MARLEY  (144  PG-13)
Showtimes: 9:00 + Sat./Sun./Mon. 4:05

Bob Marley's universal appeal, impact on music history and role as a social and political prophet is both unique and unparalleled. MARLEY is the definitive life story of the musician, revolutionary, and legend, from his early days to his rise to international superstardom. Made with the support of the Marley family, the film features rare footage, incredible performances and revelatory interviews with the people that knew him best.

FOOTNOTE  (103  PG)
Showtimes: 7:20 + Sat./Sun. 2:20


Joseph Cedar's outstanding Israeli drama, one of this year's Foreign Language Oscar nominees, pores with gentle intensity over Old Testament-size conflicts between an elderly father and his grown son. Both are scholars in the arcane field of Talmudic studies. Both are rich with the human flaws of pride and envy. Exquisitely assembled, with a pointedly grand musical score to emphasize the titanic (and at times hilarious) nature of filial duty, Footnote is itself a perfect little piece of Talmud, full of text, commentary, and colorful argument. A (Lisa Schwarzbaum, EW)

MONSIEUR LAZHAR  (94  PG-13)
Showtimes: 7:15 + Sat./Sun. 2:15

"At the start of a bright, sunny day that seems otherwise like any other day, a popular teacher is found dead in her classroom. It was suicide. The school is traumatized, especially that teacher's students. By the next day, the principal is at her wits' end trying to find someone willing to take the class. So when Bachir Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag) offers to teach, it comes at just the right moment.
As Lazhar tells his Montreal middle school class, his name means "bearer of good news." Lazhar is a 50-something Algerian immigrant with a neatly trimmed goatee, 19 years of teaching experience, and some tragedies of his own that he doesn't want to talk about. Lazhar also comes with some rather old-fashioned ideas about the classroom — he wants all the desks in straight rows, for instance, which inspires much pushing and scraping. His status as a dinosaur is cemented when he uses a passage from Balzac to test the writing ability of his 11-year-olds. When the vocabulary is a bit beyond them, he has to do some explaining. 'A chrysalis,' he tells them, 'is that stage between caterpillar and butterfly, when the insect is in a fragile cocoon, preparing to spread its wings and fly ... like you.' Their new teacher has gotten it exactly right — the school is a protective cocoon. Or at least it should be. The kids have faced so public and immediate a tragedy that someone needs to get the kids back to spreading their wings, and Lazhar is the man to do it. How he does it and what it costs him is the heart of Philippe Falardeau's enormously engaging movie, which centers on the difference between Lazhar's approach to grieving (born of his own suffering in Algeria), and that of the school, where everyone avoids talking about what happened, and teachers aren't allowed to make physical contact with students who seem desperate for a hug.
Fellag, a comedian and himself an exile from Algeria, makes Lazhar both a sensitive and an amusing figure. And the kids are just terrific, especially Emilien Neron as a boy who carries the guilt of the whole school on his shoulders. It's easy to imagine MONSIEUR LAZHAR becoming pat and sentimental in the wrong hands — full of teaching moments about immigration and grief and building bridges. But thankfully, the filmmakers are clear-eyed, and so is their lovely, provocative movie." (Bob Mondello, NPR)

BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, THE  (124  PG-13)
Showtimes: 6:45 / 7:00 / 9:10 / 9:20 + Sat./Sun. 2:00 / 2:10 / 4:25 / 4:35
Mon. 4:25 / 4:35

Starring Judy Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson
Directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love)

FIRST POSITION  (90)
Showtimes: 7:10 / 9:15 + Sat./Sun. 2:25 / 4:10
Mon. 4:10

A documentary that follows six young dancers from around the world as they prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix, one of the most prestigious ballet competitions in the world.

JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME  (83  R)
Showtimes: 9:35 + Sat./Sun./Mon. 4:35

On his way to the store to buy wood glue, Jeff looks for signs from the universe to determine his path. However, a series of comedic and unexpected events leads him to cross paths with his family in the strangest of locations and circumstances. Jeff just may find the meaning of his life...and if he's lucky, pick up the wood glue as well.
"Jeff" takes place over the course of a few hours that become crucial in the lives of four people. Jeff is unemployed and depressed, but good-natured and in search of something meaningful in life. His older brother, Pat (Ed Helms), is his opposite. He is angry and emotionally unaware, and his marriage - to Linda (Judy Greer) - is near collapse. Meanwhile, Jeff and Pat's mother (Susan Sarandon) is in a kind of late-middle-age malaise, feeling as if her life is almost over and nothing much has happened. Now, notice this, because it's a big deal: Every character in the movie is suffering from an interior problem, not a problem in the external world that can be taken on and solved through action. That means that their problems are hard to depict. Give these four characters to any other filmmaker, and you would get back an earnest but very boring movie.
But the Duplass brothers find ways to activate these characters. They find ways - believable ways - to throw them into active situations. Through these situations, the characters don't directly confront their problems, yet it's through a series of actions that changes come. It's a brilliant sleight of hand: Nothing important seems to be happening, and yet stuff keeps happening, and the movie is always pushing forward. "Jeff, Who Lives at Home" contains more in 83 minutes than most 2 1/2-hour movies." (Mick LaSalle, SF Chronicle)