Also Opening This Week. . .

Also opening this week is the amazing film "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."

Sure to be one of the best movies of the year, the film charts a man in a stroke who managed to overcome all odds and ended up writing a book using only his mind and the ability to move his left eye. Powerful and moving, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is a dramatic masterpiece.

The movie is opening at the Angelika Film Center and the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas on November 30th. You can find my report from it from the New York Film Festival right here.
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Also coming out on December the 5th is Jason Reitman's wonderful film "Juno." I saw the movie earlier this week at a special advanced screening, after hearing wonderful things about it from several contacts at Toronto Film Festival. You can find my full review for the film here.

Charlie Wilson's War

Charlie Wilson's War ***

Directed by Mike Nichols
Written by Aaron Sorkin, based on the book by George Crile

Starring:
Tom Hanks as Charlie Wilson
Julia Roberts as Joanne Herring
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Gust Avrakotos
Amy Adams as Bonnie
Ned Beatty as Doc Long
Emily Blunt as Jane Liddle

97 Minutes(Rated R)
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In a fall movie season that has been quite good, but loaded with politics-in the forms of "Rendition," "In the Valley of Elah," "Badland," etc-"Charlie Wilson's War" actually decides to both take a situation that happened nearly three decades ago, and at the same time make a delightful, sometimes sloppy, comedy about it, boasting two great performances and one of them more of a coasting job. More on that later. It's a film that relies heavy on tone and performance, as in the end the characters don't exactly get into much conflict that we the audience can sympathize with. And yet its a rather fun ride-with moments that will make you laugh out loud, moments that take you on quite a wild ride, and sadly, a rather abrupt and unsatisfying conclusion that made me wonder if the movie was even finished yet. But with the release date just under two weeks away, I'm sure the film is finished, and I guess writer Aaron Sorkin just didn't know how to end it.

Tom Hanks is back since his last rather bland work "The Da Vinci Code," as Charlie Wilson, a Texas Congressman who-although has been reelected five times now-has a knack for ending up in hot tubs with strippers and cocaine. He does enjoy having fun, but when he's behind his desk its all work, and when the sixth richest woman in the United States, Joanne Herring-played by Julia Roberts, who appears rather briefly considering her massive appearances in the advertisements, asks him to try and end Soviet occupation in Afghanistan, Charlie is is taken aback. But after a visit to the occupied country, Charlie quickly changes his mind, and calls the CIA who sends Gust Avrakotos-played by Philip Seymour Hoffman-ending up with the two of them doing what they can to get weapons and training to the Afghans. At the same time Charlie is fighting for himself, after someone names him as someone who took a part in cocaine with several strippers.

There are some very good acting here. Tom Hanks once again blends into the character he is playing, and manages to make quite a charming and charismatic character out of Charlie. This is the third film of the season with Philip Seymour Hoffman, and he was so good and funny and fresh here-hell, even his makeup makes you laugh-that if there is room I wouldn't mind him getting a supporting actor nomination. From the first moment you lay eyes on him, to his very first foul mouthed line, you are into his character-as with most Hoffman characters. And there is some fun work by Amy Adams as Wilson's assistant who is always at work. Wilson has all of his workers women, because his saying is "You can teach me how to type, but you can't teach me to grow tits."

What does make the movie work, aside from the acting, is that it picks a tone to tell this story and it sticks with it. I don't care what people say about this, this is a political comedy-the only scenes that really might stick out as drama are when Charlie ends up visiting Afghanistan, and that is really the key scene where we see a shift in his priorities. It never gets too preachy at any moment, and it really does a good job at staying on one level. I wish they did a little more with the characters, however. There are a few scenes towards the end where we see Charlie drinking in his office late at night with some red spots on his eyes, but we never delve deeper into what is bothering him, or even several sides of how he feels about the issue. And the rest of the government screwing up what Charlie accomplishes is only tacked on at the very end. When I thought the film was going to go into a third act, the screen fades to black and the credits begin to role. It's completely anti climatic, as if there was more to it that was just cut. And at a lean ninety seven minutes, the pacing is very quick, but I wouldn't have minded a little more, especially if it benefited for the viewer.

Mike Nichols has done better work behind the camera-there are a few questionable zooms, edits, and some of it seems a little sloppy. But on the whole, "Charlie Wilson's War" really is a pretty fun time. I said a few months ago that "Michael Clayton" was the year's smart movie, but this one is a smart film that I think everyone could enjoy. The movie opens December 21st everywhere.

Badland

Badland **1/2

Directed by Francesco Lucente
Written by Francesco Lucente

Starring:
Jamie Draven as Jerry
Grace Fulton as Celina
Vinessa Shaw as Nora
Joe Morton as Max
Chandra West as Oli

160 Minutes(Rated R for some strong disturbing violence and pervasive language. )
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Here we go. More politics. "Badland" is the sixth or seventh anti-war statement film since September's "In the Valley of Elah," and the only reason why it isn't getting more press is because its a little indie movie with a cast of no-name actors. The only name that I even recognize is Vinessa Shaw, and her work is limited to "40 Days and 40 Nights," "Corky Ramano," and a bit part in Woody Allen's "Melinda and Melinda." No very impressive, although the Woody Allen was fun. And while this does actually tell a story, unlike Redford's "Lions for Lambs," and while it doesn't get flashy with visuals and methods like de Palma's "Redacted," it does need a little sorting out. I oddly found myself absorbed in what was happening on the screen, and if writer/director Francesco Lucente trimmed it a little-the film is a mean 160 minutes, and it doesn't need to be. There is a lot of fat on this monster. And the ending just about ruins the entire film, but more on that later.

Our main character is Jerry, a depressed and rather mentally unstable Iraq war vet who was discharged after an incident. His pregnant wife doesn't seem to care about his depression spells, and is tiring of his silent crying and nose bleeding constantly. They have three other kids, two sons and a daughter, the daughter who seems to actually sometimes give a damn about him. When he is framed at work for stealing money, he goes home in an angry fit which gets worse when he learns that his wife has been stealing money and saving up to run away from him. He snaps, shoots and kills her, and then kills his two sons, and just when he's about to do his daughter in she pleas for his life. He changes his mind, puts her in his car, and they go on the road. He eventually finds himself in a small time working in as a cook in a diner-his face plastered on the news, but luckily he manages to blend in. That is until he meets Max, the town cop who has just returned from eighteen months away and is as scarred at Jerry is. But maybe Jerry could help Max in ways that nobody would help him.

I did find myself absorbed in this movie for some odd reason. It doesn't exactly make any points that I haven't already heard, and yet it is well made. The cinematography is quite something to look at, and I was lucky to have a huge screen to admire it all on. For the most part the acting is fairly decent, with the exception of an argument between Jerry and his wife which was poorly written-maybe that's because my ears were only hearing the "F" word over and over again. Nothing challenging about writing that over and over again, I would know. And despite its flaws there are the moments where you really are involved in this story-moments of power are there, but you just have to be a little patient.

And then the last five minutes comes along and practically ruins everything. The movie offers two plot twists. The first comes along and I rolled my eyes a little-it seemed like a pretty far stretch to go, and the anti-war message began to stab me in the face. I felt it went one step too far. And then it went an even further step with the final twist and the final few shots, which ended up ruining the movie in a way that the indie release from last week "He Was A Quiet Man" managed to ruin that film. Lucente seemed to have run out of ideas and tacked on a final one minute out of nowhere that does nothing but make you feel cheated-cheated of your time and cheated of your sensibility. When 'Badland" is good, it's pretty good, but perhaps a shorter cut, and a more satisfying ending is what is needs to be something beyond a so-so indie flick. Or maybe I've just has enough of politics these last few months to last me a lifetime. Who knows?

Enchanted

Enchanted ***

Directed by Kevin Lima
Written by Bill Kelly

Starring:
Amy Adams as Giselle
Patrick Dempsey as Robert Philip
James Marsden as Prince Edward
Timothy Spall as Nathaniel
Idina Menzel as Nancy Tremaine
Susan Sarandon as Queen Narissa
Rachel Covey as Morgan Philip

107 Minutes(Rated PG for some scary images and mild innuendo. )
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I wasn't going to see "Enchanted," the first Disney film is a while to even use 2-D animation in its contents, but I heard so many glowing things about it, and there was even Oscar buzz surrounding the performance of its lead Amy Adams. Chances are you haven't heard about her, even though she has an Oscar nomination for her masterful performance in the wonderful 2005 indie film "Junebug." She's one of those rare young actresses around at the moment who just puts so much energy into her work-from that film, to this, even to a bit part in the upcoming "Charlie Wilson's War," she just has this extreme likability. And she's very talented. And that shines through every second she's onscreen in "Enchanted." So I went to see the movie-mostly for the good reviews, and mostly because its free where I work. The price was right, and in the end, so was the movie-a clever and very enjoyable children's movie, with enough laughs and satire to keep everyone amused.

A little throwback to the classic Disney musicals of the past-"Snow White," "Sleeping Beauty," "Beauty and the Beast," etc, "Enchanted" actually begins like one of those movies. Adams plays Giselle, a beautiful princess who has all the classic Disney princess attributes-including the singing and the fact that animals enjoy helping her clean. When she angers the evil Queen Narissa by getting engaged to her stepson Prince Edward, endangering her crown, Narissa pretends to be an old woman and tricks Giselle into going through a portal bringing her right into the center of Times Square. She ends up getting help around the city by Robert, a single father who intends on asking his long time girlfriend Nancy-who is exactly the opposite of Giselle right down to her hair color and nose size, of course-to marry him. Meanwhile the evil Queen sends out her short and worshipping servant Nathaniel to give Giselle a poison apple and get her out of her life forever, while Prince Edward is also on the track to rescue her.

First of all, the casting here is perfection. Amy Adams really lights up the screen with her work here, never breaking character and always giving it the strong amount of energy it needs. James Marsden brings that campy overacting quality here just like he did in the summer's "Hairspray," and its the second best performance here. Susan Sarandon is good at playing evil characters, hence her as the queen, and of course Timothy Spall, who is cartoonish himself, is great as the hunchbacked servant. Spall doesn't get enough credit in anything he does, from his drama in the summer's pretty good "Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman" to this, plus all his vocal work in the past. He really is quite an underrated talent. But the movie is just clever-it's a good time for young children, with plenty of fun little throwbacks to the classic fairy tales of the past. The movies that me and several people out there grew up with. Those timeless cartoons that'll be around until the day you die and beyond. Fans of those movies will find it impossible to resist "Enchanted"'s clever charm. Disney manages to make their first real winner solo in a long time.

Tribeca Romanian Film Festival: The Great Communist Robbery

The Great Communist Robbery **1/2

A Documentary Film by Alexandru Solomon

85 Minutes(Not Rated)
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For the second year, Tribeca Cinemas has hosted a weekend of the latest in Romanian Cinema-the festival only runs for three days, and sadly I was only able to squeeze in a single showing on Sunday night-the last show of the festival. They did showcase two other films that I've seen already-the great "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days" winner of the top prize at Cannes this year which is set for a January 25th release at IFC Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, and "California Dreamin'," which I saw at this years Toronto Film Festival, a two and a half hour long comedy which I would have loved to see a second time. In the end, the film I got to see was the rather interesting documentary "The Great Communist Robbery," which ends up suffering mostly from the fact that its an interesting story, yet it drags a little, and certainly not like the other Golden Age Romanian films that I've been watching of late.

The subject is an event that occurred in 1959 in Bucharest. At the time, Romania was a police state under Communist rule. Currency stealing was completely forbidden, and if you stole a certain amount of money you could be put to death. After searching and questioning people by the hundreds, the police eventually caught six people, known as the Ioanid Gang, to be charged with the crime. They were less criminals and more intellectual, Jewish, middle class people. The biggest twist to this cat and mouse story is what happened after they were caught. Told that they would escape the death sentence if they did this, the six of them were commissioned to act in a "reconstruction" film where they worked with a very influential Romanian film director to show exactly how they plotted their robbery. In the end, five of the six were shot point blank, and the sixth was given a very long prison sentence. Thanks to fellow movie buff Dan Sallit, whose blog "Thanks for the Use of the Hall" brings more insight into classic and new releases than I can give, posted a link to a discussion about the incident, so if you want to read more about it, just click here.

A problem that I do have with most documentaries is that I can hardly even find myself justify seeing it on a big screen and paying a large sum of money for it. No matter how interesting the story, they never really end up being anything special that we can't watch on television-with the exception of "King of Kong," which just ended up being a massively great time. But it's a rather fascinating story, and one that is supposed to have a historical fiction counterpart coming out in Romania soon. I don't exactly know how you'll be able to see this movie if you are interested in it, but if you ever have the chance it is worth a look see. Its a one of those stories that you just can't make up. Then again, why would you want to?

August Rush

August Rush *1/2

Directed by Kirsten Sheridan
Written by Nick Castle and James V. Hart

Starring:
Freddie Highmore as August Rush/Evan
Keri Russell as Lyla Novacek
Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Louis Connelly
Robin Williams as Wizard
Leon G. Thomas III as Arthur
Terrence Howard as Richard Jeffries
Jamia Simone Nash as Hope
William Sadler as Thomas Novacek
Mykelti Williamson as Reverend James

113 Minutes(Rated PG for some thematic elements, mild violence and language. )
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Throughout all of film history there has always been what is classified as the "feel good movie." From silent films like "The Crowd," through Frank Capra's time, through some Darabont films, there are so many feel good movies-films that defy logic to give our characters a happy ending. Now when it comes to most film, my rule is that I don't mind seeing predictable films as long as they are well made. I can forgive cliche if it's handled well. Like they say-always strive for originality, but if you have to steal, steal from the best. Now "August Rush" is attempting to tug the heartstrings of everyone, but instead of making me feel good it made me roll my eyes in disgust. This movie certainly does defy logic to give the characters a happy ending, but along the way they just go one step too far in making everything all neat and tidy. There was not a single plausible moment in this movie. There was not a single character that I was able to see a second dimension too. And lastly, there is not a single event in the odyssey of these characters that was not hard to see from a mile away. This film was packed with cliche after cliche, but instead of doing it well it just went past the borderline of ridiculous. The movies heart is in the right place, and its intentions were honorable, but it ends there.

Now young Freddie Highmore is still at that adorable and cute age where we can watch him on a screen and detect talent before the drug years kick in, and he might be the only thing holding this mess together. With great performances in "Finding Neverland," and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" under his belt, Highmore plays Evan, a young boy living in an orphanage straight out of a Dickens novel (only without the magic). He is picked on for being weird, and he claims that if he continues to "follow the music," than his real parents will find him. Evan finds music in everything he comes across. We, the audience, begins to learn a little bit about how Evan came to the orphanage. It started during a chance encounter between cello player Lyla Novacek and rock singer Louis Connelly, whose one night together led her to having a baby. After getting hit by a car, her evil father who wants her to continue her music career lies about the baby dying, but he really just gave it away. When Lyla finds out that her son is alive out there, she heads to New York to find him. When Evan ends up escaping from the orphanage he finds himself in New York determined to find his parents. And lastly when Louis, who is in a loveless relationship because he can't get Lyla out of his head after eleven years, decides to find her, he ends up in New York. Evan ends up being taken under the wing of the Wizard (played by miscasted Robin Williams), a former country singer wannabe who has a bunch of homeless kids playing for him on various corners all over Manhattan. He dubs him August Rush after finding that he has a certain knack for playing guitar (in a Kaki King type manner, mind you, who in fact had a big part in the musical production of this film.) But Wizard just wants the money that Evan can bring him, and stands in way of his dream of finding his parents, and even being able to showcase more of his musical talent.

Now the good things here, and there are very few, are pretty much Highmore, Keri Russell as Lyla, and about sixty percent of the music. Highmore manages to play the character convincingly, even though there is not a shred of actual humanity in this screenplay. Russell, who impresses me more and more in every film shes in, and actually deserves some kind of nomination for "Waitress", is not only very easy on the eye, but she is also quite convincing. And the music, like I said most of in a Kaki King sort of way, if you even know who that is, is just enjoyable-at least when its not a rock song sung by Jonathan Rhys Meyers (whose accent actually changes in the movie by the minute). The rest is all a fantasy-a fairy tale created to simply stir audiences hearts when really they would have to be insane and completely dumb to even find any of this moving. Its far too obvious-call me a cynic but even when I suspend belief on certain things I like to at least feel treated like something other than a child. This is just a missed opportunity for something that could have been delightful for the season-a little Capra-esque type of feel good movie that we all need once in a while. But don't condescended me screenwriters, and don't make me feel stupid. At leats inject some kind of human quality in one of characters here. Highmore should be pleased because when a fifteen year old boy manages to be one of the only worthwhile things in an entire production of film makers, that shows that he actually has some talent. These writers do not.

Also Opening This Week. . .

In theatres November 28th is the drama "The Savages," starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney as a brother/sister duo who reunite after the health of their father begins to get worse and worse quickly. I saw the film in Toronto-a bleak and rather depressing drama being marketed as a quirky comedy, but featuring two terrific performances. I wouldn't classify this movie as Oscar calibur, but it's a very good film, and the full review can be found here.

The Mist

The Mist ***

Directed by Frank Darabont
Written by Frank Darabont, based on the story by Stephen King

Starring:
Thomas Jane as David Drayton
Nathan Gamble as Billy Drayton
Laurie Holden as Amanda Dumfries
Andre Brauer as Brent Norton
Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody
Toby Jones as Ollie
Alexa Davalos as Sally
David Jensen as Myron Lafleur
William Sadler as Jim Grondin
Jack Hurst as Joe Eagleton
Chris Owen as Norm
Frances Sternhagen as Irene
Sam Witwer as Wayne Jessup

127 Minutes(Rated R for violence, terror and gore, and language. )
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"The Mist" is the long awaited new film from Frank Darabont, and while in the end this is certainly his worst film, I suppose that even his lesser works end up being worthwhile. With his first three films-what is now a classic, "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Green Mile," and a wonderfully under seen Jim Carey film "The Majestic"-before "The Mist" Darabont was almost like a modern day Frank Capra-offering nice movies that just generally make you feel good-perhaps that's a bold statement to say about "The Green Mile," which ends up having a quite depressing ending depending on the viewer watching it. Adapting from Stephen King for his first two films, Darabont is returning to those roots and trying something new by doing a thriller. Minimizing gore, inserting odd bug creatures, offering a few sociological arguments, and having an ironically delicious ending, "The Mist" is quite good and by the end you will have had a good time.

Our star is Thomas Jane as David Drayton, a family movie poster artist who just had a tree fall into his studio the night of a big storm. Leaving his wife behind the next morning as he takes his son to the grocery store for some supplies, David will never suspect what will be in store for him once he makes it there. It isn't long before a man comes running in proclaiming that "something in the mist" took one of the townspeople. The mist covers the entire supermarket, which of course has a plate glass front window. When David ends up seeing a tentacle creature rip apart the supermarket bag boy, it becomes a question between the people stuck in the store if David and the others are crazy or not. And it doesn't help that the senile Mrs. Carmody, played by Marcia Gay Harden for the third time in the last month, is convinced that its the End of Days, and she begins to make a group of followers to make sacrifices to God to make him happy.And for the next few days the townspeople try to avoid these flying creatures that keep trying to get in and at the same time try to survive each other.

Ninety percent of the movie does indeed take place in this supermarket, and I wish that Darabont had worked a little harder trying to make the setting more like a character itself-but I've always been a fan of settings being characters, for example the swimming pool in "Matchstick Men," or even the car in "Little Miss Sunshine." The special effects are rather corny-something that you'd see in a made for television movie, but it doesn't stand out as a problem. Most of the movie is just a good time, with a few unpredictable twists, and moments where you actually do not know when or how it will end. We loose characters left and right without any remorse, with the same pacing as last years great "Children of Men." And when the end finally does come, and the last five minutes will likely end up splitting the crowd that goes to see it, as has already been proven, you will either buy the ironic fate or you will just plain walk out mad, and that's all I'll say on that matter. Although perhaps Darabont went a little overboard with the music during the finale-a rather high pitched woman dramatically chanting. Far too much.

I really liked the way the ensemble worked-Thomas Jane is quite tolerable, but its fun supporting work by Marcia Gay Harden, and Toby Jones from last years under seen "Infamous" that really shine. And then we have a few Darabont regulars like Laurie Holden and Darabont's personal favorite Jeffrey DeMunn, who has been in all of his movies to date. They all work well together, and I actually preferred the scenes of civil strife to the scenes of bug critters trying to get in-it works as a monster movie and one with some minor social commentary. By the end, I was certain that "The Mist" is 2007's Like It Or Hate It movie, with last year it being what I thought was great "Lady in the Water." Therefore its a hard film to recommend, because there just isn't much of a middle ground. But I had quite a good time watching it, and despite some rather corny lines of dialogue here and there-none of which I can quote verbatim-it is well made, and I look forward to what Darabont has in store for us next-a remake of "Fahrenheit 451" with Tom Hanks rumored to play the lead. I'm there.

Starting Out in the Evening

Starting Out in the Evening ***

Directed by Andrew Wagner
Written by Fred Parnes, based on the novel by Brian Morton

Starring:
Lauren Ambrose as Heather
Frank Langella as Leonard Schiller
Karl Bury as Frederick
Lili Taylor as Ariel Schiller
Jessica Hecht as Sandra Bennett
Anitha Gandhi as Chelsea

111 Minutes(Rated PG-13 for sexual content, language and brief nudity. )
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What is making 2007 such a great year for movies, especially this award season that seems never ending, is that there is no clear front runner for anything. There are musings and predictions-I have Javier Bardem as a hopeful for Best Supporting Actor, and yet Casey Affleck could get it, and Ellen Page as a hopeful for Best Actress, but yet Julie Christie also has a shot. There are so many great picks out there, so many hopefuls, so many choices, and yet they could only eventually settle on one. Usually come this time of year we already can guess who will win their awards-and what will take home the coveted Best Picture. "Starting Out in the Evening," which I missed at this years Toronto Film Festival, but has at least been given a limited release, is a little film, yes, and yet its also something that is threatening to take home one Oscar that night in February from several other deserving folks-Best Actor. In the end perhaps the only consideration for awards that this film should receive is for Best Actor, but its a damn high bar that it set. Here we have Frank Langella, an actor that I don't exactly know much about-although I did see him in "Good Night, and Good Luck" two years ago. And yet I already get the feeling that this could be the best work he has ever done-a performance of such subtle perfection, nuance, and its clearly an actor that has mastered his craft.

Langella plays Leonard Schiller, an aging writer who has four novels under his belt, and he is struggling to complete the next one before he dies. When is that? Well, according to Leonard it has to be soon. After all, he is old. When we first meet Leonard, after a shot of him typing away at his typewriter, an image brought back at the very end of the film only in a different light, he is at a diner meeting with Heather, a college student who has decided to write her masters thesis on the old writer-claiming that one of his books changed her life once. She also intends on having people rediscover the great man's work. Leonard kindly declines the invitation, but soon finds himself being interviewed by Heather, and having her live in his shadows. Then it becomes clear that there is more on Heather's mind than just a formal business agreement. We also meet Ariel, Leonard's yoga instructor daughter who has settled her mind on getting a baby, even if it means lying to her boyfriend about birth control, or lack thereof. She also finds herself getting involved with an ex, who she broke up with years before because of their lack of agreement in wanting a child.

"Starting Out in the Evening" is loose on plot, and more about character and relationships. This makes sense if you know anything about the director. Andrew Wagner's first film, which came out two years ago, was the rather bland and annoying, yet extremely true and raw, "The Talent Given Us," a mockumentary about his own family taking a road trip to visit him. Another movie focusing on relationships-young and old, family and friends, etc. This is a story about a man who is giving up in his prime-ready to die upon the completion of his book-who realizes that there is so much around him that he hasn't taken care of yet. Langella's performance is terrific-one of calm wanderings from scene to scene, who voices his opinions whenever he feels like, and yet it is the moments where he is not speaking that are the most absorbing. His eyes, from the very first shot, tell us everything that we need to know. Lauren Ambrose (from TV's Six Feet Under) as Heather gives a very fine performance as well, a somewhat stuck up college student who tries to put up a more mature face than she should. And we see her true self behind her at times, and we know that she is clearly putting on an act at certain moments to try and be more respected than she is. She's intelligent, yes, but certainly not as much as she thinks she is. Lili Taylor is fine as the daughter, yet I never found myself as involved in her subplot than in the main one. I understand why it was there, and by the end of the film you will too, but it rather clogged the film up-I wanted more Langella and less of her.

I did have a little problem with the screenplay. There are several scenes where characters discuss various literary works, extremely little known authors, and really begin to have extended scenes about literary criticism. It went to a point where the literature conversations being something to expand on the characters and who they were, to just being a little self-indulgent. I wasn't a huge fan of Wagner's "The Talent Given Us" as I said before-another film that just seemed a bit self-indulgent, even though I understood what he wanted to do. But I can recommend this film for the performances, and almost solely for that. It's a nice little movie, one that falls a little throughout thanks to Wagner's screenplay, but yet saves itself constantly every time Frank Langella pops up on the screen. It really is a masterful performance.

Juno

Juno ***1/2

Directed by Jason Reitman
Written by Diablo Cody

Starring:
Ellen Page as Juno MacGuff
Michael Cera as Paulie Bleeker
Jennifer Garner as Vanessa Loring
Jason Bateman as Mark Loring
Olivia Thirlby as Leah
J.K. Simmons as Mac MacGuff
Allison Janney as Bren
Rainn Wilson as Rollo

92 Minutes(Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, sexual content and language. )
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I remember when "Juno" premiered while I was at this year's Toronto Film Festival (some of the most fun I've in the last few years). I couldn't get a ticket-all the shows were sold out-and yet every single person that I met that saw the movie had nothing but good things to say about it. And so I waited-for a few months-until I was finally able to catch a screening of it, and I've glad to say that my contacts in Toronto did not lie. "Juno" is a terrific film, and evidence that the directing debut of Jason Reitman-"Thank You for Smoking"-was far from a fluke. He is certainly one of the best directors out there at the moment, and I am awaiting his third film already. "Juno" opens December 5th in New York and LA, and I'm already expecting it to be as big as Reitman's first film. There will be a reminder next week when it is released.

Ellen Page-who was great in "Hard Candy," a great film, and pretty good in "The Tracey Fragments", a rather so-so movie-plays our hero Juno MacGuff, a smart mouthed and quick paced high school girl of sixteen who has found herself pregnant after a one nighter with her best friend Paulie Bleeker (played by Michael Cera, doing the same character as "Superbad.") After deciding not to get an abortion (the baby already has fingernails, for Christ sake!), she decides to put the baby up for adoption, and she finds the perfect "parents", a suburban couple, Vanessa and Mark Loring (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman.) Over the next nine months Juno begins to have worse problems than a growing stomach, including Paulie finding himself with another girl, and a friendship with Mark that makes him question if he is ready to be a parent or not. Mark finds that he has more in common with Juno than with his wife, and their afternoons spent watching bad 70's horror films and listening to rock music could spell danger for Vanessa's extremely strong desire to be a mother.

I personally think that Ellen Page was perfect in this movie, and its clearly her best work to date. I would even go so far as suggesting that the Academy give her a Best Actress nomination, a bit of a stretch since they usually ignore quirky comedies, despite last years love for the great "Little Miss Sunshine." And the film has a rather fun supporting cast-Cera, Garner, Bateman included, but also J.K Simmons in a rare tender role (usually he plays such angry types), Allison Janney is a great brief role, Rainn Wilson in one hilarious scene at the very beginning, and Olivia Thirlby as Juno's hot cheerleader friend. Thirlby was great in the upcoming March release "Snow Angels," and she is quite good here, almost playing the exact opposite character as in that film. My only quip might be Michael Cera, who I fear will become type casted as that shy, rather nerdy, high school character-only because it doesn't seem like he can play anyone else. Maybe if I hadn't seen "Superbad" already this wouldn't bother me, but I did and nothing can change that.

What makes "Juno" so unique is this world that the character find themselves in-they have created a reality similar to ours but with their own way of doing things, right down to their speech patterns. Juno, as well as her friends, speak in a language all their own-one with certain slang and hesitations, spoken so quick and at such lighting speed that it doesn't feel awkward to our ears-it feels natural. When exclaiming how great something is they say "That's so wizard!" and little rhymes like "What the prognosis, Fertle Myrtle?" or my personal favorite, upon looking at a pregnancy test "Thats no Etch-a-Sketch. That's one doodle you can undo, home skillet." I feel like the script wouldn't have worked the way it did if it weren't for the wonderful acting by every single cast member involved. If I could read Diablo Cody's script before even seeing the film, I might react with confusion and even a little hesitation. Almost as if someone in the sixth grade wrote it. And yet all these actors elevate it to something special and something true. This script has a big chance of winning Best Original Screenplay, but I find "Juno" so good as an actors piece, who manage to take this rather odd script and turn it into something real. Cody did not write Ellen Page's performance, after all. And Reitman manages to create a lovely balance between quirky comedy and human drama, and the third act does have a tone vastly different from what comes before it, but it works and seems natural. Juno changes greatly from scene one to the finale, but there is still a large part of her that remains the same, her same delightful, confused, and worried self-but at least she has happiness to help her with it this time. After "Juno" is released the name Ellen Page will mean a lot more than it did a few months ago, and its not only confirmation that she will be a star, but Reitman is a director to keep your eye on.

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium **

Directed by Zach Helm
Written by Zach Helm

Starring:
Natalie Portman as Molly Mahoney, the Composer
Dustin Hoffman as Mr. Edward Magorium, Avid Shoe-Wearer
Zach Mills as Eric Applebaum, the Hat Collector
Ted Ludzik as Bellini, the Bookbuilder
Jason Bateman as Henry Weston, the Mutant

94 Minutes(Rated G)
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"Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" is the directing debut of Zach Helm. If that name sounds a little familiar, its because he wrote one of my favorite films of 2006 (in the Number 10 spot, thank you very much) "Stranger Than Fiction." It pains me to say that "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" is a step down from that wonderful and extremely imaginative work, but it is a good effort, and similar to "He Was A Quiet Man," it is a film with good ideas that is a little blase in execution. It does please me to say that Helm does indeed have one of the most creative minds in recent memory-and this film reminded me of children's movies of old-before everything became animated and filled with sly in-jokes for the adults. This is a kids movie in the tradition of "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" and even a little seen gem from the 60's called "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T." Imaginative, wild, wacky, and at times it even doesn't make much sense-but its all tied into the saying that "anything is possible."

Dustin Hoffman dons thick eye brows and has a lisp for his title character, Mr. Magorium, who owns the most magical toy store in the world. 253 years old, and running the store for 113, Magorium plans to give the store to his store manager, Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman), but first hires an accountant named Henry Weston (Jason Bateman), to go over the books and make sure everything is settled. Magorium is leaving the world-his main reason is because he ran out of the Italian crafted shoes that he bought a lifetime supply of-but Molly is going through a crisis of her own. On the side she enjoys playing the piano, but is stuck at composing her first piece. And when she learns that she is next in line to get the store, she becomes confused about what she wants in her life.

The movie is pretty low on plot, and mostly focuses on the more zany and quirky events of the store itself, what should have been the most interesting character in the piece. But Helm gets a little confused at what he wants to focus on more, and sadly much of the film ends up focusing on young Eric Applebaum, a lonely boy who spends most of his time in the store to account for the fact that he doesn't have any friends. The character is a bit of a cliche, even as far as children's movies are concerned, and I wish more time was spent about Magorium himself. The guy is 253 years old-think of the stories HE could tell. And yet, Dustin Hoffman almost becomes a footnote in the whole piece, in the movie almost as long as it takes to say the full title of the film itself. And a Kermit the Frog cameo was almost a bit shameless, and extremely unneeded.

I can see the imagination and the creativity behind "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium," but the whole thing could have been a lot better with the mind behind it. I want to know more about Magorium's history, even more about his relationship with the Portman character. Less on the little kid-despite it actually giving the intended audience something to relate to and care about. But there is something more interesting here, between the lines-but for the most part, despite toys coming to life and color everywhere, the film falls flat one too many time, and sadly "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" is nothing more than a mediocre kid's flick.

He Was A Quiet Man

He Was A Quiet Man **

Directed by Frank A. Cappello
Written by Frank A. Cappello

Starring:
Christian Slater as Bob Maconel
Elisha Cuthbert as Vanessa
William H. Macy as Gene Shelby
Sascha Knopf as Paula
Jamison Jones as Scott Harper

95 Minutes(Not Rated)
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I wish I could have liked "He Was A Quiet Man" more than I did-it's a film with several great ideas, one terrific performance, and moments of true directing talent. But in the end it suffers from being about too much, never focusing in on one concept or idea that wanted to be passed on. And yet there is so much comfort in the truly great performance by Christian Slater that you could almost look past all of those flaws in the screenplay and actually accept this as a good movie. Almost. I read about "He Was A Quiet Man" almost a year ago, saw a festival poster for it, and was intrigued by its premise. I waited and waited for it to come out, until only a few weeks ago I read rumors that it was slated for a Nov. 30 release date. It ended up coming out Nov. 23rd at the very fine Cinema Village theatre in New York City, and has been pulled already for lack of business. Those who are intrigued by this review (and you might be), I'll have to suggest a rental or netflix or whatever you use, because it certainly isn't a waste of time-there are just far better things for you to be doing instead of watching this.

Slater plays Bob Maconel, a lonely and mentally unstable man who works for a company with hardly anyone knowing who he is. When he isn't yearning for his boss's beautiful assistant Vanessa-played by Elisha Cuthbert, last seen in "Captivity," at this moment the second worst movie of the year-he is dreaming of killing five of his co-workers, and then turning the sixth bullet to himself. But somebody beats him to the punch and shoots a whole bunch of people-also accidentally hitting Vanessa-before Bob is able to use his gun to shoot the man. Suddenly Bob is seen as a hero and he becomes famous. He even gets a promotion to VP of Creative Thinking, by his boss Gene Shelby-played by a quickly seen William H. Macy. Everyone seems to want to know him, including Vanessa, whose initial anger at him making her paralyzed for life slowly becomes into a request to him. She wants him to kill her, because she would rather be dead than lead a life confined to a wheelchair.

There are a few angles that writer/director Frank A. Cappello is going for in telling this story. The first is clearly a character study of an unstable man-perfectly played by Christian Slater. Slater actually has a physical transformation to go with his character, loosing some of his hair and doning a pair of glasses that actually make him look a little like a mouse. We get, especially in the beginning, several closeups of him, as he scuttles around his office, trying not to be seen, plotting his revenge. And then we get the love story angle, a rather quickly one between Slater and Cuthbert-clearly they spend the bulk of the film together, and soon Bob begins to wonder if she really loves him or just needs him because they are both outcasts. Maybe its both. Over time the story began to take a few odd turns-it ended up having more potential behind its ideas than actually executing them well. And the ending, abrupt and unsatisfying, just made me feel like I had wasted myself-as if everything that happened in the first 90 minutes was a lie and then the truth had to be shoved down your face. Without ruining too much it is a plot twist that I disapprove of-we've seen its type before, and its less of a twist and more of a complete cop-out. I could have also lived without a talking fish that Slater sees everywhere that there is a bowl of water. A waste of special effects that could have gone towards a rather cheap looking imaginary building explosion early on.

"He Was A Quiet Man" is ultimately a disappointment, only because I know that there is a really a good film buried underneath this rather muddled screenplay. Its worth seeing for Slater's performance though-one that will certainly go under seen, especially in such a crowded fall movie season (despite the most overlooked performance of the year obviously being Michael Douglas in "King of California.) The DVD will be released at the end of January, and Slater fans will certainly want to give this a look see. Otherwise its really a good effort, but nothing much else.

Beowulf

Beowulf ***

Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary

Starring:
Ray Winstone as Beowulf (voice)
Anthony Hopkins as Hrothgar (voice)
John Malkovich as Unferth (voice)
Robin Wright Penn as Wealthow (voice)
Brendan Gleeson as Wiglaf (voice)
Crispin Glover as Grendel (voice)
Alison Lohman as Ursula (voice)
Angelina Jolie as Grendel's Mother (voice)

115 Minutes(Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence including disturbing images, some sexual material and nudity. )
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Robert Zemeckis believes that the new breed of computer animation-first seen in "The Polar Express" and now seen in "Beowulf"-is the "future of cinema." I kind of think that's a bit of a stretch-but it certainly is something neat to see once every few years or so. I didn't have a website then, but I am one of the few that thought "The Polar Express" was a magical film, and it made my Top 10 list of 2004. "Beowulf" didn't exactly wow me as much as that film did, but it certainly was a good time-especially the first act and the last act. It kind of meanders in the middle of a little bit, a period that actually diverts from the original poem, if I remember correctly. Zemeckis isn't done with this brand of computer animation-and in 2009 we'll be able to see Jim Carey in a new version of "A Christmas Carol." I don't really know if that's needed to be added to film history, and perhaps an original story with this animation should be next.

I read the epic poem of "Beowulf" in my freshman year in high school, so my memory is a little faded about what exactly transpired. We begin with a group led by the King Hrothgar, but their celebration in their "dome of drink and fornication" ends quickly when they are attacked by the demon Grendel (played perfectly by Crispin Glover, and I did mention this film to him when I met him at the screening of "It Is Fine, EVERYTHING IS FINE!!!") The King decides not to depend on the Gods for help-instead they need a hero. So they rely on the power of Beowulf, a rather prideful man (which ends up being his downfall, in a real dose of hubris) who comes prepared to kill the demon. Over time he will face three villains-the demon Grendel, Grendel's mother (played by Angelina Jolie, more on that later), and finally a fire-breathing dragon who may have closer ties to Beowulf than he would think.

The film starts off extremely good, with such careful attention to detail-I heard that while doing "The Polar Express" the animators had a hard time with the eyes, something they worked harder on in this film. The end credits have countless names listed for things like "hair" and "clothing." I can only imagine the giant amount of effort that went into this. The initial Grendel attack, the introduction of Beowulf, and the eventual nude battle between man and demon were terrific entertainment, and I enjoyed myself way better than I did watching "300," one of the most mediocre films of this, or any, year. The ending portions where Beowulf fights the dragon are quite exhilarating, and feature some amazing animated tracking shots. A shot near the end excited me as much as the terrific "Flight of the Ticket" scene in 'The Polar Express." However the middle of "Beowulf" falters greatly, including the introduction of Grendel's mother-who was not a hot tamale that resembled Jolie, but a wild and evil hag. And the slow and dreamy pacing of the middle just doesn't seem to fit the bookends of the movie, and for a while everything just came to a standstill. If you remember way back to last July there was an adaptation of part of "Beowulf," called "Beowulf and Grendel." The full review can be found in the July 2006 section of this site. That film, made for much cheaper and with live action actors like Gerald Butler and Sarah Polley, does not include the dragon portion of the poem, focusing on Grendel and his mother. That film is far from perfect, but is a decent adaptation for getting certain details, including the hag-like status of Grendel's mother.

Besides Jolie, the other odd casting choice is probably Ray Winstone as Beowulf. I love Winstone in films like "The Departed," "The Proposition," and even "Breaking and Entering," but this is the biggest stretch in changing the actor after Glover's Grendel. But you can see Crispin Glover in the part-he's a wild and wacky and strange character in real life, and he just fit the Grendel persona, even though you can hardly see its him under the animation. But Winstone is nothing like Beowulf, and those who can picture him can see. I may have preferred an unknown over him in the end. The film has fun with the pridefulness of the Beowulf character, including how he enjoys his own nudity, and wants to fight Grendel in that way-and we get the classic comedy of people and things in the way of the more risque body parts. And you'd have to be a fool to not spot the obvious references to Beowulf being a Christ figure-from the fact that they use him instead of the Gods, from his Christlike position at the end, and even to his crew chanting "For gold! For glory! For Beowulf!" I went to high school long enough to learn that explorers went after gold, glory, and God.

And so Zemeckis' "way of the future" goes on to "Beowulf," a wildly entertaining and visually stunning adaptation of the great poem. I can question choices in the middle section greatly, and I am wondering if it was worth some brief Jolie nudity over actually telling the story better, but many will debate with me on that one. This film is also being placed in IMAX 3-D and Digital 3-D, but I saw it neither of those formats, going with the 2-D version because it was. . .well, free.

Also Opening This Week. . .

Also opening this week, in two theatres in NYC, is the disappointing follow up to his "The Squid and the Whale," Noah Baumbach's "Margot at the Wedding."

Following the story of Margot (Nicole Kidman) visiting with her son to go to her sister's (Jennifer Jason Leigh) wedding to a loser (Jack Black), Margot at the Wedding is a forced, awkward, and painfully difficult to watch natural drama-with real life lighting and little music and handheld camera-that I had the displeasure to watch at this year's Toronto Film Festival.

If you have the desire to see this, you can find it at the Angelika and the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, playing on two screens in each.

You can find the full review right here.

It Is Fine, EVERYTHING IS FINE!!!

It Is Fine, EVERYTHING IS FINE!!! ***1/2

Directed by Crispin Glover
Written by Steven C. Stewart

Starring:
Margit Carstensen as Linda Barnes
Bruce Glover as The Ex Husband
Lauren German as Ruth - Girl in wheelchair
Carrie Szlasa as Karma Barnes
Steven C. Stewart as Paul

74 Minutes(Not Rated)
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Crispin Glover's "It Is Fine, EVERYTHING IS FINE!!!" is the stuff nightmares are made of. A horror film written on such a personal level that it isn't the killer element that is scary, but the mental breakdown and mental torture that our main character went through in real life that is creepy. Glover returns to New York City's IFC Center to present his new film, and those who read this blog may remember my trip last February to IFC Center to see Glover's first film in his trilogy "What Is It?" For those who want to have their minds refreshed, click here for that review.

"What Is It" was made in 2000-2001, and was completely made from money made from "Charlie's Angels." Luckily something good came out of that horror of a movie. Filmed and made with actors that mostly had Down Syndrome, "What Is It" was made as a way to get people prepared for "It Is Fine, EVERYTHING IS FINE!!!", written by a man named Steven C. Stewart, who has an appearance in the first film. The third film in the trilogy, "It Is Mine," has not been made yet, but will feature Glover as a main character.

This movie stars Stewart as a man named Paul, living in a nursing home and suffering from cerebral palsy. One day he falls out of his wheelchair, and goes into a fantasy world where everyone can understand him despite the audience having problems doing so, him being a complete ladies man, him being able to be with women with long hair (his secret fetish), and of course, killing the women after intercourse and then having sex with their dead bodies. Yes, you read that correctly. The film is based on Stewart actually having to live in a nursing home in his 20's after the death of his mother-and it turned out in the end that the nursing home used for the bookended scenes of this film were actually shot in the same nursing home that he managed to eventually escape from. Stewart actually died shortly after the filming of this movie, and never got to actually see the finished version-much shorter from the original script for time constraints.

Glover actually said at the post screening Q&A that he felt if he never got to make this film he would have felt like he did something wrong with his life-and he felt that bringing this personal story to the screen ended up being what he says may be the best film that he has, or ever will, been able to work on. This film is a world different from "What Is It?" and this one certainly has that extreme personal level inside of it. You watch it with a mixture of horror from what you are watching, amusement because of the graphic levels it goes, and also an amount of sadness, especially if you know the back story. This film has a bigger structure than "What It Is?" focusing on a plot for the first half before turning into a nightmare ala David Lynch.

One thing is for sure-Crispin Glover is one of the most imaginative and best working independant film makers around. Many directors who like to shoot interestingly done films seem to make these messes that end up not making sense, or just being self-indulgent messes-like "Southland Tales." But Glover manages to make unique films with such personal agendas that are there in every single frame. Whenever I see him act in something horrible-something like "Epic Movie" for one-I am going to applaud him and hope that he does more, because the money from those films end up funding these great projects of his.

Before the screening, Glover did a presentation of his Big Slide Show-where he does dramatic tellings of 8 of his books-if I remember them all-"Concrete Inspection," "Rat Catching," "A New World," "The Backward Swing" (which he has a film version of that will soon be ready, "Round My House," and three others that have escaped my mind. This is the second time I've sat through the Big Slide Show, and for some reason-maybe its the second time, or maybe it just because I've been through lots this year film wise-but I got more out of it this time. This program at IFC was really a brilliant three hours, and I hope Glover will be back in the future for his next films-ones that I will look forward to with heightened anticipation. He really is a true talent-whose films are nightmares and dreams for viewers all at the same time.

I'm Not There

I'm Not There **1/2

Directed by Todd Haynes
Written by Todd Haynes and Oren Moverman

Starring:
Christian Bale as Bob Dylan / John / Jack
Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan / Jude
Marcus Carl Franklin as Bob Dylan / Woody
Richard Gere as Bob Dylan / Billy
Heath Ledger as Bob Dylan/ Robbie
Ben Whishaw as Bob Dylan / Arthur
David Cross as Allen Ginsberg
Charlotte Gainsbourg as Claire
Julianne Moore as Alice

135 Minutes(Rated R for language, some sexuality and nudity. )
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Todd Haynes is probably one of the favorite working film makers at the moment. "Far From Heaven" impressed me to no end when I saw it a few years ago, and over the summer I got to see "Safe" at a midnight screening-a film that uses sound and simple imagery to become one of the scariest films I have ever seen. "I'm Not There" is his newest foray into experimental film making-this time he is trying to make a biopic of the great musician Bob Dylan. I can certainly admire Haynes' method in making this film, taking the standard formula for a biopic and turning it upside down. I have been bashing the genre for a while, claiming that they all end up going the same route. "El Cantante" and "Control" are both from this year, and while the latter film certainly is the better one, both of them seem to have the same essence of the musician-his rise to fame, the long suffering wife, his eventual drug problem when he can't take the fame, and then usually their death-sometimes suicide, sometimes overdoes, and sometimes both.

"I'm Not There" does not go that route whatsoever. In fact this is as far from a conventional film as you'll most likely get this year. Instead of telling the story of Bob Dylan, Haynes has six characters, played by six different actors. Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere, Ben Whishaw, Marcus Carl Franklin (a child actor), and Cate Blanchett. And the characters that they all play end up being versions of Bob Dylan at various stages of his career and life. The words Bob Dylan are not in this film at all, and while they all resemble Dylan, and speak like Dylan, and even act like Dylan, they are not Dylan. This was done to try and tell the Dylan story, but at the same time allow him to remain an enigma-something that Bob Dylan tried to do all the time. "All I'm trying to do is be me-whoever that is," reads a quote off the original trailer for the film.

And so we begin, moving in non-linear fashion-changing direction styles depending on whose on the screen. We get Marcus Carl Franklin, a young African American boy who represents Dylans early influences of the blues. Dubbed Woody, he's a young boy who hops onto a train passing down a field where he plays his guitar, whose case reads This Machine Kills Fascists. We get Bale as Jack Collins, a folk singer whose life is shown via documentary style footage (with a cameo by Julianne Moore, a version of one of Dylan's wives.) We segway from this into Heath Ledger's character, Robbie, an actor who played Collins in a movie version of his life. We also get to know Robbie's unhappy marriage to his wife Claire (played by the beautiful Charlotte Gainsbourg). All throughout these opening pieces we are introduced to the Whishaw Dylan, filmed in grainy black and white with him speaking directly to the camera in interview fashion. This character is a more pompous and rather stuffy version, with him saying things like "It's nature's will, but I'm against nature." It's about an hour in when we get to the real meat of the film, the Blanchett character-a rock star named Jude Quinn-films in a crisp black and white. This is a rather fun installment in the film-Blanchett is terrific here, with some of her best work since her Katherine Hepburn in "The Aviatar," and we follow "him" being harassed by the British press, as well as an affair with a model played by Michelle Williams, where Haynes is probably going for his affair with Edie Sedgwick. And lastly, the Richard Gere Dylan, an adult version of Billy the Kid, where the film takes a western turn and has him riding a horse into a town that celebrates Halloween strongly. While this segment certainly does have the best images visually, it's a slow portion compared to the rest.

I can see where Haynes was going with this movie, and I can certainly admire him for changing things up a bit with the genre. I'm also assuming that much of the small detail went a little over my head-die hard Dylan fans could probably spot more in-references to his life than the little knowledge that I have. However I found myself extremely distant from this film on an emotional level. I felt more like an observer than an actual viewer. I even think that Haynes maybe tried to do a little too much here-the documentary portions in the Bale version took me away strongly, and the interview portions with the Whishaw Dylan just annoyed me to no end. The Blanchett performance really is quite fun, and there is a lot of real comedy here-with a reference to The Beatles, as well as David Cross as Allen Ginsberg, to which the concept and idea of that puts a smile to you're face. I'm not a huge David Cross fan, but he really was the only person to play Ginsberg. And I liked the overal arc-the rather sly innocence of the Franklin and Bale versions, with Ledger as the segway into the rather mysterious and even stuck up Dylans played by Blanchett and Whishaw.

And so I walk away from "I'm Not There" admiring it more than I like it. I admire Haynes take on the material-and he really is one of the most innovative film makers around at the moment. I admire the risks her took and the way he told this story. I really liked most of the performances, and I really liked the direction. Some shots-especially during the Gere piece-are just beautiful to look at. It's always an original film, but it just needed a little more, and maybe even a little less. I left the theatre forgetting it, but at the same time happy that it's there, happy that I saw it, and happy that it existed.

Love in the Time of Cholera

Love in the Time of Cholera *1/2

Directed by Mike Newell
Written by Ronald Harwood, based on the book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Starring:
Benjamin Bratt as Dr. Juvenal Urbino
Giovanna Mezzogiorno as Fermina Urbino
Javier Bardem as Florentino Ariza
Marcela Mar as America Vicuña
Juan Ángel as Marco Aurelio (40’s)
John Leguizamo as Lorenzo Daza
Fernanda Montenegro as Tránsito Ariza
María Eugenia Arboleda as Gala Placidia

128 Minutes(Rated R for sexual content/nudity and brief language. )
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Every Oscar season, usually in last August, I'll go to the bookstore and buy a few books that have now become some of the movies that I'll be watching for the next couple of months. I bought three this year. For September I bought Charles Baxter's wonderful book "The Feast of Love." For December, and I still have to read it, I bought "The Kite Runner." And the third book was my the melodrama "Love in the Time of Cholera," beautifully written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who has a way with words that I could only dream about having. And yet, and this was very easy to do, the film makers who turned this lovely book into a movie have managed to make it into the most laughably bad love story that I've seen in a long while, with some rather truly hokey and awful performances and a decent performance by Javier Bardem (who WILL be nominated for an Oscar in 'No Country for Old Men), who was clearly trying to make something out of this poorly made film. Someone out of some wonderful material they made something just plain bad-a soap opera condensed into a rushed two hour film. Granted it is hard to take a story which spans over fifty years and place it neatly into two hours-clearly lots of detail will be skimmed over. But that is what made "Love in the Time of Cholera" such a wonderful book-the strong attention to detail, and the small one liners that were there-the delicious subtle comedy that was missing from this film, which seems to think that the story is all about two people meant to be with one another.

Bardem plays Florentino Ariza-a young boy who works in a telegraph office in last 1800's Spain. When he meets Fermina Urbino, the daughter of the overly protective Lorenzo Daza (played by a horribly miscast John Leguizamo), his whole life changes, and he decided to make his entire life all about ensuring that she will love him. She does fall for him, but her father disapproves and takes her away on a trip for her to forget about him. He tells her that at her age, love is nothing by an illusion. When she returns she realizes this and ends up marrying a rich doctor-Dr. Juvenal Urbino (played by a horribly miscast Benjamin Bratt). Florentino doesn't give up here-he decides to wait for the young doctor to die, and over the next fifty one years he numbs the pain for Fermina Urbino by taking part in over 620 affairs with various women-widows, college students, poets, etc-all while doing his best to stay in physical shape and keeping a good degree of health, just waiting for the day when he could confess his love all over again.

It's funny that I should read and see this book/movie not very long after seeing and reading "No Country for Old Men." The Coen Brothers in adapting that book kept much of the dialogue from the novel. In reading the novel the dialogue seemed rather bland and poorly written, and yet the movie (which is almost verbatim in parts) ends up becoming tense and snappy. It's all about the delivery. There were snippets of dialogue in "Love in the Time of Cholera" that were verbatim from the novel (which doesn't exactly have that much talking to begin with), and it's all just laughably bad. A scene where Fermina is about to consummate her marriage to Urbino has a moment where the doctor begins to tell her scientific stuff about what they are about to do, and she says "I don't want a medical lesson," to which he replies "This won't be a medical lesson. This will be a lesson in love." The context of the novel made this line perfectly fine, even slightly romantic, but Bratt's poor delivery just had half of the audience cracking up. It's delivery that could change source material-sometimes for better, and sometimes surely for the worst.

In the end it's Bardem that I could see was trying his best to keep things together, and he does give a passable performance. The film is also beautiful to look at visually, from the opening shot of a parrot-readers of the book will know where this begins-to just the various landscapes that we see throughout. This is a visual treat, but sadly the rest is just an over the top love story that is missing the essence of the novel. It's a hard novel to adapt, and I can commend the film makers behind this for trying, but sometimes it's just better to leave things alone-what's the point in making a few dollars if in the end you cannot do justice to something so beautiful?

Also Opening This Week. . .

Also opening this week is the new film by the Coen Brothers-the masterful thriller "No Country for Old Men."

I saw this film last May at a special screening-a tale of a man who finds some money, steals it, and then is chased by one of the baddest men you can imagine-played perfectly by Javier Bardem.

Here is the full review!

Southland Tales

Southland Tales *

Directed by Richard Kelly
Written by Richard Kelly

Starring:
Dwayne Johnson as Boxer Santaros / Jericho Kane
Seann William Scott as Roland Taverner / Ronald Taverner
Sarah Michelle Gellar as Krysta Now / Krysta Kapowski
Mandy Moore as Madeline Frost-Santaros
Cheri Oteri as Zora Carmichaels
Holmes Osborne as Senator Bobby Frost
Will Sasso as Fortunio Balducci
Miranda Richardson as Nana Mae Van Adler-Frost
Jon Lovitz as Bart Bookman
Kevin Smith as Simon Thiery
Wallace Shawn as Baron Von Westphalen
Beth Grant as Dr. Inga Von Westphalen / Marion Card
John Larroquette as Vaughn Smallhouse
Nora Dunn as Cyndi Pinziki
Jill Ritchie as Shoshana Kapowski / Shoshana Cox
Justin Timberlake as Private Pilot Abilene

144 Minutes(Rated R for language, violence, sexual material and some drug content. )
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"Southland Tales" is probably the biggest disaster to come out onto a big screen in some time, and reaches first place on the list of the most pretentious and self-indulgent films of 2007-reaching in second place in Noah Baumbach's "Margot at the Wedding," which oddly enough comes out the same weekend as this one. Richard Kelly, I felt, made an adequate debut with "Donnie Darko," a film that gets a bit more praise than it really deserves, and either the cult following from that film went to his head to the point where he felt like he could make whatever he wanted, or he really just could not pick one thing that he wanted to do in his second film, so he just decided to do it all. Either way, "Southland Tales" is two hours and twenty minutes of pure torture, and its cinematic masturbation at its worst. And it pains me to think that there is a cut out there that is just about a half hour longer-the version that the folks at Cannes booed to death. This is one of the worst movies of the year-a film where Kelly mixes up ambition with not knowing when to say "no" to yourself.

Assembling one of the worst casts in recent memory, "Southland Tales" is hard to really pinpoint a plot, but I'll do my best. We see some handheld video camera footage from 2004 Texas, where a giant cloud of smoke disrupts the joy and fun that everyone seems to be having. This began World War Three, and now in 2008, with the onset of the elections (Clinton version Frost, the latter being a work of fiction), we meet Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson), an actor who was abducted once and had his memory erased. Once the husband of Madeline Frost-Santaros (Mandy Moore), the daughter of Senator Bobby Frost, Boxer now lives with a porn star named Krysta Now, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, who has her own "The View" type talk show, and sings songs with titles like "Teen Horniness is Not a Crime." He doesn't remember his past, but the two of them have written a screenplay set in LA in the future where Boxer will not only play the lead, but also direct. Eventually he gets mixed in with a group of Neo-Marxists-played by SNL alumi Cheri Oteri, Amy Poehler, and Jon Lovitz-who have kidnapped the twin cop brother of Ronald Taverner, and had the brothers switch for a reason that I still don't really understand. In the mix is an Iraq war vet played by Justin Timberlake, who does some distracting narration where he reads from the Book of Revelations, and gets to break out into random singsong. This tells the story of Boxer and also about "how the world ends."

There was a point in "Southland Tales" where everything just became so confusing and so muddled and so self-important that I stopped caring about what was happening, and I stopped trying to even follow. Characters weaved in an out-and it pained to see fun faces like Wallace Shawn and Jon Lovitz who just didn't seem to fit at all-a time travel plot was introduced where some of the characters were versions of themselves a few seconds in the past. It tried to be everything-science fiction story, musical, political satire, action (with extremely poor special effects, as if they ran out of money). And in trying to be everything, Kelly managed to create a giant mess, one that he probably couldn't even fix with massive cuts. The script is poor, with bad dialogue that isn't delivered much better. When I saw 2003's "The Rundown" I said that The Rock (who gets rid of that nickname for this project and is just credited as Dwayne Johnson) had what it takes to be an action star, but certainly not as a dramatic actor. Sarah Michelle Gellar has never been good, so I wouldn't expect her to change her. Mandy Moore doesn't get to do much than cross her arms and look angry at her boyfriend, and those are just the leads.

I guess I am a little curious to what the full 160 minute cut of "Southland Tales" ended up being, but at the same time I have no interest in revisiting this trash ever again. The cut I saw was brutal enough. I wasn't a huge fan of "Donnie Darko," but that film had one idea and one concept, and it worked well at expanding that concept to make a satisfactory film. "Southland Tales" is a poor effort to try and gain the momentum from the first film, but Kelly seems to think that fans of that film will eat up whatever he makes. I think that one day Richard Kelly could make a film that I really like-he has the creativity, the ambition, and the originality inside of him to make something truly great. He just needs to stay focused-"Southland Tales" is too many little movies/genres all slapped together into one-something he seemed to try to make his "masterpiece." So I will chalk off "Southland Tales" as a sophomore effort-I'll Richard Kelly another chance. But this is certainly not his shining moment.

Now Playing:
Angelika Film Center
AMC Empire 25
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Fred Claus

Fred Claus **

Directed by David Dobkin
Written by Dan Fogelman

Starring:
Vince Vaughn as Fred Claus
Paul Giamatti as Nick 'Santa' Claus
John Michael Higgins as Willie
Miranda Richardson as Annette Claus
Rachel Weisz as Wanda
Kathy Bates as Mother Claus
Trevor Peacock as Papa Claus
Ludacris as DJ Donnie
Elizabeth Banks as Charlene
Kevin Spacey as Clyde

116 Minutes(Rated PG for mild language and some rude humor. )
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It's early November-still way before Thanksgiving-and its that time of year where the standard big budget, big cast Christmas is coming out in theatres. Now it's been a couple of years since the first really good Christmas movie was released-in this case I can cite "The Polar Express" as the best Christmas film of the decade, with "Elf" delightful family fare as well-and "Fred Claus" has such a high profile cast that I really expected a little more out of it. But I think with a premise like this one, this film could have gone one of two routes. It could have been a family friendly Christmas film, maybe with a sprinkle of adult humor so the parents wouldn't get bored, which it is. Or it could have been a dirty and more insane comedy, more like "Bad Santa." With Vince Vaughn getting top billed, and Paul Giamatti has Santa Claus (go figure), I kind of expected it to go that route, until I saw the first trailers. I kind of wish that "Fred Claus" had a mixture of both-maybe a PG-13 Christmas comedy, but unfortunately we ended up getting a real generic Christmas picture-one with a few laughs, a few eye rolls, and just a depiction of the North Pole that is getting less and less magical as the movies go on.

Vince Vaughn plays Fred Claus, a man who will never get old because his brother Nick is a saint-ensuring that the saint's family will stay the same age forever. Fred has always lived in his brothers shadow, and a promise at birth to be the best older brother ever seems to be forgotten in the present time, where Fred relies on his brother Nick solely for bail money. Nick agrees to give Fred the bail money, but only if he earns it by coming to the North Pole for a week to earn the money. Nick is in a bind as more and more children are being nice, and the elves cannot supply for the high demand. To add to Nick's problems, an efficiency expert named Clyde (played by Kevin Spacey, who is always great no matter the role) has been sent and he is quite keen to shut down the North Pole. Fred has a hard time fitting in to the North Pole-mostly because of his size-and he becomes a problem for Nick right away. But Nick decides to use the time to get his family together, and to patch things up between Fred and his meter maid girlfriend Wanda (played by Rachel Weisz, of all people.)

"Fred Claus" isn't a total waste of time. It does have some laughs, it's entertaining in a real cutesy sort of way. Vince Vaughn is quite a funny guy, and you can tell a lot of his lines are improved-or just delivered in a way that makes them funnier. Paul Giamatti could read from the phone book and I'd enjoy his work. And you can see a bunch of actors signing on for good times-Weisz and Spacey have been named, but then there's Miranda Richardson (who I'll review in "Southland Tales" soon), Kathy Bates, and John Michael Higgins, who was the best part of Vaughn's last starring film, "The Break-Up." I must say that the North Pole is getting less and less magical during every single visit I've taken to it over the years. One could say that its just the fact that I'm getting older, but I think its just becoming repetitive. "The Polar Express" actually made me feel like a little kid again, getting excited for the Christmas holiday and actually wishing I could believe again. Movies like this, and the never ending "Santa Clause" sequels do not even have new ways of showing the North Pole-I've come to expect the standard jokes-with the North Pole satirizing the factory world in reality.

So in the end, you'll enjoy "Fred Claus"-even though its longer than it should be at 116 minutes-but its forgettable. It doesn't offer any thing special or even magical in the genre-from the way the North Pole is shown, to the easily patched up subplot about a boy that Fred seems to have taken under his wing who ends up topping the naughty list-but it will keep your attention for most of the running time. I can blame the producers for making this more family friendly instead of really allowing Vaughn a bit more of his rapid delivery for more crude jokes, but I guess that could be saved for another movie. Christmas may come early this year, but it's still better at the end of December. At least its better than Ben Affleck's Christmas movie.