As always, all ratings are out of 5 stars.
^The Bounty Hunter.
Gerard Butler (300) is carving out quite a niche for himself in crappy romantic comedies (The Ugly Truth) and crappy action movies (Gamer). The movies aren’t his fault, but the dude needs to find a new agent. He’s almost to the point where his name on the poster is a strike against the film in question. Here he’s roped to the similarly low-wattage and recently career challenged Jennifer Aniston who once showed promise in indie films like The Good Girl and Friends With Money but who increasingly seems to be Plan B for shitty movies that couldn’t land Katherine Heigl. The pair star as a bounty hunter and his bail-skipping ex-wife. Pulling her in proves hard enough, but when she runs afoul of murderers, they both wind up running for their lives. It’s the kind of screwball set up that Grant and Russell or Gable and Colbert might’ve excelled at. Unfortunately, these two don’t have a fraction of the charm.
Opened: (3/19/10) Trailer / Showtimes
^Diary of a Wimpy Kid.The first of Jeff Kinney’s series of best-selling novels about the trials and tribulations of middle school gets the disposable family film treatment. I’m looking for an angle that might make this appealing to anyone who isn’t 11 years old. “From the director of Hotel for Dogs!” Did that do it? No? Ok, well Steve Zahn’s in it. That’s the best I can do.
Opened: (3/19/10) Trailer / Showtimes
^Repo Men.It’s probably telling that the title of Eric Garcia’s novel The Repossession Mambo has been dumbed down to the more innocuous and less interesting Repo Men to appeal to wide swaths of unthinking stooges who’ll turn up to see anything that doesn’t confuse them. As always, we’re left to determine whether the movie itself has been similarly stupidified or if it’s just the marketing. Based on the hard R (for “strong bloody violence, grisly images, language and some sexuality/nudity”), I’m going to hold out hope for the latter. Jude Law and Forest Whitaker play repo men in a dystopian future where human organs can be replaced by mechanical copies. The catch is that these life-saving organs are very expensive and if you miss a payment, you’re liable to have monsieurs Law and Whitaker showing up at your doorstep to take the organ back the hard way. When Law is implanted with a mechanical heart of his own, he begins to have second thoughts about his chosen profession. Without his job, how will he ever pay for the heart and if he doesn’t, whom will they send to take it back?
Opened: (3/19/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Alice in Wonderland (**).Wincing pathetically as it does in the large shadow of the great Lewis Carroll, the biggest sin of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is not that it’s an impotent pretender to the original literary icon, but that it’s a faded looking glass reflection of what we used to love about Burton himself. The story of a 19-year-old Alice taking refuge from an unwanted engagement and simultaneously saving Wonderland from The Red Queen is paper thin, the talented cast including Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Mia Wasikowska, Crispin Glover and Alan Rickman is wasted, and the dreary production design (usually a Tim Burton highlight) is a disappointment. Johnny Depp tries mightily to add some zest to this somnambulant cinematic turd, but it’s too little too late. An interesting oportunity to show the genuine difficulties of a young girl becoming a woman are reduced to a vague, Avril Lavigne-sung anthem to girl power. Even at 1 hour and 49 minutes, it feels too long and whatever modest pleasures it offers quickly evaporate like the Cheshire Cat, leaving only the wilting realization you’ve been burned to leer back at you with a disembodied smile. See it in 2D or in 3D. Either way, it’s as flat and lifeless as a dormouse run over by a bandersnatch.
Opened: (3/5/10) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
Avatar (*** 1/2).James Cameron’s first film since Titanic tells the story of a crippled marine who is sent to a distant planet called Pandora to engage the natives in the interest of unburdening them of an ultra-valuable ore they happen to live on top of. Since the planet is hostile to human life (and to facilitate interactions with the natives), his consciousness is plugged into an avatar, a living being created from a genetic mix of his own DNA and that of the Na’vi – the 10-foot tall blue species who populate the planet. Of course his priorities are turned upside down when he falls in love with a Na’vi princess. For all the technological bells and whistles, for all the hundreds of millions of dollars spent and for all the years of hype, Cameron has created a world in Avatar that is surprisingly pedestrian. It’s not bad. It’s certainly not the disaster it could’ve been and it’s still worth seeing, but in the words of Miss Peggy Lee: is that all there is? Though the world of Pandora is lovingly rendered in beautiful, detailed three dimensions. It’s too bad the story and characters weren’t.
Opened: (12/18/09) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
The Blind Side (*** 1/2).This middle of the road feel-gooder is based on the true story of a wealthy white Memphis family who take in an orphaned black teenager and raise him up to become a football star. It’s manipulative, audience-pleasing schmaltz but it works thanks to an undeniably uplifting story arc and a spunky, Oscar-winning performance by Sandra Bullock. Tim McGraw, Ray McKinnon and Kathy Bates also star.
Opened: (11/20/09) Trailer / Showtimes
Brooklyn’s Finest.Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) spins this tale of three different New York cops – an undercover narcotics officer who wants out, a detective tempted by corruption because of his ailing wife and a burned out veteran nearing retirement – whose paths and fates cross one day at a Brooklyn housing project. It all sounds terribly familiar (Robert Wilonski quips that it’s “three movies in one, all of which you’ve seen before.”) and I’m not much of a fan of Fuqua’s other work, but the cast including Richard Gere, Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke offers a ray of hope. That’s the best spin I can put on it anyway. Brooklyn’s Finest premiered to mixed reviews at Sundance in 2009.
Opened: (3/5/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Cop Out.There’s some intentional irony to the bland new title of Kevin Smith’s cop/buddy comedy which he was forced to change from A Couple of Dicks. I have to say though, the marketing for Cop Out has been especially stupid – I saw a standee for the film featuring Seann William Scott that had the tagline “Doody calls” – and this is basically a paycheck gig for Smith being the first film he’s done that he didn’t also write. Still, the genre is ripe for mocking I suppose (even after the terrific Hot Fuzz) and Smith might be just the guy to do it. Maybe. Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan are the two diametrically opposed NYPD partners. The plot has something to do with a missing priceless baseball card. Adam Brody, Kevin Pollack, Jason Lee and the aforementioned Seann William Scott also star.
Opened: (2/26/10) Trailer / Showtimes
The Crazies (*** 1/2).Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood) and Radha Mitchell (Finding Neverland) are two of the four remaining normal people in a small town gripped by a plague of violent insanity. I don’t know about you but whenever my neighbors go batshit crazy and tearing each other up, I usually go on vacation. Unfortunately for Olyphant and Mitchell, the government has sealed the town off in order to prevent the mysterious phenomenon from spreading. Based on George Romero’s 1973 thriller of the same name, The Crazies doesn’t exactly break the horror mold, but the horror suspense sequences are imaginative and entertaining and the cast is very good. Could’ve been better with a little of Romero’s social subtext, but it’s still a fun ride.
Opened: (2/26/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Crazy Heart (** 1/2).Buoyed a bit by Jeff Bridges’ Oscar-winning turn as an alcoholic country music artist whose best days are behind him, Crazy Heart is nevertheless a flatfooted and predictable falling star story with a wholly unbelievable romance at its center. Maggie Gyllenhaal is a completely unlikely love interest and Colin Farrell is the least convincing country music star ever to hit the big screen. Meanwhile, Robert Duvall phones in a performance as a bar owner in case you didn’t catch the similarities to Tender Mercies. T. Bone Burnett makes some nice musical contributions, but Crazy Heart is otherwise almost instantly forgettable. If it finally gets Bridges a richly deserved Oscar, that’s great but it’ll be too bad it wasn’t for a better film.
Opened: (12/19/09) Trailer / Showtimes
The Ghost Writer (****).Roman Polanski adapts Robert Harris’s thriller about a writer (Ewan McGregor) hired to finish the memoir of a former Prime Minister (Pierce Brosnan) when the project’s original ghost writer turns up dead. Accusations that the PM was involved in war crimes lead McGregor to suspect his predecessor may have uncovered something that led to his murder. With sharp dialogue, well-timed humor and a great cast, The Ghost Writer strikes every note and hits every beat for a nearly flawless entertainment. If the underlying mystery isn’t quite as satisfying as its suspenseful unraveling, Ghost nevertheless delivers what it promises. Also with Kim Cattrall, Olivia Williams, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Hutton and Eli Wallach.
Opened: (2/19/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Green Zone (** 1/2).Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon have said they’re not going to make Bourne 4 but the marketing for Green Zone makes it look like they already have. They haven’t, but after watching their latest collaboration you might wish they had. Green Zone finds Matt Damon playing an Army inspector who discovers that the intelligence he’s receiving from the top does not match what he’s finding (or not finding) on the ground. The shaky-cam shit hits the hyper-edited fan when Damon begins to believe there is a cover up afoot. Greg Kinnear plays the government bad guy, Amy Ryan plays a thinly disguised version of gullible NY Times reporter Judith Miller and Brendan Gleeson is an old-school CIA guy who confirms Damon’s suspicions. It turns out Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s 2006 book Imperial Life in the Emerald City about the reconstruction of Iraq is just window dressing for some phony Hollywood conspiracy fiction. Green Zone fails in its message and, thanks to Greengrass’s over-edited, jittery camera style, it fails as an action movie also.
Opened: (3/12/10) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
Our Family Wedding.Call it Fathers of the Bride and Groom as an engaged couple (Ugly Betty’s America Ferrera and Meet the Browns‘ Lance Gross) gets caught in the culture clash between their African American and Latino families. Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia play the competitive fathers. Forest, I love you man, but I’ll be skipping this one.
Opened: (3/12/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief.Directing mediocrity Chris Columbus (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Home Alone) shepherds another popular series of children’s fantasy novels to the big screen. This time he tackles the first of Rick Riordan’s books about a teenager who finds out he’s the half-human son of the Greek god Poseidon when he’s accused of stealing Zeus’ lightning. If Percy Jackson is anything like Columbus’ two outings with Harry Potter, it’ll be reverential to a fault, completely lifeless and massively popular. Logan Lerman (3:10 to Yuma) is Percy. Uma Thurman, Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan, Rosario Dawson, Steve Coogan and Catherine Keener also star as this,that or the other god, goddess or parental figure.
Opened: (2/12/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Remember Me.Robert Pattinson (Twilight) is a soulful and brooding pair of sideburns with daddy issues who falls in love with an NYU classmate (Lost’s Emily de Ravin) who happens to be the daughter of a cop (Chris Cooper) who roughed him up. Just about every review I’ve glanced at tips the dramatic ending to one degree or another so if you want to keep in the dark about it, beware. I plan on remaining so in the dark, I’m not even going to see the movie. Pierce Brosnan plays Pattinson’s father.
Opened: (3/12/10) Trailer / Showtimes
She’s Out of My League.Nerd wish fulfillment with Judd Apatow favorite Jay Baruchel (Knocked Up) as a loser who scores with a hottie and then fights to keep her. Girls get vapid romantic comedies all the time so here’s one for the boys… I guess.
Opened: (3/12/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Shutter Island (*** 1/2).Martin Scorsese adapts Dennis Lehane’s novel with Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo as two U.S. marshals investigating the disappearance of a murderer from an island-bound hospital for the criminally insane. The minute they land on the island, you can sense that the two men have more to fear than simply the violent criminals who are locked up here. Beautifully designed, moodily photographed and well acted, Shutter Island is a creepy, adult psychological thriller that manages to transcend some weaknesses in the underlying material with sheer style. Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson, Max von Sydow, Emily Mortimer, Jackie Earle Haley and Elias Koteas also star.
Opened: (2/19/10) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
^The Runaways.Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning are Joan Jett and Cherie Currie in this true story of the short-lived late-70s teen girl rock band The Runaways. Michael Shannon plays promoter/Svengali Kim Fowley. Scout Taylor-Compton co-stars as Lita Ford.
Opened: (3/19/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.Go squeak yourself.
Opened: (12/23/09) Trailer / Showtimes
The Book of Eli.The Hughes Brothers, Allen and Albert, deliver their first theatrical feature since 2001’s From Hell. It’s got a great cast including Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Michael Gambon and Tom Waits, but it just looks like another crappy post-apocalyptic thriller. The fact it’s being dumped in the crappy post-apocalyptic cinematic wasteland that is January tells me I’m probably right. Denzel is a man (Eli, natch) with a book that could hold the key to the survival of the human race. There will be bleakness.
Opened: (1/15/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Dear John.Directed by Lasse Hallström and based upon the novel by Nicholas Sparks (purveyor of sub-literate romances like The Notebook and Nights in Rodanthe) Dear John stars Channing Tatum (I always want to call him “Tatum Channing”) and the lovely Amanda Seyfried as a couple kept apart by military service. A quick glance at the Wikipedia entry for the novel highlights the words “Asperger’s Syndrome,” “Habitat for Humanity,” “9/11,” “autism” and “melanoma.” Thank god I’m single.
Opened: (2/5/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Edge of Darkness.Almost exactly a year ago, Taken overcame tepid reviews to parlay its Liam Neeson-starring story of an ex-soldier tracking down his abducted daughter into $145 million at the box office. This year, Mel Gibson attempts the same winter trick with Edge of Darkness, a mystery about a Boston detective investigating the murder of his activist daughter. Armed with a Boston accent, a script by William Monahan (The Departed) and direction from Casino Royale’s Martin Campbell (who also manned the BBC miniseries upon which Darkness is based), Gibson is also probably eager for us to forget that whole “sugar tits” thing so he can get back to the business of making movies. It’ll be interesting to see if audiences are ready to embrace him as a movie star again. The component parts (including co-stars Ray Winstone and Danny Huston) are there for a solid genre picture and this might be the first excuse we’ve had in a month to see something in theaters besides Avatar.
Opened: (1/29/10) Trailer / Showtimes
An Education (*** 1/2).Journo pervs and festival monkeys the world over have been salivating over Carey Mulligan’s turn as Jenny in this 1960s coming of age drama ever since it premiered at Sundance. The thing is, they largely have a point. She’s sparklingly adorable and her performance combined with a couple of thematic wrinkles elevate An Education from what would otherwise be pretty routine stuff. It’s the early 1960s and England is at a turning point between the uptight 1950s and the social turmoil that came in with the Beatles. Trapped between both worlds, 16-year-old Oxford bound Jenny is smarter than all her friends and all the potential boyfriends her age, but she also has a zest for experiencing the wide world outside of her repressed London suburb. At first Oxford seems like the ticket, but along comes David (Peter Sarsgaard), a 30-something bon vivant and man of the world who seems to offer a shortcut to the life she sees herself living. An Education sets up an interesting paradox for young Jenny who is forced to pick between a series of seemingly imperfect options, but then the story veers into a melodramatic twist and a too-neat ending that doesn’t take advantage of the set-up. It’s too bad. An Education could’ve been great. Fine supporting work from Alfred Molina, Emma Thompson, Olivia Williams, Dominic Cooper and especially Rosamund Pike as a dimwitted material girl.
Opened: (10/9/09) Trailer / Showtimes
The Hurt Locker (****).6-time Oscar winner including Best Picture and Best Director, Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker tells the story of an elite bomb disposal squad working to keep the streets of Baghdad safe for Iraqis and Americans alike. It’s not strictly apolitical – I think it’s an anti-war picture in that it shows the excoriating effects of war on the men and women we ask to fight for us – but it’s not literally an anti-Iraq war picture either. It’s bigger than that and frankly better than any of a number of Iraq-themed films that have come out in the last few years. This isn’t a stuffy, feel-bad message movie. It’s a movie with the intensity of an action film and the hint of arthouse credibility gained from having played the festival circuit. It’s gripping and exhaustingly suspenseful at times. It has enough bravado and thrills to satisfy any action junkie, but it also has interesting characters and the confidence to slow down and pause and drink in the horror of what’s happening to them. Besides terrific performances from Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty, there are also a couple of great cameos from Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pearce.
Opened: (6/26/09) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
It’s Complicated.Meryl Streep has an affair with ex-husband Alec Baldwin. Steve Martin and Lake Bell are caught in the middle as the new boyfriend and the young wife. I try to avoid taking easy shots at movies for which I’m not the target audience (I don’t always succeed, but I try) so I’ll just say this one has a great cast that also includes John Krasinksi, Zoe Kazan, Mary Kay Place and Nora Dunn. Being a Nancy Meyers film, It’s Complicated will get clobbered by critics but do very well at the box office.
Opened: (12/25/09) Trailer / Showtimes
The Last Station (*** 1/2).Michael Hoffman’s account of the last years of the life of Leo Tolstoy got a brief New York and Los Angeles release in December in a bid for Oscar qualification and now it returns for a proper limited release. Christopher Plummer is the Russian novelist and Helen Mirren is his wife, the Countess Sofya who is understandably disturbed when the author renounces his title, property and family and turns to poverty, vegetarianism and celibacy as part of a kind of cult that has sprung up around him. Paul Giamatti is Tolstoy’s disciple/handler who further complicates matters by convincing the man to sign over the rights to his novels to the Russian people. James McAvoy plays a convert to the new religion. The film is an uneasy and not altogether successful mixture of drama, comedy, tragedy and history. Christopher Plummer is fine as Tolstoy (he’s better in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus), Giamiatti is… well, Giamatti, and McAvoy seems out of his league. The real standout here and the real reason to see the movie despite its flaws is Helen Mirren. The film ultimately belongs to her character and she’s the only one who really handles the film’s strange mix of tones while hitting every emotional note from tender, to humorous, to outraged, to devastated. It’s a powerful, unfussy, unmannered performance that deserves to be recognized.
Opened: (12/3/09) Trailer / Showtimes
Legion.In this supernatural action-thriller, God gets pissed at mankind so He sends a legion of angels to bring about the Apocalypse. Paul Bettany is a rebel angel with a machine gun who comes to save the day. Not a bad set up, but the trailer felt cobbled together from about a dozen other films. Also if people are such a bee in God’s bonnet, why doesn’t He just make us disappear and start over? Dennis Quaid, Tyrese Gibson, Charles S. Dutton, and Doug Jones also star.
Opened: (1/22/10) Trailer / Showtimes
The Lovely Bones (***).Peter Jackson’s flawed but bold attempt to bring Alice Sebold’s difficult to adapt novel to the big screen probably never should’ve been lumped in with the end of year awards bait where it floundered. Saoirse Ronan is terrific as a 14-year-old murdered girl who narrates the story from the in-between as she watches over her family and the killer across the street. A chilling Stanley Tucci meanshile leaves a nasty mark as murderer George Harvey. Jackson captures a kind of swoony teen girl’s romanticism that is anathema to the fanboys who worship at the Jackson altar but The Lovely Bones might appeal to a different audience. Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Michael Imperioli and Susan Sarandon co-star.
Opened: (12/11/09) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
Old Dogs.Special thanks to all you assholes who lined up to see Wild Hogs a while back to the tune of $168 million at the US box office. You’re also to blame for keeping shows like According to Jim on the air year after year. F yourselves. John Travolta and Robin Williams star as two business partners put in charge of twin seven-year-olds.
Opened: (11/25/09) Trailer / Showtimes
The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2010 (*** 1/2).This year’s batch of Oscar nominated animated and live action shorts are a mixed bag. There’s some good stuff, but nothing so sublime as last year’s animated winner La maison en petits cubes. As far as the live action shorts go, the blackly comic The New Tenants is the most entertaining overall, but my Oscar money is on the subtle and haunting The Door. On the animated front, it would be foolish to bet against multiple Oscar winner Nick Park and his latest Wallace and Gromit short A Matter of Loaf and Death, but it’s really more of the same. Much better are The Lady and the Reaper and especially Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty.
Opened: (2/19/10) / Review / Showtimes
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.
Opened: (11/20/09) Trailer / Showtimes
The Princess and the Frog.Disney returns to traditional hand-drawn 2-D animation with this story set in turn-of-the-century New Orleans. Putting a twist on the classic tale, the kiss meant to turn a frog back into a prince instead turns the girl into a frog. Adventure ensues as the frog couple hits the swamps looking for a voodoo priestess to break the spell. The voice cast features Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David, Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard and John Goodman. Songs and music by Randy Newman. Nominated for Best Animated Feature and two Best Song Oscars.
Opened: (11/25/09) Trailer / Showtimes
A Prophet (****).It took me two viewings and some time thinking about it afterward to warm up to this foreign language Oscar nominee from Jacques Audiard (Read My Lips, The Beat My Heart Skipped) about a young French Arab’s rise to power as a criminal kingpin during his 6 years in prison. Taken episodically, Malik’s experiences provide a harrowing account of life in France’s prison system. One sequence involving the lead up and resolution to a murder he’s strong-armed into committing by a Corsican bigwig has the white-knuckle intensity of any good suspense film and the scar it leaves makes the monstrosity of some of his later actions (almost forgivable). Taken on another level, Malik’s journey leaves one wondering what good the prison system does besides make better criminals. This is grim territory, and Malik is not an easy character to warm up to, but when you take Tahar Rahim’s performance – uneducated but intelligent, his eyes always darting and searching – and the fact that the men around him are even worse than he is, you might find yourself rooting for him against your better judgment.
Opened: (2/26/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Sherlock Holmes.The lazy marketing for this played into my worst fears about Guy Ritchie making a movie of Arthur Conan Doyle’s beloved detective character – basically a modern buddy movie where everyone is wearing Victorian era clothes – but if Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law’s chemistry is anything close to what it should be, this could turn out to be solid holiday fun. Let’s say expectations are modest.
Opened: (12/25/09) Trailer / Showtimes
A Single Man (****).Fashion designer Tom Ford’s directorial debut is from his own screenplay based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood about a college professor in 1960s Los Angeles (Colin Firth) coping with the loss of his long-time lover. Firth is fantastic as a man going through a quiet, dignified, slow-motion meltdown and Julianne Moore is his equal as the best friend. If Firth is internal and subtle, Moore is more openly vulnerable. They play off each other in a kind of yin and yang of devastation that works really well. Drenched in a post-war LA style, it’s easy to dismiss the film as style over substance, but there’s a lot more going on here than that. The elegant, orderly set designs and wardrobe reflect Firth’s attempt to organize his increasingly unruly emotions.
Opened: (12/11/09) Trailer / Showtimes
Tooth Fairy.Duane Johnson is the Tooth Fairy. This movie was chosen over several other ideas based on second string iconic characters: Duane Johnson is Mr. Yuck, Duane Johnson is the Hamburglar, Duane Johnson is The Noid, Duane Johnson is Screech from Saved By the Bell and Duane Johnson is Your Big Sister’s Monthly Visitor. Written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (Night Shift, Splash. My how far they’ve fallen). Directed by Michael Lembeck (The Santa Clause 2. My how far he’s… oh never mind. He’s always sucked).
Opened: (1/22/10) Trailer / Showtimes
The Twilight Saga: New Moon.(DVD 3/20) I’m glad Twilight exists because it holds a feminine mirror up to fanboy behavior and it makes the fanboys very twitchy. It’s probably easy to trash if you’re not part of the teen girl target audience, but why bother?
Opened: (11/20/09) Trailer / Showtimes
Up in the Air (****).Jason Reitman (Juno) directs George Clooney as a smooth layoff expert hired by employers too cowardly to do their own firings. His zero baggage, no strings lifestyle is turned upside down when he falls for a kindred spirit (Vera Farmiga) and his own job security is threatened when a young and ambitious newcomer (Anna Kendrick) arrives at the company with some fancy ideas about how to streamline the job. Funny but a little too slick and sure of itself for most of its running time, Up in the Air finally delivers with a bittersweet ending that’s just right.
Opened: (12/4/09) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
Valentine’s Day.I can’t remember the last time Garry Marshall made a movie that didn’t make me visibly wince. Here we’ve got a low-concept (how much lower can you get than a holiday themed ensemble romantic comedy?) romancer intertwining a bunch of LA stories featuring an attractive but (mostly) low-wattage cast of dozens: Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Patrick Dempsey, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, George Lopez, Julia Roberts etc. etc. You get the picture… and you can keep it. I’m not interested.
Opened: (2/12/10) Trailer / Showtimes
When in Rome.We’re big fans of Kristen Bell from her days on TV’s Veronica Mars so we were extra disappointed to see her charms wasted so badly in the only sporadically funny Forgetting Sarah Marshall (yes, we’ve forgotten it). Sadly, this high-concept romantic comedy sounds even less appealing. Bell plays a young New Yorker successful in work but not in love. After cynically stealing some coins from a Roman fountain of love, she finds herself pursued by a motley assortment of suitors including Danny DeVito, Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) and Will Arnett (Arrested Development). When the charming Josh Duhamel joins the chase, how will she know if he really loves her or if it’s just the crazy magic fountain? If you find out, be sure and let me know.
Opened: (1/29/10) Trailer / Showtimes
The Wolfman (**).Because it’s easier than coming up with new ideas and marketing them, Universal dipped into their vaults to dust one off from their glory days. They needn’t have bothered. Despite the promising cast including Benicio del Toro as the lycanthropically cursed Larry Talbot, Anthony Hopkins as his father, Emily Blunt as his missing brother’s fiancée and Hugo Weaving as a man investigating a series of mysterious deaths, The Wolfman brings nothing new to the table and never offers a good reason for its existence. Blunt is cute, but Del Toro seems terribly out of place and Hopkins appears content to show up and collect his paycheck. Weaving is the only one who makes much of an impression.
Opened: (2/12/10) Trailer / Showtimes
The Young Victoria.You wouldn’t think it, but I have an unusually high threshold for historical costume dramas. I even liked The Duchess. Emily Blunt is Queen Victoria, Britain’s longest ruling monarch and the longest reigning queen in history. Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, Miranda Richardson and Jim Broadbent also star. Reviews were mixed and for a movie that had Oscar’s stink all over it, Victoria got very little play though it did manage a win for costume design.
Opened: (12/18/09) Trailer / Showtimes
^City Island.Real-life City Island is a square kilometer-sized dot of land in Long Island Sound just off the eastern shore of the Bronx. In this indie comedy-drama, one of the historic fishing village’s 4500 residents is Andy Garcia, a corrections officer who harbors a secret desire to be an actor. Julianne Margulies (E.R.) is his wife who assumes infidelity lies behind the poker games which provide a front for his acting lessons. Little secrets have a habit of becoming big secrets in a small town and Garcia’s touches off a series of them that threaten to turn his family and the island upside down. Alan Arkin and Emily Mortimer also star.
Opened: (3/19/10) Trailer / Showtimes
^The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (****).Based on Stieg Larsson’s best-selling novel, this Swedish mystery thriller juggles the old-fashioned and the modern to deliver a uniquely satisfying entertainment. A journalist gets involved in a 40-year-old missing girl case when one of the members of a wealthy, secretive family hires him to figure out which among them is responsible for her murder. Coming to the journalist’s aid is the girl with the dragon tattoo, a dark, withdrawn young computer hacker with a series of secrets all her own. The closer the unlikely pair comes to solving the mystery, the wider the conspiracy grows and the greater danger they find themselves in.
Opened: (3/19/10) Trailer / Showtimes
^Greenberg (****).Ben Stiller is a 40-something misanthrope at a crossroads who returns home to Los Angeles to house sit for his brother and to reconnect with his old friends. At a loss for what to do with himself and sinking fast, he’s offered a lifeline in the form of sweet and naïve Florence (Greta Gerwig). Greenberg is a leap forward for Noah Baumbach, a career high for Stiller and proof that Gerwig is ready for the big time.
Opened: (3/19/10) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
^Kimjongilia.Featuring interviews with former Army officers, concentration camp escapees and defectors, N.C. Heikin’s documentary paints a disturbing picture of Kim Jong-il’s dictatorial rule over isolated North Korea.
Opened: (3/19/10) Trailer / Showtimes
^Mid-August Lunch.Written by, directed by and starring Gianni Di Gregorio the co-writer of Gomorrah, the comic Mid-August Lunch represents something of a departure. Here’s a bit of the official blurb: “an utterly charming tale of good food, feisty ladies and unlikely friendships during a very Roman holiday. Broke, and armed with only a glass of wine and a wry sense of humor, middle-aged Gianni resides with his 93-year-old mother in their ancient apartment. The condo debts are mounting, but if Gianni looks after the building manager’s mother during the Pranzo di Ferragosto (Italy’s biggest summer holiday, and the Feast of the Assumption), all will be forgiven. Then the manager also shows up with an auntie, and a doctor friend appears with his mother in tow…. Can Gianni keep four such lively mamas well fed and happy in these cramped quarters?”
Opened: (3/17/10) Trailer / Showtimes
^Neil Young Trunk Show.Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs, Stop Making Sense) follows up his Neil Young: Heart of Gold documentary with a new one that captures Young performing two shows in Pennsylvania during his hard rocking Chrome Dreams II tour. Besides selections from Young’s 2007 album and old hits like “Harvest,” “Cinnamon Girl” and “Like a Hurricane,” the set list includes rarely performed numbers including “Ambulance Blues,” “Kansas” and the unreleased track “Sad Movies.”
Opened: (3/19/10) Trailer / Showtimes
^The Red Baron.I’m a sucker for pre-jet age airplane stories and the legend of the World War I flying ace known as The Red Baron is particularly appealing. Unfortunately, while the flying sequences looked terrific in the trailer, the dramatic scenes seemed awfully cheesy. Worse still, reviews in Europe have not been kind. Filmed simultaneously in English and German language versions, The Red Baron stars Matthias Schweighofer (8 Miles High) as Baron Manfred von Richthofen while Til Schweiger (Inglourious Basterds), Lena Headey (300) and Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love) co-star.
Opened: (3/19/10) Trailer / Showtimes
^See What I’m Saying: The Deaf Entertainer’s Documentary (*** 1/2).An inspiring look at a group of entertainers – an actor, a comedian, a drummer and a singer – whose difficulties in overcoming the ordinary hurdles of work in creative fields is complicated by the fact that they’re deaf. Beyond the uplift of watching people overcome their unique challenges, See What I’m Saying illuminates the human urge to express one’s self and has something to offer audiences both hearing and hearing impaired.
Opened: (3/19/10) Trailer / Showtimes
^Vincere.Italian director Marco Bellocchio’s (Fist in His Pocket) portrait of dictator Benito Mussolini, his secret lover and their illegitimate son premiered at Cannes in 2009.
Opened: (3/19/10) Trailer / Showtimes
2012 (***).Some scientific mumbo jumbo about the sun microwaving the earth’s core leads to massive natural disasters and the end of the world once prophesized by the Maya. Can down-and-outer John Cusack get his ex-wife and family to the staging ground where the governments of the world are secretly building giant ships to whisk a few million lucky (and rich) people to safety? Director Roland Emmerich brings his usual operatic knack for wrecking stuff and also his awkward grasp of story, dialogue and character. Besides Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Glover, Amanda Peet, Thandie Newton and Oliver Platt do their best with what they’re given.
Opened: (11/13/09) Trailer / Showtimes
35 Shots of Rum (****).I caught Claire Denis’ lovely and restrained character study during a busy LA Film Festival and it’s really a movie that deserves to breathe on its own. The plot is feather light as it follows the days and nights of a single father and his grown daughter, but this is one of those terrific films that is more about tone and character than it is about action. It’s the kind of movie that sneaks up on you as you find yourself thinking about it days later. Highly recommended.
Opened: (9/18/09) Trailer / Showtimes
44 Inch Chest.With a screenplay from Sexy Beast screenwriters Louis Mellis and David Scinto and a stellar English cast including Ray Winstone, Ian McShane, John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Dillane and Joanne Whalley, first-time director Malcolm Venville might be on to something good here. Winstone plays a man who rounds up his friends to help him kidnap the French waiter who slept with his wife (Whalley). Based on the trailer, I’m getting a note of dark comedy mixed in with the drama.
Opened: (1/15/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Ajami (****).Co-directed by an Israeli and a Palestinian, Ajami takes place in a crime-ridden neighborhood in the Israeli city of Jaffa where Jews, Muslims and Christians live side by side. Touched off by a botched revenge killing, the story is one of those multi-threaded narratives with multiple characters (played here mostly by non-actors) weaving in and out of a series of non-chronological chapters. More than just a gimmick, the narrative structure leaves you feeling how the tremors of a single act of violence can ripple across cultures, classes and generations. My only small complaint is that the threads are all wrapped up a little too neatly. The rest of the film is so organic, immediate and real feeling that the clean finish is disappointingly artificial.
Opened: (2/3/10) Trailer / Showtimes
The Art of the Steal (****).Don Argott’s documentary looks at the battle between the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the estate of Dr. Albert C. Barnes over the peerless collection of impressionist and post-impressionist art Barnes collected in the first half of the 20th century. Like all good documentaries, The Art of the Steal is about much more than its central subject. It raises big questions about who owns culture, whether it should be public or private and whether or not it should be a for profit enterprise. It raises questions about an individual’s rights and how far his or her wishes can be carried after their death. It’s also about the power and politics of large philanthropic organizations that put a smiling civic face on some genuinely Shakespearean dealings.
Opened: (2/26/10) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (*** 1/2).Nicolas Cage is unhinged in Werner Herzog’s non-sequel to Abel Ferrara’s 1992 cult hit Bad Lieutenant, but not as unhinged as I expected. The amusing irony of the film is that Cage’s character – a police lieutenant who descends into a personal hell of prescription drug addiction and worse after he’s injured performing a heroic act – is a decent person motivated by good intentions who ends up doing increasingly bad things to get himself out of a series of unfortunate situations. Neither Cage nor Herzog are playing this with a completely straight face, but it’s not all fun and games either. There’s an earnest message in here too… somewhere. Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Xzibit, Fairuza Balk, Jennifer Coolidge, Brad Dourif and Michael Shannon co-star.
Opened: (11/20/09) Trailer / Showtimes
Blood Done Sign My Name.Based on the personal experiences of Tim Tyson as recounted in his book of the same name, Blood Done Sign My Name takes place in the early 70s on the front lines of the divide between the races in the United States. It tells the true story of the acquittal of a white businessman (Michael Rooker) accused of murdering a black Vietnam vet in the small town of Oxford North Carolina and the violence and social unrest that followed.
Opened: (2/19/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Broken Embraces (****).Pedro Almodovar’s beautiful and delightfully noirish melodrama tells the story of a blinded screenwriter/director whose past comes back to haunt him when the death of an old nemesis makes the news. At issue is the mystery behind the accident that took his sight, an unfinished film, a revenge-bent son and a beautiful woman (Penelope Cruz). Everything ties together… somehow. Broken Embraces is a pleasure to watch and no one brings Cruz so vibrantly to the screen like Pedro Almodovar.
Opened: (11/20/09) Trailer / Showtimes
The Cove (** 1/2).Because it is a slickly entertaining button-pusher and because it has a message we can all get behind – dolphins are our friends – The Cove is a seductive bit of activist enviro-tainment that is almost sure to move you. Yes, you will be saddened and enraged by this exposé of the secretive dolphin slaughter that occurs in a tiny Japanese fishing village each year. You’ll also be entertained by the spy thriller-like story of the admittedly brave group of individuals who seek to bring the story to light. Unfortunately, that’s about all The Cove ever accomplishes. It moves and entertains and maybe convinces a few people to donate some money to the Oceanic Preservation Society (the non-profit eco-organization behind the documentary and whose executive director directed the film), but it repeatedly slights fact in favor of manipulation and argument in favor of entertainment. In the process, it waters down what could have been a powerful call to action and it neuters an opportunity to educate mainstream audiences about the potential damage we’re doing to the world’s oceans. Worse still, it lets those of us outside of Japan off the hook. By inspiring us to anger and outrage without making us think about the deeper issues at hand, The Cove allows us to feel like concerned citizens of the world without asking us to sacrifice a single thing.
Opened: (7/31/09) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
Creation.When this biography probing the family life of Charles Darwin starring spouses Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly landed with a dull thud at Toronto and then took forever to find distribution, the film’s producer complained that it was just too controversial for religiously uptight American audiences. In fact, it was probably just too dull. Reviews so far have not been kind. It’s too bad since Darwin’s ideas are among the most important of the last couple hundred years. Funny that in the same week of release, Bettany played an angel (Legion) and here he played a man some people treat as the spawn of the devil.
Opened: (1/22/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Daybreakers (**).10 years into a mysterious plague that turns human beings into vampires, there aren’t enough uninfected people left to supply fresh blood. Those who are left are rounded up and plugged into corporate blood farms while scientists work to find a synthetic substitute. Ethan Hawke plays one of the scientists – himself a reluctant vampire – while Sam Neill plays his creepy corporate boss and Willem Dafoe plays the leader of a band of human resistors who may be the key to a cure for vampirism. Daybreakers deserves credit for bringing a few interesting new ideas to an increasingly played out genre, but the delivery is so flatfooted that the film ends up wasting a talented cast. Suspense is kept to a minimum, scares are almost non-existent and the whole thing is a curiously leaden time filler. Had the brothers spent less time trying to shake up the genre and more time delivering genre thrills, they might’ve ended up with something worth seeing. As it is, it’s stylishly mounted but ultimately empty.
Opened: (1/8/10) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
Did You Hear About the Morgans?.No? Me either. Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker star in this insipid fish-out-of-water romantic comedy about a Manhattan couple on the rocks who get whisked off to witness protection in Wyoming after they witness a contract killing. Freed of their shallow yet hectic urban lives, will they be able to rediscover love? That was a rhetorical question.
Opened: (12/18/09) Trailer / Showtimes
District B13: Ultimatum.2004’s District B13 (directed by From Paris With Love’s Pierre Morel) was a goofy but fun action B-picture that introduced me to parkour, the non-competitive street sport where participants vault themselves over and around and from objects and buildings. In this sequel, parkour founder David Belle reteams with super-cop Cyril Raffaelli to save his crime-ridden neighborhood District 13 from corrupt cops and greedy developers. You’re not coming for the plot and characters. You’re coming to see this crazy acrobatic French dude jumping across building tops, through windows and down fire escapes and whatnot.
Opened: (2/5/10) Trailer / Showtimes
The Exploding Girl.Zoe Kazan (Revolutionary Road, Me & Orson Welles) finally gets a starring role as Ivy, a 20-year-old at home on spring break from college. As she gets the cold shoulder from her boyfriend back at school, Ivy draws closer to her high school best buddy Al and the ensuing emotional turmoil risks touching off her epilepsy. It sounds too precious and indie for its own good, but I like Kazan and I’m glad to see her at the center of a film.
Opened: (3/12/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Extraordinary Measures.5 or 10 years ago when Harrison Ford was still alive (I mean the actor/celebrity, the guy who played Han Solo and Indiana Jones, not that impersonator who stumbled through the Golden Globes speech the other night), this film based on a true story would’ve been prime Oscar bait. Ford plays a scientist researching treatments for a rare and fatal disease. Brendan Fraser is a father whose children are diagnosed with the disease so he quits his cushy corporate job to head up a small biotech company to support Ford’s research. Adapted from Geeta Anand’s book by Robert Nelson Jacobs, the guy who also did adaptations for Chocolat and The Shipping News which should give you an idea where this movie is headed. Directed by Tom Vaughn who did everyone’s favorite sink-peeing movie What Happens in Vegas. Keri Russell co-stars.
Opened: (1/22/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Fantastic Mr. Fox (**** 1/2).Boggis and Bunce and Bean. One fat, one short, one lean. These horrible crooks, so different in looks, were nonetheless equally mean. And so begins Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson’s adaption of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s story about a fox bringing the farmers’ wrath down upon his friends and family all because a fox can’t help being a fox. It’s a clever, funny and surprisingly sweet little number that might play better to Anderson fans and the art house crowd than to the families and children it’s being marketed toward, but that’s what makes it a cut above the usual family movie slog. The lo-fi, Rankin-Bass style stop-motion animation takes a minute to warm up to compared to the sterile, too-perfect CGI you find everywhere else you look, but in the end it adds to the film’s abundant charm. It’s also a perfect outlet for the director’s typically detailed production design. As you’d expect from Anderson, Fox has a terrific soundtrack mixing Anderson’s flair for choosing pop tunes with Alexandre Desplat’s jaunty score and even a song or two by ex-Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker. Finally, bringing the whole thing to life, George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Wallace Wolodarsky, Eric Anderson, Michael Gambon, Owen Wilson and Willem Dafoe lend their abundant voice talents.
Opened: (11/13/09) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
Fish Tank (**** 1/2).A gritty slice of social realism in the tradition of Ken Loach and Lynne Ramsay, Andrea Arnold’s coming of age tale features a powerful lead performance from newcomer Katie Jarvis as Mia, a young working class girl at a crossroads. Filled with anger, she’s a hard character to warm up to, but she eventually wins over your sympathies. Up and coming Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, Hunger) provides solid support as the new boyfriend of Mia’s mother. He’s a kind of father figure and the only adult that seems to understand where Mia is coming from. The 2009 festival circuit spawned several movies about teen girls trying to make their way into adulthood against varying odds, but Fish Tank is the best of the bunch.
Opened: (1/15/10) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
From Paris With Love (*** 1/2).Johnathan Rhys-Meyers (Match Point) is a low-level CIA guy eager for more excitement. He gets more than he can handle when he’s teamed up with loose canon John Travolta to foil a terrorist plot in Paris. Former cinematographer and Luc Besson protégé Pierre Morel (District B13, Taken) directs from Besson’s screen story and delivers an unassuming bit of action with a fun, scenery chewing performance from John Travolta. It’s a solid 95 minutes that doesn’t try too hard to cover up its B picture roots. Rhys Meyers is kind of terrible as the reluctant CIA hero but Travolta brings enough energy for the both of them.
Opened: (2/5/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Frozen.This little horror suspenser made a few waves when it premiered in the Park City at Midnight section at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Three college kids are stranded at night on a ski lift. I’m guessing frostbite and wolves are a bit worse of a problem than finding someone to buy you a half rack of Rhinelander outside the Gas-n-Go though, depending on the Gas-n-Go, no more horrifying.
Opened: (2/5/10) Trailer / Showtimes
The Girl on the Train.Based on a play inspired by real life events, acclaimed French filmmaker André Téchiné’s The Girl on the Train tells the story of an aimless young suburban woman who manufactures a story about being mistaken for a Jew and attacked by anti-Semitic thugs. Emelie Duquenne (Rosetta), Catherine Deneuve and Ronit Elkabetz (The Band’s Visit) co-star.
Opened: (1/22/10) Trailer / Showtimes
The Good Guy.In this indie rom-com-dram, Gilmore Girl Alexis Bledel forms a Manhattan love triangle with a young Wall Street hunk (Scott Porter) and his handsome but mild-mannered co-worker (Bryan Greenberg). Because we need more movies about the romantic flailings of young photogenic people in the big city.
Opened: (2/19/10) Trailer / Showtimes
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (****).To say this is the best film Terry Gilliam has done in a decade won’t mean much to anyone who was burned by The Brothers Grimm and/or Tideland, but there it is. This is Gilliam at his most imaginatively exuberant. The story kind of stumbles and threatens to fall apart at every turn, but it just manages to hold together into a satisfying whole if you stick with it. Along the way it’s a celebration of imagination and the power of storytelling bursting with the kind of visual inventiveness Gilliam has made a career out of since his days with Monty Python. Christopher Plummer plays the head of a traveling band of ragged performers. He may hold the power of fantasy and dreams, he may be a charlatan or he might be both. Either way, he’s got an ongoing bet with The Devil (Tom Waits) and the soul of his beautiful daughter (Lily Cole) is at stake. Heath Ledger (in his last role), Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law are… well it’s difficult to describe. You’ll have to see it for yourself and if you’re a fan of Gilliam or the cast, I recommend you do.
Opened: (12/25/09) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
Invictus (*** 1/2).The story of Nelson Mandela uniting South Africa through the country’s national rugby team is handled a little flat-footedly by director Clint Eastwood, but Morgan Freeman gives one of his better performances and it’s simply a terrific true story. Matt Damon also stars as the team captain.
Opened: (12/11/09) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
Leap Year.When the Irish came up with idea that it was permissible for a woman to propose marriage to a man each Leap Year on February 29th, they had to ask themselves two questions: 1) Why can’t a woman propose marriage every other day of every other year and 2) how long do you suppose it will be before Hollywood turns this into a shitty high concept romantic comedy? There’s no good answer to the former (I’m not even convinced it’s an actual tradition), but the latter question can now be answered with this film starring Amy Adams. After four years waiting for a marriage proposal, Adams follows her boyfriend (Adam Scott) to Dublin where she plans to ask him to marry her on Leap Day. Alas, airlines, weather, mechanical problems and a team of Hollywood screenwriters conspire to keep an entire Emerald Isle between her and her man. Luckily, handsome Matthew Goode (A Single Man, Match Point) is around to help her get from A to B just long enough for her to fall in love with him instead. Either this isn’t very good or Universal has inched it ahead in the calendar to keep it out of the way of that Garry Marshall Valentine’s Day monstrosity coming in February.
Opened: (1/8/10) Trailer / Showtimes
The Maid (****).This surprising little number won the Grand Jury Prize Dramatic at Sundance earlier this year and also netted the Special Jury Prize Acting for star Catalina Saavedra. It was also recently nominated for a couple of Gotham awards. I call it surprising because it deftly managed to defeat all my expectations. At first I thought it was going to be another glum, class-obsessed film about a depressed character bottoming out in a cruel world (Oh, arthouse joy!), but I stuck with it and it revealed itself to be something much more. Catalina Saavedra is Raquel, the maid of 23 years for a comfortably middle class Chilean family. She’s a part of the family to a point – she’s treated as such and she herself is possessive of the children – but at the end of the day, someone has to do the dishes and it’s her. Showing signs of wearing down at 41, the emotionally reserved and passive-aggressive Raquel melts down when the family hires a new girl to help her out. Actively sabotaging the friendly and eager young assistant, Raquel at this point is actually pretty hard to like. Her stunts are played to blackly comic effect, but she leaves a bad taste in your mouth and the film threatens to become unbearable. Gradually though, we come to understand her extreme behavior and as the layers of her personality are revealed…well, this is a subtle film and its pleasures are best discovered fresh so I won’t say anything more. Suffice it to say, things didn’t turn out at all like I expected and this is for the better. Dryly and darkly funny, more than a little bit sad and ultimately completely satisfying, The Maid gets an official LiC recommendation.
Opened: (10/16/09) Trailer / Showtimes
Me and Orson Welles (****).Trained on the stage but unknown to cinema audiences, Christian McKay almost single-handedly wills Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles to life. It’s 1937, the Depression is still in full swing and Welles is trying to mount his Mercury Theater production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Our guide played by Zac Efron is an eager high school performer who lucks into a bit part in the play. Can he ride Hurricane Welles to fame and fortune or will his brush with success also be his doom? McKay more than plays Welles, he embodies him – the ego, the temper, the charm and the theatricality. Great supporting work from Eddie Marsan as John Houseman, Claire Danes as the ambitious and cynical object of Efron’s desire, James Tupper as Joseph Cotton, Ben Chaplin as a pompous English actor who takes issue with the brash Welles’ American sensibilities and Zoe Kazan as a fellow dreamer who helps provide a bookend to the story.
Opened: (11/25/09) Trailer / Showtimes
The Messenger (*** 1/2).Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma) plays a wounded Iraq war veteran who is assigned to the Casualty Notification Office in the final months of his enlistment. A terrific Woody Harrelson shows him the ropes (and was nominated for an Oscar for his troubles) while Samantha Morton gives another complex performance as the wife of a dead soldier Foster becomes interested in. There was enough power in The Messenger just within the scenes where Foster and Harrelson are breaking the bad news to next of kin that it’s too bad writer/director Oren Moverman and his co-writer Allesandro Camon had to try a little too hard to make their point about the cost of war. A lighter touch would’ve been just as moving. Nevertheless, The Messenger is powerful stuff.
Opened: (11/13/09) Trailer / Showtimes
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith’s Oscar short-listed documentary about the man who leaked over 7,000 top secret Pentagon documents to the New York Times in a bid to end the Vietnam war debuted to strong notices at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Opened: (1/29/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Mother (**** 1/2).Bong Joon-ho leaves behind the monster thrills he served up with The Host and returns to simple murder (a la Memories of Murder). Of course nothing with Bong is ever really simple. In fact, as with The Host, he’s more fascinated by twisted family dynamics than he is the routine workings of genre. Famed Korean actress Kim Hye-Ja plays against type as an unhinged mother who will go to any length to prove her only son, a mentally challenged 27-year-old, is innocent of the murder a lazy police force seem all too eager to pin on him. Kim throws herself into a searing performance that walks an uneasy line between sad, humorous and a little bit scary. If AMPAS had any balls she’d get an Oscar nomination next year. They don’t so she won’t, but it’s worth noting. With or without Oscar accolades, Mother is an early LiC favorite and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it turn up in the Top 10 at the end of the year.
Opened: (3/12/10) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
Nine (** 1/2).Trading razzle-dazzle for fizzle-drizzle, Rob Marshall’s adaption of the Broadway hit Nine (itself based on Fellini’s 8 1/2) arrives in theaters with an echoing thud. A stunning waste of a terrific cast including Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Judie Dench, Sophia Loren and Fergie. A couple of the numbers (particularly Fergie’s Be Italian) threaten to animate this corpse, but it never happens.
Opened: (12/19/09) Trailer / Showtimes
North Face (***).Based on the true story of the 1936 attempt to climb the dangerous north face of the Eiger in the Swiss Alps, this German film features some terrific mountain climbing sequences, but it’s weighed down some by a dramatic subtext that feels a little half-hearted and unfocused. Still it’s worth seeing for the harrowing climb.
Opened: (1/29/10) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
October Country.Something of a portrait of working-class America by way of a year spent with four generations of the Mosher family in rural upstate New York. This documentary debuted to strong reviews at Sundance in 2009 and has since been nominated for a Spirit Award.
Opened: (2/12/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Police, Adjective (****).One of those foreign films where not a lot happens and it will frustrate those who like strong doses of plot and action to accompany their social commentary. The whole point here is that the dedicated and conscientious (if not very bright) Romanian cop at the center of the story is trying to keep much of anything from happening. Charged by his superiors to bust a young kid for possession of hashish in the hope he’ll lead them to his supplier, Cristi knows the kid is unlikely to talk and that a bust will just ruin his life. Instead he stalls in the hope he can tease out the kid’s supplier on his own. Eventually he’ll bump up against the literal letter of the law and the responsibility he knows he has to uphold it. The latest from Corneliu Porumboiu (12:08 East of Bucharest), is a slow but fascinating and dryly-darkly humorous look at life in the remnants of a totalitarian society where the attitudes and bureaucracies of the old system haven’t completely lost hold.
Opened: (12/25/09) Trailer / Showtimes
Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire (** 1/2).Critics, festival-goers and audiences across the country have embraced the story of Precious, an abused, overweight, illiterate, pregnant black teenager growing up against the odds in 1980s Harlem. If the film draws you into its melodramatic bubble, you’ll embrace it too. If it doesn’t, it’s an at-times comical, overwrought slog. But nevermind what I think. Critics loved it and Precious won Mo’Nique an Oscar for her performance as Precious’ monstrous mother.
Opened: (11/6/09) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
Prodigal Sons (*** 1/2).Transgender filmmaker Kimberly Reed documents her return to Helena, Montana for her 20th high school reunion. It’s the first time she’s been home in ten years and also the first since she transitioned. At the same time, she hopes to forge a new relationship with her adopted older brother Marc from whom she’s been estranged all these years. While Kimberly seeks to put her past behind her once and for all, Marc is stuck there, stripped of his short-term memory and the victim of violent mood swings since a brain injury in his 20s. Kimberly’s old schoolmates embrace her, but Marc remains a problem. When he discovers that his grandparents were Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, it seems to be an opportunity for him to seize a new identity of his own. Can Marc and Kimberly bury their pasts and forge a new, healthy relationship? Prodigal Sons is a fascinating, deeply personal look at ordinary family problems magnified by a set of extreme circumstances. It’s compelling stuff and it mostly manages to avoid feeling exploitative or voyeuristic.
Opened: (2/26/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Red Cliff (****).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 with a fiery 25-minute final battle that 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. (Available in 2-part international version and edited 1-part domestic version)
Opened: (11/20/09) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
Red Riding Trilogy: 1974 (****).Originally produced for UK television, The Red Riding Trilogy is based on three of four novels written by David Pearce that use the real-life Yorkshire Ripper murders of the mid-70s to early 80s as a backdrop for an unremittingly bleak plunge into the depths of the human soul, or lack thereof. Building one after another as the case moves from 1974 to 1983, the story weaves characters in and out while the bodies pile up and hope recedes. It’s grim business and time and again it upends the comforting notion of a lone good guy riding into town to clean up the mess armed only with his determination and a clear sense of righteousness. The killings themselves are mostly just to stir the pot of corruption and despair that define the time and place. I watched all three films 1974, 1980 and 1983 in one night. You can do the same for one week only at IFC Center in New York, but I think they might be best appreciated if they’re given a little breathing room. For those living outside of New York, the film is also available on IFC VOD. The careful cinematography takes advantage of a large screen and I generally always recommend the theatrical experience over television, but The Red Riding Trilogy might be best digested in chunks in the comfort of our own home.
Opened: (2/5/10) Trailer
Red Riding Trilogy: 1980 (****).(see above)
Opened: (2/5/10) Trailer
Red Riding Trilogy: 1983 (****).(see above)
Opened: (2/5/10) Trailer
The Road (****).John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is a bleak and despairing trek across a burned out post-apocalyptic landscape where a father and his son cling to each other and to a ragged shred of hope for salvation lying somewhere beyond the horizon. It’s a difficult journey for both the characters and the audience, but not one without its rewards. In some ways a horror story and in some ways a classically suspenseful chase story, The Road strips you down before building to an emotional climax that is among the most moving and heartfelt of the year. Viggo Mortensen does terrific work as “The Man” in a haunting, spare performance.
Opened: (11/25/09) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
Saint John of Las Vegas.In this indie comedy drama, Steve Buscemi plays John, a gambling addict who flees Las Vegas after a run of bad luck and takes a job at an auto insurance company in New Mexico. When the job brings him back to Las Vegas, road movie antics featuring a series of crazy characters ensue and John must confront his addiction head on. Sarah Silverman, Romany Malco, Peter Dinklage, John Cho and Emmanuelle Chirqui co-star.
Opened: (1/29/10) Trailer / Showtimes
The Secret of Kells.Everyone was stunned when this animation from one of the producers of the great The Triplets of Belleville was nominated for an Oscar. Except me. Ok, it was kind of a dumb lucky guess based on Kells‘ success in getting an Annie nomination and the strong grass roots campaign it mounted, but there it is. Living in medieval Ireland at an outpost under threat from barbarians, a boy must help finish a magical book. A fantastic, Celtic mythology-infused journey ensues.
Opened: (3/5/10) Trailer / Showtimes
The Spy Next Door.The Spy Next Door. Perhaps taking a page out of Arnold Schwartzenegger’s Kindergarten Cop playbook, Hong Kong action superstar Jackie Chan finally and completely deballs himself for a tepid “family action comedy” from the director of Snow Dogs and the writer of Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector. Still need convincing to stay the hell away? George Lopez and Billy Ray Cyrus are in it.
Opened: (1/15/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Stolen.Jon Hamm (Mad Men) is a police detective who becomes obsessed when the facts of a 50-year-old murder case dovetail with the disappearance of his own son. Josh Lucas, Rhona Mitra and James Van Der Beek also star. Stolen has been playing IFC OnDemand since March 3.
Opened: (3/12/10) Trailer
Tales From the Script (*** 1/2).Filmed in conjunction with the Peter Hanson’s book
of the same name, Tales from the Script is a must-see for anyone who has ever wanted to write a screenplay or who is currently trying to. That probably describes 75% of the people sitting around me at the hipster Hollywood watering hole from which I’m typing this paragraph. Comprised entirely of talking-head interviews with dozens of present and former Hollywood screenwriters including Allison Anders, Shane Black, John Carpenter, Larry Cohen, William Goldman and Paul Schrader, Script paints an amusing and at times bleak portrait of a livelihood everyone seems to think they can succeed at while few ever do. Charting the pains and the pleasures of life as a writer in Hollywood, it’s part cautionary tale and part instruction manual for any aspiring word jockey. Script is not a fancy documentary and its appeal might be highest with those eager to break into the industry, but it’s also bursting with anecdotes – both amusing and sad – from those toiling in a job that is integral to the making of movies, yet seems to be treated as the least important part of the process.
Opened: (3/12/10) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
Terribly Happy.Danish noir with a darkly amusing streak. After a breakdown, a big city policeman takes the Marshal’s job in a small town. What could possibly go wrong in a small town in Denmark? Well, first of all, he falls for a married woman… Yeah, you get the picture.
Opened: (2/5/10) Trailer / Showtimes
That Evening Sun (*** 1/2).Brought to life by an Oscar-worthy turn from the great Hal Holbrook (snubbed!), Scott Teems’ adaptation of William Gay’s modern southern gothic short story is a rich character piece and a vivid evocation of a specific time and place. Holbrook plays Abner Meecham, a widowed Tennessee farmer who isn’t quite ready to let the world pass him by. Briefly consigned to a nursing home, Abner escapes only to find that his farm has been rented with an option to purchase by the son of an old family enemy. A contest of wills develops as Abner seeks to hold on to the only connection he has to his wife and the world. As good as Holbrook is, Ray McKinnon almost steals the show as the villain of the piece, Lonzo Choat. McKinnon could easily have fallen back on the Southern white trash stereotype, but the screenplay and his performance tap into the roots of a broken man’s rage and bitterness. He transforms Choat the monster into a complete character. While his actions remain unforgivable, they are at least understandable and recognizably human. Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland), Carrie Preston (Transamerica) and Barry Corbin (No Country for Old Men) also star.
Opened: (11/6/09) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
To Save a Life.If you can just stop your binge drinking and pre-marital sex for 90 minutes, here’s an after school special aimed at church youth groups. The popular kid questions his priorities and changes his loose living ways after a former friend offs himself on campus.
Opened: (1/22/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Toe to Toe.Toe to Toe. Indie after school special about two high school seniors at a DC area prep school. One is a privileged white girl/school tramp while the other is a determined African American on scholarship from a poor neighborhood. As teammates on the lacrosse team, they’re friends at first but become enemies when racial tension rears its head.
Opened: (2/26/10) Trailer / Showtimes
A Town Called Panic.Based on the trailer, I have no idea what to make of this crazyass Belgian cartoon, but I’m sufficiently intrigued.
Opened: (12/19/09) Trailer / Showtimes
The White Ribbon (*** 1/2).This might be Michael Haneke’s most accessible and “likable” film, but I can’t help feeling he’s still making the audience the victim of his misanthropic scolds even as the film’s surprisingly warm and sweet center comes to the fore near the end. Strange, violent and ominous occurrences plague a rural German village on the eve of World War I and it brings out the worst in people. And then there are those creepy little kids… The White Ribbon was much better than I expected – the photography (filmed in color and then drained to black and white) was great to look at, the mood was compellingly portentious – but I need a second viewing before I settle what it all adds up to.
Opened: (12/30/09) Trailer / Showtimes
The Yellow Handkerchief.A mismatched trio makes its way across post-Katrina Louisiana. William Hurt is a recently released convict who hitches a ride with wanderer Eddie Redmayne. Before long, they pick up Kristin Stewart, a troubled teen with daddy issues currently in between men. Nothing like a convertible and the open road for three indie film refugees helping each other sort out their respective baggage. Word out of Sundance was that the story based on a piece Pete Hamill wrote for the New York Post in the 1970s was nothing to write home about but that the performances were very good. Maria Bello fits in in flashback as Hurt’s ex-wife.
Opened: (2/26/10) Trailer / Showtimes
Youth in Revolt (** 1/2).Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl) adapts C.D. Payne’s popular novel into a teen comedy that has the potential to be a cut above the rest, but fails to cash in on its promise. Michael Cera puts a slightly cynical spin on his usual awkward teenager role as Nick Twisp, the guy who can’t get the girl. More importantly he refreshingly and amusing branches out as Francois Dillinger, the alter ego he creates to help inject some excitement into his flatlining social life. Unfortunately, Youth in Revolt never capitalizes on what it has. It’s fitfully amusing (your results may vary), but it’s not funny enough to cover up for the fact that Nick is essentially an unlikable fellow who isn’t really as smart or self aware as he thinks he is. Surrounding him by adults who are even more absurd stacks the deck in his favor, but doesn’t make him any more sympathetic. Worse still, the object of his desire (engaging newcomer Portia Doubleday) is kind of a horrible person too. A capable cast including Steve Buscemi, Ray Liotta, Justin Long, Jean Smart, Fred Willard and break-out comedian of 2009 Zach Galifianakis provide support as the moronic adults, but it’s not enough to make this one work. A comedy without a soul or point of view had better be really funny, but Youth in Revolt just isn’t.
Opened: (1/8/10) Trailer / Review / Showtimes
