New Releases

Free yourself from the trappings of time and imagine a very young Bud Cort in a coming-of-age movie written by Bill Forsyth (Gregory's Girl) and directed by Bob Byington (Harmony and Me), transport the scenario to Wales, and you have an idea of what you're getting into with Submarine, which opens in Austin this week.

Submarine is one of those movies I feel I really shouldn't like. Too precious. Quirkiness for its own sake. Voiceover narration, and you know how I feel about that unless Billy Wilder is involved. And it's yet another coming-of-age movie, a period piece even, and isn't that done to death?

But somehow, like its main character, Submarine is weirdly likeable. Maybe even lovable in spots. The sense of humor is off-kilter and the movie reminds me quite strongly of my own high-school days, but doesn't resort to nostalgia or anything the least bit sappy. I want to give the movie and all its characters a hug … or perhaps, like one of the female characters does to her boyfriends, burn its leg hair. It's an impressive feature directorial debut for actor Richard Ayoade, whose last name I hope someday to be able to pronounce correctly.

While watching Super 8, the Steven Spielberg-produced movie written and directed by J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Lost), I may have been the only person in the audience thinking about author Robertson Davies. Specifically, this passage from his novel The Lyre of Orpheus, in which characters discuss the difficulty of putting together a libretto for an unfinished opera score:

"If you had to prepare this libretto, who would you rob? A poet, of course, but not a very well-known poet. And he would have to be a poet contemporaenous with Hoffman, and a fellow-spirit, or the work would ring false. And amid the work of that poet you would have to interpose a lot of stuff in the same spirit, because nobody wrote a libretto about King Arthur that is lying around, waiting for such an occasion. And the result would be --"

"Pastiche!"

"Yes, and the craft of the thing would be sewing up the joints, so that nobody would notice and denounce the whole thing as --"

"Pistache! Oh, you are a clever one!"

I've always disclaimed being a fan of Woody Allen -- not just because of his neurotic portrayals, but also his writing in Annie Hall and Manhattan. I couldn't relate and felt alienated from the New Yorker culture and mentality. In all fairness I'll admit I thoroughly enjoyed several of his period pieces including Radio Days, The Purple Rose of Cairo and Bullets Over Broadway.

With an impending long-awaited vacation to Europe looming at the end of the month, I was intrigued to get a preview via Allen of "The City of Light" in his latest movie, Midnight in Paris, which was the opening-night film at Cannes this year. Ironically, Allen's ability to capture a subculture that not everyone can relate to is what I adore about this film -- only instead the group is the "Lost Generation" of writers, painters and musicians who flocked to Paris in the 1920s for inspiration. Allen addresses his love letter to Paris with an extended opening sequence of Parisian monuments and locations including the River Seine, Cathedral of Notre Dame, Les Champs Elysees and the obligatory Eiffel Tower aglow at night.

Midnight in Paris centers around Gil (Owen Wilson), a successful Hollywood screenwriter who wants to move to Paris and write his great novel, inspired by his literary hero, Ernest Hemingway. Gil's over-privileged fiance, Inez (Rachel McAdams), has different plans that include a house in Malibu, not a relocation to France.  While on vacation in Paris with Inez's parents John (Kurt Fuller) and Helen (Mimi Kennedy), the couple bicker over Gil's romanticism. Inez's snobbish academic friend Paul (Michael Sheen) pontificates, "Nostalgia is a denial of a painful present."

If you’re reading this, you should have seen X-Men: First Class by now. If not, stop immediately, get to a theater ASAP, and watch it!

That's my way of saying everything you're about to read is overwhelmingly positive. Director Matthew Vaughn has a proven track record with the incredible genre films Layer Cake, Stardust and Kick-Ass. X-Men: First Class is in a class of its own above all those. With only 11 months to work, Vaughn has managed to perform the unthinkable: Reboot the franchise within a prequel that faithfully and seamlessly builds the universe seen in the previous X-Men movies.

These days with Mad Men dominating cable and network TV prepping copycat retro shows like Pan Am, this X-Men movie, set in the 1960s and dealing with the Cuban Missile Crisis, is coming to screens at the perfect time. Comic fans will be thrilled with the presentation of the characters in the Hellfire Club, a glaring omission from the third film, X-Men: The Last Stand. Yet, newcomers to the series will have no problem following the story as all the characters are introduced and their powers explained.

To flesh out a review, a film critic sometimes relies on production notes for a synopsis, short biographies of cast and crew members and production details that readers might find interesting. These notes usually are very concise, running no more than a few pages.

And then there are the production notes for Terrence Malick's sprawling and much anticipated new movie, The Tree of Life. If you're familiar with Malick, it may not surprise you that The Tree of Life's production notes are 45 pages long. With their lengthy expositions about the film's genesis and meaning, even the production notes for this most Malick of Malick films are themselves very, uh, Malick. (Much as I adore Malick's work, I did not read all 45 pages.)

Not that being very Malick is a bad thing, of course, especially if we define "Malick" to mean "laden with sumptuous imagery and thought-provoking ideas." And The Tree of Life certainly is thought provoking; had I not found the production notes' ponderous content to be a perfect metaphor for this exceedingly ponderous and metaphorical film, I might have opened this review with a paragraph containing only one word: "Hmm."

I'll admit first off that I really liked Kung Fu Panda when it came out a few years back. Therefore, it's not that big of a surprise that I loved Kung Fu Panda 2. This sequel, helmed by Jennifer Yuh in her film directing debut, comes the closest to Pixar heart than any other Dreamworks animated movie I've seen, but still keeps the laughs coming.

A colorful shadow puppet tale kicks off the movie. In this prologue, we learn the story of Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), a peacock who becomes so obsessed with firepower that his parents kick him out of their kingdom. Then we join our cuddly protagonist Po (Jack Black) and his Furious Five friends as they play with dumplings and fight Lord Shen's underlings, who are stealing metal from poor villagers.

Lord Shen forges the stolen metal for a cannon he uses to take out one of Po's kung-fu heroes, Master Thundering Rhino (Victor Garber!), when he refuses Shen entry into his childhood home. Po and the Furious Five must travel to protect this city from destruction, spouting silliness along the way. Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) warns the group that Shen's weapons could mean the end of kung fu. Po replies, "But I just got kung fu!" This main plotline may seem somewhat predictable, but it's handled in such an enjoyable fashion that it didn't bother me.

I really wanted to love The Hangover Part II. Its predecessor left me laughing for days. The trio of Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis was lightning in a bottle, and the over-the-top script pushed the limits in the name of harmless fun. I'm not a pessimist who expects to hate every sequel, and I was really looking forward to this second outing, also directed by Todd Phillips.

I didn't believe early reports that it was simply a rehash of the original script, though it would seem so at first. Cooper, Helms and Galifianakis again wake up and trace the events of a drug-fueled night of partying, and have to complete a mission in time to return for a wedding. Again, the jokes are outrageous, and The Hangover Part II is good for a few laughs, but that's where the similarity ends.

My first complaint is that it takes 30 minutes to muddle through the setup at the beginning of the movie. There's a scene at Stu's (Helms) office, another at the Garner mansion, a banquet in Thailand, and so on. It really takes a while to get moving as compared to the snappy script of The Hangover.

Second problem regards the fourth companion, Justin Bartha as Doug. Doug spent the entirety of the first movie missing (and it was his wedding they had to get to). I had hoped in The Hangover Part II, we would see more of him and it would bring a new dynamic that would allow Bartha to show off his comedic chops. Instead, though Doug gets more screen time, he is stuck back at the hotel while the rest of the "wolf pack" parties without him. Taking his place as the missing man and object of the search is Mason Lee as Stu's soon-to-be brother-in-law, Teddy.

Third problem I had was that the dynamic here is changed. Cooper is no longer really leading the group and feels like he's just along for the ride. He's underused, and isn't really the focus of any of the gags, which are held almost exclusively for Helms. It felt almost like he has grown to be too big a star and was doing his pals a favor being in their little movie.

Since Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was released in 2003, I have been an enormous fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. No other film series in the last decade has captured my imagination the way Pirates did with its astounding special effects and swashbuckling adventure.

But it never would have been a success without Johnny Depp's inspired performance as Captain Jack Sparrow. Depp practically invented his own pirate language as Sparrow, and indeed, Jack Sparrow costumes dominated Halloween parties that year (and the next). While the first three installments encapsulated the tale of William Turner and Elizabeth Swann, they were also undeniably the adventures of Jack Sparrow on his quest for fortune, reknown and life eternal.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End not only concluded the Elizabeth-William arc, it neatly set up a new adventure with the map to the Fountain of Youth. Returning for a fourth movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Depp reunites with Geoffrey Rush's Barbossa and joins Ian McShane's dread pirate Blackbeard as well as Penélope Cruz.

As the ultimate fan of the Pirates series, I was anxious that Gore Verbinski would not be returning to direct (probably too busy working on that masterpiece Rango, see my review here), but Rob Marshall (Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha) is no slouch. I needn't have feared as On Stranger Tides captured the magic and even provided a few pleasant surprises. The decision to film in 3D was my main disagreement. 3D would have better served the epic scope of At World's End, but was entirely unnecessary here.

On Stranger Tides is ostensibly designed as the first of a new trilogy, and is scaled back greatly in scope. While the previous Pirates outings were heavy with sea travel and battles, even going all the way to the end of the world and back, the events in On Stranger Tides take place primarily on land, reflecting a smaller budget. In fact, the action moves smoothly between six locations by my count, and I don't recall there being any battles at sea. However, the film tells a good story, and the land-bound action is entertaining.

One of the independent films I enjoyed at SXSW 2010 was Skateland, set in small-town Texas during the 1980s. Starring Shiloh Fernandez (Deadgirl, Red Riding Hood) and Ashley Greene (The Twilight Saga, Radio Free Albemuth), Skateland was produced by Freeman Films, an Austin-based movie production company founded by Skateland writer/executive producer Brandon Freeman. As a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, Freeman enjoyed working within the local film community to bring his first feature film to the screen. Skateland opens in Austin this Friday -- check out my SXSW review and Don's review.

I spoke with Brandon Freeman by phone last week as he prepared for the L.A. premiere of Skateland. Find out what he had to say about working with Ashley Greene before her Twilight stardom, the portrayal of the feminist movement of the 80s in his movie and the impact of MTV on small-town Texas after the jump.

I came of age in the early 1980s, but feel no nostalgia for the era. From its anti-government politics to its greed-fueled economic ethos to its mostly insipid popular culture, the decade of Ronald Reagan, Madonna and Dallas wasn't exactly America's finest hour. Thirty years later, sentiments like "government is the problem" and soulless techno-pop like "Rock the Casbah" are hardly the stuff of fond memories. (That is, at least for those of us who so wish we'd come of age during America's coolest decade, the 1960s.)

That said, I do enjoy some modern cinematic takes on the Eighties; it's interesting to see the era filtered through various filmmakers' visions, even if their sentiments are more nostalgic than mine. I particularly enjoy films that regard Eighties culture with a mixture of warm fuzziness and well deserved mockery.

A case in point is Skateland, a pleasantly entertaining story about coming of age in a small Texas town in 1983. The film sets an oft-told tale of dawning adulthood and family turmoil against an authentic backdrop of, well, 1983. (Think Camaros, skin-tight jeans and music stores -- remember those? -- in shopping malls. 'Nuff said.)

Skateland's protagonist is 19-year-old Ritchie Wheeler (Shiloh Fernandez), manager of his town's once-popular but now fading roller rink. Although he toys with a writing career (the awards on his bedroom wall attest to his talent), Ritchie is mostly content to work at his dead-end job, party with his friends and maintain a halfhearted relationship with his friend Michelle (Ashley Greene).