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Summer Guide 2007: June Movies
Ray Pride
A Mighty Heart
The protean Michael Winterbottom ("In This World," "The Road To
Guantánamo," "9 Songs") got invited by Angelina Jolie to direct the
story of murdered Wall Street Journalist Daniel Pearl and his widow,
Mariane. The geopolitical fireworks should impress.
Ocean's Thirteen
Many of the crew responsible for "Ocean's Twelve" have confessed
that the last entry in the mega-starry series was little more than
shite; Steven Soderbergh's guilt ethic ought to guarantee this one's
got
something good going on; new additions to the
Clooney-Pitt-Damon-Cheadle-Affleck-Gould-Reiner-Mac-Garcia hothouse are
Al Pacino and the freshly divorced (and long-missed) Ellen Barkin.
Knocked Up
"40-Year-Old Virgin" director Judd Apatow's wife, Leslie Mann,
steals this rude, only just-efficiently made laugh and heart machine,
from unintended couple Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl, playing Heigl's
character's fortysomething brattily foul-mouthed sister and mom of
two:
Has a woman ever said "fuck" this much in an American movie outside
of
porn?
Live Free Or Die Hard
Has any man in an American movie ever said "Yippee Ki Yay
Motherfucker?" this much in an American movie outside of Bruce
Willis-world?
Ratatouille
The Pixar cartooners, now an intrinsic part of Disney, try for spice
after the tired cornbread of "Cars," with the potentially amusing
(yet
initially revolting) notion of a Parisian rat who dreams of chefly
glory.
Sicko
Michael Moore's new documentary ranks on the shittiness, pettiness
and horrific incompetence of the American healthcare system, and it
took
Cannes by storm for its humor and--what?--maturity? Moore's most
controversial stunt involves taking a few Ground Zero firefighters to
the only place on American soil with universal health care, banging on
the front gates of Gitmo and asking to be let in.
Surf's Up
Surfing penguins, yes. More animated penguins, yes. Started at the
same time as the other penguin movies, mm-hm. But put together by
having
skilled improvisers in the same room together rather than in separate
sound booths at separate times. With Shia LaBoeuf as the yearner, Jeff
Bridges as his toked-out mentor and the winsome chords of Zooey
Deschanel's fine voice.
The Evening
Cinematographer Lajos Koltai made his debut with the fine yet
wretchedly distributed drama, "Fateless," from the Holocaust novel of
fellow countryman Imre Kertesz; this adaptation of the Susan Minot
novel
by Michael Cunningham ("The Hours") stars Clare Danes, Toni Collette,
Vanessa Redgrave, Patrick Wilson, Hugh Dancy and Natasha Richardson.
Sounds classy.
The Trials of Daryl Hunt
DNA testing freed a man wrongly convicted of murder decades earlier;
doc by Anne Sundberg and Ricki Stern deserves all the festival
accolades
it's gathered.
You Kill Me
John Dahl returns to loopy form with a comic neo-noir about an
alcoholic hitman from Buffalo (Ben Kingsley) who relocates to San
Francisco to dry out, where he's micro-managed by a ticcy Bill Pullman
and finds himself in the comely sphere of Tea Leoni. Grown-up, very
silly, very smart.
(2007-05-22)
Also by Ray Pride
One Dish
There's a great Thursday night pizza special at a place on my block, but
it's their Monday night ten-cent wing special that somehow gets stuck in
my mind (and later, in my teeth). If it's eight or nine o'clock and I
haven't heard the barman ask upon my approach, "Kirin, twelve teriyaki
crispy?" something just seems wrong
(2007-05-18)
Film Review
The charmless, innocuous, overpopulated, hardly written "Shrek the
Third" is the first depiction of a trainwreck I've ever witnessed set
to "mute"
(2007-05-18)
How goes the Jihad?
A wicked bedazzlement and some sort of fucked-up treasure, Hal Hartley's
comedy-turned-terror "Fay Grim" is as misunderstood (and darkly
subversive) as the deepest runnels of American foreign policy
(2007-05-15)
Tip of the Week
Chicago's one of the lucky cities to get Winnipeg anachronist Guy
Maddin's latest rumpus as a live event
(2007-05-15)
One Dish
(2007-05-14)
Tip of the Week
(2007-05-08)
The Tyranny of Distance
(2007-05-08)
One Dish
(2007-05-07)
Beer in Gear
(2007-05-07)
Franchise This
(2007-05-01)
Tip of the Week
(2007-05-01)
Love, Truly Love
(2007-04-27)
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Newcity Communications, Inc.
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