Dollar Movie

No movie — but don’t worry, soon you’ll be able to fill these Wednesday-night voids with the movies you can rent from iTunes. On your MacBook Air. By the way, I think that sounds more like a sneaker than a laptop.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters Thursday, January 24 8 10 12

Who knew that an arcade game could make boys into men? This documentary follows two men as they score 874,300 points and then 1,000,000 points, each time breaking a world record — and, of course, discovering and rediscovering themselves along the way. The documentary follows fans of the popular ’80s arcade game and tugs at the heart strings as well. Perfect for the nerd inside you, and that nerd’s girlfriend.

The Darjeeling Limited Friday, January 25 8 10 12

Unmistakably Anderson-ian (as in, Wes): beautiful colors, awkward characters, and a confusing and perhaps deceptively profound storyline. Three brothers reunite on a train in India in an attempt to deal with the loss of their father and find out what kind of family they can be. They learn a bunch of things along the way about death and themselves, blah blah blah. I liked the movie, and I think most people with siblings, and most Wes Anderson fans, will like it. As for the actors: Bill Murray only makes a cameo appearance, and this movie made me like Adrien Brody and hate Natalie Portman all over again.

The Kingdom Saturday, January 26 8 10 12

The Kingdom is probably better than you expect it to be. It’s hard to make a movie about timely and relevant matters seem... not trite, especially when they star Jamie Foxx. The movie’s initial storyline plays on popular American fears about terrorism in the Middle East, but offers a different (if not entirely fresh) conclusion. Plus, stuff still gets blown up. And, for those of you who miss Jennifer Garner’s Alias days, you get to see her kick some ass.

Tron Sunday, January 27 8 10 12

Tron is a nerdy cult-classic that’s made its way into the pop culture dialogue (i.e., they talk about it in The Simpsons and Family Guy). The tagline for this movie is, “The electronic gladiator.” I think that’s illustrative enough, but I’ll continue anyway. This movie broke ground in the ’80s with a character who gets molecularized and sucked into a computer world. He can only be saved by a security program. Too bad Norton and McAfee weren’t around then.