Pop Culture Round Up: August 23 - 29

Kitties need to rock, too.

It claims it was published on the 21st, but I am certain I have read this somewhere before.

Everyone wants Jay Baruchel now, too. Well, everyone except 24 Heures Montréal. They saw some "Ray Baruchel" kid in Tropic Thunder.*

Hey, remember when Italian cinema was experiencing a Renaissance that we didn't know it needed? Now we apparently need to worry if it will last.

Ha! I can't wait to see how crazy hateful this might turn out.

And equally funny (fake) Sorkin news.

WTF, Sara? The Women, Ghost Town, and Lakeview Terrace all look fucking terrible.

This was not as exciting as I wanted it to be. Dan's with some new chick? Whatever.

"You will note: there is a rampant high tide of colonisation." I have noticed that, actually!

Lamenting silence.

I originally misinterpreted this subtitle to mean convention as in rule or method instead of convention as in meeting, so I was like, "What, using parliamentary rules of debate?"

Why does Orlando Bloom feature so heavily in this trailer? Is there a person alive who associates him with that city in particular?

I did think that this rumour might be "totally awesome," for about half a second.

Sadly, none of these are Ms. Hauser, Veronica's angry, theiving, racist Health teacher. Or Professor Landry, her adulterous, murderous criminology professor. Or Mr. Rook, her molesting Ancient History teacher. Wow, there weren't a lot of good teachers on that show.

Funny, recent Woody Allen.

Gear up for fall with NY Mag's Fall Movie Preview.

OMG, this is totally true.

Find out what made the cut as "the scariest disaster movie of the decade." Hint: it's got polar bears!

Cattle and deer have a sixth sense! Beware!

Having read the AV Club's Fall TV Preview, I can safely name of number of new shows I plan to check out: 3. And I'm expecting two of those to suck.

Jennie and Shannen hate the new 90210? Check it out for yourself. They kind of do.

That's all great and good if you live in the US. When will Hulu be available here?

I'm pretty sure we're just stuck on anyone who can successfully live outside the law.

How mean does it make me to find this ever-so-slightly amusing?

Well, yeah, Kiefer. Also, spoilers!

Bye, Dan! I'll miss you, and I'm sorry I didn't read the Vulture back when you made that video because it is killer.

Rob's Amazing Poem Generator** came up with a Feria Films poem:

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heavy interview.

*Print only, apparently. Couldn't seem to find this online.
**This makes me want to generate a poem for pretty much every review now.

The Prestige (2006)

See? I wasn't kidding when I said there were more RE-views in store.

And I bet you didn't even know that a Johansson/Hall double bill was possible.

As per usual when watching something surprising or twisty, particularly if you were surprised, watching it a second time makes you wonder how you could have been fooled. I watched this with a friend who had never seen it, and she was like, "Obviously that guy is his twin." I threw her off the scent, inquiring incredulously, "You think that guy looks like Christian Bale?" She admitted that he didn't, but, seriously, why didn't I notice it before? He doesn't talk! He's always hanging around! Suspicious stuff, man.

Instead, I made a game of figuring out which one he was in any given scenes. Certain scenes, like the ones with Sarah (the still terrific Hall) and Olivia (a less irritated although still unnecessarily English Johansson) or when he is in jail, are more obvious, but it's still a pretty fun game in the second viewing. On the other hand, thinking about this twins business for too long can make you disappointed that you just watched an entire movie to learn absolutely nothing about one of the central characters. Why are the Bordens so obsessed with magic that they are willing to live only half a life to pursue it? The Nolans won't be giving you the answer.

I was once again bowled over by Jackman's performance. Angier is the real villain of the piece, a man so hell bent on revenge for so long that even the reason for his obsession pales in comparison to pursuing it. It's his steadfast belief that Borden could not, under any circumstances, be using a double that drives a lot of the action, and he plays it so well. With Jackman as Angier, has a blood curdling believable quality to it: if he could just understand how Borden works. I love how something so seemingly simple (if he could just) leads to so much complication.

I didn't realize upon first viewing that there were two prestiges at the end: Borden and Angier each get their own prestige. It never occurred to me that we were supposed to think that Telsa (the subdued but still rockin' David Bowie), discovering that the machine duplicated rather than transported, would "fix" the machine. It was more a question of what Angier was going to do with all the extra Angiers, and I figured that one out soon enough. Still, it's the more devastating reveal for the audience; the two Bordens is most devastating to Angier alone.

While I may not feel exactly the same watching this as I did the first time around, it's still a superbly crafted fantasy/thriller and an excellent allegory for filmmaking. Original grade stands: A

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

Brief: Two friends, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), are invited by Vicky's aunt (Patricia Clarkson) to spend the summer in Barcelona. There they meet Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), a painter who takes an instant liking to them. The return of Juan Antonio's ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz), complicates matters.

There's been a lot of talk about how if this movie had come out before Match Point, it would have been heralded as writer-director Woody Allen's return to form and that one would have been considered the retread. I'm not sure I agree. For one, I'm not sure that there is such a thing as a "return to form" for Allen. I've been operating under the assumption that there is no form, or at least no one form, for him. For two, I didn't see the classics first. I saw movies like Everyone Says I Love You and Small Time Crooks long before I ever set eyes on something like Manhattan, so my view of what makes a Woody Allen movie a Woody Allen movie is somewhat skewed. That said, while I may not know whether this movie is more or less Woody Allen (whatever that means) than Point, I do know that I don't think this movie is better than the former.

There are some good points, though, chief among them Bardem and Cruz. I read in an interview with Allen that Barcelona could have been pretty much any city, and that Barcelona happened to work* (I guess that means that we have cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe to thank for the architecture porn). I wonder whether Vicky Cristina Rome really would have been the same. What Italian actors would he have found that would have brought the star wattage and sex appeal that those two bring? Bardem's devilish matter of fact delivery saves a number of clunkers (why so literal, Allen?), and Cruz's manic combination of comedy, sensuality, and pathos keeps the scenes buoyant. I think I may have turned the corner on Cruz. This is by far her best English language performance.

I think I may have turned the corner on Johansson as well. I think I'm over her. There came a moment late in the film where Johansson didn't quite gel for me, and I wasn't sure if the problem was that Cristina, acting, didn't sell it, or Johansson, actor, didn't sell it, or if it was a combination of the two. The fact that I can't tell the difference is problematic. It's easy enough to apply narration over a silent Vicky that makes her seem more complex (the problem was never that I thought that her portrayer was empty-headed), but that can only take you so far. It's up to Johansson to go the rest of the way, and I don't think she does.

Yes, narration. I realize that I've got a well documented mental block when it comes to narration, and I doubt I am going to ease up on that anytime soon. It works well enough when Allen wants to drop in bits of exposition without having to stick any unsightly dialogue in his characters' mouths, and there is one scene where we honestly wouldn't have known that a mistake was being made unless someone told us. Okay, I was going to expand that to "scenes," but then I thought of something that he could have shown us that would have done away with the need for narration and, in doing so, thought of a later scene that does away with even the narration in the one scene where I originally thought it necessary. So, good for exposition in this case and not much else.

I realize I have yet to say anything about Hall, and I have been remiss in doing so. Though the American accent trips her up little bit, everything else she is doing (her mannerisms, her body language: there's an excellent kinesthetic sense that Hall brings to Cristina) is spot on. I definitely want to see more of her.

The sun-dappled vistas are a nice contrast with the pessimistic view of love that Allen presents here. It may not be all it could be, but it is very good. B+

*Then I stopped reading, as it seemed to be a spoiler heavy interview.

Pop Culture Round Up: August 16 - 22

How intense has this week been? This is old, old news. But still, aww! Seriously, though, you'd think it wasn't August with the level of stories worth reading this week.

"Northern Peaks"? Sounds about right.

Is Germany going to help everyone else get their art back? Like these people, maybe?

Criticism in crisis continues - it's not just for print critics anymore!

That's a shame because I would like to see what the brothers Nolan would make of Professor Hugo Strange.

It is strange, but I've always liked number 5. It's Liev Schreiber's (a man born to play Hamlet if there ever was one) possibly-incestuous take on Laertes that really makes it.

Are there people out there that don't want to see Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber face off? Do they have a pulse? What? I like Liev Schreiber!

Aw, matchmaker! Now there's someone whose life I wonder about.

"Elitism? Of course it is. But then, the love of books is surely a minority sport, isn't it?" Is it? I didn't think it was that hard.

"Parse for me, please, the distinction between 'sexual material' and 'sexual content.'" Heh. The MPAA's a broad target, but they're worth the effort to take aim.

Are you sure it's unfair competition, Brian? Maybe it's poor quality.

I, sadly, do not posses a killer instinct. Well, at least not one of a sociopath.

I'm all about these kinds of programs. It's important to make sure indigenous cultures don't die out.

Hee! John Cusack can't fact check, apparently.

I'm going to watch all of these.

You know, this is true. Sad, but true. Still, there are plots that I would like to see wrap up, and I miss Logan in a big way. Why has no one snapped him up for a plum role yet?

Wrong. If you want to know if something is age appropriate for your kid, read it yourself first. There remains no substitute for parenting.

Ha! "The man has really got some serious beard on him."

"Jay Baruchel as a high-maintenance mustached porn actor with performance anxiety." One can dream!

Hurrah! Just the other day I was watching the first one and running around going, "I always thought it would be Clemenza."

A-ha! Good thing smoking always equaled evil and death on Buffy then.

Give your friends faux tattoos. They even ripple!

Mourn Manny Farber by reading what's probably his most famous essay, "White Elephant Art vs. Termite Art."

Then again, maybe we are really August bored. Daily Intel gets into it with the Observer over Ed Westwick's face. Can't we all just agree that he's maybe a (sexy) vampire?

Tropic Thunder (2008)

Premise: First time director Damien Cockburn (the peerless Steven Coogan) can't control his diva cast of action star Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), award winner Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr.), and comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), so Four Leaf Tayback (a never funnier Nick Nolte), author of the book Tropic Thunder, convinces him to put his stars and two supporting players, rapper mogul Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) and bit player Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel), out in the jungle to shoot the movie guerrilla style. Things go south pretty quickly.

It's a Jack Black double bill!

Oh, co-writer-director-producer-star Stiller, how do we get you to make more movies like this? Stop making sequels to those not-particularly-funny-in-the-first-place Focker movies, and just make more movies exactly as outrageous as this one. Mind you, seven years have lapsed between this and the highly quotable Zoolander. Allow me to revise: if it takes another seven years to get a parody of this quality, one that is this smart, silly, and fun, we'll wait.

Yes, parody. Don't bother calling it a satire 'cause it's not a satire. Satires have bite, and this movie only has bite if you are a) Russell Crowe or b) Tom Cruise, and he is obviously not bothered by it. And, while we're here, let's get this out of the way: Is it offensive? No. I'm not a member of a group that would be offended by it, but let me explain. The Simple Jack stuff is representative of a certain kind of Oscar-baiting and within the movie it is meant to be offensive, which is why it shouldn't be considered offensive outside the movie. The fact that Tugg made Simple Jack is supposed to make him look bad, so pointing to it outside the movie and saying, "That looks bad" is redundant.

As for the blackface, same deal. It's suppose to highlight that doing this sort of thing is stupid and offensive, so saying, "Hey! That's stupid and offensive!" accomplishes the same goal. Besides, Downey is doing the most hilarious parody of Method-actors like Russell Crowe (with a touch of Adrian Brody thrown in for good measure) ever. The throw away clip of Lazarus on Inside the Actors Studio is worth the price of admission alone. Downey's trademark multi-current emotional acting is suspended in favour of a more deadpan delivery, but I think we can live with it. It's worth it to see Downey and Stiller try to out crazy each other with Black's manic energy surging in the background.

Let's move on to what's really important here: When did Baruchel get so adorable? He was always adorable (nervous about grabbing the hydro wires on PMK? Adorable! Punching Lloyd in the ear 'cause he doesn't know how to fight? Adorable!), but now he's super adorable, like, boyfriend adorable. When did this happen? Maybe it helps that of the five, he's the audience surrogate. Okay, his fantastic comedic timing helps, too.

Fine, I'll tell you what you really want to know: will Tom Cruise's cameo save his career? Probably not (there a moments when he's a little too scarily committed), but it should because it is hands down the funniest thing he has ever done. It's a shame he never had the chance to be on Extras. And to those in the theatre who gasped when his name was revealed in the credits (yeah, I heard you): are you best friends with Anthony Lane? Not only does Tom Cruise still resemble Tom Cruise, but he also sounds like Tom Cruise. He has a very distinctive voice.

The details are what makes this one near-constantly hilarious from the three fake trailers that precede the movie (I would so see Satan's Alley*) to the exposition via Maria Menounos to Tyra Banks. Co-writers Stiller, Justin Theroux, and Etan Cohen have an excellent ear and eye for fitting in the visual references and double speak that makes this inside-Hollywood picture nothing short of a treat. A-

*When did Tobey Maguire start looking like Wentworth Miller, though? Well, like Michael Scofield?

Be Kind Rewind (2008)

Idea: Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) goes on vacation and leaves Mike (Mos Def) in charge of the video store. After Jerry (Jack Black) accidentally erases all the tapes, Mike and Jerry improvise their own versions of the movies back on to the tapes with Alma's (Melonie Diaz) help.

I complain a lot about ambiguity in movies for a reason. When something doesn't make sense, is incomplete, or is dropped altogether, it takes away from the rest of the movie. You're left wondering what happened to that character or subplot instead of paying attention to what's on screen, and your experience with movie is diminished.

Movies can and do use ambiguity to their advantage, though. Pineapple Express jettisoned an entire subplot about Dale's girlfriend's family in favour of one crazy scene, and it streamlined the film. Before Sunrise ended ambiguously, and that ending was its biggest, most romantic gift to the audience: for nine years, it was up to you if they met up. Great fiction lets you decide for yourself, and the ambiguity in writer-director Michel Gondry's lovely feature does that with pretty much every scene: Is Mike Mr. Fletcher's son? Are Mr. Fletcher and Miss Falewicz (a delightfully loopy Mia Farrow) in love? What's Jerry's deal? Gondry will never tell!

Instead, the ambiguity enhances the feeling that you just dropped into the slightly off-kilter lives of the residents of Passaic, NJ and the employees/hangers-on of Be Kind Rewind, a store with one dollar video rentals. It makes up for other flaws in the movie's plotting and pacing, so the enterprise seems sweet and exciting. It's not your average underdog story -- no one seems to win against the man, ever. As an ode to the fun that we make for ourselves, it's a bubbly diversion, visually stimulating (there's a hilarious, near-throw away moment involving painted coveralls and a "ladder gang") with heart to spare. If it inspires you to start sweding your own videos, so much the better. B+

Pineapple Express (2008)

Story: While waiting to serve a subpoena to Ted Jones (Gary Cole), Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) witness Ted murder someone, tosses his roach out the window, and heads to his dealer, Saul (James Franco), for help. Realizing that they could be identified by the rare weed Dale was smoking (Pineapple Express), as Ted is its only supplier, Dale and Saul go on the run.

Seeing this makes me wish everyone in the extended Apatow family would sit down for a seminar about why some of the movies bearing his stamp are better than others.

The second feature from screenwriting duo Evan Goldberg and Rogen doesn't quite have the heart of Superbad, but it's inspired in its own right, especially in the casting of Franco as the dizzy, childlike Saul, who's just dealing drugs to keep his bubbie in a nice retirement home. It also finds inspiration in director David Gordon Green, best known for his indie tone poems (which I don't entirely get), who manages to bring personalized style and flair to the sometimes visually bland Apatow factory.

There's a lot to like, actually, from Ted's relationship with Carol (Rosie Perez), his cop on the take, to Kevin Corrigan's L'Oreal Man Pouf, but the best part might be Danny R. McBride as Red, the middle man between Ted and Saul. His hilariously deft take on a guy who can't quite figure out what side to be on should be the launch of a long and storied supporting actor career.

Perhaps the only knock against this movie is the long and somewhat indifferently shot violent, slapstick, gross out third act though it includes plenty of well done references to Hot Fuzz. On the other hand, I love that they stick to their roots in the finale with no one discovering hidden potential. The movie nails the details of not only stoner culture (from Dale's monologue/rant on how pot makes everything better to the pitch perfect breakfast scene that closes the movie) but also of 20 somethings culture. B+

Pop Culture Round Up: August 9 - 15

Sorry about the lack of posts this week, kids. I think I'll be back on track soon. In the meantime, holla me, as the 9th up there was my birthday. I have moved into a new age bracket and had to get a new prescription for my glasses, hence am feeling old.

I wonder if they could have chosen a worse photo for this story.

"Do you suffer from blockbuster fatigue?" Possibly, although I considered that to be related to the lack of good movies this year rather than an overabundance of blockbusters.

Actually, I've noticed this as well inasmuch as there are ridiculously few new shows that I am anticipating for fall. And by few I mean . . . one, sort of.

"It won't sell, they think, unless they put some naughty bits in - even if they have to invent the naughty bits." What, I can't take a sentence out of context for my own amusement? Of course I can!

I must say that I agree with the first one (No. 1o) on this list mostly because they annoy me in this about to happen/just happened/is happening way.

Gak! It's just like when the Globe shrank, and now it sits there, pushed to one side in its over sized boxes on street corners, a hollow shell of what it used to be.

"But as Warners goes through the arduous process of absorbing two dozen or so New Line films into its distribution system, the studio simply has too many movies to release, so it's starting to pick out the weak calves from the herd." Ooo, a slaughter! Much like the above, this kind of news makes me a little sad. You toil to get a picture greenlit, actually finish it, and then it might never see the light of day. Sigh.

Already? It occurs to me that the show as it will exist on air will never live up to the behind the scenes drama I imagine is going on. I want to watch that show.

Isn't Jerry Maguire a little too much for a simple date movie?

Apparently Allan Kozinn over at the Times has a beef with French horns, which is sad but funny. They are one of those instruments that are really beautiful when played well but don't get really get enough play for players to get really good at them, you know? No? Okay.

Another beef that cracks me up. Pretty much any beef reported in "Beef" cracks me up, though. Remember when Spike Lee accused Clint Eastwood of racism earlier this summer? Somehow the Vulture made that funny, too.

Again, why are people still reporting this like it's news? Well, new news, which it was, about three years ago. Holla 2005!

Oddly, this does help redeem Sorkin in my eyes. That and occasional memories of what a brilliant show The West Wing was.

Now, if I linked to every good post on Go Fug Yourself, I'd be linking to GFY all the live long day, but this post in particular is fantastic. Maybe it's for a role?

Hurray! I've been missing Green since he stepped out as Oz to go hang with monks. Okay, Oz went to hang out with monks, and Green went to finish a movie, but still. We're missing Green, right?

While I think this is probably true, I also think that it is a slow, trickle down effect that will prevent us from realizing the dire situation for another few years. Most of us haven't had the time to get around to the all the fantastic releases to realize that there aren't enough coming out anymore.

"Julia Child's spy career revealed." That headline says it all.

I'm beginning to think that the web peeps over at CBC revel in choosing strange photos.

"But it was his cover of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” that spread through the Internet and drew new listeners to his site." Which I love. It's almost as good as "Tom Cruise Crazy."

"Kaleem Aftab is outraged at the way marketing is taking over." Outraged!

I'm so excited that Primer is back (I don't think I've seen one since May) that I think I probably would have linked to it regardless of the subject matter. Getting to know one of America's most influential filmmakers is a good idea, though.

"I hope it's my new issue of Geeks Who Live With Their Mothers Monthly!"

I can hear y'all clamouring for my latest cinema article over at Culture. "It's mid-month! Why do you torture us with these delays?!" Because there is no new issue. August's issue is a 'best of' and apparently my best is my December article, "Some Things Just Look Better." If you haven't already read it, get on that. Didn't you hear? It's the BEST! The Heath Ledger Roundtable has also been reposted, should you feel the desire to revisit.

As for the advice column, which some of you love even more than the cinema column, it's just a blurb this time around. I shall repost it here:

Miss Smartypants is taking this month off, but be sure to keep sending in those questions regarding problems, issues, and grammatical confusion. Boy-girl stuff? She's got an opinion about it. Forgot what happened in that movie that time? She'll figure it out. Can't remember if it's "between you and me" or "between you and I" is grammatically correct? She'll tell you… and she'll probably make fun of you.

Send your issues, questions and concerns to advice@culturemagazine.ca

Pop Culture Round-Up: August 2-8

I wouldn't necessarily like all of these, but it sounds like an awfully good idea.

The inspiration for The Red Shoes?

"Can you teach your kid to have taste?" Probably not, but it's certainly worth a try.

Dude, am I the only person that doesn't have a problem with his Batman voice? I dig.

Oh, VI. I would so watch this. Would he do an accent?

MPDGs really get to me sometimes, but I like this list.

I can't tell if this is a good or bad thing. I enjoyed the novelty of the swearing in Step Brothers because people do speak that way, but we probably shouldn't.

Nothing could be more ridiculous or more potentially enjoyable. Look at him furrow!

Ah, yes, the good old fashioned snub. Nothing like it to irk the people who actually watch TV.

Dude, it stars Demetri Martin? Sign me up!

"That could be useful in a range of situations, from policing, to attaching cameras to wildlife." Excellent. The solution to my not being able to attach cameras to wildlife problem is near.

Roland Emmerich's house is exactly as ridiculous as the man himself, thank goodness.

I saw this . . . : Post war edition

Sometimes I actually get around to seeing the classics.

Les Quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows) (1959)

Before I went to see this New Wave gem from director François Truffaut, my mom asked me what it was about. I fumbled for a while and eventually came up with, "A 12 year-old boy." That was it. Thank goodness I've had blinders on about this one because I know others that have been spoiled by its reputation. Honestly, it's a shame. For them. The first half is as charming as the second half is maddening, and the combination is devastating. The title comes from a French idiom that translates "to raise hell," and that's exactly what Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) sets out to do. Léaud is a wonder of a child actor, a kid who plays a kid all the way through, never grows up, never has the world on his shoulders, never does much of anything that any kid wouldn't do. The exact same excuse you apply to his earlier indiscretions (Well, he's 12) becomes your whimper as life heaps greater and greater punishment on him (But he's 12!). Guided by Jean Constantin's glorious score, it's a paean to childhood and innocence lost, and the indefatigable spirit that can carry us through if we let it. A

The Graduate (1967)

Alright, I watched. Maybe I come from the wrong time/place, but I don't get it. I get it at when Ben (Dustin Hoffman) is just drifting and when Ben submerges in the middle of the party. I get why Ben would have an awkward affair with Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft). But then Elaine (Katherine Ross) is introduced and, for me, the whole thing comes off the rails. Why in the world would Elaine be interested in Ben? He slept with her mom, he stalks her, and he's annoying and clingy. I get why Ben's doing all this, but we have no insights into why Elaine would want anything to do with this schmuck. Maybe there's more to her in the novel, but here it's just . . . unbelievable. Still, that final scene? That I get. B

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)

I somehow got it into my head that this was the first movie to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder in WWII vets, and that probably unfounded idea coloured my opinion of the movie while I was first watching it. I kept waiting for the moment when Tim Roth (Gregory Peck) would flip and, like, try to murder his wife (Jennifer Jones) because he thought she was a Nazi or scale his employer's sky scraper thinking he was a sniper, but nothing like that ever happens. It's more like post-traumatic laconic staring, where Peck spends a lot of time gazing out windows lost in not at all violent memories of the war. If anything it's more about the inherent difficulties in dealing with bureaucracy and with being honest in your home life. Fortunately, that movie's elegant, quiet, and smart, and writer-director Nunnally Johnson won me over by the end. B+

The Short Take: The Richard Jenkins Edition

Sometimes, shorter reviews seem much, much more reasonable than longer ones.

The Visitor (2007)

While I'm a sucker for a lot of different kinds of movies (coming of age, costume dramas, sweeping epics), I wouldn't consider the middle aged thaw out one of them. One that stars yeoman character actor Richard Jenkins, co-stars cutie Haaz Sleiman from what's probably the worst episode of Veronica Mars ever, and has some sort of illegal alien/drumming plot? I'm in. Jenkins, as is his wont, gives subtle and nuanced performance as an widowed economics professor who returns to his New York apartment after years of absence to find Zainab (Dania Jekesai Gurira) and Tarek (Sleiman) living there. He's only in town to present a paper, and, well, it's not like he's using the place, so he lets them stay. In his sophomore feature, writer-director Thomas McCarthy is surprisingly subtle in dealing with both the reasons why Jenkins would do this (he manages to drop them into conversations naturally) and with the immigration/illegal alien plot. By the time Tarek's mom (Hiam Abbass) arrives, Jenkins' gradual warming seems sweet and natural instead of strange and forced. It's not a perfect movie, but it's certainly a nice one to enjoy on a quiet day. B+

So it's too bad that Jenkins turned around and made . . .

Step Brothers (2008)

It's bad to the point where I feel I should be writing a "I Watched This on Purpose" entry after seeing it. I knew it wasn't going to be good, but I went into it thinking, "Hopefully it's not that bad." Surely it had a chance at least being "good for what it is" bad, right? That was the wrong move. It is that bad. Just plain bad. There are a lot of changes that could have made it at least enjoyable bad, like, say, making Dale (John C. Reilly) and Brennan (Will Ferrell) a solid 15 years younger. "But then they couldn't have been played by Reilly and Ferrell!" you exclaim. To which I say, "And?"

You know that comedy trope where something is funny entirely because it goes on for so long, and then it stops being funny because it's gone on for so long, and then it starts being even funnier than it originally was because it just keeps going? This plot of this movie is that joke, stretched out over an uninspired 95 minutes. It's improv gone awry. Remember that scene where they build bunk beds because it will give them so much more room to do activities and then Dale jumps up on the top bunk and the whole thing collapses on Brennan? Funny, right? Not so much. In between Dale sort of bops around in a circle listing off activities they can do in this newly freed space (sadly, I didn't hear "mixed martial arts," which would have been actually funny), while Brennan simply paces around near the beds saying, "So many activities" over and over in a vaguely-OCD manner. Ferrell, not Brennan, just seems so fatigued, like he couldn't even come up with anything better. It reeks of improved filler that exists solely to get us to the big finish, which doesn't nearly have the impact that it could have if a) it wasn't in every ad and b) we were idiots.

What does any of this have to do with Richard Jenkins? He plays one of the step parents along with the overly tanned but otherwise reliable Mary Steenburgen. I like them both, but it is impossible to sympathize with/relate to any of these characters. Why are you allowing your 40 year old children to live with you and act like 13 year olds? With nothing to relate to, there is no heart at the centre of the movie to tie it all together, a key element on the rest of the man-child movies. If it weren't for Adam Scott as Brennan's hilariously overachieving douchebag younger brother, this movie might have no redeeming value. Apatow and co. need to put this arrested development thing away and think of other ways to be funny. And, while they are at it, why don't they about writing funnier, more filled out female characters like Catherine Keener's in The 40-Year-Old Virgin (although consider the casting) and less like poor, poor Alice (Kathryn Hahn) in this outing? D

Pop Culture Round Up: July 26 - August 1

Intense week in the news, guys, so let's get right to it:

"Is the Hollywood blockbuster finally eating itself?" I don't know, but I think that would be cool to watch. Someone should get on that. Also, check out the related content that updates every Friday.

The trailer does make W. look hilarious, although I suspect that it unintentional.

I'm glad someone's talking about this because I have been wondering about it for a while.

I'm a sucker for these sorts of stories. Can he do it? Not really, as it turned out.

Stop letting monolithic corporations down and get on this already.

What the? This just doesn't seem like a very good idea.

Free Dylan!

I like how the headline makes it seem like the story is going to blow a conspiracy wide open. It's hard for me to say, though, since I almost never buy new books and even more rarely by new fiction.

As soon as I saw this headline, I sang, "Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise crazy/Just be glad it's him not you."

And as soon as I saw this headline, I thought, "Paul Greengrass!"

How am I just learning about this movie now?

This diary/blog idea is both weird and cool, and it has an excellent start date.

Sadly, none of these are Paul Gross.

"What is it about those silly stoner flicks that keeps us laughing?" Perhaps pot use among the audience?

Why is this happening? The worst of it is I like Seth Green, and I liked Scott Evil. He makes wanting to go grab a gun from his room and shoot his Dad's mortal enemies together seem heartwarming.

Hey, it's kind of like my September movie theory!

Everyone's all over this rumour, and you know what? I'm a little nervous about it. Both the Riddler and the Penguin strike me as some of the more cartoony villains, but, then again, so did Two Face, and they managed to not only pull that one out of the fire but make it a poignant tale of expectation and heartbreak. Maybe I shouldn't be that nervous. You know, if it's even true.

Cool! Science and art, working together.

This is one of the most exciting developments I have come across in a long time. I'm going to watch The Big Snit as soon as I am done here.

What this? A reasoned argument about illegal downloading? Hmm.

I wouldn't normally point you to this trailer as I think there's nothing particularly exciting about it, but you have to click the link and watch it, so you can laugh at the last line of the post.

This week in things that exist: Public Dreams Society.