New Releases

I'm growing tired of superhero movies and think it's time for a break, not that the Hollywood or comic-book honchos will listen to me. Superhero films, especially the first in a series, tend to be inherently predictable. And I don't much enjoy the final big showdown at the end, especially when they're CGI-ified and you're not even watching real people fight, like in martial-arts movies (which I do continue to love). The battle of the men in the metal suits was easily for me the dullest part of the otherwise amusing Iron Man.

Director Michel Gondry  -- yes, the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind -- tries to mess around a little with the genre in The Green Hornet, but "mess" is sadly the operative word. The movie is an uneven jumble of comedy and the typical Nobility of the Superhero. The climactic fight scene might be set in a pretty cool environment, but it is so confusing and poorly choreographed that it isn't even fun on a kinetic gut level. Fortunately, the lighthearted and comic moments made this movie surprisingly likeable.

A five-word line of dialogue near the end of Blue Valentine sums up the film's central relationship. It is a line said with resignation and mild disgust: "Ah...you must be Dean."

A coworker of the film's lead female character, Cindy (Michelle Williams), utters the line when Cindy's drunk and agitated husband Dean (Ryan Gosling) arrives at Cindy's workplace to confront her about their latest marital meltdown. From the coworker's flat and frustrated tone, it's obvious that Cindy and Dean's marriage from hell is no secret, and Dean is taking most of the blame.

But laying all the blame on Dean isn't quite fair, and we know why by this point in Blue Valentine. A brutally honest, harrowingly real and strikingly nuanced look at an unlikely relationship that was probably DOA from the start, Blue Valentine wags a finger at both Cindy and Dean for the bad choices they've made. But it also explains with great empathy what motivated those choices.

In Rabbit Hole, director John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) captures a period of time in the life of a married couple in suburban New York, months after their young son has died. Given this set-up, you might expect the film to be maudlin and depressing. Miraculously, even as the film deals seriously with some unhappy issues, it is able to do so without pulling the audience through the emotional wringer. 

Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie Corbett's (Aaron Eckhart) son Danny was hit by a car in front of their house. To help cope with his death, they attend support group meetings -- where they meet Gaby (Sandra Oh) and her husband -- but neither seem to benefit from them.  

Becca has a rather fraught relationship with her younger sister Izzy (Tammy Blanchard, The Good Shepherd), and is annoyed that her mom Nat (a magnificent Dianne Wiest) keeps comparing Becca's current situation to her own. She begins a sort of friendship with Jason (Miles Teller), the high-school student and aspiring comic-book artist involved in the accident that killed her son.  

Nicolas Cage continues a string of performances in genre films including Kick-Ass, The Sorceror's Apprentice and Drive Angry with Season of the Witch, which opened on Friday. Along with Cage are Ron Perlman and a strong cast of supporting characters including Stephen Graham (Snatch, Doghouse), Ulrich Thomsen (The World is Not Enough), Claire Foy ... and  a fantastic cameo by Christopher Lee. Not unlike Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, this is a swashbuckling Middle Ages action adventure that discards any pretense of historical accuracy. Also like the Kevin Costner romp, this left me walking out of the theater with a smile on my face.

I've never been a Nicolas Cage fan, but I'm starting to warm to him with roles like these, and of course everybody loves Ron Perlman. Together, they make a crack buddy fighting team as they kill and plunder through the various Crusades, until Cage realizes they're not really doing God's work, just killing innocent people. So, they set off to find their own way and return home to find the land decimated by plague and the people in terror.

They say if you play a country song backwards, you get your job back, you get together again with your wife, your dog comes back to life, and your truck starts working again. Well, if you take a couple of up-and-coming actors, throw in an Oscar winner, have them record the above and then play THAT backwards, you get Country Strong, which opens today in theaters. This is a rumpled mess of a movie that I kinda liked, expected to hate, but just couldn't find much to love.

The story ostensibly covers Gwyneth Paltrow's down-and-out country superstar Kelly Canter as she attempts a comeback tour after leaving rehab a month early. Garrett Hedlund's Beau Hutton accompanies her as her "sponsor" and opening act along with her husband James Canter (Tim McGraw) and Leighton Meester as former beauty queen Chiles Stanton.

Jack Abramoff isn't known as a funny guy, and his story -- an infuriating tale of fraud and political corruption -- isn't funny, either. The former high-rolling lobbyist arguably is one of America's most hated public figures, and his scandalous tenure as a Washington power player only deepened the American public's cynicism about politics.

Given Abramoff's notoriety, mining his story for darkly comic gold is risky. And taking this risk has only a modest payoff in Casino Jack, a stylish and busy movie that's sometimes very funny but isn't quite the smart political satire it could have been.

Casino Jack, which first screened in town on Austin Film Festival's closing night in partnership with The Texas Observer, is a reasonably accurate portrayal of Abramoff's money-fueled machinations, in least in the general sense if not in some of the details. The longtime political operative (and onetime film producer who sullied many a multiplex with the Dolph Lundgren dreckfest Red Scorpion) became an über-lobbyist in the mid 1990s, using his ties to Tom DeLay and other powerful Republicans to help pass business-friendly legislation for his clients. His client list included the usual corporate conglomerates, but also governments such as The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and several Indian tribes with gambling interests.

Opening at the Arbor on Friday, the British movie Made in Dagenham is a feminist film, and doesn't hide it. It's also quite hilarious, with deft performances and witty writing.

Based in 1968, Made in Dagenham tells the true story of the female workers at the Ford of Britain motor plant in Dagenham who protest when they are re-graded as unskilled workers. This change in pay class means they are paid less, of course. The plant's union rep Albert (Bob Hoskins) helps convince plant seamstress Rita O'Grady (Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins, Happy Go Lucky) to represent the ladies for union talks with Ford leadership. Rita and Albert, along with another plant seamstress and usual union rep Connie (Geraldine James), head to London to speak to the bigwigs. Eventually a strike for equal pay is called that impacts the female plant workers as well as the males.

The New Year doesn't start out with a bang for kids' movies. It's kinda like facing the refrigerator at this time of year -- a lot of leftovers from the previous month of debauchery. Maybe they're not as wonderful the second time around but still tasty.

Notable theatrical releases in Austin (January)

Looking out over the new release list for January I can honestly say there isn't a single new theatrical  release that looks appropriate for kids. Disappointing, certainly, but not at all surprising. If you absolutely have to go out to see a movie with your kids, might I suggest Tangled for a third time? Or maybe it's time to give the new Narnia movie a try. There are a few events below you might want to check out.

Summer Wars (Jan. 10-12, Alamo Ritz, subtitled) – This Fantastic Fest 2010 selection pictured at top is a delightful animated movie from director Mamoru Hosoda (check out The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) and is appropriate for older kids (think PG -- mostly for romantic innuendo). The best way I can think to describe this is as a Japanese animated science-fiction romantic family comedy. It's surreal, entertaining, and just a ton of fun. Highly recommended for adults as well. The dubbed version will be coming to the Lamar location for a week-long run. Read Jette's fest review for more info.

This year, I was privileged and honored to be in the audience for Harry Knowles's 12th annual 24-hour birthday party and film festival known as Butt-Numb-a-Thon, or BNAT for short. The 24-hour movie marathon took place this year from Saturday morning, Dec. 11 through midday on Sunday, Dec. 12 at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar (mostly).

An audience of approximately 200 people from around the world is chosen personally by Knowles from among thousands of applicants who submit questionnaires to gauge their love of films from all genres but especially those that fit the year's chosen theme -- this year it was "Mandom." Nearly half of those attending submitted a video of their own versions of the 1970s Charles Bronson "Mandom" cologne commercials, singing the Mandom theme song. Even Harry's close friends and family must submit their applications in order to attend.

Participants spend more than 24 hours in a theater (more than one this year, as noted below) and are treated to a lineup of movies -- usually six vintage films and six premieres -- smattered with trailers, commercials, prize giveaways, celebrity guest introductions and early footage of upcoming films.

This year, special guests at BNAT included director Jon Favreau, writer Roberto Orci and producer Ron Howard, who together presented footage from the as-yet-incomplete Cowboys & Aliens. Director Gore Verbinski also taped a video greeting to introduce footage from his upcoming animated feature Rango. Celebrities in the audience included Elijah Wood (a perennial attendee), Joseph Gordon-Levitt, filmmaker Rian Johnson and Meghan McCain.

Buzz about The King's Speech has been circulating for months, before the MPAA fracas even took place. There have been mutterings for a while that Colin Firth is sure to win an Oscar for the lead role (and as the awards tend to favor biographical depictions, this speculation is likely not too far off). So I watched the movie bearing all this in mind, and all in all I was quite pleased with the British import. The movie opens on Saturday in Austin theaters.

The film opens in pre-World War II Britain with King George V (Michael Gambon) still reigning, but worried about his succession. Second son Bertie (Firth), the Duke of York, feels humiliated as he verbally stumbles through a speech at the 1925 British Empire Exhibition. His wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham-Carter) engages a speech therapist for her husband. Australian Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) works with the soon-to-be king using some non-traditional techniques. He also insists that their lessons occur on equal footing. As the lessons continue, a relationship grows between Bertie and Logue.