****½ (4.5/5)

Directed by: Woody Allen
Written by: Woody Allen

They say that there’s magic in the streets of Paris. They say that just walking down the Champs-Elysees will make a writer put some of his best work on paper. Especially if you walk the street at midnight.

If you believe Woody Allen’s latest film, there’s even more magic than we thought.

Gil Bender (Owen Wilson) is just such a writer. He’s been writing for Hollywood for a few years and hates it. He and his fiancee’s family go to Paris and Gil finally finds his element. He’s always romanticized Paris of the 20s. His fiancee, Inez (Rachel McAdams at her bitchiest) has never understood. Her parents (Kurt Fuller and Mimi Kennedy) have always thought that he was an idiot.

One night, after Inez decided that she had had enough of Gil, she goes off with her friends Paul and Carol (Michael Sheen and Nina Arianda). Gil goes out to walk around Paris. Of course, he gets lost.

Luckily, some friendly folks in an old car pick him up and take him to a party where he meets Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

Wait…what?

Somehow, that old Pugeot took him back to the time that he most wanted to live in. And it’s a wonderful time. All of Gil’s literary heroes are there, perfectly played by some pretty recognizable faces.

And then there’s Adriana (Marion Cotillard), the muse of all muses. She inspired Hemingway and Picasso. Now she might just inspire Gil.

Woody has been pretty hit or miss lately. Ever since sort of coming back with Match Point a few years ago, he’s made some very good movies (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and some really awful movies (You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger)…only one of them in his native New York. Midnight In Paris is, quite possibly, his best movie since Husbands And Wives in 1992. It’s one of the first movies in a long time by anybody that I just didn’t want to end.

The film starts out just like Manhattan without the voice over: shots of Paris throughout the day. If it had just been that for an hour and a half, I actually would have been happy. The cinematography is beautiful and made me want to visit Paris immediately.

Luckily, Woody put together a cast and story that fit the mood of those opening shots. They seem perfectly in place. Even Owen Wilson, who doesn’t seem like a Woody Allen actor at all. He’s Woody’s substitute here and fits snugly into the role. Yes, he’s a California boy (actually, he’s a Texan, but he’s always seemed a bit surfer dude-ish), but he isn’t suited for that place. He feels terrible about the tripe that he’s spitting out and wants to write a great novel. Now that he’s in Paris, he finally feels like he’s home. If only he had been born in time for the 20s, when things were REALLY good.

The supporting cast is just as good with the standout being Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway. He’s a tough guy with a fragile heart. “Who wants to fight!” Adrien Brody is also great in his few scenes as Salvador Dali.

Everyone, at one time or another, has wished that they were born in a different time. It’s hard for me to choose between New York of the 20s and 30s (oh, to be a fly on the wall of the Algonquin) or London of the 60s (oh, to be Geoff Emerick). Midnight In Paris shows us exactly what it would be like to be taken back and how we would feel if we were truly out of time. The movie has its roots in Manhattan, but also in Woody’s great fantasy, The Purple Rose Of Cairo. Gil escapes the mundane life that he’s made for himself by waiting for a car at midnight that takes him to his own little fantasy world of Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso. Would we enjoy it as much as we think we would? Would we see what we thought we would see? Or would we come to the conclusion that we were born in the right time?

This is classic Woody Allen. It’s taken him a long time to get it back, but I think he’s finally figured it out again. Maybe he won’t make another great film, but that’s fine. He’s managed one more. It may seem strange that he’s made a film like this about another city besides his beloved New York, but I think he needed to take this half decade sojourn in order to find his muse again. He’s found her in the world. His globe-hopping has inspired him and Paris is where they finally settled down together.

It looks like, though, he’s not done yet. His next film, The Bop Decameron, was shot in Rome and it looks like the one after that will be shot somewhere in Germany. If he can make me feel about those places the way he made me feel about Paris, I’m there.

This year I actually got to talk to Harry and he was about to tell me WHY I was chosen when he was distracted by a shiny object. DAMMIT!!! I need to know so I’ll know to do it again every year!!

Anyway, whatever the reason, I had my butt in a seat at the Alamo for 26 1/2 hours watching some awesome movies. Here’s how the night went:

We had to start off with the annual torture of one of the Alamo friends. Tim always tells him that he’s going to show Teen Wolf during BNAT and, every year, something “fucks up” and he doesn’t get to show it. This year he had a Dolby “representative” (actually Scott Weinberg in a Dolby shirt) guarantee that the screening would go off without a hitch because of their brand new digital system.

Of course, hitches happen and Scott gave Tim a check for $15,000 “on behalf of Thomas Dolby.”

Many yuks were had by all. Then the movies really started.

FAUST (1926)

***** (5/5)

Directed by: FW Murnau
Written by: Gerhart Hauptmann/Hans Kyser
Based on play by: Johann Wolfgang Goethe

FW Murnau’s Faust has always been pointed to as one of the more amazing achievements in silent cinema. The special effects are still pretty awesome to this day.

If you don’t know the story, you’ve probably been living under a cultural rock, but I’ll explain a little bit here. God and the Devil are hanging out and make a bet. God says that Faust (Gosta Ekman), a genuinely good man, can’t be corrupted. The Devil (Emil Jannings), however, thinks that he can, and he sets out to prove it. He comes to Earth as a man called Mephisto and gives Faust back his youth, helping a beautiful young woman fall in love with him.

Faust shuns him at first, but then decides to allow Mephisto to give him a trial run of a day. When that’s not long enough, Mephisto has him and it’s all over.

In its day, it was one of the biggest spectacles that audiences had ever seen. It’s still pretty spectacular, although it’s easier to see how they did all of it now. And Jannings is perfect as the slimy and underhanded Mephisto. He vamps it up and is generally evil in all the right ways.

The organ accompaniment was pretty perfect, too. I wish I could remember the guy’s name, but it’s been a few days. Anyway, he was great.

If you ever get a chance to see this movie, go. And, in going, be amazed.

THE LOVELY BONES (2009)

****½ (4.5/5)

Directed by: Peter Jackson
Written by: Peter Jackson/Fran Walsh/Philippa Boyens
Based on book by: Alice Sebold

Peter Jackson can probably do no wrong in Hollywood right now. Sure, King Kong didn’t do was well as everyone wanted it to do, but he directed and produced fucking Lord Of The Rings! Give that man anything he wants!

So they did. He wanted to do a small story this time out, so he chose Alice Sebold’s novel about a young girl named Susie (Saoirse Ronan from Atonement) who was killed by a neighbor in the early 70s. She narrates the story from a place called The In Between. Not quite Heaven, but definitely not Hell. More like a fantasy land that is almost like Earth, but much more surreal.

Meanwhile, her family tries to go on. Her dad (Mark Wahlberg) is obesessed with finding her killer. Her mom (Rachel Weisz) can’t seem to move on, but can’t stand what her husband is doing. Her grandmother (Susan Sarandon) is a bit of a drunkard who tells everyone that she’s 35. Her younger sister and brother are doing their best, but it’s hard when their parents can’t seem to cope.

Meanwhile still, the investigation is almost going nowhere under Len Fenerman (Michael Imperioli) doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. The killer (Stanely Tucci) is still at large and still living about 100 feet from Susie’s family.

I gotta tell you, two movies into BNAT this year and I was emotionally drained. The Lovely Bones was something that I usually don’t go in for: a beautiful movie. Not only was the story beautiful (Susie’s journey from needing to have revenge on her killer to just wanting her family to cope), but the In Between was beautiful, too. Surreal, dreamlike and heartwrenching at times.

I loved this movie. It’s long, but I don’t expect much less from Mr. Jackson. He knows exactly what to leave in and wheat to cut out, and he knows how to pull the heartstrings without making us feel like we’ve been duped into crying.

Maybe it’s not the best film out there, but it didn’t matter while I was watching it. And it still doesn’t matter to me. I kinda want to see it again. I don’t necessarily believe in any kind of afterlife, but goddamn, this movie gave me hope for kids who die like Susie.

GIRL CRAZY (1943)

***½ (3.5/5)

Directed by: Norman Taurog/Busby Berkeley
Written by: Fred F. Finklehoffe/Dorothy Kingsley/William Ludwig/Sid Silvers
Based on play by: Guy Bolton/Jack McGowan

After Lovely Bones, we were all pretty much beaten down. As Harry said, though, what better to bring a room back up than a Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney musical?

Well, I can think of a LOT of things, but this’ll do.

Mickey is a rich playboy who is sent out West by his father to learn a lesson in life. Unfortunately for Mickey, the place he’s sent is an all boys school. No girls at all! What’s a girl crazy boy to do?!?!

Well, he doesn’t have to worry too much. This small town has one girl: Judy. And he instantly falls for her, even if she doesn’t fall for him so easily.

Of course, her grandfather is the dean of the school. And, of course, there’s a guy who she’s pretty much paired with. And, of course, hardly any of the other guys like Mickey. And, of course, the school is threatened with closure unless they can come up with money/applicants.

Car wash!!

Ok, no. No car wash. But there is a rodea, which they pronounce like Rodeo Drive in Hollywood, as opposed to an actual rodeo.

Hollywood. Psh.

It’s a pretty fun little flick, but I’m not rushing out to rent the rest of Mickey and Judy’s collaborations. There was, however, a pretty good Busby Berkeley number at the end. Busby was supposed to direct the whole movie, but he was fired after they filmed this one scene. Too bad, because the movie could have used some of Busby’s flair.

Of course, the script did have some gems like “The things you see when you don’t have a gun!” and “Money is just like women and popcorn: The more you get, the more you want.” I still don’t understand the gun line. The fuck was Judy saying?!

THE RED SHOES (1948)

**** (4/5)

Directed by: Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger
Written by: Emeric Pressburger/Michael Powell/Keith Winter
Based on fairy tale by: Hans Christian Andersen

This is one of those movies that I’ve always heard about, but never seen. It’s a ballet movie and I have very little (if any) interest in ballet. Why would I care?

Well, it turns out that…um…I was right. This was the movie that I had the least fun watching at BNAT this year. But Harry didn’t program it. I’ll get to that later, though.

The Red Shoes is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a young dancer who wants to be the best dancer in the world. She buys some shoes from a shoemaker that make her dance perfectly…but then she can’t take them off and she can’t stop dancing.

But that’s not what the movie is about. The movie is about a young woman (Moira Shearer, who was really a ballet dancer) who is chosen to be the lead character in a new ballet based on The Red Shoes written by a young writer (Marius Goring). The two start to fall in love, much to the chagrin of the leader of the dance troupe (Anton Walbrook). He is emotionless and feels that his dancers should be, too.

The movie was really good, but I hated the two men. They were both jackasses. And the girl really wasn’t a whole lot better. Add to that a lot of scenes of ballet (which, I guess, were great) and I was just kind of uninterested.

The best thing about the movie (besides Moira being a beautiful redhead) was seeing how amazing the print was! Martin Scorsese’s film restoration crew have really outdone themselves on this one. It looked like it was made last year. The Technicolor was beautiful and made me miss that process a lot.

I’m glad I saw it, but I probably won’t revisit it.

****½ (4.5/5)

Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Written by: Laeta Kalogridis
Based on book by: Dennis Lehane

Now we get to the guy who actually programmed The Red Shoes. Harry originally wanted to lead in to Shutter Island with Sam Fuller’s asylum masterpiece Shock Corridor. He wasn’t even sure if he would get Shutter Island when he got that print. He had to write a letter to Scorsese to see if he could show it and to explain what BNAT is.

Well, Marty wrote him back saying what an amazing idea BNAT is and how he wished that he could join us. But there’s just one thing: don’t lead in with Shock Corridor. Lead in with The Red Shoes. Here’s a print.

How do you say no?

There is actually a very direct link between the two movies, so I can see it. But I would have rather seen Shock Corridor.

Shutter Island, on the other hand, was pretty great. Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a Boston US Marshall in the 50s sent to a local criminal asylum to investigate a missing patient. His new partner, Chuck (Mark Ruffalo), was brought in from Seattle to help Teddy out. Why is it that it almost seems like the missing patient never existed? What is Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kingsley) hiding? Is Dr. Jeremiah Naerhing (Max von Sydow) a Nazi doing crazy experiments? And why can’t Teddy let go of his dead wife (Michelle Williams)?

It took me a little while to really get into this movie, mostly because the editing seems to be really awful in the beginning. Eventually, though, I realized what was going on and it all worked out. The movie is a mind-fuck of the highest order and it made me want to red the Dennis Lehane novel that it was based on in a way that Mystic River did not.

It may not seem like the most Scorsese-iest of movies, but he’s done well again. Keep up the streak, Marty. We like you being back.

LE MAGNIFIQUE (1973)

****½ (4.5/5)

Directed by: Philippe de Broca
Written by: Philippe de Broca/Vittorio Caprioli/Jean-Paul Rappeneau/Francis Veber

I wonder how much John Candy’s Delerious borrowed from this movie.

Bob Sanit-Clair (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is the world’s most famous secret agent. He shoots randomly into trees, hitting hitmen before they even know that they are hitmen. He sees through every disguise. And he always gets the girl (Jacqueline Bisset).

He’s also being written by Francois Merlin (also Belmondo), a writer who just knows that he can do something besides these crappy pulp spy novels. But they make him money to live off of and they’re very easy for him to write.

On the other side of his aparetment building is Christine (Bissett again), the young lady he’s slightly obsessed with. Can he win her over by letting her read his awful books?

The movie is way funnier than it sounds like it should be. It opens with the spy story and looks like the Zuker brothers and Jim Abrahams had decided to make a spy movie. (Oh wait…they did. It was Top Secret. But this is funnier!) It’s full of great slapstick and some awful puns that make you cringe and laugh at the same time. Add to that the Merlin side of the story that makes you feel for this guy and you’ve got a movie that even French haters can love.

Harry has been trying to show this movie for seven years. I’m glad that he finally got to. It was worth the wait.

MICMACS (2009)

***** (5/5)

Directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Written by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet/Guillaume Laurant

I had no idea that Jean-Pierre Jeunet was even working on a new film, much less that he had one in the can! I would have been MUCH more excited if I had known.

Bazil’s (Dany Boon) dad was killed by a land mine when Bazil was very young. Thirty years later, Dany is shot in the head and survives. The doctors can’t take the bullet out without possibly making Bazil a vegetable.

Eventually Bazil falls in with a group of homeless folks who collect junk and make it into amazing things. He also finds out that the weapons companies that made the land mine and the bullet are right across the street from each other. The rest of the movie is a Rube Goldbergian plot to bring down both companies…and yet so much more.

If you’ve ever loved Jeunet’s films before, you’ll love this one, too. He brings his usual sense of humor and (shudder…I hate this word) whimsy to the screen and makes us fall in love with this ragtag bunch of geniuses, which includes his old standby, Dominique Pinon.

***½ (3.5/5)

Directed by: Adam Green
Written by: Adam Green

Adam Gren has a lot of enemies in the horror world, and I’m not really sure why. Hatchet was a fun flick that didn’t try to be anything more and Spiral, while not brilliant, showed us all that he had some talent for something besides gore.

Now he mixes those two things to bring us something like Open Water on a ski lift. (On the fake lineup that Harry always posts, this slot was filled by Lifeboat. I can see why.)

Three college kids (Emma Bell, Kevin Zegers and Shawn Ashmore) are on a weekend ski trip. It’s Sunday and they want one more time down the mountain. They talk the lift guy into letting them go up one more time, but through a chain of events, they end up stuck on the lift. And the resort doesn’t open again until the next Friday. Now, how do they et down? And are those wolves they’re hearing?

That little premise holds a lot more fear than it seems like it should. Not only is there plenty of suspense, but there’s more emotion than you would think of coming from Adam. The two guys have been best friends since grade school and the girl is dating one of them. You can see where that’s going.

Not an amazing film by any means, but absolutely worth checking out. One of my friends who hates Adam said that this is absolutely his best film. He liked it quite a bit. If that’s not a recommendation, I don’t know what is.

THE CENTIPEDE HORROR (1984)

**½ (2.5/5)

Directed by: Keith Li
Written by: Amy Chan Suet-Ming

Hong Kong isn’t really known for thier horror movies…and there’s kind of a reason for that. Most of them are pretty silly. I mean, Mr. Vampire is a great movie, but it’s silly as hell.

The Centipede Horror really won’t win any converts for HK horror. In fact, it will probably make people run from the genre.

The movie was introduced to us as being horribly vile and banned in many countries. I don’t really understand what the hell Tim and Zack were talking about. Yeah, there were a couple of gross-out moments, but it really wasn’t any worse than most Hollywood movies now. Vomiting centipedes (real ones!) is gross, but it’s not as squirm enducing as they made it out to be.

A couple of young girls go from HK to SE Asia (they talk about it like it’s a country) for a quick vacation. They’ve been warned to never go there, but they go anyway and, of course, one of them DIES!!!! She’s killed by centipedes, which apparently have a bite so strange that no doctor knows what one looks like.

Her brother comes to SE Asia to find out what happened and gets trapped in a plot by an evil wizard who hates the guy’s grandfather. He’s cursing everyone in the man’s family to be killed by centipedes.

What’s really interesting about this movie is how quickly everyone is ready to jump on the “maybe it’s something supernatural” bandwagon. Someone trips and their friend says, “Maybe an evil wizard cursed you!”

It’s a pretty awful movie, but it’s funny in its awfulness. Possibly the worst movie of the day, but it was enough fun that I was able to enjoy it. If you’re a fan of bad, weird Asian cinema, see if you can find it. And watch for the broiled zombie chickens.

THE CANDY SNATCHERS (1973)

** (2/5)

Directed by: Guerdon Trueblood
Written by: Bryan Gindoff

The fake lineup movie for this one was The Lovely Bones. Heh.

Candy (Susan Sennett) is a 16 year old daughter of a jewel store manager. She gets kidnapped by three inept criminals who want a bag full of diamonds from her dad. What they don’t realize is that daddy isn’t too hip to getting Candy back.

I really don’t have a lot to say about this one. It’s an exploitation film that I don’t think made a really big impression on anyone except for the weird relationship that Candy developes with one of the kidnappers. It’s not supposed to be sexual, but it’s still a little bit creepy.

And then there’s the ending with the mute kid and his annoying mom. She’s SUPER-annoying. But her kid isn’t much better, really, and he’s suppoed to be sort of a hero of the movie…kind of.

IRON MAN 2 TRAILER

This was the only clip we had all night! I was a little surprised. It started out as an E! True Hollywood Story style bit about Harry with Jon Favreau, JJ Abrams and Michael Fucking Bay talking about how Harry nearly ruined their careers. Then Jon comes back and introduces the trailer. It looks pretty awesome, although I agree with one reviewer: Mickey Rourke’s Whiplash looks like he’s more of a danger to himself than to Iron Man. We’ll see, though. I’ll be there. You know it.

***** (5/5)

Directed by: Matthew Vaughan
Written by: Matthew Vaughan/Jane Goldman
Based on comic by: Mark Millar

I kind of can’t believe that they allowed a movie to be called Kick-Ass, but that’s really the only way that I could describe the movie, to be perfectly honest.

Dave (Aaron Johnson) is a geek. He’s a little bit obsessed with comic books and spends most of his time with his two buddies at a local coffee shop/comic book store. (Why hasn’t someone opened one of these up in Austin?!)

That’s where he gets the idea. The idea that will change his life forever. How come no one has ever become a superhero? So that’s just what he does. He goes out and buys a wet suit and walks around town until he finds some crime to fight…and gets his ass beat.

Kick-Ass didn’t have a very auspicious beginning, but he soon finds out that there are other people doing it…and they’re much better at it than he is.

Damon Macready (Nicolas Cage and his moustache) is a devoted father to Mindy (Chloe Moretz from (500) Days Of Summer and Hammer’s upcoming remake of Let The Right One In). So devoted, in fact, that he has taught her to kick some major ass…and he helps her steal the movie from everyone else.

Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong from Rocknrolla) is a gangster. He’s also a family man. His son, Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), goes to school with Dave, but he’s never able to make friends with anyone. Too many bodyguards. All he wants to do is fit in at school. And, of course, be just like his dad.

The movie wasn’t quite finished, but DAMN was it good! It never let up! The action only stops long enough to let some more comedy in. And there’s more than enough story and character to go around. It’s surprising to me that this was based on a comic book by the same guy who created Wanted.

I’m not really sure how this movie is going to find an audience, though. It’s a pretty hard R what with all of the violence and cursing being perpetrated by small children. (Mindy says things that would make a grown-ass man blush.) But I really hope that it’s a hit.

Kick-Ass comes out in April with a few CGI tweaks and a slightly different soundtrack. The soundtrack was a major source of consternation amongst the audience. It was fucking perfect the way it was! But Warner Brothers won’t let them use the Batman and Superman themes. That’s really too bad, because they’re used in scenes that are perfect with those themes.

Speaking of the soundtrack, there’s one scene where the audience burst out into applause and then started clapping along to the score. I’ve been to a LOT of movies in my life and that is something that I’ve never witnessed.

Yeah. We all loved this movie. It was my favorite of the day. Go see it in April.

Director Matthew Vaughan was at the screening and talked a bit about the casting process. Apparently, there’s a mother out there who was very upset with the fact that there was a masturbation reference on page three. She thought that it would give her 16 year old son bad ideas. Lady! Your 16 year old son had those ideas at LEAST three years ago! And he’s had those same ideas a LOT! Stop worrying about it!

Before I go, one more plea:

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET MATTHEW VAUGHAN USE THE BATMAN AND SUPERMAN THEMES!!!!

GodDAMN, I can’t wait to see this movie again!

Ok. I’m done. On to the next movie

Visuals: ***** (5/5) Story: ***½ (3.5/5)

Directed by: James Cameron
Written by: James Cameron

I really wish that Harry had ended the day with Kick-Ass, but whatever. The day ended the way it needed to, not the way we wanted it to.

We all know what Avatar is by now: James Cameron’s new half-billion dollar movie about aliens, environmentalism and 3-D.

But we don’t all know what it’s like. I do. I’ll tell you.

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a Marine who is now paralyzed. His twin brother was part of the Avatar project, which allows humans to go out onto a hostile planet without dying from the atmosphere. They are basically able to project their minds into artificial bodies of the local inhabitants. This also means that they can (sort of) blend in with the aliens.

The Marines are there to take a certain element from the planet, no matter what the inhabitants say. The unfortunate thing for all involved is the fact that the biggest deposit is right under the giant tree that the inhabitants live in.

The other unfortunate thing is that Jake is actually a little bit sensitive. While he’s in his brother’s avatar, he falls in love with one of the natives (Zoe Saldana) and decides that they deserve to live their lives the way they want to.

SHOCK!!

The other side of things involves Sigourney Weaver as a scientist who feels the same way as Jake and Giovanni Ribisi as an engineer (maybe?) who thinks that these “savages” need to get the hell out of the way of Earthling’s progress.

It’s Dances With Ferngully! Add in some comments about how “we ARE the terrorists” and you’ve got a modern fable about America and how selfish we are.

I dunno. The movie is decent as far as the story is concerned. Nothing special, though.

No one cares about the story, though. Not really. They’re going for the spectacle. And that spectacle is fucking amazing! The CGI is nearly perfect. (Still a bit cartoony for my taste, but that’s to be expected…kinda.) The 3-D is amazing. The world that Cameron and his crew created is beautiful. It’s absolutely worth seeing on the big screen in 3-D. Probably even on the IMAX.

I just really wish that he had attached a better story to those visuals.

Well, maybe next time…ten years from now.

That’s it from BNAT! It was actually a pretty amazing day. Harry fully admits that the last couple of years have been a little bit on the lame side. Not terrible at all, but not really want BNAT is all about. He’s remembered now and, hopefully, his mojo is back. We’ll see next year.

See you in the theatre. I’ll be right behind you.

Not being good at anything seems to be a theme at this year’s festival. After The King Of Kong yesterday, now I see Skills Like This.

Max (Spencer Berger) writes some of the worst plays ever. We’re talking Vogon style, here. His latest, The Onion Dance, actually put his grandfather into a coma. After that, he decides to call it quits.

This is when things start to go his way. He finds out that he actually has a talent for something: robbery. He even meets the girl of his dreams at his first bank robbery. Lucy (Kerry Knuppe) is a very down to Earth, practical bank teller who helps keep everyone in line during the robbery. He meets her later in a bar and the two hit it off more than they probably should.

Max’s friends are just as strange as that pairing. Dave (Gabriel Tigerman) has a good job, but is totally uptight. His girlfriend, Lauren (Jennifer Batter) wants to fuck Max now that he’s robbing people. And Tommy (Brian D. Phelan)…well, Tommy’s just kind of a freak. He’s a typical jock type who is obsessed with his girly looking bike and figures that everything should be easy, including evading the cops after a bank robbery.

While not a great film by any means, Skills Like This does manage to keep the laughs coming for all of its 90 minute run time, something that a lot of the movies at the festival this year have had a problem doing. The characters are great and there are some awesome lines. Check it out if it manages to make it to a theatre/video store near you. It’s worth a few laughs.

EAGLE VS. SHARK

A friend of mine loved this movie. She saw it earlier in the festival and fell in love with the characters and said that it was MUCH better than she ever thought it would be.

The next time I see her, she’s dead to me.

Jarrod (Jemaine Clement) and Lily (Loren Horsley) are losers. Lily has lost her job at the local burger barn and Jarrod thinks that he’s amazing. He also has no social skills whatsoever. When the two meet, lint flies.

It really seems like Taika Cohen saw Napoleon Dynamite one too many times and figured that we were all ready for a New Zealand version of it. He also figured that we needed a version without any likable characters. Lily, who I guess is supposed to be the Napoleon character, is pathetic because of her complete devotion to Jarrod. And Jarrod is just an asshole. He’s such a dick that when he gets hurt towards the end, you’re kind of glad. I hated the guy and wanted him to get off the screen as soon as possible.

There were a few funny lines (“You’re a bitch and I hope you die of diabetes!”), but for the most part the movie was pretty well devoid of laughter. Not much in the way of good here.

GRIMM LOVE

A few years ago, a German man put an ad online for another man who would allow him to eat him. This is his story.

It’s also the story of Katie (Keri Russell), a girl who is writing a paper about the psychological ramifications of such a deal. Why did Oliver Hartwin (Thomas Kretschmann) want to eat another human being? And why did Simon Grombeck (Thomas Huber) allow him to do it? Eventually, Katie becomes completely obsessed with these mens’ stories and what led them to their horrific act. She starts to think that maybe, just maybe, she could be like either of them.

This is a very good film that shows us the inner thinking of a cannibal. The cuts between Katie’s life and the Oliver/Simon story show us just how closely related the two are. Maybe Katie ISN’T too far from them. Maybe we aren’t, either.

I loved how this film was shot. The scenes that take place in Oliver’s childhood are shot on old film stock and are very choppy. (All of this could have been done digitally, too.) It’s beautiful and creepy at the same time. Then the later story with the actual cannibalism manages to keep the gore to a minimum. Director Martin Weisz knows just how much we can take and when to string us along.

Check out this twisted fairy tale, but only if you have a strong stomach. The gore is minimal, but it’s still really intense. And there’s no comic relief to take you out of the story.

There is a more underground version of this story called Cannibal. I haven’t seen it, but from what I hear it’s a lot more gory and sensationalistic. This is supposed to be the better film. And it is very good.

When a young man is told not to do something, it often leads to him doing it with more fervor than if he had never been told about it in the first place. That’s what happens when James’s (Tadhg MacMahon) mother dies. She told him over and over to never have any contact with his grandparents. He hasn’t seen them since he was three years old. He’s married now and is ready for a visit.

What he finds in the tiny Canadian farm community is more boringly horrific than anything in any movie I’ve seen since the original Pulse.

Actually, it’s not THAT bad, but it is a little bit on the slow and painfully drawn out side. The story here is a good one (and the twist at the end is interesting and for a good cause since it was inspired by true events), but a lot of what undercuts it is the acting. There’s not a single good actor in the entire film. And the dialogue doesn’t really help much, either. It’s pretty stiff and uninteresting.

What I think needs to be done with this film is a major rewrite and a reshoot with different actors. Then maybe it would be as horrific as director/writer Philippe Spurrell and co-writer Joel Asa Miller had hoped it would be.

WHOLE NEW THING

What happens when a home-schooled 13 year old gets sent to a public school for the first time? Hilarity!

Ok. Not really, but a very good movie does get made about it.

Emerson (Aaron Webber) is a brilliant kid who has already written an epic fantasy novel called The Fires Of Evermore. The only problem with his home-school education is his math. He just can’t do it. Oh, and the fact that he doesn’t know how to react to anyone but his family and their friends. But that’s always beside the point to parents who decide to home-school, isn’t it?

When his mom decides that their hippy, back-to-the-Earth lifestyle isn’t enough for Em, she sends him to the local public school. And he fits in really well with his long, goth hair and strange ideas about sex roles.

Can you hear the sarcasm? Good, ’cause I’m layin’ it on pretty thick. On the first day he gets punched.

The only friend he feels that he has is his English teacher, Don Grant (Daniel MacIvor who also co-wrote the screenplay). Unfortunately, he starts to fall in love with his new teacher. He doesn’t see it as a gay/straight thing. It’s just a “closeness” thing.

Great acting all around and an awesome script make this, so far, the best movie I’ve seen at the festival. I’m always amazed when a young actor is willing to go to the places that Aaron goes here and actually does it well with no self-consciousness. He’s very good in a role that, in lesser hands, would have been hard to watch.

Every character here has so many layers that it would be hard to try to introduce them all here. Don’s not just a teacher, he’s a man with an ex that he can’t get his mind off of no matter how many random men he meets in a local rest stop. Emerson’s parents aren’t just hippies who are out to save the world, they’re a normal couple with problems of their own that don’t necessarily include their son.

Whole New Thing is a great film that I hope gets some kind of success. It’s already on DVD in Canada. I have no idea what the plans for it are here in the states, but I hope that director/writer Amnon Buchbinder can get at least some sort of theatrical release.

So Jake knows from “failed” television.

It’s no surprise, then, that his third feature (his second being the hack job Orange County, which wasn’t too bad) would be about a writer (David Duchovny) who is having problems getting his pilot made the he wants it made.

Mike (Duchovny) has just written the most personal story of his career. It’s about a young man who returns home after the suicide of his brother. And it’s a comedy! He reunites with a high school flame and things start to get a little crazy.

But when he doesn’t end up with the lead actor he wants, things just start to go to hell. And the studio exec in charge of choosing new shows, Lenny (Sigourney Weaver in full Working Girl bitch mode), keeps making him change things. “Does the brother really have to commit suicide? It’s such a downer.” Richard (Ioan Gruffudd from King Arthur and The Fantastic Four) is an import from the BBC where they know how to make intelligent and edgy comedy. He tries to help, but his hands are sort of tied. And he’s preoccupied with the fact that his wife (Lucy Davis from Shaun Of The Dead and the British “Office”) is completely unhappy.

Meanwhile, Mike is getting more pressure from home because his wife (Justine Bateman!) is pregnant and things are going to be getting financially tighter for them.

And it’s a comedy!

Actually, it’s really funny in a tragic sort of way. You can see Mike being crushed under the weight of wanting to do what’s right for his soul and still getting his show on the air. And Lenny is such a bitch that it’s hard to not do what she says.

Her part, by the way, was originally written for a 50 something year old man. Then it was going to be Ben Stiller, I guess doing an updated version of his character from Reality Bites. Then, when he had to drop out, Sigourney was called in, which was perfect. I still like Ben (which, as evidenced by the “ewwww”s from the audience when Jake told us about Ben, not many others do anymore), but I think she was perfect in this role. I hated every fiber of her soul. It was amazing.

Duchovny was great, too. I’ve always known that he could be funny as hell, and he finally gets a really good forum to show it off here. Hopefully, he’ll make more good movies like this.

All in all, this was a great way to open a festival for screenwriters. I can imagine that just about every tv writer in the US goes through this same bullshit every time they make a pilot. It shows the casting, filming and test processes and skewers them perfectly. It may not be a perfect film, but it’s damn funny and calls every tv exec out on how stupid they think the public is. Of course, it could just be a reflection of how stupid they are.

Dear Pillow is an Austin flick that tackles some pretty heavy petting issues. It’s about a kid named Wes (Rusty Kelley) who finds out that a neighbor, Dusty (Gary Chason), is a writer for a sex mag called Dear Pillow. It’s full of Penthouse Forum type stories about fucking in cars while your dog looks on, threesomes with pool boys and pizza men and getting blown in theatres while watching the latest Disney flick. You know, wholesome stuff.

Wes is a virgin, but he desperately wants to get over that little affliction. His only three prospects are a girl he works with at the grocery store, his landlord Lorna (Viviane Vives), and Dusty, who is gay. While Dusty isn’t the first on Wes’ list, he’s probably his best chance.

The two strike up a friendship (no, not because Wes wants to fuck him) and Wes starts to learn a little more about sex than he maybe really wanted to know.

Bryan Poyser (who used to be my boss at the festival) has written and directed a pretty good first feature film. All of the characters are appealing in their own way and they all change over the course of the film in ways that are surprising and VERY interesting. They’re all fucked up, but they don’t necessarily know why or how.

The movie does drag a bit at times, but overall it’s a good movie that will hopefully get some sort of distribution. It’s shot on digital, so it’ll be a hard sell for a theatrical release, but it does look good. Maybe a video release.

The language is pretty rough, but if you don’t mind hearing a teenager talk about wanting to stick his dick in someone’s ass and then filling their mouth with cum, this might just be a movie for you. I’m sure there was some squirming going on in the audience, but it’s a mature movie for mature audiences. Fuck ‘em.

SAVED!

Who knew that Mandy Moore could be so funny?

Mandy plays Hilary Faye, an extremely devout Christian who feels that everyone should be as perfect as she is. And she’s willing to lie, cheat and deceive in order to make sure that those who aren’t perfect are punished.

Luckily we have Mary (Jena Malone) to identify with. She’s just as devout as Hilary Faye, but she fucks up. She finds out that her boyfriend, Dean (Chad Faust) is gay. She figures that the only way to “save” him is to have sex with him and see if it makes him “un-gay” himself.

Of course it doesn’t. All it does is make her pregnant. But, since she’s in such a Christian school, she is forced to hide her pregnancy from everyone. Especially her best friend, Hilary Faye.

Meanwhile, Hilary Faye’s brother, Roland (Holy shit, it’s Macaulay Culkin!), is finding out that he doesn’t like being pushed around by his younger sister. Too bad for him that he has to be pushed around because he’s in a wheel chair. Things may change when he starts getting influenced by the “bad Jewish” girl, Cassandra (Susan Surandon’s lovely and talented daughter Eva Amurri), who would love to get kicked out of the school.

Enter Patrick (Patrick Fugit). He’s the new kid in school and the pastor’s son. (He’s been on a missionary trip with his mother, so no one has met him before.) He’s the most open minded kid in the school. He seems to be kind of a bad boy (always skateboarding all over the place, doesn’t seem to have a lot of love for Jesus), but he’s really a good kid. Hilary Faye and Mary fall in love instantly. Guess who he goes for.

The plot is derivative, the characters are a bit cliched and the adults are idiots. (Martin Donovan plays the pastor and Mary-Louise Parker plays Mary’s mom…DAMN she looks good!) BUT, the movie is actually pretty damn funny. And it brings up a lot of good questions about Christianity today. That, of course, will get the far right’s fur in a ruffle.

The main message of this movie is Jesus’ tolerance of everyone. Not just straight, white people who make a certain amount of money. Everyone. Stop using the Bible as a weapon to discriminate against entire groups of people. Stop sending your kids off to a camp because they did something that is supposedly wrong just so that you can forget about them. And just stop being so damn closed-minded!

This is certainly not a great film, but it is a good one. And it’s very funny. Check it out if you’re looking for a good laugh and maybe want to think a bit about your faith and your tolerance of others.

Think Heathers with Jesus.

(As most of you know, I’m mostly agnostic, but my devoutly Catholic friend who saw it with me thought it was very funny. She also liked Dogma. So there.)

DEAD AND BREAKFAST

Stupid title, pretty fun movie.

A group of friends (ok, some of them aren’t really friends, but I digress) get together to go to a wedding. Unfortunately, they leave Johnny (Oz Perkins) in charge of getting them and their RV there in time. He lost the directions and now they’re in Lovelock, a little sparrow fart of a town that has a creepy old bed and breakfast and a country singer (Zach Selwyn) who likes to comment on the action.

Mr. Weiss (David Carradine–he’s in this because his niece, Ever, is in it) owns the B&B and he has his own ideas about being spiritual. When he and his cook (Diedrich Bader) end up dead, it’s up to the kids to keep a box safe that may contain an evil spirit. Of course, Johnny knock it over and soon the whole town is zombie-fied.

This movie is full of homages to past films and if not particularly original. Luckily, the acting is better than usual for the genre, the direction is pretty good, the gore is awesome and the dialogue is funny as hell.

And the music is great. In an effort to do something new, director/writer Matthew Leutwyler added Zach to the cast to write songs about the action. It’s very funny and, after Zach becomes a zombie, he’s suddenly doing country rap! He even sounds like Eminem at times.

I really liked this movie. Yeah, it’s not perfect, but it’s a lot of fun and definitely worth the effort to see it if you like Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson before he went to Middle Earth.

Watch for Portia de Rossi in a small role and Jeremy Sisto in a big role. And his head in a bigger role. Also watch for a deputy named Enus. Them Duke boys didn’t get rid of him so easily.

Which brings me to this question: Deidrich Bader has small roles in two movies at this festival. (This one and Napoleon Dynamite.) Why the hell is he not here? I would LOVE to meet that guy. He’s awesome and I want him in every movie I make.

Quick note: Zach, the guy who wrote and sings all of the music in the film is, right now, on the show Dream Job trying like hell to get a job on Sportscenter. Go, Zach. I guess. Personally, that job would be boring as hell to me, but I guess he’s into it. I would rather see him go into acting or music, but I’m not him. Or his parents.

Micheal is a young Asian man who rents out half of his childhood home to Lori. Lori’s boyfriend, Justin, understands that Lori and Michael are “just friends.” But isn’t it strange that she always tends to go over to Michael’s place after she’s had sex with Justin?

Enter Darcy. She’s a free-spirited young woman who Michael meets at a bar. He starts spending more and more time with her to the annoyance of Lori. Could she be falling for Michael? Or is she still in love with Justin? And we all know that Michael really loves Lori, so what’s up with Darcy?

You may think know exactly where this movie is going, but trust me. You don’t.

I guess the biggest selling point of this movie for the festival was the fact that the cast is all Asian, but there’s barely a hint of it in the subject matter. It’s a universal story that everyone can relate to in some way, but it just happens to have Asians in the lead roles. That’s a great thing, in my book. There are, however, two scenes that do call attention to their Asian-ness. One is when a white guy sends a rose over to Darcy’s table. She and Micheal both give the guy a very evil stare before dropping the rose on the table and leaving the bar. The second (and best) one is when the four leads go to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Justin is only half Asian (like writer/director Eric Byler), so he is a little bit left out of some of the conversations.

That’s actually one of the best scenes in the whole movie. The conversation is real. It feels as if it was improvised on the spot by four very good improve actors.

And for these two scenes the only two Asians in the audience (that I noticed) wanted to suck the director’s dick during the Q&A.

This is a great movie with very good performances. You can tell early on how everyone feels about each other even if they can’t. The only problem I had with the acting was that Michael sometimes seemed to need some help getting his words out (maybe a crowbar would help), but it seemed to work pretty well for the character. Give it a shot if it gets full distribution. It’s obviously shot on video, but get over it. That’s the way things are going.

TRIBUTE

This is the greatest documentary I have ever seen. Uh-huh-huh. Huh-huh-huh.

Ok, maybe not, but it’s a lot of fun.

After seeing the cinematic abortion that was Rock Star (complete with tag team lead singer) I decided that being in a tribute band had to be just about the saddest existence possible. Not if you’re just out to have fun with it (as local bands like The Eggmen (Beatles’ tribute) or The Diamond Smugglers (Neil Diamond taken to perverted “heights”) do), but if you’re really serious about it then you may as well put your head in front of a shot-gun and wait for a squirrel to come along and pull the trigger for you.

Think about it. These guys have no chance of ever becoming big. Oh, sure, there’s the occasional “Ripper” Owens (ok, there’s only one story like that, never to be repeated again), but most likely you’re doomed to play someone else’s songs in cheesy costumes in a dive bar for the rest of your musical career. You can’t get famous on someone else’s songs. (Unless you’re Rod Stewart, but that’s another documentary. And, really, that’s not a dig at him. He’s great at covering Dylan. I like his version of “Forever Young” a lot better.)

So what’s left for these guys? Not much. They go to their crappy day jobs, get off work, get with their buddies and then take their night job a little too seriously. Or at least they take their fandom a little too seriously.

Tribute is the story of Larger Than Life (KISS), Bloodstone (Judas Priest), The Missing Links (The Monkees), Escape (Journey) and Sheer Heart Attack (Queen). All tribute bands. All going nowhere fast.

These are the guys who take it all too seriously. The guys who think that, one false move and reality comes crashing in on their party and they are no longer their heroes.

And I guess that’s true, but they aren’t their heroes. And no one brings that point home better than who they call Superfan. He’s a fan of Queen. Ok. Let’s rephrase that. He’s insane for Queen. He’s gone from collecting albums and posters and gone on to painting the album covers and hanging them on his wall. He has a shrine to Queen complete with incense.

When he goes to a Sheer Heart Attack show he gets nervous. He sees it as his only chance to see Queen live since he decided not to go to their last US tour in 1982 (the Hot Spot tour, for those of you keeping track). When SHA’s lead singer got a job in Germany in an opera, Superfan was devastated. He thought that it would be a good idea to get the singer a girlfriend over here so that he wouldn’t want to leave. (Somehow I doubt that the guy would have wanted a girlfriend, but anyway…)

The most frightening thing about Superfan is that we can all see a little of ourselves in him. Yeah, he takes it too far, but there’s that little part of all of us that probably would take it that far if it wasn’t so damn geeky.

Let’s just say that this was just about the best documentary I’ve seen this year. It’s fun, scary and informative all at the same time. And isn’t that what it’s all about?

Or maybe it’s about being your hero until you actually think that you ARE your hero.

Either way, this is better than Rock Star ever even thought of being.

I don’t know how you’ll see this, but the short before Tribute was just as good. It was called Ace’s High and was about a group called, strangely enough, Ace’s High. They are an Ace Frehley tribute band. That’s right. All Aces.

And the real kicker is that they dress as Ace through the 70s with distinctions that only a true fan would even notice. One is “Destroyer Ace,” one is…um…Ace…from 1974.

Yeah, well, I’m not really a fan, so I couldn’t tell. But they spent a lot of the time of the short talking about how he was the only talented one in the group and it was time for a tribute. So they play only Ace’s material with the band or his solo stuff.

Great concept and a great little flick. Hopefully it’ll show up on IFC or something.

KINKY FRIEDMAN: PROUD TO BE AN ASSHOLE FROM EL PASO

No one can sum up Kinky Friedman in an hour long documentary, but Simone de Vries tries. And the strangest thing about this woman who is here to teach us about one of the strangest characters in modern Texas history is that she’s from The Netherlands! That’s right! It took a foreigner to do this.

As a lot of people know (but a lot don’t), Kinky Friedman started his life of semi-fame as a country singer. Of course he didn’t sing about your typical country fare. He and his band, The Texas Jewboys, sang satire. Songs like “They Just Aren’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore” and “Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns In The Bed”. You know. The kind of stuff that pisses off every non-thinking person in the universe.

After that brush with fame, Kinky became a writer. He’s been writing mystery novels (starring himself) for about 15 years now and has a very loyal following, including President Clinton, who is actually in this film! Yes, ol’ Bill shows up quite a bit talking about The Kinkster. How did Simone do that? She asked. A lot. What happened, though, was that no one bothered to ask the President until about her 10th time. They thought that it wasn’t even worth it. But, as soon as they asked him, he agreed. It’s just that easy, folks.

If you get a chance to see this doc, do it. It may not give a complete picture of Mr. Friedman, but that’s about all your going to get unless you’re him. TROMEO AND JULIET

Lloyd Kaufman always says that if Shakespeare had been about to get away with squashed heads, pierced nipples and penis demons in his plays, he would have. And Tromeo And Juliet proves it.

We all know the story, right? Young Tromeo Que and Juliet Capulet are on opposite sides of a feud between their fathers. But when they fall in love, all hell breaks lose.

This was the first Troma film that I saw all the way through, so I have a special place for it in my heart. It’s not as good as some of their later ones, but it is the beginning of the new Golden Age of Troma which as culminated in Terror Firmer (also starring Will Keenan) and Citizen Toxie.

This one isn’t nearly as offensive to the more offendable out there, but it has its moments. Some of the scenes between Juliet and her dad are disturbing even by Troma standards. And it may be a little too punk for my taste. There are an awful lot of piercings and tattoos running around here. Not too in to that.

I do wonder what the news article was that inspired this one, though. (Lloyd says that all of his movies are inspired by the news.) Maybe domestic violence? Or incest? Not quite as satire inducing as a toxic waste dump near a school or movies causing violence, but it’ll do.

Watch for the Sgt. Kabukiman car crash and listen to some of the best music to ever be used in a Troma film. This time it actually doesn’t suck…too bad.

But that’s not exactly what this movie is about. Some have called it a coming of age story. It’s not. It’s a coming of senses story. It centers around Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas), a college English prof who is going through somewhat of a mid-life crisis. Just a partial list of his problems: a) He’s diddling his bosses wife (Frances McDormand), b) he’s in deep smit with one of his students (Katie Holmes) who happens to be renting a room from him, c) he’s trying to keep his editor (Robert Downey, Jr.) at bay since his 250-300 page new book has gone over by about 2,000 pages, and d) his wife just left him this morning because he wasn’t there for her. On top of all that, he now has to babysit James Leer (Tobey Maguire), a death obsessed student from one of his writing classes. This kid knows every Hollywood suicide there is and is enamored by the fact that he’s fallen in with Dr. Tripp’s crowd. Of course this was a total accident (we think). James just happened to be at the same party as Grady one night. Then they had a little adventure with a jacket belonging to Marilyn Monroe, a dog, Grady’s girlfriend’s bedroom and a gun. Oops.

Throughout the film everyone gets tangled in Grady’s messes while he’s just trying to make his wife feel better about leaving him and tell his pregnant girlfriend that he loves her. James is just trying to be with his hero while never revealing too much of himself. Or maybe he’s just trying to get his book published. I, personally, think it’s the former, though. He’s genuinely touched by Grady’s concern for him and Grady seems to have some kind of connection with this weird introvert. He also accidentally corrupts him with all sorts of new habits (drinking, smoking pot, homosexual editors…the usual).

This is a hard movie to sum up in case you haven’t noticed. It was also apparently pretty hard to adapt to a screenplay. I liked the movie a lot, but it wasn’t as affecting as it probably could have been. In a way that’s good, though. At least it didn’t go overboard sappy like some of these kinds of movies do. Chalk up one more winner for director Curtis Hanson. Sure, it’s not L.A. Confidential (his first film), but what is?

The performances are pretty damn good. Douglas has finally hit a role that fits his age. He’s been so caught up with the fact that he’s got a young woman with him in real life that he can’t seem to see that he shouldn’t have them in his movie life. A Perfect Murder? What the hell was that? Just another hackneyed job at a Hitchcock classic. Crap. He’s made the occasional good move (The American President, The Game), but even those can’t make up for things like Disclosure. He does a fine job as a man who can’t seem to make choices for himself. He just lets life go by while he keeps working on the same book for years that goes in so many different directions that even he doesn’t know what it’s about anymore. Just like his life.

Tobey Maguire was, of course, great as the young man who has all sorts of issues that he can’t admit to. He needs someone in his life, he just doesn’t really know who. It’s certainly not his parents who he alternately accuses of being incestuous and locking him up in the cellar. Tobey is one of those few young actors who have the “quiet intensity” thing down. Sure he seems to play the same roles over and over, but he’s so good at those roles that I can’t wait to see him in the next one.

Tobey’s Ice Storm co-star is pretty good as an average college chick who seems to be hot for teacher. (I hate using a Van Halen song in my reviews, but it fits so well.) She may not be the best actress in the world, but she’s certainly not bad. And, I’m sorry to all of my female friends who seem to think that she’s ugly, but she’s beautiful. Maybe that’s why she gets cast so often, but there is some talent behind the pretty face. We just need to find it. Maybe in her next role where she gets to stretch and become a cheating fiancee’ in The Gift.

Frances McDormand was maybe a little underused in her role, but she was damn good in it. The one I’m worried about is Robert Downey, Jr. This guy’s a great actor, but he can play roles like this in his sleep. He’s just the crazy gay editor who wants to get both Grady’s book and James. (“I can see myself inside him.” Uh. Yeah. Thanks, Rob.) Hopefully he gets to stretch a little more in Black And White. It’d be nice to see him in a role with some meat.

One of the best things about the rest of the movie was the music. Like L.A. Confidential, the music was very important to the story. From the John Lennon song to Bob Dylan’s heartbreakingly realistic paean to mid-life “Not Dark Yet” to Neil Young’s nearly haunting “Old Man.” Yeah, that’s a choice that seems obvious. “Old man, look at my life. I’m a lot like you were.” I guess they couldn’t help but put it in. The only bad thing about the music is the fact that sometimes the songs end very abruptly. It almost sounds as if they forgot to overdub them onto certain parts of scenes. Surprisingly amateurish for this movie.

Very good film, if not a great one. Definitely worth the time and money to go see it, and it may even make you think about some of the choices that you’ve made in your life. Maybe even make you start making some choices. A few more movies like this and I may make some for myself.