Money Never Sleeps, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Owls

The big kahoona this weekend is the sequel to 1987's Wall Street. This one is called Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the original name plus a pithy qualifier, summer blockbuster style. Critical reception to the new picture has been mixed, apparently it's not enough to be Oliver Stone anymore -- someone even suggested the controversial director has gone soft. But the cast is interesting, with Michael Douglas reprising Gordon "Greed is Good" Gekko, and Shia Lebeouf playing his latest acolyte, Jake Moore. Carey Mulligan mixes things up as Winnie, Gekko's estranged daughter and Jake's fiancée. Playing in lots and lots of theaters. Legends of the Guardian is also opening - I think of it as the Owl movie - it's a fantasy tale that has critics praising the 3-D visuals but not much else. You Again is a mother/daughter Mean Girls story that apparently is awful, even though it has Jamie Lee Curtis and Kristin Bell. Left over from last week: The Town, Devil, and Easy A. I will definitely see Wall Street, and I might try to catch Easy A. 

Next week The Social Network opens.  If early reviews are for real, this film is perfect.  Heaps of praise, and nothing else.  Should be interesting.

Critical Summaries

• Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps: Metacritic 59; Rotten Tomatoes 54

• Legends of the Guardians: Metacritic 56; Rotten Tomatoes 49

• You Again: Metacritic 27; Rotten Tomatoes 14

• The Town: Metacritic 74; Rotten Tomatoes 94

• Devil: Metacritic 44; Rotten Tomatoes 41

• Easy A: Metacritic 72; Rotten Tomatoes 85

Catfish

Catfish is a documentary, of sorts, but not like the informative ones that warn of disaster, or the entertaining, message-y ones in the style of Michael Moore. Catfish feels personal, like a home movie made by some very talented friends, a project that started out as a goof but took off when they realized they had stumbled onto a remarkable story. 

And this is how it starts: Nev Schulman is a twenty something New York City photographer specializing in elegant shots of dancers. One day he gets a package in the mail from Abby, an eight year old girl who lives in Michigan; it’s a watercolor painting of one of his photographs that had recently appeared in a national magazine. Nev is flattered and decides to encourage Abby; they exchange emails and become friends on Facebook, and he sends her more pictures to paint. Before long he is also Facebook friends with Abby’s mother, Angela, her father, her brother and, most notably, her nineteen year old sister Megan, who is very interested in Nev. The two launch into a relationship, using Facebook, text messages and actual phone calls to pursue what becomes a very steamy connection. This is what gets Nev’s brother, Rel and his partner Henry to turn on the cameras; they figure they have an opportunity to chronicle a 21st century Internet love story.

There are a lot of great things about Catfish, but my favorite is that the story unfolds for the audience exactly the same way it did for Nev and Rel and Henry; as the layers peel away and the virtual becomes real, we are right there with them. Rel said he always wanted to make a movie about his brother because he’s “just very charismatic and gets into a lot of trouble and gets himself into situations.” Big brother is right – Nev is a natural on screen, disarmingly honest, and we can’t help but root for him even when he is at his most reckless. Is it a story for our time? Well, yes and no: it’s about love, and loneliness, timeless human issues; but it’s also about how the modern virtual world provides unexpected outlets to cope. Catfish was a big hit at Sundance and it opens in a lot of cities around the country September 24. Check it out, it’s an interesting, fun time at the movies - but one important caveat: don't try to find out (or even guess) the ending; you'll ruin your own fun. B+






Image credit: Rogue

The Town, The Devil, and Emma Stone

It's been a long hot dry spell, but finally some high quality films are hitting the multiplex. Big opener this weekend is The Town: Ben Affleck stars in and directs a gritty crime thriller that is getting good to excellent reviews. (If you pay attention to movies at all, you’ve heard about this one; my film buff daughter turns 22 tomorrow and all she wants to do is see The Town and then have us take her out to a cool, pricey bar for dinner. This is part of a broader scope of birthday events that do not include her parents, but, we're happy she slotted us in.) In spite of the early critical enthusiasm, the LA Times reports that Easy A, the teen caper comedy very loosely based on The Scarlett Letter, is likely to beat The Town for the weekend box office crown. Apparently teen age girls are very reliable moviegoers. But, I imagine you saying, The Town has Jon Hamm! Don't teenage girls want to see Jon Hamm? Well, maybe not. He is like, 39, or something. Easy A has gotten some good reviews, most of the critics attributing the film's quality to the performance of its star, Emma Stone. Devil, a scare fest based on an idea from M. Night Shyamalan but written and directed by somebody else, will also hit screens (lots of them) this weekend. It’s about a bunch of people stuck in an elevator with Lucifer himself, and whenever the power flickers someone gets offed. No doubt there’s a twist at the end. Hardly any critics have seen this film, the few reviews out there are middling to bad.

If you happen to live in New York or Los Angeles, you can catch Never Let Me Go, playing in a handful of locations.  Based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, it's a sci-fi tale about cloned children who are raised to become organ donors.  Early reviews say it is slow moving but brilliant.  Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightly star.  Also in limited release is a French movie called Heartbreaker; it's an entertaining old school romantic comedy, more Cary Grant/Doris Day than Jennifer Aniston/whoever. Fun to watch.  And if none of these appeal to you well, there's always Resident Evil, still playing everywhere.

My choices: The Town, Never Let Me Go, Easy A.  In that order. 

What to See: September 10, 2010

Last week the box office crown went to The American, the George Clooney picture that everyone went to see and no one liked. Don’t expect it to repeat this weekend. New on Friday: the fourth Resident Evil movie, where Milla Jovovich keeps trying to save the world, only this time in 3D, so she will be tossing weapons around and it will seem like they are flying right out of the screen. Could be fun if you're into that sort of thing. There’s also The Virginity Hit, a movie shot YouTube style about a teenager trying to lose his virginity and his friends who want to film it. It’s not getting a lot of love in the early reviewing , even though it was produced by Will Farrell and Adam McKay, the Funny or Die team. Apparently it’s more dead than funny. If you’re curious about whatever it was that happened to Joaquin Phoenix, there is a documentary about him opening this weekend, called I’m Still Here. Directed by Casey Affleck, it has been screened to mixed reviews at a film festival or two, but even critics who admire the film find it quite strange. Some think the whole thing is a hoax, and Phoenix’ best performance. That would be ironic.