomes the legendary couturier who embodied the modern woman and became a timeless symbol of success, freedom and style. Official Web Site
Ann Hornaday's Washington Post review...


Now Playing at the Bethesda Row Cinema

Cédric Klapish, the beloved director of L'Auberge Espagnole, gathers together some of the biggest actors in French cinema for a valentine to the city of lights. The all-star cast includes Oscar-winner Juliette Binoche, Romain Duris, Melanie Laurent, Fabrice Luchini, Francois Cluzet and Karin Viard. While waiting for a heart transplant that could save his life, Pierre (Duris) grows close again with his sister (Binoche) and her lively children. This rediscovery of his family and observation of the teeming streets outside his window give Pierre a new, hopeful sense of how he might spend the time still left to him. A cinematic love letter to the city that seems to hide a story behind every shop window, small alley, street market or grand apartment building, the film explores the life and love possible only in Paris. Official Web Site
Ann Hornaday's Washington Post review...


Midnight Movies at the E Street Cinema!

Steven Spielberg's classic thriller Jaws Nov 6 & 7
See Live Shadow Cast Sonic Transducers with
the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show Nov 13 & 14
New 35mm print! Ferris Bueller's Day Off Nov 20 & 21
4 nights! See the new midnight cult sensation:
The Room Nov 27 & 28 and Dec 4 & 5
David Bowie & Jennifer Connelly in Labyrinth Dec 4 & 5


Starts Friday, November 13 at the
Bethesda Row Cinema & E Street Cinema

In his most powerful performance to date, Ben Foster stars as Will Montgomery, a U.S. Army officer who has just returned home from a tour in Iraq and is assigned to the Army's Casualty Notification service. Partnered with fellow officer Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson) to bear the bad news to the loved ones of fallen soldiers, Will faces the challenge of completing his mission while seeking to find comfort and healing back on the home front. When he finds himself drawn to Olivia (Samantha Morton), to whom he has just delivered the news of her husband's death, Will's emotional detachment begins to dissolve and the film reveals itself as a surprising, humorous, moving and very human portrait of grief, friendship and survival. Featuring tour-de-force performances from Foster, Harrelson and Morton, and a brilliant directorial debut by Oren Moverman, The Messenger brings us into the inner lives of these outwardly steely heroes to reveal their fragility with compassion and dignity. Official Web Site


Starts Friday, November 13 at the
Bethesda Row Cinema & E Street Cinema

Pirate Radio is a high-spirited, laugh-out-loud ensemble comedy from filmmaker Richard Curtis (screenwriter of Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, and writer/director of Love Actually), spinning the irreverent yet fact-based tale of a seafaring band of rogue rock and roll deejays whose "pirate radio" captivated and inspired 1960s Britain. Broadcasting live 24/7 from an old tanker anchored in the middle of the North Sea (just beyond British jurisdiction), Radio Rock sends out a vibrant and unifying signal to millions across the nation. The Radio Rock roster, overseen by unflappable station owner Quentin (Bill Nighy), includes a risk-prone American known only as The Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman); mystic deejay royalty Gavin (Rhys Ifans); slyly amorous Dave (Nick Frost) and others. One night in 1966, Quentin's teenaged godson Carl (Tom Sturridge) comes aboard. While Carl harbors romantic aspirations that he hopes will be fulfilled during one of the biweekly visits by Radio Rock's prettiest fans, he also hopes to find out more about his long-absent father… As the ship sails on and rocks out, what Carl and the freewheeling, free-loving Radio Rock gang don't know is that back in London, a landlocked government minister (Kenneth Branagh) has embarked on a vehement crusade to silence their signal—permanently. Official Web Site


Starts Friday, November 13
at the Bethesda Row Cinema

Set in Harlem in 1987, Precious is a vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome. Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) is a 16-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She's pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother (Mo'Nique), a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write. Precious may sometimes be down, but she is never out. Beneath her impassive expression is a watchful, curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that other possibilities exist for her. Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One/Teach One. In the literacy workshop taught by the patient yet firm Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination. Winner of three awards at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Co-starring Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd and Lenny Kravitz. Official Web Site


New 35mm Print! One Week Only!
Starts Friday, November 13 at the E Street Cinema


Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, Rashomon is perhaps the finest film ever made about the philosophy of justice. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, director/co-writer Akira Kurosawa (The Seven Samurai, Ran) reveals the complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the same story: the murder of a man (Masayuki Mori) and the rape of his wife (Machiko Kyo). The great Toshiro Mifune gives a commanding performance as a bandit in an eloquent masterwork that revolutionized film language and introduced Japanese cinema to the world. The basis for this stunning new restoration was a 35mm print created in 1962 from the original camera negative. Scanned at 4K resolution, that 47-year-old print has been meticulously cleaned both digitally and by hand, complete with a new, seamless soundtrack. Winner of the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival. Official Web Site


Fri & Sat, Nov 13 & 14 at Midnight
at the E Street Cinema
With Live Shadow Cast Sonic Transducers!

The longest-running midnight movie of all time stars Tim Curry as the kinky yet endearing “transsexual from Transylvania” Dr. Frank N. Furter, Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick as his hapless guests Brad and Janet, Meat Loaf as motorcycle-riding rough trade and author Richard O’Brien as the hunchbacked butler Riff Raff. It’s harmless musical fun—a delightful spoof of Hollywood horror movies and Old Dark House melodramas. All of our engagements feature live casts who perform scenes during the movie, and the audience is always welcome to respond to the on-screen action. The Rocky Horror Picture was the first—and is still the best—interactive movie experience! Official Web Site


Starts Friday, November 20 at the
Bethesdar Row Cinema & E Street Cinema

In Werner Herzog's new film, Nicolas Cage plays a rogue detective who is as devoted to his job as he is at scoring drugs—while playing fast and loose with the law. He wields his badge as often as he wields his gun in order to get his way. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina he becomes a high-functioning addict who is a deeply intuitive, fearless detective reigning over the beautiful ruins of New Orleans with authority and abandon. Complicating his tumultuous life is the prostitute he loves (played by Eva Mendes). Together they descend into their own world marked by desire, compulsion and conscience. The result is a singular masterpiece of filmmaking: equally sad and manically humorous. Official Web Site


Starts Friday, November 20 at the
Bethesdar Row Cinema & E Street Cinema

Visionary director Wes Anderson's first animated film utilizes classic handmade stop-motion techniques to tell the story of the best-selling children's book by Roald Dahl (author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach). Mr. and Mrs. Fox (voices of George Clooney and Meryl Streep) live an idyllic home life with their son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) and visiting young nephew Kristopherson (Eric Anderson). But after 12 years, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr Fox’s wild animal instincts. Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community. Trapped underground and with not enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers—Boggis (Brian Cox), Bunce (Hugo Guinness) and Bean (Michael Gambon)—who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr. Fox at any cost. Also featuring the voices of Bill Murray, Wally Wolodarsky, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson and Jarvis Cocker. Official Web Site


One Week Only!
Starts Friday, November 20 at the E Street Cinema


William Kunstler was one of the most famous and controversial lawyers of the 20th century. In the 1960s and '70s, Kunstler fought for civil rights with Martin Luther King Jr. and represented the famed "Chicago 8" activists who protested the Vietnam War. When the inmates took over Attica prison, or when the American Indian Movement stood up to the federal government at Wounded Knee, they asked Kunstler to be their lawyer. To his daughters, filmmakers Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler, it seemed that he was at the center of everything important that had ever happened. But when they were growing up, Kunstler represented some of the most reviled members of society, including rapists, assassins and accused terrorists. This powerful film not only recounts the historic causes that Kunstler fought for, it also confronts a man that even his own daughters did not always understand, a man who believed that, however unpopular, justice should serve all. Official Web Site


Starts Wednesday, November 25
at the Bethesda Row Cinema

Viggo Mortensen leads a stellar cast (including Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall and Guy Pearce) in the epic, post-apocalyptic tale of the survival of a father (Moretensen) and his young son (newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee) as they journey across a barren America that was destroyed by a mysterious cataclysm. A masterpiece of adventure, The Road is adapted from author Cormac McCarthy's (No Country for Old Men) beloved, best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which boldly imagines a future in which men are pushed to the worst and the best that they are capable of—a future in which father and son are sustained by love. Directed by John Hillcoat (The Proposition). Official Web Site


Starts Wednesday, November 25
at the E Street Cinema

Legendary action-cinema master John Woo and international superstar Tony Leung reunite for the first time since the 1992 classic Hard Boiled in this epic historical drama based on a legendary 208 A.D. battle that heralded the end of the Han Dynasty. Red Cliff opens as power hungry Prime Minister-turned-General Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) seeks permission from the Han dynasty Emperor to organize a southward-bound mission designed to crush the two troublesome warlords who stand in his way, Liu Bei (You Yong) and Sun Quan (Chang Chen). As the expedition gets underway, Cao Cao's troops rain destruction on Liu Bei's army, forcing him into retreat. Liu Bei's military strategist Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) knows that the rebels’ only hope for survival is to form an alliance with rival warlord Sun Quan, and reaches out to Sun Quan’s trusted advisor, war hero Zhou Yu (Tony Leung). Vastly outnumbered by Cao Cao’s brutal, fast-approaching army, the warlords band together to mount a heroic campaign—unrivaled in history—that changes the face of China forever. A massive hit in Asia and the most expensive Asian film production of all time, Red Cliff is a breathtaking war epic that marks the triumphant return of John Woo. Official Web Site


Fri & Sat, Nov 27 & 28 and Dec 4 & 5
at Midnight at the E Street Cinema!

The Room is an electrifying American black comedy about love, passion, betrayal and lies, starring writer/director Tommy Wiseau as a successful banker with a great respect for—and dedication to—the people in his life, especially his future wife Lisa (Juliette Danielle). As the film depicts friendships and relationships in the lives of its five major characters, it raises life's real and most-asked question: "Can you really trust anyone?" A midnight cult sensation, this quirky black comedy has been running for over 6 years in Los Angeles and is ready to take the rest of the country by storm. You'll want to be there for the devastation it will leave in its wake! Official Web Site
Read the Los Angeles TImes article about the phenomenon...



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