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Weekend Movie Forecast: Bridesmaids Vs. Everything Must Go

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After the successes of The Hangover, Anchorman, and Old School one thing started to become clear: we're suckers for groups of immature man-children, engaging in zany antics. Today, in the tradition of Betty Friedan and Simone de Beauvoir, the powers that be are taking a chance on the fairer sex with the film Bridesmaids. The film follows Annie, whose life is falling apart when she's chosen to be the maid of honor at her bestie's wedding. Will she be able to hold it together long enough to go through the ridiculously involved process of planning a wedding? Can women be just as immature and vulgar as Will Ferrell and his fellow male comedians? We'll just have to wait and see, but we're thinking yes on both. Reviews have been really positive, with Manohla Dargis from <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/movies/bridesmaids-with-kristen-wiig-maya-rudolph-review.html?ref=movies">The New York Times</a> saying: "Bridesmaids, an unexpectedly funny new comedy about women in love, if not of the Sapphic variety, goes where no typical chick flick does: the gutter. Well, more like the city street that Lillian, a soon-to-be wife played by a wonderful, warm Maya Rudolph, dashes into, dressed in the kind of foamy white gown that royal weddings and the bridal industrial complex are made of. "It isnât a radical movie (even if Ms. McCarthyâs character comes close); itâs formally unadventurous; and there isnât much to look at beyond all these female faces. Yet these are great faces, and the movie is smart about a lot of things, including the vital importance of female friendships. And itâs nice to see so many actresses taking up space while making fun of something besides other women."

Gothamist

People have attempted to adapt Raymond Carver's short stories into films in the past, most notably by Robert Altman with his film Short Cuts, which shoved together around nine or ten of Carver's stories together into a shitfest of blue collar misery. Although a good movie, Carver's biggest fans hated the film, saying that it changed too many details and that it was much more Altman's work than Carver's. Today sees the release of Everything Must Go, starring (surprisingly enough) Will Ferrell. It is also based on one of Carver's stories. Seeing as his writing is known for its sparseness, it should be interesting to see how they spread those five or six pages out into a 96-minute movie. The film follows an unemployed alcoholic who gets locked out of his own house by his wife. She throws all of his belongings onto the front lawn so he takes it upon himself to try and sell everything he owns. Reviews have been very mixed, with a straight-down-the-middle review coming from Noel Murray at the <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/everything-must-go,56006/">A.V. Club</a> who says: "Writer-director Dan Rush couldâve approached this material in dozens of ways, but the way he choosesâturning it into an occasionally wry, ever-earnest dramedyâis precisely the wrong one. Nearly everything about the movie is standard-issue indie, from the plunky soundtrack to the procession of quirky and/or achingly sensitive supporting characters (many of them played by recognizable faces like Glenn Howerton, Stephen Root, and Laura Dern, getting in a few daysâ work). "Thereâs nothing egregiously awful about Everything Must Go. The premise is inherently engaging, the cast is strong, and it has moments of fleeting poignancy and wit. But thereâs nothing surprising or edgy about the movie, eitherâno wild energy or penetrating."

Gothamist

There have been so many WWII movies that at this point it's basically a genre unto itself. Now when a filmmaker makes a WWII movie, it's about WWII movies. You'd think that everything that can be said about the epic conflict has been said, but you're wrong. One event that has been glaringly omitted from textbooks and cinema is the Siege of Nanking. China and Japan are still arguing to this day exactly what happened in that six-week reign of terror, and historians are also trying to piece together the facts and numbers. Today, the film City of Life and Death is released in the States, and it seeks to recreate the siege that killed 300,000 people. Although it is not necessarily a movie that you'd want to see, it's important that we have the chance. The film has been getting mostly very positive reviews, with some mild criticism coming from Scott Tobias at <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/city-of-life-and-death,56004/">The A.V. Club</a> saying: "Often referred to as 'The Rape Of Nanking,' due to reports that up to 80,000 women were raped by soldiers, the scope of the tragedy is so immense that depicting it onscreen seems artistically and politically daunting, to say the least. Yet Lu Chuanâs powerful epic City Of Life And Death threads the needle beautifully, capturing the breadth of the slaughter and barbarism without dehumanizing either side. "Measured against last yearâs feeble German biopic John Rabe, the enormity of Luâs achievement is striking, both in the grandness of the filmâs staging and in its engagement with the chaos of war. While it never slips into incoherence, City Of Life And Death often shifts to the ground-level vantage of civilians who donât know whatâs going to happen to them next, or from where or whom. The responsibility of handling such an important and politically sensitive event might cause a lesser filmmaker to play it safe, and to some extent, the multiple storylines do seem imported from war movies past."

Gothamist

Opening tonight at <a href="http://www.cinemavillage.com/chc/cv/">Cinema Village</a> is A Serbian Film (that's actually the titleâhow meta). If you're like us and want to see anything that's considered controversial, then you don't want to miss this one. During its 2010 festival run, the film was called "the sickest film ever". It managed to get the heads of the Sitges Film Festival charged with child-porn charges by a Spanish judge, just for showing the movie. The film follows the retired "Nikola Tesla of the pornagraphic world", named Milos, who accepts a "one last job" proposal from a strange, artsy auteur. Things start to get a little too child-molesty for his tastes, so he tells the director he's out. Milos wakes up three days later to find himself covered in bruises and dry blood, with no clue of what happened. The productionâs video tapes reveal that the director drugged Milos to turn him into a zombie who could fuck âfreely,â without moral qualms over things like murder and incest. In order to be shown in the states (even with an NC-17 ratings), the film needed to cut out two child-rape scenes and replace them with scenes where the characters just imply child-rape. We were a bit skeptical when someone said "sickest film ever", because we've seen some pretty sick shit, but this sounds almost too sick for comfort. Karina Longworth from <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-05-11/film/the-sickest-film-ever-a-serbian-film/">The Voice</a> says: "Itâs certainly no less unsettling, and remains a passionate argument against a no-holds-barred exploration of extreme human sexuality and violence. Virtually every moment of screen time not given over to stomach-churning brutality consists of dialogue about the sick, sad state of post-Milosevic Serbian society. "Itâs specious lip service; that the film exists at all is a more cogent commentary on the nationâs collective trauma than any of the direct statements or potential metaphors contained within. As black as relatively high-budget exploitation cinema gets, Film does have glimmers of comic relief, mostly via the crazed filmmaker whoâeven as his star has nearly beaten him to deathâlets the cameras roll and cheers him on: 'Thatâs the cinema!'"

Gothamist

Paul Bettany once had a career. Before J. Con and Park Slope, Bettany made a splash debut with Gangster No. 1, following it up with a series of smaller supporting roles in films like A Knights Tale, Dogville and A Beautiful Mind. Since then, he's moved out of Park Slope, had a failed pet project with the missus (the flop Darwin) and starred in an awful supernatural action movie Legion...make that two. Today sees the release of his new film Priest and it's basically The Searchers set in a post-apocalyptic world after a war with vampires, with Bettany as the John Wayne character. Reviews have been mediocre, but they all came from Hollywood trade magazines, and therefore should not be trusted or quoted by those not in the Biz.

Gothamist

Since John Hughes has left the building, teenagers are going to have to start looking elsewhere for relatable teen films that are actually of quality. Disney lowered the age and dumbed down teen movies in order to create the new tween demographic, while Hollywood just peddles PG-13 fare so that teens and adults can both see the same movies. One place, however, that has always been able to boast quality teen flicks is the artsy world of independent film. Movies like River's Edge, Rushmore, Dazed and Confused and Elephant all depict teenagers in interesting ways and, although they might not have been made with teens in mind, are some of the best interpretations of angst and confusion. Today, a new indie teen movie entitled Skateland comes out, and it sounds like another one of those Kids, Paranoid Park -type movies. The film follows four friends as they get into some alcohol-induced shenanigans at the local roller rink in an attempt to avoid miserable home lives and the ever-dreadful Future. Movies like this could really go either way, depending on writing, acting, direction, and how tolerable the teens themselves are. We'll just have to see. Reviews have been middle-of-the-road, with Alison Willmore at <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/skateland,56000/">The A.V. Club</a> saying: "Skateland recalls enough better and more distinctive movies that it shoots itself in the foot (or should that be the roller skate?) before it can get very far. Like The Last Picture Show, it features a fading small-town businessâa past-its-prime skating rinkâwith metaphorical heft. Like Dazed And Confused, it relishes in the summer idylls and antics of the local youngâuns, and a few who really arenât so young anymore. And like the more recent and similarly titled Adventureland, itâs a coming-of-age story set in the â80s, complete with a dead-end job and a love interest visiting between Twilight engagements (Kristen Stewart in Adventureland; Ashley Greene in Skateland). "Itâs just that Anthony Burnsâ directorial debut is all trappings, with very little there there, giving the mind plenty of time to wander through compare-and-contrast games. Skateland is more soundtrack than substance."

Gothamist

Also opening today is Joseph Gordon-Levitt's new film Hesher. The film follows a father and son (Paul and TJ) who are grief stricken from the very recent and tragic death of the house matriarch. The plot thickens when they discover that some metal head is squatting in their garage. Paul is too upset to muster up the courage to evict him, so he slowly becomes just a fixture of their house. We're pretty sure that Hesher will teach the father and son a thing or two about living, getting over their loss, and âfingers crossed âhow to rock out. This sounds like a Netflix rental, but if you're a Levitt-head, you'll have something to do tonight. Reviews have been mixed, with Keith Uhlich from <a href="http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/film/1352675/hesher">Time Out New York</a> saying: "That T.J. and his family willingly allow this headbanging psycho(analyst) to move into their cluttered, dankly lit abodeâthe emotional damage is palpable, yo!âis just one of the filmâs many eyebrow-raising contrivances. You can practically hear director Spencer Susser and his coscreenwriter, David MichÃ´d, barking to the audience, 'Just go with it!' And for a time we do, since, Sundancey redemption-trajectory aside, the film is often unsentimentally tough and committed. "But thereâs also giddy and affecting inspiration in scenes like the woozily extended encounter among Hesher, Grandma Forney (an unrecognizable Piper Laurie) and a medicinal herb-stuffed water bong. Personal anguish be damnedâhash always hashes everything out."

Gothamist

Also opening today is the documentary on the life of fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent called L'amour fou. YSL was quite a character. A prodigy, at the age of 21 he took over the House of Dior and, with his boyfriend, built the hugely successful YSL brand. He's a dramatic, talented, self-obsessed narcissist who had an immeasurable impact on the world of fashion. Basically, this looks to be a rock doc about a fashion designer. Reviews have been alright, with Karina Longworth from <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-05-11/film/all-of-yves-saint-laurent-s-pretty-things-in-l-amour-fou/">The Voice</a> saying: "Lâamour fou opens with unbroken footage from designer Yves Saint-Laurentâs 2002 speech announcing his retirement from fashion, after 40-plus years at the helm of the massively important label bearing his name. Itâs a stunning performance, flowing from naked confessional ('I have known the false friends of tranquilizers . . . and emerged dazzled but sober') to shameless indulgence (bragging about his impact on female dress, portentously quoting Rimbaud). "As a stage-managed but not quite self-aware study in contradictions, the address feels like a more revealing document of Saint-Laurentâa prodigy who took over the House of Dior at 21 and then, with boyfriend/business partner Pierre BergÃ©, built the YSL brandâthan anything that follows in Pierre Thorettonâs documentary."

Gothamist

Are you a sucker for quirky competition docs like King of Kong, Word Wars, and Spellbound? Well you better clear a spot on your queue because the documentary Make Believe comes out today, and although you probably won't see it in theaters, you'll want to check it out when its streaming in a few months. The doc follows six young scamps who are all competing for a magic Teen World Championship. Yeah, that's right. You can only imagine how crazy and quirky these kids are, you might even throw down a ten spot to see it sooner. Reviews have been decent, with Eric Hynes from <a href="http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/film/1352879/make-believe">Time Out New York</a> saying: "Ever since Spellbound’s success demonstrated the appeal of real-life suspense, documentarians have scoured the earth’s convention halls for the next geeks-under-pressure hit, leaving no subculture unmined, no competitive nerd-child left behind. "First-time director J. Clay Tweel oversells the importance of both the Vegas event and of magic in general—you’d think he were filming a spiritual movement rather than hidden-ball tricks. His wide-eyed subjects do make magic happen—but that has less to do with illusion than innocence."

Gothamist

Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. This weekend at <a href="http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Market/NewYork/NewYork_frameset.htm">The Landmark Theater</a> Sunshine at Midnight proudly presents Rob Reiner's classic film The Princess Bride! Come and watch Wesley scale the Cliffs of Insanity, battle Rodent of Unusual Size, and get tortured in the Pit of Despair, all for the love of the perpetually distressed damsel Buttercup. It's an impressive cast, and kind of a perfect movie. Don't miss!

Gothamist

Weekend Movie Forecast: <em>Bridesmaids</em> Vs. <em>Everything Must Go</em>