Film Clips: This Weekend’s Openings and More July 16 2010
This week, movies are blurring the lines of real problems that seem made-up and made-up problems that seem real. Reality may be harsh when it comes to bringing normalcy to an unconventional family in The Kids Are All Right, but not as harsh as fantasy where Leo manipulates dreams in Inception. Check it!
- Melissa Moseley
- Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb in Inception
OPENING FRIDAY
INCEPTION 4 stars (PG-13) The brooding Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) leads a team of thieves (including Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page) capable of removing ideas from people’s dreams on a kind of subconscious caper to implant an idea in the mind of rising industrialist (Cillian Murphy). The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan disguises his dizzying head-trip as a slick action film without making these easy for his audience: information comes nearly beyond the speed of comprehension. Inception builds to a redemption plot that’s simplistic where the rest of the film is sophisticated, but Nolan’s excitement over his imaginary dream-heists prove undeniably infectious. — Holman
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT 4 stars (R ) The college-age daughter (Mia Wasikowska) of a lesbian couple (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore) resolves to meet the anonymous sperm donor (Mark Ruffalo) who fathered her, and his casual values destabilize the unconventional family structure. Writer/director Lisa Cholodenko crafts characters and situations that are exaggerated enough to be laugh-out-loud funny, but realistic enough to feel as fully-formed and surprising as real life. But which will end up being the Oscar-nominated role, Bening’s besieged perfectionist or Moore’s frustrated free spirit? — Holman
PERRIER’S BOUNTY (R ) In this Irish crime comedy, a young man (Inception’s Cillian Murphy) owes a thousand euros to a mobster named Perrier (Brendan Gleeson) and seeks help from his coke snorting father (Jim Broadbent) and occasionally hearing the Voice of Death (Gabriel Byrne).
DULY NOTED
HAUSU (1977) (R) In this stylish horror/comedy, teenage Japanese girls vacation at an old house, only to discover that it’s haunted by a deadly female ghost. Splatter Cinema. Through July 18, 9:30 p.m. The Plaza Theatre, 1049 Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-873-1939. www.plazaatlanta.com.
HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 3 stars (R ) There have been plenty of movies about second chances but none like this. Picture a cross between Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, 17 Again, and Back to the Future...but on crack! Enough said.
Flicks on 5th. Wed., July 21 at dusk (circa 9 p.m.) Technology Square in Midtown, 5th Street, between Spring St. and Williams St. Free. 404-894-2805. www.flickson5th.gatech.edu/
FAMILY (NR) This comedy-drama concerns a group of gay African-American women and their struggles with love, the workplace and the closet. July 18, 5:30 p.m. The Plaza Theatre, 1049 Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-873-1939. www.plazaatlanta.com.