Junior Hijinks

The weak-ass punch of Kick-Ass’ potty-mouthed preteens, plus the 43rd HFF

(April 22, 2010) Previews

Opening Friday, Apr. 23, Jennifer Lopez decides that waiting for Mr. Right is taking too long in Back-Up Plan. Wouldn’t you know it? As soon as she goes and gets herself artificially inseminated, some dashing dude saunters into her life. What’s a girl to do? Rated PG-13 for sexual content and crude material. 104m. At the Broadway, Fortuna and Mill Creek.

There was a time when girls didn’t rock as hard as they do now. The story of ‘70s rock band The Runaways featuring Joan Jett (Kristin Stewart) and Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning) chronicles how all that changed. Courtney Love, you’re welcome. Rated R for sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. 109m. At the Broadway.

In The Losers, members of an elite U.S. Special Forces team are sent into the Bolivian jungle to find a really bad dude who wants to incite global war. Unfortunately, before they can save the world, the team is betrayed by their own government. Eat that. Rated PG-13 for intense kabooms and language. 98m. At the Broadway, Fortuna and Mill Creek.

The 43rd Annual Humboldt Film Festival, allegedly “the oldest international student-run film festival in the world,” is underway and runs all this week in HSU’s Van Duzer Theatre.

If you pick this paper up on Wednesday, April 22, you can attend Animation/Experimental Day events including an afternoon workshop with festival judge Brian O’Halloran, an actor best known for his work in director Kevin Smith’s oeuvre, in particular for playing the role of Dante, the convenience store clerk in Clerks. The evening screening focuses on short animated and/or experimental films, 21 total.

Thursday, April 23 is deemed Documentary Day with an evening screening of nine docs including Home Is Where You Find It, a film from Mozambique shot in part by a teen AIDS orphan, A Thousand Suns, about the Gamo people of Ethiopia, and Tortured Law, a film from Alliance for Justice about Bush era legal opinions that authorized torture. The afternoon workshop is led by Betsy McLane, project director of the American Documentary Showcase and co-author of A New History of Documentary Film.

Friday is Narrative Night with nine films including En La Otra Camilla, a Spanish film about a pair of kidnappers and their elderly captive, and The Iranian Dream, a mockumentary about an Iranian man supporting his family as an exotic dancer, along with films from India, Germany and the U.S.A. The afternoon session features Hollywood agent Rima Greer on “Guerilla Filmmaking: How to Make Great Movies Outside of Hollywood with No Money.”

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