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Weekend Movie Forecast: Sucker Punch Vs. Mildred Pierce

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Say what you will about Zack Snyder, but that nerdy ass-clown has actually made a name for himself. Now, we're pretty sure that when Truffaut wrote about auteur theory in Cahiers du Cinema all those years ago, he was thinking of directors like Hitchcock or Kurosawa while building his hypothesis. Since then, the notion of the auteur has, more or less, become an acceptable term in film theory. What they fail to mention in film textbooks, however, is that auteurs are not limited to good films. In fact, you can be an auteur of bad films, as long as you leave some indelible mark signaling the fact that you made it. How about an extreme, dramatic, slow-mo shot that looks like it came out of a video game as an indelible mark?! Check. We don't know if anyone has said it before, but we'll be the first: Zack Snyder is an auteur... albeit one who specializes in hyper-commercialized, frigidly digital, emotionally vacuous, mass consumed, effects-driven shit shows. This might sound harsh, but the only way Zack Snyder would ever have been seen as a "good" director would have been if he died immediately after filming the opening scene in Dawn of the Dead ("What potential!"). Nevertheless, people are big fans of his work (which is specifically what he intended, so we guess he's smarter than we think). Today, his newest film Sucker Punch comes out. It follows a girl named Babydoll, who, after being institutionalized, begins possibly fantasizing, or not, about escaping this evil prison with the help of three equally hot ladies with equally ridiculous names. We're not sure what to make of this thing. It looks like it's attempting to be a kinda sorta female empowerment fantasy, yet one dreamed up by a 12-year-old boy. Who knows? Could be fun.Reviews have been terrible, but we're pretty sure that some of you already have your tickets and could care less what the critics think. For the rest of you, we point you to A.O. Scott at <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/movies/sucker-punch-from-zack-snyder-review.html?ref=movies">The TImes</a> who says: "You could go to see Sucker Punch this weekend â a lot of people probably will, and a few may even admit as much back at the office on Monday â or you could try to make it yourself, which might be more fun, though not necessarily cheaper. Hereâs what you will need: a bunch of video-game platforms; DVDs of Shutter Island, Kill Bill, Burlesque and Shrek; some back issues of Maxim; a large bag of crystal meth; and around $100 million. Your imagination will take care of the rest. But there is nothing here to enjoy, beyond the tiny satisfaction in noting that the movie lives up to its name."

Gothamist

For those of you who are more "indoor" people and get nervous just thinking about spending 20 clams to wait on an unbearably long line in the middle of Manhattan in order to see a movie on a two-story screen that involves lobotomies, monsters, a lot of screaming, explosions, and noise, you might want to stay home and watch Mildred Pierce on HBO. Based on the novel by James M. Cain (author of Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice) this mini-series stars Kate Winslet (in the title role), Guy Pearce and Evan Rachel Wood, and is directed by the always interesting Todd Haynes. The film follows Mildred as she separates from her deadbeat husband during the Great Depression and hightails it outta there with her kids. She eventually finds a job as a waitress, but feels that it is below her middle-class station in life and decides to open up a restaurant. Mildred falls for a new beau, opens a few more restaurants and mourns the loss of her youngest daughter, all while attempting to earn the approval of her bitchy eldest daughter, Veda. This need to please Veda is the central tragedy of the book (and we assume mini-series), and is fertile ground for some Haynes-style (which is basically Pseudo-Sirk style) melodrama. The best part is, you can watch it in the comfort of your own home. The worst part is, it's going to be spread out over the course of a couple weeks. If you don't have HBO, you can always pull a Jonathan Ames <a href="http://gothamist.com/2009/10/19/ames.php">and tweet about it</a> till someone invites you over.Reviews have been pretty positive, with J. Hoberman at <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-03-23/film/raising-cain-in-todd-haynes-s-mildred-pierce/">The Village Voice</a> saying: "[Mildred Pierce] is epic domestic drama with intimations of historical tragedy. Too distant and hardscrabble to evoke nostalgia, Haynesâs Mildred might have appeared in the disillusioned days of The Godfather or Chinatown. The black-and-white past of the 1930s is reconstructed in pastel hues, with morally dubious characters bathed in an ambiguous golden light."Once the sylphlike Evan Rachel Wood materializes as the grown Vedaâand especially after this vixen achieves radio stardom to become a disembodied spirit of the airwavesâWinslet appears increasingly heavy, old-fashioned, and vexed; the woman who knelt before the altar of free enterprise has become the priestess-victim of a new cult. A saga of unrequited star worship, terminal class envy, failed self-empowerment, and self-immolating smother love, Haynesâs Mildred Pierce is a nightmare as American as Mom and apple pie."

Gothamist

If you still can't get enough Deneuve (and let's be honest, who can?), today sees the release of her newest film Potiche and boy, does it sound like a hoot! Everyone's fave Frenchwoman, Deneuve plays Suzanne Pujol, a submissive, housebound, trophy housewife, or "Potiche," who steps in to manage the umbrella factory her wealthy and tyrannical husband runs after the workers go on strike and hold him hostage. Much to everyone's surprise, she proves herself a competent and assertive woman of action (of course! It's Deneuve!). But when her real husband returns, refreshed from a cruise, things get a little hairy. Quelle surprise!Reviews have been pretty good, with Noel Murray from <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/potiche,53600/">The A.V. Club</a> saying: "Potiche (loosely translated as 'trophy') returns Ozon to the colorful, energetic retro-homage of his musical 8 Women, and itâs his most purely enjoyable movie in nearly a decade."Funny, twisty, and sometimes bittersweet, Potiche is a fluffy good time, but not entirely insubstantial. Ozon (along with Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre GrÃ©dy, who wrote the play Ozon adapted) has a lot of fun with the dubious paternity of various characters in the movie, in part because Potiche is essentially French farce, and in part because the movie is trying to say that people of different classes and backgrounds should be nicer to each other, because weâre all brothersâliterally, in some cases."

Gothamist

Also opening today is the Greek bildungsoman Attenburg. The film follows 23-year-old Marina, who is growing up with her architect father in a factory town by the sea. Repelled and disgusted by other people, Marina keeps her distance and instead listens to the band Suicide, watches the nature films of Sir David Attenborough, and gets "sex-education" classes from her only friend, Bella. One day a stranger comes to town and challenges her to a foosball duel (you read right) on her own table. She soon becomes split between the two men in her life and her bisexual BFF. Ah, these are the hard decisions in life. These coming-of-age movies are kind of hard to do right, so maybe by going a little abstract, the film can resonate emotionally true. Who knows.There have only been a few reviews, but those few were all positive, with Anthony Kaufman from <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-03-23/film/athina-rachel-tsangari-studies-the-species-in-attenberg/">The Voice</a> saying: "But while Tsangari may have borrowed Attenboroughâs 'British phlegmatic tenderness,' as she calls it, Attenberg is worlds away from a nature documentary. With its modernist, industrial setting, absurdist wordplay, and dance-like interludesâinfluenced as much by Monty Pythonâs 'Ministry of Silly Walks' as Fassbinderâs Katzelmacherâthe movie is closer to the approach of Godard or Bresson (whom she also cites as influences)."And yet the film is very much Tsangariâs own singular construction, alternating between socially coded manners and liberating whimsy. 'We were very strict in the delivery of speech and the orientation of bodies,' she says, 'but there was also this desire to escape from the tyranny of words and propriety.' In one sequence, for example, father and daughter jump up and down on a bed, mimicking the movements and sounds of an assortment of animals, from a gorilla to an albatross."

Gothamist

Sometimes when you see the cast of a film (in this case a comedy), your expectations immediately rise regardless of knowing anything about the plot or quality of the film. Not that this cast is exceptional, or even great, but seeing Rainn Wilson and Sarah Silverman starring in a film, one would imagine that it might be pretty funny. Apparently not so. The film Peep World comes out today and it has been getting totally pwned by critics. The film follows four siblings who come together on their father's 70th birthday and try to come to terms with the tell-all that was written by the youngest sibling, which exposes all of the family's intimate secrets. Think of The Celebration minus the great acting, great script, and drama and replace it with laughs...or not.Again, reviews have been bad, with Karina Longworth from <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-03-23/film/peep-world-an-unfunny-gathering-of-whiny-entitled-siblings/">The Voice</a> saying: "After establishing that this dinner is, like, awkward, Peep World then rolls back 12 hours to trace how each of the whiny, entitled siblings prepared for the evening."Thick with stale 'Weâre Jewish!' and inconvenient-boner jokes, the filmâs a post-Office, shaky-cam sitcom pilot stretched to feature length. Somethingâs simply wrong when a film with so many comedians yet so few laughs turns Lesley Ann Warren, using plain old-school reaction shots, into the comic MVP."

Gothamist

The film Miral follows the titular character from being a young girl in an orphanage in 1948 Jerusalem to a young woman teaching at a refugee camp, who falls for a fervent political activist. Soon she finds herself in a personal dilemma that mirrors the greater social dilemma of her country: fight like those before her or put her faith into the education that could pave the way to a peaceful life. Reviews have been mixed, with Joshua Rothkopf from <a href="http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/film/1054313/miral">Time Out New York</a> saying: "A perfectly boring movie from Julian Schnabelâis it possible? The latest from the painter-director-provocateur (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) is the kind of atmospheric, politically bland movie we expect from Important Filmmakers like Roland JoffÃ©. Miral is doubly vexing for finding the dull in the explosive Palestinian-Israeli conflict (apparently not as hard as youâd think)."So what gives? The decades skip along, and so little happens dramaticallyâno explosions, no major unexpected deathsâthat the choice of timid material (a novel by journalist Rula Jebreal, Schnabelâs new girlfriend) seems a serious mistake."

Gothamist

The redundantly titled White Irish Drinkers follows 18-year-old Brooklynite (this is 1975, so an actual Brooklynite) Brian Leary, who is stuck in an awful job at a movie theater with mob ties, goes home to an alcoholic father and distant mother, and who is in constant fear/awe of his older brother Danny. The two brothers are hired by the shady owner of the theater (aptly named Whitey) to spread the word about an upcoming Rolling Stones show at the theater, where they will attempt to pull off a big heist. This movie sounds like it could be a fun little surprise to catch on Starz 9.2 when you're visiting your parents, but you'd probably have to forget that this movie even existed, because any prior knowledge of it might be enough to crush its chances of being enjoyable.Reviews have been mixed, with Stephen Holden from <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/movies/john-grays-white-irish-drinkers-review.html?ref=movies">The New York Times</a> saying: "Putting profane adjectives in front of every other noun in dialogue that wants desperately to sound streetwise doesnât make it feel authentic if the other words spoken by the characters are arranged into orderly little blocks of exposition. That tidiness is the fatal flaw of John Grayâs semi-autobiographical White Irish Drinkers, especially in scenes during which its nice young protagonist sits around shooting the breeze with his neighborhood pals."Because Mr. Thurston and Mr. Wigdor lack the hard shells necessary to make their characters credible, White Irish Drinkers feels synthetic. Mr. Lang and the older cast members fare better, but they canât save a movie that runs on clichÃ©s."

Gothamist

Continuing this weekend's trend of movies with odd one-word titles (i.e. Attenburg, Miral, Potiche etc...) comes the film Tyrannosaur. The film follows Joseph, a man whose life has been consumed with violence and rage and is heading towards self-destruction. Redemption comes in the form of a Christian charity shop worker named Hannah. Their relationship develops to reveal that Hannah has a dark secret of her own, one that will ultimately have devastating results on the two of them.Things must have been slow at <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-03-23/film/paddy-considine-creates-more-space-in-tyrannosaur/">The Voice</a> office this week, because they seemed to make it to all of the press screenings that no one else got around to. In regards to Tyrannosaur, Nicolas Rapold says: "Tyrannosaur is what you might expect from someone known for his collaborations with Shane Meadows in violent tragedies (A Room for Romeo Brass, Dead Manâs Shoes) and, more recently, as the tormented investigator in the Red Riding trilogyâs second chapter. As for Considineâs actors, Mullan (best known for My Name Is Joe and a director himself with Neds and The Magdalene Sisters) may be an old hand at stories delving into the dark places of anger and personal torment, but Colmanâs performance comes as a revelation."The directorâs playground in this case was blue-collar and middle-class Leeds. Over the four-week shoot, Considine (who grew up on a Midlands council estate and has acknowledged personal echoes in the material) drew upon local housing-project residents for extras, including a busker."

Gothamist

Denis Cote is known in certain circles as being one of the foremost purveyors of art house misery. (Think mumble-core holocaust.) This weekend Cote is unleashing another dose of agony with his newest film Curling. The film follows a father and his pre-teen daughter living on the fringe of society (of course) and the strong bond between them. As the summary says, "the fragile balance of their relationship will be jeopardized by some dreary circumstances." How ominous!The two critics are polarized, with Variety giving it a 40 and Nicolas Rapold from <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-03-23/film/denis-cote-looks-at-a-blocked-quebecois-in-curling/">The Voice</a> giving it a 70 and saying: "The morbid serenity of the drive-by rural settingâan ambience heightened by bleached film stockâdovetails with CÃ´tÃ©âs vision for the odd duo. 'I really wanted to have these half-dead characters. They need an encounter with death in order to go toward life,' he says. '[The father] is a loner among the loners. And in Quebec, itâs easy to identify with a reality like that: You can hide secrets for a very long time. Even though [the film] was really shot 20 minutes away from downtown Montreal.'"Indeed, the filmâs title refers to the big-in-Canada team sport that catches Jean-FranÃ§oisâs eyeâa pastime resembling bowling on ice that involves what looks like giant buffed paperweights and whisk brooms. 'Itâs the only time the character is interested in something,' says CÃ´tÃ©, who also notes curlingâs social possibilities. But: 'Itâs probably the most boring sport in the world.'

Gothamist

Now, usually when we do the weekly write-up for the Midnight Movie at the <a href="http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Market/NewYork/NewYork_frameset.htm">Landmark Sunshine Theater</a> we use phrases like "bring your friends," "good times" or "don't miss!" Yeah...this week...not so much. Not because the movie isn't worth seeing. In fact, it's a very important film and one that should probably be seen by more people than it has. Rather, it's because the film in question is Gaspar Noe's Irreversible. More than Noe's first film I Stand Alone, this is the film that made Noe the enfant terrible of cinema. Even if you liked Enter the Void, Irreversible is an entirely different monster. While the former made you feel as if you were on drugs, the latter is the closest a film can get to resembling a physical assault on the viewer. The film contains a notoriously horrific, disturbing, and seemingly unsimulated (this point is debated) anal rape scene that lasts for nine minutes. The film is basically a rape-revenge movie that is told in reverse-chronological order, forcing the viewers to question notions of revenge and justice in interesting ways. Again, this is a very important, arguably great film, that is also one of the most difficult to watch. For people looking for something provocative, something that will stay with you forever and pop up in conversation about film and crime for years to come, than head to Sunshine theater and prepare yourself.

Gothamist

Weekend Movie Forecast: <em>Sucker Punch</em> Vs. <em>Mildred Pierce</em>