Opening Films

by INLANDER STAFF & r & & r & BE KIND REWIND & r & & r & When video store clerks played by Jack Black and Mos Def accidentally erase all the VHS tapes in the store, they frantically attempt to replace them by recording their own renditions of classic films. Director Michel Gondry loves to cast existence in odd, philosophical lights, so expect this to do the same in a very palatable, screwball-comedy way. (LB) Rated PG-13





CHARLIE BARTLETT


After being thrown out of yet another private school, an intelligent, hip, different drummer (Anton Yelchin) is enrolled by his loving but drug-dependent mom (Hope Davis) in public school, where he's singled out for being a weirdo and, in the case of one bully (Tyler Hilton), to be a punching bag. He survives by offering psychological advice from an office he sets up in the boys room. His possible love interest (Kat Dennings, who knows how to wear red lipstick) is the daughter of the principal (Robert Downey Jr.). Watch out! (ES) Rated R





OUTSOURCED


Not to be confused with the Owen Wilson project, this Outsourced is about a manager in America who is sent to India to train his replacements -- including a spicy little number named Asha. Set in Seattle and India, this was the opening-night film at the Spokane International Film Festival. (LB) Rated PG-13





PERSEPOLIS


Based on Marjane Satrapi's graphic novels, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, the animated Persepolis tells the semi-autobiographical story of a childhood spent in Iran at the dawn of the Islamic revolution, a flight to Austria and an eventual return to the land of her birth. Simply animated, Persepolis looks nonetheless to be a complex portrait of coming of age amid alienation and fear on two separate continents. (LB) Rated PG-13





VANTAGE POINT


Eight different perspectives from an attempted assassination of the U.S. president twist and turn this action thriller in all directions. Dennis Quaid stars as a Secret Service agent uncovering a massive plot against America. Forest Whitaker and Sigourney Weaver co-star as witnesses and possibly plotters in this political whodunit. (TLM) Rated PG-13





WITLESS PROTECTION


Ivana Milicevic stars as Madeleine, who, heavily guarded by the FBI, is due to testify against a deadly criminal. She is mistakenly kidnapped by Larry the Cable Guy. Adventures ensue as Deputy Larry takes Madeleine on a road trip where they're running from the FBI and the people who wish her dead. Jenny McCarthy co-stars. (TLM) Rated PG-13