Weekend Forecast: 12/7/07

Keira Knigtley in Joe Wright’s Atonement

Apparently, the studios want to give you every chance to go see the NBR Best Picture winning film No Country For Old Men because there is only one new wide release for the week:

• The Golden Compass. This fantasy is based on the first novel in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. You’ve got your young girl, your parallel universes, your forces of darkness and your armored bears. Dakota Blue Richards, Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman star. There’s always room for good fantasy. Let’s hope that’s what this is.

And the limited releases:

• Atonement (Expands 12/14, 12/21 and 1/4). Sure to be dismissed as another English Patient by people who don’t go for literate British romantic dramas, but I think that’s selling this one a bit short. Yes, it’s the story of two lovers (Keira Knightley and James McAvoy) torn apart by WWII, but there are layers of complexity to this beautiful film that don’t sneak up on you until afterwards. Of course if Atonement robs No Country for Old Men at the Oscars like The English Patient did to Fargo, I may be singing a different tune.
• Juno (opened Wed. 12/5). I’ve said all I have to say about this one. It’s completely out of my hands now. You can decide for yourself.
• Grace is Gone. John Cusack loses his wife in the Iraq war and is forced to raise his two young daughters alone. The trailer I saw a couple of months back didn’t inspire confidence, but the movie got a good reception at Sundance. I’ll forgive a lot for a good, moving John Cusack performance.
• The Amateurs. Originally released in the UK as The Moguls in 2005, this comedy was supposed to open in the US last year. Here it is finally. Jeff Bridges decides to get into the porn producing business in an effort to get rich quick and impress his ex-wife. Also with Tim Blake Nelson, Patrick Fugit and Joe Pantoliano. I like the cast, but if this was really any good, would it have kicked around so long?
• Billy the Kid (opened Wed. 12/5 in NY). Winner of the documentary prize at the 2007 LA Film Festival. Jennifer Venditti tells the story of a troubled 15-year-old who resists his categorization as a special needs student.
• Dirty Laundry. Indie comedy about a gay African American man who returns home to a small town in Georgia to discover that he has an estranged son.
• Revolver. New crime story from Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) starring Jason Statham, Ray Liotta Vincent Pastore and André Benjamin. At least Madonna isn’t in it.
• The Singing Revolution. Documentary about the Estonian revolution. For 5 years beginning in 1986, hundreds of thousands of citizens gathered in public places in order to sing banned patriotic songs as a form of non-violent protest against the Soviet Union. Estonia would become one of the first countries to break free as the Iron Curtain began to fall.
• Strength and Honor. Michael Madsen is a boxer who promises his dying wife that he’ll never fight again. But when he needs to raise money to pay for his son’s life saving surgery… Let’s just say if you were to write a comedy sketch featuring Hollywood slime balls pitching tired story ideas to receptive studio mopes, this would be a good one.
• The Walker. The new Paul Schrader film starring… Yeah. Nope. Still don’t care.

Filed under: Upcoming