Losers and winners

FILM
Redbelt
David Mamet’s Redbelt assembles all the elements for a great Mamet film, but they’re still spread out on the shop floor.  It never really pulls itself together into the convincing, focused drama it promises, yet it kept me involved right up until the final scenes, which piled on developments almost recklessly.  So gifted is Mamet as a writer and director that he can fascinate us even when he’s pulling rabbits out of an empty hat.

The movie takes place in that pungent Mamet world of seamy streets on the wrong side of town, and is peopled by rogues and con men, trick artists and thieves, those who believe and those who prey on them.  The cast is assembled from his stock company of actors whose very presence helps embody the atmosphere of a Mamet story, and who are almost always not what they seem, and then not even what they seem after that.  He is fascinated by the deceptions of one confidence game assembled inside another. Rated R for strong language. Three stars. — Roger Ebert
[Century Olympia: 11:55 a.m., 2:30, 5:05, 7:30, 9:55; Lakewood Cinema 15: 11:50 a.m., 2:30, 5:20, 7:40, 10:10; Lakewood Towne Center 12: 5:10, 7:30, 9:50; Longston Place 14: 1:05, 3:35, 7:05, 9:40; Regal Martin Village 16: 11:20 a.m., 1:55, 4:35, 7:35, 10:05]

EVENT
City of Destiny Awards
Tacoma’s lanky but loveable Mayor Bill Baarsma will honor winners of the 22nd annual City of Destiny Awards at Jason Lee Middle School tonight. Baarsma will be joined by the entire Tacoma City Council, and, of course, the winners of the 22nd annual City of Destiny Awards.  Though the recipients of the 22nd annual City of Destiny Awards have already been announced and even posted on the Weekly Volcano’s blog Spew, we’d like to pretend there’s still some uncertainty. It just makes things more fun. Maybe, instead of all the deserving winners we’ve already heard about, the awards will go something like they did the first year of the City of Destiny Awards, 1986: Winner for best volunteer acid wash — Pappi Swarner. Winner for best volunteer feathered hair — Suzy Stump. Winner for best volunteer IROC-Z burnout — Brad Allen. Winner for best volunteer Adam Ant impersonation — John Herbert.  We can only hope. 1986 was ace. Or at least it was for future employees of the Weekly Volcano. — Matt Driscoll
[Jason Lee Middle School, 7 p.m., free, 602 N. Sprague Ave., Tacoma]

LINK: Jazz Combo and others in the clubs tonight.
LINK: Let’s eat American today.