The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 157

Sliluiii1HIwnn Art Films 'Two Thumbs Up! -StSKEL EBERT "Hysterically Bucks duo's 'Last Broadcast' is creepy and provocative mimwY. ill yHf a f.jil' a a art a i fn Villi 9 la Jim Broadbent Their Mpuct it in your placet a vwwmm iiiiiiiiiHUM -mm UNITED ARTISTS THEATRES AT RIVERVEW PIA2A l4ai0eeaieAwnue UNITED ARTISTS THEATRES MAIN STREET 3720-40 Mam Street Manunk UNITED ARTISTS THEATRES MONTGOMERYVILLE HOUH309 Wand 463 MontgomeryvUle UNITED ARTISTS THEATRES AT 89TH STREET 53 South 69lnSlieet Upper Darby REGAL CINEMAS EDGM0NT SQUARE 10 Behind torjmont Sq Slotting CU MewtoMi Square REGAL CINEMAS HUNTINGDON VALLEY 14 Gxjnty line Road al DavtevtteRosd REGAL CINEMAS LWNVULE 12 IZOtagtovttwBM. Exton REGAL CINEMAS PLYMOUTH MEETING 10 1011 Huge Pike ConsnutucKen UNITED ARTISTS THEATRES AT CHELTENHAM SQUARE OwennamfcenuBaid MesrygtaiLane AMC MILLSIDE 4 Route 130 4resNa1riof vPainssuttnMart.Datfwi ATCO MULTIPLEX CINEMAS Wnae Horse PM RIS CWEMARK MOVIES 10 Uors Head Man Sometoan REGAL CINEMAS BURLINGTON 14 2S08romyBtvd acroas itomBurirgton Cental REGAL CINEMAS CROSS KEYS 12 Bta Horse Pe (fit 421 atAmsrkanBM. Tuinersvie TILT0NS lion Snooping Center rwnnfral NcrfWiett AMC ANDORRA Ridge and HeniyAmw AMC GRANITE RUN OnBeiiHwrePfceauneMaU AMC MARPLE 10 Rootelal320SpfinglMit AMC PAINTER'S CROSSING 9 Routes I GCC FRANKLIN MILLS MALL 14 Green ent to FrvUm 1Mb Mali AMC DEPTFORO On Cements Bridge Hd horn tneDepfloid Mail AMC MARLTON I 800 Norm Route 73 Martton "Little Women" stars (from left) Winona Ryder, Trini Alvarado, Claire Danes (seated), Kirsten Dunst, and Susan Sarandon. It is in Villanova's Cultural Film Series.

"THE WEDDING SINGER' IS A SPARKLING ROMANTIC COMEDY! -Kma TaaaMt, UH AJKELIS TIMES "DON'T WAIT! A FRESH, SCREAMINGLY FUNNY '80s FLASHBACK. R.S.V.P. 'YES' TO 'THE WEDDING "Arm Mult VtotiMi, HAaHHOrSELlC If jf By Steven Rea and Desmond Ryan INQUIRER MOVIE CRITICS they say on The X- (J there. And The Last I. Broadcast, a provoca-U vl lively creepy story of murder in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, is definitely out there.

As for its truths well, filmmakers Lance Weiler and Stefan Ava-los, both of Bucks County, wrestle with the nature of truth, and the nature of communication in the computer age, in ways that are both playful and profound. This startlingly good feature reports on the bizarre circum-' stances surrounding the deaths, in 1995, of a cable-access TV crew searching remote patches of the Pine Barrens for the fabled Jersey Devil. The cable show was called Fact or Fiction; its pair of goofball hosts were a kind of Wayne and Garth of the unexplained phenomena crowd. The less said about what happens in The Last Broadcast the better, but its cast of characters includes several Internet geeks, a disturbed loner who claims to have psychic powers, a police detective, a psychologist, a forensic pathologist, a soap opera director and a filmmaker on a mission. What can be said and should be about The Last Broadcast is that it is a "desktop feature film," produced entirely using digital technology.

It is being projected during its weeklong run at the art deco County Theater in Doyles-town (it plays through Saturday) with a new digital projection system. For techno-nerds, that alone should be reason to check it out. For everyone else, The Last Broadcast is a smart, assured work no matter how exactly it was made. "Little Women." For something decidedly un-creepy and evocative of an altogether different world, look no further than Gillian Armstrong's 1994 adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. There is a moment in this finely wrought version when Marmee March (Susan Sarandon) tells her daughters, "If you feel your value lies only in being decorative, I fear that some day you might find yourself believing that is all you really are.

Time erodes all such beauty, but what it cannot diminish is the wonderful workings of your mind." Armstrong, the Australian director who started her own illustrious career with My Brilliant Career, another perceptive essay on the pangs of coming of age, approaches Little Women in the spirit of Sarandon's maternal advice. In doing so, she faced two challenges the imposing pre- adam drew sandier barrymore tho wecfd.nq iifitu linn mi (in iiiiiiniiir awn wigji iihiii mm hwtisiiiiiiiii hiii limn of a 16th-century peasant-warrior Musashi Miyamoto; with Toshiro Mifune (in Japanese, with English subtitles). 7 p.m. Sat. The Seventh Veil, Compton Bennett's drama about a concert pianist romantically torn between her psychiatrist and her guardian, among others; stars James Mason, Anne Todd, Herbert Lorn.

.9:15 p.m. Sat. GCC Northeast Cinema Welsh Roosevelt Blvd; 609-546-6400. $6. Friday the 13th, Part 3 (3-D glasses provided).

Midnight tonight. Grand Opera House 818 Market St, Wilmington; 302-652-5577. $3 seniors, students, free for ages under 5. National Velvet, story about a girl's efforts to enter her horse in the Grand National Steeplechase; with Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney. 1:30 7 p.m.

Thu. EH3 International Film Series University of Delaware, Trabant Center Theater, Main St, Newark; 302-737-3955. Gabbeh, Iranian film in which a young woman longs for a man who follows her tribe on horseback, but her father forbids her to marry. 7:30 p.m. Sun.

International House Neighborhood Film Video Project, 3701 Chestnut St; 215-895-6542. $5.50 seniors students (unless noted); $3 ages 12 under. Mother and Son, Alexander Sokurov's testament to the love between a mother and son (Russian with subtitles). 7 9 tonight, 3, 5, 7 9 p.m. Sun.

From Holocaust to New Life Gershman YM YWHA, Broad Pine Sts; 215-545-4400, ext 243. k-Long is the Road, documentary made by and about Jewish displaced persons at Camp Landsberg in Bavaria. $5 seniors students. 8 p.m. Sat.

Double feature: The Unafraid, video by a man who returned to Israel to find out what became of a group of survivors who were part of the Aliyah Bet; and Return to Lite, documentary shows the efforts of survivors to rebuild their lives after WWII. $3 seniors students. 1 p.m. Sun. 2nd Generation, Israeli artists Schlomo Artzi and Schmuel Vilozhni discuss being the children of Holocaust survivors.

$3 seniors students. 3:30 p.m. Sun. Philadelphia Museum of Art Van Pelt Auditorium, 26th St the Parkway; 215-763-8100. $5 seniors, students ages 5-18.

Wednesday Night Films: The Full Monty, comedy about a band of unemployed steelworkers who decide that becoming male strippers is the only way to reclaim their self-respect and earn a living. 7:10 p.m. Wed. cedent set by Katharine Hepburn in George Cukor's classic 1933 version of Little Women and the more testing issue of making the novel relevant to a contemporary audience 130 years after its publication. Armstrong realized that while the world has changed beyond recognition since Alcott wrote her perennially popular story, the core themes she explored through the busy lives and loves of the March sisters are timeless.

Some things most notably the perilous passage from girlhood to womanhood never change. The Last Broadcast is showing at the County Theater in Doylestown. Little Women is showing in the Cultural Film Series at Villanova. Art films Cinema de Sheena William Way Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center, 1315 Spruce St; 215-732-2220. $2 donation requested.

Girl's Town, wisecracking bad girl Mamie Van Doren is sent to a reform school run by nuns; also stars Mel Torme, Paul Anka. 7 p.m. Sun. Double feature: Paris Is Burning, revealing documentary about New York City drag balls. 7:30 p.m.

Thu. Hairspray, John Waters' nostalgia satire; with Sonny Bono, Divine, Debbie Harry. 9 p.m. Thu. County Theater 20 State St, Doylestown; 215-345-6789.

$4 Sat matinees, $5 seniors ages under 12. The Last Broadcast. 1, 4:30 11:30 p.m. today. 1 p.m.

Sat. Betty Boop Confidential. 1 1 a.m. Sat. The Golden Voyage ol Sinbad, tale of the adventurous sailor, with effects by Ray Harryhausen, stars John Phillip Law, Tom Baker.

1 1 a.m. Sat, Cultural Film Series Villanova University, Connelly Center, Ithan Ave Rte 30, Villanova; 610-519-4750. $3 students. Little Women. 7 p.m.

Sat; 3:30 7 p.m. Sun; 7 p.m. Mon. Film Forum Philadelphia Senior Center, 509 Broad St; 215-732-7704. $4 students.

Double feature: The Samurai Trilogy Part Two, second of Hiroshi Inagaki's trilogy on the lifetime exploits Plllllllll! mm HMewar i NEW UNE CINEMA AMCWOOOHAIrtNIO 13 REGAL CINEMAS BHiMONT SQUARE 10 BeblgmiMSq SnoppnjC. REGAL CINEMAS HUNTINGDON jAUY 14 Cuutre(tan tatmeitan REGAL CINEMAS UMTH) ARTISTS THEATRES ATRIVERVIEWPUUA I4WS OetwareAtffu AMC ANDORRA I fatyOTrtnryAmn AnjraSfiwtirjCmH AMC MARPLE 10 Huul in 320 Striatal Marpie Crossroads ShoppanQ Clf. AMC ORLEANS I Cotrman and Bustlelon Axeriues AMC PMHTER'S CROSSING 9 Routes It 202, Wage at ATCO MULTIPLEX CINEMAS WntertraPtt.lteJOift CINEMARK MOVIES 10 LrcrertadPtaa-SotwiM REGAL CINEMAS BURUNGTON 14 REGAL CINEMAS CROSS KEYS 12 ft2atiwarit3M.Iinet UNITED ARTISTS THEATRES M00REST0WN me Maxestown Mad UNITED ARTISTS THEATRES KNNSAUKEN Roules 73 130 Near Tacony PramnRrvlne Pimmiiknfl UNITED ARTISTS THEATRES KING QUEEN IMNrjAolStyEipyliT UNTTH) ARTTSTS THEATRES AT MAC DADE MAU, Mac Dade BM andSontiM Glendoa UNITED ARTTSTS THEATRES MAIN STREET 3720-40 Maai MManifUlt UNITED ARTISTS THEATRES AT OXFORD UiY kMcWwfltfd.adiacmlluitie Mai. LanghonTe ijiivfn.nvn AMC HERTFORD I On Ctoieits bulge acton AMC MARLTON I UONViUE 12 120aiJevmBoulmerd Exlon REGAL CINEMAS PLYMOUTH MEETING 10 lOnftdgel.lnshoMw UNITED ARTISTS THEATRES 6HANI PLAZA GmltaSitiDprjeiM Bur.arioararil renter's Crossing Shopping Clr. AMCSWCWfMA ertEmc3Wfnswayj r'tso mi" 3 1 1 i Watch the Academy Awards March 23 on ABC Ij'jTHKPHIrLADEUPHIA IfJCiUIRER.