Araya (No MPAA rating)"Araya" (Unrated, 90 minutes). This 1959 documentary won the critics’ Price at Cannes1959, but was almost forgotten. Restored to pristine beauty 50 years later, it shows the hard way of life of the salt workers on a remote Venezuelan peninsula. Stark, visually poetic, memory of a world that must have been hell to be born into. Three and a half stars (1/13/10)
Birdwatchers (No MPAA rating)
"Birdwatchers" (Unrated, 102 minutes). A group of Indians, displaced from their ancestral lands, returns to live there over the objections of farmers and federal government. A ground-level drama from the Indians' POV, with strong work by Indians playing themselves. The message is obvious, but the locations and performances are haunting. Three stars (1/6/10)
The Book of Eli (R)
"The Book of Eli" (R, 118 minutes). Denzel Washington strides west across an apocalyptic post-war America, in possession of a precious book that Gary Oldman, boss of a small town, will kill to possess. Denzel, a dab hand with knife and firearm, is poised somewhere between invulnerable and mystical, and Mila Kunis plays a victim of Oldman who walks along to escape. To call the conclusion implausible would be an insult to the world, but the film is very watchable. Three stars (1/13/10)
Broken Embraces (R)
"Broken Embraces" (R, 128 minutes). Almodovar's passionate new film. A blind man ( Lluis Homar), once a director, now a writer, learns the producer of his final film has died. He still hates this man. Flashbacks reveal the history of their relationship, and the woman (Penelope Cruz) between them. In the present, the dead man's son enlists him in a project to gain vengeance on his father, and old secrets are discovered. A voluptuary of a film, drunk on primary colors, caressing Penelope Cruz, using the devices of a Hitchcock to distract us with surfaces while the sinister uncoils beneath. Four stars. (12/16/09)
The Chaser (No MPAA rating)
"The Chaser" (Adults, 124 minutes). An expert serial killer film from South Korea and reminder of what a well-made thriller looked like in classic says. Its principal chase scene involves a foot race through the deserted narrow nighttime streets of Seoul. No exploding cars. The climax is the result of everything that has gone before. Not an extended fight scene. This is drama, and it is interesting. An ex-cop turned pimp chases a serial killer, as a prostitute's life hangs in the balance. Notre: Very violent. Three and a half stars (1/27/10)
Cloud Nine (No MPAA rating)
"Cloud Nine" (Unrated, 97 minutes) A sudden and unexpected romance between a 67-year-old woman and a 76-year-old man consumes them with passion but threatens the woman's 30-year marriage, which is peaceful and conventional. The sex and nudity of the lovers is treated as if they were 20-year-olds, as it should be. The ending may be a little heavy for the tone of the film. Winner of the section Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2008. Three stars (12/16/09)
Crazy Heart (R)
"Crazy Heart" (R, 112 minutes). Jeff Bridges is a Best Actor front-runner for his performance as Bad Blake, a broke-down, boozy country singer with a stubborn pride. Maggie Gyllenhaal finds all the right notes as a much younger reporter who comes for an interview and stays to be kissed. The songs, the singing, the milieu, the wisdom about alcoholism, are all convincing. The stuff of countless country songs, made true and new. With Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell in key supporting roles. Written and directed by first-timer Scott Cooper. Four stars (12/23/09)
Daybreakers (R)
"Daybreakers" (R, 98 minutes) Ten years in the future, a global epidemic has infected most of the population with vampirism. Humans, the blood supply, near extinction. Ethan Hawke plays an ethical vampire who works to develop a blood substitute and builds a bond with human survivors, who are opposed by the fanatic Vampire Army. An intriguing future where most people live by night; but the story holds few surprises and the ending is routine violence. Lots of bloody vampire explosions, though. Two and a half stars (1/6/10)
Dear John (PG-13)
"Dear John" (PG-13,105 minutes). A Special Forces soldier and a sweet South Carolina rich girl Meet Cute, fall in love, and pledge to meet and marry when his tour ends in a year. But it s not to be. Another one of those bittersweet Nicholas Sparks stories that laboriously endeavor to wring from us a sad smile. I was sadly smiling not at their loss, but of mine. Although Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried are attractive and well-matched as the would-be lovers, and Richard Jenkins makes autism seem kinda sweet (if it's a mild case), this movie is so doomed to end exactly the way it does that we wonder why the characters don't prevent it, if they want to. Two stars (2/3/10)
Did You Hear About the Morgans? (PG-13)
"Did You Hear About the Morgans?" (PG-13, 103 minutes). Feuding couple from Manhattan (Hugh Grant and Jessica Sarah Parker) are forced to flee town under Witness Protection Program, find themselves Fish Out of Water in Strange New World, meet Colorful Characters, survive Slapstick Adventures, end up Together at the End. The only part of that formula that still works is The End. With supporting roles for Sam Elliott and Wilford Brimley, sporting the two most famous mustaches in the movies. One and a half stars. (12/16/09)
Edge of Darkness (R)
"Edge of Darkness" (R, 117 minutes). When a Boston cop (Mel Gibson) sees his daughter murdered, his search for the killers leads him to a sinister, shadowy corporation and its oily chairman (Danny Huston). An intriguing free agent (Ray Winstone) materializes, with unexplained knowledge about the case. The corporation seems recycled from a Bond movie and the action scenes are boilerplate CGI, but Gibson and Winstone have some nice moments. Two and a half stars. (1/27/10)
Extraordinary Measures (PG)
"Extraordinary Measures" (PG, 105 minutes). An efficient formula picture, lacking characters with depth, content to hit all the usual marks. Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell play the parents of two children with Pompe disease, given less than a year to live. He seeks out an eccentric Nebraska scientist (Harrison Ford) who is working on a controversial cure. He turns out to be an irascible eccentric. Together, they try to fund a biotech startup before time runs out for the kids. In real life, the colorful Nebraskan was from Taiwan, and the $300,000 annual cost for life isn't covered by most U.S insurance companies. The film lacks the bravery of the parents. Two stars (1/20/10)
Fish Tank (No MPAA rating)
"Fish Tank" (Unrated, adults, 123 minutes). The harrowing portrait of a 15-year-old girl on a reckless path toward self-destruction. Her mother, only about 30, is a drunken slut and she seems on the same path. Covers a few days of fraught experiences with sex and anger. Superbly acted by newcomer Katie Jarvis. Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes 2009. Directed by Andrea Arnold. Four stars. (2/3/10)
From Paris With Love (R)
"From Paris with Love" (R, 92 minutes). John Travolta as an American Mr. Fix It who takes a cocky attitude to Paris and backs it up in a messy plot heavy on action scenes concocted from CGI and quick cutting. Nothing original, convincing or involving, although Travolta succeeds almost by being in a movie of his own. Directed by Pierre Morel, whose previous film, "Taken," was much better. Two stars. (2/3/10)
Gigante (No MPAA rating)
"Gigante" (Unrated, 88 minutes). A very tall, large, strong, lonely security guard in a huge supermarket becomes fascinated with a cleaning woman he follows on his video monitors. Soon he follows her in life, everywhere. He is too shy to speak, but he is certainly resourceful. Newcomer Horacio Camandulle is the shy giant, Leonor Svarcas plays the object of his desire. An exercise in voyeurism; we want him to ask her out almost more than he does. From Uruguay, in Spanish with English subtitles. Three stars (1/20/10)
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (PG-13)
"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (PG-13, 122 minutes). Heath Ledger on this side of the looking glass, and Colin Farrell, Johnny Depp and Jude Law on the other side, in substitute casting after Ledger's death. Works pretty well in Terry Gilliam's phantasmagorical extravaganza about a traveling magic-maker (Christopher Plummer) trying to escape a deal he made for immortality with the Devil (Tom Waits) in exchange for his daughter (Lily Cole). Not very coherent, but is an Imaginarium supposed to be? Three stars (1/6/10)
It's Complicated (R)
"It's Complicated" (R, 120 minutes). Meryl Streep is a millionaire bakery owner in Santa Barbara who begins a warm friendship with her architect Steve Martin) just as her ex-husband (Alec Baldwin) comes back into her love life. This inspires close calls, confusion among their children, fascination from her girl friends, some funny scenes, and too many that belong on the day-old shelf. Two and a half stars (12/23/09)
The Joy of Singing (No MPAA rating)
"The Joy of Singing" (Unrated, 96 minutes). The goofiest thrill-sex-music-spy movie in many a moon, with a surprising amount of nudity and an even more surprising amount of song. Secret info about uranium is missing, and spies from the Middle East, France and Russia are all assigned to take the same voice class as the widow of the man who last had the secrets. Why? Ask, and you're done for. The movie cheerfully makes little sense, but given its death toll all the spies become very serious about their lessons. Three stars (12/30/09)
The Last Station (R)
"The Last Station" (R, 110 minutes). On his country estate, in his last year, Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer) rules over a household of intrigues. His wife Sofya (Helen Mirren) is in fierce battle with his disciple Chertkov (Paul Giamatti), who thinks the Count should leave his estate to the Russian people, and not to Sofya and their 13 children. Cherkov hires young Valentin (James McAvoy) to act as Tolstoy's private secretary and a spy, but Valentin is seduced by a nubile Tolstoyian (Kerry Condon) and broadens his views about the great man. Sort of a Merchant-Ivory picture with loud instead of quiet lust. Three stars. (2/3/10)
Leap Year (PG)
"Leap Year" (PG, 97 minutes). Amy Adams and Matthew Goode have all the charm necessary to float a romantic comedy that follows an ancient plot trajectory with sweetness. Amy flies to Ireland for Leap Day, when she hopes to propose marriage to her fiancé of four long years (Adam Scott), but her journey must overcome many hazards and she's thrown together on the road with a handsome but surly young pub owner (Goode), and what do you expect happens then? Adams and Goode invest a familiar story with fresh appeal. Three stars (1/6/10)
The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (PG-13)
"The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond" (PG-13, 102 minutes). Never produced, long-forgotten Tennessee Williams screenplay from the 1950s, now filmed with Bryce Dallas Howard as a Southern heiress who tasted the freedom of Paris and now pretends to reenter stultifying Memphis high society. Not a very good screenplay or film, but rich in Tennessee's obsessions, and at its center a great performance by Ellen Burstyn, as old Miss Aggie, who escaped to Hong Kong and opium but has been dragged back it an upstairs bedroom to die. Downstairs, the band plays on. Three stars (1/6/10)
The Lovely Bones (PG-13)
"The Lovely Bones" (PG-13). A deplorable film with this message: If you're a 14-year-old girl who has been brutally raped and murdered by a serial killer, you have a lot to look forward to. You can get together in heaven with the other teenage victims of the same killer, and gaze down in benevolence upon your family members as they realize what a wonderful person you were. Peter Jackson ("Lord of the Rings") believes special effects can replace genuine emotion, and tricks up Alive Sebold's well-regarded novel with gimcrack New Age fantasies. With, however, affective performances by Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci and Saoirse Ronan as the victim. One star (1/13/10)
Mammoth (No MPAA rating)
"Mammoth" (PG-13, 125 minutes). A story of rich and poor, east and west; unfortunately too sentimental. While a Filipino nanny cares for the child of rich Manhattanites, her own children miss her at home in the Philippines. And the husband of the U.S. couple (Gael Garcia Bernal) encounters a Thai bar girl, also supporting her family, while his wife (Michelle Williams) is a surgeon concerned about a poor boy who is her patient. Symbolism a little too obvious, in an otherwise good film with evocative characters. Three stars (12/16/09)
Nine (PG-13)
"Nine" (PG-13, 112 minutes). My problem may be that I know Fellini's "8 1/2" too well. Your problem may be that you don't know it well enough. Both of us may be asking, who exactly was "Nine" made for? This is a big-scale version of the 1982 Broadway production, but lacking the passion, the guilt, the innate music, of the great Fellini musical. And it doesn't have a single great song. The role played on film by Marcello Mastroianni and onstage by Raul Julia is now played by--Daniel Day Lewis? Two stars. (12/23/09)
Police, Adjective (No MPAA rating)
"Police, Adjective" (Unrated, 115 minutes). A young Romanian cop is assigned to follow a 16-year-old boy suspected of smoking and perhaps supplying marijuana. If he arrests this boy, it will mean a term of eight to 16 years. This is against the cop's conscience, and he and his captain have a passionate argument about duty, conscience, and the letter of the law. In a sense they're talking about the past, present and future of their nation, which until 1989 was a police state. Three stars (12/22/09)
Sherlock Holmes (PG-13)
"Sherlock Holmes" (PG-13, 128 minutes). Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr), who has survived so much, here survives an onslaught of special effects orchestrated by Guy Ritchie, in a CGI London never more dark and gloomy. He and Watson (Jude Law) are on the trail of the Satanist Lord Blackwood, seemingly hanged and buried, but now returned from the grave. Will discomfort traditionalists, but Downey and Law perfect an Odd Couple relationship and are surround by the atmospheric and fantastical. With Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler, reportedly the only woman to ever touch Holmes' heart. Three stars. (12/23/09)
A Single Man (R)
"A Single Man" (R, 101 minutes). Colin Firth as a homosexual Brit teaching college in Los Angeles in 1962 and privately mourning his lover, who has been dead for eight months. He maintains an impeccable facade as he goes through what we have reason to suspect may be the last day of his life. Julianne Moore is the wealthy woman with whom he maintains a sad friendship. A flawless performance, but director Tom Ford so successfully portrays his reserved exterior that he shuts us away from what must be shrieks of grief and anger, bottled up. Three stars (12/23/09)
The Spy Next Door (PG)
“The Spy Next Door” (PG, 92 minutes). Jackie Chan is a Chinese-CIA double agent babysitting girl friend's three kids as Russian mobsters attack. Uh, huh. Precisely what you'd expect from a PG-rated Jackie Chan comedy. If that's what you're looking for, you won't be disappointed. It's not what I was looking for. One and a half stars. (1/13/10)
The Third Man ()
(1/27/10)
35 Shots of Rum (No MPAA rating)
"35 Shots of Rum" (Unrated, 99 minutes). About four people who have known each other in way or another for a long time, and how their relationships shift in a way that was slow in the preparation. They live across the hall from one another in a Paris apartment building--a train engineer, a clerk in music store, a taxi driver, a rootless young man. Their likes are contended but not complete. Director Clair Denis has long been interested in the people of France's former colonies in East Africa, and now considers those who are Parisians. A delicate study of human affection. Four stars (1/20/10)
Tooth Fairy (PG)
"Tooth Fairy" (PG, 101 minutes). Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson stars as a pro hockey played nicknamed the Tooth Fairy because of the dental damage he wreaks. But when he nearly destroys a young girls' faith in the Tooth Fairy, he's sentenced to a term in Fairy Land where he meets the Head Fairy (Julie Andrews), the armorer (Billy Crystal) and a social worker (Stephen Merchant), who towers over The Rock, and he ain't short. With Ashley Judd as the hero's g.f. Good cast, limp screenplay, direction by the numbers. Two stars (1/20/10)
A Town Called Panic (No MPAA rating)
"A Town Called Panic" (G, 75 minutes). Know how kids play with little plastic action figures that balance their feet on their own little platforms? And how kids move them around while doing their voices and making up adventures for them? Then you have a notion of the goofy charm generated by this new animated comedy from France. Horse, Cowboy and Indian live with Farmer and Policeman in a tiny village…and Horse's birthday inspires strange adventures. So simple it's sophisticated. Three and a half stars (1/13/10)
Up In the Air (R)
(12/16/09)
The White Ribbon (R)
"The White Ribbon" (R, 145 minutes). In a rural German village on the eve of World War One, bad things begin to happen. A murder, a barn fire, a cruel trick. Suspicion turns this way and that, but the facts don't seem to point to a single malefactor. The movie relates what happens but isn't a whodunit, and its message is that evil cannot be completely prevented and sometimes it takes place without a rational reason. The film has been described as about the rise of German fascism, but I think that's to simple. It's about how the rise of fear leads to the loss of freedom. Top winner at Cannes 2009. Four stars (1/13/10)
The Young Victoria (PG)
"The Young Victoria" (PG, 100 minutes) Emily Blunt makes Victoria as irresistible a young woman as Dame Judi Dench made her an older one in "Mrs. Brown" (1997). Show her at the center of a mighty struggle that also involved her adolescent emotions. She's almost equally warm toward the good Albert (Rupert Friend) and handsome Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany), the sort of cad most mothers, but not hers, would warn her about. A charmer. Three stars (12/16/09)
Youth in Revolt (R)
"Youth in Revolt" (R, 90 minutes). Michael Cera is laid back to a point approaching the horizontal in a comedy about a 16-year-old who lusts in hapless dreams and whose divorced parents are both shacked up. When his character, Nick Twisp, meets the lovely Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday) during family vacations to the Restless Axles trailer camp, it's love, but it's not simple. Cera's self-effacing style works nicely with his urgent desires. Three stars (1/6/10)
