The Exiles (No MPAA rating)(11/11/09)
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans (R)
"Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans"(R, 107 minutes) Werner Herzog stars Nicolas Cage in a dire portrait of a rapist, murderer, drug addict, corrupt cop and degenerate paranoid who is apprehensive about iguanas. It places this man in a devastated New Orleans not long after Hurricane Katrina. It makes no attempt to show that city of legends in a flattering light. And it gradually reveals itself as a sly comedy about a rather courageous man. Cage and Herzog were born to work together. Four stars (11/18/09)
2012 (PG-13)
"2012" (PG-12, 158 minutes) The mother of all disaster movies (and the father, and the extended family) spends half an hour on obligatory ominous set-up scenes (scientists warn, strange events occur, prophets rant, and of course a family is introduced). Then it unleashes two hours of cataclysmic special events in which the earth is hammered relentlessly. This is fun. "2012" delivers what it promises, and will be, for its intended audience, one of the most satisfactory films of the year. Three and a half stars (11/12/09)
Amelia (PG)
"Amelia" (PG, 111 minutes) Hilary Swank is an ideal embodiment of Amelia Earhart, who was strong, brave and true, and looked fabulous in a flight suit. The second person to fly solo across the Atlantic was a born feminist who pioneered aviation for women and wed George Putnam (Richard Gere) after informing him their marriage would have "dual controls." Well directed by Mira Nair with impeccably period details; an admirable film, if lacking in drama because Earhart's life was sand and happy. Three stars (10/21/09)
Antichrist (No MPAA rating)
"Antichrist" (Unrated, 105 minutes). A film containing shocking images of a man and a woman descending into an emotional hell after the death of their child. Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsborgh play He and She, cruelly struck by their loss, she turning it into guilt, he into blame. In a retreat to their cabin in a dark wood, they seem overcome by pain and madness, and Nature itself seems to have turned against them. Some admire the film, some loathe it, no one is indifferent. Written and directed by the Danish provocateur Lars on Trier. Three and a half stars. (10/21/09)
Astro Boy (PG)
"Astro Boy" (PG, 94 minutes). Metro City orbits above an Earth buried in garbage. Its citizens are waited on hand and foot by robots, and things will get even better now that Toby's dad (Nicolas Cage) has invented the unlimited Blue Power. But the warmonger President (Donald Sutherland) snatches the dangerous Red Power, Toby dies in an accident, his memories are transferred by his dad into the little robot Astro Boy, and so on. Bright and peppy, with a nice moral and, best of all, no 3-D. Three stars (10/21/09)
Big Fan (R)
"Big Fan" (R, 88 minutes). A surprisingly moving dramatic comedy, starring Patton Oswalt as an obsessive sports fan. He lives vicariously through his hero, a quarterback for the New York Giants, and after breaking through the pro-fan barrier, is beaten so badly he almost dies. This causes an emotional disconnect, because if the quarterback is suspended for long, the Giants may lose got the hated Philadelphia Eagles. A remorseless portrayal of a not uncommon American type. Three and a half stars. (9/30/09)
Black Dynamite (R)
"Black Dynamite" (R, 90 minutes). A loving and expert modern retread of 1970s blaxploitation pictures, deliberately retro and un-PC, starring Michel Jai White as a one-man army at war with the drug mob and The Man. And when I say The Man, I'm including the climax in the Oval Office. Such pitch-perfect dialogue, costumes, music, fight choreography and cinematography that if you found it while cable surfing, you'd assume it was the real thing. When it's wrong, it's wrong on purpose and knows just knows what it's doing. Also starring Salli Richardson, Kym Whitley, Tommy Davidson, Mykelti Williamson, Bokeem Woodbine and Arsenio Hall. Three stars. (10/13/09)
The Box (PG-13)
"The Box" (114 minutes, PG-13). A preposterous but never boring sci-fi movie where a mysterious stranger (Frank Langella) gives a couple (Cameron Diaz and James Marston) a box with a button on top, and tells them if they oust out they'll get $1 million in cash -- but someone unknown to them will die. Well, what would you do? And then the plot really gets wild. Stay way if you expect it to add up and make sense. You're entering…the Twilight Zone. Three stars. (11/5/09)
The Boys are Back (PG-13)
"The Boys are Back" (PG-13, 103 minutes). When he suddenly loses his beloved second wife, an Australian sportswriter (Clive Owen) becomes the single dad of 6-year-old. His theories of parenting lean toward permissive anarchy, which disturbs both a woman he eventually starts to date, and his son from the first marriage. Directed by Scott Hicks ("Shine"), who expects us to like the character more than he really deserves. Two and a half stars. (9/30/09)
Bright Star (PG)
"Bright Star" (PG, 119 minutes) Jane Campion's beautiful and wistful film shows John Keats and Fanny Brawne submerged blissfully in a love that exists almost entirely of their idealism. The great young poet and the younger girl who found his poetry difficult live in two halves of a tiny cottage in Hampstead and drown in nature and Romanticism, in a film with its own visual poetry. Abbie Cornish is entrancing as a determined seamstress who supports herself, which is more than Keats can do. Three and a half stars. (9/23/09)
Bronson ()
"Bronson" (R, 92 minutes). He tells us he was born into a normal family. He doesn't blame his childhood or anything else for the way he turned out. Today Bronson is the UK's most famous prisoner and without any doubt its most violent. With a shaved head and a comic-opera mustache, he has repeated for 34 years behind bars the same scenario: Take a hostage, be beaten senseless. Tom Hardy brings a fearsome intensity to the role, in a portrait of unrelenting self-punishment, Three stars. (10/28/09)
Capitalism: A Love Story (R)
"Capitalism: A Love Story" (R, 117 minutes). Michael Moore's latest doesn't suggest a solution for our economy, and is a little disorganized, but out contains chilling explanations of "peasant insurance" and the Wall Street gambling known as "derivatives." There is also awesome, long-forgotten footage of Franklin Roosevelt calling for a Second Bill of Rights. And first person testimony from victims of the meltdown. Three and a half stars. (9/30/09)
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (PG-13)
"Cirque de Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" (PG-13, 108 minutes). This movie includes good Vampires, evil Vampanese, a Wolf-Man, a Bearded Lady, a Monkey Girl with a long tail, a Snake Boy, a dwarf with a four-foot forehead and a spider the size of your shoe, and they're all boring as hell. They're in a traveling side show that comes to town and lures two insipid high school kids (Josh Hutcherson and Chris Massoglia) into a war between enemy vampire factions. Unbearable. With John C. Reilly, Salma Hayek, Ken Watanabe, Patrick Fugit, and other wasted talents. One and a half stars. (10/21/09)
Coco Before Chanel (PG-13)
"Coco Before Chanel" (PG-13, 110 minutes). The story of Gabrielle Chanel, from poor orphan girl to the brink of becoming the most influential figure of 20th century fashion. Audrey Tautou stars as an independent, strong-willed young woman who from behind the clouds of her cigarettes regards the world with unforgiving realism and stubborn ambition. Director Anne Fontaine avoids any effort to make Coco Chanel nice, or soft, or particularly sympathetic. That has the effect of making her just that much more interesting. Three and a half stars (10/7/09)
Couples Retreat (R)
"Couples Retreat" (PG-13, 107 minutes). Four troubled couples make a week's retreat to an island paradise where they hope to be healed, which indeed happens, according to ages-old sitcom formulas. The jolly ending is agonizing in its step-by-step obligatory plotting. Starring Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Faizon Love, Jon Favreau, Malin Akerman, Kristen Bell, Kristin Davis and Kali Hawk. Two stars (10/7/09)
The Damned United (R)
"The Damned United" (R, 97 minutes). The rise and sudden fall of an enigmatic English legend, the soccer coach Brian Clough. He guided underdog Derby County to victory, was beloved, then switched to its hated rival Leeds United and began a losing streak so sudden he was out after 44 days. Not a sports movie, but one about a fascinating man. Michael Sheen again embodies a British icon, as in Tony Blair ("The Queen") and David Frost ("Frost/Nixon"). With crucial supporting performances by Timothy Spall and Colm Meaney. Screenwriter Peter Morgan and producer Andy Harries were involved in all three; Tom Hooper directs. Three and a half stars. (10/13/09)
Disgrace (No MPAA rating)
"Disgrace" (Unrated, adults, 118 minutes). A white Cape Town professor is fired for misbehavior, and goes to live with his daughter on her remote farm. Here events take place that confront him with the fundamental changes in post-apartheid South Africa. Not a feel-good parable, but a painful, challenging examination of deep feelings, magnificently acted by John Malkovich, Jessica Haines as his daughter, and Eriq Ebouaney as her African farm manager. Based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee. Four stars. (9/23/09)
Disney's A Christmas Carol (PG)
"A Christmas Carol" (PG, 95 minutes) An exhilarating visual experience that proves for the third time Robert Zemeckis is one of the few directors who knows what he's doing with 3-D. The story that Dickens wrote in 1838 remains timeless, and if it's supercharged here with Scrooge swooping the London streets as freely as Superman, well, once you let ghosts into a movie there's room for anything. In motion-capture animation, Jim Carrey does the movements and voice of Ebenezer Scrooge, never thinner, never more stooped, never more bitter. The A-list cast also includes Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Robin Wright Penn and Cary Elwes. Four stars (11/5/09)
An Education (PG-13)
"An Education" (PG-13, 100 minutes) A 16-year-old girl (Carey Mulligan) is the target of a sophisticated seduction by a 35-year-old man (Peter Sarsgaard). Could have been shabby or painful, but the luminous Mulligan makes it romantic and wonderfully entertaining. The romance isn't so much with him as with the possibilities within her, the future before her, and the joy of being alive. Sarsgaard plays a smoothie who bewitches her protective parents. He's a dirty rotten scoundrel, but a real charmer. With Mulligan, a star is born. Four stars. (10/21/09)
Fame (PG)
"Fame" (PG, 90 minutes). A pale retread of the 1980 classic, lacking the power and emotion of the original. A group of hopeful kids enroll in the New York City School of the Performing Arts and struggle through four years to find themselves. Their back stories are shallow, many seem too old and confident, the plot doesn't engage them, and although individual performers like Naturi Naughton sparkle as a classical pianist who wants to sing hip hop, the film is too superficial to make them convincing. Two stars. (9/23/09)
The Fourth Kind (PG-13)
"The Fourth Kind" (PG-13, 98 minutes). Nome, Alaska (pop. 3,750) has so many disappearances and/or alien abductions that the FBI has investigated there 20 times more than in Anchorage. So it's claimed by this pseudo-doc that goes to inane lengths to appear factual. Milla Jovovich is good as a psychologist whose clients complain that owls stare at them in the middle of the night. One and a half stars. One and a half stars. (11/4/09)
Free Style (PG)
"Free Style " (PG, 94 minutes). "High School Musical" star Corbin Bleu and rising Mexican actress Sandra Echeverria have charming chemistry together in this weary retread of the ancient formula about the poor kid who fights for his dream. Sure, that can be inspiring, but not when we're asking did I see this before? It's about a kid who hopes to become a pro on the motocross circuit, his single mom (Penelope Ann Miller), and, of course, the sweet girl who shares his Dream. Remorselessly by the numbers. Two stars (10/7/09)
Gentlemen Broncos (PG-13)
"Gentlemen Broncos" (PG-13, 107 minutes) Michael Angarano plays Benjamin Purvis, a wannabe sci-fi Dr. Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement). Alas. the great man rips off the kid's book, just when get kid has sold the miniscule filming rights. All sorts of promising material from Jared Hess ("Napoleon Dynamite"), but it's a clutter of jumbled continuity that doesn't add up, despite the presence of Jennifer Coolidge. Two Stars (11/11/09)
Good Hair (PG-13)
"Good Hair" (PG-13, 95 minutes). Chris Rock hosts and narrates a warm funny documentary about the hair of black women. He quizzes a lot of celebs and visits beauty shops and the Atlanta headquarters of a hair products empire and a famous hair fashion show. The movie plunges into straighteners and extensions, but doesn't give equal time to natural hair styles, and has info about chemical straighteners that is years out of date. But he has a good feeling, and is surprisingly entertaining. Three stars. (10/7/09)
Harmony and Me ()
(10/28/09)
The Horse Boy (No MPAA rating)
"The Horse Boy" (Unrated, 94 minutes). A four-year-old Texas boy with autism has angry seizures and isn't potty-trained. His parents fly with him to Mongolia, drive nine hours into the steppes, and then journey by horseback to a sacred mountain where he undergoes a miraculous cure at the hands of shamans. A remarkable story, but containing unanswered questions. Three stars. (11/4/09)
The House of the Devil (R)
"The House of the Devil" (R, 93 minutes). A perky college student (Jocelin Donahue) takes a babysitting job in a Gothic house way, way down at the end of a long, long road in the middle of a dark, dark forest. Her employers (Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov turn out not to have a baby after all, but only his aged mother, who shouldn't be disturbed in her bedroom upstairs while they enjoy a night out to observe the eclipse of the Moon. Three stars (11/11/09)
The Invention of Lying (PG-13)
"The Invention of Lying" (PG-13, 99 minutes). In its amiable, quiet, way, a remarkably radical comedy about a world where everyone always tells the truth. When Ricky Gervais discovers he can lie, this gives him incredible power. Jennifer Garner plays the great beauty who informs him truthful hat he's short and fat and not an ideal genetic match. He agrees. Then he discovers by accident a suggestion that inspires the joy and gratitude from the entire world. Its implications are radical, but the movie is so well-mannered and laid back that it gets way with it. Three and a half stars. (9/30/09)
Law Abiding Citizen (R)
"Law Abiding Citizen" (R, 122 minutes) is a thriller starring Jamie Foxx as a D.A. head to head with a serial killer--who commits all but one of his many murders while in prison, and in solitary for most of that time. The story is a classic locked room mystery: How does he set up such elaborate kills? Securely in solitary, he seems able to kill at a distance by ingenious means and with remarkable resources. With Colm Meaney, Bruce McGill, Leslie Bibb, Regina Hall and Viola Davis. Three stars. (10/13/09)
The Men Who Stare at Goats (R)
"The Men Who Stare at Goats" (R, 93 minutes). A weirdly funny comedy that seriously claims to be based on an actual U.S. Army interest in using paranormal soldiers as a weapon. Ewan McGregor plays a reporter who encounters George Clooney, a "Jedi Warrior" graduate of these secret program; flashbacks show Jeff Bridges as an officer who seems very much like The Big Lebowski. Could they kill goats by staring? Well, if you can bend a spoon with your mind, why not a rifle? Three and a half stars (11/4/09)
The Messenger (R)
"The Messenger" (R, 107 minutes) Two Army officers draw the hard duty of notifying the next of kin of a death in combat. Woody Harrelson plays the old hand at breaking the news. Ben Foster, plays the new man, wounded in combat in Iraq. He has a tendency to care about the people he's informing. Not Army policy, the veteran explains. You'll lose it if you let yourself care. With Samantha Morton as a new widow and Steve Buscemi as a father whose grief turns to anger. Directed by Oren Moverman, himself a combat veteran in the Israeli army. Three and a half stars (11/18/09)
Motherhood (PG-13)
"Motherhood" (PG-13, 89 minutes). About a conventional family living a conventional life in a conventional way. This life isn't perfect, but whose life is? Starring Uma Thurman in a thankless role as a Greenwich Village blogger with two normal kids, a nice enough husband (Anthony Edwards) and a slightly dotty friend (Minnie Driver). Meh. Two stars (10/21/09)
New York, I Love You (R)
"New York, I Love You" (R, 104 minutes). Eleven directors, ten eighth-minute segments plus transitions, three dozen actors, and an anthology of shirt stories about New Yorkers. I suspect the title should be pronounced with a wry shake of the head, as in, "oh, you kid." The film assembles a collection of characters, who find that eight minutes is quite enough to make an impression, as so many New Yorkers would agree. Three stars. (10/14/09)
Paranormal Activity (R)
"Paranormal Activity" (R, 96 minutes) an ingenious little horror film, so well made it's truly scary, that arrives claiming it's the real thing. Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston, a San Deigo couple, been bothered by indications of paranormal activity in an upstairs bedroom. Micah's bright idea is to film in the house, leaving the video camera running as a silent sentinel while they sleep. Like any man with a new toy, he becomes obsessed with this notion -- the whole point, for him, isn't Katie's fear but his film. After one big scare, she asks him incredulously, did you actually go back to pick up your camera? Flawlessly acted, eerie realistic. Three and a half stars (10/7/09)
Paris (R)
"Paris" (R, 128 minutes). Filmmaker Cedric Klapisch's symphonic tribute to the city he loves, with each character a movement. Not a travelogue with beauty shots, however, but set in very specific places. It's unusual for an episodic film to involve us deeply in individual lives; we're genuinely curious about what will happen to these people next. Starring Juliette Binoche, Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, Albert Dupontel, and Francois Cluzet--all familiar faces. Three and a half stars. (9/23/09)
Pirate Radio (R)
(11/11/09)
Planet 51 (PG)
"Planet 51" (PG, 91 minutes) Although not bowling me over, this is a jolly and good-looking animated feature in glorious 2-D. There's a twist: This time the alien is a human, and he lands on a planet occupied by little green men. On his world everyone speaks English, it's Fabulous Fifties, and the rain is made of rocks. Perfectly pleasant as kiddie entertainment. Two and a half stars (11/18/09)
Precious (R)
"Precious" (R, 109 minutes). School is an ordeal of mocking cruelty for a fat teenager, and home is worse. Precious avoids looking at people, hardly ever speaks, is nearly illiterate, is pregnant. One of her teachers (Paula Patton) and a postal worker (Mariah Carey) see something in her, or simply react to her obvious pain. They try to coax her out of her shell. She's not stupid, but feels defeated. Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe gives a powerful performance in the title role, and Mo'Nique is frighteningly effective as her abusive mother. Directed by Lee Daniels, based on the novel "Push" by Sapphire. Four stars. (11/4/09)
The Providence Effect (PG)
"The Providence Effect" (PG, 92 minutes). Providence-St. Mel's Catholic High School, on Chicago's troubled West Side, has placed 100% of its graduates in colleges for three decades. This documentary charts its history and approach, and is impressive as a testimonial but doesn't probe deeply and leaves questions unanswered. Three stars. (9/23/09)
A Serious Man (R)
"A Serious Man" (R, 104 minutes). The darkly comic new Coen brothers film. Every single thing in Larry Gopnik's life is going wrong. His wife is leaving him for his best friend. His son is misbehaving in Hebrew school. His daughter is stealing money. His brother in law in sleeping on the sofa. His neighbor is a gun nut. A student tries to bribe and blackmail him. There's worse. Larry teaches advanced physics, but his life is a medieval tragedy. In a 1960s Minneapolis suburb, the Coens restage the Book of Job as rich human comedy. Four stars. (10/7/09)
Skin (PG-13)
"Skin" (PG-13, 107 minutes). Magnificent performance by Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo ("Hotel Rwanda") as the apparently black child of apparently white Afrikanars in South Africa under apartheid. Her parents insist she's white, but society sees nhefr as black, and she's trapped in the nightmare if apartheid's insanity. A powerful emotional experience, based on a true story (we see the real-life woman at the end). Sam Neill and Alice Krige play her stubborn parents. Directed by Anthony Fabian. Four stars (11/11/09)
Surrogates (PG-13)
"Surrogates" (PG-13, 88 minutes). In the future, the human population reclines at home without moving, while living vicariously through robot avatars controlled by their minds. They present themselves to the world as younger and more attractive than they really are. Bruce Willis stars as an FBI agent investigating the murder of the son of inventor of surrogates. An intriguing premise, but it descends too quickly into action formulas and loses opportunities to explore the premise. Two and a half stars. (9/23/09)
The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (R)
"The Boondock Saints II: All Saint's Day" (R, 121 minutes) Idiotic ode to macho horseshite (to employ an ancient Irish word). Distinguished by superb cinematography. The first film in 10 years from Troy Duffy, whose "Boondock Saints" (1999) has become a cult fetish. Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus are Irish brothers who return to Boston for revenge and murder countless enemies in an incomprehensible story involving heavy metal cranked up to 12 and lots of boozing, smoking, swearing and looking fierce and sweaty. One star (11/11/09)
This Is It (PG)
"This Is It" (PG, 112 minutes). Not a dying man forcing himself through grueling rehearsals, but a spirit embodied by music. Directed by Kenny Ortega, the doc provides both a good idea of what the final concert would have looked like, and a portrait of the artist at work. One of the most revealing music documentaries I've seen. Four stars (10/27/09)
Trucker (R)
"Trucker" (R, 90 minutes). Michelle Monaghan plays a cold, loner, hard-drinking, promiscuous trucker. Jimmy Bennett plays her 11-year-old son. She left his father (Benjamin Bratt) soon after he was born, and wants nothing it do with him. But after Bratt gets sick, she's forced to take in the kid. Both of them are angry and closed-off. James Mottern has written and directed a film that closely observes as their abrasive personalities are forced to coexist. Not sentimental, avoids obvious cliches, doesn't play it safe, comes to strong emotional life. Monaghan deserves an Academy nomination. Four stars. (10/7/09)
21 and a Wakeup (R)
"21 and a Wakeup" (R, 123 minutes). A disjointed, overlong and unconvincing string of anecdotes centering around the personnel of an Army combat hospital. Amy Acker plays an idealistic nurse who is constantly reprimanded by absurdly hostile officer (Faye Dunaway). Plays like a series of unlikely anecdotes trundled onstage without much relationship to one another. One and a half stars. (10/28/09)
The Twilight Saga: New Moon (PG-13)
“The Twilight Saga: New Moon” (PG-13, 130 minutes). The characters in this movie should be arrested for loitering with intent to moan. The sequel to "Twilight" (1988) is preoccupied with remember that film and setting up the third one. sitting through this experience is like driving a tractor in low gear though a sullen sea of Brylcreem. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson return in their original roles, she dewy and masochistic, he sullen and manacing. Ah, teenage romance! One star (11/18/09)
(Untitled) (R)
"(Untitled") (R, 96 minutes). A good, smart comedy about the fringes of the New York art world, starring Adam Goldberg as an impossible experimental musician and Marley Shelton as a chic Soho gallery owner. The art on display is good enough to be plausible, and weird enough to be funny. It's worthy of the best Woody Allen, and Adrian is not unlike Woody's persona: A sincere, intense, insecure nebbish, hopeless with women, aiming for greatness. Directed by Jonathan Parker. Three and a half stars (11/4/09)
Walt and El Grupo (PG)
"Walt & El Grupo" (PG, 106 minutes). In 1941, with his studio shut down by a strike, Walt Disney accepted the invitation of Franklin Roosevelt to embark on a goodwill tour of South America; the president hoped Disney's popularity would raise America's stock on a continent where the Nazis were making propaganda inroads. Using a remarkable trove of footage from the studio's archives, this doc by the son of one of the artists Disney took along recaptures a time when Walt was young, South America unfamiliar, and Hollywood a town where a mogul's reaction to a strike was to get it of Dodge. Three stars. (10/21/09)
We Live in Public (No MPAA rating)
"We Live in Public" (Unrated, 91 minutes). Provocative doc about "the greatest Internet pioneer you've never heard of." Josh Harris founded the web company that pioneered internet audio/visual streaming in the 1990s, sold it for $80 million, gathered 100 volunteers to live communally online 24-hours a day, and lost his fortune. Ondi Timoner has followed him for 15 years, in good times and bad, and returned with a portrait of a genius/eccentric/screwball who left it all to grow apples. For Harris, the brave new world is behind him. Four stars (10/14/09)
Where the Wild Things Are (PG)
"Where the Wild Things Are" (PG, 101 minutes). Maurice Sendak's much-loved 1963 children's book becomes a big-budget fantasy, with particularly good realizations of his Wild Things, creatures on an island visited in the imagination of a small boy (Max Records). But the plot is simple stuff, spread fairly thin by director Spike Jonze and writer Dave Eggers. Three stars (10/14/09)
Whip It (PG-13)
"Whip It" (PG-13, 111 minutes). Ellen Page ("Juno") is plucky and enchanting in Drew Barrymore's directing debut. She plays a small-town Texas girl, sick of the beauty pageants her mother fires her into, who sneaks off to Austin one night, sees a Roller Derby game, and gets a whole new idea of herself. Page, doing her own skating, is small but fast, and earns the respect of her teammates, in an unreasonably entertaining coming-of-age comedy that sees the modern version of Roller Derby as a sort of gothic-punk-warrior woman ritual. Three and a half stars. (9/30/09)
A Woman in Berlin (No MPAA rating)
"A Woman in Berlin" (Unrated, 131 minutes). In the final weeks of World War Two, the conquering Russian Army occupies Berlin and rapes and pillages the civilian survivors. The film, based on a diary written at the time, centers on the story of a woman who tries to exercise some control over her fate by making a liaison with a high-ranking Russian officer. He turns out be a decent but not a saintly man, and they make the best of a rotten situation. Good, restrained performances by Nina Hoss and Roman Gribkov. Three stars. (9/23/09)
The Yes Men Fix the World (No MPAA rating)
"The Yes Men Fix the World" (Unrated, 96 minutes) The Yes Men are a New York political action cooperative specializes in hoaxes that embarrass corporations by dramatizing their evils and excesses. They put up phony web sites, print fake business cards, and pose as representatives from the companies that are their targets. It's amazing what they get away with, and this doc shows their successful hoaxes against Dow, Halliburton and the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, among others. Funny and thought provoking. Three stars (10/28/09)
Zombieland (R)
"Zombieland" (R, 100 minutes) Unexpectedly funny. Jesse Eisenberg, named after his home town of Columbus, Ohio, is making his way back home again across a zombie-infested America. He encounters another non-zombie survivor, Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson). The two team up, not without many disagreements, and eventually find two healthy women: The sexy Wichita (Emma Stone) and her little sister Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). It comes down to a road movie threatened by the Undead, as countless zombies are shot, mashed, sledge-hammered and otherwise inconvenienced, not without wit. Three stars (9/30/09)
