Mame (l974) Sounding like Count Dracula, baritone Lucille Ball sings up a storm in this slow, clunky abomination.
Lions For Lambs(2007) Robert Redford directs Tom Cruise in this anti-war propaganda piece for Cruise’s new studio. Preachy and woodenly-acted.
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993) Gus Van Sant misdirected this version of the Tom Robbins’ novel. Give this one to your enemies for Xmas.
Even though it’s not even Thanksgiving yet you do need to start thinking about what to get the film buff in your life if you want your gifts to arrive in time for the holidays.
The Paul Newman Tribute Collection (l958-l972, boxed), the first part released for Christmas giving, the second due later on.
25 Films of Akira Kurosawa (Deluxe cloth-bound collector’s set, with a 96 page book–re-tooled by the geniuses at the Critersion Company. Out Dec. 8; can be advance ordered at [Criterion.com]. The price? $3l9 smackeroos.
An Education: on the cusp of release An Education, written by Nick Hornby, and Starring Peter Sarsgaard in a breakout role as a late-30s hustler who patiently involves himself in the seduction of a not-so-naïve l6 year old girl.
Fantastic Mr. Fox; An epic, expensive stop-motion animationer (as in the Wallace and Gromit films) with the voice-power of George Clooney and Meryl Streep. All of this was overseen by wunderkind Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums).
Read Richard Brody’s in-depth article about Mr. Fox (abstract for non-subscribers).
Of his more than 55 films, Alfred Hitchcock called The Shadow of a Doubt (l943) his favorite. As dense as a novel, this film about a serial killer (Joseph Cotton) returning back home to his unsuspecting relatives. Smart and sly–the movie, that is. (Watch the movie)
Trailer
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A friend of mine saw a few minutes of James Cameron’s 3-D Avatar, and raved. (The news here is that my friend doesn’t like Special Effects movies. ) For more info, check out this week’s New Yorker on-line for a feature on the always controversial Cameron
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Upcoming movies with great Buzz are Up in the Air, with George Clooney.
Nine, with Daniel-Day Lewis
Alice in Wonderland, with mixed reviews for Johnny Depp. (He’s not Alice.)
As the holiday season officially begins with Halloween (what more appropriate?). here’s a short-take round-up, some reviewed by the Weekly (and some not), of “interesting” movies around.
Zombieland
Can you believe it–an American comedy with a real sense of humor. But that’s Zombieland, sly and funny, with a first-rate extended cameo by Bill Murray, right in his element here. Woody Harrelson is good, too, as a professional zombie killer, with supporting roles by Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland) and Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine). A real surprise–considering.
Visit the Zombieland youtube channel.
Cheri (DVD)
Michelle Pfeiffer at her best, and stunning-looking, as a successful courtesan (Belle Epoque division), in Cheri, who’s taken a lover 20-something years younger. Not a great movie but an interesting one, with reliable Kathy Bates as a friend/rival, and whose son Cheri beds down. From the two Cheri novellas by Collette. Directed by Stephen Frears.
What’s the best comedy of the year?
The Brit “In the Loop,” with our own James Gandofini. Soon available on DVD–the movie, that is. Real satire in our age of poo-poo and jerk-off jokes. A miracle, really.
Best Movie Blog
The New Yorker’s The Front Row by Richard Brody.
Thinking Outside the Box (office)
What movie made twice its money back this year without being based on a video game, a toy, or GM cars on steroids? Answer: Wendy and Lucy, whose director will teach Indie film-making at UH’s self-supporting Pacific New Media, in 20l0.
That is the billion-dollar question–maybe. With 3-D movies, even without first-rate projection, making bundles of dough-re-mi (even a clunker like the “final” Final Destination pile of merde, has 3-D made itself legitimate? While ersatz movie critics seem to think 3-D is all about things being flung at the audience, it’s simply not all there is. As James Cameron, now putting the finishing touches on his 3-D Avatar, keeps trying to tell us.
A positive example, you say? The IMAX Galapagos was a first-rate movie, in which depth, scale, and visual perspective gave more information than 2-D could…way more.
The already-flat-converted-to-3D double-feature release of the Toy Story is cleaning up at the box office. So, what movies could be converted to 3-D and then released. How about On Golden Pond, Driving Miss Daisy, and My Dinner With Andre? (Just kidding about Andre…)
A movie I recently had a writer’s hand in, and which is now in post-production, is up for the possible conversion. The conversion cost has not been announced, but it must be in the low millions. Should they convert or not? Stayed tuned. But, know this, a half-billion dollars has been raised to put new state-of-the-art 3-D movie projectors in U.S. Theatres.
What movie, way underseen, has this cast? Evangeline Lilly (Lost), Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce, David Morse, and an Oscar-non headed Jeremy Renner (The Assassination of Jesse James).
The answer: The Hurt Locker–an indie (made for $ll million), written by Mark Boal (Valley of Elah), directed, superbly, by Kathryn Bigelow, and (not very arguably) the most suspenseful movie of the year, and one of the two or three best of the year.
While the rest of the country went calling on a “war movie” with an incorrectly-spelled title, some chose instead this superb study in courage, about a bomb-disposal squad In Iraq,..and with the most complicated hero in modern movies, walking the razor’s edge between Heroism and Madness.
When it appears on DVD, see it.
Bob Green is a film writer (Baraka), screenwriting teacher, and a film critic. He has been writing for the Weekly for 18 years (since day 1) and is a terrific dancer.