My top choice choice this week is still the Irish dark comedy The Guard, starring Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle.
There are three movies now in theaters from my list of Best Movies of 2011 – So Far, including Woody Allen’s sweet, funny and thoughtful comedy Midnight in Paris. Buck is an extraordinary documentary about a real-life horse whisperer with a compelling human story. You might still be able to find Errol Morris’ documentary Tabloid, the hilarious story of Joyce McKinney, a beauty queen jailed for manacling a Mormon missionary as her sex slave and, decades later, cloning her dog.
A Little Help is a funny Jenna Fischer vehicle about a sad sack mom. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are excellent in the romcom Crazy Stupid Love. The Names of Love is an amusing but forgettable French comedy about a flighty leftwinger who seeks to educate and convert conservatives by sleeping with them.
Turkey Bowl is a delightful indie comedy available from iTunes.
Despite Rachel Weisz’s performance, The Whistleblower is a misfire – a potentially riveting story clumsily told. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
My DVD pick is Queen to Play.
Movies on TV this week include the Hitchcock thriller North by Northwest and the Burt Lancaster epic The Leopard, both on TCM.