It's been a mostly forgettable year in the cinema so far, and it's hard to believe that summer is so rapidly approaching. Of course, Hollywood has pushed the summer movie season up so far, it can be a bit misleading. Coming our way, an assault of sequels-- Harry Potter, Transformers, Cars, Kung Fu Panda, The Hangover, Pirates of the Caribbean, Spy Kids, awwwwwww! A few wannabe franchises-- Thor, Captain America, The Green Lantern; 'tis the season to leave ones brain at home, and indulge on high calorie studio crap to go with your over-priced popcorn. It was hard to find ten movies that I'm eagerly awaiting, so bare with me, and let's get through it together.
10.The Beaver- Perhaps more a curiosity piece than anything else (it was really hard looking for quality stuff; on paper at least) but there's always a fascination with the hopeful redemption of someone, and is there anyone in Hollywood in need of better PR than Mel Gibson. Before the personality appeared to completely take over, he was at times a capable and charming movie star. More so, I've always been intrigued by Jodie Foster's body of war, when it's up, it's absolutely tremendous, and even when it's down, it's usually still interesting. She's directing- her first since the underrated 1995 comedy Home For the Holidays, which interestingly chronicled another troubled actor issues, Robert Downey, Jr. The premise is an odd one, of a depressed man (Gibson) finding solace with his beaver sock puppet, but with the right restraint, maybe it can be modern Harvey. Foster co-stars along with Anton Yelchin and recent Oscar-nominee Jennifer Lawrence. Opens in May.
9.The Help- Adapted from the best selling novel, and directed by first timer Tate Taylor, The Help is a '60s era ensemble drama concerning the lives and class struggles of a group of women in Mississippi. What intrigues me about it is through and through, the cast, a wonderful group of actresses who, assuming the work jells, could make this a savory piece of cinema, and perhaps an awards contender. Of course, sight unseen, one never knows. The ladies of The Help are Emma Stone, the charming light comedienne who each film out affirms a movie star in the making, Viola Davis, who is nearly always captivating (even before her awards honors in Doubt, she made the most of potentially sketchy roles in films as varied as Far From Heaven and Antwone Fisher, Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek and Cicely Tyson provide the veteran support. Also stars Bryce Dallas Howard, an actress who for some reason or not, I oddly appreciate without particularly ever liking any of her performance, and the suddenly high in demand Jessica Chastain, who appears in about ninety films this year...I'm very curious. Opens in August.
__________________________________________________ 8.Cowboys & Aliens- A sci-fi western starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, okay, I'll give it a try. From director Jon Favreau, whose noticeable fatigue on Iron Man 2 caused a blip in an otherwise amusing collection of films, adapts from the comic book by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg a story about cowboys taking on some extra-terrestrial critters. It might just be hokey enough to work, and out of the endless supply of studio popcorn flicks soon to be hitting us all over the head, I'd rather spend some time with Mr. Craig and Mr. Ford, two actors who usually know what kind of films they're in, than some of the other, lamer wannabe heroes coming at us. Opens in July.
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7.X-Men: First Class- Am I really looking forward to this, or is this looking more and more like one of lamest summer movie seasons of recent memory; it's hard to say. X-Men gets rebooted, five years after director Brett Ratner nearly destroyed the series, and after the mostly deserved goodwill from the first two films directed by Bryan Singer, that was not the easiest thing to do, now Matthew Vaughn takes the film, he of Kick-Ass, Stardust and Layer Cake partial fame. This prequel sets the stage for young Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and young Magneto, ahem Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) to begin their epic quarrel. McAvoy and Fassbender are always of interest, and the teaser trailer hinted that their might be some good fun in store... Opens in June.
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6.Midnight in Paris- Woody Allen returns, a bit quicker than usual after last fall's dreadful London picture, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. This year, he continues his European quest, filming in Paris for the first time. This is probably way to high on the list, seeing as the past decades have not been overly kind to Woody Allen fans, but you never know-- in the past decade he has surprised us at least twice, with Match Point (2005) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008.) Here's hoping his latest ensemble comedy-- this one featuring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Mimi Kennedy and Adrien Brody-- refreshes the palette. Opens the Cannes Film Festival, and hits theaters in May.
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5.Beginners- With a trailer that looks like a precious dramedy concerning the relationship between a recently out father (Christopher Plummer) and his son (Ewan McGregor), one poses the question what type of film Beginners is going for-- cutesy or sobering. Either way, it will take a deft filmmaker to pull it off-- it's helmed by Mike Mills (Thumbsucker.) Whatever the approach, Plummer and McGregor are more than capable from turning potentially saccharine material to total mush, and the steely Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) co-stars as McGregor's girlfriend, so either way, I'm totally there. Opens in May.
__________________________________________________ 4. Crazy, Stupid, Love- The sad destruction of the romantic comedy genre has boiled down to one concept-- get a group of famous actors together (the more, the better), write a half backed script (perhaps compiled from a self-help book, episodes of Sex and the City, or merely based on national holidays), and bam, you're good. Crazy, Stupid, Love, from the naughty guys behind I Love You Phillip Morris may prove no better, but at least a wonderful group of actors came aboard-- Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Steve Carell, Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei-- and while the infectious trailer may have but included the only watchable parts of the film, this one appears, on the surface anyway, acutely aware of what it's selling. Perhaps the defunct genre may fully recover, but I'm hopeful, this one won't be the culprit. Opens in July.
__________________________________________________ 3.Tabloid- Festival favorite of last fall, Errol Morris returns with a documentary about a former beauty queen who was charged for abducting and imprisoning a Mormon missionary. Here's hoping the insightful and brilliant mind of such game-changing films like The Fog of War (for which he won the Academy Award), The Thin Blue Line and A Brief History of Time can bring some much needed brain power to cinemas; I've got a hunch he just might. Opens in July.
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2.Super 8- The hype is crazy, and enough to almost be sick of already, but every once in a blue moon, even in the land of dumbed down summer blockbusters, it actually delivers. Hopefully, director J.J. Abrams isn't just blowing smoke with his homage to kind of magic popcorn fare Spielberg used to bring, and the infectious childlike joy is for real. Abrams already has proven a canny manipulator of pulp fiction, first on television, with Alias and Lost, and already rejuvenated a lost franchise with 2009's Star Trek, bringing a taut, and at times joyous variant of the summer blockbuster. Now after teasing us, and quite brilliantly, it's time for the film to actually be seen, expectations to be brought to mere mortal standards, the curtain to raise to hopeful movie magic. Opens in June.
__________________________________________________ 1.The Tree of Life- I'm tired of waiting, and that's all director\auteur\poet Terrence Malick makes his humble audience do. Ready to be wowed and completely immersed in his latest, a '50s era meditation on family, time and dinosaurs. Not at all sure what this is exactly, but Malick has never delivered anything less than a haunting movie experience. Stars Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain-- isn't strange that all of his highly lauded movies have never netted much acclaim or prizes to his actors; going back. Of course, the star of the show is always Terrence Malick, and it's time to show. Opens in May (we hope.)
Other curiosities this summer: the Kristen Wiig vehicle Bridesmaids (which she also co-scripted) hopes to out-naughty the R-rated boys comedies, The Whistleblower, about an American peacekeeper in the Middle East caught up in a homeland scandal (stars Rachel Weisz in a potentially interesting role), Larry Crowne, which re-unites movie stars Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts (hopefully a lot more memorably than Charlie Wilson's War; their first film together), Horrible Bosses, a dark comedy starring Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Aniston, the South African selection of last year's Academy Award, Life, Above All, and the British comedy Submarine, which was well reviewed during last fall's festival season, starring Sally Hawkins.
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