The Weekend In Movies – September 18th Edition.
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Location
Mapcidy Central
95 Morton
New York, NYUnited States
Hey cool, it’s the steady transition into the fall movie season. This is the time of year where movies start shooting for art and a lucky few even hit the mark. Also, between now and Halloween, the horror movies start coming out in droves. If any of them are even half as good as Drag Me To Hell, it’ll have been a good year for horror. Anyway, let’s take a look at the new week’s crop…
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The Movie: <a href="http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/cloudywithachanceofmeatballs/" target="_blank">Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs</a>.
The Pitch: An animated flick that depicts what happens when a scientist (voice work by Bill Hader) finds a way to turn precipitation into food.
The Verdict: I probably won’t personally get a look at this one until it gets to DVD, but animated movies are good business, and this one has a voice cast that I can’t help but root for – James Caan, Bruce Campbell, Neil Patrick Harris, Al Roker, and Mr. T – among them. I also think that Bill Hader is a real talent, particularly with his impressions – I mean it as every kind of compliment when I compare him to the young Dan Aykroyd. From me specifically, that’s a ringing endorsement.
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The Movie: <a href="http://www.brightstarthemovie.com/default.aspx" target="_blank">Bright Star</a>.
The Pitch: Jane Campion makes a movie about the poet John Keats and his love life.
The Verdict: Should do okay in the art houses. No offense – this just isn’t my kind of movie. I’ve read some Keats and when I want to read more, I know where to find books. Jane Campion makes highbrow movies and I’m a lowbrow kind of dude, so I’ve never been moved to see any of her films. The only spot of interest here for me is Parks & Recreation’s Paul Schneider as the sole American in a cast stocked with pale, skinny Brits, but that alone won’t get me into the theater – not with Parks & Recreation just back for season two as of last night.
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The Pitch: A multi-layered, multi-character drama centering around two women (Kim Basinger & Charlize Theron) and their problematic love lives.
The Verdict: Well, the trailer is really bad. That never bodes well. But it’s the directing debut of the absolutely talented writer Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada), and it features cinematography by all-stars Robert Elswit and John Toll. With that much talent behind the camera, there’s no way this one isn’t worth a look – eventually…
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The Pitch: Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart star in a romantic drama about a self-help author who meets an unreasonably stunning woman at one of his readings.
The Verdict: The joke I see every time I look at that title is way too easy, so I’m resisting. Again, this is probably not a movie for me. My unconcealed crush on Jennifer Aniston is well into its second decade, but even I have to admit that on the big screen, she’s no guarantee. In fact, she’s dangerously close to a Sandra Bullock – an eminently adorable sign that the movie that surrounds might be middle-of-the-road and unexceptional. Unlike Sandy, at least Jen will occasionally toss out a great 30 Rock appearance or something , to remind the faithful to keep the candles burning. I don’t know anything about this movie other than the unenlightening clip they showed the other night on Conan (where she looked phenomenal, by the way), but there are no indications that this is a thing I have to see opening weekend. Whenever it surfaces on cable and if I chance across it, I’m sure I won’t turn it off...
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The Pitch: A cheerleader (Megan Fox) becomes a man-murdering demon from hell in a horror-comedy from director Karyn Kusama and writer Diablo Cody, of Juno and Oscar fame.
The Verdict: Contrary to the previous entry, this title does not refer to what I was thinking about after I watched that Love Happens clip. No, instead it’s a somewhat unconventional horror movie proposition: a horror movie made by women for once! (As a horror fan, it occurs to me that most horror movies are made by men, and generally speaking, most of those men seem to be misogynists, droolers, idiots, or virgins. Feel free to quote me on that.) So if I have any weekend left over after seeing The Informant! and keeping my other social obligations, I’m hoping to check this movie out. Somehow, between all the Megan Fox backlash and the Diablo Cody backlash, this movie has begun to feel like an underdog to me, and unless we’re talking Clint Eastwood or Derek Jeter, I always root for the underdog.
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The Pitch: A corporate whistle-blower (Matt Damon) gets carried away with his new role.
The Verdict: This has to be the first movie to see this weekend. Steven Soderbergh is one of the most experimental big-name filmmakers to ever carve out a mainstream career – this often results in thrilling highs (Out Of Sight, The Limey, Traffic, etc.), but it can also lead to movies that are more formally audacious than watchable. The Informant! looks to belong in the former category, with a lively tone and a funny lead performance from Matt Damon, a smart actor who I think people take for granted. People forget how good Matt Damon really is. If the trailers are to be believed, The Informant! should play like The Insider as envisioned by the Coen brothers, and there’s not a single thing wrong with that pitch.
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