Ed Wood His Or Her Own Movie – and There’S Simply No Lived- in Quality to the Film
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CALENDA R ( COMMUNITY SPORTS ARTS F ILM MUSIC) LIST I N GS BROTHERS D: Jim Sheridan; with Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire, Sam Shepard, Mare Winningham, Bailee Madison, Taylor Geare, Clifton Collins Jr.. (R, 110 min.) Inferior in practically every way to Danish direc- tor Susanne Bier’s original Brødre – but now with more U2! – Brothers draws from two rampaging traditions, Greek tragedy and romantic melodrama, and renders both weirdly inert. Maguire plays the elder Cahill brother, Sam, a captain in the Marines; an attentive husband to his high school sweetheart, Grace (Portman); and a devoted father to two little girls. Brothers, in its most effective and engrossing stretches, examines the malleability of the roles the various Cahills are assigned, either by themselves or by others. All the actors do well enough, but they don’t mesh at all – it’s as if everyone’s acting in Ed Wood his or her own movie – and there’s simply no lived- in quality to the film. Sheridan and scripter David Ed Wood (1994) D: Tim Burton; with Johnny Benioff stick closely to the bullet points of the Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia original but can’t seem to translate the rich complex- Arquette, Jeffrey Jones, Bill Murray, Lisa Marie, George ity of the characters and the choices they make. “the Animal” Steele, Juliet Landau. (R, 124 min.) (12/11/2009) – Kimberley Jones Winter Film Series: Mel Brooks and Tim Burton Double Features. This biographical film is charming, ★★★■Tinseltown South melancholy, strange, and quirkily humorous. There’s also a certain irony in giving the silver-screen treat- DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE ment to the most infamous of bargain-basement The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus directors and his motley crew of hangers-on. (*) MORGANS? D: Marc Lawrence; with Hugh Grant, Sarah @Paramount, Wednesday, 9pm; Thursday, 7pm. Jessica Parker, Sam Elliott, Mary Steenburgen, Michael Kelly, Elisabeth Moss, Jesse Liebman, Wilford Brimley. (PG-13, 103 min.) though Dickens’ ultimate cautionary tale is a mere nearly bygone in these digital days – and both the antiq- afterthought onto which Zemeckis can drape his uity and the laboriousness of that process are perfectly From its difficult-to-remember title on down, live-action/computer-animated visual hybrid that suited to Anderson. There’s a terrific amount of talent D: John Lee Hancock; with Sandra THE BLIND SIDE Did You Hear About the Morgans? is a forgettable he has now used on his third sequential movie corralled here. (11/27/2009) – Kimberley Jones and lackluster fish-out-of-water rom-com. The film Bullock, Quinton Aaron, Tim McGraw, Kathy Bates, Jae Head, Lily (following Beowulf and The Polar Express). Scrooge ★★★★ Alamo Drafthouse Village Collins, Ray McKinnon, Kim Dickens. (PG-13, 126 min.) exploits tired stereotypes about city and country (Carrey) is still the same miserly old coot we know folks while being propped up by the kind of irra- Writer/director Hancock (The Rookie) overcomes him to be, but instead of the transformative effect tional narrative logic that can only exist in the most of the built-in problems inherent to inspira- of Scrooge’s glimpses into his past, present, and INVICTUS D: Clint Eastwood; with Morgan Freeman, Matt movies. Paul and Meryl Morgan (Grant and Parker) tional sports dramas. Also in the film’s plus column future, this film emphasizes the phantasmic ele- Damon, Tony Kgoroge, Julian Lewis Jones, Adjoa Andoh. (PG, 134 min.) are a New York City couple who, though sepa- are two standout performances: Aaron, as the ments of the ghosts and the pliable mechanics they rated, together witness a homicide. The authori- Freeman teams up once again with director sweet-mannered but largely uncommunicative foot- use to show Scrooge such privileged viewpoints of ties decide to place the Morgans in the Witness Eastwood to play South African president and inter- ball player Michael (Aaron does some very subtle his life. Carrey, never a slouch when it comes to his Protection Program and ship them to Wyoming. national hero Nelson Mandela. The story is based on body work, using the way he carries his heft as an output, plays all three ghosts in addition to Scrooge. Of course, a week cooped up together out West John Carlin’s book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela emotional signpost), and Bullock, as the prickly, The actor sheds his usual silliness and adopts reminds the couple of how much they still love and the Game That Made a Nation. The game in ques- straight-talking Memphis socialite who welcomes more of the tone and breeding of a British thespian. each other. The movie’s wan script by writer-direc- tion is rugby, and the events surround Mandela’s Michael into her home and eventually makes him a (11/06/2009) – Marjorie Baumgarten tor Lawrence almost makes the viewer wish that enthusiastic support of the South African team’s part of the family. This is a dream role for Bullock ★★ Millennium actors Grant and Parker, who each here underplay attempt to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Although – finally, a job that requires her to be adult, tart, their signature stammering and bubbliness, were a fan of the sport, Mandela’s actions were born of and smart, all at once – and she makes good use an ulterior motive: that of building a post-apartheid allowed free rein to infuse their characters with D: Lone Scherfig; with of it. It’s not an altogether convincing portrait, but AN EDUCATION nation. With racial tensions high after his release greater liveliness. Used with even less regard for w Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Cara it is an entertaining, even moving one, and the character definition are the supporting actors. from prison and ascension to the presidency, Mandela forcefulness of her presence goes a long way in Seymour, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, Olivia Williams, Emma (12/18/2009) – Marjorie Baumgarten saw a means of bridging the fears between his newly pulling the film back from the brink of cuddliness. Thompson. (PG-13, 95 min.) ★ Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, Barton Creek powerful black constituency and the fearful, white old (11/20/2009) – Kimberley Jones Everything about Scherfig’s coming-of-age story guard. Eastwood’s direction, though typically assured ★★★ Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, Alamo Square, CM Cedar Park, Hill Country Galleria, CM Round and understated, is nevertheless flabby at times. Yet Rock, Southpark Meadows, Gateway, Metropolitan, about a girl in the London suburb of Twickenham in Drafthouse Village, Barton Creek Square, CM Cedar 1961 is spot-on. The film tells a wonderfully nuanced Invictus remains inspiring and educational, especially Park, Hill Country Galleria, CM Round Rock, Southpark Tinseltown North story about a teenager’s longing to break free of her during this present time in America in which we are Meadows, Gateway, Lakeline, Metropolitan, Tinseltown provincial surroundings and enter the world at large. supposedly muddling our way into a post-racial society. North, Westgate DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL D: It’s a story about her education in the university of life, (12/11/2009) – Marjorie Baumgarten Robert Zemeckis; with Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Cary an impartial proving ground that seduces many into ★★★ Barton Creek Square, CM Cedar Park, Hill Elwes, Robin Wright Penn, Bob Hoskins, Daryl Sabara. (PG, 96 min.) its fold but whose revolving door is just as likely to hit Country Galleria, CM Round Rock, Gateway, Tinseltown THE BOONDOCK SAINTS II: ALL you on the ass on the way out. Scherfig directs the North, Westgate The initial “gee, whillikers” reaction to Zemeckis’ SAINTS DAY D: Troy Duffy; with Sean Patrick Flanery, drama, which is based on a memoir by Lynn Barber and motion-capture rendition of the Dickens classic adapted for the screen by Nick Hornby, with a steady Norman Reedus, Billy Connolly, Clifton Collins Jr., Julie Benz, Judd eventually turns to “bah, humbug” as the film’s IT’S COMPLICATED D: Nancy Meyers; with Meryl Nelson, David Della Rocco, Bob Marley, Brian Mahoney, David Ferry. but subtle hand. Crowning An Education is the central technological novelty gives way to narrative mundan- performance of Mulligan as 16-year-old Jenny: In this Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, John Krasinski, Lake Bell, Caitlin (R, 118 min.) ity. So absent is any emotional content that it’s as breakthrough role, the actress stuns us with a range Fitzgerald, Zoe Kazan, Hunter Parrish. (R, 118 min.) Director Duffy’s wickedly bloodthirsty and strangely that goes from dimpled schoolgirl to oh-so-sophisticat- The thing about It’s Complicated is that it’s not … humorous The Boondock Saints was a cult hit wait- ed teen to Audrey Hepburn look-alike to disillusioned- complicated. Writer-director Meyers has come to special- ing to happen that somehow didn’t. As a post-post- but-wiser adult. (11/13/2009) – Marjorie Baumgarten ize in making wish-fulfillment fantasies for middle-aged Tarantino hipster-shoot-’em-up, it seemed oddly dated ★★★★ Arbor women in which smart, professional, single, Caucasian back when it received a microrelease from Miramax women of a certain age have wonderful careers, before heading straight to video and developing a D: Wes picture-perfect homes, and love affairs aplenty. In It’s substantial following, in part due to the canny docu- FANTASTIC MR. FOX Complicated, Streep plays Jane Adler, a Santa Barbara, mentary Overnight, which chronicles the Boondock w Anderson; with the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Calif., restaurateur who is 10 years divorced from Jake director’s meteoric nonrise to and ego-fueled fall Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Wallace Wolodarsky, Eric (Baldwin) when they begin having an affair.