RECENT RELEASES
2 DAYS IN PARIS (R) A brief encounter with a mixed Franco-American couple that inevitably evokes the Before Sunset/Before Sunrise projects, 2 Days in Paris stars director/screenwriter Julie Delpy as Marion, a quirky Frenchwoman on vacation with her even quirkier American boyfriend, Jack (Adam Goldberg). As its title suggests, the movie takes place during a quick stopover on Marion's Parisian home turf, where the couple spend their time strolling and engaging in mostly amusing and nearly nonstop chatter as in the Sunset/Sunrise films. A voice-over periodically attempts to sum up what the movie is "about," but it's completely unnecessary; what you see is what you get here. 2 Days in Paris doesn't do itself favors by inviting such close comparisons to the movies that inspired it, but the conversation is usually engaging, the scenery pretty and the price of admission a whole lot cheaper than a plane ticket to Paris. Also stars Daniel Bruhl, Marie Pillet, Albert Delpy and Aleksia Landeau. 3 stars
3:10 TO YUMA (PG-13) As in the 1957 film that inspired it, 3:10 to Yuma gives us a tightly wound cowboy cast adrift in an existential wilderness — Dan Evans (Christian Bale), a cash-strapped rancher who agrees to help transport notorious Alpha-male outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to jail. It's a journey that quickly turns tense, then treacherous, laying souls bare and, more often than not, revealing a terrible void where a conscience should be. As Yuma heads toward its big showdown and virtually every one of the movie's heroes reveal themselves as rats deserting a sinking ship, the film drops the ball a bit, but that's almost to be expected. Without at least a glimmer of light at the end, audiences would probably never have been able to bear all the surrounding darkness. Last act problems aside, 3:10 to Yuma is a solid piece of work, a western respectful of old-school conventions while breathing some new life into the form. Also stars Peter Fonda, Gretchen Mol, Ben Foster, Dallas Roberts, Logan Lerman and Alan Tudyk. 3.5 stars
ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (PG-13) The new film from stylist extraordinaire Julie Taymor (Titus, Frida) promises a lushly visual approach and wall-to-wall Beatles music bolstering a basic boy-meets-girl scenario set against the groovy, tumultuous 1960s. The characters all have Beatlesque names like Lucy, Jude, Sadie and Jo-Jo, and psychedelicized imagery inspired by the Fab's tunes reportedly abounds — but the $10 million the studio ponied up for the rights to the music apparently didn't even buy them the original versions, so Across the Universe's 133-minute running time may become tough going what with the nonmusician actors themselves being the ones doing the warbling here. We'll have to wait to see how it all turns out, since the film was screened too late for review. Stars Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, Dana Fuchs and Martin Luthor McCoy. (Not Reviewed)
THE BRAVE ONE (R) In Neil Jordan's classy revenge flick/mood piece, Jodie Foster stars as a sensitive New Yorker who's nearly beaten to death and is then reborn as a remarkably efficient killing machine. For most of the movie's running time, though, Jordan places us at a distinct remove from the visceral thrill typically supplied by on-screen violence, choosing to comment on our collective impulse for revenge ("It feels good," is one bystander's succinct explanation) rather than revel in the rush of it all. Foster's character is never less than conflicted about her own actions, and the individual murders are depicted as messy, unpleasant events not remotely designed to get an audience on their feet cheering. Jordan actively roots around in the escalating alienation and de-sensitization, with more than a whiff of Taxi Driver in the claustrophobic atmosphere, making The Brave One a curious contradiction in terms — a payback flick that practically goes out of its way to avoid exploitation. The single, notable exception is the movie's final murder, a controversial scene that some may see as Jordan's 11th-hour appeal, whether ironic or not, to the crypto-fascist lurking inside us all. It doesn't quite turn the genre completely on its head, but The Brave One gives it a good shot. Also stars Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews and Mary Steenburgen. 3.5 stars
EASTERN PROMISES (R) Eastern Promises isn't quite as elaborately constructed a brainteaser as Cronenberg's recent A History of Violence, but it's definitely cut from the same cloth. The film is set in the multi-culti mean streets of London, the movie challenges us to connect its dots, as midwife Naomi Watts, nosing around in a dead girl's diary, becomes drawn into the murky underworld of the Russian mafia. Chief amongst these dangerous players are three of the most unforgettable characters you'll see on a screen this year — a Russian restaurateur/Godfather (Armin Mueller-Stahl), his psychotic son (Vincent Cassel, as memorably sadistic as any classic noir henchmen), and, most crucially, their enigmatic chauffeur/bagman (Viggo Mortensen), whose moral ambivalence twists the story into strange new shapes. Cronenberg lets the tale unfold in a psychologically-charged but meticulously minimalist and often oblique manner, with key events sometimes occurring off-screen and violence mostly implied — although when it does occasionally rise to the surface in all its ugly-as-sin glory, be prepared. Also stars Sinead Cusack and Jerzy Skolimonwski. 4 stars
KING OF KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS (PG-13) It's hard to shake the feeling that King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is some elaborate hoax, possibly even a case of Christopher Guest trying to pass off his latest mockumentary as reality filmmaking. But the truth of the matter is that you simply can't make stuff like this up (although, in typically perverse fashion, a Hollywood remake is reportedly already in the works). A humble but utterly unique documentary, equal parts real-life Revenge of the Nerds and edge-of-your-seat thriller, King of Kong applies William Burroughs' premise that "the universe is based on war and games" to diehard Donkey Kong devotees, turning their retro-videogame competitions into a cosmic struggle with destiny. And at the center of it all is the mano a mano between two polar opposites: longtime champion Billy Mitchell and challenger Steve Wiebe, a classic rivalry comparable (as one gamer tells us) to Marris and Mantle in their prime, or Heckle and Jeckle. It all culminates in a flurry of psychic sparks at a Guinness record-setting tournament as the movie morphs, without our even realizing it, from being an amusingly quirky comedy to an altogether engaging drama about people we genuinely care about it. Also stars Nicole Wiebe, Walter Day, Brian Kuh, Steve Sanders and Robert Mruczek. 3.5 stars
LADRON QUE ROBA A LADRON (PG-13) Ladron Que Roba a Ladron blithely riffs on classic heist films from Rififi to Ocean's Eleven while putting a unique ethnic and socio-political spin on the proceedings. The heroes here are Alejandro and Emilio (Latino megastars Fernando Colunga and Miguel Varoni), two illegal immigrants in the tradition of Robin Hood and Abbie Hoffman — "good thieves" targeting an unscrupulous "bad thief" whose infomercials have made him rich at the expense of poor, mostly Spanish-speaking consumers. With a crew assembled from the "invisible" ranks of the immigrant work force — gardeners, mechanics, parking valets and fry cooks — our heroes put into action a plan to steal the creep's cash and give the money back to the bilked Latinos. Sometimes the movie's cultural variations on genre clichés are amusing, but at other times they're just more of the same, and there are a few places where this mostly breezy and cheeky outing stops dead in its tracks in order to allow one of the characters to sneak in some overly earnest advocacy of immigrants' rights. There's not much going on in Ladron Que Roba a Ladron that's particularly original, but the movie wins points for its rendering — sort of like a novel sauce pairing for broiled chicken. Also stars Saul Lizaso, Ivonne Montero, Julie Gonzalo, Oscar Torres, Richard Azurdia, Gabriel Soto and Jojo Henrickson. 2.5 stars
MY BEST FRIEND (PG-13) French filmmaker Patrice Leconte's new movie riffs sweetly on the frisson generated from walking a mile in someone else's shoes — a theme that bloomed in Leconte's 2003's Man on the Train — presenting us with Francois (Daniel Auteuil), an antiques dealer too busy making money to realize he has no real connection with the rest of humanity. It's not that Francois's a bad person — he's just a bit cold and with no real appreciation of social niceties — so when he's challenged to produce an actual comrade, the guy sets out surveying the social landscape of Paris like some alien observer recently dropped in from Mars, eventually paying a chatty cabbie named Bruno (Dany Boon) to teach him how to be "sociable." Francois and Bruno become fast friends, as if you couldn't guess, and Leconte creates a pleasant enough diversion observing the odd couple bonding over soccer games and Sunday dinner with the folks. The performances here are low-key and likeable (so likeable, in fact, that it's sometimes a struggle accepting Francois as the arrogant prick he's supposed to be) in what amounts to a refreshing change of pace from the elegant intensity of signature Leconte films like The Hairdresser's Husband and Monsieur Hire. Also stars Julie Gayet and Julie Durand. 3.5 stars
SEPTEMBER DAWN (PG-13) The September 11 so luridly detailed in September Dawn occurred in 1857, when 120 innocent Christian settlers were massacred by Mormon zealots, but the movie sinks its teeth into the parallels between the two 9/11s and doesn't let go until it's drawn blood. September Dawn is an unusually fanatical screed against religious fanaticism, and it's not above some ruthless embellishing to drive home connections to our contemporary clash of civilizations. Rife with the sort of clunky dialogue and narrative shortcuts associated with bad made-for-TV movies, the film has a field day crosscutting between the gentle Christians and the oppressive, fear-based community of Mormons. The two communities are portrayed as so wildly dissimilar that it should come as small surprise that a movie as single-minded as September Dawn filters its culture clash through a simplistic Romeo and Juliet story between a hunky Mormon horse whisperer and the minister's cherubic blonde daughter. The movie ends with what it's been promising all along — a slo-mo bloodbath on a scale that might have made Sam Peckinpah weep with envy — but despite appropriately elegiac music, there's no moment of truth to be found here. The violence is plain and predictably exploitative, catering to pretty much the same dreary impulses that dictate every porn flick gets its money shot. Lacking either the kick of camp or the authority of meaningful drama, the movie methodically drains the nuance from what might have been a consummate tragedy of miscommunication, substituting old-school sensationalism masked as insight. Stars Jon Voight, Trent Ford, Tamara Hope, Terrence Stamp, Jon Gries, Taylor Handley, Lolita Davidovich and Dean Cain. 1.5 stars
SHOOT 'EM UP (R) Shoot 'Em Up is nothing if not a Looney Tune of epic proportions, filled with outrageously kinetic action and stylized violence. Too much is never, ever enough here, where the obvious influences are Tarantino and Rodriguez, and, even more significantly, the early John Woo bullet ballets that inspired them. Clive Owen stars as the nameless hero (known only by the alias "Smith") who comes to the aid of a pregnant woman in the film's opening moments, delivers her baby and spends the rest of the movie trading bullets with the legions of bad guys who, for nefarious reasons revealed in due time, want the infant dead. The baby's nothing but a Maguffin, though, and the "plot" a transparent excuse for a succession of gleefully over-the-top action scenes set to the soothing sounds of Motley Crüe, Motorhead and AC/DC. The movie's hero leaps through space with both barrels blazing, engaging in gun battles while holding an infant in his arms (an obvious nod to Woo's Hard Boiled), fornicating and even parachuting. It's all as bloody as it is ridiculous and mindless, but it's also an awful lot of fun.
Head bad guy Paul Giamatti makes a fine, frustrated Elmer Fudd to Owen's roguish Bugs, a hero who displays all the depth of a cartoon but still manages to be hugely entertaining. Also stars Monica Bellucci and Daniel Pilon. 3.5 stars
This article appears in Sep 26 – Oct 2, 2007.