Rebooting the legend after Ang Lee’s esoteric flop five year before, Louis Letterier’s The Incredible Hulk (B) reminds viewers from the opening frames that this is an action movie, pure and simple. A parkeur-style chase across rooftops is just the beginning as the film winds through a global adventure wuth Edward Norton as Bruce Banner/THe Hulk in full enraged scientist mode. Liv Tyler and Tim Roth provide ample support for this solid action film that brings Hulk closer into the Marvel canon in time for Avengers activity.
Gus Van Sant’s Milk (A) is a stirring biopic, faithfully recreating a San Francisco of the 1970’s and, as embodied by Sean Penn, giving a star turn of an American hero in Harvey Milk. The film blends personal and political triumphs, with a touching performance by James Franco as Milk’s love interest. The sometimes avant garde Van Sant minimizes his grittier aesthetic for a wide canvas Hollywood epic, and the result is a soaring triumph.
Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona (B+) is the latest in the writer/director’s European travelogue in which a Spaniard (Javier Bardem) proposes a three-way to two lovely travelers (Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson), and then they all encounter his former wife (Penélope Cruz). Alternately ambiguous and enchanting, the film is full of comedy and rich characters, with everyone at the top of their game.
Matthew Vaughn’s Stardust (B+) is a whimsical adventure in the tradition of The Princess Bride. Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes and Robert DeNiro are standouts in this fantasy about getting over the walls that block our way to our dreams. Witches, pirates, unicorns, voodoo dolls and so much more are part of the journey ahead. This is a pleasant surprise of a movie that nobody seemed to see in theatres but that has enchanted folks who have seen it.
John Carney’s Once (B+) is a treasure box of a musical with an unassuming storyline showcasing a man and a woman who enter each other’s lives when they need each other most. Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglova play the unnamed pair – he, a busking Irish guitarist and she, a Czech pianist, who find themselves “Falling Slowly” into the spell of making beautiful music together. Very much in the vein of Before Sunrise, the duo are fated to be together and bring out talents and insights in each other that they never could have found separately. In its simplicity and handheld look and feel, it celebrates the joy of discovery and the brilliant promises of second chances at love.
Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd (A-) is a monster musical. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, neither renowned for their singing voices, sink their teeth into Sondheim’s gruesome tale of a demon barber bent on revenge against humanity that wronged him and his skirted accomplice who makes meat pies out of the corpses from his haircuttery. Atmospheric London sets, lovely tunes and absolutely blood-spewed sequences don’t often go together seamlessly, but Burton orchestrates them quite nicely here, thank you very much. It’s one of the director’s best works in years.
Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up (B+) pairs schlubby slacker Seth Rogen and career-minded Katherine Heigl as participants in a one-night stand who are now parents-to-be. It’s a modern-day comedy about reverse courtship as the parallel notion of falling in love while expecting a baby brings out the best and worst of all involved. Apatow’s writing style is taboo-smashing; and while he sometimes could use a self-editor, what he gets right, he gets really right in this fresh comedy.
Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men (A-) is a cat and mouse caper told by amazing artisans. When Josh Brolin’s character finds a satchel of money, he thinks he’s hit the mother load, until he finds that there’s a tracking mechanism, and the tracking is being done by super-scary hitman Javier Bardem. This neo-Western breaks lots of rules – no music, minimalist sound sculpture, weird ending and the like. But it’s a consistently entertaining thriller that tells its story in its own idiosyncratic way.
Bill Condon’s Dreamgirls (B) is a musical backstage drama with style and panache, but it’s conflicted about whether or not the characters sing when they are not on stage. Musicals require a suspension of disbelief, for sure, but within the film, it should be consistent. So the stage numbers are great, and some of the personal ballads are too, just awkward. Beyonc
Explicit and magical, John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus (A) is a sprawling ensemble about sexual release in modern New York and is one of the best films of 2006. Sook-Yin Lee and Paul Dawson are among the superb members of a cast in overlapping stories of lust, loneliness, longing and liberation. With dandy music by Yo La Tengo and clever animations surrounding a phenomenal menagerie of human characters, this freestyle film is experimental, daring and fascinating.