Movies This Week: Serious Wild Afghans and Coco
This is the week before Austin Film Festival starts, and the studios are slowly starting to release their Oscar hopefuls. It's quite a selection this week, a little something for everyone.
Where the Wild Things Are - This adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book is one of the most anticipated films of the year, I had very high hopes for it. Unfortunately, it didn't quite live up to them, although I'm hard pressed to say exactly why. It's definitely a good film, and worth catching, although it's more a film about childhood than a kid's flick. Check back with Slackerwood later today for my review. (wide)
Afghan Star - Havana Marking's documentary (pictured above) about the risks that aspiring pop stars take to appear on the Afghanistan television show Pop Idol was popular at SXSW, and finally gets a local theatrical release. I haven't seen it but I've heard great things, and it's good enough to be the UK's official submission to the 82nd Academy Awards. (Dobie)
Coco Before Chanel - Audrey Tautou stars as Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, a headstrong woman before her time. More a character study than a solid story, but worth it to see Tautou's scenes with both Alessandro Nivola (Laurel Canyon, Junebug), and Benoît Poelvoorde. Fantastic Fest trivia on this one: Poelvoorde plays the voice of Steven in A Town Called Panic. See Debbie's review for more. (Arbor)
A Serious Man - The Coen brothers' most personal and arguably least accessible movie. It's a good film, but requires some knowledge of Jewish culture/religion. Check back later today for Jette's review. (Alamo South, Arbor)
Law Abiding Citizen - Too clever is dumb, and in the case of Law Abiding Citizen, a bit schizoid. Wimmer's script tries to appeal to intellect while glorifying violence, and ultimately doesn't do well with either. It is better than Street Kings or Ultraviolet, though. However, it's neither Equilibrium nor The Italian Job. (wide)
The Stepfather - A remake of the 1987 cult classic that gave Terry O'Quinn a following long before he played with knives on Lost. New script, new name, same basic concept, but not available for review prior to release date. The trailers aren't impressing me much. (wide)
Blue - No clue other than it's a drama, with a synopsis of "Redemption at any cost." Okay. Sophomore effort by director Ryan Miningham and first (produced) script by actor Don Wallace, who stars as the titular character. If you see it, share your comments on it. (Tinseltown South)
More Than A Game - Yet another basketball documentary, this time about LeBron James and the Akron Fab Five as high school basketball players, by first-time director Kristopher Belman. (Arbor)
Check our Event Calendar for special events. If you need help deciding, here are our picks for the week:
Jenn: It's hard to pick between the Alamo Ritz 80th Anniversary show featuring the Anna Mae Wong film Piccadilly, and one of the Big Screen Classics screenings of The Lost Boys. So I won't. See both!!
Jette: I'd really like to see Afghan Star, even though I'm not a fan of the "Idol" TV shows. I'm also very tempted by Piccadilly -- I love the silent film/live music combo.
Debbie: The Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar and SCARE for a CURE are teaming up for a Vampire Blood Drive benefiting the Blood Center of Central Texas on Saturday from 10 am - 2 pm. This event was planned in conjunction with Where The Wild Things Are opening weekend, but it's a movie I was disappointed with. Instead I recommend seeing Zombieland AGAIN and then stumble over to The Highball for Thrill the World Dance Lessons in preparation for Thrillerfest 2009 next week. Seriously - be a vampire victim, and learn zombie survival and Thriller dance lessons all in one location? Where do I sign up?