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Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, March 12:
“2012” draws on every cataclysmic disaster movie you’ve ever seen, as an Everyman hero (John Curtis) and conscientious government scientist (Chiwetel Ejiofor) struggle to ensure humanity’s survival now that the Earth’s core temperature is rising. If you ignore the generic gobbledygook of geology and physics, the CGI effects are spectacular.
Set in a staid, central Connecticut retirement community, “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” stars Robin Wright Penn as a 50 year-old housewife whose continual sublimation of her own needs leads to a subtle nervous breakdown and flagrant affair with her neighbor’s son (Keanu Reeves).
Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story” delivers an indictment of our country’s financial system, emphasizing the human cost of our current economic crisis. Do I agree with Moore’s conclusions? No. But this provocative docu-drama does make you think.
From 68 year-old Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki comes “Ponyo,” loosely inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid; it’s a fantastical, sweet-natured charmer about a willful, mischievous goldfish that’s bound to delight children and adults alike. From the sublime to the ridiculous, there’s “Planet 51,” a bland, innocuous, reverse “E.T.”/”Wall-E” cartoon riff about a planet populated by happy, little green people with four-fingered hands who are visited by Earthlings.
For tiny tots, “Barney: Egg-Cellent Adventures” looks ahead to Easter, while “Thomas & The Runaway Kite” finds the spunky engine rescuing kites, saving a swarm of bees and preventing railway disasters. And there’s “Elmo and the Rainbow and Other Springtime Stories.” All three teach timeless life lessons such as discovery, friendship and cooperation.
PICKS OF THE WEEK: Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” follows the adventures of a nine year-old boy who escapes to a land of fantasy, where he encounters bestial manifestations of his own turbulent, conflicting emotions. Venturing into dark, cryptic territory, it earns a place of honor among recent family-friendly films. And there’s also “Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak,” a fascinating look at one of the most cherished and controversial figures in children’s literature.
Susan Granger’s review of “The Secret of Kells” (GKIDS distribution)
Few American moviegoers had ever heard of this Irish-French-Belgian co-production until it was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Animated Feature, squeezing out “Ponyo,” “Monsters vs. Aliens,” “Cloud With a Chance of Meatballs” and “A Christmas Carol.” Once you see it, you’ll realize why.
Set in medieval Ireland, the story centers on curious, creative Brendan (voiced by Evan McGuire), a young, orphaned novice at the remote Abbey of Kells. He loves helping the monks in the scriptorium as they illustrate the gospels. But his stern uncle, the Abbot Cellach (voiced by Brendan Gleeson), wishes he would expend his energy on erecting a giant wall to ward off the marauding Viking barbarians. Yet when an elderly, renowned Scottish calligrapher, Brother Aiden (voiced by Mick Lally), arrives at the monastery with his cat Pangur Ban, fleeing from the besieged monastery at Iona and bearing an unfinished manuscript that’s supposed to contain the power to turn darkness into light, Brendan sneaks out into the forbidden woods with Pangur to find berries from the oak tree to make green ink for the illustrations. It’s a dangerous quest since the forest is believed to be filled with demons. Enchantment reigns as Brandon’s befriended by the fairy Aisling (voiced by Christen Mooney), a mysterious white wolf-sprite, and eventually able to prove that enlightenment is the best fortification against evil.
Some refer to this illuminated Celtic manuscript as The Book of Columbia, because it was created some time at the end of the seventh or beginning of the eighth century, and contains the Four Gospels in Latin and the Eusebian canons. The real-life treasured relic on display at Trinity College in Dublin.
Created for $8 million by first-time feature directors Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey and writer Frabrice Ziolkowski, this Irish treat won the top audience award at the 2009 Edinburgh Film Festival with its lavishly ornate, hand-drawn, highly-stylized, two-dimensional animation, filled with traditional Celtic crosses.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Secret of Kells” is a stunning 9, melding history and mythology with faith.
Susan Granger’s review of “Brooklyn’s Finest” (Overture Films)
Director Antoine Fuqua hit the jackpot with “Training Day,” for which Denzel Washington won an Oscar back in 2001, but this new police potboiler about crossing the thin blue line falls short – in every way.
Unfolding during one hectic week, it’s the tale of three conflicted, corrupt cops in the 65th precinct who turn a blind eye to crime, rip off drug dealers and befriend the gangs who are ostensibly running the neighborhood. Boozing, burnt-out Eddie Dugan (Richard Gere) is a veteran patrolman with personal problems: i.e.: a prostitute girl-friend (Shannon Kane). With only one week left before he can claim his pension and retire to a fishing cabin in Connecticut, he grimly shepherds new recruits.
Clarence “Tango” Butler (Don Cheadle) has been undercover for so long that he now protects Caz (Wesley Snipes), the lethally charismatic drug czar he’s supposed to arrest in order to secure a promotion to detective. And Sal Procida (Ethan Hawke) is an edgy narcotics cop who is under tremendous pressure to provide a home with a healthy environment for his wife (Lili Taylor) who is pregnant with twins and their other five children; the financial stress has caused his moral fiber to crack.
Chaos erupts when the NYPD’s Operation Clean Up targets a notoriously drug-ridden housing project and all three officers are faced with compromising, life-changing choices: “There’s no such thing as right or wrong – only righter and wronger.”
Working from rookie writer/former NYC transit worker Michael C. Martin’s cliché-ridden, contrived morality play with its superficial, archetypal characters, Antoine Fuqua and Mexican cinematographer Patrick Murguia interweave the three separate stories, since the protagonists cross paths but never interact until the confused conclusion. While Brian F. O’Byrne, Ellen Barkin and Michael K. Williams lend memorable support, this is Wesley Snipes’ first theatrical release since “Blade: Trinity” (2004); everything else he’s done has gone direct-to-video.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Brooklyn’s Finest’ is a bleak, brutal, pretentious, over-agitated, only somewhat suspenseful 6, making one yearn for Sidney Lumet’s genre classics like “Q&A” and “Serpico.”
Susan Granger’s review of “The Ghost Writer” (Summit Entertainment)
Evoking memories of Alfred Hitchcock, this compelling thriller revolves around a nameless professional ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) who is hired to help Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), a former British Prime Minister (think Tony Blair), finish his memoirs.
Secluded in an isolated, starkly modern house on an island (think Martha’s Vineyard) off the Northeastern coast of America, Lang’s previous ghostwriter/aide died under mysterious circumstances. When his replacement arrives, amid new accusations of Lang’s involvement in war crimes and a possible trial by the International Criminal Court in Geneva, he becomes inexorably drawn into an ominously tangled web of political and sexual intrigue involving Lang’s calculating, edgy wife Ruth (Olivia Williams from “An Education”) and his devoted aide Amelia Bly (Kim Cattrall from “Sex and the City”).
Collaborating on the screenplay with novelist Robert Harris (“The Ghost”), 76 year-old Polanski builds an aura of darkly ominous suspense from the opening scene of a ferry docking and a corpse sprawled on a beach and never loosens his grip until the climax.
While his viewpoint remains cynical, accepting greed and corruption as an integral part of the political landscape and focusing on the helplessness of the anonymous Everyman, Polanski, nevertheless, injects several moments of bleak humor, just the way Hitchcock did. The acting is brilliant – from the leads to supporting turns by Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Hutton, Jim Belushi and Eli Wallach. And Polanski’s daughter Morgane appears briefly as a hotel receptionist dressed in a colonial costume.
Once acclaimed as one of Hollywood’s finest directors for “The Pianist,” “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown,” Roman Polanski is a Holocaust survivor whose first wife, Sharon Tate, and their unborn child were brutally murdered by Charles Manson’s clan. In 1977, Polanski fled the U.S. rather than face sexual assault charges for raping a minor. He was arrested last year in Zurich and awaits extradition at his home in Gstaad, Switzerland.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Ghost Writer” is a sleek, sophisticated 9, an elegant reminder of what a great director Roman Polanski was – and is.
Susan Granger’s review of “Alice in Wonderland” (Walt Disney Studios)
“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” first published in 1865, is Lewis Carroll’s droll, disturbing socio-political parody, disguised as a creepy, surreal children’s fantasy about a precocious child wandering through weird environments and meeting bizarre characters.
Incorporating “Through the Looking Glass,” this fanciful adaptation or re-imagination introduces 19 year-old Alice Kingsleigh (Mia Wasikowska), who is still haunted by the “dream” she had as a child. So, as she’s being courted by priggish Lord Hamish (Leo Bill), a titled aristocrat whom her mother wants her to marry, she impulsively darts away from a Victorian garden party, tumbling down a rabbit hole into a hallucinatory world.
After following the White Rabbit (voiced by Michael Sheen), confronting Tweedledum/Tweedledee (Matt Lucas), consulting with Absolem, the Blue Caterpillar (voiced by Alan Rickman), and the disembodied Cheshire Cat (voiced by Stephen Fry), she’s once again befriended by the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), who ruefully realizes she’s lost her spunk, which he calls her “muchness.” To regain that, she discovers her destiny is to be the champion of the saintly White Queen (Anne Hathaway) and slay the ferocious Jabberwocky dragon (voiced by Christopher Lee) dispatched by her sister, the despotic Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Burton’s real-life wife).
Certainly, there’s no director more attuned to grotesque psychotropic phenomena than Tim Burton (“Edward Scissorhands,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Beetlejuice”), whose adult concept is further fragmented by Linda Woolverton’s action-driven, girl-power coming-of-age script in which Alice, afraid she’s gone bonkers, inquires, “Do you think I’ve gone ‘round the bend?” To which her father answers, “All the best people are.”
Meanwhile, whimsical Wonderland has become CGI-enhanced Underland with spectacular landscapes designed by Robert Stromberg (“Avatar”). Johnny Depp’s mercury-poisoned Mad Hatter is fascinating to watch and Mia Wasikowska resembles a young Gwyneth Paltrow.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Alice in Wonderland” is a perturbing, scary 7. Despite the PG rating, this is NOT a very young children’s movie. Tiny tots could be bewildered, perhaps terrified. You may want to wait for the dvd release that’s already been scheduled for June.
Susan Granger’s review of “Toe to Toe” (Strand Releasing)
Female friendship and empowerment are the themes of this provocative coming-of-age melodrama about two very different seniors who play on the lacrosse team of a politically correct Washington, D.C. prep school.
Strong-willed Tosha (Sonequa Martin) is an intelligent, upwardly mobile African-American who lives in Anacostia, a grim ghetto project. Focused on obtaining a full scholarship to Princeton, she’s constantly urged to excel by her supportive grandmother (Leslie Uggams). Tosha plays lacrosse “because no black kids do” and excels in math because nobody expects that from girls. Curiously, the mantra she keeps repeating to herself to escape from the oppressiveness of her poverty pocket is “Black Bitch,” which takes on a deeper meaning as the story evolves.
Lonely, boozing, irresponsible Jesse (Louisa Krause) lives in an exclusive, lily-white suburb with only a Hispanic maid for companionship, while her absentee activist mother (Ally Walker) circles the globe. As a result of her low self-esteem, self-destructive Jesse neglects her schoolwork and is so brazenly promiscuous in the school locker room that someone has scrawled “slutster” on her locker in black marker.
“Why did you let boys take photos of you like that?” Tasha asks Jesse.
“I wasn’t in a position to stop them,” Jesse replies. “But I’m not like that now.”
Making an impressive feature film debut at Sundance ’09, Brooklyn-based writer/director/producer Emily Abt is an astute observer of the behavior of young adults, offering a candid, yet compassionate glimpse of the ethical choices they make as their disparate lives intersect, particularly when they’re attracted to the same boy, Rashid (Silvestre Rasuk), who is going though his own identity crisis, admitting “non-Muslim girls are just for practice.”
Since the two leading ladies – Sonequa Martin and Louisa Krause – establish an amazingly urgent relationship that re-defines each of their characters and deliver polished, touching, insightful portrayals, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Toe to Toe” is a solid, sensitive 7, exploring social/racial tensions and aimed at a young adult audience.
Susan Granger’s review of “Cop Out” (Warner Bros.)
Well, at least you can’t accuse them of deceptive advertising: this stereotypical, interracial/buddy action comedy is, indeed, a cop out – in every sense of the word.
In pre-production, it was known as “A Couple of Dicks,” referring to a pair of Brooklyn-based, longtime NYPD partners, taciturn tough-guy Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and manic Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan). Celebrating their ninth year of working together, Monroe’s obsessed with the whereabouts of the prized 1962 Andy Pafko baseball card that he had planned to cash in to pay for his daughter’s (Michelle Tractenberg) $48,000 wedding, which his ex-wife’s smarmy new husband (Jason Lee) has offered to finance. It seems that while Monroe was having the rare card appraised at a pawnshop, a verbally dexterous petty thief (Seann William Scott) made off with it. And Hodge suspects that his wife (Rashida Jones) is canoodling with their next-door neighbor.
Soon they’re involved with a baseball-loving Mexican drug kingpin (Guillermo Diaz) whose younger brother, as it turns out, was a supplier they’d tried to arrest in an undercover sting operation that went awry, causing them to be suspended for 30 days without pay. Plus there’s a kidnapped Spanish spitfire (Ana de la Regurera).
Unconvincingly and ineptly written by brothers Robb Cullen and Mark Cullen (TV’s “Lucky” and “Las Vegas”) and chock full of buddy-cop clichés, it’s a lame imitation of “48 Hours” with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy. Independent filmmaker Kevin Smith has never before helmed anyone else’s script. And it shows. Back when Smith spent $27,500 making a crude, black-and-white comedy called “Clerks,” set in downscale New Jersey, he created an obscene cult sensation. Since then, he’s made seven less-memorable movies and this is his first major studio film. It could also be his last. It’s that bad.
Smirking Bruce Willis phones in a by-the-numbers performance, collecting his paycheck, while comedian Tracy Morgan must have fervently wished he were back on “Saturday Night Live.” On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Cop Out” is a grossed-out 2, filled with disgustingly graphic poop jokes.
Susan Granger’s review of “The Crazies” (Overture Films)
In case your travel agent hasn’t warned you, don’t plan to visit Ogden Marsh, Iowa, pop. 1,260. Not if you want to come back. Not if you happen to drink the water.
There’s something decidedly wrong in this bucolic farming community. Only it’s just becoming obvious to strait-laced Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant), his trigger-happy deputy (Joe Anderson) and his feisty, newly pregnant wife, Dr. Judy Dutton (Radha Mitchell) and her office assistant (Danielle Panabaker).
On the opening day of high-school baseball season, the notorious town drunk, Rory Hamill (Mike Hickman), walks onto the field with a loaded shotgun. Sheriff David tries to talk him down and is forced to hill him. But Rory’s wife swears he’s been sober for two years and that’s confirmed by the medical examiner. Meanwhile, Dr. Judy’s mystified about her patient Bill Farnum (Brett Rickaby), whose wife (Christie Lynn Smith) senses that something’s amiss. That night Farnum torches his home, burning it to the ground with his wife and son inside. And the following day, a parachute-harnessed corpse is found in a nearby swamp near a submerged plane. No one’s reported the plane missing but the swamp drains right into the local water supply. Suddenly, Ogden Marsh is isolated and quarantined – all connections to the outside world are cut off. And ordinary townsfolk are becoming cold-blooded, zombie-like killers..
Directed by Breck Eisner (“Sahara”) from a script by Scott Kosar (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “The Amityville Horror”) and Ray Wright (“Pulse”), it’s a remake of a 1973 horror thriller by George Romero, whose zombie classic “Night of the Living Dead” has spawned countless remakes and rip-offs. In “The Happening” (2008), for example, M. Night Shyamalan transmuted the toxin into the air, turning its victims suicidal, not homicidal. Originally, Romero devised a paranoid parable about a government experiment-gone-wrong and a military conspiracy. Now it’s become bio-terror and fear of the federal government.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10 “The Crazies” is a spooky, suspenseful, scary 6. It’s a grisly gorefest – but you expect that, don’t you?
Susan’s DVD Update for week of Friday, February 26:
If you’re into high fashion, R.J. Cutler’s “The September Issue” is a riveting, behind-the-scenes look at Vogue’s legendary editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and how she and her editors created a compendium of eye-candy clothes in pre-recession, September. 2007.
Continuing in the fashion vein, “Eleven Minutes” chronicles how Jay McCarroll from TV’s reality show “Project Runway” prepared for his first independent runway show in New York’s Fashion Week in Bryant Park.
“Motherhood” is Katherine Dieckmann’s ode to matrons of New York City’s West Village, charting one day in the life of a one-time fiction writer-turned-blogger (Uma Thurman) whose existence is now consumed by her duties as a wife and mother.
Starring Matt Damon, Steven Soderbergh’s subversive, hide-and-sneaky “The Informant” exposes an over-eager corporate executive-turned-FBI tattle-tale whose ever-changing stories make it almost impossible to decipher what’s real and what’s imagined.
Maudlin and confusing, “The Box” is a sci-fi muddle based on a provocative, philosophical concept that revolves around a couple (Cameron Diaz, James Marsden) facing a moral dilemma: if they push a button that will kill a complete stranger somewhere in the world, they will get one million tax-free dollars.
“Dead Snow” is the zombie/horror film that shocked Sundance and rocked Europe, focusing on medical students on a sex-and-booze-fueled ski vacation to a remote cabin in the Norwegian Alps, where they uncover a dark secret from World War II.
Another film festival favorite is “$9.99,” an artful stop-motion animated feature examining the meaning of life, based on the short stories of Etgar Keret.
For kids, there’s Wallace & Gromit’s “Shaun The Sheep: A Woolly Good Time” and “The Wiggles: Hot Poppin’ Popcorn” with a slew of new Jamie Redfern songs.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Imagine an ocean without fish. According to “The End of the Line,” this is our future – in less than 40 years – if we don’t stop, think and act. Based on Charles Clover’s acclaimed book and narrated by Ted Danson, this documentary shows firsthand the effects of over-fishing. And among the many DVD extras is a wallet-sized sustainable fish guide.
Susan Granger’s review of “The Good Guy” (Roadside Attractions)
Set in a more free-spending, pre-recession Manhattan, this genial romantic dramedy evokes a “Boiler Room” cocktail that’s diluted with “Metropolitan.”
As the modern, manipulative morality play begins, disheveled, womanizing Tommy Fielding (Scott Porter) is caught in a downpour, begging for help from his estranged girlfriend, Beth Vest (Alexis Bledel). But she’s moved on in her life and she turns him away.
Flashback three months for the rest of the story, that’s when Tommy and Beth began their relationship – discovering they’re both left-handed. She’s an up-and-coming urban conservationist, considering a career move to San Francisco. He’s a cocky, hotshot Wall Street trader, gleefully pitting hedge-fund and mutual-fund managers against one another for shares in his clients’ companies. When his opportunistic, high-pressure boss, Cash (Andrew McCarthy), discovers that a pivotal ‘team’ member is bolting to a competitor, he orders Tommy to find a replacement. That turns out to be Daniel Seaver (Bryan Greenberg), the sales floor’s shy, soft-spoken computer whiz. Caustic Cash has doubts about the choice, but Tommy’s confident that geeky, reticent Daniel can be trained to out-perform all expectations. And he does – in more ways than Tommy ever expected.
Borrowing the titular narrative device from British novelist Ford Madox Ford’s 1915 novel “The Good Soldier,” this is writer/director Julio DePrieto’s debut feature – and it shows, particularly in the script’s simplistic development of faith among these ambitious, upwardly mobile twentysomethings. After all, Daniel is supposed to be a Princeton graduate, just out of Mid-East military service. But the casting is competent, if not inspired, featuring Scott Porter from TV’s “Friday Night Lights” via “Dear John,” Alexis Bledel from TV’s “Gilmore Girls” via “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” and Bryan Greenberg, star of HBO’s “How to Make It in America” with supporting actors Anna Chlumsky and Aaron Yoo. And, as a former Wall Street insider, DePietro creates a credible corporate atmosphere.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Good Guy” is a generic if frenetic 5. Or, as wheeling-dealing Tommy says, “See how far a little trust can get ya?”
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