She Likes to Watch

Fill up at any gas station from Paso Robles to Nipomo and you may suffer from sticker shock.

Prices at the pump now run an average of four bucks a gallon, which means hard times for anyone who depends on wheels for work or errands. (Yours truly, for instance.)

That’s $40 to take little Johnny to swim practice. Fifty clams to stop for groceries. Sixty smackers to pick up Fifi from the vet’s. And that’s if you drive a compact.

At a comparably cheap gas station in Santa Maria, I overheard one man complaining that it took $100 to fill the tank of his ’60s-era boat of an automobile.

A hundred greenbacks! Zowie!

Soaring gas prices can only mean one thing: Time to trade my oil-burning laptop for one of them new-fangled ‘lectric models.

All kidding aside, however, our current oil shortage is a serious problem.

That’s why Central Coast moviegoers should check out two upcoming screenings of documentaries that focus on “the oil issue.”

“Megadisasters: Oil Apocalypse,” which screens Friday, looks at the potential crisis facing the world when we run out of oil — and the solutions that could save us.

With the History Channel documentary, organizers will also screen an animated short film, “Post Oil Man.”

The screening, sponsored by HopeDance magazine, will be followed by a discussion with local activist Zachary Stowasser, professional musician Cindy Dixon, environmentalist Jim Cole and HopeDance publisher Bob Banner.

See “Oil Apocalypse” at 7 p.m. Friday at the San Luis Obispo library, 995 Palm St. in San Luis Obispo. A $5 donation is suggested.

On Tuesday, May 6, the documentary “GasHole” examines the history of oil and the future of alternative fuels.
Narrated by Peter Gallagher (he of the enormous eyebrows), “GasHole” features interviews with U.S. Department of Energy officials, congressional leaders, users and producers of alternative fuels, and others.

Filmmakers Scott Roberts and Jeremy Wagener will be present at two screenings to answer questions.

Watch “GasHole” on Tuesday at the Palm Theatre at 817 Palm St., San Luis Obispo’s first-and-only solar-powered movie theater. The movie screens at 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.

Tickets are $7.50, $5 for kids and seniors. (Tuesdays are also “KCPR Night,” so mention the Cal Poly radio station or wear a KCPR T-shirt and you’ll get a buck off.)

Features writing is a funny business.

In the course of writing one article, we often stumble upon another. We find ourselves zooming off on tangents, wildly and without warning.

That’s why, in the midst of a story about movie theaters, I found myself at Arroyo Grande’s Fair Oaks Theatre — watching a screening of “Nim’s Island.”*

Based on the children’s book by Wendy Orr and Kerry Millard, “Nim’s Island” takes its title from the tropical paradise inhabited by a scientist and his spunky, self-reliant daughter named, improbably, Nim.**

For Nim and her father (Gerard Butler), the island is a lush safe haven. They live off the land, stay in touch via Internet and radio, and once a month, motor out to a waiting ship for supplies.

It’s an isolated life, but Nim (Abigail Breslin) doesn’t seem to mind. She’s too busy playing with her best friends — a lizard, a pelican and a sea lion, natch — and reading about world-famous adventurer Alex Rover (Butler again, letting his true Scottish brogue roar).

The little girl longs to be fearless like her hero. “The thing about courage is that it’s not something we’re born with,” her dad tells her. in a heavy moment of foreshadowing. “It’s in each and every choice we make, each and every day.”

Naturally, Nim’s chance to prove her mettle isn’t far off.

Dad fails to return from an ocean research trip, leaving Nim facing a fierce storm and an invading army of Australian tourists. Frightened and injured, she calls on her favorite hero — Alex Rover — for help.

There’s only one problem: Alex Rover is imaginary, the invention of a germ-phobic, anxiety-prone author (Jodie Foster) who hasn’t left her San Francisco apartment in months.

At its best, “Nim’s Island” is sweet and sparkly, a cute re-telling of “Swiss Family Robinson” with one girl instead four rowdy boys.

The title island looks impossibly lovely, thanks to the work of Santa Maria special effects firm CafeFX and others. And there’s no shortage of computer-animated wonders: anthropomorphic critters, smoking volcanoes and a charming, storybook introduction.

Unfortunately, “Nim’s Island” starts faltering once the outside world starts creeping into paradise.

As Nim sets traps to ward off Australian tourists led by an evil cruise ship crew, the movie comes across as a cheesy blend of”Robinson Crusoe” and “Home Alone.”

Other plot twists seem improbable even for a fanciful children’s movie.

The movie is saved, ultimately, by the wholesome appeal of its stars — especially Breslin, who’s come a long way since “Little Miss Sunshine.”

Gerard Butler is also charming here, both as a caring dad and a dashing adventurer. And Foster, when she’s not kvetching to the heavens, could be channeling a ’90s Meg Ryan — all nervous giggles and sideways grins.

Most of the time, like this movie, it works.

* Photo courtesy of MovieWeb.com.

** Mom’s out of the picture, although the fairytale narration makes it difficult to tell whether she’s dead, missing or literally swallowed by a whale.

Ah, spring. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and spring cleaning is upon us.

While emptying the recycling bins here at Movies HQ, I found a few movie-related tidbits.

HopeDance magazine offers two more movies this month in its HopeDance FiLMs series.

First up is “Everything’s Cool”, a look at the history of global warming.
Filmmakers Daniel B. Gold and Judith Helfand examine the movement from the viewpoints of scientists, activists and politicians. Hear interviews with Bill McKibben, Ross Gelbspan and others.

“Everything’s Cool” will be screened at 7 p.m. Monday at the San Luis Obispo library, in San Luis Obispo. A $5 donation is encouraged.

On Wednesday, the film series takes a look at health care with “Cuba: An Accidental Revolution.”

The documentary, narrated by scientist/environmentalist David Suzuki, looks at the island nation’s surprisingly strong health care system.

It’s paired with the PBS documentary “Critical Care,” about U.S. health care.

Moviegoers are encouraged to donate $5 to $10.

“Cuba: An Accidental Revolution” and “Critical Care” play at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the San Luis Obispo library.

More information about both films is available at www.hopedance.org.

***

The Palm Theatre in San Luis Obispo kicks off its new movie series on Wednesday with “Trainspotting.”

Palm Wednesdays will offer a different flick each Wednesday. The emphasis here is on cult classics: quirky comedies, action flicks and thrillers with a strong following among Generations X and Y.

Few movies fall into that category better than “Trainspotting,” Danny Boyles’ darkly comic look at the Edinburgh drug scene. It’s smart, slick and frequently pretty damn unsavory.

“Trainspotting” will screen at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Palm Theatre, 817 Palm St. in San Luis Obispo.

Tickets are $7.50. You can also snag a six-movie pass for $35 — provided you buy it before Wednesday.

The series continues May 7 with the big-wave surfing documentary “Billabong Odyssey.” Check out the full list at www.thepalmtheatre.com.

***

The San Luis Obispo International Film Festival drew more than 7,500 moviegoers, organizers said this week, the “best ever” in the festival’s 14-year history.

About 12 percent came from outside the county, said Wendy Eidson, the film festival’s executive director.

Top events at the film festival, which ran March 7 to 16, included a train-themed opening night, an awards ceremony honoring “Easy Rider” star Peter Fonda and Surf Night, featuring a tribute to pioneer surf filmmaker Bud Browne.

This year, festival organizers introduced Western Night and the Hollywood and Vines series, which pairs movies with local wineries. They also added venues in Santa Margarita, Paso Robles and Shell Beach.

For more information, visit www.slofilmfest.org.

Among the advantages of being a stone’s throw away from Santa Barbara has to be the celebrity sightings.

Although San Luis Obispo County has had its share of famous residents — director King Vidor, game show guru Alex Trebek, president’s son Steve Ford — Santa Barbara is a haven for Hollywood types.

Oprah Winfrey, Steve Martin, Kenny Loggins and Jeff Bridges all call the Gold Coast home. Comedian extraordinaire John Cleese owns a ranch there.

Luckily for us, Cleese seems perfectly happy to show his famous face in public.

He appears May 15 at UC Santa Barbara’s Campbell Hall for “An Evening with John Cleese.”

The event, a benefit for the university’s Arts and Lectures movie series, will feature a screening of that 1975 comedy classic “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”

Cleese will introduce the movie and, afterward, answer questions about “Holy Grail” and his enormous body of work (”Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” “Fawlty Towers,” “A Fish Called Wanda,” etc., etc.).

Tickets are $20, or $10 for UCSB students.

For more information, call (805) 805 893- 3535 or visit https://artsandlectures.sa.ucsb.edu/index.aspx.

I’m a big proponent of gender equality on film.

Yet, while most cinematic chicks drop top and trou at the slightest suggestion, male stars take a lot longer to get out of their skivvies. (The exception being shirtless wonder Matthew McConaughey.)

That’s why I was recently gratified to see two sterling examples of male nudity on the silver screen  — with nary a female nipple or derriere in sight.

In “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” mock rocker Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly) holds an entire phone conversation with an extra’s … ahem … member in plain sight.

Wide-angle shots of star Jason Segel’s nude torso — both front and back — bookend “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”

It’s done for comic effect, obviously, but the result is two-fold.

At first, we get a guilty, gross-out pleasure from the sight of Segel in his birthday suit. By the end of the movie, when Segel is embracing his fully clothed co-star (Mila Kunis), his nudity seems downright blasé.

Both of these examples come to us from producer Judd Apatow and pals. That’s right — the same guys that brought you a pale, slightly bloated Will Ferrell in his tighty-whities.

Apatow’s message is clear: For men, nudity means vulnerability. It means comedy.

Amd while we might giggle at Kathy Bates in a hot tub (”About Schmidt”) or Eddie Murphy in a female fat suit (”Norbit”), few women on film get laughs when they slip off their sundresses.

It sounds more like a wistful sigh.