New Releases for the Week of September 3, 2021

SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS

(Disney) Simu Liu, Tony Leung, Awkafina, Michelle Yeoh, Meng’er Zhang, Fala Chen, Yuen Wah, Florian Munteanu, Andy Le. Directed by Destin Daniel Crettin

Shang-Chi is the son of a criminal mastermind, leader of the Ten Rings organization. His father trains him to be a lethal weapon, but Shang-Chi rejects his father’s ways and flees to America. However, you can’t run from your past any more than you can run from who you are and he will have to find it within him to stand against his own father to become the hero within him.

See the trailer here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: Superhero
Now Playing: Wide
Rating: PG-13 (for sequences of violence and action, and language)

Cinderella

(Amazon/Columbia) Camilo Cebello, Idina Menzel, Pierce Brosnan, Minnie Driver. The familiar fairy tale is given a modern update with a pop soundtrack. Hopefully, Pierce Brosnan isn’t singing in this one.

See the trailer here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: Musical
Now Playing: Cinemark Universal Citywalk (also on Amazon Prime)
Rating: PG (for suggestive material and language)

The Gateway

(Lionsgate) Shea Whigham, Olivia Munn, Frank Grillo, Keith David. A social worker winds up in a situation out of control when he tries to protect one of his clients from her violent drug-dealing husband, recently paroled from jail. He and his crew will do anything to find their stash of drugs – and kill anyone who stands in their way.

See the trailer here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: Crime Thriller
Now Playing: Studio Movie Grille Sunset Walk
Rating: R (for strong violence, pervasive language, drug use, some sexual content and nudity)

The Lost Leonardo

(Sony Classics) Jerry Saltz, Martin Kemp, Doug Patteson, Robert K. Wittman. The story of the most expensive painting ever sold, which purports to be a lost masterpiece by Leonardo Da Vinci. But is it, or is it a game piece in an elaborate charade?

See the trailer here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: Documentary
Now Playing: Enzian
Rating: PG-13 (for nude art images)

Wild Indian

(Vertical) Michael Greyeyes, Kate Bosworth, Jesse Eisenberg, Chaske Spencer. A native American man has left his violent past – and murderous secret – on the reservation. Now the new life he has made for himself is threatened by a ghost from that past.

See the trailer here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: Thriller
Now Playing: Studio Movie Grill Sunset Walk
Rating: NR

Yakuza Princess

(Magnet) Masumi, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Eijiro Ozaki. An orphan discovers that she is heir to half of the Yakuza criminal empire. Joining with an amnesiac stranger who believes that both of their destinies are tied up in an ancient sword, she must fight against the heir to the other half of the Yakuza fortune who wants to kill her for complete control.

See the trailer here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: Crime
Now Playing: Fashion Square Premiere
Rating: R (for strong bloody violence, some language and graphic nudity)

COMING TO VIRTUAL CINEMA/VOD:

Afterlife of the Party (Thursday)
Attention Attention
Good
Hands Up
The J Team
Karen
The Madness Inside Me
Memory House
Samantha Rose (Tuesday)
Saving Paradise
Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman
We Need to Do Something
Worth

SCHEDULED FOR REVIEW:

Good
The Lost Leonardo
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Worth

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New Releases for the Week of January 13, 2017

PATRIOT’S DAY

(CBS) Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, Michele Monaghan, Kevin Bacon, J.K. Simmons, Paige MacLean, Rachel Brosnahan, Christopher O’Shea. Directed by Peter Berg

A watershed mark for our nation over the past few years is the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013. Not only did it galvanize a city but an entire nation learned the meaning of the term “Boston strong.” This movie takes a look at the event from the viewpoint of first responders, survivors and those who investigated the crime and relentlessly pursued the bombers, this is a look at an unspeakable act that led to unmistakable courage.

See the trailer, clips, interviews, featurettes and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: True Life Drama
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for violence, realistically graphic injury images, language throughout and some drug use)

The Bye Bye Man

(STX) Carrie-Ann Moss, Faye Dunaway, Douglas Smith, Doug Jones. Don’t imagine him. Don’t even think about him. Whatever you do, don’t you dare mention his name. Otherwise, the Bye Bye Man will get inside you and force you to commit terrible acts of pure evil. Three college friends are about to find out that there is never any escape from the Bye Bye Man.

See the trailer, clips, interviews and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Horror
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for bloody horror violence, language and some sexuality)

The Crash

(Vertigo) Frank Grillo, Minnie Driver, AnnaSophia Robb, Dianna Agron. In the near future, the United States is under attack by cyber-terrorists who want to bring our economy to its knees. In desperation, the federal government enlists the aid of white collar criminals to stop the hack and take down the terrorists – before our nation comes to a grinding halt.

See the trailer and a clip here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Crime Thriller
Now Playing: AMC Loew’s Universal Cineplex
Rating: PG (for thematic elements and some language)

Elle

(Sony Classics) Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling. The ruthless head of a French video game company is sexually assaulted in her home. Not willing to take this  lying down, she relentlessly chases after her rapist and in so doing gets involved in a game of cat and mouse which threatens to spiral out of control.

See the trailer and clips here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Thriller
Now Playing: Regal Winter Park Village
Rating: R (for violence involving sexual assault, disturbing sexual content, some grisly images, brief graphic nudity, and language)

Live by Night

(Warner Brothers) Ben Affleck, Elle Fanning, Brendan Gleeson, Sienna Miller. A veteran of World War I becomes a self-proclaimed outlaw although one who really isn’t cut out for the bootlegger’s life – he’s far too good-hearted, a trait that can lead to serious difficulties with some of the more amoral elements of that element. Driven to get revenge for the wrongs against him, he travels from the cold winters of Boston to the warm tropics of Tampa with a plan to make right those wrongs.

See the trailer, clips, interviews, a featurette and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Crime Drama
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for strong violence, language throughout, and some sexuality/nudity)

Monster Trucks

(Paramount) Lucas Till, Rob Lowe, Danny Glover, Amy Ryan. A young man is desperate to escape the small town and boring life he’s been born into and it seems likely doomed to remain in. His plan is to build himself a monster truck, become a champion driver, and leave his dust speck of a town in his rearview. What he doesn’t count on is the alien presence that invades his truck and gives it a life of his own. Now he is certain to get out of town; but if someone finds out his secret, it’s likely he’s going to spend the rest of his life in a secret government base! Which might be just a little bit of an improvement…

See the trailer here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard, 3D
Genre: Family
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG (for action, peril, brief scary images and some rude humor)

Silence

(Paramount) Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Ciaran Hinds. The latest from director Martin Scorsese concerns a pair of Christian missionaries who undertake a dangerous mission to feudal Japan. They go there in search of their mentor, who disappeared after renouncing the faith, something both men believe he would never do. They enter a country and culture both mysterious and beautiful – and deadly in that their faith is outlawed and they could be killed on sight.

See the trailer and interviews here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Drama
Now Playing: AMC Altamonte Mall, AMC Disney Springs, Cinemark Artegon Marketplace, Regal Waterford Lakes, Regal Winter Park Village
Rating: R (for some disturbing violent content)

Sleepless

(Open Road) Jamie Foxx, Michelle Monaghan, Gabrielle Union, Dermot Mulroney. A corrupt Vegas undercover cop finds the stakes just a little bit higher after a heist gone wrong puts a vicious gang of mobsters after him. When they kidnap his son, he realizes they have no intention of letting his boy go. He’ll have to resort to every dirty trick there is, call on every favor and be just a little bit meaner than those who have his boy if they are both to survive the night.

See the trailer and clips here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Action
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for strong language and language throughout)

New Releases for the Week of November 14, 2014

DUMB AND DUMBER TO

(Universal) Jim Carey, Jeff Daniels, Rob Riggle, Laurie Holden, Rachel Melvin, Kathleen Turner, Bill Murray, Paul Blackthorne, Patricia French. Directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly

Harry and Lloyd are back. Not that anyone missed them.

See the trailer, clips, interviews B-roll video and world premiere footage here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release formats: Standard
Genre: Comedy
Now Playing: Wide release
Rating: PG-13 (for crude and sexual humor, partial nudity, language and some drug references)

Beyond the Lights

(Relativity) Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Nate Parker, Minnie Driver, Danny Glover. A pop superstar finds herself being overwhelmed by the pressures of stardom and decides to end it all. However, she is saved by a handsome young cop on her detail. The two fall hard for each other and although nobody around them approves of the romance, the two persevere and in the process save each other.

See the trailer, clips, interviews and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release formats: Standard
Genre: Romance
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG-13 (for sexual content including suggestive gestures, partial nudity, language and thematic elements)

Rosewater

(Open Road) Gael Garcia Bernal, Kim Bodnia, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Claire Foy. A Newsweek reporter, covering the 2009 elections in Iran, is arrested for an interview he conducted. He remains in captivity for 118 days, mostly blindfolded and only knowing his interrogator because of the scent of rosewater that he always seems to be wearing. After his release, the reporter would go on The Daily Show and discuss his ordeal with host Jon Stewart who then made a movie about it.

See the trailer, a clip and a featurette here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release formats: Standard
Genre: True Life Drama
Now Playing: AMC Altamonte Mall, AMC Downtown Disney, Regal Winter Park Village
Rating: R (for language including some crude references, and violent content)

Big Night

Brothers squabble while their women patiently endure.

(1996) Dramedy (Goldwyn) Stanley Tucci, Tony Shalhoub, Minnie Driver, Ian Holm, Campbell Scott, Isabella Rossellini, Allison Janney, Susan Floyd, Marc Anthony, Liev Schreiber, Pasquale Cajano, Gene Canfield, Andre Belgrader, Caroline Aaron, Larry Block, Peter McRobbie, Peter Appel, Karen Shallo, Robert W. Castle, Tamar Kotoske, Alaveta Guess, Dina Spybey. Directed by Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci

A good movie can make you care about the story or the characters. A very good movie can make you care about both. A great movie will make you feel you lived in the story with those characters and want to then revisit that movie again and again. Big Night is just such a movie.

In the late 50s, a pair of brothers recently come to America from their native Italy have opened an Italian restaurant on the Jersey shore. Called Paradise, the brothers intended for the restaurant to stand out from the mamma mia spaghetti and meatball joints that were what passed for Italian in that era, like the huge successful restaurant down the street from theirs that was run by Pascal (Holm).

The brothers divided their labors thusly; Primo (Shalhoub), the eldest, ran the kitchen and he was a culinary genius before we knew such things existed. He made an astounding risotto but all anyone ever wanted was – you guessed it – spaghetti and meatballs. When one somewhat ignorant customer (Aaron) asks for a side of spaghetti and meatballs with her risotto, Primo nearly hits the roof. “How about I give her a side of mashed potatoes with that,” he explodes, nearly refusing to give the customer a starch to go with her starch.

Secondo (Tucci), the younger, runs front of house and the business side of things and only he knows what desperate straits the restaurant is in. Behind in their mortgage payments, the bank is about to foreclose. He argues with his brother on his rigid high standards but deep down, he supports them because that is the kind of restaurant he dreams of running.

Their love lives aren’t in much better shape. Primo has a thing for the local florist (Janney) but is far too shy to tell her how he feels. Secondo has a girlfriend, the ever-patient Phyllis (Driver) who waits for him to propose but is losing that patience rapidly. He also has a mistress, the straight-shooting and sexy Gabriella (Rossellini) who is also Pascal’s mistress. She gets around.

Secondo approaches Pascal about a loan which the penurious Pascal is loathe to do, but he will do the brothers a solid – it so happens that famed Italian crooner Louis Prima and his band are going to be in town the following week. He happens to know Louis and will invite him and his band to a dinner at Paradise. The accompanying press and notices may be what’s needed to save the Paradise.

Secondo and Primo set to preparing the restaurant for the biggest night of their lives. With Phyllis helping out as well as their put-upon kitchen boy Cristiano (Anthony), it promises to be a night to remember but will Primo’s stubbornness and Secondo’s love life torpedo everything the brothers have worked for and drive an irreparable wedge between them? Either way, you know that the meal that they serve on this big night will be one that will be absolutely unforgettable.

Tucci, who co-directed and co-wrote the movie in addition to co-starring in it, was just beginning to get his career going when this was made. He has since become one of Hollywood’s busiest actors with a variety of roles in which he mostly plays oily slimeballs. In fact, writing this movie was an effort to write a part for himself that wasn’t the sort he usually got cast in. In fact, there are plenty of well-known names and faces in this movie who were just starting their careers out. Schreiber has a blink and you’ll miss it role as the doorman at Pascal’s joint, while Driver was a year away from her breakout roles in Good Will Hunting and Grosse Pointe Blank.

You become entwined in the story of the struggling restaurant and the sibling squabbling that goes on will feel familiar to anyone who has a brother or a sister. So will the struggles of the brothers appeal to anyone who has ever owned or worked in a small business. In fact, all of the characters have something about them that will speak to you; they may not necessarily be someone you know but there will be something familiar nonetheless…in many ways Primo and Secondo are the brothers I never had.

This is one of those movies that will get under your skin and stay there; you’ll want to see it more than once. Sadly, the home video edition has no extra features other than the original trailer. I’d love to see interviews with the cast now nearly 20 years after the fact about this great little movie that stands the test of time. Even so, the movie is well worth getting. Just don’t be surprised if you don’t get an inescapable craving for Italian food by the time it ends.

WHY RENT THIS: Well-written with terrific performances throughout. Captures ambience and era perfectly.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: A bit ambiguous on the ending.

FAMILY VALUES:  There is quite a bit of rough language.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The movie was shot over a period of just 35 days. Tucci and Shalhoub would work together many times following this film, including in the film The Imposters as well as on Shalhoub’s hit TV show Monk.

NOTABLE HOME VIDEO EXTRAS: None listed.

BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $12.0M on a $4.1M production budget.

COMPARISON SHOPPING: Moonstruck

FINAL RATING: 8.5/10

NEXT: Films for Foodies continues!

Conviction

What could be stronger than the love of a sister and brother?

(2010) True Life Drama (Fox Searchlight) Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell, Minnie Driver, Melissa Leo, Clea Duvall, Juliette Lewis, Loren Dean, Peter Gallagher, Bailee Madison, Tobias Campbell, Karen Young, Talia Balsam, Michele Messmer, Ari Graynor, Jennifer Roberts. Directed by Tony Goldwyn

Blood is thicker than water, and in some cases that blood is thick indeed. It is when the chips are down and every sign points to disaster that you need your family most. Sometimes, going the extra mile just isn’t far enough.

Kenny Waters (Rockwell) is a bit of an enigma in the small Massachusetts town of Ayer. He is the life of the party, a jokester, someone who doesn’t seem to take life terribly seriously. He’s a devoted father and a loyal brother to his sister Betty Anne (Swank). He also can be an unholy terror. When drunk, he takes offense easily and gets violent quickly. He has a string of petty crime arrests on his record dating back to his juvenile days when he and his sister grew up in a series of foster homes, his mother (Young) more interested in partying than parenting.

When a woman is brutally murdered in her trailer, Kenny is questioned for the crime but let go. The interrogating officer, Nancy Taylor (Leo) sees red when Kenny ridicules her and blows off the seriousness of her investigation. Two years later, she gets her revenge. A pair of witnesses have come forward, Kenny’s ex-wife (DuVall) and ex-girlfriend (Lewis), both of whom claim Kenny confessed to the crime. There is no physical evidence connecting him other than that Kenny has the same blood type as the murderer, but that’s enough to convict him and send him away.

Betty Anne doesn’t for one minute believe that Kenny is guilty. She visits him regularly and her husband (Dean) doesn’t seem to mind that, but after Kenny attempts suicide, Betty Anne realizes her brother will never make it in prison. No lawyer will take his case because no lawyer believes in him so Betty Anne makes the only decision she can – she has to be his lawyer.

That’s a tall order considering she didn’t even graduate high school but she does it, getting her GED, attending Roger Williams College in Rhode Island and paying for her tuition by tending bar. All this extra work puts strain on her marriage – too much strain, and she winds up a single mom with two rambunctious sons. She makes it work, largely with the help of her friend Abra (Driver) who admires Betty Anne’s ferocious tenacity and her fierce loyalty.

When Betty Anne discovers DNA testing might exonerate her brother, she goes looking for evidence which the police claim was destroyed after ten years (yes, ten years have passed). Undeterred, she goes searching in the courthouse archives for any sort of evidence that might have a residue of the killer’s blood. She enlists the aid of Barry Scheck (Gallagher), an attorney whose Innocence Project works to overturn unjust convictions by introducing new evidence. With his help they not only find the DNA evidence they were looking for, they interview both of the witnesses who admit that their testimony was coerced by Taylor. Even then the Massachusetts Attorney General refuses to exonerate Kenny but that won’t stop Betty Anne.

This true story is brought to life by perfect casting. Nobody does dogged working class women like Swank, and she gives Betty Anne some hard edges (she throws Abra out of the house for even suggesting that Kenny might be guilty in one interesting scene) but an admirable perseverance that allows her to take on almost insurmountable odds in getting her Law Degree, passing the bar, finding the missing evidence and at length getting the ruling reversed and Kenny freed. She even manages to find the time to arrange a reconciliation between Kenny and his now-grown daughter (Graynor).

Rockwell is one of those actors who always seems to be on the edge, like a young Nicolas Cage. He is perfect as Kenny, equal parts lovable loser, life of the party and ticking time bomb. You are left wondering if he is truly capable of murder and having to admit that he just might be. That is one of the crucial strong points of the movie.

Where it is weak is in that at times it comes off as a Lifetime Movie of the Week in some ways. Abra’s devotion to Betty Anne is never thoroughly explained and Betty Anne at times comes off as too much of a martyr. The movie could have used some trimming, compressing events a little.

Still in all, this is an emotionally charged inspirational story that shows the lengths that someone will go to for their brother in this case. It’s about not only the importance of family but also the importance of never giving up hope and believing strongly in your loved ones. The world could use a little more of that in my humble opinion.

WHY RENT THIS: Rockwell and Swank are at the top of their games. The story itself is inspiring.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Runs a bit long and at times comes off as a made-for-TV movie.

FAMILY VALUES: Plenty of bad language and a few somewhat disturbing crime scene images.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The movie spent ten years in development following a “60 Minutes” story on the subject which led to a bidding frenzy.

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: There is a conversation between director Goldwyn and the real Betty Anne Waters which delves into the relationship between Betty Anne and Kenny, and divulges the fate of Kenny (which the film doesn’t do) six months after he was released from prison.

BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $9.7M on a $12.5M production budget; the movie was unprofitable in its theatrical run.

FINAL RATING: 7/10

TOMORROW: Six Days of Darkness begins.

Barney’s Version

Hey did you hear this one? A man walks into a bar and...oh never mind.

(2010) Drama (Sony Classics) Paul Giamatti, Dustin Hoffman, Rosamund Pike, Scott Speedman, Minnie Driver, Bruce Greenwood, Rachelle Lefevre, Saul Rubinek, Mark Addy, Macha Grenon, Paul Gross, Anna Hopkins, Jake Hoffman, Thomas Trabacchi, Cle Bennett. Directed by Richard J. Lewis

All of us live two different lives; the lives that everyone sees, and the ones we actually live. It is when you see our own version of our lives that you begin to see us as we truly are.

Barney Panofsky (Giamatti) is a television producer for a horrible soap opera called “O’Malley of the North.” He smokes Montecristo cigars, drinks far too much and is crude and curmudgeonly to one and all. He has good reason to be; he is divorced and his ex-wife married a putz; to make matters worse, a retired police detective (Addy) has recently published a book that essentially accuses him of murder. That can ruin your entire day.

Barney wasn’t always like this. Once he lived a Bohemian existence in Rome with fellow artistic types like Leo (Trabacchi) – a gifted painter, and Boogie (Speedman) a gifted writer and even more gifted junkie, and then there’s Cedric (Bennett) who’s gifted at….well God knows what. Barney is getting ready to marry Clara (Lefevre), a gifted painter and poet who is, well, more Bohemian than most if you get my drift. Most everyone thinks this is a terrible mistake, with Boogie hissing “She’s a conversation piece, not a wife” but Barney got her pregnant, so he’s willing to man up and do the right thing. 

Except when the baby is stillborn and turns out to be as black as, well, Cedric, it puts an awful crimp in their relationship. When Barney blows off a reconciliation dinner with Clara (mainly because Boogie, in a stupor as usual, forgot to give Barney the invitation), the consequences are severe.

Barney returns home to Montreal where he is set up with and eventually marries the daughter (Driver) of a sour but wealthy man who disapproves of basically everything Barney is. Barney’s dad, Iz (Hoffman) is a lively Montreal detective who cheerfully admits his career didn’t advance because of his Jewishness. It doesn’t seem to bother him that much; he’s just glad to be there for his son, who is certainly a chip off the old block.

At his wedding reception, Barney meets Miriam Grant (Pike), a beautiful and erudite New Yorker who works in the radio business. Barney is immediately head-over-heels smitten with her, going so far as to follow her to the railway station, offering to take her on his honeymoon with him. She naturally declines but Barney continues to woo her in the intervening years. 

Meanwhile, Boogie’s addictions are getting worse, much to the dismay of Barney’s nameless wife because Barney takes it upon himself to care for his addled friend. One day he returns to their country lakeside property to find Boogie schtupping his wife. While Barney feigns indignity, he is actually delighted. Now he has the ammunition he needs to get the divorce he wants, leaving him free to pursue Miriam which, as it turns out, won’t take much. 

However, the problem is that Boogie has disappeared after a loud and violent argument with Barney and the now former Mrs. Panofsky said in her statement that he had threatened to kill Boogie, leading a particularly brutish detective to beat the crap out of Barney until Iz intervenes. Still, things are looking up for Barney despite the cloud of the investigation that hasn’t even yielded up a body much less a crime.  

Soon Barney and Miriam are together as it was meant to be. They make a family with daughter Kate (Hopkins) and son Michael (Jake Hoffman). A neighbor on the lake where their country house is located, Blair (Greenwood) even has radio connections and is able to get Miriam some work. However, when things are at their best is often when things are about to come crashing down about your ears. 

This Canadian production, based on the last and arguably the best novel of distinguished Jewish-Canadian author Mordecai Richler (he of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz fame) has already been distinguished in that Giamatti won the Golden Globe earlier this year for Best Actor in a Comedy (which by the way is not really an accurate classification for this movie). Unfortunately, Giamatti didn’t get an Oscar nomination, largely because the field was so strong this year but he could easily have done. His portray of Barney Panofsky is unforgettable and might even be a better performance than the one he gave in Sideways.

He has a strong backing cast. Dustin Hoffman is still as elfin and charming as he’s ever been and Iz Panofsky goes right up there in his pantheon of memorable characters, which is saying a lot. He is absolutely incandescent whenever he gets onscreen. Likewise is Rosamund Pike, a wonderful British actress who is just now beginning to get noticed over on this side of the Atlantic. As with Giamatti, this is her very best performance to date. As the long-suffering Miriam she puts up with her boorish husband and perhaps comes closest to understanding him of anyone until he makes the one transgression that she cannot forgive.  

While there are comedic elements, this is most certainly not a comedy. It’s very painful to watch in places and I spent the last 20 minutes in tears as I watched things fall apart. Sometimes the things we want most in life are the things we can’t have – not because they are unobtainable, but because we don’t have the wisdom and maturity to recognize how to keep them. It is true that the ending of Barney’s Version is very sad, but the movie is not about that; rather, it’s about the journey and taken as a whole, this isn’t a tragedy, not really.

REASONS TO GO: Giamatti, Hoffman and Pike all deliver standout performances. This critic was moved to tears by basically the last 20 minutes of the movie.

REASONS TO STAY: May be too intense and hit too close to home for some.

FAMILY VALUES: There is some foul language; a goodly amount of it in fact, and some sexual content.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Izzy Panofsky and his grandson Michael are played by, respectively, Dustin and Jake Hoffman who are father and son in real life.

HOME OR THEATER: This is playing in limited release and is worth seeking out on the big screen; however chances are you have a better shot at seeing it on home video, streaming or on-demand.

FINAL RATING: 9/10

TOMORROW: Tuck Everlasting

New Releases For the Week of February 18, 2011

Tell 'em Liam Neeson's coming...and a Cold Day in Hell's coming with him!

UNKNOWN

(Warner Brothers) Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, January Jones, Aidan Quinn, Frank Langella, Bruno Ganz, Sebastian Koch, Olivier Schneider. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

A trip to a conference in Berlin for a doctor and his wife turns into something far more sinister when the two are involved in a car accident. When the doctor wakes from a four-day coma, his wife doesn’t recognize him and there appears to be a different person in his identity. Is he suffering from brain damage and doesn’t realize his true identity, which is what the authorities believe? Or is there something different going on, something with terrible ramifications?

See the trailer and a clip here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard

Genre: Action Thriller

Rating: PG-13 (for some intense sequences of violence and action, and brief sexual content)

Barney’s Version 

(Sony Classics) Paul Giamatti, Dustin Hoffman, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver. A seemingly ordinary man writes a book about his life, which is far from ordinary. His story spans three decades, three wives, two continents, one wacky dad and a bizarre best friend. This is based on a novel by Mordecai Richler, best known for his novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. Yeah, I know – that’s like counting the rings on trees to determine how old they are.

See the trailer, featurettes, clips and an online review here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard

Genre: Drama

Rating: R (for language and some sexual content)

Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son

(20^th Century Fox) Martin Lawrence, Brandon T. Jackson, Jessica Lucas, Faizon Love. FBI Agent Malcolm Turner returns as his undercover alter ego, this time as a house mother in an all-girls school – where he is taking his son with him to learn the family business. Oy vey.

See the trailer, clips and interviews here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard

Genre: Urban Crime Comedy

Rating: PG-13 (for some sexual humor and brief violence)

I Am Number Four

(DreamWorks) Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, Teresa Palmer, Dianna Agron. A young teenager in a typical small American town is anything but typical. In reality, he’s one of the last survivors of an alien race who is being hunted into extinction by powerful alien assassins, who are trying to wipe him out before his powers begin to manifest. That can make finding a date for prom problematic.

See the trailer, clips, interviews and featurettes here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard, IMAX

Genre: Science Fiction

Rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of violence and action and for language)

Motherhood

Uma Thurman sheepishly realizes instead of transmitting her resume she sent her baby pictures instead.

(2009) Comedy (Freestyle Releasing) Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards, Minnie Driver, Daisy Tahan, Alice Drummond, Dale Soules, Jodie Foster, Clea Lewis, Jose Constantino, Valentino Bonaccio, Aunjanue Ellis. Directed by Katherine Dieckmann

There was once an advertisement for Army recruiting that boasted “We do more before 6am than most people do all day.” Obviously the copy writer for this ad hasn’t spent much time with moms.

Perhaps there is nothing on earth more harried than a West Village mom, and that’s exactly what Eliza (Thurman) is, on both counts. She has a birthday party to plan for her six-year-old daughter Clara (Tahan) and a whole lot to deal with, including an absent-minded husband (Edwards) who’s no bleeping help, a movie being shot on her street, forcing her to move her car far enough away that lugging the party accoutrements becomes a Herculean task, trying to make it to each store to pick up said accoutrements in a limited amount of time, getting kids to play dates, classes and  quite possibly, formal dress balls (okay, the last one was a joke) and still trying to keep her sanity enough to write a 500-word essay on motherhood for a parenting magazine.

Still, she keeps up a stiff upper lip, manages to fight and make up with her best friend Sheila (Driver), make a Jodie Foster (herself) spotting, and dance with a handsome young courier (Bonaccio) who shows her a kindness. It’s all in a day’s work for a modern urban mom.

The movies often treat moms as either absolute idiots or saints married to idiots. Few movies really go to the trouble to examine the life of a mom in a realistic way. I don’t know if Dieckmann is a mom or married, but she seems to have a good handle on what it means in this age to be a mom.

Motherhood has been synonymous with sacrifice since…well, forever. Women are by nature nurturers and givers; such characters don’t necessarily make for compelling movie characters. However, Thurman gives Elyse a certain frazzled charm that is likable and interesting. Elyse is far from a saint – she flirts with the courier and is known to be insensitive from time to time. She messes up from time to time and has a truckload of self-doubt parked in her driveway.

Thurman started out her career essentially taking roles that spotlighted her tremendous physical charms, but has proven to be a pretty darn good actress as well. She really captures that frantic kind of parental stress that requires parents to give EVERYTHING to their little tykes; from the perfect birthday party to the perfect childhood.

I’ve always found that mind-boggling. No childhood is EVER EVER EVER going to be perfect and to think that you can provide your child one by taking him to Tae Kwan Do in the evening and soccer practice in the afternoons is the height of self-delusion. We think that if we involve ourselves completely in every aspect of their lives and give them everything they want somehow they’re going to turn out better adjusted than we did.

Bollocks, and unfortunately, the movie buys into that idea like a crazed shopper trying to grab the last Furby on Christmas Eve. Still, this is a pretty solid cast (although this is clearly Thurman’s movie) and while the movie has a sitcom-ish feel to it, it at least is a bit more realistic in its depiction of urban parenting than most movies are.

Being a mom is perhaps the most rewarding endeavor a human being can undertake; it is also the most complicated and frustrating. There are no manuals and no do-overs. Seeing the life of a West Village mom over the course of one day may sound boring on the surface, but there is a lot in it that touches your own experience in a big way. Like the late great Gene Siskel, I like a good slice of life movie and that’s precisely what this is.

WHY RENT THIS: An interesting view of the trials and tribulations that motherhood brings on, particularly to a city girl. Thurman makes a mighty fine MILF.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Sometimes feels more like a sit-com than a movie. Seems to buy into the idea that a good parent is one who sacrifices everything so that a kid gets everything they want.

FAMILY VALUES: There are some elements of sexuality in language and situation, as well as some suggestion of drug use. There’s also a bit of bad language (although not too bad).

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The movie had eleven paying customers its opening weekend in London; one of the worst showings ever for a premiere.

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: None listed.

BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $726,354 on an unreported production budget; the film probably lost money.

FINAL RATING: 6/10

TOMORROW: Bedtime Stories

New Releases for the Week of October 29, 2010

In Saw 3D the traps just grow more alluring.

SAW 3D

(Lionsgate) Tobin Bell, Cary Elwes, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Sean Patrick Flannery, Dean Armstrong, Tanedra Howard, Gabrielle D. West. Directed by Kevin Greutert

With Jigsaw finally laid to rest, a struggle breaks out over his legacy. A group of survivors of his fiendish traps gather to seek the support of a self-help guru who himself is a survivor of Jigsaw’s machinations, only to discover that the therapist has a dark agenda of his own that threatens to bring Jigsaw’s work to a massive culmination. State of the art technology was used to film this, the final film in the series and the first (and apparently, only) one to be featured in 3D.

See the trailer here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: 3D

Genre: Horror/Torture Porn

Rating: R (for scenes of grisly bloody violence and torture, and language)

Conviction

(Fox Searchlight) Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell, Minnie Driver, Melissa Leo. The amazing true story of Betty Ann Waters, who determined to see her brother freed after being unjustly convicted of murder. Despairing that she could not find a lawyer to adequately represent him, she got her GED, graduated college, got a law degree and passed the bar in order to take on his case and get him the fair trial he never received.

See the trailer, interviews and clips here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard

Genre: True-Life Drama

Rating: R (for language and some violent images)

Nowhere Boy

(Weinstein) Aaron Johnson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Thomas Sangster, Anne-Marie Duff. Before he was a Beatle, John Lennon was a troubled kid living on the mean streets of Liverpool, being raised by his aunt. This is an account of his adolescence that would influence the man he would become, a man who would change the world through his music.

See the trailer, interviews and clips here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard

Genre: Biopic

Rating: R (for language and a scene of sexuality)