Our Idiot Brother
The Weinstein Company
In Our Idiot Brother, Paul Rudd plays an idealistic stoner who, after his incarceration for selling pot to a uniformed police officer, is forced to live with each of his sisters. He's a well-meaning buffoon who wreaks havoc at every turn, but his heart is always in the right place. Now, if he can only get his sisters to lighten up. Directed by Jesse Perez, the film stars Elizabeth Banks, Emily Mortimer, and Zooey Deschanel as Ned’s sisters.
The Review: With a title like My Idiot Brother, this film sounds as if it might be another zany rehash of Dumb and Dumber, full of outrageous slapstick antics and silliness, but it's much more. First, Ned may be simple, but he's no simpleton, as Rudd brings dimension and depth to what could be an annoying caricature. You see, Ned’s not really an idiot at all, but rather someone who chooses to see the best in people, even when it seems unwise to do so. Though trusting others sometimes backfires on Ned, at other times, people rise wondrously to the occasion. What a nice movie.
Super 8
Paramount Pictures
While filming an amateur zombie flick on their Super 8 camera in their small Ohio town, a group of six kids witness a train crash and capture what appears to be an alien escaping from the wreckage. Afterwards, unusual events start to happen all over town. Taking notice, the local deputy embarks on a mission to discover what’s happening to the people of his community. Writer and director J.J. Abrams has revealed little about the film except to say, “it’s sweet, it’s scary, and there’s a mystery.” With producer Steven Spielberg at the helm, the film is being hailed a modern-day E.T.
The Review: In Super 8, director J.J. Abrams pays homage to classic Spielberg films like E.T., Close Encounters, and maybe even Jaws (notice how you never actually see the alien until the final sequences). Even more so, he, like Spielberg, manages to capture the specific innocence of the seventies and the awkwardness of pre-adolescence while entertaining with fantastic special effects. In an era when flash is often valued over substance, Super 8 has a refreshing mixture of both.
Larry Crowne
Universal Pictures
Once a star employee at a big-box company, the genial Larry Crowne (Tom Hanks) has been downsized. Looking for a new start and something to fill his time, Larry enrolls at his local college where he meets a diverse group of outcasts as lost and aimless as himself. Larry takes a new direction and falls for his public speaking professor, Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts), who is searching for her own lost passion. This is Hanks first go at directing since That Thing You Do in 1996.
The Review: If there is such a thing as a lighthearted look at unemployment, this film is it. Perhaps, lighthearted is too light of a word here; shallow and ill-informed may be better choices. Down on his luck, the affable Larry Crowne joins his local college and befriends a perky band of misfits who cruise the campus on their scooters. No one told Larry that a degree doesn't necessarily guarantee employment, and saving a little gas money by driving a scooter still won't pay the mortgage. If you're looking for a more substantial commentary on joblessness in the modern age, check out Will Ferrell in Everything Must Go, and leave this one for the lightweights.
The Art of Getting By
Fox Searchlight
George (Freddie Highmore) reads Camus’s The Stranger when he should be doing his homework. But he’s managed to make it to his senior year of high school without putting in a full day’s work, and his nihilistic nature prevents him from even caring if he graduates. That is, until he meets Sally (Emma Roberts), an ethereal beauty who’s as complicated and lost as he is.
The Review: So you thought all of those eighties movies concerning the plight of overprivileged, angst-ridden teens were trite and unconvincing? In The Art of Getting By, Freddie Highmore plays George, a self-absorbed loner who has decided that life is meaningless, and since it is, there’s no good reason to do homework. The teachers are sympathetic, though we are not. Why exactly are we supposed to root for this kid anyway? Also, the plot meanders aimlessly. One minute George is a loner, and the next, he’s a social butterfly. The film attempts minimalism, but in doing so, it fails to fill in necessary details. Likewise, it fails at the depth it so earnestly strives to convey.
