Short Subjectives October 07 2009
OPENING FRIDAY
THE BEACHES OF AGNES (NR) See review.
THE BOYS ARE BACK (PG-13) Joe Warr (Clive Owen), a wise-cracking sportswriter, finds himself a single parent of two after his wife’s tragic death. The three boys must find their way together and learn the graces of everyday life and love.
COUPLES RETREAT (PG-13) See review.
FREE STYLE 1 star (PG) High School Musical’s Corbin Bleu plays Cale Bryant, a small-town teen with ambitions of becoming a pro motorbike racer. While Free Style features some cool slow-motion stunts, they all look alike, while the plot merely rehashes the go-for-it clichés of a zillion other race movies, including Cars. See Whip It instead.
GOOD HAIR 3 stars (PG-13) See review.
I SELL THE DEAD (NR) See review.
DULY NOTED
ATLANTA PHILOSOPHY FILM FESTIVAL Short films from around the world that ask the whos, whats, wheres, whens and whys of life are showcased in this mini festival. Free. 8:30 p.m. Thurs., Oct. 8. Plaza Theatre, 1049 Ponce De Leon Ave. 404-939-1708. www.atlantathinkfestival.org.
DRACULA (NR) (1931) Get the chance to see one of the earliest classic horror films on the big screen. The creepy and dark film directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi will certainly put you in a Halloween state of mind. Free. 8 p.m. Wed., Oct. 7. Emory University, White Hall, Room 205. 404-727-6761. www.filmstudies.emory.edu.
THE WINDOW (NR) (2008) An elderly man awaits what will probably be a final visit from his estranged son. As he waits, he wanders through his fields for the last time and reflects on his vigorous life. In Spanish with English subtitles. $6-$7. 8 p.m. Sat., Oct. 10. High Museum, 1280 Peachtree St. 404-733-4570. www.high.org.
CONTINUING
9 3 stars (PG-13) In a post-apocalyptic city, robotic ragdolls, including inquisitive 9 (voiced by Elijah Wood), fight off the remnants of the war machines that destroyed humanity. With so many computer-animated cartoon features devoted to pop-savvy kiddie comedies about talking animals, it’s refreshing to see a CGI adventure with a unique vision. Director Shane Acker’s vision of jerry-rigged, Rube Goldberg-style inventions and landscapes can be fascinating. That said, 9 is PG-13 for a reason, and may be too intense for little kids and too dark for many adults. It’s like Pinocchio vs. Terminator. — Curt Holman
A PERFECT GETAWAY (R) Cliff and Cydney (Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich) are an adventurous young couple celebrating their honeymoon by backpacking to one of the most beautiful - and remote - beaches in Hawaii. Hiking the wild, secluded trails, they believe they’ve found paradise. But when the pair comes across a group of frightened hikers discussing the horrifying murder of another newlywed couple on the islands, they begin to question whether they should turn back.
ALIENS IN THE ATTIC (PG-13) Aliens in the Attic, co-scripted by one of the writers of Madagascar and the Academy Award-winning Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbits, is an adventure/comedy about kids on a family vacation who must fight off an attack by knee-high alien invaders with world-destroying ambitions - while the youngsters’ parents remain clueless about the battle.
ART AND COPY (NR) Fans of “Mad Men” will want to check out the Plaza Theatre’s run of this documentary about the recent history of the advertising industry and it’s relationship between art and commerce.
BIG FAN 4 stars (R) “Paul from Long Island” (Patton Oswalt), a parking lot attendant and obsessed fan of the New York Giants, has a life-changing encounter with a star linebacker (Jonathan Hamm). Writer/director Robert D. Siegel also wrote the screenplay for The Wrestler and shows a similar insight to the subcultures and rituals of sports culture. Oswalt gives Paul a compulsiveness comparable to his voice performance in Ratatouille and offers a grim character study of an individual who can’t imagine a better life. - Holman
BRIGHT STAR 4 stars (PG) The Piano director Jane Campion offers a deeply felt retelling of the doomed love affair between romantic poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and neighbor/clothing designer Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish). Though set around the same time as all those Jane Austen movies, Bright Star presents far more of the dirt, pungency and claustrophobia of the era than the usual period piece. Avoiding melodrama, Bright Star captures the aching futility of love and its redemption — at least in the textbooks — through Keats’ immortal verse. – Holman
THE BURNING PLAIN (R) Oscar-nominated screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga makes his directorial debut with this drama starring Charlize Theron as a restaurant manager whose life becomes connected to other women in America and Mexico, including Kim Basinger.
CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY 3 stars (PG-13) In a semi-sequel to his 1989 documentary Roger & Me, Michael Moore offers a critique of the excesses of the capitalist system, focusing most of his ire on the huge banks and mortgage companies at the center of the 2008 economic meltdown. Moore doesn’t have to look far to uncover horrifying tales of corporate greed and malfeasance, and offers some optimistic anecdotes about the benefits of worker-owned companies. His patented showboating stunts prove as empty and annoying as ever, however, and he waffles the issue as to how to replace the free enterprise system. — Holman
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 3 stars (PG) Young crackpot inventor Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader) accidentally revitalizes his struggling hometown with a gizmo that causes “food weather” to fall from the sky. When greed and pride cause ginormous menu items to wreak havoc, it’s like a Roland Emmerich disaster film combined with an all-you-can eat buffet. The sight gags, splendid animation and effective use of 3-D make up for the thin characterizations, and the metaphors for excess consumption make the film comparable to a Happy Meal version of Super Size Me. — Holman
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EXTRACT (R) “Arrested Development’s” Jason Bateman plays Joel, owner of a beverage company called Reynold’s Extract, who juggles a corporate buyout, a personal injury lawsuit, a sexually disinterested wife (Kristen Wiig), a manipulative hottie (Mila Kunis) and the occasional horse tranquilizer. Mike Judge, who previously helmed the cult hits Office Space and Idiocracy, tends to be kind of half-assed with plot and structure, but deserves employee of the month for his hilarious, quotable dialogue and work with actors including Ben Affleck, J.K. Simmons and David Koechner, and Gene Simmons in a hilarious cameo as a personal injury lawyer with unbelievable helmet-hair. - Holman
(500) DAYS OF SUMMER 2 stars (PG-13) Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a hapless would-be architect who falls for free-spirited Summer (Zooey Deschanel), despite her aversion to emotionally committed relationships. Quirky to a fault but nicely acted by Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel, the film offers a fresh substitute for cookie-cutter rom-coms, but Woody Allen brought more insight to scrambled chronology and surreal set-ups in Annie Hall. Summer would be on stronger ground if it offered a strong female perspective to balance Gordon-Levitt’s character. - Holman
FAME (PG) The High School Musical franchise no doubt inspired this PG-rated “reinvention” of the R-rated Alan Parker film from 1980 about the students and teachers at the New York School of Performing Arts.
THE FINAL DESTINATION (R) The fourth and allegedly “final” film in the Final Destination series follows a group of young people who avoid a disaster at a race track, only to fall prey to more outlandish demises after the fact. Presented in 3-D at participating theaters, so you can feel like stuff is flying right at your head.
GAMER (R) Gerard Butler stars in this futuristic action-satire in which real humans become unwitting pawns in a violent, multi-player on-line game created by an evil rich guy (“Dexter’s” Michael C. Hall).
G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA (PG-13) Stephen Sommers, director of the first two Mummy movies, literally turns actors into action figures in this adaptation of Hasbro’s G.I. Joe toy franchise. Remember, this draws on its 1980s incarnation, when G.I. Joe is not a person, but an organization that takes on the terrorist group called Cobra.
HALLOWEEN II (R) Laurie Strode struggles to come to terms with her brother Michael’s deadly return to Haddonfield, Ill. Meanwhile, Michael prepares for another reunion with his sister.
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE 4 stars (PG-13) The romantic misadventures of Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his pals Ron and Hermione (Rupert Grint and Emma Watson) distract them from the secret plans of Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) and Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) to respectively hinder and help the malevolent Lord Voldemort. The sixth Harry Potter film conspicuously lacks the headlong momentum and political metaphors of Order of the Phoenix, director David Yates’ previous effort. Between a suspenseful first section and an eventful (if anticlimactic) finale lies a pleasant but draggy stretch primarily about teen hormones and magic charms, but it’s all essentially a prelude to the final two films. — Holman
THE HURT LOCKER 5 stars (R) In 2004 Baghdad, two U.S. “bomb techs” (Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty) hope to finish their tour without getting killed by the confident, reckless Sgt. James (Jeremy Renner in a star-making performance). Director Kathryn Bigelow presents the most original and gripping war film since Saving Private Ryan by crafting bomb disposal set pieces that draw the audience’s attention as taut as a tripwire. Compared to other Iraq War films, The Hurt Locker keeps its politics close to the chest, while exploring the psychological impact war can have on our soldiers’ psyches. - Holman
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I CAN DO BAD ALL BY MYSELF (PG-13) Heavy-drinking nightclub singer April (Benjamin Button’s Taraji P. Henson) attempts to care for three troubled young people with a little help from Madea in Tyler Perry’s latest feature film. Look for such local stage actors as Tess Malis Kincaid and Eric Mendenhall.
ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS (PG) In the third, 3-D entry in the Ice Age franchise, the wisecracking prehistoric mammals discover a subterranean realm populated by dinosaurs. Simon Pegg joins the vocal team of Ray Romano, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, et. al.
THE INFORMANT! 3 stars (R) Looking more like Philip Seymour Hoffman than Jason Bourne, Matt Damon plays an Archer Daniels Midland executive who blows the whistle on the company’s corporate malfeasance, even though he’s a pathological liar up to his neck in personal misdeeds. Erin Brockovich director Steven Soderbergh takes the genre of crusading David vs. corporate Goliath on its head and reveals the commonplace banality of corporate chicanery and the flaws of the criminal justice system. Soderbergh shows little faith in the material as comedy, larding the soundtrack with whacky, kazoo-heavy ragtime, but supporting players like Tony Hale deliver enough laughs to balance the books. — Holman
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS 3 stars (R) In Quentin Tarantino’s World War II revenge fantasy, the Basterds are a band of Jewish-American G.I.s, led by Brad Pitt’s drawling lieutenant, who murder Nazis behind the lines in occupied France. Inglourious Basterds spends surprisingly little time on the title characters, or even caper-style action scenes of WWII mission movies, and opts for long, talky confrontations involving French, German and British agents. Christoph Waltz’s misleadingly polite Nazi lives up to the hype as the villain of the year, but the film’s restless approach to its multiple storylines makes it feel less, rather than more, meaningful. — Holman
THE INVENTION OF LYING 3 stars (PG-13) On an alternate world that knows no deceit or falsehood, underachieving screenwriter Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) discovers the ability to lie and turns society upside down. Gervais and co-writer/co-director Matthew Robinson take the premise to fascinating lengths when the Biblically-named Mark describes an afterlife and implies that organized religion is a lie. Unfortunately, the film backs off from its more provocative ideas and contorts its concept to create rom-com complications for Mark and his true love (Jennifer Garner). Still, its funny lines, big ideas and parade of amusing cameos make Lying one of the year’s most interesting comedies. Honest. — Holman
IT MIGHT GET LOUD 3 stars (PG-13) Having tackled global warming with his documentary An Inconvenient Truth, director Davis Guggenheim turns to global loudening in this portrait of electric guitarists from three generations: Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, U2’s The Edge and the White Stripes’ Jack White. The trio’s “summit” - part rap session, part jam session - includes a terrific cover of a hit from the Band but doesn’t seem to be quite the revelation Guggenheim hoped for. The threesome provides insightful perspectives on rock music, with the younger guitarists seeming ambivalent about the styles of the elders. Plus, their shop talk can be fascinating. — Holman
JENNIFER’S BODY 2 stars (R) A hot, slightly bitchy high schooler (Megan Fox) turns into a hotter, bitchier, boy-eating cannibal when a satanic ceremony goes wrong. A mousy teen nicknamed “Needy” (Mamma Mia!’s Amanda Seyfried) tries to stop her former BFF. The sophomore script from Diablo Cody, Oscar-winner for Juno, goes off in too many thematic directions, including high school spoof, Sept. 11 satire, female-phobic shlock and feminist empowerment fantasy. A versatile, witty lead actress could have pulled Cody’s ideas together, but Fox’s slammin’ body can’t compensate for her flat delivery and empty eyes. — Holman
JULIE & JULIA 3 stars (PG-13) A woman verging on 30 and frustrated in a temp secretary job takes on a yearlong culinary quest: to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She chronicles her trials and tribulations in a blog that catches on with the food crowd.
LORNA’S SILENCE (R) The Dardenne brothers, who directed the intriguing drama The Son, helms this film about two pretty Albanian immigrants in Belgium seeking to find better lives.
MY ONE AND ONLY (PG-13) The beautiful Ann Devereaux (Renée Zellweger) leaves her adulterous husband Dan (Kevin Bacon) behind and hits the road. She drags her two teenage sons George (Logan Lerman) and Robbie (Mark Rendall) along for the ride and together they discover a new meaning of family.
MY SISTER’S KEEPER (PG) A young girl (Little Miss Sunshine’s Abigail Breslin), brought into the world as a genetic match for her ailing older sister, sues her parents for medical emancipation. Cameron Diaz plays the no-doubt conflicted mom and Alec Baldwin plays as the younger sister’s lawyer. It’s hard to imagine any summer movie being a bigger, more overt tear-jerker than this one.
ORPHAN (R) Talented indie actors Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard play a couple who adopt a 9-year-old Wednesday Addams lookalike (Isabelle Fuhrman) who turns out to be a bad seed.
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PARIS (R) Adored director Cédric Klapish (L’Auberge Espangole) and a cast of all-star French actors (including Juliette Binoche, Romain Duris, Melanie Laurent, Fabrice Luchini, Francois Cluzet and Karin Viard) give us a unique and romantic story of Parisian life and love.
THE PROPOSAL (PG-13) Sandra Bullock plays a Canadian-born New York book editor who pretends to be engaged to her assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to avoid deportation. It sounds like Green Card gives way to Meet the Parents when they fly to Alaska to meet his family.
THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE (PG-13) This documentary profiles Vogue magazine Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour and the preparations for the magazine’s massive fall fashion issue in 2008.
SHORTS (PG) Sin City director Robert Rodriguez reverts to his Spy Kids family-oriented mode for this suburban fable about a boy who finds a rock that can make wishes come true.
SORORITY ROW (R) A group of sorority girls attempt to cover up a prank turned deadly, only to be stalked by an unknown killer. It’s a remake of 1983’s The House on Sorority Row, raising the question, are there any slasher films left that haven’t been remade?
SURROGATES 2 stars (PG-13) In the near future, most Americans vicariously live their lives through perfect android “surrogates” that they operate safely from home. Bruce Willis plays an FBI agent who unplugs his surrogate self to investigate a conspiracy in the flesh. This adaptation takes the premise of the graphic novel (from Atlanta’s Top Shelf Productions) and pushes it into fascinating directions that resonate with contemporary trends in the Internet and social networking. The sheer number of twists push the film into silliness and director Jonathan Mostow doesn’t distinguish between robotic acting and simply bad acting. — Holman
TOY STORY 3-D DOUBLE FEATURE 5 stars (G) In anticipation of next summer’s Toy Story 3, Disney re-releases the computer-animated comedies that made Pixar the preeminent family filmmakers of our time. Enhanced with 3-D effects, the first Toy Story offers a winning introduction to the Pixar formula by exploring the rivalry of two playthings, Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen). Toy Story 2 is the rare sequel that improves on the original by giving Woody a dilemma that involves the contemplation of his own mortality, along with hilarious one-liners and rousing action scenes. — Holman
TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN 1 star (PG-13) The Autobots, those heroic space robots, must protect Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) from the evil Decepticons when the teen journeys from college campus to Egyptian desert to find an Earth-shaking artifact called the Matrix of Leadership. Bay’s original Transformers was hardly an exercise in subtlety, but at least it offered a sense of discovery and built some genuine suspense. At once sillier and more pompous, the sequel makes a chaotic hash of things from practically the first scene and draws out for two and a half deafening hours. If only it could transform into a movie that doesn’t suck. — Holman
THE UGLY TRUTH (PG-13) In this rom-com from the director of Monster-in-Law, an unmarried morning TV show producer (“Grey’s Anatomy’s” Katherine Heigl) becomes reluctantly teamed with a boorish on-air personality (300’s Gerard Butler) for a series on dating and relationships. I wonder if they’ll fall in love?
UP 5 stars (PG) An elderly widower (voiced by Ed Asner) uses zillions of balloons to take his house on airborne adventure, unwittingly bringing a pesky boy scout (Jordan Nagai) along for the ride. Monsters, Inc. director Pete Docter helms Pixar’s latest masterpiece, which begins with an achingly lovely montage of a marriage and builds to a rousing adventure story that combines Jules Verne, Indiana Jones and some of the most hilarious dog jokes every put on film. Plus, the instantly iconic image of the floating house accumulates considerable richness as a metaphor for life and memory. — Holman
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WHIP IT 4 stars (PG-13) A reluctant small-town beauty contestant (Ellen Page) discovers her true calling as “Babe Ruthless,” a speedy competitor in Austin, Texas’ rough-and-tumble roller derby. First-time filmmaker Drew Barrymore plays a supporting role but brings more skill and subtlety to her direction than she often shows in her likeable (if one-note) acting. The big-hearted film refuses to demonize antagonists like the suffocating mom (Marcia Gay Harden) or the bullying rival (Juliette Lewis), and overall Whip It skates away with the clichés of underdog sports and coming-of-age comedies. — Holman
WHITEOUT (R) Underworld’s Kate Beckinsale plays a U.S. marshall tracking a killer in Antarctica when the sun is about to set for six months. This long-delayed action film is based on Greg Rucka’s graphic novel, which has a similarly stark color scheme as Sin City — only white.
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A WOMAN IN BERLIN 4 stars (Not rated) A German patriot (Nina Hoss) witnesses and endures brutal treatment at the hands of the Russian army during the occupation of Berlin in the final throes of World War II. Based on a controversial memoir published in 1959 by an author known only as “Anonyma,” A Woman in Berlin captures the moral complexities of war-time atrocities, as Hoss’s character and the other German citizens suffer from treatment comparable to what the Germans inflicted on the Jews and Russian citizens. Though the film occasionally makes for difficult viewing, it’s an undeniably powerful work. — Holman
WORLD’S GREATEST DAD 3 stars (R) Two former madcap comedians - director Bobcat Goldthwait and star Robin Williams - defy expectations in this strong, controlled dark satire about a would-be author and high school teacher (Williams) saddled by a sullen teenage son (Daryl Sabara, now unrecognizable from the Spy Kids movies). In a high school-set spoof reminiscent of Election and Heathers, the film skewers society’s manufactured heroism, and Williams suppresses his usual shtick to offer a compelling portrait of quiet desperation. — Holman
ZOMBIELAND 4 stars (R) Four mismatched survivors (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) road-trip across zombie-ravaged America in this comedy. Although the George Romero-inspired trope should have completely decomposed by now, Zombieland finds new life in the genre through a clever script and snappy direction. England’s Shaun of the Dead did the rom-zom-com concept first and better, but Zombieland plays like a more raucous American-style variation on the same themes. It’s like the difference between Flight of the Conchords and Tenacious D. — Holman