Doggy Style

Year of The Dog is another one of those movies that really ought to have been fantastic. Molly Shannon and Peter Saarsgard and dogs? What an adorable trio. Instead, think ecoterrorists + midlife crisis + crappy editing. Maybe Brad Pitt should follow the lead of his brilliant ex-wife and dump his Plan B production company.

Go Go Gosling

I enjoyed so many things about the film Fracture but mostly I'm excited about the continued winning streak of Ryan Gosling. He brings the talent & the ability needed to adapt a character who could have been without dimension and cliched into one who is wonderfully interesting and intuitive - and most of the time he does it purely by physical movement. I was so struck at how a simple flick of the neck or stretch of the arms or lowering of the voice conveyed the frustration, exhaustion, and humor of his young attorney. A supporting role by David Strathairn further lends this movie the credibility that a decade ago wouldn't have been needed with Sir Anthony Hopkins as a star. As much as I cheered and jeered for the moxie of his husband scorned, I wonder if he had a smidge too much fun with Hannibal Lecter to ever give him up.

Mad for Mads

Sadly, I've been busting at the seams trying NOT to use that title....but there's just no other way to say it. Mads Mikkelsen, a great success in his native Denmark, has lived quietly in my own head for some time. But now that he's been paraded in front of the whole world as Bond Bad Guy "Le Chiffre" in Daniel Craig's 007 Casino Royale, and with the upcoming After The Wedding (arriving in theaters the end of this month), Mads will happily become more familiar.
My initial post-Bond audience with Mads was the sweet and simple Open Hearts. The first thought I had about this film was this: here is a film that would NEVER have been made in America. A woman accidentally runs over a man with her car after quarreling with her insolent teenage daughter; said woman is married to a doctor who then takes it upon himself to look after the rehabilitation and care of the young man. Unfortunately he then risks nearly everything by falling into a relationship with the injured man's girlfriend. True, that last part sounds like something us sketchy and morality-challenged Americans would definitely understand, but not suing the shit out of someone who hits us with a car? Someone whose husband is a physician? Ka-ching! No, no, no. Audiences in the red white & blue would never tolerate such a premise. Which ultimately makes this film so appealing; Denmark as a parallel universe.
MM can also be seen in 2004's King Arthur with Clive Owen. A beautifully presented interpretation of 5th century Britain, Mads plays Tristan, an enigmatic but fiercely loyal follower of Arthur who helps guide the knights with the aid of his falcon. His long locks unfortunately sometimes hide his incredible face, but his energy is still palpable, and his swordsmanship is terrific.
I have yet to see the Pusher series, a triad of films begun in 1996 about heroin dealers in Copenhagen, but it has been wildly popular in Denmark and Mads is said to have put in incredible performances in the first two installments.

Niblets

Haven - A little gem released in 2004 with Orlando Bloom and Bill Paxton, this plays as yet another modern version of the Romeo & Juliet story - only the backdrop is Grand Cayman Island. The editing gets in the way of the storytelling sometimes, but keep with it. You may just realize your adolescence wasn't really so bad.

Janice Beard: 45 WPM - A young woman is determined to join the workforce to make her mark, but also to raise money for a new medical treatment for her mother who continues to suffer from postpartum depression - 20 years after the fact. Think Bridget Jones Light; less angst, more oddball moments and Rhys Ifans as paramour.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Though Val Kilmer looks lately like he's been on the prednisone, this film really should have gotten a longer theater run. Robert Downey returns to the big screen in pro form, and the back & forth between these two is terrific. Small time crook meets gay cop meets pretty girl.

Dandelion - if I was a teenager, this may have been my cinematic Catcher In The Rye. A lovely young actor named Vincent Kartheiser broke my heart as a 16 year old living in a teeny town without much in the way of role modeling for healthy love. He meets another lost soul in a neighbor girl, but the tenderness they feel for each other is not enough to survive tragedy and separation.

Four Rooms - One of my friends reminded me today of this terrific and unusual film originally recommended to me years ago by my hair artist (hey B!). Four vignettes, all with different characters, scripted and directed by four different contributors (including Tarantino) are connected by one character - Tim Roth as a bellboy - in one hotel on a New Year's Eve. It continues to be the only time I have willingly watched Antonio Banderas. Also stars Salma Hayek, Ione Skye, Marisa Tomei, Bruce Willis.

Dirty Pretty Things - Illegal immigrants working in a London hotel unfortunately stumble upon a bizarre plot involving organ harvesting. Enough said.

The World According to Pixar

Now, I looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove everything Pixar. I've watched Toy Story a bijillion times. And Nemo. And because of my nephew, I may see Cars 2 bijillion times before I die. The Incredibles. Monsters, Inc. A Bug's Life. All, genius. But thankfully there's room for others. And luckily, one of the others is Nick Park's Aardman Animations, the good folk who brought us Wallace & Gromit, Creature Comforts, Chicken Run. Last year's Flushed Away was outpaced by Cars, but it definitely deserves a viewing. Not just because its stars include Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Bill Nighy and Sir Ian McKellan, but any film that gives us this 4 seconds of dialogue between a giant albino rat and his Mob associate oughta be recognized:
"I have a gut feeling about this."
"No boss, that's just last night's curry. I feel the same way; in fact I have a bottom that looks like the Japanese flag."

Double Feature

Because I have gotten oh-so-behind with my moviegoing, I treated myself to a duet today. I even almost snuck in to the second one....but sadly, I am just too nerdy.
300 is an absolute visual treat. Certainly it's a tale of heroism, idealism and morality, but spending 2 hours' time with Gerard Butler's King Leonidas is time well spent. From the cinematography to the action sequences to the costuming to the nearly tangible love story expressed between the King and his Queen - it all serves to offer an amazing experience. Be aware that there's lots and lots and lots of blood (and sometimes it seems you can touch it), but there's also lots and lots and lots of abs (which you wish you could).
There's also some blood in The Lookout, a contemporary tale of victimization and independence. I had to double-check Joseph Gordon-Levitt's date of birth or else some of the things I thought while watching this film could've been kinda pervy. Luckily, he's 26, so I'm only like a creepy aunt.
I wasn't a 3rd Rock From The Sun watcher, but JGL has taken on some very challenging characters since then. In this film, he's cast as a young man - Chris Pratt - 4 years out from a terrifically tragic car accident, who is living with a frontal lobe head injury. He has a wealthy family, was a local hockey hero; yet the ties that bind him to his hometown, are the same ones that allow him to suffer in grief every day. The center for independent living from where he learns life skills has paired him in an apartment with Jeff Daniels, a middle aged man blinded as a young adult from cooking meth.
The story that evolves doesn't really hold any surprises; bad guys find a mark in the disabled guy, indoctrinate him into their plot by playing on his insecurities, disabled guy wants to prove he's no sucker, disabled guy prevails. But Joe is able to portray Chris in such a way that, as an audience member, you think "geez...there's something about that guy...he reminds me of someone I know." He becomes familiar to you. Which makes you care. Which, in the end, is really the point of most stories, right? Oh. And he has the most kissable-looking lips. Those kind of made me care a little too.