30 April 2006

Brick

In a sunny but otherwise nondescript oceanside community largely devoid of adults, high school is but a backdrop to heartbreak, drug pushing, and murder. Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is still unsettled after Emily (Emilie de Ravin) left him, and one phone call from her which might be of desperation leads him to seek her out and then to find out the truth about her death in an anonymous culvert. With Brain (Matt O’Leary) as his lookout and a gallery of duplicitous characters under suspicion, Brendan’s persistence, capable fists, and superhuman powers of recuperation pay off but it is the dialogue that sets this apart from an ordinary mystery. Always engaging, with noteworthy character turns.

100 minutes.

29 April 2006

The Notorious Bettie Page

A gentle look at the time in the public eye spent by Bettie Page, or at least that portion of the public eye which was on the lookout for those kinds of magazines and pictures. While supplying a brief biographical sketch and only hinting at her life after leaving the business, the film, largely shot in black and white, concentrates on Bettie’s arrival in New York City and how she fared there with camera clubs and magazine shoots and with the Klaws, suppliers of fetish photography and films, and the occasional trips to Florida where she’s found by Bunny Yeager. Gretchen Mol delivers a remarkable performance under what is presumably a wig (Bettie was a brunette). That the performance requires shedding clothes regularly is neither here nor there.

90 minutes.

22 April 2006

Scary Movie 4

I could just rerun what I said about the last installment and it would still be true. Having cut down on movie attendance even more since then, my appreciation has to be based on trailers, reviews, articles in cinefex and the like (the effort in recreating the look of The Village, though, is impressive). Anna Faris soldiers on through a world of zombie receptionists, haunted houses, and malevolent towering triPods as various revolting happenings occur.

84 minutes.

American Dreamz

I don’t suppose having played Saved! recently had anything to do with this choice. A satire with nowhere near the edge of Wag the Dog and cowed by the actual monstrosity of the current situation. Hugh Grant is Martin Tweed, host of the phenomenally popular television series American Dreamz (which seeks singing aspirants to fame). Dennis Quaid is President Staton, who discovers newspapers the day after his re-election and, to the consternation of his Chief of Staff (Willem Dafoe), finds out that things are not well in the world. When a deal is made placing the President as a guest judge for the final round of the next season as a way to boost his sagging ratings, the stakes for Ohio hopeful Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore) and fresh from the terrorist training grounds Omer (Sam Golzari) are high indeed.

107 minutes.