Poetry

All New Movies to See Right Now

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Martina Gusman and Ricardo Darin in Carancho

The Must See film is Source Code, a gripping scifi thriller with intelligence and heart, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan. Carancho is an Argentine love story nestled into a dark and violent noirish thriller, starring Ricardo Darin (The Secrets of Their Eyes, Nine Queens), the Argentine Joe Mantegna.  Hanna is a rip roaring girl-power thriller starring Saiorse Ronan as a 16-year-old raised in the Arctic Circle to be a master assassin by her rogue secret agent father and then released upon the CIA.

Potiche, a delightful French farce of feminist self-discovery is the funniest movie in over a year, and another showcase for Catherine DeNeuve (as if she needs one).   The Music Never Stopped is a crowd-pleaser, especially for Baby Boomers. Certified Copy is a well-acted puzzler of an art film.  For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

I haven’t yet seen Poetry or In a Better World, which open this weekend. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick is Le Cercle Rouge.

Movies on TV this week include Ball of Fire and The Outlaw Josey Wales on TCM.

2010 in Movies: Biggest Disappointments

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1. I couldn’t see some of the Cannes and Sundance Festival favorites because they haven’t been released where I live: Poetry, Certified Copy, Uncle Boonmee, Cane Toads: The Conquest, Aurora, The Princess of Montpensier.

2. After director Niels Arden Opley’s super rockin’ The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the second and third films in Stieg Larsson’s Milenium trilogy were dragged down by plodding director Daniel Alfredson.

3. The 2004 French action movie District B13 introduced us to thrilling parkour and was an original, offbeat spectacle.   But this year’s sequel District 13: Ultimatum was cartoonish and very, very dumb.

4.  Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps:  First of all, I hoped that the movie was going to be primarily about the Michael Douglas characterization of Gordon Gekko – which Douglas knocked out of the park yet again. Will someone explain to me why Shia LaBeouf seems to be a movie star? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Second, the screenplay keeps raising the issue of moral hazard (whether to bail out people from the consequences of risks that they knew they were taking).  Yet, at the end, the two flawed main characters each get exactly what they wanted at the beginning of the film despite making risky or evil choices throughout.  The movie’s payoff (things will turn out OK no matter how badly or foolishly you behave) is exactly opposite of the movie’s sermonette.

5. No one could find a better vehicle for the sublime Amy Adams than the execrable Leap Year?

6.  Pirate Radio:  Has Philip Seymour Hoffman been in a worse film?

7. From the trailer and the buzz, I thought that The Kids Are All Right was shaping up to contend for Best Picture.  It’s a good movie with a wonderful performance by Annette Bening, but  it didn’t fulfill its promise as one of the year’s best.

8. I really wanted to like Ireland’s animated The Secret of Kells, but it was a snoozer.

9. The German comedy Soul Kitchen had a fun trailer (that contained the actually funny three minutes in the entire film).

10.  Shutter Island:  Marty, what were you thinking?

Movies I'm Looking Forward To – Updated

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I’ve updated my Movies I’m Looking Forward To page (also known as The Paula Page).  I’ve included the movie Get Low and trailers or clips from/about Get Low, The Girl Who Played With Fire, Cane Toads: The Conquest, Welcome to the Rileys, Animal Kingdom, Uncle Boonmee  and Carlos.

I’m still the most eager to see Mike Leigh’s Another Year, The Girl Who Played With Fire, The Kids Are Alright, Poetry, Certified Copy, Inside Job and Cane Toads.

I had already posted the trailers for The Kids Are Alright and Homewrecker/The Locksmith, plus the teaser for Certified Copy (Copie Conforme).

Other movies featured include The Square, Biutiful, Howl, The American, Blue Valentine, Of Gods and Men (Des Hommes et des Dieu), One Too Many Mornings and Aurora.

Robert Duvall, Lucas Black and Bill Murray in Get Low