Must-see movies at the 2008 Atlanta Film Fest

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Must-see movies at the 2008 Atlanta Film Fest

AJC critic picks his favorites from a roster of 160.

THERE ARE TOO MANY movies in the 32nd annual Atlanta Film Festival to see in the next nine days (some 160 films, in fact). Here are 20 you should not miss. All screen at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema. PICTURED: "YOUNG@HEART." Dare not to smile during this documentary about a chorus of energetic seniors who belt out songs by Sonic Youth, Coldplay, The Clash and more. The film can make an audience giddily happy and still profoundly sad during the off-stage realities of old age. 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

"AT THE DEATH HOUSE DOOR." Co-directors Peter Gilbert and Steven James dig deep in this compelling documentary into Texas prison executions, focusing on the former death house chaplain (Rev. Carroll Pickett, above) in Huntsville who dealt with 95 "dead men walking" and an executed convict who some believe was innocent. 5:15 p.m. Saturday and 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

"PRICELESS." An endearing, French romantic comedy with the knockout Audrey Tautou (right) and a game -- and smitten -- Gad Elmaleh in a light, cat-and-mouse game of gold-digging and seduction. In French with subtitles. Noon April 19.

"AMERICAN TEEN." If TV's drama-heavy "The Hills" is a documentary, then so is this eye-opening exploration of modern high school life in an Indiana town with catty, popular girls, jocks and outright nerds. Clearly, their problems mirror the age-old perpetual anxieties of navigating high school (pictured, student Megan Krizmanich). 7:30 Friday.

"TEAM PICTURE." This cinematic tone poem of a Memphis 20-something's (Andrew Nenninger, left) blithe existence hardly has a plot, but its intentional awkwardness says volumes about the difficult path one must take from childhood to adulthood. 7:10 p.m. Wednesday.

"THE BIG QUESTION." A sometimes fascinating documentary on forgiveness and its meaning to those able to look beyond revenge in the face of murder, assault and tragedy. Among those interviewed is Rev. Joseph Lowery (above), who talks about the power of Martin Luther King Jr. 7:15 Friday and 12:45 p.m. Monday.

"SATURN IN OPPOSITION." This Italian drama involves a group of friends dealing with unexpected illness and a string of revealed secrets. In Italian with subtitles. Part of the fest's Out on Film Spotlight Section. 9:20 p.m. Tuesday.

"COYOTE." An ambitious illegal-immigration drama about two men who become "kinder, gentler" human traffickers on the U.S.-Mexican border and are eventually pursued by the law and cutthroat adversaries. 6 p.m. Sunday and 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

"DANCE OF THE DEAD." Former Atlanta filmmaker Gregg Bishop's often funny, certainly bloody and intentionally over-the-top prom-night zombie movie (with Jared Kusnitz, left, and Greyson Chadwick) was shot in Rome, Ga. The film's coolest moment: zombies don't just rise from the grave, they're catapulted out in full stride. 10 Friday and 2:45 p.m. April 19.

"JUMP!" Helen Hood Scheer's film follows several U.S. teams to regional, national and world jump-roping contests and displays some astonishing tricks. 5:30 p.m. Saturday and 4:45 p.m. Monday.

"SPINE TINGLER! THE WILLIAM CASTLE STORY." Illusion-O. Percepto. These were the visual gimmicks from 1950s and early 1960s horror kitschmeister William Castle (above) and explored thoroughly in this new, entertaining documentary. 3 p.m. Sunday and 9:45 p.m. April 17.

"THE PROJECT." Though the film gets caught up in an overflow of characters and ideas, this drama starring Michael Stahl-David (above) about filmmakers following inner-city youth and two Brooklyn cops has unexpected verve and some searing performances. 8:30 p.m. Sunday and 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"ON A WING AND A PRAYER." A post-9/11 documentary that follows a Pakistani Muslim, living in America with his family, who wants to learn how to fly. Enter the FBI, of course. But Monem Salam (above) gets his wish and we get an enjoyable look at a man fulfilling a dream. 7:15 p.m. April 17.

"WHERE THE WATER MEETS THE SKY." Formerly titled "Voices of Samfya," this documentary looks at Zambian villagers who are given digital cameras to develop a film about a teenage AIDS orphan that's eventually screened before thousands of their countrymen. 9:25 p.m. Wednesday and 12:30 p.m. April 17.

"SON OF RAMBOW." This British comedy features endearing youth (Bill Milner and Will Poulter, above), especially a small boy inspired after seeing Sylvester Stallone's "First Blood," to make his own mind-blowing sequel with a bully-turned-friend and a visiting French student. 7 p.m. April 18.

"MONSTER CAMP." The geek inherit not the whole Earth but, in effect, a state park in this often amusing documentary about devoted nerds in the Northwest who absorb themselves in medieval dress-up fantasy games of monsters, warriors, vampires, lords and villains. 9:40 p.m. Wednesday.

"'BAMA GIRL." An African-American woman wants to be homecoming queen at the University of Alabama. But she's not the white sorority girl chosen to win by a closed group of all-white fraternities at the school. Rachel Goslins' documentary follows Jessica Thomas (above) on her quest to turn the tide against tradition at Alabama. 7:15 p.m. Wednesday.

"HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT." Nearly wordless, director Mark Street's documentary combines visual vignettes from Santiago, Chile; Hanoi, Vietnam; Dakar, Senegal; and Marseille, France, drawing some connections from street life in very different places. 2:45 p.m. Sunday and 5 p.m. Monday.

"THE CAKE EATERS." Oscar nominee Bruce Dern plays the father of two sons still reeling from the death of their mother. One, named Beagle (Aaron Stanford, left), reaches out to a girl with a terminal illness (Kristen Stewart, right). This drama contains secrets, twists and an evocative look at small-town life. 7 Friday and 2:30 p.m. Monday.

"THE VISITOR." The festival's closing-night film explores life-altering relationships born when a closed-minded, tired and uninspired Connecticut college professor (Richard Jenkins, left) discovers illegal immigrants living in his New York apartment. 7:30 p.m. April 19.

1/20

THERE ARE TOO MANY movies in the 32nd annual Atlanta Film Festival to see in the next nine days (some 160 films, in fact). Here are 20 you should not miss. All screen at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema. PICTURED: "YOUNG@HEART." Dare not to smile during this documentary about a chorus of energetic seniors who belt out songs by Sonic Youth, Coldplay, The Clash and more. The film can make an audience giddily happy and still profoundly sad during the off-stage realities of old age. 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

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