Movies : November 2004

24 November 2004

Sex is Comedy

A strong-willed and philosophically-inclined director, Jeanne (Anne Parillaud), is confronted with difficulty everywhere she turns in making her latest film, as the Actor (Grégoire Colin) and the Actress (Roxane Mesquida) are not cooperating in the production of intimate scenes. Very much in the vein of Living in Oblivion and presumptively referring to writer-director Catherine Breillat’s experience in making À ma Souer! (especially given the presence of Mesquida).

92 minutes.

05 November 2004

The Incredibles

From Pixar comes a story of superheroes, emphatically set, by the automobiles and the city planning and the series of mishaps the clothes designer recites, in the past. Using their powers, Bob (Mr. Incredible) and Helen (Elastigirl) and others (Frozone) thwart the criminals of Municiberg but the collateral damage and ensuing lawsuits force the government to submerge their identities. Bob and Helen marry. Fifteen years later (by the Fords on the streets of their new home Metroville , I might say it was the spring of 1963) Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson) is stuck in a cubicle, too small for his new girth, at an insurance company run by a penny-pinching, haranguing boss (Wallace Shawn), while Helen (Holly Hunter) is the stay-at-home mom to Violet (who can turn herself invisible), Dashiell (who can move very quickly), and baby Jack (who seems normal for now). When Bob’s anger taxes the ability of the government to keep his identity quiet, he loses his job but can’t bring himself to tell Helen, for Bob has received a mysterious invitation to exercise his powers on a remote, volcanic island. That the invitation is voiced by Mirage (Elizabeth Peña) helps. But his benefactor is actually a nemesis (as anyone who has watched the Disney Channel in the last month knows, voice of Jason Lee) and soon the entire family, and all of Metroville, is in danger. Plenty witty, and I liked it better than Monsters, Inc. but to the extent that at heart it’s an action-adventure, superhero movie very much in the vein of classic Bond films means it can’t quite reach the pinnacle.

115 minutes.

Entries subject to editing at any time. Last edited on: 25-Nov-2004