Win free movie tickets

Editor's note: Comment on today's "Cinema Chat" for a chance to win free movie tickets to the Michigan Theater. Some time between now and 9 a.m. Monday, leave a comment on this column, written by the Michigan Theater's Russ Collins. Offer your opinion on a recent movie you've seen, or on anything Russ mentions. A winner will be randomly selected, and we’ll notify that person via the email address they signed up with. They will get two passes to a movie of their choice, courtesy of The Michigan Theater. Full rules here.

Opening downtown

“The Whistleblower,” inspired by true events, is the story of Kathy (Academy Award-winner Rachel Weisz), an American police officer who takes a job working as a peacekeeper in postwar Bosnia. Her expectations of helping to rebuild a devastated country are dashed when she uncovers a dangerous reality of corruption and intrigue amid a world of private contractors and multinational diplomatic doubletalk. The film also stars Academy Award nominee David Strathairn and Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave. Rex Reed of the New York Observer says, “’The Whistleblower’ is a grisly, authentic, meticulously researched, pulse-quickening political chiller about a hot-button topic that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.” “The Whistleblower” opens Friday at the Michigan Theater.

Opening at the multiplex

“Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” written by Matthew Robbins and Guillermo del Toro and directed by comic book artist Troy Nixey, finds architect Alex (Guy Pearce) and his girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes) restoring their Gothic mansion's period interiors. Meanwhile, Alex's young daughter Sally (Bailee Madison) investigates the macabre history and dark corners of the estate, spurred by whispers that call out to her from the basement, promising understanding and friendship. When Sally gives in to her curiosity, she opens a gateway into a hellish underworld from which an army of beady-eyed, sharp-clawed monsters emerge, small in size but endless in number. “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” opens Friday.

In the action film “Colombiana,” Zoe Saldana plays Cataleya, a young woman who has grown up to be an assassin after witnessing the murder of her parents as a child. Turning herself into a professional killer and working for her uncle, she remains focused on her ultimate goal: to hunt down and get revenge on the mobster responsible for her parents' deaths. “Colombiana” opens Friday.

Every family has one: the sibling who is always just a little bit behind the curve when it comes to getting their life together. In “Our Idiot Brother” sisters Liz (Emily Mortimer), Miranda (Elizabeth Banks) and Natalie (Zooey Deschanel) have Ned (Paul Rudd), an erstwhile organic farmer whose willingness to rely on the honesty of mankind is a less-than-optimum strategy for a tidy, trouble-free existence. Ned may be utterly lacking in common sense, but he is their brother and so, after his girlfriend dumps him and boots him off the farm, his sisters once again come to his rescue. I saw this film at Sundance last January and generally agree with this Movies Online review: “a well-written, delightful throwback to the Frank Capra/Preston Sturges sensibility, in which the one who owns the least usually has the most.” “Our Idiot Brother” opens Friday.

Special screenings downtown

From director and screenwriter Yael Hersonski, “A Film Unfinished” takes an unflinching look at our understanding of historical representation—and misrepresentation—in film by unspooling a well-known "unfinished" film documenting the life in the Warsaw Ghetto. The later discovery of a long-missing reel complicated earlier interpretations, showing the manipulations of camera crews in these "everyday" scenes featuring unwilling, but complicit, actors, alternately fearful and in denial of their looming fate. This official selection of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival is the finale to our Summer Documentary season. David Edelstein of New York Magazine says the film “becomes a meditation on the dual nature of film, on a ‘reality’ at once true and false, essential and tainted.” “A Film Unfinished” plays Aug. 29 at 7 p.m.

A film for children of all ages, “National Velvet” tells the story of Velvet Brown, played by a 12-year-old Elizabeth Taylor. Velvet saves and grooms a horse for the Grand National, aided by her father's hired hand, a young drifter named Mi Taylor, played by Mickey Rooney. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two. “National Velvet” plays Aug. 28 at 1:30 p.m. and Aug. 30 at 7 p.m.

One part Western, one part psychedelica, all parts original, legendary cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s “El Topo” tells the story of the title character as he helps his 6-year-old son on the way to becoming a man and whose journey leads them to a town following a bloody massacre. The result—a surreal head-trip of justice through themes of violence, racism and religion—caught the attention of John Lennon, who helped propel this film into the sensation it is today. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times says “Jodorowsky dazzles us with such delicate mythological footwork that the violence becomes distanced, somehow, and we accept it like the slaughters in the Old Testament.” “El Topo” plays Saturday, Aug. 27 at 11:59 p.m. at the State Theatre.

Russ Collins is executive director of the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. Tune in to the audio version of “Cinema Chat” on WEMU radio (89.1-FM) each Thursday at 7:40 a.m. and 5:40 p.m., or listen to it online at WEMU's web site.