In Theaters Catch-All

So.

There are a bunch of movies that don't have their own thread, and maybe don't merit one. And I'm sure you guys have seen them. So I figured I would create this thread to discuss these movies falling through the CHUD conversational cracks.

In this thread...

The Smurfs

Crazy Stupid Love

The Change-Up

Sarah's Key

Mr. Popper's Penguins

The Devil's Double

The Guard

Another Earth

Larry Crowne

Monte Carlo

The Trip

The Future

Anybody see any of these?

The Smurfs - Exactly what you'd expect. I had no idea kids loved Tim Gunn so much. Near the end I thought the only thing this film needed was a Joan Rivers cameo. And then... well, you know. Jayma Mays is cute. So so cute.

Crazy Stupid Love - I understand this has gotten very strong reviews. I didn't buy a single minute. It's a good cast, and they get to be kinda fun in spots, but man. The miserable machinations of the script were kinda unbearable - you know all these wacky subplots are going to be related somehow, and you KNOW things are going to be resolved in a big speech. I never bought Carell and Moore as a couple. Gosling and Stone, I get.

The Devil's Double - Uday Hussein's body double. Sick, old-school exploitation. Nice to see Lee Tamahori is alive. Dominic Cooper's going to get a lot of heat off this. He plays Hussein like Bugs Bunny with an erection.

The Guard - Pretty funny. Wouldn't say it's a game-changer. Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle as a buddy cop duo, and it's amusing. Liam Cunningham and Mark Strong are the bad guys, and they get some really funny dialogue.

Another Earth - In love with Brit Marling. So can't comment.

The Future - Miranda July - UNPLUGGED. You already know if you'll like it or not.

Yeah, a sick little movie. I bet it will catch on with a small cult on DVD.

Currently without a thread:

Spy Kids 4 - Anyone seen this? I've never seen any of these movies.

One Day - This piece seems to condemn this thing pretty well, I doubt I will ever see it.

5 Days Of War- Renny Harlin does the Russo-Georgian War. Bizarre cast, including Val Kilmer, Andy Garcia and a one-scene cameo from Heather Graham. I thought this was alright, but the critics weren't fond of it. Definitely turns some moments of the conflict into an action movie.

Amigo - The new one from John Sayles. This is kind of a big deal, right? I haven't seen the last few from him.

Flypaper- Indie comedy from The Hangover writers. Patrick Dempsey and Ashley Judd in the middle of a bank robbery. Also, Tim Blake Nelson and Pruitt Taylor Vince playing the eight hundredth bumpkin character of each of their careers.

The Last Circus - I guess this has a few small threads so far, but I can't say it enough - fucking CRAZY movie.

also, apparently something called "The Worst Movie EVER!" was released on a screen this weekend. Box Office Mojo makes it look like, um... ONE person saw it. Which can't be right, right? Found the trailer.

Mm, yeah, just saw The Trip. Surprisingly bittersweet ending. I liked it a lot. Anyone know of the BBC series that spawned it, and if its any better?

Apparently the new Polish brothers movie came out in Seattle last week. Who knew?

Billy Bob Thornton, Ed Helms, Tea Leoni, Kyle MacLachlan. Manure salesmen.

Apparently this, and the Polish brothers' "Stay Cool," have been on the shelf for more than a couple of years. Hence, this is directed by "Larry Smith" and "Cool" is from "Ted Smith."

Also, "Brighton Rock" comes out this weekend, which has ALSO been on the shelf for a couple of years.

"Higher Ground" - Vera Farmiga's directorial debut. She plays a born-again Christian.

"The Caller"- Rachel LeFevre stalked by a caller from thirty years ago on her phone. Stephen Moyer and Luis Guzman are in this, and it looks direct-to-DVD, but Samuel Goldwyn is apparently giving this the same release they gave "Assassination Games."

I would imagine the weekend's three major releases will get their own threads, but maybe not.

Yeah, my phrasing was iffy, that's what I meant to ask: what did they cut? Is the series that much better, or even essential? I'd be curious to see, but I don't know if I want to watch the whole trip again if the differences are only negligible.

Then again, I love (the unrelated, I know) In The Loop, but have yet to watch an episode of The Thick of It. So I guess that's my pathetic level of dedication.

http://www.movieline.com/2011/08/something-called-the-worst-movie-ever-made-11-last-weekend.php

So yeah, only one person actually saw that Worst Movie Ever. Prophetic title.

Did anyone see Columbiana or Our Idiot Brother? I actually really liked the latter. It's genuinely funny and sweet, and I think a lot of people can relate to having that type of person in your family. I think Paul Rudd plays it far more nuanced than the dopey ads would suggest, and the movie's got a murderer's row of talent - Adam Scott KILLS in his few scenes, and Kathryn Hahn was just PERFECT as Rudd's hippie ex. She's hilarious, would love to see more of her.

Surprised to see A Good Old Fashioned Orgy sneak into theaters this weekend. I kinda thought they should've gone wide with that this weekend, they could have had an opening in the ballpark of $15 million. It's pretty funny, actually - I missed out on most of the summer's R-rated comedies, but it's gotta be at least as funny as some of them, though it doesn't approach Bridesmaids.

I guess they were snakebitten with Jason Sudeikis and Tyler Labine as the leads, because no one really likes them, right? Labine was pretty funny though, and Martin Starr and Nick Kroll get some good bits, as does Lake Bell. Will Forte is, AGAIN, wasted, as is Lucy Punch, as the couple who decide to crash the orgy and then... vanish? But it's one of those movies with a lot of funny people riffing off each other, and they don't at all shy away from the actual orgy, or the implications therein. Consider it The Big Chill, but far less insufferable, though completely lightweight.

So, did anyone see...

Dolphin Tale

Courageous

The Big Year

Dream House

Killer Elite

What's Your Number?

Spy Kids 4

I did see Abduction. Hilarious movie. I have a lot of sympathy for the Dragon Tattoo guy, who played the villain and had to hiss the line, "You'll be responsible for the deaths of all of your friends... on Facebook." I have no idea why he paused when he said that.

Speaking of hilarious, also caught the new Nicolas Cage effort "Trespass." Pretty much what you'd expect. Though Cam Gigadent has these soft gauze romantic flashbacks with Nicole Kidman that look like perfume commercials. Ben Mendelsohn from Animal Kingdom does a good villain role. It's Joel Schumacher. You kinda know if you want to see it or not.
Surprised there was no noise about the release for Texas Killing Fields. Sam Worthington is alright in it, but it's pretty much a low key southern crime procedural, nothing special. If you want to see Jessica Chastain, she's in like a dozen other movies this year.

I will say that Take Shelter seems to unfortunately have come and gone without a second thought, and that's sad, because Michael Shannon's performance is my favorite of the year.

So for awhile I was confusing "Restless" with "Like Crazy" until I saw the former, the new Gus Van Sant. I understand most opinions were kinda rough about the movie, but I thought it was alright. Not exactly one of Van Sant's best or more interesting movies, but sweet, kinda sad. Henry Hopper is the lead, and he seems just as troubled and haunted as his father was at a young age. Looking forward to Like Crazy, anyone seen it?

"Margin Call" was pretty great, I see it's playing at a lot of places and On-Demand. It's the early days of the financial crisis, and it's really upsetting and well-acted. While I don't know what sort of accent Paul Bettany was going for, he was really great, and it was nice to not see him fighting vampires. Also, for once, Kevin Spacey plays the corporate guy with a conscience.

These movies don't have their own threads, anyone seen:

J. Edgar

The Way

Johnny English Rebhorn

The Big Year

I haven't seen Hugo, but The Descendants is... alright. Not the best Payne.

Did anyone see...

New Years' Eve or Shame? Or Chip-Wrecked? The only movies out now that I don't believe have their own threads.

Has anyone here seen:

Silent House

A Thousand Words

The Vow

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

Good Deeds

The Secret World Of Arrietty

Big Miracle

Joyful Noise

Thin Ice

One For The Money

Chico And Rita

?

Other stuff currently playing:

-"Friends With Kids" has about half the cast of "Bridesmaids" in it, but it only reminded me how I would rather be watching "Bridesmaids". Same thing you've seen before, big city hipster couples, and the rom-com set-up where two people perfect for each other refuse to acknowledge the fact. Megan Fox and Ed Burns play the perfectly fine Baxters who have to look lame in comparison, and we're all in some alternate universe, where Jon Hamm isn't leading multi-million dollar franchises, but instead playing the uncaged drunken friend in forgettable movies like this.

-"Salmon Fishing In The Yemen". It's Lasse Hallstrom. It's EXACTLY what you'd expect. Kirsten Scott Thomas is fun as the ball-busting press secretary or something, but she's just there to make sure it's not all sweet and syrupy and boring (except that it is). Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt are cute together. You could do worse for a date movie.

-"Being Flynn" has Julianne Moore and Robert De Niro somehow getting together to make a Paul Dano. It was a hard obstacle for me to overcome. De Niro gets to be tough and funny in this, as Dano's distant dad now driven to homelessness- its his best performance in years. Unfortunately, we're stuck with wayward loser and abuser Dano, who is dreadfully uninteresting and full of himself. Also, he quite easily beds Olivia Thirlby, despite the fact he looks like an albino's used q-tip.

-"Albert Nobbs". Still waiting for the person who can come forward and say they didn't fall asleep. For Female Sexuality 201 students, but little for anyone else, and it straddles a line between high camp and stuffy boredom. Glenn Close looks like she's playing geriatric Tintin.

-"Pariah" - Really really good. The scope seems a little small and TV-ish (if this was a Showtime Original Movie, no one would bat an eyelash), but the performances are on-point, and it's both powerful and funny. It's about a young black high school girl coming to terms with her own homosexuality. People compared it to Precious, but this isn't as ridiculously operatic, and the girl's family seems comfortably middle class, maybe lower middle class. Really good stuff.

-"Boy" is the highest grossing New Zealand film in history, and I can see why. It's from Flight Of The Conchords ally and Eagle Vs. Shark director Taika Wahiti (who also played the best friend in Green Lantern). It's a coming-of-age story about a boy who finally meets the father who abandoned him, idolizing him even though he's a low-level drug dealer with no ambitions or cash. It's actually pretty sunny, lots of goofy laughs as the boy dances a lot to Michael Jackson, chases girls, and plays games with the father he never expected to have. Wahiti plays the dad with the right mix of menace and bumbling ineptitude.

-"Let The Bullets Fly" is the highest grossing Chinese movie of all-time, and it's ridiculous. Some sort of mistaken identity stuff between gangsters, with Chow Yun-Fat stuck in the middle as the bad guy. It's manic and wacky in fits and starts, but it's mostly quite slow and boring, and it seems dependent on humorous wordplay, which doesn't translate to non-native speakers.

-"The Snowtown Murders" is a nasty nasty bit of business, an Aussie true story about a wannabe vigilante who targeted pedophiles and sexual predators, regardless as to whether he had any hard evidence or not. It's convincingly grimy and well-made at times, but man, this is a tough sit. Some of the grisliest moments of violence I've seen in a long while. Also, rape. Count on rape.

-"This Is Not A Film" ended up on a lot of best-of lists last year, and it will do so this year as well, since it debuted stateside in 2012. It's a really interesting anti-documentary, as we see Jafar Pahani under house arrest, awaiting a decision on his appeal to a twenty year prison sentence. His crime? Making subversive movies in Iran (I am paraphrasing). He is facing a six year ban on filmmaking as well, hence why he has a friend come in and shoot him on a (crisp) IPhone as he goes about his business, a natural storyteller forbidden to tell stories the way he wants. I really thought this was going to be boring, but it really wasn't, I highly reccommend it for anyone who wants to see something a little off the beaten path.

-My favorite movie in release might be "The Sound Of Noise". I like how I described it to one of my girlfriends, when I said, It's about these terrorists ("Oh?") who go to random places and disrupt public activities ("Oh!") by playing music ("oh"). They're all percussionists, so it's a little like "Stomp!", but the characters in the film are actually performing the sounds you hear, which is pretty cool, especially considering the whole thing is done like a heist film, particularly a funny "rounding up the ideal candidates" scene. Also, they're being pursued by a tone-deaf cop named AMADEUS.

So... drugs?

So, a lot of films out there that don't have their own threads.

Has anybody seen...

Jeff, Who Lives At Home

Footnote

The Deep Blue Sea

Kid With A Bike

4:44 Last Day On Earth

?

Other stuff out there:

Goon - I understand this has been VOD for awhile now. My cross to bear is that I never saw Slap Shot. But I thought this was the funniest movie of the year so far. Seann William Scott is a kindly shortbus dude with a knack for beating people up who joins a losing minor league hockey team. There's less emphasis on the sports cliches of wins and losses and more on the absurdity of the extreme violence. Allison Pill is super cute, and Liev Schrieber is more intimidating in this than he was in Wolverine.

Intruders - Major step down for Juan Carlos Frasnadillo after Intacto and 28 Weeks Later. Ghost story with Clive Owen, just the latest example in how he seems to not be paying much attention to his career. Dual ghost story, lots of unfinished, high-falutin' ideas about how we manifest our own boogeymen, and a stupid twist ending. A plus: Carice Van Houten naked.

Detachment - Tony Kaye's latest. Bonkers, delirious movie, often unpleasant, plainly ridiculous. I really enjoyed it, but it operates in this heightened dramatic world where everything is delivered with a sledgehammer. James Caan is kinda awesome as a pervy teacher, and Kaye's daughter Betty Kaye is actually quite good as a goth student who falls for Adrien Brody's "principled" substitute teacher. A great cast (Christina Hendricks, Marcia Gay Harden, Bryan Cranston), with the feeling that most of their best stuff was on the cutting room floor.

Turn Me On, Dammit - Cute Danish teenage girl wants to get laid by any means necessary. Kind of an endearing, low-key R-rated sex comedy. Barely a movie - cuts out before the seventy minute mark.

Seeking Justice - Very far down the list of preferred Nic Cage vehicles. Wife January Jones gets raped, and he accepts an offer from bald Guy Pearce to "take care" of the assailant. Later, they call in a favor of Cage that involves murder. Guy Pearce is everywhere at once, but he's kind of droll and bored the whole time, as is Cage. This is pretty low-temperature stuff as far as suspense thrillers, though there's a couple of decent chase scenes. Not poorly made, just dull.

Natural Selection- Decent indie, with Rachael Harris from The Daily Show as a Christian suburban mom who takes a road trip to find her husband's biological son via artificial insemination, only to find he's a drug addict and a criminal. Kinda funny small indie, nicely shot, decent performances. Nothing to write home about, though John Diehl fans will be pleased to know John Diehl gets naked.

Anybody seen these?

Intouchables - So, $350 million worldwide. I know some of you have seen it. Didn't care for it myself, the black dude/white dude culture clash felt pretty retrograde. Lightweight. Your undemanding grandma won't mind it, I guess.

Safety Not Guaranteed - Kinda conventional, though Aubrey Plaza, gosh... Even though I don't normally care for him, she makes a good pairing with Mark Duplass, who wears an atrocious mullet. Without giving anything away, it IS a sci-fi film. Also, without giving it away, Jake Johnson is in this, and Jake Johnson sucks goats.

That's My Boy - Surprised there's no thread for this. Might want to start one myself. Goodie.

Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World - Not nearly funny or affecting enough at any point. Feels extremely half-hearted and apathetic. Kudos for the side jokes riffing off the predictability of disaster movies, but it's mostly just a road comedy with a boring older dude (Carrel, asleep) and Knightley (flighty stoner).

Lola Versus - Hated it. Completely contrived self-involved woman who responds poorly to a breakup. Except that everyone, including the movie, indulges her. This movie turned me off of Greta Gerwig. Got a peek at Joel Kinnaman for the first time, though. He's handsome, I guess.

To Rome With Love - Low key Woody. An anthology where none of the stories come together in any way, thematically or narratively. The most fun bit involves Alec Baldwin following a younger version of him (Jesse Eisenberg) as a sorta ghost). Woody Allen acts, gets an opera singer to perform Rigoletto on stage, in a shower. Amusing.

Your Sister's Sister - Duplass again. One of those movies where characters prolong telling each other what they think for far too long, neglecting the fact they are adults. He also sleeps with Rosemarie DeWitt and Emily Blunt in this. WHATEVER.

Paul Williams: Still Alive - Lame doc where the documentarian acts like it's a fan film, and Williams keeps bristling.

Anyone seen any of these?

For Greater Glory - SO MANY MUSTACHES

Hysteria - Invention of the dildo!

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - $100 million worldwide baby!

Bernie - MCCONAUGHEY.

What To Expect When You're Expecting - This is a thing.

Crooked Arrows - Brandon Routh sighting!

Dark Horse- New Solondz.

Bel Ami - RPATTZ.

Damsels In Distress - Whit Stillman. Anybody?

Currently no threads for...

PARANORMAN

THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN

2016: OBAMA'S AMERICA

HOPE SPRINGS

SPARKLE

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: DOG DAYS

ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT

THE APPARITION

MADAGASCAR 3

STEP UP REVOLUTION

CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER

ROBOT AND FRANK

TO ROME WITH LOVE

RED HOOK SUMMER

THE IMPOSTER

SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN

RUBY SPARKS

SLEEPWALK WITH ME

AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY

PEOPLE LIKE US

LITTLE WHITE LIES

WHY STOP NOW

Anybody seen any of these?

"To Rome With Love" was Woody Allen taking a mulligan. Kind of funny, kind of cute, some great gags and a fun cast. Alec Baldwin and Jesse Eisenberg get to be super Baldwinny and Eisenbergian in their brief scenes together. Allen has a joke about a guy with an amazing opera voice, but he can only sing in the shower, and that joke is stretched completely past it's breaking point. Amusing.

"The Imposter" is a sick documentary about a French master of disguise who decides to pose as a missing Midwestern teenager, and the family that totally takes him in despite him looking different and having a distinct accent. Really brilliant, fascinating doc, tons of twists, with the main culprit willingly giving his absurd side to the story.

"Searching For Sugar Man" is about "missing" folk singer Rodriguez, who reportedly killed himself onstage after his records went nowhere in the early seventies. Except that they were Elvis-sized hits in Africa, so a few guys set out to find the truth about him. Really sweet, and some great music - Rodriguez is very much in the vein of early Dylan, very raw.

"Sleepwalk With Me" is Mike Birbiglia's autobiographical story about his sleepwalking problem and the affect it had on his standup. Low key, sweet movie, produced by NPR and it feels like it. Funny stuff, though.

"Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" is a doc about the Chinese multimedia artist known as much for his work as he is for flaunting China's attempts to censor him. Feels somewhat incomplete, as there's only so much access you can get with a guy who is held by authorities that much, but still quite engaging. It's worth looking him up.

"People Like Us" is Kurtzman and Orci, the Transformers/Star Trek guys, trying to do a "real people" movie. It's total bullshit, I hated it.

"Little White Lies" is like the Justice League of French actors doing a variation on The Big Chill, including Gilles Lellouche, Francois Cluzet, Jean Dujardin and Marion Cottillard. Not bad, good music.  Sometimes. Had no idea French boomers listened to "Fortunate Son" and Antony and the Johnsons. It's a crowd-pleasing tear-jerker. Not a lot of Dujardin in this, btw.

"Why Stop Now" has Jesse Eisenberg and mom Melissa Leo quarreling over getting her into rehab with the help of her cane-wielding dealer, Tracy Morgan. Definitely one of those indies where they take a bunch of characters with fucked-up issues and try to get you to laugh at them. It's a'ight, nothing groundbreaking. Leo is great, as always.

Yeah, that's the first thing I've liked Jeffrey Dean Morgan in. I feel like his appeal is that he's always just waking from a nap.

Anyway, who has seen these new releases?

TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE

HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET

END OF WATCH

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

THE COLD LIGHT OF DAY

Other stuff that's out...

I really liked ARBITRAGE, and if you're fond of 1997, you'll love it too. It's a very low-key, clinical suspense thriller about a likable-but-douchey Wall Street guy (Richard Gere, typecast) who is trying to hide financial discrepancies within his company as he attempts to sell the company and retire quietly. Also, he has to cover up the accidental death of his mistress. Oops. Susan Sarandon is typically good as the wife, Brit Marling (oh Brit) is pretty good as his daughter, and Nate Tucker is the young black kid that Gere is reluctantly attempting to sacrifice in order to stay out of prison. Also, Tim Roth, playing a real guard dog of detective. The kind of mid-range, mid-budget movie that the studio would churn out three or four times a year.

FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL... is pretty much Seth Rogen's not-unattractive gf trying to make it in the industry. She co-wrote and stars as a girl who reluctantly takes on a new roommate (brassy, Midler-y Ari Graynor) and they form a phone sex company. It's contemporary NY, and the movie never acknowledges that it's weird someone could make a solid living with phone sex in 2012 with only two employees. Not all that funny, but Kevin Smith and Rogen do cameos as sex phone customers. The girls are sorta fun, but they also behave a whole lot like five year olds.

Pretty much everyone is in 10 YEARS, so if you're a completist for some of these actors, you're screwed -- gotta see it. Unfortunately, no one has much to do. It's a high school reunion movie, which means you have to dubiously pretend a lot of early thirties actors are all 28. Pretty boring, but go check out that IMDb cast list (20 minutes later...) Holy shit, right? Also, Ron Livingston plays the "old guy" in this movie.

LIBERAL ARTS and HELLO I MUST BE GOING are pretty much the same movie -- midlife crisis leads thirtysomething to flirt with attractive legal teenager. In HELLO, Melanie Lynskey gets with Chris Abbot from Girls, but she generally just mopes and feels sad. It's from Todd Louiso, who directed LOVE, LIZA -- if you've seen that, you know what to expect. LIBERAL is Josh Radnor waffling over whether or not he should sleep with Elizabeth Olsen, because... he's super sexually conservative? Didn't get it. Pretty obnoxious movie.

BROOKLYN BROTHERS BEAT THE BEST is a super cute music movie about a folksy singer songwriter conned into a tour with a social misfit who only plays rudimentary kids' instruments. They recorded all the music live in the film, and on the strength of the movie they even got a major label record deal. Which is weird, since the misfit is played by Michael Weston, who works a lot and is NOT a trained musician at all. Cute indie movie with fun music, worth visiting on DVD.

KEEP THE LIGHTS ON is probably one of my favorites of the year. It's a very small, quiet film from Ira Sachs (anyone seen his other films? I have not) about gay lovers, one of whom is a rampant drug addict, and the other who won't leave his side. It's pretty serious, intense Queer Cinema, mostly scored by Arthur Russell. Wear your bifocals to this one.

Has anybody here seen...

Fun Size - Josh Schwartz directorial debut. Some people here like him, right?

Pitch Perfect - This made some money, and I heard it was ok, but the board's been quiet about it.

Chasing Mavericks - Curtis Hanson. How bad could it be?

Trouble With The Curve - CLINT! The board's been quiet on this too.

Atlas Shrugged Part II - This was a thing.

Middle of Nowhere - Critically acclaimed indie with David Oyelowo. Heard strong things.

Won't Back Down - Tremendous flop, but it was in 2500 theaters. Someone must have at least seen it by accident. Viola Davis!

OTHER STUFF

The Sessions - Probably an Oscar thing, but kind of lightweight and forgettable. True story of a writer paralyzed from the neck down who wants to lose his virginity, hiring a sex surrogate. John Hawkes is the guy, and he's pretty good, a witty guy with a strong sense of humor who has long accepted his fate and just wants a good bone. Bill Macy provides reaction shots as his priest, and Helen Hunt gets very naked (if that's your thing!) as the surrogate.

The Details - The Weinsteins bought this awhile ago, seeing some sort of breakout hit, but it looks like they sat on it and are now just dumping it. Too bad - it's pretty funny, if not exactly groundbreaking. Tobey Maguire (remember him?) is a suburban husband who keeps cheating little by little, making immoral decisions here and there, and they eventually start to pile up on him. Like a broader "A Serious Man," as Tobey cheats on his wife (Elizabeth Banks, very good), steals money, lies and cuts corners at every turn just to preserve his suburban existence. There is SO MUCH TOBEYFACE in this, so fans of the Spider-Man 3 gifs will be pleased. Good cast, with Kerry Washington, Ray Liotta, Dennis Haysbert and a few other familiar faces. Laura Linney also - playing a crazy cat lady that's strangely hot.

The Thieves - Korean Ocean's Eleven. Heard bad things about this, but I liked it quite a bit. Lots of high octane action and great stunts, and a light sense of humor.

Smashed - Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aaron Paul are married and they get drunk all the time. She decides to clean up, but he doesn't, leading to TENSHUN. Good performances, from them and Nick Offerman, Meg Mullally and Octavia Spencer in supporting roles, and the film skirts the line well between comedy and tragedy. Unfortunately it baaaarely squeaks it's way to the eighty minute mark, so overall it feels a little insubstantial.

The Loneliest Planet - One of the year's best, I would say. Gael Bernal and the gorgeous Hani Furstenberg (where has SHE been?) are a couple hiking in the mountains, in love and extremely smitten. Then something shocking happens, and everything changes between them, and I find it hard to not spoil what it is (so does everyone, judging by reviews), but it provides a very interesting look into these characters' psyches. Really great, fascinating stuff. And Furstenberg, god, she is gorgeous.

Wuthering Heights - I expected a stuffy period pic, but this is one emotionally violent, messy, confrontational adaptation, one that ditches the last half of the book. Heathcliff, black for the first time, is borderline deranged in his intoxicated infatuation with Catherine. And things get very ugly and downbeat. It's a frustratingly intense, upsetting film, I can see how it fell off the Oscar map so early. But really kind of a must, a very visceral experience.

Nobody Walks - Co-written by Lena Dunham, and loaded with all the sexin' you'd expect! John Krasinski (kinda awful) and Rosemarie DeWitt are a couple who welcome a sound technician into their house, except that she's supercute Olivia Thirlby, and she just wrecks it for everyone with her sexin' and fornicatin' and lustiness. You know how it is. Great score by Fall On Your Sword, and the movie mostly feels real and well-observed even when the awful Justin Kirk shows up. Fuck that dude. Ugh.

The Revisionaries - Very good super small doc about the Texas Board of Ed's Bush-era meetings to revise the state's textbooks and lesson plans. Very upsetting look at some of the people in charge of what today's children learn - would it surprise you that some are really dim Bible thumpers who teach the logistics of Noah's Ark? Best part is when one of them, during a meeting, listlessly petitions for the removal of rap and r&b teachings in a textbook to be replaced with country western music, to which the one black guy in the room says, "Uh, what?"

The Oranges - Dismal indie with a bunch of stars doing schtick. Hugh Laurie cheats on wife Catherine Keener with the neighbor's daughter Leighton Meester, and everything goes to hell. Or a very polite, boring, sitcommy version of it. Would you be surprised to learn part of the end involves an angry woman driving across a front lawn and wrecking Christmas decorations? Oliver Platt, Allison Janey, Alia Shawkat and Adam Brody are also in it, because this movie cannot get more 2006.

Just Saw THE COMEDY... Tim and Eric, but a drama? Hipster slobs in Brooklyn living out a life of lazy-ass performance art, just going around being obnoxious in real-life settings. The Tim part of the equation (Eric is but a small role as is LCD Soundsystem (the guy))  is as the lead, and he's coping with a dying father by being wholly inappropriate, racist, sexist and a general pig. Funny in spite of itself, and also quite revealing at times, in a Five Easy Pieces sort of way.

Nature Calls- Bullshit wacky comedy about Patton Oswalt as a Scoutmaster who abducts a group of kids and forces them to go camping, to the chagrin of Johnny Knoxville, Rob Riggle, Maura Tierney and the late Patrice O'Neal. Some light giggles, and the disdain for casual comedic tropes recalls David Wain at times. Riggle also steals all his scenes, he's fucking hilarious in this. Maybe a rental, but not that good - the director Todd Rohal did a RIDICULOUS movie called The Catchechism Cataclysm last year that everyone should see, much better than this.

Starlet - And now I've seen Ernest Hemmingway's great granddaughter suck cock. Drea Hemmingway plays a porn star (actual harcore sex alert) who befriends an old lady for ludicrous plot-driven reasons. There's missing money involved. Lots of cokey porn behavior and self-loathing. Kind of interesting.

28 Hotel Rooms - Chris Messina and Merrin Ireland hook up over the course of a couple of years in various hotel rooms. Boring, though the Fall on Your Sword score is alright.

This Must Be The Place - Sean Penn as an elderly rock star in the vein of Robert Smith chasing a Nazi. I really loved this, though everyone just thinks it's kind of ridiculous.

Jack and Diane - Young lesbians Riley Keough and Juno Temple may also be werewolves. Very NYC-feeling indie, some confrontational, upsetting stuff in here. Not a horror film, stylistically interesting.

Did anybody see...

Brooklyn Castle

The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (Ed Burns WON'T STAY DEAD)

Lay The Favorite (Rebecca Hall as a stripper? Bruce? Stephen Frears? Why is the buzz nonexistent?)

Playing The Field (Gerry Butler's mom, are you out there?)

A Royal Affair (Mads Mikkleson being awesome)

The Collection

Rise of The Guardians

Also out there...

Tchoupitoulas - If this is near you, highly reccommended for fans of fly-on-the-wall documentaries. It follows three unassuming teenage brothers as they walk around all night in New Orleans. Not a whiff of politics or Katrina or any of that bullshit, very lively and sweet and visually quite unique.

In Our Nature - John Slattery bitches out wimp son Zach Gilford for a full movie. That Mad Men/Friday Night Lights ship you've been waiting for. Pretty dull.

Deadfall - Amazing cast, so why does this suck like hell? Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde are sibling lovers (uh-huh) who rob a bank and hide out in a small town. She hooks up with a local ex-con (Charlie Hunnam) and he ends up at the guy's parents' place (Kris Kristofferson's growl and Sissy Spacek's pluck). Kate Mara and Treat Williams are also hanging out around the edges of this.

Hyde Park On Hudson - Bill Murray as FDR welcoming King George to America via hot dogs and cheap jokes. Essentially a slobs vs. snobs comedy, believe it or not. FDR also puts the moves on his niece, played by Laura Linney, because incest is so hot right now apparently. Aside from Bill Murray's baller handjob invitation, pretty safe to watch with the folks, and take one collective holiday family nap.

Anna Karenina - Joe Wright returns to period stuff. The movie's indoor scenes all take place on the same set, so it's like theater, where the camera follows one character into another room, an you're meant to assume it's somewhere across town. Sort of interest in re-framing the melodrama, but nothing that revolutionary. Jude Law is pretty good in this as Keira Knightley's cuckold, with his natural hairline.