'FirstLight' film festival offers first-rate schedule for film buffs

Advertiser Staff

Here's the "FirstLight" film festival schedule on Maui through Jan. 4. Note: There are no screenings tomorrow, Tuesday, Christmas, Dec. 30 or 31 or Jan. 3.

Today

5 p.m. — "The Pianist," A personal film by Roman Polanski about the Holocaust, with Adrien Brody as a musician who managed to survive World War II by hiding in and around the Warsaw ghetto.

7:30 p.m. — "25th Hour," Spike Lee's drama about a convicted drug dealer who tries to right wrongs with his family and friends, before being imprisoned for seven years. With Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rosario Dawson and Anna Paquin


.

Thursday

2 p.m. — "Treasure Planet," Disney's animated take on the Robert Louis Stevenson classic. With voices provided by Martin Short, David Hyde Pierce, Emma Thompson, Brian Murray and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

5 p.m. — "Real Women Have Curves," a Special Jury Prize and Audience Award winner, at the Sundance Film Festival. A drama-comedy, about a daughter's quest for a better life amid the love of a domineering mother. With Anna Garcia and Lupe Ontiveros.

7:30 p.m. — "The Quiet American," based on the Graham Greene novel, set in the early days of America's involvement in Vietnam. A favorite at the Toronto Film Festival, with incandescent performances by Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser.

Friday

2 p.m. — "Bloody Sunday," a film by writer-director Paul Greengrass, recreating the 1972 confrontation between British paratroops and 14 unarmed Catholic civil rights marchers in Londonderry. Winner of the Sundance Festival Grand Jury Prize.

5 p.m. — "The Guys," a 9/11-related drama in which Anthony LaPaglia plays a fire chief dealing with the loss of several of his firefighters who enlists the help of Sigourney Weaver, as a journalist who assists him in preparing the eulogies that he must deliver in back-to-back funerals.

7:30 p.m. — "Adaptation," an adaptation by Charlie Kaufman of the non-fiction best-seller by Susan Orlean, "The Orchid Thief," with Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper; with cameos by John Cusack and Catherine Keener.

Saturday

2 p.m. — "Igby Goes Down Under," a comedy with Kieran Culkin as a sarcastic teenager who rebels against his stifling environment of old-money privilege. With Susan Sarandon, Bill Pullman, Ryan Phillippe, Jeff Goldblum, Amanda Peet and Claire Danes.

5 p.m. — "Secretary," a quirky exploration of sexual desire and love, between two people (James Spader, Maggie Gyllenhaal) who don't shy away from their unconventional sensual interests and activities.

7:30 p.m. — "About Schmidt," starring Jack Nicholson as a retired, widowed insurance man from

Omaha, who gets into the Winnebago and drives to his daughter's wedding. With Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney and Kathy Bates.

Dec. 29

2 p.m. — "Stevie," reconnects with his "little brother" from a decade-earlier involvement with his local "Big Brothers" organization, to see what the teenager's life has become since they last met.

5 p.m. — "Nicholas Nickelby," directed by Douglas McGrath, has a Dickens of a time with this touching and humor-laden tale about a boy forced into reduced circumstances after his father's death. With Christopher Plummer, Jamie Bell, Tom Courtenay, Timothy Spall, Anne Hathaway and Nathan Lane.

7:30 p.m. — "The Hours," by Michael Cunningham, about Virginia Woolf and two women who identify with her, starring Meryl Streep as a contemporary New Yorker, Ed Harris as a close friend struggling with HIV, Julianna Moore as a 1950s wife and mother and Nicole Kidman as Woolf. Directed by Stephen Daldry; also with Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, and Miranda Richardson.

Jan. 1

2 p.m. — "The Good Girl," with Jennifer Aniston, John C. Reilly, Tim Blake Nelson, Jake Gyllenhaal and Zooey Deschanel, in a comedy about 30-year-old Justine (Aniston) scarcely comprehending how much she yearns for a more passionate life, until she finds a man she believes to be her soulmate.

5 p.m. — "Rabbit Proof Fence," a story about aboriginal girls taken from their homes and families in the outback and shipped to faraway Australian cities to be trained as servants. Kenneth Branagh stars, first-time Aboriginal actors Evelyn Sampi, Tianni Sansbury and Laura Monaghan, with Philip Noyce directing.

7:30 p.m. — "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," the bizarre story of Chuck Barris, former producer of "The Dating Game" and producer-host of "The Gong Show," with Sam Rockwell as Barris, who, in a 1984 memoir, declared he had another life as a CIA agent. George Clooney makes his directorial debut and also has a role as a CIA recruiter; other notables in the cast are Drew Barrymore and Julia Roberts.

Jan. 2

5 p.m. — "Sonny," Nicolas Cage's directorial debut, is set in 1980s New Orleans. With James Franco as a young man home after his military service, determined not to fall back into his old life, of being the star attraction at his mother's brothel. With Brenda Blethyn, Harry Dean Stanton and Mena Suvari.

7:30 p.m. — "Narc," a film executive-produced by Tom Cruise, was written and directed by Joe Carnahan, stars Ray Liotta as a cop investigating his ex-partner's death, and Jason Patric as a suspended narcotics officer. With Busta Rhymes and Chi McBride.

Jan. 4

2 p.m. — "Lovely and Amazing," an intimate family portrait of three resilient women and the bittersweet lessons learned raising each other. With Catherine Keener, Emily Mortimer, Brenda Blethyn, Raven Goodwin, Jake Gyllenhaal and Dermot Mulroney.

5 p.m. — "Personal Velocity," a film based on short stories by Rebecca Miller (daughter of Arthur Miller), starring Kyra Sedgwick, Parker Posey and Fairuza Balk, about three women trying to gain control of their lives.

7:30 p.m. — "Evelyn," starring Pierce Brosnan as Desmond Doyle, an Irish father of three whose cheating wife has just abandoned the whole family. Doyle was the first man to gain custody of his children, following a divorce in 1950s Ireland. With Alan Bates, Julianne Margulies, Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea, and Sophie Vavasseur, directed by Bruce Beresford.

Jan. 5

2 p.m. — "All or Nothing," a film by Mike Leigh, looks at lower middle class life in the London he knows so well (he was Oscar-nominated for "Secret and Lies").

5 p.m. — "Crop Circles," a film by William Gazecki, which looks at the phenomenon of mysterious geometric patterns earlier seen in "Signs" and Scientific American.

7:30 p.m. — "8 Women," a gathering of beautiful actresses and icons in French film history (including Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuel Beart and Isabelle Huppert), in an Agatha Christie-like mystery set at the spectacularly-rural mansion they share.