click to enlarge PINEAPPLE EXPRESS (August 6th)   written by Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg directed by David Gordon Green rated 'R'/runtime – 111 min 2008 trailer

I'm not exactly what you would refer to as the 'target audience' for this film, but I can appreciate a good drug comedy if it has an edge to it (not just a lot of inane laughing and hunger references). Judd Apatow has been really hit or miss with me; I didn't care for 40-Year-Old Virgin, while Knocked Up, Superbad, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall have their charms. But none have blown me away. I think that's because I feel that all of those films are lacking something cinematic, an extra bit of glue that would help push their stories beyond your run-of-the-mill sitcom. Clever little stories, some decent writing…but they're missing that extra 'oomph' that gave Woody Allen (more on him later) his edge when he was young, and put R-rated comedies like Stripes, Caddyshack, etc. on people's radar in the '80s.  By bringing on a strong indie-director like David Gordon Green, perhaps that's what Apatow is going for.  Either that…or Green needs a paycheck.

Recommended Viewing:

1st – George Washington
2nd – The Big Lebowski
3rd – "Weeds"

RED (August 8th – limited) click to enlarge   based on the novel by Jack Ketchum written by Stephen Susco directed by Trygve Allister Diesen and Lucky McKee rated 'R'/runtime – 88 min 2007

Based on the trailer, you get the strong feeling that Red can break one of two ways—towards a cult-ish homespun tale of human cruelty and revenge, or to an exploitative mash of violence, drawls, and stereotypes. The pedigree of the directors does nothing to qualm this fear, but the presence of Brian Cox makes one step back and say 'Maybe…' Perhaps its because I grew up with several Labradors as pets, but the reaction I have when considering what Cox's character goes through is the same unchecked anger. This might not be the best movie you'll see, but it definitely doesn't look like it will be a bore.

Recommended Viewing:

1st – Undertow
2nd – Deliverance
3rd – Stand By Me

I haven't been impressed with Ben Stiller's directorial efforts thus far, but I'll give The Cable Guy credit—not only for trying, but also for taking its story in a pretty dark direction. That said, the trailer to Tropic Thunder has some pretty good moments, but it's also a question of which genre it will end up trying to be. 'Nothing wrong with a little action with your comedy, or vice-versa, but films that don't know which one to focus on usually end up with major third-act problems. That's my biggest concern going into this: that we'll have a strong comedic set-up only to be dragged through a 'serious' action extravaganza, as the people at whom we've been laughing for the first hour are now fighting for their lives. It's a situation in which no black comedy should ever find itself—asking us to care for the well-being of the people we've looked down on for so long.  Black comedy is both black and humorous all the way through, not just when it chooses to be. Viewing Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or Lolita would give many of today's directors a good crash course in how to maintain a level of absurdity, from start to finish. (I'd recommend Buñuel, but I honestly don't think many mainstream directors could process him). Will Stiller finally prove he's got the chops to direct with a consistent tone?

Recommended Viewing:

1st – Apocalypse Now
2nd – Zero Effect
3rd – Flirting With Disaster

VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA (August 15th) click to enlarge   written and directed by Woody Allen rated 'PG-13'/runtime – 96 min 2008 trailer

Below, in the recommended viewing, you've got the quintessential Woody Allen layout: the classic—Annie Hall, the mid-life crisis—Husbands and Wives, and the post-modern reflection—Celebrity. Sometime soon, I sense that Allen will create the fourth and final period in his filmmaking (it feels close at hand when you watch Match Point), when he begins reflecting on his life…what he has and hasn't accomplished, personally and professionally. He idolizes Bergman (among others), so I half expect a Fanny and Alexander opus that will sum up his life through all the styles and genres he's tinkered with over the years. Some of my friends think he's already done this with Deconstructing Harry, but I think he's got a better one in him.  While we await this, we'll watch him alternate between dramas hearkening back to his younger days, and hope that he soon reaches a creative breakthrough. As with Match Point, I'll approach Vicky Cristina Barcelona with an open mind, but I'm pretty sure I'll walk away thinking of another Woody Allen movie entirely.

Recommended Viewing:

1st – Annie Hall
2nd – Husbands and Wives
3rd – Celebrity

September is when we make the leap from summer has-beens to the pre-Oscar 'quality' rush. Studios are already lining up what they believe will bring home the gold in February and, in doing so, they'll always realize that some films simply don't fit that bill as well as others. So, to September and October they go. Keep in mind, though, this doesn't mean the decision to open earlier is justified. Take the Coens, for instance. Burn After Reading has an absolutely stellar cast, looks as bizarre and funny as any of their earliest comedies, and the brothers are coming off multiple Oscars for last year's No Country for Old Men. Yet, here it is opening in September. Now, I know some studio executive would tell me that this is a 'comedy' and 'comedies' don't win Oscars, plus the Coens just won, plus they don't want it to get 'lost' amongst all the higher-profile films later in the year. Here, it won't have any competition. But, as anyone who follows box-office knows, audiences get weary of the summer tent-poles, kids go back to school, and not that many people see movies in September. All I can say is it's too bad that this movie probably will open and close within a month and, while everyone will remember No Country, few will remember the Coens for their other amazing talent—creating modern screwball masterpieces.

Recommended Viewing:

1st – Trouble in Paradise
2nd – Raising Arizona
3rd – The Hudsucker Proxy

PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND (September 12th – limited) click to enlarge   written and directed by Daniel Barnz directed by Sergei Bodrov rated 'PG-13'/runtime – 96 min 2008 trailer

The idea of this movie fascinates me; films involving classic literature, stories, and fairy tales intertwined with real life push my buttons. Something about the magic of stories and how that manifests itself in the modern world strikes me as utterly incredible. The combination of the fantastic and reality is a juxtaposition not explored often enough (one of the reasons Terry Gilliam and David Lynch need to work a little more often). We have people like Lucas and Spielberg who create other universes, but not enough talented auteurs who want to mess things up and combine the worlds. And the nostalgia of bringing back stories and characters we know so well in a new way (without reducing them to 'references') is so much more powerful than a remake. That said, there's very little information on Phoebe out there. I'm going off concept alone in recommending this one.  No trailer, clips, interviews, etc.; but, on the plus side, nowadays it's nearly impossible to enter a theatre with a clear mind (no trailers, reviews, posters, box office prognostications). Maybe this will afford us the opportunity.

Recommended Viewing:

1st – Alice in Wonderland
2nd – The Never-ending Story
3rd – Donnie Darko

click to enlarge MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA (September 26th)   based on the novel by James McBride written by James McBride directed by Spike Lee rated 'R'/runtime – 160 min 2008 trailer

Can Spike Lee handle a war movie? When you watch Summer of Sam and Inside Man, you get the feeling he can easily manage bigger-budget Hollywood material. But then Bamboozled and She Hate Me really bring you back down to earth. Those two films should not only be technically better than they are, but, at the least, the controversial and taboo subject matter should be more refined. Lee has been in the news recently, having a tête-à-tête with Clint Eastwood (again, more from him later) about the absence of black soldiers in his WWII film Flags of Our Fathers. Spike's right, of course, but both he and Clint are guilty of some pretty juvenile mudslinging, fingerpointing and general playground style insults. Now he has the opportunity to answer the criticisms he leveled on Eastwood; can he take a story, strictly surrounding black soldiers trapped behind enemy lines in Italy during WWII, to the levels that Eastwood did with his duo (Flags/Letters from Iwo Jima),two years ago? I'm difficult to please when it comes to war films (Eastwood's were decent, but nothing new, and missing the historical accuracy that Lee and others have pointed out). Over the years, we've seen the horrors of war in many different films. If war is going to be portrayed, it needs to start evolving from visceral violence and 'horrors'.  I don't know how that will happen, but maybe Lee can start the trend.

Recommended Viewing:

1st – All Quiet on the Western Front
2nd – Malcolm X
3rd – Summer of Sam

CHOKE (September 26th - limited) click to enlarge   based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk written and directed by Clark Gregg rated 'R'/runtime – 89 min 2008 trailer

Fight Club was one of the major reasons I transitioned to wanting to work in film (Rushmore being the other). I saw that film when I was a sophomore in college, and it showed me, for the first time in my young life, that modern Hollywood could make a truly engaging, layered, and symbolic story, and sell it to the masses. Now, granted, it wasn't a massive success when it was released. But most people have at least heard of Fight Club now, if not seen it multiple times. The surprising thing? Despite all the incredible talent involved (Fincher, Pitt, Norton, Carter, etc.), the film is very close to the book by Chuck Palahniuk. Usually, egos and visions get involved with people of that caliber…but, with this story, a virtually unknown author captivated some of the biggest and brightest in Hollywood, and they barely altered the source material. Since then, however, we've heard little from Palahniuk (in the cinema world, at least; he's been actively writing plenty of novels).  I think this is mainly because his stories are too strange, too dark, too abnormal. When he writes something, you can't just go, "I could totally see that as the next  xxxxx vehicle." So, it's taken nearly a decade, but we have an indie-film that did pretty well at Sundance, and it's our second Palahniuk adaptation. I haven't read Choke, but I'm already seeing, in the trailer, that same type of midnight-black tome shaping up to give us an altogether bleak and hilarious view of the world we all know but rarely like to admit to ourselves.

Recommended Viewing:

1st –Fight Club
2nd – Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
3rd – Broken Flowers

Ballast is one of the few festival-related films that has true 'indie' credibility. Sundance and its kin are slowly turning into a showcase for bigger stars and movies (i.e., Hamlet 2, directed by a man who's done plenty of television and film, and which cost $9 million dollars to make). The original goal of Sundance was to open up avenues and exposure, and lend credibility to talented filmmakers who otherwise don't have an outlet for their work. Don't get me wrong; Sundance still does an admirable job in many respects, but the tide is changing and, within a decade, I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't any Ballasts left.

Ballast isn't going to wow you with its logline—it's a family drama set in the Mississippi delta—but, from most every word coming out of the festival, it packs an incredible punch. A strong, assured voice, with incredible performances by non-professional actors.  Something I hope we get as much as possible in the near future…before it disappears completely.

Recommended Viewing:

1st – Half Nelson
2nd – SherryBaby

3rd – Junebug

W. (October 29th – limited) click to enlarge   written by Stanley Weiser directed by Oliver Stone not yet rated/runtime – 85 min 2007 trailer

I'm not an Oliver Stone fan. I've listed a few of his films below (ones focused on Presidents and leaders, for theme's sake), but I've yet to see anything of his that I enjoy or admire. To me, he's a one-trick pony, relying on shock-and-awe dramatics layered into stories bigger than he is. Is that harsh?  Perhaps a little, but when I watch Platoon, I think of how much better Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket are. When I watch Wall Street, I think of Glengarry Glen Ross. When I watch JFK and Nixon, I admire the performances, but the closer I look, the more I realize how we're looking at conspiracies, cover-ups, and 'evil men'…and it's little more than a soap opera. But I'll give Oliver Stone this…except for Alexander, whenever I see a trailer for his next movie, there's something in my head that says, "Give it a shot." And when I see the trailer for his biopic for our 'fearless leader', I want to give it a shot.  It's as simple as that.

Recommended Viewing:

1st – JFK
2nd – Nixon
3rd – Comandante

click to enlarge THE BROTHERS BLOOM (October 24th)   written and directed by Rian Johnson rated 'PG-13'/runtime – tbd 2008 trailer

Brick was one of those movies that really caught me off-guard. When I first heard of the buzz it was creating at Sundance, I thought, "Great, another one of those Gen-Y self-referential flicks." But it was an entirely different animal, an incredibly complex noir honest to both its genre pedigree and its setting. The plot, language, and themes are right out of the '30s and '40s, but the substance is pure high school (albeit stylized). It was one of the more impressive films I saw in '05, and I've been looking for Rian Johnson's next ever since.  Finally, we have it in The Brothers Bloom. You may have noticed this was in a list earlier this year as a recommendation, but as is likely to happen when we're looking months ahead of time, release dates change. In a way, I'm almost happy it got pushed, though, because where it was situated earlier in the year, it certainly would have been forgotten or trampled over. Even though the fall isn't ideal, it will still get more attention from critics than it would have back in March or April. It's an entirely different film from Brick (from the look of the trailer, at least), which just goes to show how talented Rian probably is. Here's hoping he's brought us another pleasant surprise.

Recommended Viewing:

1st – Brick
2nd – The Darjeeling Limited
3rd – The Grifters

CHANGELING (October 24th – limited) click to enlarge   written by J. Michael Straczynski directed by Clint Eastwood rated 'R'/runtime – 140 min 2008

Like Oliver Stone, Clint Eastwood is not high on my list of admirable directors. I tend to find his approach to both scoring and editing his flicks to be the equivalent of Hilary Swank's punches in Million Dollar Baby. From every report, he's excellent with actors, and searches for authentic moments and realistic emotions while filming…it just seems a shame he then ruins them with overdramatic approaches in post-production. Still, the buzz surrounding Changeling during Cannes was quite positive, and Eastwood's film is once again on the fast-track to being a contender for the Oscars next February. I think Angelina Jolie is quite underrated as an actress (though she does herself no favors by starring in nonsense like Wanted), so I'm interested in seeing her in period garb, playing a grieving mother. I only hope the story avoids the pitfalls of Million Dollar Baby and the directorial excesses of Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima.

Recommended Viewing:

1st – Play Misty for Me
2nd – Bird
3rd – Mystic River

•••

Well, that wraps up this edition.

Since we last got together, I made that Web series for IFC (the Independent Film Channel) with my friend and colleague, Steve Sprinkles. It's called "Pushing Twilight", and we're up and running now HERE. 

As I mentioned last time, I'd love to hear what any and all of you constant readers think of my 'other' writing (good, bad, or indifferent!).  So, don't hesitate to drop your thoughts in an eMail.

Until December…