Pop Culture Round Up: December 12-18

Portman takes on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies film

Movie stars break the song barrier

A titanic duo: Gibson, DiCaprio join forces for Viking film
I refuse all Vikings that are not Eric.

Hollywood's missing 'Voice'

Are directors overrated? Filmmakers shed light on their real power

Portrait of a Multitasking Mind

Can Anybody Make a Movie for Women?

Pop Culture Round Up: November 21 - December 11

Progressive Detective: Am I socially obligated to get the flu shot?
Quick answer: yes.

Hip-Hop’s New Steps - Jerking
I thought jerking had been around for a long time . . .

Philip Glass on His Latest Opera, Kepler, and Where Music Meets Science

Magazine Publishers to Build an Online Newsstand

Thanksgiving box office record blown away despite absence of new hits

How do movie blurbs work?

Rogers launches Hulu clone

Is Loneliness Contagious?
But is it also underrated?

Coronation Street's Maggie Jones dies at 75
Sad! Can't imagine the show without Blanche.

Want To Get Your Audience Out Faster? Put Something In Their Way

Film composers lose luster
Enjoy variety while you can! They are gradually instituting a pay wall as of yesterday.

Dogs vs cats: The great pet showdown
Ooo, science to back up a preference!

Brothers (2009)

Tobey Maguire, Natalie Portman, and Jake Gyllenhaal are some of the best young actors you can working today. It's a shame for them that director Jim Sheridan and writer David Benioff's adaptation of the 2002 Danish source movie gives them so little to go on.

The movie's publicity campaign hasn't helped in the slightest. The trailer and TV spots give away so much of the movie's action and plot that there's little left to see. Of the two things that are left (what goes on between Portman and Gyllenhaal and what Maguire "had to do to get back"), only one of them actually happens.

The one that does happen, what Maguire did, occurs in the second act. You spend the rest of the movie knowing exactly what's going on with him, and it lends the movie exactly zero tension or drama. It's all very well acted and shot: Maguire's skin seems to barely contain a coiled intensity and sublimated grief that previous roles never so much as hinted at, and Sheridan's camera is sometimes so intimate that you feel compelled to look away from the screen.

Non-spoiler alert: nothing happens between Portman and Gyllenhaal. Their affair, if you want to call it that, is similar to the one in Cairo Time: an emotional bond develops, and its existence threatens other bonds. Again, Maguire just knocks it out, flailing against the thing he can see and knows is lost to himself without ever being able to come out and say exactly what it is. And, man, are he and Gyllenhaal phenomenal together on the screen. From the first barely heard interaction to the picnic table confrontation wherein Gyllenhaal can't bring himself to directly answer the questions he's been asked to their final climatic blow out, every note is right. And to see Gyllenhaal play someone so down trodden he can barely get his words out? Wow.

Portman is equally lovely, refusing to stand and gape in her grief, to make it a living thing. Sam Shepard, as the patriarch, and Carey Mulligan, as a fellow war widow, are so vivid in their lamentation that their screen time practically cuts.

All are under-served by a movie where nothing happens. There's a plot, to be sure, but it feels so empty and motionless that it only barely hints at a story. I've seen plenty of movies where nothing or next to nothing happens and that fact doesn't matter (e.g. Before Sunrise and Before Sunset), but Brothers is not one of those movies. It's a fantastic showcase for actors (particularly Shepard) and not much else. B

Pirate Radio (2009)

Pirate Radio's trailer would like to deceive you into thinking that it's about a ragtag crew of radio rockers and The Man (Kenneth Branagh, having the most fun I've possibly ever seen him have) trying to bring them down. It is about that, don't worry, but what the trailer fails to inform you is that it's also about Carl (Tom Sturridge), an adorable little moppet who gets kicked out of school, so his mom (Emma Thompson, briefly and fantastically) sends him to his godfather (Bill Nighy, at his most charismatic when he's at his most languid), who just so happens to own and operate a pirate radio ship. So in addition to pirate radio shenanigans, there's also coming of age drama. It's kept to a minimum, and, like I said, Carl's an adorable moppet.

Writer-director Richard Curtis, who was also responsible for the adorable moppet and ragtag crew of Love Actually*, has a knack for gathering delightful British comedians (and one notable American) and letting them have at it. It's a good thing, too, as there's otherwise nothing striking in his direction or his script.

The notable American is, of course, Philip Seymour Hoffman. The Count is very similar to what I like to imagine Hoffman is like in real life (there are also similarities to his character in Almost Famous), and he's also responsible for the movie's only real emotional moment.

Pirate Radio the kind of movie that's exceedingly pleasant to watch, the kind that you put on when you're bored or in need of a little cheering up. There are worse things to be. C+

*I constantly want to put a comma between those words. What is that?

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)

My Book vs. Film is already out, so maybe you want to start there and work back. I don't know. It's downright exhaustive, so I'm not going to get into the strength of the adaptation here. Let's focus on the movie as a movie.

I've got a complicated relationship with composer Alexandre Desplat, but let me tell you this much: he damn near ruined the movie for me. A lot of my other complaints about this movie are very much based in a comparison with Hardwicke's Twilight, which is just too bad for New Moon director Chris Weitz, but I am certain I would have found this score egregiously overwritten at every turn no matter what. He actually dings! when someone is supposed to have a moment of recognition. For all I know, there were dun-dun-duns, but I was probably working overtime to block it out. It's the most obvious and attention seeking score I have heard in years.

In talking it over with my viewing partner, she noted that there is a time and a place for a full orchestra, and New Moon is not it. Truer words, people. I liked Carter Burwell's work well enough last time around (okay, I do feel that the conspicuously-absent-from-New-Moon lullaby was not quite right), but I never realized before how his electric guitar and tribal drum driven work was modern, sexy, dangerous, and cool. Exactly what the score for our teen vampires and werewolves in love should be.

Regardless of the DP, director, or composer, these movies are bound to rake in a ton of coin. But does that mean that aesthetic concerns don't matter? Of course not! While cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe does lovely work in the lush coastal rain forests of Vancouver, he's sort of at a loss when people are in the frame. Aguirresarobe and Weitz make sure that Edward (Robert Pattinson)'s first real appearance is held long enough for fangirls to get in a good squee (there is a fan involved, I'm pretty sure), but they lose it shortly thereafter. To wit:

1. Carlisle (Peter Facinelli) sows up Bella (Kristen Stewart)'s arm in candlelight while pulling her close and listening to opera. Wait, who is she supposed to be dating? Because I just thought, "Kiss! Kiss!"


2. A tilt to suggest Bella is thrown by Edward breaking up with her? Is this Doubt?


3. The camera pushes in on her lying down in the woods, and I thought, "Why wouldn't the camer pull out to show how alone and vulnerable she is?"
   
   
4. Bella tosses Jacob a slice of pizza during a fixing-up-our-bikes montage, and he catches a socket wrench (montage!). Not only does the wrench catch look completely fake, but it comes in from a completely different height and angle than the pizza through to what looks like a different area of the garage. Intentionally funny?*
   

It's like they're not sure what story they want to tell. Hardwicke clearly wanted to tell a story called, "The Cullens are cool, and now you want to join their cult, too." If Weitz's angle was supposed to be, "The wolves are cool, and now you want to join their cult, too," he really didn't hit the mark.

Don't get me wrong; the wolves are pretty cool. You're not going to get a lot of arguments from me against good looking guys with their shirts off, and New Moon has those aplenty. They're also a lot less openly hostile toward Bella in the movie than they are in the book, which I appreciated. Taylor Lautner's baby-face doesn't quite match the 25-year-old man Jacob is meant to morph into, but he's got Jacob's tenderness, heartbreak, and barely suppressed rage down pat. It will certainly be interesting to see what he does with Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. Plus, unlike others, aging will work in his favour.

Others being Pattinson, of course. Not that he looks markedly older to me, but there's something in his aspect this time around that's less boy and more man. I already thought he was perfectly cast as Edward, and he certainly brings exactly what's necessary to the role, cutting through Stephenie Meyer's florid prose to the human underneath. Yes, human. While Edward's beyond obsessed about his status as a vampire, Pattinson manages to play him in such a way where you can see how, for Bella, that would be just one thing about him but not the main thing. There's a man there. That said, this change I see makes the decision to rush through production slightly more reasonable.

Stewart's also doing some more lovely work (I was especially cheered by the face she makes right after she makes a pointed remark. It's a great "Get it?" face), though not all her choices work out that well. Even so, I see her growing into the character as well as making Bella grow up with her. It's the kind of thing that just might be worth study over time.

All the usual suspects are back, and they're just as great and underused as they were before (although what is up with Jasper's hair? Why can they not make it work?), and, though Fanning might try to steal the show as Jane, it's all about Michael Sheen as Aro when it comes to supporting players because it is fantastic to watch him pull a dude's head off and then gleefully cheer happy endings a few scenes later. I always liked Aro, but I just might love him now. I can only guess what's in store for Sheen now after playing a werewolf and a vampire. Frankenstein's monster? Dr. Frankenstein? Zombie? Angel? Demon? The sky's the limit!

Limited, I hope, will be Weitz's involvement in any future installments of this series. He and his team just aren't a good fit. Harwicke gets teenagers better than most directors (she's like John Hughes that way), and Weitz just doesn't seem to have the same respect/understanding of the source material. I mean, it's the same screenwriter (Melissa Rosenberg) either way, so it's hard to place the blame/credit there. Overall, the experience is satisfactory but nothing more than that. C+

*Point number four was added on the 24th after I remembered it.

Pop Culture Round Up: September 26 - November 20

Van Gogh's personal letters debut online in English

Stars + time + box office = franchise hit

Forget Rule No. 1 - Still Talking About ‘Fight Club’

Technology increases chances to see porn in public

New Brain Cells May Knock Out Old Memories

You want fries with that rap?

Mistakes in Typography Grate the Purists

Overdue library books returned half century later

Screen Memories

Was a WWII Classic Too Gay?

Scientists nose out clue to preserving books: their smell

Contact lenses to get built-in virtual graphics

Women living in 'Twilight' will not apologize for loving Edward, Bella and Jacob

Noises off: The rules of being a theatre critic | Stage | guardian.co.uk

Bare Breasts Don't Translate into Big Box Office

Spoiling for a fight

Stars lined up for new audio Bible

Montreal to see terracotta warriors

Hollywood's 10 Most Overpaid Stars - Hollywood's 10 Most Overpaid Stars

Artist Jeanne-Claude dies; co-created 'The Gates'

Taylor Lautner Denies That He Suffers From Restless Leg Syndrome

"People don't realize this, but loneliness is underrated."

The only reason Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who uttered that line, doesn't appear on my Underrated List is time. If I had more time, each letter would have multiple entries. Even so, my A to Z guide to everything in movies you've been missing should have enough to pique your interest.

This Is It (2009)

I was one of those that were mildly disgusted when news broke of the plan to release This Is It, rehearsal footage from the London concert prep meant for Michael Jackson alone. Then Dana Stevens admitted to weeping, and I wondered if maybe there was something I had missed. For years now, every time a new scandal or court case hit the news, I wondered why people were still interested in what Jackson was doing. Now that I've seen the movie, though, I understand.

While Jackson (or MJ, as those on the set refer to him) had a director, vocal coach, and choreographer, it's obvious that he is all those things on stage. The precision with which he moves his body at 50 (far finer than mine at 26 or any age, no doubt) is astonishing. By "Smooth Criminal," the fourth or so song in set list, I had a huge grin on my face and had to warn myself not to get too emotional. MJ describes the jazzy behind the beat take on the opening to "The Way You Make Me Feel"* to his piano player "like you're dragging yourself out of bed."

He never quite belts it out the way you wish he would and know he can (saving his voice for the performance that will never be), and there are a couple of diva moments scattered in there. But the respect with which he treats his company and the awe they show him in response are palpable. When he says it's "for the fans," you actually believe him. It's clear the man was more performance than person. For the fans was all he had to give.

By now we know what happened and seeing how dangerously thin MJ was on stage gives you pause, but This Is It still contains lovingly captured footage of an artist we'll never see again. B

Also, I don't mean to jump the gun or anything, but Orianthi and I are in love.

*Personal favourite.

Cairo Time (2009)

Patricia Clarkson has a way of opening up a character to you. With her voice and the way she moves her body, she suggests a life far beyond what a script can give you. Where other actors develop ticks so distracting they're ultimately pointless, Clarkson is elegant.

Good thing, too, because aside from the performances and the stunningly captured setting, there's little to distinguish Cairo Time. There's nothing extraordinary about a woman on vacation who finds herself drawn to the local (Alexander Siddig) acting as her guide. Clarkson and Siddig are restrained and beautiful in their roles, and Luc Montpellier's cinematography makes the most of Cairo's bustle and haunting surrounding dessert.

Though the main actors do their best, the movie is too sedate. It's the the kind of movie that you leave on low volume in the background while you work at home, providing a welcome rest for your eyes when you look up. C

Pop Culture Round Up: September 26 - October 30

That Sept 26 business is just a guess based on my last saved PC round up. It's a surprisingly short list for a month's worth of bookmarked items, but at least the folder is cleaned out instead of haunting me.

In praise of inconsistent directors

'Scots' opera gets Botswana treatment

Coen Brothers, Tarantino and Jewish History Real and Revised

Do readers really want video-book hybrids?

• No? Because we're not leotards? On the other hand, maybe most of us are.
  

Mann to create biopic of war photog Capa

Bette Davis: What a Star

Think yourself a better picture

Tate Modern puts void in Turbine Hall

• I love the Tate Modern. There's something refreshing and freeing in how balls out they are. They don't even care what you think - they are putting a giant black box in Turbine Hall. Deal with that.
  

Short Cuts | The New Republic

Halloween Book Burning at Baptist Church to Include Copies of the Bible

• I did a double take when I saw that headline? Who burns books anymore?
  

THE LAST DAYS OF THE POLYMATH

Do Soap Operas Boost Women's Rights? Economist Says Yes

With strong female characters, Hollywood suffers from a fear of failure

• Odd since so many examples point of movies that weren't very good or even roles that the actress wasn't very good in (e.g. Julia Roberts in Duplicity). Not that I don't agree about the lack of strong female characters at the box office, just question the examples given.
  

Zombieland (2009)

My review of Zombieland went live today over on (Cult)ure as part of Horror Week. Because it's a review and not whatever it is that I do here (or don't do here, given how little I've posted in the last year), there are things I left out. Nitpicky things, naturally; some spoilery things, and you know how spoiler adverse I am. But since that's the review and this is the blog, and since the movie came out almost a month ago, let's discuss those things here, shall we? Consider this the annotated review.

• Eventually they meet up with two resourceful sisters, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin.

Stone and Breslin are both winning as a pair of grifters, although the fact that they were grifters was so obvious from the word "go" that I was a little surprised at how stupid Eisenberg and Harrelson would have to be to fall for it. Also, because Stone is hot and approximately Eisenberg's character's age, there's a romantic interest there. Harrelson's character alternatively encourages Eisenberg or obliviously cockblocks, which is funny either way. I found it hard to believe, however, that a man who has obviously been alone and celibate for several months wouldn't even notice an attractive, prospective partner. Not that I wanted to watch an Eisenberg-Stone-Harrelson love triangle or to see Harrelson get creepy on Stone, but still, a throwaway "I'd hit it" is all I ask in the name of realism. Yes, zombies = not real, but the best of these movies put believable characters in extraordinary circumstances.

• Though the narration is oppressive early in the film -- when Eisenberg is the only character on screen
  

By "oppressive," I mean damn near omnipresent. In the PC round up I just published this morning (again, whoops), I link to an AV Q&A entirely because of Steven Heisler's answer. The one cliché he would do away with? "Almost all narrators or voiceovers in films." Ah, a kindred. When you only have one character, do you really need a non-stop monologue to go with him? Do you think viewers are incapable of interpreting what they see? I recommend you watch the first seven minutes of season four of Supernatural, which were nearly dialogue free, entertaining, and even suspenseful.

• Eisenberg's performance consists largely of his best Michael Cera impersonation.

I feel kind of bad for Eisenberg as he's older than Cera and quite possibly invented that particular comic delivery (props Madison for pinpointing who Eisenberg reminded me of), and, while there is a small novelty of seeing someone other than Cera do it, it's started to wear thin for even him. Hope he finds some other hook.

• Harrelson makes a delightfully badass roughneck.

He's the ninja version of a roughneck. It's completely silly, but it also suggests that would make an excellent action hero in the John McClane mold (more ordinary guy than super agent).

• The movie derives a surprising amount of mileage from [Harrelson's] ingenious killing techniques.

What the movie does not do is explain why each killing implement is abandoned as soon as it is used. It's always distracting in movies and on TV shows when someone uses a weapon and promptly tosses it while running away since that all but guarantees that the weapon will be needed again. Obviously that's not the case here (zombies stay dead), but it's still distracting. It could be that the zombie blood will infect Harrelson, but that's never made clear enough to know the reasoning for certain.

• It's not the performances, however, that make the movie so good.

I specifically wrote this line because my editor initially added a line about how the performance made this movie good despite the thin plot. While he was right that the initial draft needed rewriting, he was wrong about that point. The performances are good -- the movie overall is well cast -- but that's not why it's so laugh out loud funny.

• It's the off-beat "rules" Eisenberg's invented for survival and particularly the movie's illustration of said rules.

No, seriously. Not only is the soccer mom running from little girl zombies, they're little girl zombies dressed as princesses. That shit is priceless. And, as you can see, unrelated to the performances of the main players. It's all about direction (including set and art direction) and writing here.

• First time feature director Ruben Fleischer owes a debt to Shaun of the Dead (which he sort of acknowledges)

Which he also sort of makes fun of in having Eisenberg explain not to be stingy with bullets (the double tap) by cracking that it's not a cricket bat. They had to improvise!

Nitpicky as I am, I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. It's funny as all get out, and, though I am not good with horror, I do love a good dose of GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE! B+

Pop Culture Round Up: ? - September 25

Oops. I just left this sitting here instead of publishing it. Old news!

The curious appeal of miscellanea - The Boston Globe

David Denby goes on the hunt for snark, abuse in a public forum | Books | The Guardian

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Wire writer says adverts kill TV

Fox sets 'Fantastic' reboot - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety

Classic literature can take whatever we throw at it | Art and design | guardian.co.uk

Cliché, cliché, go away | Film | A.V. Club

The habit Hollywood can't seem to kick: Remakes | The Big Picture | Los Angeles Times

Evan Rachel Wood and Alexander Skarsgard Reportedly Canoodling -- Vulture -- Entertainment & Culture Blog -- New York Magazine

YouTube - Senator Al Franken draws map of USA

Forgotten Memories Are Still in Your Brain | Wired Science | Wired.com

New Season - Movies - Exploring New Routes to the Indies - NYTimes.com

A look at new paintings by Bob Dylan | Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times

Golden Girl Betty White wins career honour

Reading Kafka 'enhances cognitive mechanisms', claims study | Books | guardian.co.uk

Valery Gergiev: The passion that drives the ultra patriot | Ed Vulliamy | Music | The Observer

When have we not been in the midst of a vampire craze? - By Christopher Beam and Chris Wilson - Slate Magazine

Lack of sleep linked to Alzheimer's - health - 24 September 2009 - New Scientist

Extract (2009)

The worlds that writer-director Mike Judge creates are so richly observed and true to life that it's almost (almost) worth waiting a decade for a spiritual sequel to Office Space. Idiocracy, while a clever satire in its own right, never quite comes to fruition the way these two movies do. With Judge at the helm, it's comedy first, life lessons later (or not at all).

Jason Bateman plays Joel, the owner of an extract plant on the verge of being bought out by General Mills. Naturally, this is the moment when Joel is beset by problems: his wife (Kristen Wiig) has ceased having sex with him, a freak accident puts an employee (Clifton Collins Jr.) out of commission, and a grifter (Mila Kunis) arrives to capitalize on this disaster.

While the movie sort of gives shortshrift to Wiig's hilarity in favour of Kunis' charms, it's also got one helluva supporting cast to offer plenty of other laughs from Ben Affleck's delightfully spaced out bartender to Dustin Milligan's hilariously blank gigolo to David Koechner's insanely obtuse neighbour.

At the centre of it all, we have Bateman playing what surely must be known as a Jason Bateman-type. It's sort of a wry everyman who reacts to the insanity around him with deadpan hilarity. There are variations: on Arrested Development, for example, Michael was also a complete narcissist. Mind you, that's not all he can do (cf. the sleaze he played in State of Play). On the other hand, who doesn't love this character? Who doesn't want to see Bateman grow rich playing him? If anything, the conflict that moves much of the plot forward is the movie's least believable element: who wouldn't have sex with Jason Bateman?

And even if you're not into that (but let's admit it: you are), Judge's instant (cult?) classic set pieces and set ups should keep you in quotes for weeks to come. Is there any better reason to see a movie? B+

Pop Culture Round Up: August 24 - 28

As Stars Slip at Box-Office, Hollywood Frets

Sienna Miller Stars in Patrick Marber’s 'After Miss Julie'

An Ode to Drew Barrymore

• Good, because I totally love her, too.

Dollar by Dollar, Patrons Find Artists on the Web

Something's Out of Line for Hollywood and Grown-Ups

The New Thing: Books Without Jackets

• I've always wondered what the point was. They just get ripped, and you end up throwing them out.
  

Early music discovered on carving

Is Evan Rachel Wood Playing a Lesbian Vampire?

• Never mind that! Click on the link about the shower scene and faint!
  

Pop Culture Round Up: July 25 - 31

Oldman lets Batman 3 news slip

Co-Chief of NBC Entertainment Departing - NYTimes.com

Mila Kunis hunts 'Black Swan' Shrew versus shrewd - Los Angeles Times

Vampires suck. - By Grady Hendrix - Slate Magazine

From the Set of Gossip Girl: An Illicit Kiss! -- Daily Intel -- New York News Blog -- New York Magazine

Howard to replace Lefevre in 'Twilight'

Robert Pattinson: Edward Is a Murderous Weirdo - E! Online

Twilight's Lefevre 'stunned' at loss of role

Jones County, Miss. - Civil War Fires Up Literary Shootout - NYTimes.com

Synchronised blinking stops viewers missing the action - life - 29 July 2009 - New Scientist

Replaced Twilight Actress ‘Stunned,’ Possibly With Good Reason -- Vulture -- Entertainment & Culture Blog -- New York Magazine

Jeremy Renner is talk of 'Town'

Vulture Taste Test: Tru Blood -- Vulture -- Entertainment & Culture Blog -- New York Magazine

Robert Downey Jr Loves Jude

Tim Burton's art to show at MoMA

Film - Four Decades of Cary Grant Movies in BAMcinématek Series - NYTimes.com

Seth Rogen: A Career in T-shirts -- Vulture -- Entertainment & Culture Blog -- New York Magazine

"And, finally, here are some completely gratuitous pictures of penises to annoy the censors and to hopefully spark some sort of controversy."

I don't actually discuss any full frontal male nudity in my latest Culture article, but I do tackle the heyday of gratuitous sex scenes: 80s action movies. You're welcome!

What's that? Two articles in two weeks? I guess you're lucky, kid.

The Hurt Locker (2008)

Allow me to alarm you: what we have here is a movie worth seeing this summer that lives up to its hype.

Director Kathryn Bigelow, working from a script by Mark Boal (whose only previously produced work is In the Valley of Elah), quotes "war is a drug" at the opening and then makes good on that promise.

Inside of 131 minutes, bombs will detonate, people will be shot, and the truly terrifying thing is getting up and going through it the next day. Bigelow excels at creating tension so that no two diffusions are the same and the audience will never be sure who will make it to the next scene.

The movie is anchored by compelling, human performances across the board. Whether it is in the script or no, Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty refuse to allow their characters to slip archetypes of maverick, by the book, and the green soilder caught between them, respectively. Geraghty finds time to give his character quiet confidence, while Mackie explores Sanborn's short fuse.

All of it supports Renner's finely calibrated performance. At no point will he let his character be any one thing, and he will not make it easy for you to figure him out. There are always more layers, each of them revealing a solid human being, so fully flesh-and-blood that your connection is difficult to shake after you leave the theatre. It doesn't hurt that he possesses the kind of sex appeal that draws you in slowly and hooks you for life.

A couple of shots recalled Lord of War, but this is a better movie than that. Barry Ackroyd is probably the better DP. In The Wind That Shakes the Barley, he showed us how guerrilla warfare can make a homeland seem alien and inhospitable. Here, he takes an alien and inhospitable land in a time of war and makes it home. The desert's embrace may be unfamiliar but at least it's warm.

The triumph of Bigelow's production, much like triumph of its performances, is in its ability to keep you guessing. The plot is constantly twisting away from you and not in the Shyamalan "gotcha!" way. Instead, the uncertainty rings palpably, petrifying true. Having Guy Pearce, David Morse, and Ralph Fiennes show up is just gravy. A

Pop Culture Round Up: July 11 - 24

Ryan Reynolds lands Green Lantern role

Writing Pictures: Ann Hornaday on the Art of the Hollywood Screenplay

As Music Mags Fall, Pitchfork Is Booming

Andrew Sarris - A Survivor of Film Criticism’s Heroic Age

Daniel Radcliffe Aces Interview With Terrified 11-Year-Old Reporter

Tate perfects the modern art of living dangerously

Female Directors, Still A Scarce Movie Commodity

Chace Crawford Moves Out of Ed Westwick's Apartment

... | The New York Observer

Leonard Cohen's heard enough of Hallelujah

Third 'Bridget Jones' in works

Austen in sea monster mash-up

Emmy Nominations Announced!

Artistic tendencies linked to 'schizophrenia gene'

The privileged Westerner’s guide to talking about the rest of the world

Valery Gergiev: The Ring master

Report says doom and gloom of movie biz means make more movies!

Former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite dies

The Tyranny of Choice

Jane Austen tames Tombstone

True Blood's Christian Conservative Vampire-Hater Speaks Out

Target’s Book Club Can Make Sleepy Titles Into Best Sellers

Sam Raimi plays 'Warcraft'

Researchers Train Minds to Move Matter

The end of the affair: five of the best breakup movies

Singer gets his revenge on United Airlines and soars to fame

Twilight 2 Soundtrack to Feature Non-Belchy Thom Yorke Track

Jeffrey Wells Is on Team Edward

Today’s Swooniest Brit Actors

"You can't be gay for one person. Unless you're a lady. And you meet Ellen."

Oh, Lemon, you are wrong on that account. You can be plenty gay for just one person. It happens on damn near every TV show I watch. That's why my latest Culture article is a HoYay round up.

And if you're not keeping up with the advice column, you probably have no idea how to deal with the first of May. Send your May Day questions or questions about any other day of the year to advice@culturemagazine.ca.

The Short Take: A pile of ticket stubs and you

Alright, I've just gathered up a loose collection of ticket stubs from various locations (on my desk, that pile next to my desk, that other pile near my desk). We're going to go through them in the order they appear. And so . . .

Two Lovers (2008)

Writer-director James Gray remains a fascinating, fatalistic director with a fantastic sense of place. Though romance isn't his forte, the combination of Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Vinessa Shaw is potent. Phoenix is in fine form as always, perhaps even finer, as a suicidal man pushed toward a caring family friend (Shaw) but drawn toward the troubled shiksa upstairs (Paltrow). The ending is either the happiest or saddest one you could imagine and probably both. B-

Drag Me to Hell (2009)

Leave it to writer-director Sam Raimi to come back to horror with a PG-13 comedy. It's the slickest entry in the hor-com subgenre since Shaun of the Dead and twice as silly. Every time you think it couldn't get sillier, it's genuinely scary. Just when you really start to freak, the demon breaks into a jg. "You shame me" deserves its own place in the lexicon. B+

Adoration (2008)

Naturally the first Atom Egoyan movie I sit through is as herky-jerky as this one. Even when you make it to the end and the plot sorts itself out, it still doesn't make any sense. And as a post-9/11 commentary, it comes awfully late to make what amounts to broad points. Excellent choice if you are in the mood for some Canadian eye candy. C

Bart Got a Room (2008)

When did 80s fashions become code for quirk? Everyone looks and acts like it's 1987, and then Alia Shawkat rolls up in a Neon to completely throw everything off. Though the cast (Shawkat, William H. Macy, Cheryl Hines, and newcomer Steven Kaplan) are a likable mix, the movie never really moves beyond the obvious. Not a waste if you happen to stumble upon it, but certainly not worth the effort to seek out. C

Nightwatching (2007)

Such an interesting premise, such boring execution. Writer-director Peter Greenaway sets and lights every scene like it is a Rembrandt, the net result being that you can't see half of what's going on. You also can't understand half the dialogue -- thanks to the think accents -- even when the characters address the camera directly. When you're going theatrical, why go halfway? Too bad for Martin Freeman in a rare dramatic lead. It suits him. D

Gomorrah (2008)

Possibly one of the bleakest movies ever made. Director Matteo Garrone deftly lays out five glamour-free Mafia-centred stories in Naples that combine in an interlocking system of oppression from which there is no escape. Despite the lack of uplift, it's surprisingly urgent, even necessary, viewing. A-