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Weekend Movie Forecast: Source Code Vs. Insidious

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Although he might not want us to remember, Duncan Jones, director of the excellent film Moon, was once known to the world as Zowie Bowie, son of the David Bowie. Now we don't know why anyone with that kind of godly genetic input would choose to change his name to the inconspicuous surname (originally changed by Daddy Bowie so he wouldn't be confused with Davey Jones), but we suppose he's trying to be legit on his own merits. Either way, it was Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane/Thin White Duke who was changing his diapers, and that's something we'll never forget. Anyway, Jones has done better than most celeb offspring and is releasing his newest film Source Code today, and if Moon is any indication, it should be very good. Source Code stars Jake Gyllenhaal as decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens, who is hired by the government to stop a bomb from going off in Chicago that would kill millions. The interesting part is that the government has created a program called the "Source Code", which allows Stevens to cross over into the body of another man for the last eight minutes of his life. And so begins a cracked out version of Groundhog Day, in which Gyllenhaal relives the same eight minutes over and over again, each time getting more and more information on the whereabouts of the explosive. Despite the fact that the film doesn't star super thespian Sam Rockwell, Gyllenhaal is, if anything, likable and capable. Under the direction of Jones, he could help make this movie something to see.Reviews have been good, with Aaron Hillis from <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-03-30/film/going-in-search-of-tossed-time-in-source-code/">The Village Voice</a> saying: "Moon director Duncan Jonesâs sophomore feature, Source Codeâa pseudo-cerebral, modestly budgeted sci-fi thriller with ambitions more Philip K. Dickâlike in scope than the recent Dick adaptation The Adjustment Bureauâis a propulsive ride worth your popcorn dollar, not for its preposterous genre tinkering but for its refreshingly humanist take on a high-concept gimmick."Most likely you wonât, since the filmâs secret weapon isnât its tension-mounting puzzle solving, sleek sense of visual claustrophobia, or philosophical questioningâbut rather its sneaky compassion. Halfway through the film, Colter accepts his fate yet still refuses to allow these strangers on a train to meet their doom, no matter how many times he channels his inner Bill Murray. As he runs through the honest emotions of a non-action-hero stuck in a tour-of-duty spin cycle, deservedly angry at times when he isnât merely baffled or frustrated, Colterâs sense of loyalty to these innocents kicks into overdrive. Knowingly futile as his quest is to save people who have already met their fiery demise and who also forget him with each flip of the hourglass, Gyllenhaal sells that personal sense of wish fulfillment with real heart."

Gothamist

The film Insidious probably has one of the most honest and direct ad campaigns going right now. We're not talking about the creepy kid on the poster (which, let's face it, has been done to death), or the 30-second TV spots with its quick cuts, creepy subliminal shots, and token old woman spelling things out for the clueless 'rents. No, we're talking about the billing immediately before the title of the movie even appears telling you immediately whether or not you give a shit about the title of the movie appearing. That is: "from the makers of Paranormal Activity and Saw." Those millisecond shots could be from the Paris Hilton sex tape and it wouldn't matter. What matters is whether or not you liked the two aforementioned movies. You loved them!? Then you know what time it is. Hated them/didn't have any interest in seeing them (which is basically the same thing these days)âthen move along. It's not being shown at the IFC Center, anyway. Basically, they're pitching the movie to us in much the same way that they pitched it to the producers that green-lit it in the first place. Anyway, the film follows a silly Everycouple who realize that their recently comatose bebe has become a magnet for demons. Sounds like a day in Park Slope to us.Reviews haven't been all that bad, with an honest-to-goodness positive one coming from Scott Tobias at <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/insidious,53949/">The A.V. Club</a> who says: "All calculation aside, scary is still scary, and Insidious makes up in old-fashioned tension what it sometimes lacks in originality."Wan and Whannell are not seeking to reinvent the tropes that have served haunted-house movies for decades, but they invest them with a deranged energy thatâs both bracing (Joseph Bisharaâs screeching score is especially mad) and silly. The dark comedy peaks when the adorably analog ghostbusters enter the picture, but Insidious starts to fall apart once the cause of the hauntings has to be explainedâand explained and explainedâand the film starts exploring the cheesy spectral universe where ghosts reside. Itâs like the ill-advised âspecial editionâ of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind: Once the film goes inside the ship, all wonderment ceases."

Gothamist

In addition to the shitload of Hollywood superhero movies being shoved yearly down our collective gullet, we have the indie digestif of meta-superhero movies meant to subversively poke fun at, while simultaneously reinforcing, the tropes set up by the former. The newest of the latter is the film Super, which stars Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, and Liv Tyler. Wilson plays sad-sack loser Frank, who sees his ex-addict wife willingly snatched by a seductive drug-dealer (not to be confused with an off-putting drug dealer), and decides to save her. To do so, he creates the alter-ego Crimson Bolt, gets a sidekick, and starts beating people with a wrench until he gets some answers. The film is different from a superhero movie because it takes place within a world that doesn't have superheros, except for the one...nevermind. It's unlike Batman because the hero doesn't have super powers...wait, scratch that, too. It's different because the Crimson Bolt looks ridiculous in his costume...ah, forget it.Reviews have been OK, with a especially negative one coming from Joshua Rothkopf at <a href="http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/film/1095529/super">Time Out New York</a> who says: "Less a darker version of Kick-Ass than a humor-challenged and smug one, Super represents the indie world at its snobbiest and most faux provocative. Dressing up in spandex and righteousnessâyet suffering real-world beatingsâonly works as a poetic concept if your characters welcome us into their vulnerability."As a satire, itâs toothless, while as comedy, itâs squirm-inducing (writer-director James Gunn is a Troma veteran). Almost as an in-joke at the expense of her breakout role in Juno, Ellen Page plays a comics-reading sidekick, 'Boltie,' a spouter of an endless stream of snark. What viewer could possibly laugh atâor even appreciate in a pointy-headed wayâan outcome that splashes her with unnecessary gore? Skip this one, even if your hipster significant other whines a blue streak."

Gothamist

The other day while in a local coffee shop, we made a queer observation: the various Easter-themed gingerbread cookies were Kosher. Now, we suppose we should correct that label and say "Spring" cookies since they weren't Jesus-on-the-cross-cookies, but instead featured various fluorescent flowers, bunnies and chicks. Easter iconography is pretty silly to us in general, not because it seems politically incorrect to have one religion monopolize two species of animals and twenty-something Pantone colors for forty days, but because they could make a killing if they made it secular! The Easter Bunny, to begin with, is so far removed from anything remotely having to do with the religious holiday that it seems silly to not spread the love to children of all creeds. At the rate that Atheism is spreading, Cadbury needs to make a move ASAP. Take for instance Hop, which comes out today. It follows a live-action boob character who mistakenly injures the CG Easter bunny and must take him in to recover. The film is being advertised to kids of all religions as nothing but a colorful movie with cute animals and a lot of movement (which is probably all it is). But then why cut out part of that demographic because of some sort of ridiculous tie to Christianity? We doubt J.C. is mentioned or alluded to once in the entire movie. What? Children of the chosen people don't like cute baby animals? Think of the Easter Day ticket sales! It'd be like Christmas 1.5!Reviews have been pretty bad, with Keith Uhlich from <a href="http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/film/1092043/hop">Time Out New York</a> saying: "Fact, kids: Thereâs not just one Easter Bunny. As this half-live-action, half-animated feature informs us, thereâs actually a long line of colored-eggâdelivering wabbits stwetching back genewations. They all speak with British accents and live with an army of yellow worker chicks on Easter Island, which must confuse the hell out of any descendants of the Rapa Nui."The various plot threadsâE.B. is pursued by a trio of ass-kickingly cute long-eared operatives; a disgruntled worker chick (voiced in emphatic Telemundo tones by Hank Azaria) orchestrates a coup dâÃ©tatâmostly get lost amid all the allusions. Even Hugh Hefner pops up because, you know, Playboy Bunnies. Why do I have a sudden craving for rabbit loin?"

Gothamist

For those of you looking for a little something different this weekend, there's a movie that's a hell of a lot different than anything else being released today: Rubber. The film follows a rubber tire named Robert who for some unknown reason, becomes animate and begins killing people with telepathic energy. Robert sets his sights on a mysterious girl and begins chasing her as onlookers watch through binoculars at a safe distance. We're dead serious. The film was directed by Quentin Dupieux, who is probably better known as Mr. Oizo, creator of the song "Flat Beat" and director of the Levi's commercials starring the yellow headbanging muppet Flat Eric. So this guy has contributed quite a bit to the fringes of popular culture, and, it's safe to say, made it a little more interesting.Reviews have been extremely polarizing (which we suppose makes sense), with Karina Longworth from <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-03-30/film/rubber-not-your-average-killer-tire-movie/">The Voice</a> giving it a glowing review, saying: "The tireâs bloody journey is presented through a framing device: An audience of about a dozen tourists watches Robertâs adventures from afar through binoculars. Slowly closing the space between the viewers and the 'actors' until theyâre part of the same drama, Dupieux mounts a critique of passive audiences thatâs also sympathetic to the way theyâre made to suffer."The voyeurs get whatâs coming to themâbut Dupieuxâs final images confirm that Hollywood is his real target. An essay on storytelling and spectatorship within When Inanimate Objects Attack schlockâone infused with the haunting aura and disillusionment of a postâEasy Rider road movieâRubber is some kind of miracle."

Gothamist

Here's a new one: Clive Owen and Catherine Keener (both talented actors) star as parents who discover that their 14-year-old daughter has been victimized by an adult that she met online. Sounds like some pretty heavy stuff, right? Topical, too. Play out a scene or two in your head for a second: lot's of screaming and crying, perhaps a shattered plate or two. Now that you got that, watch how quickly, and perhaps unfairly, the idea of the movie changes when we tell you who directed it: David Schwimmer. Speechless.Despite the fact that it's hard not to imagine the character Ross hiding behind the camera and whining a lot, the film has gotten some pretty decent reviews, with Jeannette Catsoulis from <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/movies/clive-owen-and-catherine-keener-in-trust-review.html?ref=movies">The Times</a> saying: "The mantle of social relevance can be a heavy one, but Trust, a smooth drama about a girlâs seduction and rape by a middle-aged Internet predator, is neither preachy nor hysterically overreaching."Focusing more on the emotional aftershocks of the crime than its causes (why this popular, sporty girl would be so insecure is a mystery), Trust is commendably aware of a culture that routinely sexualizes girls. The work climate of Annieâs father, Will (Clive Owen), an advertising executive, speaks volumes: the girls provocatively adorning his office walls â and the fresh-faced waitress that his paunchy colleague creepily hits on at lunch â are all daughters, too."

Gothamist

Since the very beginning of film, filmmakers have blurred the lines between formal and realistic film techniques. While the Lumiere brothers sought to document the world around them, Melies was using formalist theater and magic tricks to create new worlds. Since then, narrative filmmakers have borrowed techniques from documentaries (like the Italian Neo-Realists) and documentarians have stolen formal techniques from narrative films (i.e. Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line). Nowadays, the lines have been so blurred that docu-essay films like Le Quattro Volte push the boundary of what is "acceptable" in non-fiction film. Translated as The Four Times, the film is inspired by Pythagora's belief in four-fold transmigration (human to animal to vegetable to mineral). Director Michelangelo Frammartino traces this cycle in the daily rituals of life in the southern Italian region of Calabria.Reviews have been very positive, wiith A.O. Scott from <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/movies/le-quattro-volte-review.html?ref=movies">The New York Times</a> saying: "Le Quattro Volte, an idiosyncratic and amazing new film by Michelangelo Frammartino, is so full of surprises â nearly every shot contains a revelation, sneaky or overt, cosmic or mundane â that even to describe it is to risk giving something away. At the same time, the nervous reviewerâs convention of posting 'spoiler alerts' has rarely seemed so irrelevant. Would I ruin tomorrow by telling you the sun is going to rise? Will your life be spoiled if I divulge that it will end in your death?"If you pay attention, you see what is going on and grasp the connections between the different things you see, none of which are terribly unfamiliar. But there is something startling, even shocking, about the angle of vision Mr. Frammartino imposes by juxtaposing apparently disparate elements and lingering on what seem at first to be insignificant details. You have never seen anything like this movie, even though what it shows you has been there all along."

Gothamist

Back in the day, spectacle was the zeitgeist and the circus was a huge deal. With no TV, movie pictures, radio, internet, etc., people would entertain themselves with books and wooden toys that you find in old village restorations. So when the circus came to town, people were absolutely fiending to see some sick shit go down. Nowadays, there are still circuses, but they usually resemble either Cirque du Soleil or Coney Island, which is why documentaries like Circo are so interesting. The film documents a family of circus performers in poverty-stricken, rural Mexico who are split between their craft and the desire for a better life, much like our subway performers.Reviews have been positive, with Noel Murray from <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/circo,53944/">The A.V. Club</a> saying: "Circo isnât the cheeriest movie. Schock followed the Ponces off and on over a stretch of time in which family members left and came back, because they found it too difficult to transition to settled lives with houses and jobs. And the film focuses mostly on the youngest Ponces, who sometimes dream about going to school and spending their afternoons playing instead of working, but then return to the only life theyâve ever known and get back to developing their own acts."And though Circo is pretty bleak, Schock doesnât skimp on the exotic wonder of a life on the road, surrounded by color and danger. Or as one Ponce says, 'This circus is tough and beautifulâ¦ it is both.'"

Gothamist

Also being released today is the Danish melodrama In a Better World. The film follows the doctor Anton, who splits his time between his home in an idyllic small town and his work in an African refugee camp. Not all is ideal, though, as Anton has recently separated with his wife and his youngin' is gettin' into trouble at school. There's a lot more going on in the summary, but you'll just have to find out if you decide to see it. It basically boils down to how messy life can get.Reviews have been mixed, with David Fear from <a href="http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/film/1092453/in-a-better-world">Time Out New York</a> saying: "Just as chatterboxes stopped clucking about the Miramax-circa-â96 mediocrity of The Kingâs Speech nabbing the Best Picture Oscar, along comes another recent WTF Academy Award winner that further justifies stereotypes about voters loving the cinematic equivalent of a warm bath. The stakes may be lower in the Best Foreign Film category, but for us art-houseâhaunting geeks who still passionately care about such things, the fact that Susanne Bierâs Danish melodrama beat out worthy contenders like Dogtooth and Incendies was a serious letdown. Once you see the film, the temptation to blow Bronx cheers toward gold-statue committee members will be especially irresistibleâthough in fairness, this faux-humanistic screed would qualify as wishy-washy even if itâd lost."While Bier doesnât offer easy partisan answers, she still dilutes a social issue down to the level of soap-operatic background noise and back-patting platitudes. Itâand weâdeserve better."

Gothamist

Now that the Wiemar cinema retrospective at MoMA has come to an end, people might be jonesin' for another WWII axis power to share a little of its cinema history, and with Japan in need of our help there's no better time to take in some of the wonderful postwar films the country has to offer. Starting today at <a href="http://www.filmforum.org/films/divas.html#41">Film Forum</a> is the amazing retrospective 5 Japanese Divas, highlighting the careers of (obviously) five amazing actresses: Kinuyo Tanaka, Isuzu Yamada, Machiko Kyo, Setsuko Hara, and Hideko Takamine. Between the five of them they have starred in some of cinema's best films and worked with some of its best directors (i.e. Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, and Ozu to name a few). If you have any gaps in your knowledge of Japanese cinema (for shame!) do yourself a favor and catch a few of these classics at Film Forum and find out for yourself why Kubrick, Scorsese, Coppola and others consider them some of the best ever.

Gothamist

This Monday at <a href="http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=3045">Brooklyn Academy of Music</a> is F.W. Murnau's creepy classic Nosferatu. Although arguably not as good as Sunrise or The Last Laugh it is probably more important, having helped usher in German expressionism and by influence, the noir and horror films that would come to follow. This screening is a special one because it features a live score by Svarte Greiner and Paul Wirkus as part of BAM's continuing Unsound New York Labs events. If you haven't seen Nosferatu than now is a great time to check it out, and even if you have, along with the live music, it'll be a whole new experience. Don't miss!

Gothamist

We're in the midst of an economic recession, there are deepening socioeconomic divides, increasing political unrest, natural disasters, potential nuclear meltdowns, rampant discrimination, infectious disease, Third World debt, and the number one cause of death last year was starvation. Well... head on down to the <a href="http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Films/films_frameset.asp?id=79391">Landmark Theater</a> where Black Devil Doll is waiting to help you forget about it all! Heather thought that an Ouija board was nothing but an innocent child's game. Little did she know, this child's game would open a flaming door to hell and reanimate the soul of a recently executed black militant serial killer! With his spirit now trapped in the body of a trash-talking ventriloquist doll, Heather and her friends must fight off the unrelenting horrors and unspeakable deviant advances of a three-foot killer with a taste for young flesh and warm blood! It's sure to cure what ails ya!

Gothamist

Weekend Movie Forecast: <em>Source Code</em> Vs. <em>Insidious</em>