Weekend Movie Forecast: <em>Precious</em> or <em>The Men Who Stare at Goats</em>
10 photos
<p>The novel <em>Push</em> by Sapphire, probably one of the more interesting additions to High School reading lists, will be unveiled to the masses via Oprah and Tyler Perry as the movie <em>Precious</em>. The film follows illiterate, 16 year-old Claireece "Precious" Jones, pregnant for the second time by her absent father, as she attempts to somehow escape her abusive mother and transcend her generally nightmarish situation. <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/movies/06precious.html?ref=movies"> A.O. Scott at the Times </a> calls it "less the examination of a social problem than the illumination of an individualâs painful and partial self-realization. Inarticulate and emotionally shut down, her massive body at once a prison and a hiding place, Precious is also perceptive and shrewd, possessed of talents visible only to those who bother to look. </p><p></p>"At its plainest and most persuasive, her story is that of a writer discovering a voice. <em>Precious</em> is a hybrid, a mash-up that might have been ungainly, but that manages to be graceful instead. And Ms. Sidibe, perhaps the least-known member of this movieâs unusual cast, is also the glue that holds it together. Nimble and self-assured as Mr. Danielsâs direction may be, he could not make you believe in <em>Precious</em> unless you were able to believe in Precious herself. You will."
<p>Even with the comedic talents of George Clooney and Jeff Bridges, <em>The Men Who Stare at Goats</em> has been getting not-so-funny reviews. Based on the novel of the same name by British journalist Jon Ronson, the movie follows the supposedly true account of a group of U.S. soldiers being trained to use various telekinetic mind powers when hilarity ensues. Underwhelmed <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-men-who-stare-at-goats,35035/"> Noel Murray of the Onion's A.V. club </a> says: "Throughout the movie, director Grant Heslov and screenwriter Peter Straughan... offer about two dozen variations on the notion of an idealistic know-it-all so committed to his shtick that he fails to see whatâs right in front of him.</p><p></p>"The problem with <em>The Men Who Stare At Goats</em> is that this joke wears pretty thin after a while, even though Clooneyâs sincere line deliveries and crack screwball timing never fail to amuse. Hey, this is a movie about a 'New Earth Army' full of misfit soldiers yearning for a chance to be non-conformists with a cause, which means itâs already two-thirds of the way to being awesome. Had Heslov eased back a bit, Goats mightâve made it the rest of the way."
<p>Opening to mostly negative reviews, which doesn't really deter audiences from this type of paranormal horror movie anyway, is <em>Fourth Kind</em>. Milla Jovovich plays an Alaskan psychologist who begins investigating a series of alien abductions that have been taking place over the last 40 years. <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-fourth-kind,35033/"> Scott Tobias from the A.V. Club </a> says: "Mixing hundreds of hours of documentary audio and video footage (apply quote marks where applicable) with dramatic reenactments (quote marks there, too), The Fourth Kind follows Jovovichâs Tyler as she tries to get to the bottom of her patientsâ experiences and her husbandâs death while deflecting doubters like Will Pattonâs grizzled detective. Elias Koteas plays the audience surrogate, another therapist whoâs skeptical of her claims, but open to persuasion. </p><p></p> "But from the opening scene, which has Jovovich doing her best Rod Serling impression, The Fourth Kind is terminally awkward in the way it meshes fake real footage with faker fake footage. It isnât required to be convincing as fact, but it doesnât convince as fiction, either."
<p>After <em>Beowulf</em> and before his remake of his own <em>Who Framed Roger Rabbit?</em> comes Zemeckis' newest CG-Motion-Capture fetish piece <em>A Christmas Carol</em>. The newest iteration of this perennial classic casts Jim Carrey as the penny-pinching, apparition addict Ebenezer Scrooge. Although critics are still coming to terms with Zemeckis' pixel phase, many are finding that the technique works with the story: <a href="http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/film/80304/a-christmas-carol-film-review"> Keith Uhlich of Time Out New York </a> says: "The unspoken theme underlying Dickensâs proseâthat the money-grubbing Ebenezer is conversing with semblances of his own selfâfinds near-perfect cinematic expression through Carreyâs efforts. Despite his characterâs strangely pliable exterior, Carrey endows the miser with a seamless depth of feelingâa quality only enhanced by the fact that he also plays the three spirits (Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come) who haunt Scrooge and push him toward redemption. </p><p></p> "But the biggest surprise of Carol is that this frustrating auteur [Zemeckis], so often in thrall to his digital palette, here uses it to freshly illuminate a time-honored text."
<p>Chris Smith's newest documentary <em>Collapse</em> follows the passionate tirades of former Los Angeles police officer turned independent reporter Michael Ruppert. The movie is being compared with the psychological portraits of Errol Morris and has had as much of a polarizing effect on critics as Ruppert himself. <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/movies/06collapse.html?ref=movies">Jeannette Catsoulis at the Times</a> says: "Though illustrated here and there with snippets of crude animation and archival film, <em>Collapse</em> â based on Mr. Ruppertâs book âA Presidential Energy Policyâ â is for the most part just a man, a chair and a smoking cigarette. The austerity of the surroundings evokes both a monkâs quarters and a prison cell. </p><p></p>"Here, [Smith's] clinical, interrogation-style setup of Mr. Ruppert may be inspired by his subjectâs past confrontation with the C.I.A., but it also plucks uncomfortably at the fine line between shining a light on societyâs outsiders and exploiting them. Delusional thinker or tragic prophet (he predicted the current financial crisis almost five years ago), Mr. Ruppert emerges finally as an authentic human being, sympathetic even when the film that embraces him is not."
<em>Turning Green</em> follows an American-born teenager (played by Donal Gallery) exiled to Ireland after his mother dies in order to live with his aunts. According to the very few reviews available, this coming of age story is either slightly good, or slightly bad, probably depending on your reaction to independent, coming of age stories. <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120053854"> Mark Jenkins of NPR </a> sums it up as being "...more fresh than stale. Gallery holds his own impressively with the better-known supporting players, and the script â a Project Greenlight runner-up â is solidly constructed. Aimette and Hofmann may not be in the same league as the great Irish writers they briefly invoke, but for a couple of Yanks making their first feature, they've drawn a perceptive sketch of the Old Sod."
<p>Richard Kelly's (<em>Donnie Darko</em>, <em>Southland Tales</em>) newest apocalyptic meditation <em>The Box</em>, is once again met with general confusion and indifference. Based on <em>Twilight Zone</em> scribe Richard Matheson's short story "Button, Button," the plot stems from the dilmma caused by a button that, when pushed, gives the pusher a million dollars, while simultaneously taking the life of an unknown third party. <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/movies/06thebox.html?ref=movies"> Manohla Dargis of the Times </a> says <em>The Box</em> is "sincere and sinister and inevitably ambitious, a serious work that insists on its own seriousness even when it edges toward the preposterous. </p><p></p> "Mr. Kelly doesnât seem too concerned about the moral angle, either, which he takes his time getting to, creating a needless complication in a movie overstuffed with complications, including severed toes, watery portals to another dimension, the Mars Viking mission, murdered wives, tall ships and even, alas, the twin towers. But Mr. Kelly is so busy sampling genres and confusing the issue that he rarely gives you time or space to enjoy them. In the end, he often seems as lost as his characters, trapped in a Pandoraâs box of his own making."
<p>If incestuous rape, existential button-pushing questions, or alien abduction movies aren't your cup of tea, then maybe consider seeing <em>That Evening Sun</em> instead. Hal Halbrook, continuing his late career renaissance, plays Abner Meecham, an old crank who escapes his nursing facility for his old Tennessee ranch, only to find that his son had signed it over to his old arch nemesis. </p><p></p> Reviews have been lukewarm to positive, with Halbrook's performance as the only positive staple with the critics. <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-11-03/film/freshmen-director-undercuts-hal-holbrook-s-dream-roll-in-that-evening-sun/">Chuck Wilson of the Village Voice</a> says, "As an actor, Holbrook is as unsentimental as Abner himself, and the beauty of his work here lies in his refusal to soften the character's hard edges. Regrettably, [Writer/Director] Teems's editorial choices in the film's homestretch waste that discipline: More than once, the director inserts a gooey flashback to a tender moment between the farmer and his late wife (Dixie Carter) that not only extends an already overlong movie, but also fatally undercuts the artful rigor of its leading man."
<p>This weekend at midnight the <a href="http://www.ifccenter.com/films/and-now-for-something-completely-different/"> IFC Center will screen Monty Python's first foray into film</a> <em>And Now For Something Completely Different</em>. </p>
<p>Also screening at midnight this weekend, <a href="http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Films/films_frameset.asp?id=10741">the Sunshine has</a> Terry Gilliam's hilariously underrated film adaptation of <em>Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.</em> Let's get down to brass tacks: How much for the ape?</p>