2011 in Movies: biggest disappointments

LE QUATTRO VOLTE

1.  I haven’t seen Killer Joe, Restless and Tyrannosaur becuase they haven’t been released where I live.  And I haven’t seen Oslo August 3, The Kid on the Bike, Paul Williams Still Alive, Natural Selection, Polisse and Little White Lies because – as far as I know – they haven’t yet been released in the US.  You can read descriptions and watch trailers of these films as Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

 

2.  Meek’s Cutoff is an unfortunate misfire by the excellent director Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy).

 

3.  Le Quattro Volte is supposed to be a lyrical contemplation on the Circle of Life, but you’ll find yourself checking your watch during the interminable hacking of an aged goatherd.  If the geezer had taken Robitussin DM, there would be no story at all.

 

4.  The bewildering, pompous mess that is The Tree of Life .  It does contain a fine 90-minute family drama about a boy growing up in 1950s Waco (a superb Hunter McCracken) and the friction with his caring but brutishly domineering father (Brad Pitt). Unfortunately, there is another 60 minutes in the movie.

That additional 60 minutes is a self-important muddle that tries to lift the story to an exploration of life itself – from creation through afterlife. There are beautiful shots of clouds and waterfalls, with unintelligible whisperings from cast members. There are Bible verses, the Big Bang and dinosaurs (yes, dinosaurs). And, in case you don’t get how seriously the movie takes itself, there is an overbearingly pretentious score.

 

5. The Hangover Part II.  I really enjoyed The Hangover, but the sequel was just lame.

 

6.  Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is by no means a bad film, but I expected more from the winner of the Palm d’Or.

 

7.  David Gordon Green, director of All the Real Girls, Undertow, Snow Angels and Pineapple Express, showed up this year with The Sitter.  Say it ain’t so, Dave.

 

8.  HBO’s take on the financial meltdown, Too Big To Fail, failed in spite of an excellent cast.  It wasn’t nearly as good as last year’s great documentary Inside Job or this year’s fictional Margin Call.

 

9.  James Franco co-hosting the Academy Awards.  Lay off the weed, Jimmy!

 

10.  After watching the jaw droppingly awful trailer, I was hoping that Nicholas Cage’s Season of the Witch would be deliciously and entertainingly laugh out loud bad. But it was just bad.

 

New Movies to See Right Now

Jake Gyllenhaal in Source Code

The gripping sci fi thriller Source Code is the must see in theaters right now. Potiche opens this week, and this delightful French farce of feminist self-discovery is the funniest movie in over a year, and another showcase for Catherine Deneuve (as if she needs one). The Music Never Stopped is a crowd-pleaser, especially for Baby Boomers.  Certified Copy is a well-acted puzzler of an art film.

The best holdovers in theaters now are the combo thriller/love story The Adjustment Bureau and the fun and unpretentious comedy Cedar Rapids.   Nora’s Will is a wry family dramedy, which is also now playing on HBO Signature as Cinco Dias Sin Nora (Five Days Without Nora).

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

I haven’t yet seen Carancho, Hanna or Restless, which open this weekend.  You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick is Black Swan.

Movies on TV this week include A Face in the Crowd and The General on TCM.

Movies: Best Bets for April

You can see trailers and descriptions of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

I’ve seen Potiche,  which opens April 1.  It’s a delightful French farce of feminist self-discovery, the funniest movie in over a year, and another showcase for Catherine DeNeuve (as if she needs one).   DeNeuve plays a 1977 potiche, French for “trophy housewife”, married to a guy who is a male chauvinist pig and the meanest industrialist in France.   He becomes incapacitated, and she must run the factory.  It’s smart and quick like the classic screwball comedy that American filmmakers don’t make anymore.

Jane Eyre also releases April 1.  I’m not on the edge of my seat waiting for a Bronte bodice ripper, but many of my readers are.  Stars the excellent Mia Wasilova from Alice in Wonderland and The Kids Are All Right.

Carancho:  Well, they have ambulance chasers in Argentina, too, and that seamy world is the setting for this sexy and violent noir thriller.  Stars Ricardo Darin of The Secrets of Their Eyes and Nine Queens.  Won Un Certain Regard at Cannes.  Will release widely on April 8.

Hanna is a paranoid thriller starring Saoirse Ronan as a 16-year-old raised in the Arctic Circle to be a master assassin by her rogue secret agent father (Eric Bana), and then released upon the CIA.  She is matched up against special ops wiz Cate Blanchett.  Hanna is directed by Joe Wright (Atonement, The Soloist).   Releases April 8.

Poetry: This is the story of a Korean grandmother who goes to a poetry workshop and begins to understand the real characters of the people she lives amongst.  Highly praised at Cannes.  Releases widely April 8.

Restless:  Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Milk, Paranoid Park, Last Days, Elephant) directs (from IMDb) “the story of a terminally ill teenage girl who falls for a boy who likes to attend funerals and their encounters with the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot from WWII.”  The girl is played by the very promising Mia Wasilova, who had a tremendous 2010 with The Kids Are All Right and Alice in Wonderland.  Releases April 8.

In a Better World/Haevnen releases April 15. This won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture.  It was directed by the great Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier (Brothers/Brodre, After the Wedding, Things We Lost in the Fire).  A Danish do-gooder returns from Africa to face family problems with his estranged wife and their vulnerable, bullied son.

The Princess of Montpensier: This film, admired at Cannes,  is an adaptation of a well-known short story about a young woman who is forced by her father to marry – but not the man she loves.  It is set in late 16th century France amid the French religious wars.  Look for it on April 22.

Here’s the trailer for In a Better World.

And more upcoming movies

I’ve updated the Movies I’m Looking Forward To page to add trailers and descriptions.  This month we’ll see the singer/songwriter documentary Troubadours (first aired March 2 on PBS), the tragic Cannes hit Of Gods and Men (Des Hommes et des Dieu)( releasing widely March 4) and Abbas Kiarostami’s The Certified Copy (Copie Conforme) with the luminous Juliette Binoche (releasing widely March 18).

Here’s the trailer for Carancho, which will release widely on April 8. Well, they have ambulance chasers in Argentina, too, and that seamy world is the setting for this sexy and violent noir thriller.  Stars Ricardo Darin of The Secrets of Their Eyes and Nine Queens.  Won Un Certain Regard at Cannes.

The Movies I’m Looking Forward To page also features Hanna, Potiche, Jane Eyre, Restless, The Tree of Life, Tabloid, Cold Weather, Boxing Gym and American Grindhouse.

Once again, some promising new movies in the theaters

We’re nearing the end of that period in January and February where the theaters are filled with 1) Oscar nominees lingering from the Holidays and 2) the very worst Hollywood inventory.   Some intriguing new films are now ready to be released.  I’ve updated the Movies I’m Looking Forward To page to add trailers and descriptions.

This weekend brings us Cedar Rapids and Kaboom.  Cedar Rapids is an “aim low” comedy about a lame guy (Ed Helm) whose life is so boring that an insurance agent conference in Cedar Rapids is a revelatory experience.   It’s got John C. Reilly as the Wild and Crazy Insurance Agent and is directed by Miguel Arteta, director of the underrated The Good Girl and Youth in RevoltKaboom: A trippy sex comedy from director Greg Araki, creator of the brilliant and searing Mysterious Skin.

Here’s the trailer for next weekend’s Nora’s Will, a Mexican dramedy in which a man’s mother dies and he uncovers some jarring family secrets.

The Movies I’m Looking Forward To page also features Troubadours, Certified Copy, Of Gods and Men, Carancho, Hanna, Jane Eyre, Restless, The Tree of Life, Tabloid, Cold Weather, Boxing Gym and American Grindhouse.