In Limited Release This Weekend: Frost/Nixon, Ciao, Timecrimes

Frost/Nixon
In 1977, three years after Richard Milhous Nixon resigned the presidency of the United States of America in disgrace in the midst of the Watergate scandal, television personality David Frost convinced him to break his silence in one no-holds-barred interview for the hefty price of half a million dollars. Nixon intended to talk circles around the lightweight interviewer and try to redeem himself in the eyes of America, while Frost intended to try to give the former president the trial he would never have after he’d been pardoned for any potential wrongdoing. The result was a display of verbal maneuvering that eventually resulted in Nixon likely revealing more than he’d ever wanted to. The Broadway play Frost/Nixon won Frank Langella a Tony for his portrayal of Nixon, and he is reprising that role for Ron Howard’s</a film version, as is Michael Sheen returning to play Frost. They’re supported by a team of great actors, like Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt and Kevin Bacon, and it’s got Academy Award consideration written all over it.

*****

Ciao
When a man named Mark unexpectedly dies, his friend Jeff offers to clean up the details of his life, and in the process he learns that a man he loved from afar is on his way to meet him for the first time and is unaware that he’s gone. What develops between the two men left behind is a quietly sad love story.

*****

Timecrimes
A Sundance Film Festival selection, Timecrimes tells the story of Hector, an ordinary man in Spain who accidentally travels back into his own past and meets himself. As strange events begin to unfold, Hector realizes that he will have to fight his time-spawned duplicates in order to save the woman he loves. David Cronenberg is working on an American version of this film, and his interest should give you an inkling of just what kind of weirdness awaits you when you watch it.