Weekend Forecast: Out of the wide release loop

I have to concede I’m just not the target audience for any of the wide releases this weekend. Nevertheless, I can’t wait to see Werner Herzog’s batshit crazy looking Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans opening in New York and LA. Also, if you live in Los Angeles, Hal Holbrook, Dixie Carter, Carrie Preston and writer/director Scott Teems will participate in a Q&A following the 7:15pm showing of That Evening Sun at Laemmle’s Royal on Santa Monica Boulevard. Stay tuned for LiC interviews with Mr. Holbrook and Mr. Teems. Also recommended if you live in New York: John Woo’s Red Cliff.

Opening in wide release:

• The Blind Side. The by-the-numbers trailer for this inspirational, torn-from-real-life feelgooder about a plucky southern mom (Sandra Bullock) who rescues a poor black kid from the streets so he can fulfill his human potential playing football while teaching her comfy white family a thing or two about themselves would be laughable if it didn’t make me want to do bad things to innocent people. To be fair, this kind of better-living-through-sports crap can work when it’s delivered with just the right touch. It’s not my cup of tea, but it could be just the thing to pull your mom away from Dancing With the Stars. Enjoy!

• The Twilight Saga: New Moon. I’m glad Twilight exists because it holds a feminine mirror up to fanboy behavior and it makes the fanboys very twitchy. Otherwise, my only connection to this material is that Forks, Washington is the closest bit of civilization to one of the spots where my family used to go camping every summer. Other than that, I’ve got nothing. This one has werewolves.
• Planet 51. An alien lands in a suburban neighborhood. The joke is that it’s another planet and the alien is a human astronaut. Get it? Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Biel, Gary Oldman, Seann William Scott, John Cleese and Justin (iAsshat) Long provide the voices for this animated family entertainment.

Expanding this weekend:

• Fantastic Mr. Fox. Fantastic is a good word for it. Wes Anderson’s animated delight is supposedly getting a small expansion before opening wide for Thanksgiving. I don’t know if that’s accurate, but it’s a movie worth re-mentioning. Recommended.
• Precious. As far as movies about poor, large black people go, I predict white audiences will have an easier time of things with Sandra Bullock around to hold their hands, but then I’ve already underestimated the appeal of Precious twice. Will the third time be a charm as it goes wide?

Opening in limited release:

• Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Forget about talk of a sequel or a remake. The only thing this has in common with Abel Ferrara’s original film is the title. This is Werner Herzog going crazy with Nicolas Cage. Eva Mendes and Val Kilmer are along for the ride. Sign me up.
• Defamation. Yoav Shamir takes a documentary look at the nature of anti-Semitism today. Is it still dangerous or is it just a scare tactic?
• Mammoth. Swedish director Lukas Moodysson (Together, Lilya 4-Ever) makes his English language debut with Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams as a successful New York couple whose daughter is essentially being raised by their Filipino nanny. A trip to Thailand apparently sets off a Babel-like chain reaction of drama. Wait. What?

Opening in New York:

• Red Cliff (LA 11/25). John Woo returns to China where he reunites with Hard Boiled star Tony Leung for this, the most expensive Asian financed movie ever made. The result is an altogether entertaining historical epic that originally ran in two parts totaling 5 hours but has been trimmed back to 2 hours and 30 minutes for Western audiences. Don’t be alarmed. Woo apparently designed the film to be cut in this way and it completely works. I haven’t seen the longer cut to know what’s missing (I’m sure it’s a richer, more deliberate and layered affair), but the US version works like gangbusters. The fiery 25-minute final battle is worth the price of admission all by itself. The sheer scale of the film (set in the 3rd century AD and based on historical conflicts between North and South) is such that it tends to temper some of Woo’s more operatic flourishes – the kind that never quite found their place in his Hollywood films. You can decide for yourself whether that’s good or not. I think it is. Computer effects are judiciously used to ramp up the film’s scope, but they’re never a distraction. Red Cliff is a bit corny and simplistic at times with too much Sun Tzu type philosophizing, but it delivers the kind of epic period action goods that Ridley Scott only wishes he were capable of. You can keep Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven, I’ll take Red Cliff. Also, yes there are doves. Takeshi Kaneshiro (Chungking Express, Hero, House of Flying Daggers) co-stars. Recommended.
• Broken Embraces (LA 12/11). There are a handful of directors whose projects I’m automatically on board and I make every effort to stay in the dark about them. Pedro Almodovar is one of those. I’ve twice missed local screenings of Broken Embraces and the next one isn’t until a bit before its LA open so there’s nothing I can tell you about it other than the fact Penelope Cruz is in it. You can read the official plot summary recycled here if you’d like. Just keep your trap shut about it, would you?
• Fix. Two documentary filmmakers must raise $5000 on their way from Beverly Hills to Watts (and every economic stratum in between) in order to get their brother into rehab and keep him out of prison. Plenty of room for indie flavored LA-centric drama and humor. Whether it delivers or not remains to be seen.
• The Missing Person. Modern indie noir with Michael Shannon as a detective hired to return a man presumed dead back to his life in New York. Next stop: DVD.
• The Sun. Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark, Alexandra) dramatizes the life of Japanese Emperor Hirohito in the final days of World War II. The arthouse crowd goes crazy for this guy.

Opening in Los Angeles:

• That Evening Sun. Hal Holbrook gives an Oscar worthy turn as an old man clinging to his family farm and Ray McKinnon is his equal as the man  trying to take it away from him. Recommended. See note above about post-screening Q&As on Friday.

In high school when I was at the height of my snotty sarcasm, Dead Kennedys seemed brilliant and funny. They seem pretty childish now that I’m older, but when I’m in a bad mood they still manage to put a little sarcastic sneer on my face. Behold: Terminal Preppie.

Filed under: Weekend Forecast