For sheer entertainment, I recommend the Norwegian dark comedy Headhunters, with Aksel Hennie as a smug corporate headhunter/art thief who panics when a high tech commando hunts him down.
The must-see in theaters remains Monsieur Lazhar, the story of French-Canadian fifth graders recovering from a traumatic experience with their replacement teacher, an Algerian immigrant. It’s an emotionally compelling film that was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.
Last week’s releases were middling. The best of the bunch, the romantic comedy The Five-Year Engagement, is intelligent, authentic and leisurely with some chuckles. The Hunter is a paranoid thriller, starring Willem Dafoe as a professional hunter sent to the primordial forests of Tasmania. Pirates! Band of Misfits is a merely amusing offering from the masters of claymation, Aardman Studios (Wallace and Gromit); don’t pay extra to see it in 3D.
You can skip Damsels in Distress, Whit Stillman’s misfire of an absurdist campus comedy.
You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
My DVD pick this week is Haywire, Steven Soderbergh’s rockem sockem spy action thriller, introducing the mixed martial arts star Gina Carano.