Originally posted at XHIBIT P (www.xhibitp.com) & written by Patrice Peck and Leticia St. Remy

When analyzing riots and revolution, music often comes to mind, whether it be NWA or The Beatles. However, in the case of the London riots that have been taking place for the past two weeks, three British teen drama tv and film titles present themselves as a sort of harbinger for the deluge of discontent, frustration and violence that has erupted throughout the country.

A routine vehicle search served as the catalyst for the London riots which have resulted in at least 700 arrests, 16,000 police officers on the ground and violent turmoil in over seven of England’s major cities. On the evening of Thursday, August 4th, Scotland Yard pulled over a cab with passenger 29-year old Mark Duggan in Tottenham. There are conflicting accounts as to what exactly happened after Duggan stepped out of his car upon request, but all versions have several commonalities:that there were multiple shots fired, one of which hit a police officer’s radio, and by the time the bullets stopped raining Duggan was dead. London-based media allege that before the shooting started, Duggan was making a motion similar to reaching for a handgun. However, an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission determined that Duggan never fired on police prior to his death. In response, a peaceful marching protest of approximately 300 people started from Broadwater Estate to the Tottenham police department. According to unconfirmed reports, the riots were ignited by an altercation between a police officer and a teenager, to which the crowd responded by setting ablaze to multiple police vehicles. The violence quickly spread to the towns and cities of Enfield Brixton, Oxford Circus, Walthamstow, Croydon, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Birkenhead, West Bromwich, Salford and Wolverhampton hour –by- hour over the course of the past twelve days.

Before we continue further let’s remember one thing: being a teen sucks. Remember wanting to be taken seriously by adults? All of the tumultuous changes you experienced with your body, your ideologies, your friends and your family? Growing up is hard to do, no matter what your background is. Take–for instance–the popular, contemporary British teen drama series: MisFits (series about superpower social delinquents), Kidulthood (a film about inner city delinquents) and Attack the Block (a sci-fi film about inner city delinquents.)

Kidulthood Trailer:

According to Paul Lewis and James Harkin, both of the UK’s major newspaper The Guardian, the demographics of the rioters varies greatly, composed of not only young black men, but people of all races, ages, gender and class, not unlike the casting of the teen dramas. In their article, entitled “Who are the Rioters?,” which includes multiple first-hand accounts of individuals at the riots, Lewis and Harkin write, “They were just some of the crowd of about 100 who had gathered on the corner; a mix of the curious and angry, young and old. It was impossible to distinguish between thieves, bystanders and those who simply wanted to cause damage.” They continue on to describe the atmosphere of the riots, which reads like the synopsis for each of the abovementioned UK teen dramas:

This is unadulterated, indigenous anger and ennui. It’s a provocation, a test of will and a hamfisted two-finger salute to the authorities.

Echoing this sentiment is Iyiola Solanke, an Associate Professor in Law at Leeds University Law School in England. In her Huffington post piece, “Public Unrest, Social Institutions and Trust,” Solanke writers, “this was not just an affair of the disenfranchised: as has become evident from the profiles of those arrested and charged, some were professional people caught up in the ‘madness of the moment.” In addition to addressing the question of who the rioters are, Solanke provides reasonings as to why these violent riots and lootings occurred and have continued in the first place. Having called attention to income inequality, consumerism encouraged by the media, and aggressive austerity measures spurned by the recession, Solanke concludes her article by insisting that we must closely investigate the social structure within which this is all taking place; as opposed to criticizing individuals and pointing to poor parenting as if operating in a large vacuum:

Whilst not seeking to condone or excuse, is it possible that their actions might be a symptom of a general social malaise that began with a decline in public behaviour and has culminated in an absolute lack of regard for authority and trust in public institutions? It may not provide an answer, but the outbreaks of violence, looting and arson might become slightly less perplexing if set within the context of the immoral behavior and wrong-doing that seems common in public life.

While TV and film do derive from intentions to entertain, they can also reveal complexities about a society that often go unnoticed in the real world. Teen angst and discontent are frequently disregarded by adults, who more often than not are dealing with the same feelings themselves in less expressive, although equally destructive manners. Of course many opponents to the scandalous and lewd content of these titles insist that they are made as such to add shock value, and consequently attract viewers. That argument is certainly true to one extent–that shock value, when done right, does increase media and viewer attention. However, these teen shows and films are just one of many in the sea of British entertainment, yet they immediately they’ve buoyed to the surface thanks to refreshing, contemporary writing, casting and film making. Simply speaking, these are characters with real issues and real beliefs and opinions that viewers see in society, but also in themselves. Just as Solanke specifies her disinterest in condoning the behaviors of the looters and rioters, the highly-inappropriate actions of the teens in these shows and films aren’t necessarily condoned by the adult creators and writers of these titles, but offered straight-up as a reality check for society, both teens and adults alike. In other words, you may not feel comfortable or even safe with what’s taking place, but that doesn’t stop it from being a reality.

Videos relating to the london riots:
In aBBC interview with Darcus Howe, a West Indian Writer and Broadcaster, speaks about the mistreatment of youths by police leading to an up-roar and the ignorance of both police and the government.

Nabil Abdul Rashid’s responds to David Starkey’s comments made on BBC, where Starkey claimed that “Whites Have become Black”

Jackson, Mississippi seems to be stuck in a time portal of sorts.

You know this is true when a Nina Simone song–inspired by the murder of Medgar Evars–rings true to a similar, horrific race-based murder in the same state. One minute the state, and the city in particular, is receiving a huge amount of attention by way of Kathryn Stockett’s national bestseller The Help, and the next minute a particularly heinous hate crime that occurred on June 26, 2011 has been revealed across national news. Forty-nine years old James Craig Anderson, who had truly been in the wrong place, on the wrong evening, was brutally beat by a group of white teenagers and ultimately run down by one of them in a Ford 250, simply because the driver wanted to “go fuck with some niggers.” Unknown to the teens, this entire event was caught on tape at the parking lot where it occurred. In addition to the slew of racist slurs and remarks exclaimed during the crime, the actual murder was captured and has been shared across the web on the national news sites in addition to Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and personal blogs. (Warning: The CNN video contains graphic footage of the hit-and-run, which appears at the 3:15 mark.)

This isn’t to say that the two events–The Help film being released and the hate crime taking place–are directly related; in fact, the novel is set during the early 1960s at the beginning of Civil Rights while the hate crime took place June 2011. However, both stories involve white individuals declaring and believing themselves  to be overall superior to their black counterparts, an un-PC ideology that many Americans assumed to be dead or, at the very least, kept to one’s self. Being that many Americans consider the US to be a post-racial nation, The Help, a story that aims to illustrate the overarching human connection shared across racial boundaries, actually may end up causing more damage to any chances we have at becoming truly-post racial than a grisly murdering of an innocent black man by a group of intolerant white teenagers.

Yes. I’m going to give much more significance to a fictionalized book turned movie, as opposed to the hate crime. Based off of the ads and trailers for the film, The Help is being touted as a film that’s both feel-good and family oriented–intended to warm the heart while connecting family members of all ages through a universal storyline.  Mind you, the book was written in the same vein–and, yes I did in fact read the book–however, when Hollywood is brought into the mix, themes of race and gender and black characters that were once complex instantly become less multidimensional. Not necessarily at the fault of the individuals responsible for the adaption of the novel, but at the fault of Hollywood’s ongoing drought of color on and off the screen. Because when it comes down to it, art, or in this case, art is clearly imitating life, however in the case of the black American community, art is only imitating a very narrow partition of life in a very redundant way. The filmmakers may not be explicitly saying that their films are a representation of every black person’s life, but when viewers continue to see the same archetypes and storylines for decades then the content begins to speak for itself.

You’ve more than likely witnessed the uproar resulting from films such as Precious, Training Day, and Monster’s Ball. All of those mentioned films center on a black protagonist having one or more stereotypical feature, and resulting in instant fame and critic praise  each of the actors and actresses portraying those roles. The Help has already begun to garner countless praise not only for the film itself, but for the award-worthy portrayals of the leading characters–particularly Viola Davis, a woman who has already been nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in a Film (2008′s Doubt.) Halle Berry had been a previously nominated, but never a recipient, for an Oscar until she straight up donned the most stereotypical character she’s ever played (not including BAPS of course!) Same goes for Denzel. On top of this award trend for highly skilled and season black actors and actresses, The Help also falls into the white savior theme that many beloved films such as Avatar and The Blind Side fall into, which will definitely fare well for Emma Stone, who plays the white young woman who fills the savior role this time. Keep in mind that the argument against these roles isn’t necessarily against the actor or actresses acting chops. Both Emma Stone and Sandra Bullock are welcomed by groups of all races, mostly because of their chameleon-like ability to juggle the most hilarious film and the most pathologically tragic film.

Also, the film’s setting of the Jim Crowe and Civil Rights period in the South provides another problem for many, mostly black, viewers. In her Huffington Post article entitled “How The Help Failed Us” writer and TV news producer Dyane Jean François writes,

We are in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963. Jim Crow. Segregation. Lynching. Medgar Evers assassinated. Still, this movie aspires to make you feel good. And it failed. The only positive thing about this movie is that it put several good Black actors on a screen before a wide audience. Maybe this movie will be a vehicle to higher ground for some of them.” She continues on to address specific scenes in the movie that were inappropriately directed as comic relief moments.

Also questioning the different perceptions of this movie made by black viewers and white viewers, respectively, is Maud Dillingham of The Christian Science Monitor, who writes,

That uncomfortable fact of certain American lives – the black servant who cares for a white family – is rooted in slavery, and this relationship undoubtedly is a source of complicated and conflicted emotions both for the caregivers and their charges. For white people who grew up with black nannies, ‘The Help’ may strike a nostalgic chord and a yearning [...] But one can’t help but wonder what kind of book and film would have resulted if Demetrie had written her own version of ‘The Help.’ Or whether a biopic of African-American activists such as, say, Fannie Lou Hamer or Septima Poinsette Clark, would impel three million people to buy movie tickets.

The National Association of Black Women Historians has also released a statement (found here) imploring fans of the book not to support the film because of–what they believe to be–it’s stereotypically subjugating portrayal of black women and men.

Now, I personally have yet to see this movie, although as I mentioned, I have read the book. Not because I was actually interested in the hype surrounding the novel, but instead I had decided not to judge a book by it’s cover (or rather, the synopsis in the book jacket, in this case.) My ultimate verdict? The Help did have its poignant literary moments and was written pretty well, allowing for readers of various levels to enjoy equally, but it was not on trial for that reason. Does the white savior trope ring true in this novel? I’d like to say, overall, no. Each character is depicted in a very humane way, despite race and class, and the common thread of humanity stays strong throughout the story line. Is it necessary for this film to be made into a film? In 1960–Yes. In 2011–No. Also, I personally know many women, who are in or close to my family, that have or continue to provide “help” (an understatement, being that these women provide so, so much more)  to well-off white families, and while 2011 is a vastly different landscape from the 1950s in Jackson, Mississippi, a similar social hierarchy is still alive and well.

Yet how biting can a reality really be when sugar coated in feel good, family night goodness? The hate crime that occurred in June should not have happened at all, but it did which is a major indication of racial unrest in Mississippi, at the very least. It happened and it should not ever be made into a featured film as a means of delivering a message that black people and white people are the same underneath it all. Those people who didn’t realize that to begin with and needed a funny, heart warming film to inform them of this matter will need much more than two hours to get that message through their heads.

Stay tuned for next week when I bring you a follow up after having gone to see the movie for my (Mississippi) goddam self…

Originally, where is it? Nowadays, there are more remakes and re-imaginings than ever in Hollywood cinema. Ideas are simply being transported to different vehicles of the visual arts. It isn’t surprising if a book becomes the muse of a surprise hit film, but what about comics and motion pictures?

Here are three productions we can not wait to see make a splash—wherever they may land—on the silver screen or a proscenium stage:

1.

Pedro Almodovar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown—one of Mexican cinema’s finest—gets a Broadway face lift by indie songwriter David Yazbek and characters get ready to belt it on the fly in a new musical adaptation! With an amazing cast that includes Tony Award winners Patti LuPone (Evita, Gypsy), Laura Benanti (Gypsy) and Tony nominee Sherie Rene Scott (Everyday Rapture, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) will bewitch and bemuse us in the kitsch comedic classic that helped put Mexico on the silver screen atlas.

2.

Tyler Perry breaks character, avoiding the harsh realities of his faith-based possessory credit tinsel town whippersnappers and decides to direct his own Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire. Enter the Ntozake Shange-penned For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. Shortened to For Colored Girls, the big-budget film stars Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg, dance-pop icon Janet Jackson, NAACP Image Award pin-up Kimberly Elise, BAFTA winner Thandie Newton, and Broadway legends Loretta Devine, Phylicia Rashad and Anika Noni Rose, in what is sure to be an Oscar-worthy blockbuster. However, will the dramatic motion picture magic be the typical Tyler Perry God-fearing Christian minstrel hajj or will it be an escape and get the root of something deeper?

3.

Get your silly strings ready! After spawning a gigantic film franchise that includes toys, posters, lunchboxes, a blueprint that paved a way for the Iron Man franchise and credits for the real folk’s blues underbelly reboot of Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise, Broadway brings the first Spider-Man film to the stage.

Professor Condemns Will.I.Am’s Use Of Blackface At MTV VMA [AUDIO]

Top Ten Black Comic Book Heroes Of All Time

DC Comics Has New Hurricane Katrina Comic Book

Look out world–Precious has arrived.

Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire
Directed by Lee Daniels
Starring Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey
****

Anyone that has ever complained about the lack of good roles for actresses—especially black actresses—in Hollywood should make a point of buying a ticket for Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire. It’s the kind of film that’s rarely seen on the contemporary cinematic landscape: a serious, emotional drama about women with bigger problems than finding a date for Friday night or picking the right pair of Manolos to go with that little black dress. More than anything though, Precious is a remarkable showcase for its all-female ensemble cast, challenging them in ways most mainstream films can’t – or won’t.

Like the unwieldy title says, Precious is adapted from the 1996 novel by African-American poet Sapphire, which chronicles the life of Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), an obese, illiterate teenager who relies on her overactive imagination to help her endure a hellish reality. Trapped in a dilapidated Harlem apartment with her emotionally and physically abusive mother (Mo’Nique), Precious grew up being repeatedly raped by her now-absent father. At 16, she’s already given birth to one of his children and has another on the way. After she’s expelled from public school, Precious enrolls in alternative education program and starts to turn her life around with the help of a no-nonsense teacher (Paula Patton) and a sympathetic social worker (Mariah Carey).

In the wrong hands, Precious could easily have turned mawkish and treacly, but director Lee Daniels avoids Lifetime movie-of-the-week sentimentality, producing an inspirational drama that’s genuinely inspiring. Much of the film’s power lies in the performances; Patton displays a steeliness we’ve never seen from her before and, in her screen debut, Sidibe brings an authenticity to the title role a more experienced actress wouldn’t be able to replicate. But it’s Mo’Nique’s ferocious turn that will really have audiences buzzing. In the film’s closing moments, she delivers a devastating monologue that is guaranteed to win her an Oscar. That one scene encapsulates the experience of watching Precious—it’s emotionally exhausting but also, exhilarating to watch these women work.

Verdict: See It

Click here to see GIANT’s exclusive photo shoot with Paula Patton

After months of hype, Michael Jackson’s final concert arrives on the big screen.

Michael Jackson’s This Is It
Directed by Kenny Ortega
***1/2

Ever since the project was first announced in August, the new documentary Michael Jackson’s This Is It has been shrouded in mystery.  According to initial reports, Sony Pictures paid $60 million to acquire hundreds of hours of behind-the-scenes footage showing Jackson–who had died a little over a month before–rehearsing for his big comeback concert series in London.  What exactly would that footage reveal?  Would Jackson be a slurry, stumbling mess?  Or would we see a flicker of the great entertainer– the King of Pop–who dazzled audiences for decades with thrilling dance moves and unstoppable tunes?  Sony stoked the mystery by putting the footage on instant lockdown; aside from a short trailer, no scenes from This Is It have found their way onto TV or the web, which, in theory, only heightens its must-see appeal.  To further fuel the hype, the studio decreed that the movie would only play in theaters for two weeks, borrowing a successful gimmick that Disney employed last year for its Hannah Montana concert flick.  Not even critics got the chance to check out This Is It ahead of time.  Instead, the press would see the movie on the same date and time as the rest of the world–specifically on Tuesday, October 27 at 6pm Los Angeles time when the movie premiered at the city’s Nokia Theater and then went live in theaters in 17 other cities around the globe.

So that’s why I, along with the rest of New York’s media gadflies, found myself at Regal Cinema’s Times Square theater last night.  Sony had taken over the entire multiplex for the evening, booking This is It in all 13 theaters, each of which was accessible by special invite only.  I made my way to my assigned theater past a literal army of security guards who stopped me every ten feet or so to run their hands over my special red ticket in what ‘m assuming was an authentication procedure of some kind.  When I finally got into the auditorium, live footage from the red carpet in L.A. was playing onscreen.  Celebrities started arriving at around 7:30pm (5:30 Pacific time) and made their way past paparazzi flashbulbs and screaming fans, occasionally stopping to answer inane questions from hapless red carpet interviewer Leanza Cornet, while we in New York waited patiently for the actual movie to start.  Finally, at 9:15, the lights went down, the screen went dark and…and…and…

And we saw a movie.  The world didn’t spontaneously heal itself, the future of the music industry didn’t automatically become brighter and Michael Jackson didn’t rise from the dead and start doing the moonwalk.  After all the pre-release and pre-show hype, This Is It is just a movie–a surprisingly well-made and compelling movie, but a movie nonetheless.  In a way, all the studio-manufactured brouhaha surrounding the film may be doing it a disservice, as it leads viewers to expect a cinematic spectacle to rival a summer blockbuster like Star Trek or Transformers 2.  But in reality This Is It is a more modest picture.  This isn’t a concert movie–it’s a movie about the making of a concert.

Director Kenny Ortega, a longtime Jackson friend and colleague, takes the audience through the show’s set list song by song–beginning with “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” (of course) and concluding with “Man in the Mirror”–revealing how each tune was going to be performed live onstage from the choreography, to the special effects to the King of Pop’s own vocals.  Much of the footage is taken from a series of almost complete rehearsals, where the dancing is in place, but not all of the effects are complete and Jackson often sings along to backing vocals in order to go easy on his voice.  There are also clips of additional material that would have been worked into the show; for “Smooth Criminal,” Jackson had himself digitally inserted into a series of film clips from old ’40s gangster pictures and Ortega shot new 3D footage of monsters tearing it up in a graveyard to accompany “Thriller.”  In some cases, CGI-animatronics stand in for effects that were never finalized; “Earth Song,” for example, would have climaxed with an actual bulldozer rolling onstage to confront Jackson.  If you’re at all interested in the art of stagecraft, This is It provides an invaluable look at what goes on behind-the-scenes of a mega-budgeted concert.  Indeed, in some ways, seeing the process by which the show was put together is almost more interesting than the finished product ever would have been.

But what about the man at the center of the spectacle?  Well Jackson–or as the entire crew calls him, MJ–is alternately engaged, enraged, enthusiastic, impatient and joyful.  In other words, he’s an artist in his element, doing what he loves to do.  His voice is strong and clear and he moves with the same grace he displayed throughout his life.  Clearly the film has been edited to show him at his best, but, to his credit, Ortega does occasionally allow us to see behind his beatific exterior.  In some scenes, Jackson is visibly frustrated when the band misses a note or a dancer doesn’t execute a move correctly.  And while we never see him offstage, a few moments do hint at his personal troubles.  After rehearsing “Beat It” Jackson is so winded, he can barely speak–his age finally catches up with his body.  Earlier, Jackson stops singing right in the middle of a medley of Jackson 5 tunes and launches into a rambling, nonsensical speech about his inner ear problems while Ortega humors him from offstage.  One wonders how many more moments like that one are on the cutting room floor.

Clocking in at almost two hours, This Is It does feel overlong.  Part of that can be chalked up to the normal ebb and flow of a concert–some songs are simply better than others and everyone will have their own opinions about which tunes they would rather have seen cut from the set list.  Personally, I could have watched Jackson rehearse “The Way Your Make Me Feel” and “Billie Jean” for a half-hour without growing tired of either song.  On the other hand, his renditions of the spectacularly cheesy “Earth Song” and “They Don’t Care About Us” almost put me to sleep.  Those dud songs aside, This Is It is far better than it had any right to be, largely because Ortega avoids turning the film into an overly sentimental obituary for Jackson.  There are no images of teary-eyed fans despondent over the sudden death of their idol or awkward testimonials from Jackson’s peers and colleagues.  In fact, the movie never addresses his death at all beyond a closing dedication.  The focus here is entirely on the work that Jackson did while he was still alive.  There is obviously much more to Michael Jackson’s legacy than this single concert, but that’s for future films to explore.  For now, This is It provides a valuable service–it allows a gifted musician to deliver the career-capping performance he wanted the world to see, but never got the chance.

Verdict: See It

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Also In Theaters:

Gentleman Broncos
Directed by Jared Hess
Starring Michael Angarano, Jennifer Coolidge, Jemaine Celement
*1/2

I’ve always suspected that Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess may be a one-trick pony and those feelings are confirmed by his third feature, Gentleman Broncos, a virtually laugh-free comedy that has no clear idea who or what it’s attempting to satirize.  Michael Angarano, the go-to actor for neurotic teenagers when Jesse Eisenberg isn’t available, stars as a painfully awkward amateur sci-fi writer whose unpublished space opera Yeast Lords: The Bronco Years is stolen by his idol, bestselling author Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement, one-half of the New Zealand folk-parody band Flight of the Conchords and the only redeeming thing about this movie).  Interspersed with the real-world narrative are clips from the book-within-the-film, starring a game Sam Rockwell as the hero of Angarano’s bizarre story.  Hess has always seemed to regard his characters with a noticeable distaste and that bubbles over into outright rage here; it’s not just that these characters are unlikeable–they’re downright freakish and lack any of the somewhat sweet naivete of a Napoleon or Kip.  Misanthropy can be funny, but not when its wielded with this heavy a hand.              
Verdict: Skip It

Skin
Directed by Anthony Fabian
Starring Sophie Okonedo, Sam Neill
***
Sophie Okonedo delivers a passionate star turn in this movie version of a fascinating, troubling piece of South African history.  The Oscar-nominated actress plays Sandra Laing, a dark-skinned woman born to white Afrikaner parents in the ’50s.  After being classified by the official state board as “colored,” Sandra’s family fought to have that ruling overturned and she was re-categorized as “white” but continued to face prejudice and discrimination.  Eventually, she petitioned to have her racial identity changed again after she fell in love with a black man.  Sandra’s choice forever severed her ties to her mother and father and when her relationship fell apart, she was forced to live through the country’s turbulent post-Apartheid years on her own.  While Skin does a fine job outlining Sandra’s life and Okonedo’s performance is undeniably powerful, the movie’s emotional heft is blunted somewhat by many of the predictable conventions that accompany biopics suggesting that maybe the documentary route would have been the way to go for this particular story. 
Verdict: See It

The House of the Devil
Directed by Ti West
Starring Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Gerta Gerwig
***1/2
More than a nifty homage to low-budget ’80s horror flicks, Ti West’s The House of the Devil is an inventive, enjoyable and, yes, genuinely scary movie in its own right.  Jocelin Donahue plays a money-starved college student who unwisely agrees to take a babysitting job for a family that lives in a big dark house on the outskirts of town.  A welcome relief from the glossy, over-edited studio-produced horror pictures clogging multiplexes these days, The House of the Devil is a movie that takes its time building up to the big scares, which gives you plenty of time to appreciate how closely West has replicated the mise-en-scene of the early ’80s.  Once the scary stuff arrives though, don’t be surprised if you finds yourself clutching your date–or, if you’re solo, your arm rest–a little more tightly.
Verdict: See It

Paranormal Activity makes you jump at things that go bump in the night.

Paranormal Activity
Directed by Oren Peli
Starring Katie Featherstone, Micah Stoat
***

Nothing kills a movie’s momentum like over-hype, so I want to make it very clear that Paranormal Activity-the much buzzed about new horror film from first-time director Oren Peli-is not the scariest movie ever made.  It’s not even one of the Top 5 scariest movies ever made.  What it is though, is a very clever, very compelling and very creepy haunted house tale that owes as much to the spooky ghost stories of yesteryear-I’m thinking of black-and-white classics like Val Lewton’s Cat People and Robert Wise’s The Haunting-as it does to more contemporary scary movies like The Blair Witch Project.

Like the latter film, Paranormal Activity is shot entirely from a first-person point-of-view perspective, specifically the perspective of Micah (Micah Stoat) a goofy day-trader who lives with his girlfriend Katie (Katie Featherstone) in a handsome two-story home in a well-off neighborhood.  As the movie begins, we learn that Micah has just purchased some video equipment to record some strange goings-on in the house that Katie believes might be supernatural in nature.  These incidents always go down after dark, so he rigs up the camera in their bedroom to videotape everything that happens after they fall asleep.  At first, very little of note seems to occur; there are a few creeks in the hallway and the bedroom door swings open in the dead of night, but none of these things necessarily indicate the presence of a poltergeist.  As Micah continues to film though, his camera captures after-hours activities that seem to defy any logical explanation.  Could it be that they are really sharing their house with a ghost?  And if so, why don’t they get the hell out of dodge already?

That second question is one that Peli never really answers successfully, which becomes a problem in the third act when events reach a point that would make any rational person would pack up his or her suitcase and make a run for the border.  Then again, it’s difficult to think of any horror movie where the main characters did the smart thing and just left the scene of the haunting.  (Let’s face it, if they did, none of these films would last longer than twenty minutes.)  Given that, it’s a little easier to forgive-if not entirely forget-the movie’s occasional gaps in logic, especially since Peli orchestrates the movie’s scariest sequences so effectively.  As with The Haunting and Cat People, much of Paranormal Activity‘s fear factor is derived from what the audience doesn’t see.  There’s none of the sadomasochistic gore that’s on display in torture porn like the Hostel movies or the CG-enhanced bloodletting in bigger-budgeted productions like The Haunting in Connecticut.  Instead, Peli relies on little details-like lights going on and off in the hallway or a booming crash in a dark room-to put the audience of the edge of their seats.  The best compliment I can pay Paranormal Activity is that, hours after I saw the movie, a noise woke me up in the middle of the night and for a split-second, I thought Peli’s ghost had followed me home.

Verdict: See It

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Also In Theaters:

Trucker
Directed by James Mottern
Starring Michelle Monaghan, Nathan Fillion, Benjamin Bratt
**

Hollywood has been trying to turn Michelle Monaghan into a movie star for several years now, but since success has consistently eluded this pleasant, but bland actress she’s now aiming for artistic cred instead.  Her chosen vehicle to respect is a cloying indie drama about a rough and tumble female big rig driver whose life is upended when she’s suddenly asked to take care of the son she abandoned years ago.  Rounding out the cast is Benjamin Bratt as the boy’s father and her ex-lover and Nathan Fillion as the married man that’s completely under Monaghan’s spell.  Impersonally written and directed by James Mottern, Trucker is the kind of movie that longs to be praised for its “realism” and “grit,” but deep down the film is just as phony and artificial as any Hollywood fantasy.
Verdict: Skip It

St. Trinian’s
Directed by Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson
Starring Rupert Everett, Gemma Arterton
*1/2
Originally released in England two years ago to withering reviews and mediocre box office, this update of a popular ’50s British film franchise is crossing the pond only because some members of the large ensemble cast-specifically bad-boy comic Russell Brand-have begun acquiring some name recognition stateside.  But even the most devoted Brand fanatic will have a hard time sitting through the film’s witless antics and aggressively annoying performances from such normally reliable actors as Rupert Everett and Colin Firth.  Apparently a sequel is already in the works, but don’t expect to see that one on U.S. screens anytime soon.
Verdict: Skip It

Adventures of Power
Directed by Ari Gold
Starring Ari Gold, Michael McKean, Adrien Grenier
*1/2
A feature-length rip-off of…uh, I mean homage to Napoleon Dynamite, Adventures of Power features writer/director/star Ari Gold as a dorky small-town loser with a big dream: to be the best air drummer in the world.  That mission takes him from his backwater burg to the bright lights of the big city, where he joins up with a down-on-its-luck air-instrument band and enters the premiere competition for air-musicians everywhere.  Imagine a lame Saturday Night Live sketch stretched out to 90 minutes and you’ll have an idea of how painful Adventures of Power is to endure.
Verdict: Skip It

Reviews of Inglorious Basterds and Passing Strange

Inglorious Basterds
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Melanie Laurent
***

Ideally, Quentin Tarantino’s latest feature Inglorious Basterds should be seen twice, the first time to adjust to what it isn’t and the second to appreciate what it is. Part of the problem is that the film’s advertising campaign has sold it as if it were a spiritual sequel to Grindhouse—a gonzo, ultraviolent World War II tale of a band of renegade Jewish American soldiers led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) cutting a bloody swath through Europe in their quest to collect as many Nazi scalps as possible. In truth though, Inglorious Basterds is a slower, talkier affair that prizes the anticipation of bloodshed over the actual act of bloodshed. If I had to sum up the movie in typical Hollywood pitch-speak, I’d describe it as Once Upon a Time in the West meets My Dinner With Andre. Throughout its two-and-a-half hour runtime, the film juxtaposes Sergio Leone-style Mexican stand-offs (shot in gorgeous wide-screen by Tarantino’s Kill Bill cinematographer Bob Richardson) with intimate conversations conducted over drinks and/or a hearty meal.

The other thing moviegoers probably won’t be anticipating is that Brad Pitt and his squad of basterds aren’t the stars of the movie. Instead, they’re just one plot thread in a sprawling saga that also includes a young Jewish woman (Melanie Laurent) who escapes a Nazi ambush and ends up operating a Parisian movie theater; a British film critic turned upstanding soldier (Michael Fassbender) who is tasked with a dangerous assignment; and, best of all, a German officer (the marvelous Austrian actor Christoph Waltz) who always seems to be one step ahead of everyone around him. In interviews, Tarantino has said that, at one point, he had planned for Basterds to be a multi-part miniseries and that’s apparent from the dense narrative, which would take too long to summarize in full here. Instead, I’ll just say that the A-plot involves a top-secret plan to assassinate high-ranking Nazi officials (including Hitler himself) at a movie premiere—a mission that eventually allows all the film’s characters to assemble in one place for the picture’s grand (and genuinely surprising) finale.

However annoying Tarantino may be as a media celebrity, he’s still one of the best shooters in the business right now. There are moments in Inglorious Basterds that rank amongst his most impressive work, most notably an extended sequence in a cellar pub in which a group of Allied officers disguised as Nazis meet their informant (Diane Kruger) while trying to avoid detection by the actual Nazis drinking and carousing one table away. Tautly directed and wittily written, this nearly 20-minute sequence is classic Tarantino. And even when the script or performances aren’t clicking, the director’s expert visual eye keeps the viewer hooked. Whether he’s directly referencing images from such cinematic classics as The Searchers or framing a luscious French pastry in a tight close up, Tarantino rarely goes for the obvious shot.

For all its stylistic pleasures though, Inglorious Basterds is a curiously empty moviegoing experience, lacking much in the way of compelling drama or rich characterizations (Waltz’s wonderful work aside).  Or maybe I’m just saying that because I’ve spent the past decade hoping that Tarantino would make a movie as involving as his 1997 picture Jackie Brown. That film married his endless visual inventiveness with characters that seemed like actual human beings instead of Tarantino avatars. In the years since Jackie Brown though, the director has retreated further and further into his own headspace, producing movies like Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Death Proof, which are essentially feature-length pastiches of his own cinematic obsessions. (The one exception to this trend is Kill Bill Vol. 2, a darker and more emotionally complex than the first installment.) Inglorious Basterds is a meatier movie mash-up than his recent run of flicks, but it’s still first and foremost a platform for Tarantino to indulge his very particular whims.  That’s his prerogative of course and the result is rarely dull, but I’m ready to see Tarantino make another movie that forces him to reach beyond his DVD library.

Verdict: See It

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Also In Theaters:

Passing Strange
Directed by Spike Lee
Starring Stew, Daniel Breaker, de’Adre Aziza
****
If you, like me, passed up the opportunity to catch this Tony-award winning rock musical during its Broadway run, don’t make the same mistake with Spike Lee’s vibrant film adaptation. Actually, “adaptation” isn’t really the right word to describe the movie, since Lee’s Passing Strange is a filmed version of the stage play, with no cinematic enhancements apart from a few behind-the-scenes glimpses of the cast during intermission. This approach my bother some viewers, but personally I was thrilled that the director kept the focus where it belongs—on the production’s sparse, but compelling stagecraft and the musicianship of the ace house band, led by the musical’s co-writer and star, Stew. Based loosely on Stew’s own life, the play tells the story of an L.A. youth who leaves his middle-class life for a bohemian existence in Europe in the hope of finding that elusive thing he calls “the real.” Covering the on-stage action with multiple cameras, Lee immediately gets the audience grooving on Stew’s terrific score and also lays out the play’s narrative in a clear way. The only thing that the film version can’t do, of course, is give you the experience of being in that Broadway theater while the band rocks out and the crowd stomps and sings along. And believe me, Passing Strange is going to want to make you get up and dance.
Verdict: See It
Click here to read GIANT’s exclusive Q&A with Stew

Art & Copy
Directed by Doug Pray
***
The general public has become so used to being bombarded by advertisements during their daily lives, few people have ever stopped to think about how the world has gotten this way. Doug Pray’s timely documentary introduces viewers to some of the men and women that revolutionized the ad game in the ’70s and ’80s, turning TV commercials and print campaigns from simple pitches into full-blown events. If any of the people interviewed feel a twinge of guilt for turning the world into one big billboard, they don’t express it here. But they do have quite a lot to say about how they dreamed up the ideas for their most successful campaigns, as well as what distinguishes good ads from bad ads. Art & Copy is the very definition of a niche documentary—other advertisers and Mad Men fans would seem to be its target demo—but for audiences that fit into its niche, this is an informative, entertaining film.
Verdict: Rent It

Five Minutes of Heaven
Directed by Oliver Hirschiegel
Starring Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt
***

In the January box-office smash Taken, Liam Neeson proved he still had the stuff to be an A-list action hero. Now, Five Minutes of Heaven re-establishes him as one cinema’s very best dramatic actors. Written by playwright Guy Hibbert and directed by German filmmaker Oliver Hirschbiegel, Heaven casts Neeson as a former member of a Northern Ireland paramilitary group. As a young man, he volunteered to carry out a hit for the organization, shooting his victim in plain view of the man’s younger brother. Decade later, this now-grown man (played by James Nesbitt) agrees to meet the now-repentant Neeson for a local television documentary, but as the time for their interview draws nearer, both men experience serious doubts. The performances are the main reason to seek out this low-key character study, which gives both Neeson and Nesbitt lots of juicy material to play. Even when the script runs out of steam in the final act, the two leads are able to keep the audience engaged and hopeful that something positive can still result from a youthful mistake.
Verdict: Rent It

Gotta Dance
Directed by Dori Bernstein
**
Can we call for a moratorium on feel-good documentaries about grandmas and grandpas doing activities that are normally considered to be the domain of younger folks? Following in the footsteps of last year’s Young @ Heart, which profiled a senior citizens choral group that shook their groove thang to rock songs, Gotta Dance follows the founding members of the New Jersey Nets’ all-seniors cheerleading squad, a publicity stunt that briefly distracted the team’s otherwise dismal season. After the initial novelty of seeing the elderly dancers master Britney Spears-style moves wears off, there’s not a lot left to this wafer-thin slice of life.
Verdict: Skip It

Reviews of Funny People, Thirst and Not Quite Hollywood

Funny People
Directed by Judd Apatow
Starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana
***1/2

Judd Apatow’s name has been attached to so many films in recent years it’s a surprise when you recall that Funny People is only his third directorial effort.  Then again, in the course of those three movies, Apatow has tackled weightier subjects than some directors attempt in an entire career.  The 40-Year-Old-Virgin was about falling in love, Knocked Up was about making babies and now Funny People tackles the hilarious subject of death.  Now that he’s covered three of life’s biggest milestones, one can only wonder where Apatow can go next.  Anyone up for a raucous comedy about male menopause?

The trailers for Funny People have already revealed that the dying man at the film’s center is George Simmons (Adam Sandler), a former stand-up comedian turned big-time movie star who headlines high-concept family comedies with titles like Merman…where he plays–what else?–a merman!  What you may not know, however, is that Funny People is also about the passing of a certain generation of comics–specifically the men and women that came up with Sandler in the late ’80s and early ’90s, folks like Norm MacDonald and Andy Dick, all of whom appear in the film as themselves–and the rise of a new class represented here by Seth Rogen’s Ira Wright, a fledgling comedian who becomes Simmons’ personal assistant and sometimes joke-writer.

It’s no accident that Apatow is the one who is overseeing this transfer of power, so to speak.  Back in the day, he used to room with Sandler and, in fact, home movies of their early exploits unspool during the film’s opening credits.  In recent years though, he’s helped cultivate Hollywood’s current crop of young A-list comedy stars from Rogen and Jason Segel to Jay Baruchel and Jonah Hill.  While the film touches briefly on the differences between the stand-up artists of Sandler’s generation and their offspring, the general vibe one gets from Funny People is that the kids really are all right.  Sure they may be overly obsessed with dick jokes, but they’ve also got some great punchlines up their sleeves.

If I seem to be avoiding describing the film’s story in detail, that’s because there’s not much to tell.  Apatow’s comedies have never been overly dependent on plot; his approach is to drop his characters into a situation and allow the comedy to emerge from their behavior.  Thus, George receives his diagnosis in the first or second scene and the bulk of the film’s first half finds him struggling to come to terms with this development.  He initially avoids his friends and family, then reaches out to them for advice and support.  He also returns to the stand-up clubs where he got his start for an unofficial “last hurrah” tour.  That’s where he first crosses paths with Ira and hires him essentially on a whim.  For his part, Ira looks at being George’s errand boy as the big break he’s been waiting for, especially since his obnoxious roommates (Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill) have secured steady jobs and remind him of that at every opportunity.

This section of the movie is classic Apatow, stuffed with hilarious and clearly semi-improvised dialogue, surprise celebrity cameos and moments of surprising emotional depth.  But then a development occurs midway through the film that sends Funny People off in an entirely different direction, one that deliberately doesn’t make room for the comic highs of the first half.  (This twist has been revealed in some of the trailers as well, but I’m not going to repeat it here.)  The last forty-five minutes of the two-and-a-half hour film take place entirely at the home of George’s former fiancée Laura (Apatow’s real-life wife Leslie Mann), who has since married an Australian businessman (Eric Bana) and has two adorable kids (played by Apatow’s actual children, Maude and Iris).  Once again, I don’t want to reveal how exactly events play out, but suffice it to say that George shows up there looking to catch a glimpse of the life he missed out on and ends up getting more than he bargained for.

I fully expect the second half of Funny People to lose some viewers, particularly those going in expecting the non-stop yuks of Virgin and Knocked Up.  Apatow and Sandler are pushing themselves out of their comfort zones here and that’s reflected in the somewhat awkward pacing.  It doesn’t help that the director can’t keep himself from lingering on his children’s adorable faces or his wife’s ass in tight jeans.  At least Mann has the required dramatic and comedic chops to make Laura into a believable character; their kids, on the other hand, won’t be putting the Fanning sisters out of business anytime soon.

Despite or maybe even because of these third-act stumbles, Funny People is an immensely rewarding film that displays artistic ambitions you might not have thought either Sandler or Apatow were capable of.  Sandler may actually be better here than he was in his deservedly celebrated turn in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love.  That film still found him playing a variation on his signature angry young man persona; this one demands a maturity and emotional honesty he’s rarely had the chance to display before and he proves himself up to the challenge.  The same could be said about Apatow himself.  More than any other film he’s directed over produced to date, Funny People puts Apatow’s private fears, neuroses and joys onscreen for everyone to see.  The resulting film isn’t always pretty, but more often than not it is pretty damn funny.

Verdict: See It

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Also in Theaters:

Thirst
Directed by Park Chan-wook
Starring Song Kang-ho, Kim Ok-vin, Kim Hae-sook, Shin Hay-kyun
****
Leave it to South Korean bad boy Park Chan-wook to inject some much-needed creative energy into the increasingly tired vampire genre.  Employing the same mixture of dark comedy, soap-opera melodramatics and gonzo gore that made his best-known film—2003′s Oldboy—such a trip to watch, the director concocts a story that follows a devout priest whose faith is tested after he is transformed into a vampire following a blood transfusion.  Now sporting all the powers—and needs—of Dracula himself, this man of God falls for the wife of a childhood friend, a woman whose quiet exterior hides a seriously disturbed soul.  Thirst is probably Chan-wook’s most commercially accessible film, lacking the scrambled narrative chronology and disturbing incest subplot that scared some viewers off of Oldboy.  But the director’s fans needn’t worry about him selling out; Park’s greatest skill as a director is meshing wildly different tones—comedy, horror and romantic melodrama—into a coherent whole and Thirst offers all the thrills, laughs and “Holy shit!” moments we’ve come to expect from him.  Whether Thirst is better that Oldboy is fodder for debate, but there’s no question that its among 2009′s best films.
Verdict: See It

Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!
Directed by Mark Hartley
***
Film buffs and horror fans will have a terrific time watching Mark Hartley’s lively documentary, which covers the history of Australia’s seedy genre film industry in 103 highly enjoyable minutes.  Divided into three sections, the movie explores the three major categories of exploitation flicks churned out by enterprising producers in the ’70s and ’80s: sex comedies, action thrillers and, of course, horror pictures.  Fortunately for Hartley, many of the actors, directors and producers from that era are still alive and kicking and they’ve all agreed to sit in front of his camera for insightful, candid interviews.  At times though, I occasionally found myself wishing that Hartley would ask his subjects tougher questions.  One subject that is rarely broached, for example, is how Australia’s problematic history with race relations factored into the kinds of films produced by the exploitation industry.  It also would have been interesting to pay a brief visit to New Zealand to see how a young Peter Jackson was inspired by the Australian genre industry to create his own brand of extreme horror.  Despite these missed opportunities, Not Quite Hollywood is a fast, fun introduction to an era of filmmaking that deserves more exposure.
Verdict: See It

Reviews of The Ugly Truth and Deadgirl

The Ugly Truth
Directed by Robert Luketic
Starring Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler, Bree Turner, Cheryl Hines
**

Sexual chemistry is a funny thing.  Some screen couples have it in spades—think Tracy & Hepburn, Allen & Keaton and Lathan & Diggs—while others resemble awkward teenagers slow-dancing a foot apart at the junior-high prom.  As the pair of impossibly attractive mismatched lovers at the center of The Ugly Truth, Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler do generate some occasional sparks, but can’t get a strong enough fire going to overcome the terrible material they’ve been handed.  Screenwriters Nicole Eastman, Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith must have written their script after a month-long romantic comedy binge, because The Ugly Truth appropriates material from virtually every successful from rom-com made in the past two decades, most notably Roxanne and When Harry Met Sally.  In fact, Rob Reiner may feel like suing for plagarism over one particular sequence in The Ugly Truth, when Heigl goes to a business dinner wearing vibrating panties and winds up showing the entire restaurant her O-face.  At least Meg Ryan only had to fake it.

Like so many romantic comedies, The Ugly Truth is set on an alternate Earth where everyone lives in nice houses, drives nice cars and the biggest life challenge any of them face is finding a date.  At least, that’s the only problem facing Abby (Heigl), the no-nonsense producer of a local morning talk show that’s been experiencing ratings free-fall.  To boost viewership, the station manager hires a new guest commentator named Mike Chadway (Butler), who has attracted a significant fanbase with a public access show devoted to telling women everything they really wanted to know about men, but were afraid to ask.  Naturally, the uptight Abby and boorish Mike don’t get along, but she puts aside her intense dislike of her new employee when he gives her Cyrano-like lessons in how to nab a date with the hot surgeon that just moved in next door.  Of course, the more time this odd couple spends together the more they–gasp!–like each other.  Will they get over their personal issues and realize that they belong together?  If you think the answer to this question is no, clearly you need to add more rom-coms to your Netflix queue.

Predictability isn’t the real reason this film falls flat, though.  After all, most romantic comedies follow the same plot points; the elements that separate the wheat from the chaff in this genre are the charisma of the stars, the verbal snap of the screenplay and the energetic direction of a fully engaged director.  Butler brings substantial charisma to his role and Heigl acquits herself well enough (embarrassing orgasm scene notwithstanding), but the three screenwriters and director Robert Luketic don’t satisfy the rest of the criteria.  This isn’t Luketic’s first foray into the romantic comedy realm–he also helmed Legally Blonde and Win a Date with Ted Hamilton! both of which were better-than-average genre fare.  But his mind seems to have been elsewhere during the production of this particular film.  Every frame is lit and composed like a TV-sitcom instead of a feature film and the dialogue is on that level as well.  (That would be a complement if we were talking about a sitcom like Seinfeld or Friends, but this script is closer to The Single Guy or Suddenly Susan.)  It’s the very definition of an impersonal Hollywood production: a movie without a single memorable scene or quotable line that’s been made purely to fill up a hole in the studio’s summer release schedule.  And that’s the ugly truth about The Ugly Truth.

Verdict: Skip It

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Deadgirl
Directed by Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel
Starring Shiloh Fernandez, Noah Segan, Michael Bowen
**1/2

In theory, Deadgirl sounds like the creepiest Stephen King story Stephen King never wrote.  Two class-cutting teens are exploring the dilapidated remains of an abandoned asylum when they discover the naked body of a woman locked away in a deep sub-basement.  Even stranger, her seemingly lifeless corpse isn’t so lifeless—in fact, she can’t be killed at all.  The two guys react to this discovery in strikingly different ways.  One can’t wait to get the hell out of that room, but the other is turned on by the idea of being able to do whatever he likes to this nude, nubile, virtually indestructible girl.  I won’t spoil what follows, but screenwriter Trent Haaga takes the premise to some dark, disturbing places.  Unfortunately, the film itself doesn’t do full justice to Haaga’s script.  For starters, directors Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel have managed to assemble a stunningly untalented ensemble of young actors to bring life to these characters.  Their amateurish performances frequently kill the creepy mood Sarmiento and Harel work overtime to create behind the camera.  The climax is rushed and unconvincing as well, leading to a final shot that’s meant to be shock, but comes off instead as vaguely goofy.  Perhaps Haaga should think about adapting his screenplay into a short novella.  On the page, Deadgirl would probably be genuinely scary instead of mildly unsettling.
Verdict: Rent It

Harry, Ron and Hermione return for their sixth screen adventure.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Directed by David Yates
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Michael Gambon
***

Like everyone else, I devoured Harry Potter’s adventures in print form.  Each time a new book hit the shelves, I’d plop down on the couch and read the whole thing in virtually one sitting.  But I’ve never approached the big-screen versions of Potter’s exploits with the same amount of enthusiasm.  It’s not that the movies are bad per se; even the weakest ones—which, in my opinion, would be Chamber of Secrets and Goblet of Fire—have things to recommend in them, including top-notch special effects and Alan Rickman’s always entertaining performance as Hogwarts’ resident killjoy teacher, Severus Snape.  What’s been missing from the film franchise as a whole, however, is the sense of epic scale and wonder that distinguishes the best fantasy films, like say, The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  To date, the only Potter movie that approached that level of filmmaking was the third installment, Alfonso Cuarón’s Prisoner of Azkaban, which effectively moved the series away from the kid-friendly tone of the first two films and introduced the darker teen drama that has dominated the past few pictures.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth entry in what has become an eight-part series, isn’t as strong a film as Azkaban, but it’s the first one since Cuarón’s movie that feels like more than a cinematic Cliff Notes edition of the book.  One of the chief problems with the last two movies—Goblet and Order of the Phoenix—is that they strained too hard to cram every detail of J.K. Rowling’s increasingly bloated novels into a two-hour runtime.  Taking the same approach with Half-Blood Prince would have proved disastrous as that particular tale is arguably the worst plotted book in the series, hinging on a mystery that isn’t all that mysterious.  (I’m referring, of course, to the identity of the titular prince, a revelation that’s only a surprise if you haven’t been paying to any of the previous books.)

Fortunately, screenwriter Steve Kloves, who penned five out of the six films, cheerfully ignores that storyline in favor of a narrative that’s largely centered around the characters’ romantic relationships, which are growing more complicated with each passing school term.  Having moved on from Cho Chang, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) is now making eyes at Ginny Weasley, the suddenly grown-up kid sister of his best buddy Ron (Rupert Grint).  Ron, meanwhile, is hiding his attraction to brainy hottie Hermione (Emma Watson) by macking on (or, in British parlance, snogging with) his number one fan, Lavendar Brown (Jessie Cave).  When not wrestling with his raging hormones, Harry helps Hogwarts’ headmaster Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) retrieve a vital Voldemort-related memory from the school’s newest staff member, Professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent), while also keeping tabs on his nemesis Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), who has been tasked with a secret mission by the Death Eaters, the Dark Lord’s army.

If none of these names are familiar to you, Half-Blood Prince isn’t worth your time.  Six films in and almost $4.5 billion in global ticket sales earned, the filmmakers aren’t at all concerned with attracting new viewers to the franchise, which means there’s little in the way of exposition or explanation of past events.  That’s probably for the best as another fifteen minutes of recap would have only served to drag out an already overlong movie. At least returning director David Yates keeps the proceedings clipping along nicely by employing a far more playful style than the overly dour Order of the Phoenix.  (Look for a beautifully composed M.C. Escher homage early in the film.)  Half-Blood Prince is filled with a number of crowd-pleasing moments that are sure to have the franchise’s legion of fans clapping and cheering delightedly.  Better still, most of these moments are quieter, character-centric beats rather than special-effects heavy set-pieces.  The Harry/Ginny romance is particularly well handled and allows Radcliffe to loosen up and show off the comic flair he demonstrated in his memorable cameo on the HBO series Extras.  I wish I could say that he and his co-stars have matured into better dramatic actors since they made their screen debuts eight years ago, but those scenes still have a student theater air about them.  Then again, when your co-stars include award-winning stage and screen veterans like Rickman, Gambon and Broadbent, even the most experienced actor is going to seem like a newbie.  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is one of the better installments in the film franchise and in some ways it improves on the book.  But I have yet to be as enthralled by any of the movies as I was with the world Rowling created on the page.

Verdict: See It

Reviews of Brüno and I Love You, Beth Cooper

Brüno
Directed by Larry Charles
Starring Sacha Baron Cohen
***

On the surface, Borat and Brüno more or less seem like the same movie.  Both involve British comic Sacha Baron Cohen dressing up as an outrageous caricature and putting himself in the middle of real (or, in some cases, semi-scripted) situations with real people while several cameras film the results.  Because of this deliberately chaotic production process, it stands to reason that neither film has much of a story; instead, they are basically an assembly of sketches strung loosely together by voiceover.

Given that they are so similar in style and structure, one would think that the films deliver an equal number of laughs as well.  From my standpoint though, Brüno is a smarter, savvier and all-around funnier movie than its predecessor.  Why?  It comes down to the way the respective characters are positioned in their respective movies.  Borat was more of an assimilation tale, with the titular Kazakh journalist coming to America eager to learn how to be just like us…and failing miserably.  In contrast, the flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion reporter Brüno isn’t really concerned with conforming to the American way of life—it’s his world and we just live in it.

Aside from allowing for more creative and emotionally charged encounters with real people—Brüno’s arrogance is far funnier than Borat’s wide-eyed naïveté—this characterization helps the movie navigate around the potential pitfall of endorsing homophobia instead of satirizing it.  It’s established early on that Brüno loves being gay and can’t understand why anyone would have a problem with it.  Even though the movie could be taken to task for the way it occasionally seeks to score easy laughs through the sight of two men dressed in bondage gear or playing with elaborate sex toys, Brüno’s gleeful enthusiasm during these scenes makes it clear that he doesn’t think any of this is weird.  And if he doesn’t, why should we?

In fact, the only time Brüno’s smile starts to fade is in the film’s second half, when he decides that in order to achieve his dream of global superstardom, he’ll have to put himself back in the closet.  This Herculean task leads him from the bright lights of Hollywood—where he’s spent that past forty-five minutes pursuing celebrity via such crazy stunts as filming his own sex tape (with former Presidential candidate Ron Paul), devoting himself to charitable causes and adopting an African baby a la Angelina Jolie—to the Deep South.  Among the people he crosses paths with are two “ex-gay” evangelists, a trio of heavily armed redneck hunters and a big-breasted dominatrix who wields a mean whip.  I’m not going to reveal where Brüno’s Southern sojourn ends, but I will say that the film’s climactic 15 minutes are crazier than anything in Borat (yes, including the infamous nude wrestling scene) while also providing some potent social commentary and a surprisingly emotional—and staunchly pro-gay—finale.  Quite frankly, based on the shit he pulls in this last sequence, I’m amazed that Cohen made it out of the South alive, but kudos to him for putting his own well-being on the line for our enjoyment and enlightenment.

Of course, nothing kills a comedy like over-analysis, so I should say that I wasn’t thinking much about the deeper implications of Brüno’s behavior while I was watching the film.  Instead, I was alternately gasping and laughing my ass off at the sheer insanity unfolding onscreen.  No doubt realizing that this is the last time he’ll be able to get away with this kind of guerrilla comedy, Cohen goes for broke and while not all of the gags land—a detour to the Middle East doesn’t pay off as successfully as it should, for example—the hit-to-miss ratio is much higher here than in Borat.  One can only speculate what Cohen will do next, but Brüno is a memorable capper to the first half of his career.

Verdict: See It

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I Love You, Beth Cooper
Directed by Chris Columbus
Starring Hayden Panettiere, Paul Rust, Jack T. Carpenter, Lauren London
**

I wasn’t expecting much when I randomly picked up ex-Simpsons writer Larry Doyle’s debut novel I Love You, Beth Cooper a few years back.  Within the first few pages though, I was laughing hysterically at Doyle’s hilarious prose, which deftly balanced broad comedy with painfully true descriptions of the draconian social caste system that is high school.  Set over the course of one long day and night, the story follows outcast Denis Coverman as he improbably ends up riding shotgun opposite his dream girl, Beth Cooper, with her ‘roided-up soldier boy boyfriend hot on their tail.

It made perfect sense to bring Doyle’s book to the big screen—unfortunately the humor and emotion got completely lost in translation.  It’s hard to blame the young cast, who show up ready to have some fun; Heroes knockout Hayden Panettiere is a natural choice for the role of the hottest girl in school (expect her legion of male admirers to pick up the film on DVD for her split-second topless scene) and Paul Rust, making his leading man debut as Denis, is genuinely nerdy instead of “movie star” nerdy.  From the opening scenes though, the movie’s pace and timing are noticeably off; scenes that played like gangbusters on the page are awkward and improbable on screen.

Director Chris Columbus seems completely flummoxed by the material, which is strange when you recall that he got his start writing and/or directing some of the best teen romps of the ’80s, including The Goonies and Adventures in Babysitting.  Based on this movie, you’d never know he’d even seen a comedy before, let alone made one.  Instead of paying $12 to see I Love You, Beth Cooper on the big screen, head to your local library and check out Doyle’s book for free.  It’s cheaper and funnier than sitting through the movie version.

Verdict: Skip It

At this point, we all know that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is going to this summer’s blockbuster. That is, unless Harry Potter works his magic.

But, if there’s one thing we’re sure of, it’s that Potter doesn’t have Megan Fox sporting short-shorts and bent over a motorbike.

Check the all new ROTF trailer above featuring Optimus Prime, Megatron, Devastator, Bumblebee, Megan Fox and some humans.

Did we mention Megan Fox is in it?