![_The Preservation, The Dalles and SuperLiteBike at Beauty Ballroom [Show Preview]](http://austinist.com/assets_c/2012/05/the preservation-thumb-250x250-716401.jpg)
New Movies This Week: The Atheism That Isn't, Plus The Clash and Scalpels
The Golden Compass: At last, the adaptation of the wonderful, sublime, transcendent Philip Pullman books hits the screen. Nicole Kidman is the icy antiheroine, Daniel Craig is the father figure, and a child actress named Dakota (but not the one from "War of the Worlds") plays the plucky twelve year old centerpiece. Fantasy journeys fraught with danger ensue. We hear that a lot of the interesting philosophical content of the books got pruned by controversy and the weak-knee-edness of Hollywood, but we'll still go see it, if only for the sake of Iorek.
Darfur Now: Documentary about the terrifying/shaming situation in the Sudan, produced by Don Cheadle. Hopefully this one can get some eyes on Darfur, preferably eyes which are attached to heads which are attached to bodies of politicians who can actually do something about the suffering there...
Awake: Hayden Christensen (the young Darth Vader, but no blaming him for that) is a rich guy getting a heart transplant, who has that horrifying thing happen to him where you go under anesthesia and are aware of everything but so paralyzed that you can't alert the docs to your presence. If the very concept gives you the skeeves, skip it. That's the way we felt about "Bug", and we're still happy not to have seen that one.
Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten: Doc about the Clash frontman, with attention to all of his various post-Clash activities and enterprises. Apparently, a film which transcends VH1 cliche.
Poultrygeist: Night of the Living Dead: You can read way more about it by checking out the A'ist interview here, but for now: this is a Troma movie which brings the Troma touch to the sickening story of "Fast Food Nation". We were traumatized by "Nuke 'Em High" in middle school (does anybody else still have that giant boner seared into their eyeballs?), but we think we're old enough now to take on Kaufman's chicken zombies.
What Would Jesus Buy?: Documentary about Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping, a fantastic cultural phenom. Rev. Billy goes around to malls and tries to get shoppers to reconsider their addiction to materialism (a tough sell in the Christmas season).
