Emmet’s Mark

Saturday, Oct. 12

LAVA

W/D: Joe Tucker; with Tucker, James Holmes, Nicola Stapleton, Grahame Fox.

Advance Screening

This Brit-pic is right up there with the best of them in terms of random acts of senseless violence. The first casualty comes two minutes into the film, when a homeless man is offed for sudsing the windshield of the wrong Jamaican gangster. Things progress at a steady clip, and the body count soars, as a mentally retarded man and his obviously deranged friend set out to avenge an unprovoked beating that has left his brother a drooling vegetable. It’s the bizarre and unconventional characters that make this shoot-’em-up pic worth watching, even if a variety of outrageously thick accents means you have to work a little harder to understand them. (10/12, 7pm, Paramount) — Cathy Vaughan

REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES

D: Patricia Cardoso/W: George LaVoo, Josefina Lopez; with America Ferrera, Lupe Ontiveros, Ingrid Oliu, George Lopez.

Advance Screening

This movie cleanses the spirit with the purity of a refreshing summer rain. Although its storyline is fairly familiar, the movie’s depiction of the lives of unconventional movie characters and cultures is most original. Real Women Have Curves tells the story of one Latina high school graduate who is determined to break out of the traditional female life cycle of marriage and sweatshops. The film earned the Audience Award when it played at Sundance earlier this year. (10/12, 9:40pm, Westgate) — M.B.

STANDARD TIME

D: Robert Cary/W: Isabel Rose; with Rose, Cameron Bancroft, Andrew McCarthy.

Competition Film

Any film that features former Bat-fling Eartha Kitt already has a lot going for it in our book. This comic meditation on the hapless pursuit of dreams and love by the eternally hopeful airport lounge chanteuse Billie Golden (writer Isabel Rose) and the two men in her life — musician McCarthy and former schoolmate Bancroft — manages to be both charmingly old-fashioned in its idealized hopefulness and borderline goofy in its humor. Rose is a whip-smart comedienne, and her idolatry of Audrey H. does her (and the film) no harm. (10/12, 7:15pm, Westgate; 10/16, 7:15pm, Westgate) — M.S.

This article appears in October 11 • 2002.

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A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Kimberley has written about film, books, and pop culture for The Austin Chronicle since 2000. She was named Editor of the Chronicle in 2016; she previously served as the paper’s Managing Editor, Screens Editor, Books Editor, and proofreader. Her work has been awarded by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia for excellence in arts criticism, team reporting, and special section (Best of Austin). The Austin Alliance for Women...