A Thousand Years of Good Prayers - Opens Sept. 19

For those who remember the work of Wayne Wang before he went all Hollywood with precious movies like Anywhere but Here, Because of Winn-Dixie and Maid in Manhattan, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers will likely be a welcome return to the small character studies about assimilation and parent-child relationships that defined his early independent films.

Like Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart and his successful adaptation of Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers explores the disconnect between parents of traditional Chinese upbringing and the children who left the homeland for a life in America. In this one, a Chinese widower (Henry O) travels to America to visit his recently divorced daughter, Yilan (Feihong Yu). They speak politely to each other and have a series of strained, quiet dinners that reveal the long-gestating tensions between them. Mr. Shi wants to know why his daughter’s marriage ended, but Yilan avoids the topic—and eventually her father—altogether.

Some will find the movie boring; the story unfolds at a very leisurely pace, with many scenes consisting of father and daughter eating in silence or Mr. Shi wandering aimlessly around Los Angeles. But for those who appreciate such matter-of-fact, slice-of-life filmmaking, there will be much to appreciate among the strong performances and the simple story of a father and daughter trying to find common ground. B+
—Ken Knox

Choke - Opens Sept. 26

There’s a lot to recommend in Clark Gregg’s adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke. There’s Sam Rockwell, reliable as Victor Mancini, a sex addict limping through recovery. Anjelica Huston’s on board as his mother, Ida, spending her final demented days in an expensive private care facility. And the always game Kelly Macdonald is Paige Marshall, Ida’s physician.

When Victor isn’t engaged in sex acts—often during his sexual recovery seminars—or working as a Colonial village re-enactor, or pretending to choke in restaurants as part of an ongoing series of lucrative cons, he puts the moves on the pretty young doctor, who seems nearly as cuckoo as him. (She suggests that Victor impregnate her in order to then harvest cells from the baby as part of a radical therapy to reverse the mother’s dementia!)

And there’s plenty more— familial mysteries, sexual peccadilloes, irrational obsessions, 11th hour surprises—but what’s missing are connections, a thematic sense of what it all might mean. The larkish plot engages and distracts in equal measure, and Rockwell—incapable of giving a bad performance—gives it his all. But the movie plays like a series of (often hilarious) sketches with no center, a bit like Brian DePalma’s underground Greetings! or the more recent, and uneven, The Ten. In the end, Choke bites off way more than it can chew. B-
—Dan Loughry

Save Me Now Playing

After hitting rock bottom, a sex-and-drug addicted young gay man, Mark, enters a Christian-run ministry which aims to cure homosexuals with a mixture of therapy and religion. That’s movie-of-the-week territory, yet thanks to first-rate performances and the assured direction of Robert Cary, Save Me saves itself from tedious melodrama.

Chad Allen—best known as the titular sleuth of the Donald Strachey mysteries—is revelatory as Mark, a party boy who lives for drugs and sex. After overdosing in a sleazy motel after a frantic one-night stand—and with nowhere to turn—he’s enrolled in Genesis House by his pastor brother. Under the care of Gayle (Judith Light) and Ted (Stephen Lang), Mark’s a reluctant patient. Yet Gayle—who lost her own son to many of same demons that plague Mark—breaks through to him. As does Scott (Robert Gant from Queer as Folk), a fellow patient who’s been outwardly “cured.” Their fast friendship deepens, threatening the careful balance of Gayle’s ministry.

Cary’s direction of Robert Desiderio’s measured script keeps the material in check. Gant’s quiet performance as Scott is his best screen work, and Light never lets go of Gayle’s conflicted inner life for a second. You can hate her, but you can’t dismiss her. Mark does neither; he learns from her faith, and develops his own accepting belief. B+
—D.L.