It’s Friday, which means somewhere out there, Chris Tucker is getting Ice Cube high. It also means that a bunch of waiters wearing red and white vertical stripes and buttons are singing God’s praises before asking you if you’d like a Loaded Potato Skins appetizer. But most importantly, Friday means that new movies are hitting theatres. Some may be good, some may be bad, but they’re all going to show that Three Doors Down “Citizen Soldier” National Guard video before the trailers. Let’s check them out!
The Bucket List
Starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman
Directed by Rob Reiner
The Premise: Two dying old guys have fun, learn to love life, and tug at your heartstrings in the safest and most predictable of ways.
The Lowdown: This is going to be this years Little Miss Sunshine. That is to say, the slightly above-average movie that everyone’s parents go and see, get exactly what they expect, and proclaim it to be “great” or “cute”. Cut to a year later, it’s playing on TNT and they sit down to watch it not even realising they’ve seen it before. Rob Reiner hasn’t made a truly good movie for 15 years, instead opting to play it safe with very dull formulaic comedies like Alex & Emma or Rumor Has It. This one appears to be no different.
Is it Worth Seeing?: If you’re 40 years old and like to be spoon-fed life affirming pap, sure.
The Orphanage (El Orfanato)
Starring Belen Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Princep
Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona
The Premise: Ghost haunts orphanage, scares the hell out of everyone involved.
The Lowdown: Spanish cinema has been on fire recently, and even though this isn’t by everyone’s favorite chubby Mexican (despite trailers selling it on his name, Guillermo del Toro only financed it’s American distribution) this should still be one to check out. I’ve heard much about it’s skillful scares from my friends in Hollywood who saw this weeks ago (lucky bastards!). While it’s not on the same level as Pan’s Labyrinth, it is supposed to be quite good. And when’s the last time you saw a good horror movie in the theatres, anyway? It certainly wasn’t this year.
Is It Worth Seeing?: If you like films like The Others and The Sixth Sense, this one looks like it’s made for you.
The Great Debaters
Starring Denzel Washington, Forrest Whitaker, Kimberley Elise
Directed by Denzel Washington
The Premise: It’s 1935 and Denzel Washington wants to motivate some young black men, godammit!
The Lowdown: Denzel Washington is an actor I have a love/hate relationship with. Unless Spike Lee is behind the camera, he rarely takes risks with his roles, and he often appears in these sorts of easy formulaic social dramas that seem beneath an actor of his caliber. I’d hate him, but he’s always so damn good. Always. He’s not always able to make the rest of the film rise up to meet him, but he’s always been a damn fine actor. I just wish he would stop doing Remember the Titans over and over again. At least this one also has Forrest Whittaker, who is often a powerful and interesting actor.
Is It Worth Seeing?: If you’re really aching for some Denzel in your life, and you’ve already seen American Gangster five times, yeah go ahead. It doesn’t look to be a bad movie, per sae, just not a great one.
Persepolis
Starring the voices of Sean Penn, Iggy Pop, and Gena Rowlands
Directed by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi
Premise: Life in Iran during the Islamic revolution as seen through the eyes of a young girl.
The Lowdown: Now this is where the greatness starts this weekend. Anyone who hasn’t read Marjane Satrapi graphic novel Persepolis is really missing out on an amazing autobiographical tale that takes the changing of a nation and makes it personal, by pairing it with the changes of growing up. Anyone who has read it, all you need to know is that this movie pulls it off without a hitch. It’s already won 2 big prizes this year: Grand Jury Prize at Cannes and a denouncement by the Iranian government. Awesome.
Is It Worth Seeing?: It’s only in limited release this week, so if you’re lucky enough to have a theatre near you playing it, definitely check it out.
Also in theatres is Juno, Sweeney Todd, Walk Hard, and Charlie Wilson’s War. I can vouch for Sweeney Todd and Walk Hard (both excellent and very entertaining films) but I haven’t seen Juno or Charlie Wilson’s War, only heard good things. Also there’s some film about a horse made of water. Or who lives in water? I dunno, it looks terrible.
Next Friday promises to include the remake of Takashi Miike’s One Missed Call, and, God willing, a wider release of There Will Be Blood. If There Will Be Blood doesn’t get a wider release next week, I’ll punch something, I swear.
I am so amped for some persepolis and juno! Also, I’m not there! Unfortunately, all 3 of them are lacking from my local theatres. Damn limited releases.
If I’m Not There isn’t at your theatre yet, it’s not going to be.
Juno, I’m surprised isn’t being released wider. It’s cute, it’s got a good trailer, and it’s got a simple to digest premise. Of all the indie releases this year, Juno is probably the most accessible.
I like the way you organize your movie section. It’s simple, effective and to the point. I am seeing Persepolis soon, hopefully!
I have reviews up for Walk Hard, Juno and I’m Not There if your curious
film reviews
Nice. I like your reviews. And thank you, the whole point of this was to cut through the bullshit and briefly summarize everything. When I review a film, I’ll go much more in depth. But I do think that this will be a regular weekly thing, since I enjoyed doing it and it turned out pretty good.
I’m kind of offended that you would compare the bucket list to little miss sunshine.
Am I insulting Little Miss Sunshine? Or Bucket List? Either way, I stand by my words.
yeah i mean, little miss sunshine was a darkly comedic and well executed indie film, and bucket list just screams big budget feel good movie.
Haha, fantastic! Has anyone else noticed that everyone in those National Guard videos are not actually National Guard?
I remember Rob Reiner from South Park.
And I have to agree with Patrick on the Little Miss Sunshine debate that’s going on, haha. I’d still rate it much better than Bucket List, and it was a good movie that I would watch again, but it will never be one of my favorite movies. Plus, I can barely remember what happens. Amazing movies stick with you forever.
Little Miss Sunshine is movie I’m afraid to say I love to hate.
I’m not saying they’re the same in quality, just that they’re emotionally cloying films that trick the audience in the same way.
And as far as “dark indie” films goes, Little Miss Sunshine barely qualifies. It’s really not all that much different from a sitcom, except for the drug use and talk of suicide. And even though the word “indie” is beginning to mean less and less these days (remember when there was a time that indie films didn’t have stars? Was Stranger Than Paradise really 23 years ago?) Little Miss Sunshine is still on the mainstream side of that equation.
It’s not a bad movie, just kind of a shallow one that became an indie darling because it’s cute and easy for most audiences to swallow. Yes, I know there is drug use and a suicidal character and swearing, but it doesn’t make it any less cute or emotionally cloying.
It’s other obvious equivilent from this year would be Juno, as far as a cute movie that’s got all the ingredients to become an audiences’ indie darling, but I haven’t seen it yet so I can’t comment on the quality.
Not that “indie” has any credibility anymore as far as movies go. Little Children was a major New Line film and it was riskier and darker and more daring than any “indie” film of that year. The Saw movies are independent films (Lionsgate is a far cry from a major Hollywood studio). I say, a good movie is a good movie and until we have another indie film explosion like we did in the late 80’s and people start making truly daring films on shoestring budgets, whether it’s indie or mainstream makes no difference.
And we ARE leading to another independent film explosion, make no mistake. With indie films and studio films slowly becoming one and the same, there’s going to be a reaction. And as Jean Cocteau once said, “Only when film is as inexpensive as pencils and paper will the true artists emerge.” Enter YouTube.
I just think that Little Miss Sunshine had an extremely tight and well-written screenplay, and I’d be surprised if the Bucket List’s writing was as good.
I would be surprised if The Bucket List was as good too, but like I said, I’m not equating the two in terms of quality.
And Little Miss Sunshine’s screenplay didn’t do it for me. It’s funny, but not that funny. It’s got ok characters, but nothing really memorable. It has themes, but they’re all dealt with in very simple and obvious ways. It’s above average, definitely, but the reason it got so much attention wasn’t because it was one of the best movies of the year, it’s because it was one of the most accessible.
I’m not saying that I disagree with your evaluation of the movies you’re talking about, but I really take exception with the usage of “cute” as a derogatory word. That shit pisses me the hell off. As for “cloying” i feel like most of the time it’s just a way of saying “i don’t like this film because i’m not disposed toward liking this kind of thing, but i’m going to blame it on the film/music/whatever rather than chalk it up to taste.”
There’s my rant. My girlfriend uses cloying in the same way and i take umbrage then as well. That said, I think Little Miss Sunshine was amusing to watch once, and ultimately forgettable, but not in any way worthy of bile, necessarily, apart from awkward attempts at literariness.
I’m not using cute in a derogatory way. In the article, when I talk about Bucket List and I say “cute” it’s because when I worked at Blockbuster that’s the word I heard 40-something year olds use 90% of the time when describing a movie that they enjoyed because it didn’t challenge them in any way. I don’t think cute is a bad thing at all. Juno is a movie that looks very cute that I am very excited to see.
As for cloying, it is. The entire film is designed around making this family learn to love each other. The plot never really feels like it’s occurring naturally from these characters, it feels forced.
It’s not like I have it out for Little Miss Sunshine. I went into it expecting to enjoy it, and I did. But it’s just like you said: it’s a forgettable experience.
To join the Little Miss Sunshine debate, I think that it was good, but not as good as it gets credit for being. Honestly, if you walk around my high school, you’ll hear kids praising it for being avante garde and really speaking to their souls or whatever, but unless you’re a sixteen year old trying really hard to be “indie” and cool and trying to find yourself, it really doesn’t do that. Yeah, it’s a good movie, but not as good as it’s made out to be.
But isn’t blaming a film for not being “challenging” just kinda throwing a log into the whole “movies must be teh importantz an artisticz” fire? I just get wary of pretentiousness of any stripe. I love when a movie IS challenging in some sort of way, but not every movie is, and some are cute and fun, and some are made to make people happy with everything they already know and believe without telling them anything new at all. Which is fine. That’s why music fans go to see documentaries about how great their favorite bands are. The word “cloying” just really grinds my gears because it smacks of a sort of intellectualistic machismo that fuggin’ bugs the shit out of me. I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m not going to go out and see the latest movie based on a Mitch Albom book, but I don’t think there’s anything to be gained from feeling superior about that, or from look down on people who do enjoy it.
I don’t look down on people who only go and see easy movies. They just don’t have good taste in movies. That’s no way to judge anyone.
And the only reason I make a point to say that Little Miss Sunshine is not a challenging movie is that people make special note of it’s “darkness” and it’s “indie-ness”, so I feel the need to point out that it is hardly those things. And it still could have been a great movie, if the other elements raised it to such, but they didn’t. It was kinda funny, but not that funny. The characters were quirky, but shallow. Everything about it is just average to sorta-above average. So it’s merely an enjoyable movie, but I think since it’s unearned oscar nominations and wins, people feel justified in championing it as a great piece of cinema. Which it ain’t.
You’re talking to a guy who loved WAITRESS, and thought LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE was one of the most entertaining films of the past few years. Is it a groundbreaking artistic achievement? Not in the slightest. But I’ll take that kind of escapist entertainment over NORBIT or TRANSFORMERS anyday.
It doesn’t have to be deep, and there is nothing wrong with cuteness in a movie. JUNO has intelligence, wit, and manages to have moments of pure cuddliness. Expect that to get a boatload of nominations this year as well.
Without having seen it, can I still refer to the new Jack Nicholson and Morgan “I Narrate Belly-Button Documentaries” Freeman movie as THE FUCKIT LIST?