MARWENCOL Begins January 7....

One of the best documentaries of 2010, MARWENCOL, begins a run at Living Room on January 7. Marwencol is on several lists of Top Ten Films of 2010 and has a rare 100% rate on Rotten Tomatoes.

After a night of drinking at a bar in his hometown of Kingston, NY, Mark Hogancamp got in a fistfight and was beaten so badly he went into a coma. When Hogancamp regained consciousness, he was diagnosed with brain damage and struggled to return to a normal life. As he tried to put his life back together, Hogancamp came up with an unusual hobby — using G.I. Joe action figures and Barbie dolls, Hogancamp created an elaborate scale model community in his backyard that he calls Marwencol (named for three characters he’s dubbed Mark, Wendy, and Colleen). Marwencol is supposed to be a village in Belgium during World War II, and the scene is full of intrigue and military violence; several of the characters also represent his friends and relatives, and one is based on a married neighbor with whom he’s infatuated. Marwencol provides Hogancamp with a fantasy world he can retreat into as he deals with the realities of his life following the beating, but the parallels into his real life are troubling to some people he knows, and when a gallery in New York City offers to present Hogancamp’s project as an art installation, he has to decide if he’s really willing to share Marwencol with the world at large.

THE TEMPEST Begins Friday...

Julie Taymor’s THE TEMPEST begins a run at Living Room Theaters on December 31. In her big-screen adaptation of Shakespeare’s mystical thriller The Tempest, Academy Award-nominated Julie Taymor (Across the Universe, Frida, Titus) brings an original dynamic to the story by changing the gender of the sorcerer Prospero into the sorceress Prospera, portrayed by Oscar winner Helen Mirren (The Queen). Prospera’s journey spirals through vengeance to forgiveness as she reigns over a magical island, cares for her young daughter, Miranda, and unleashes her powers against shipwrecked enemies in this exciting, masterly mix of romance, tragicomedy and the supernatural.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK Begins Dec. 22....

The movie many critics are calling the best of the year, THE SOCIAL NETWORK begins a run at Living Room on December 22.

Director David Fincher (Fight Club, Seven) teams with screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (“The West Wing”) to explore the meaning of success in the early 21st century from the perspectives of the technological innovators who revolutionized the way we all communicate.

The year was 2003. As prohibitively expensive technology became affordable to the masses and the Internet made it easy to stay in touch with people who were halfway across the world, Harvard undergrad and computer programming wizard Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) launched a website with the potential to alter the very fabric of our society. At the time, Zuckerberg was just six years away from making his first million. But his hearty payday would come at a high price, because despite all of Zuckerberg’s wealth and success, his personal life began to suffer as he became mired in legal disputes, and discovered that many of the 500 million people he had friended during his rise to the top were eager to see him fall.

Chief among that growing list of detractors was Zuckerberg’s former college friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), whose generous financial contributions to Facebook served as the seed that helped the company to sprout. And some might argue that Zuckerberg’s bold venture wouldn’t have evolved into the cultural juggernaut that it ultimately became had Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) not spread the word about Facebook to the venture capitalists from Silicon Valley.

Meanwhile, the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer and Josh Pence) engage Zuckerberg in a fierce courtroom battle for ownership of Facebook that left many suspecting the young entrepreneur might have let his greed eclipse his better judgment. The Social Network is based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich.

GULLIVER’S TRAVELS in 3D...

GULLIVER’S TRAVELS in 3D starring Jack Black begins Christmas Day at Living Room.

In a modern, 3D family comedy take on the classic tale, Jack Black (star of “Kung Fu Panda” and “School of Rock”) is Lemuel Gulliver, a lowly mailroom clerk at a New York newspaper. After Gulliver bluffs his way into an assignment writing about the Bermuda Triangle, he goes there only to be transported to an undiscovered land, Lilliput. In this fantastical new world, Gulliver is, at last, a bigger-than-life figure — in size and ego – especially after he starts telling tall tales, taking credit for his world’s greatest inventions, and placing himself at the center of its most historic events. Gulliver’s position is enhanced even further when he leads his new friends in a daring battle against their longtime enemies. But when Gulliver loses it all and puts the Lilliputians in peril, he must find a way to undo the damage. Ultimately, Gulliver becomes a true giant among men only when he learns that it’s how big you are on the inside that counts.

Director Gail O’Hara on KINK-FM...

STRANGE POWERS co-director Gail O’Hara was interviewed on KINK-FM this week. She’ll be at the 6:40 pm Saturday screening of the film at Living Room. Listen to the interview HERE.

Portland Mecury Auction...

Living Room Theaters is participating in the Portland Mercury’s Charity Auction again this year. Living Room is giving one lucky bidder a private screening of an upcoming film! The winner can invite 40 or so of their best friends to the screening. You can bid HERE. Proceeds from this year’s auction benefit the Raphael House.

WHITE MATERIAL opens Dec. 17....

The latest film from from one of France’s greatest filmmakers, Claire Denis, WHITE MATERIAL begins a run Friday, December 17.

Master filmmaker Claire Denis returns with this evocative African-set film starring the electrifying Isabelle Huppert (THE PIANO TEACHER) as a woman fighting to save her family plantation, and way of life, in the face of rising civil unrest. Featured in the Venice, Toronto, New York and Los Angeles film festivals, WHITE MATERIAL is an extraordinarily visceral, potent and very personal rumination on a society turned upside down. In an unnamed African country in the throes of a volatile regime change, Maria Vial (Huppert) is trying to sustain the coffee plantation she runs with her ex-husband André (Christophe Lambert), but unknown to her, he has other plans. The country is tenuously under the control of a rebel militia whose leader (Isaach De Bankolé) is on the run. With the regular army preparing to regain control, French forces have moved out, warning the remaining white residents that they’re on their own if they stay behind. However, Maria refuses to be driven off the land, continuing to run the farm as the specter of impending tragedy looms.

WASTE LAND Wins More Awards!...

The Oscar short-list documentary, WASTE LAND, won two more awards recently. Details HERE. WASTE LAND opens at Living Room this Friday.

Oscar Nominated Films at Living Room...

The movie awards season is fasting approaching and a number of films playing and coming soon to Living Room are being considered for Oscars. CLIENT 9 and WAITING FOR SUPERMAN (both playing now) along with WASTE LAND (opens Dec. 10) and ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE (coming in January) are all shortlisted for a Best Documentary Oscar. Additionally, UNDERTOW (begins Dec. 22) is the official Peruvian submission for Best Foreign Film Oscar consideration!

UNDERTOW Begins Dec. 22...

The romantic, Peruvian ghost story, UNDERTOW, begins at Living Room on Dec. 22. This small but powerful drama has made it’s way through the festival circuit winning 39 awards! The film is also Peru’s official submission for Best Foreign Film Oscar consideration.

Miguel is a handsome, young and beloved fisherman in Cabo Blanco, a small fishing village in the Northern coast of Peru, where the community has deep-rooted religious traditions. Miguel is married to the beautiful Mariela, who is 7-months pregnant with their firstborn, but Miguel harbors a scandalous secret: He is having a love affair with another man, Santiago, a painter who is ostracized by the townsfolk for being agnostic and open about his sexuality.

When Santiago drowns accidentally in the ocean’s strong undertow, he cannot pass peacefully to the other side. He returns after his death to ask Miguel to look for his body and bury it according to the rituals of the town. Miguel must choose between sentencing Santiago to eternal torment or doing right by him and, in turn, revealing their relationship to Mariela and the entire village. Miguel is forced to deal with the consequences of his acts and to come to terms with who he really is, even if by doing so he stands the chance of losing the people he loves the most.

With sweeping images of the beautiful Peruvian coastline, UNDERTOW (Contracorriente) is the emotional intersection of contemporary sexuality, confronted by tradition and belief. This sexy and redolent love story is the feature film debut of Javier Fuentes-León and stars Manolo Cardona (Beverly Hills Chihuahua and the hugely popular telenovela series, Sin tetas no hay paraiso, and was also named by People en Espanol as one of its 50 Most Beautiful People in 2005), Cristian Mercado (Che) and Tatiana Astengo.