Where the Wild Things Are
Where the Wild Things Are
Max Records & Catherine Keener in Where the Wild Things Are
Based on Maurice Sendak’s 338-word storybook, Spike Jonze’s film strikes minor chords and plaintive emotions where other directors would’ve gone for the throat. A boy (Max Records) coping with a household unsteadied by divorce sets sail for an island where the Wild Things wrestle with the same clique issues and hurt feelings the boy deals with back home.
Michael Sheen & Timothy Spall
The Damned United
Michael Sheen & Timothy Spall in The Damned United
This engaging film, a winner for soccer fans and soccer idiots alike, focuses on Brian Clough, one-time English footballer turned failed manager of the Leeds United club. Michael Sheen, who played David Frost in ‘Frost/Nixon,’ portrays Clough
Jamie Foxx & Gerard Butler
Law Abiding Citizen
Jamie Foxx & Gerard Butler in Law Abiding Citizen
Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx star in this brutal, preposterous revenge fantasy that taps into a lot of fears about the American legal system. Butler plays a gadget-maker who survives the slaughter of his family and sets out to get even, and then some. Foxx is the politically ambitious Philadelphia prosecutor who lets one of the killers get off easy so the other will be executed.
Natalie Portman & Maggie Q
New York, I Love You
Natalie Portman & Maggie Q in ‘New York, I Love You’
The ongoing ‘Cities We Love’ project that began three years ago with ‘Paris, je t’aime’ continues its global exploration with ‘New York, I Love You.’ Eleven directors and 16 screenwriters contributed to the omnibus affair. I like the idea of the film more than the film itself; the batting average with the Paris project was a good deal higher. Nonetheless, this one provides some compensatory satisfactions
Couples Retreat
Vince Vaughn & Jason Bateman in Couples Retreat
Four couples on a tropical retreat think they’re in for umbrella drinks and beach time. They’re met instead with a stern regimen of ‘couples-whispering’ tactics. Though it boasts a good cast that also includes Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell and Jon Favreau, ‘Couples Retreat’ is pretty meager and more than a little depressing.
A Serious Man
Michael Stuhlbarg & Richard Kind in A Serious Man
Set in 1967 in the Minneapolis suburbs, ‘A Serious Man’ is a tart, brilliantly acted fable of life’s little cosmic difficulties, a Coen brothers comedy with a darker philosophical outlook than ‘No Country for Old Men’ but with a script rich in verbal wit.
Good Hair
Chris Rock & Paul Mooney in Good Hair
Comedian Chris Rock’s ‘Good Hair’ consists of two documentaries braided together, one enjoyable, the other enjoyable and provocative. Rock and a film crew covered the 2007 edition of the Bronner Bros. Hair Show in Atlanta and its climactic Hair Battle Royale
Free Style
Corbin Bleu & Penelope Ann Miller in Free Style
Corbin Bleu may have graduated from “High School Musical,” but he stays close to his Disney Channel roots in “Free Style,” a squeaky-clean sports flick about a poor kid with big dreams (and bigger hair) trying to make it in the motocross world.
