Maui Film Festival resumes its 11th season of FirstLight screenings Wednesday in Castle Theater at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. The screenings, featuring most of the year's likely contenders for Academy Awards, Golden Globes and other year-end film prizes, continues for 11 afternoons and evenings through Jan. 2.
Below are Wednesday's films. Maui Scene will run weekly listings of FirstLight presentations through January. Dates and times for FirstLight screenings also appear in Scene's regular listings, at right. For more information, visit the festival's Web site: www.mauifilmfestival.com.
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Apparition photo
Emily Blunt stars as the ruler to be.
"A Serious Man" R, 1:45, 5 p.m. Wednesday.
The cynical, brilliant, Oscar-winning Coen brothers are back with this serious comedy. Delving into their own Jewish Minnesota roots, it recasts the Book of Job as a contemporary tale of a physics professor (Michael Stuhlbarg) whose efforts to live a moral life and do the right thing keep running into random acts of destruction. The point is that the universe is chaotic, providing insurmountable challenges in which concepts of justice and karma are irrelevant.
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"The Young Victoria" PG, 1:40, 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Emily Blunt plays the successor to the English throne at age 18 in this sumptuous costume drama co-starring Rupert Friend as Prince Albert with Paul Bettany, Miranda Richardson and Jim Broadbent. Jean-Marc Vale directs from Julian Fellowes' screenplay, which mixes the political intrigues of court with the romantic emotions and the early signs of strong resolve in the future queen.
