RECENT RELEASES
THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (R) A languorous art-western in the fabled mold of McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Heaven's Gate and Pat Garret and Billy the Kid, Andrew Dominik's two-hour-and-40-minute The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a love-it-or-hate-it proposition. Some will see it as a pretentious slog, others as sheer poetry, but one thing's for sure: They don't make 'em like this anymore. The film presents Jesse James (Brad Pitt) as an early contender in the Cult of Personality — he and Mark Twain were the only Americans known in Europe in the late 19th century — and much is made here of the urge to bask in the outlaw's celebrity, of people wanting to hang around him, even to be him. Meandering back and forth through time, the movie lays out its elliptical story assisted by a melancholy, matter-of-fact voice-over that gives up its details as methodically as Robert Bresson making his case in The Trial of Joan of Arc. The movie throws out much of the James legend, meditating upon its anti-hero as he goes through wild mood swings, alternately depressed, buoyant and unhinged, and ultimately even takes on a weirdly Christ-like aspect, wondering which of his squabbling gang members is going to betray him. James' Judas turns out to be Robert Ford (Casey Affleck), a confused hanger-on whose obsession borders on the homoerotic and whose titular act of violence briefly makes him even more famous than the celebrity killer he kills. An appreciation of The Assassination of Jesse James hinges less on suspension of disbelief than on suspension of our reliance on snappy pace and linear plotting, but those who do give themselves over to the film's demanding poetry may find themselves well rewarded. Also stars Sam Shepard, Paul Schneider, Sam Rockwell, Jeremy Renner, Garret Dillahunt, Mary-Louise Parker and Michael Parks. 4.5 stars
AUGUST RUSH (PG-13) A quasi-mystical fable about the healing power of music, and a gushing love letter to the nuclear family, August Rush is a movie where twists of fate fall from the sky and where couples are destined to be together because of the alliterative qualities of their names. So musicians Louis and Lyla (Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Keri Russell) fall in love at first sight, then are immediately and tragically separated — but not before conceiving a prodigiously talented child, the eponymous August (Freddie Highmore), who is likewise summarily whisked away. August Rush positively overflows with sincerity and cosmic concurrences, and we're obviously not meant to take any of it literally (the characters are clearly ciphers: Russell and Meyers are simply supposed to look good together, and Highmore's brave little face is mainly required to cry buckets on cue) — but the movie's magical reality unfolds in such a fantastically slick, superficial way that it almost feels like we're watching an extended trailer rather than the movie itself. August Rush is not without its glib charms, but the cumulative effect is like scanning a series of bumper stickers for New Age churches. The path of the movie's loved ones toward one another is as efficient and inexorable as the trajectories in Sleepless in Seattle and brimming with warmed-over sentiments pilfered from everything from Mr. Holland's Opus to Forrest Gump. Also stars Terrence Howard and Robin Williams. 2 stars
BEE MOVIE (PG) Jerry Seinfeld returns from the stand-up comedy wilderness with this CGI-animated offering about a spunky little bee who wants more (as apparently do all animated creatures these days). The voice cast alone might be reason enough to investigate: Besides Seinfeld, Renee Zelwegger, Matthew Broderick and John Goodman, there's an eclectic ensemble including Rip Torn, Sting, Oprah Winfrey and Larry King. (Not Reviewed)
BELLA (PG-13) A huge crowd pleaser on the festival circuit (it snagged the Audience Award winner at the Toronto Film Festival), Bella offers sincerity, romance and emotional uplift for miles. As far as subtlety or originality go, the movie doesn't fare nearly so well. Eduardo Verastegui stars as Jose, a once-promising soccer player who succumbs to some terrible tragedy (nameless for most of the film but easy to decipher) and winds up a mournful, bushy-bearded cook in his brother's restaurant. Enter Nina (Tammy Blanchard), a spunky, pregnant waitress who seems to be the only one capable of lifting Jose out of the dumps. Director Alejandro Monteverde follows the couple on a daylong outing as they bond over lunch, hang at the beach and bask in the warm and fuzzy glow of Jose's immigrant family. It won't be giving away much to reveal that everybody goes home happy. Also stars Manny Perez, Angelica Aragon and Jaime Tirelli. 2.5 stars
BEOWULF (PG-13) Another animated dip into flesh and fantasy for the graphic novel-reading crowd, Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf pumps up the "motion capture" techniques pioneered in Polar Express, coming up with a testosterone free-for-all that out-300's 300. Co-scripters Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction) and fanboy guru Neil Gaiman manage to remain faithful to their source's thousand-year-old essence while bringing a distinctly modern sensibility to this epic about a warrior-king's confrontation with a monster and his mother. Zemeckis and his writers pump up the story with some juicy pop psychology, irreverent humor and a pervasive bawdiness that pushes the limits of the movie's PG-13 rating. The contemporary feel extends to the title character, who morphs into a curiously modern hero by nature of crucial, hidden flaws that link him to the very monster he vows to destroy. Best of all is the monster himself, the marvelously imperfect Grendel, who stumbles about with his skin turned inside-out, alternately howling and blubbering like a cross between the ravaged soul from Hellraiser and an overgrown special-needs child (an effect sealed by the exquisitely pathetic voice supplied by Crispin Glover). Visually, Beowulf kicks ass, but the only way to fully appreciate the movie is to see it in Imax 3-D, where the film's digital animation takes on a scale and a depth that's nothing short of thrilling. Features Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson and Crispin Glover. 3.5 stars
DAN IN REAL LIFE (PG-13) Steve Carell stars as single dad with a house full of girls and a serious crush on his brother's girlfriend (Juliette Binoche). Also stars Dane Cook, John Mahoney and Emily Blunt. (Not Reviewed)
ENCHANTED (PG) From its knowingly retro intro (an animated send-up of Snow White and a zillion other Disney classics) to its climatic CGI showdown, Enchanted is a mostly live-action romp that's both perky family-friendly entertainment and a sly spoof of all things Disney-fied. Amy Adams is spot-on as Princess Giselle, a wide-eyed romantic with perfect diction and an inner circle of animal confidants. She lands on the Upper West Side and progresses from sweetly clueless fish out of water to avid admirer of Madame Curie. The movie has a ball poking fun at its absurdly anachronistic storybook princess, with much comedic mileage generated from her encounters with various jaded real-worlders. But when push comes to shove, those same hardened souls begin kicking up their heels whenever the infectiously upbeat Giselle is around, as Enchanted makes it clear that it's firmly on the side of anyone who can turn the world on with a song. Also stars Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Timothy Spall and Idina Menzel. 3.5 stars
FRED CLAUS (PG) Vince Vaughan stars as the black sheep brother of none other than jolly old St. Nick himself (Paul Giamatti) in this kid-friendly comedy of sibling rivalry and holiday cheer. Also stars Miranda Richardson, Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins. (Not Reviewed)
GONE BABY GONE (R) Casey Affleck stars in brother Ben's surprisingly good directorial debut about something rotten in a working class Boston neighborhood where a little girl has gone missing. Gone Baby Gone is based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, who also wrote Clint Eastwood's Mystic River, and, frankly, Affleck outdoes Eastwood in his understanding of the author's Boston-based turf. Affleck goes for maximum authenticity, trolling through the city's seedier sides with a camera that discretely observes the nonglamorous flora and fauna, making good use of virtual unknowns in several key roles. The director occasionally even shows himself to be a touch over-enamored with his blue collar grotesques — it sometimes seems like every Beantown resident with a hair lip, goiter or obesity problem gets screen time here — but Gone Baby Gone still manages to be an effectively disquieting descent into a local underworld. Lehane's source material culminates in a series of dubious plot twists involving a conspiracy of least likely suspects, but Affleck wisely uses this as a springboard to get into something more interesting, albeit uncomfortable. Also stars Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, John Ashton, Amy Ryan, Amy Madigan and Titus Welliver. 3.5 stars
GOOD LUCK CHUCK (R) If you have no greater expectations than a trite romantic comedy, then this one's for you. In Mark Helfrich's directing debut, Dane Cook plays Charlie Logan, a stereotypical noncommittal-bachelor-type who gains a reputation for being his exes' "good luck charm" and lives out all his wildest, no-strings-attached sex fantasies as a result. In sum, Charlie gets laid and the women get married. But like any mediocre date movie, Chuck eventually tires of his ways and starts developing serious feelings for the not-so-lucky, cute and klutzy penguin specialist Cam Wexler (Jessica Alba). Predictable high jinks ensue, and if you can see past the cheesy moments, you might actually find yourself laughing. 2 stars —Katherine Clement
HITMAN (R) Deadwood's Timothy Olyphant stars as a professional assassin who finds himself on the run from Interpol and the Russian military when he's set up as the fall guy in a political take-over. Also stars Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko, Robert Knepper and Ulrich Thomsen. (Not Reviewed)
I'M NOT THERE (PG-13) A Bob Dylan biopic in which the name "Bob Dylan" is never once uttered, Todd Haynes' I'm Not There is essentially five or six biopics crammed together and fighting it out to see what rises to the surface. Much like Dylan himself, Haynes' enormously unconventional movie revels in contradictions and disguises, offering up no less than half a dozen Dylans played by multiple actors — a concept that's a near-perfect fit with an escape artist who's successfully re-invented himself more often than anyone this side of Bowie. The mini-army of quasi/crypto/ersatz Bobs weave around and through each other's lives, as images from Dylan's extensive mythology, both real and fabricated, pile up and smash into each other. The movie barrages us with densely layered, competing accounts, until the true lies reach critical mass, and separating the truth from legend eventually begins to seem completely beside the point. I'm Not There is as faithless to the particulars of Dylan's life as it is faithful, but the film's elegantly fractured narrative absolutely nails the essence of its subject. Stars Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Ben Whishaw, Marcus Carl Franklin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Bruce Greenwood and Julianne Moore. 4 stars
INTO THE WILD (R) This is Sean Penn's meandering but strangely compelling take on the true story of Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch), a child of privilege who burned his IDs, gave away his money and, reborn as Alexander Supertramp, hit the open road. Into the Wild unfolds on a certain level as a road movie, with Chris/Alex hooking up with fellow travelers as he makes his way across the country, but the film also offers frequent flashbacks providing a parallel story obsessing on the familial tensions supposedly being left behind. The flashback structure and ominous, anguished tone of the voice-overs leave little doubt that we're witnessing a tragedy, however, and the movie's pervasive fatalism provides a bottom note even to Into the Wild's brighter moments. To his credit, and despite a soundtrack studded with painfully sincere Eddie Vedder songs, Penn doesn't turn Alex into a hero — his quest ultimately seems as foolish as it is noble. The film is too long by at least a half hour, and its frequent attempts to provide Alex with metaphorical surrogate families are a bit transparent, but there's something important being communicated here about the beauty and folly of attempting a personal spiritual revolution, the closest corollary being Herzog's Grizzly Man. Also stars Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone, Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, Brian Dierker, Kristen Stewart and Hal Holbrook. 3.5 stars
THE KINGDOM (R) The clash of civilizations is writ large all over The Kingdom, but what the movie basically offers is straight-forward, relatively agenda-free entertainment — a fast-moving police procedural with thriller and action movie accents. The film's title refers to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where a small team of FBI agents (led by Jamie Foxx) has grudgingly been allowed to investigate a brutal massacre of Americans. Struggling to solve a mystery in a place that doesn't accept them, The Kingdom's American agents are some of the strangest strangers in a strange land since Sidney Poitier's Mr. Tibbs. Eventually, Foxx and friends abruptly shift into full battle mode, blasting away with heavy-duty assault weapons and burning up the Riyadhi roads in high-speed car chases as the Americans find themselves besieged in an Islamist enclave, and The Kingdom starts looking like an even more hellish version of Black Hawk Down. Director Peter Berg maximizes the chaos by shooting in that intentionally jerky ADD-esque style popularized by films like United 93 and The Bourne Ultimatum, a technique that aims to present everything as somehow edgier and more "real" — although when Foxx begins single-handedly blowing away the bad guys, reality is best taken with several grains of salt; he's clearly as indestructible as any action hero. Also stars Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman, Jeremy Piven, Danny Huston, Ashraf Barhom and Aku Suliman. 3.5 stars
LIONS FOR LAMBS (PG-13) Relentlessly wordy and almost painfully static, Lions for Lambs is essentially a series of dialogues — or, more plainly put, a collection of scenes in which pairs of people sit in various rooms, talking. There are three loosely linked scenarios here, including an up-and-coming Republican Senator (Tom Cruise) being interviewed by a somewhat suspicious journalist (Meryl Streep); two American soldiers (Michael Pena and Derek Luke) stranded on a snowy mountaintop in Afghanistan; and a college professor (Robert Redford) trying to get a bright but terminally cynical student (Todd Hayes) to become engaged with the world. The segments ramble on and eventually intersect, characters get to periodically exclaim Oscar-ready lines like, "Rome is burning!" and the implication is that we — every last man, woman and child in the audience — are all to some extent fiddling while the professional dickheads in Washington thrive on our collective apathy. Ultimately, the movie says nothing more controversial than "Bush screwed up" and "Get involved" — two all-purpose slogans for any party in this election year — and even these innocuously noble assessments are funneled into something as safe as any politician's prepared statement, a lifeless My Dinner with Andre reduced to sound bites from the evening news. Also stars Todd Hayes, Peter Berg and Kevin Dunn. 2 stars
MARTIAN CHILD (PG) Lonely and quirky widower John Cusack adopts an even lonelier and quirkier child in this sappy time-waster about loving the alien inside us all. Cusak's new kid (Bobby Coleman) claims to be from Mars, and with his pasty skin and big bug-eyed sunglasses, he certainly looks the part — he's actually called a "mini-Warhol" at one point but is really a closer match to Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth. The whole "Martian" thing is, of course, simply the script's exclamation point on the boy's outsider status, but nothing really happens here to convince us that the kid's half as troubled as he's supposed to be. The movie plods along as adult and child bond over Lucky Charms and baseball, with time out for a food fight or two and the death of a beloved family pet, set to Cat Stevens music. In the end, the kid actually does turn out to be from Mars, shape-shifts back into his original form of a 12-foot insect with venomous fangs and bites off Cusack's head. Just kidding. Also stars Amanda Peet, Joan Cusack, Oliver Platt, Richard Schiff and Sophie Okonedo. 2 stars
MICHAEL CLAYTON (R) A character study of a man defined by his compromises, Michael Clayton stars George Clooney as a former prosecutor gone to seed and long reduced to working as a fixer for a big law firm. It's a no-brainer Clayton's in trouble from the first moment we see him — the GPS on his swanky Mercedes is on the blink, after all, movie-metaphor-ese for the guy's moral compass being out of whack — but half the pleasure of Michael Clayton is watching its title character's slow-mo meltdown lead up to that revelatory moment of painful self-knowledge. The other half of the movie's pleasure takes the form of a curiously gripping conspiracy thriller that percolates on such an ominously low frequency it almost catches us off guard when it finally officially announces itself. What lies at the heart of Michael Clayton isn't ultimately that far removed from conventional socially-conscious melodrama, but where the movie excels is in how it puts all this together, coming at the story from unexpected angles and neatly folding its sweeping political agenda into the personal struggles of its individual players. Also stars Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack, Michael O'Keefe and Ken Howard. 3.5 stars
MR. MAGORIUM'S WONDER EMPORIUM (PG) The directorial debut of Zach Helm, who wrote the absurdly over-praised Stranger Than Fiction, the bland and listless Mr. Magorium stars Dustin Hoffman as the 243-year-old owner of a magical toy store wedged amongst the skyscrapers of some modern metropolis. Hoffman's performance is as lazy as it is irritating — out-of-control eyebrows and an effected lisp are the main things alerting us to his "wildly eccentric" nature — and Natalie Portman seems distinctly uncomfortable as the reluctant employee chosen to take over the store. There's also a little boy wandering around acting pointlessly lonely and a straight-laced accountant who can't see the magic all around him — and none of it goes anywhere. The influences here are painfully obvious, but Mr. Magorium never lives up to its Willy Wonka meets Toys meets pretty-much-anything-by-Tim-Burton prototypes. None of the elements tie together in a particularly coherent way; the characters exhibit little discernable personality; the story plods; and the movie even lacks the visual panache to pull off this sort of thing. Also stars Justin Bateman and Zach Mills. 1.5 stars
MR. WOODCOCK (R) Phallic shadows fall mightily all over Mr. Woodcock, but, sadly, the film lacks the frenetic energy or even the gross-out bravado of Balls of Fury. Seann William Scott stars as John Farley, a successful self-help author who returns to his hometown only to find his mom (Susan Sarandon) dating the titular Woodcock (Billy Bob Thornton), the sadistic, ultra-macho gym teacher who tormented him all through high school. A heated pissing contest naturally results, with the two men competing for the affections of Sarandon, engaging in a movie-long match of wits and brawn, and all but whipping out their johnsons while running for the measuring sticks. Thorton's Woodcock (and yes, the name means exactly what you think it does) is cut from much the same cloth as his self-involved jerk-offs in Bad Santa, Bad News Bears and School for Scoundrels, but a little bit of this sort of concentrated obnoxiousness goes a long way. There's an undeniable charisma that Thornton brings to the role, but the movie itself is dull and, for the most part, painfully void of real laughs. Also stars Amy Poehler and Ethan Suplee. 1.5 stars
MY KID COULD PAINT THAT (PG-13) The film's ostensive subject is little Marla Olmstead, who became an overnight media sensation at age 4 (when her abstract paintings began selling for upwards of $20,000), and then was just as quickly discarded when a 60 Minutes piece suggested her art was either being coached or created by an overzealous parent. All of this media-intensive activity occurs as director Amir Bar-Lev's documentary is in the process of being shot, and Marla's mother and father begin looking at the film-in-progress as a way to vindicate their daughter and themselves. Unfortunately, the Olmsteads soon discover, to their considerable horror and embarrassment, that Bar-Lev has his own doubts about where the truth in this infinitely complicated story lies. My Kid Could Paint That becomes richer and more ambiguous as it unfolds, as the focus shifts from the Olmstead family to the troubled filmmaker himself and then to the mixed messages stirred up by professionals such as New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman. Almost inevitably, the movie raises many more questions that it's prepared to answer, but there's a perversely satisfying symmetry in that. We're ultimately encouraged to read between the film's lines in a way that invites comparisons to how meaning becomes attached to all nonfigurative art, whether it's by Jackson Pollack, a monkey or a 4-year-old girl. Stars Mark, Laura and Marla Olmstead, Elizabeth Cohen, Anthony Brunelli and Michael Kimmelman. 3.5 stars
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (R) Much has been made of No Country for Old Men being some sort of contemporary Western, but when the filmmakers are Joel and Ethan Coen, you can bet the "Western" in question is going to scream for quotation marks. An expertly crafted nail-biter steeped in the beloved noir the filmmakers have repeatedly tinkered with, the Coen Brothers' new film takes place in a dusty Texas wasteland as redolent with alienation as a vintage Antonioni landscape. Enter Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a certified piece of trailer trash who happens upon a drug deal gone south and winds up fleeing the scene of the crime with a briefcase filled with cash. This inevitably puts some very bad people on Llewelyn's trail — chief among them a soulless super-psycho named Anton Chigurh (an exquisitely chilling Javier Bardem) — and right behind is Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a small-town lawman resigned to the nasty ways of the world. No Country is a beautifully modulated film, folding intense bursts of periodic violence into a carefully orchestrated atmosphere of mounting tension that is both eerily poetic and a bit melancholy. In its elegantly world-weary way, this is as iconic a chase film as The Night of the Hunter, as deeply mysterious as the Coens' masterpiece, Barton Fink, and not without perverse grace notes all its own. Also stars Kelly Macdonald, Tess Harper and Woody Harrelson. 4.5 stars
P2 (R) Minimalist stalk-and-slash horror directed by first-timer Franck Khalfoun and produced by Alexandre Aja (Haute Tension and The Hills Have Eyes remake), that plays like a stripped-down, somewhat less compelling version of Aja's own work. Virtually the entire movie takes place in a deserted parking garage lorded over by a psychotic attendant who kidnaps a young businesswoman for a long and progressively deadly evening of cat and mouse. Wes Bentley (Ghost Rider) is a bit too bland as the heavy, and Angela Nichols isn't required to do much beyond communicating various degrees of hysteria as the victim, but the film still manages to generate a consistently creepy atmosphere, making good use of its claustrophobic setting through some imaginative camera placement and choreography. The final effect is a bit too much like a well-crafted made-for-TV movie. Also stars Simon Reynolds. 3 stars
SAW IV (R) Yet another installment of the torture-porn franchise that just wouldn't die. Stars David Koechner, Carl Weathers, Brooke Nevin, Jackie Long and Matthew Lawrence. (Not Reviewed)
THE SEEKER: THE DARK IS RISING (PG) The fate of the world hinges on a young boy who discovers he's really a mystical warrior charged with defeating the forces of evil. What ensues is cosmic PG-rated adventure that the studio apparently didn't have enough confidence in to screen for critics. Stars Drew Tyler Bell, Frances Conroy, James Cosmo and Wendy Crewson. (Not Reviewed)
This article appears in Dec 5-11, 2007.