Weekend Movie Forecast:<em> Battle: Los Angeles </em>Vs, Um, <em>Jane Eyre</em>
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<p>Back in the day (it's sad that we can say that now), Hollywood would pump out big blockbusters with only one thing on their minds: Action figures! No, not dolls (jeez, grandpa), but small, bulky-looking, piss-poor reproductions of characters from our fav movies that would articulate in about 5 places (if you were lucky). Some time in the mid-to-late '90s, however, the International Video Games Council (consisting of Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft) and their stable of lobbyists (of course), successfully passed the Anti-Imagination Bill that banned the sales and distribution of anything requiring the use of the so-called "imagination" (legally, the term can mean anything from pretending, make believe, up to and including making funny noises and pretending you're an animal). </p><p></p>Nowadays, the big Hollywood tie-in is, of course, the video game tie-in (much to the chagrin of the antiquarian stores that were once referred to as "toy" stores). This trend has become so popular in fact, that films themselves have become nothing but video game scenes strung together. One such movie is <em>Battle: Los Angeles</em> which, following on the success of the new Black Ops game, takes an aliens vs. marines military set-up and replaces the player's avatar with <em>Thank You for Smoking</em>'s Aaron Eckhart and the player's 10-year-old friend from XBOX live with Michelle Rodriguez. There is also an app, facebook page, and website available.<p></p>Reviews have been terrible, with Roger Ebert from <a href="http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110309/REVIEWS/110309992">The Chicago Sun-Times</a> saying: "<em>Battle: Los Angeles</em> is noisy, violent, ugly and stupid. Its manufacture is a reflection of appalling cynicism on the part of its makers, who don't even try to make it more than senseless chaos. Here's a science-fiction film that's an insult to the words 'science' and 'fiction,' and the hyphen in between them. You want to cut it up to clean under your fingernails.<p></p>"Young men: If you attend this crap with friends who admire it, tactfully inform them they are idiots. Young women: If your date likes this movie, tell him you've been thinking it over, and you think you should consider spending some time apart."
<p>Face it people, we may be done with the Bronte sisters, but they sure as hell aren't done with us. Those three creepily adorable recluses from Yorkshire pumped out a handful of books in the early 19th century that have gone on to haunt High School students and delight geriatrics for decades. It seems most recently that Charlotte has risen from the grave with a film adaptation of her classic <em>Jane Eyre</em>. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, it follows Jane Eyre, former governess to the cold but kinda hot Edward Rochester, who is fleeing Thornfield House after uncovering Rochester's terrible secret. We're not sure if this is necessarily going to bring in anyone unfamiliar with the book but it'll be a hit when it comes out on video for all of those last minute book reports.</p><p></p>Reviews have been mostly positive, with a glowing review coming from A.O. Scott at <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/movies/jane-eyre-starring-mia-wasikowska-review.html?ref=movies">The Times</a> who says: "Reader, I liked it. This <em>Jane Eyre</em>, energetically directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (<em>Sin Nombre</em>) from a smart, trim script by Moira Buffini (<em>Tamara Drewe</em>), is a splendid example of how to tackle the daunting duty of turning a beloved work of classic literature into a movie. Neither a radical updating nor a stiff exercise in middlebrow cultural respectability, Mr. Fukunagaâs film tells its venerable tale with lively vigor and an astute sense of emotional detail.<p></p>"Rochester may be an impossible character â dashing, wounded, cynical, wild and yet somehow redeemable â but for that very reason he is vital to both the wild romanticism and the sober good sense that have kept <em>Jane Eyre</em> spinning through so many generations and interpretations. Mr. Fassbender adds to the necessary charisma and pathos a note of gallantry, helping to assure the audience and his indomitable co-star that this <em>Jane Eyre</em> belongs, as it should, to Jane."
<p>Also being released today is <em>Certified Copy</em>, which stars Juliette Binoche, and whose presence alone in the film tells you two things: it's probably French and it's probably critically acclaimed. The film follows an English writer on a book tour in Italy where he meets a young French woman and jets off to San Gimignano with her. How international!</p><p></p>Reviews have been very good, with J. Hoberman from <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-03-09/film/finding-fake-love-in-abbas-kiarostami-s-certified-copy/">The Voice</a> saying: "Abbas Kiarostamiâs <em>Certified Copy</em> is exactly that: The Iranian modernistâs first feature to be shot in the West is a flawless riff on our indigenous art cinema. A romantic, sun-dappled <em>Voyage to Italy</em> with a <em>Before Sunset</em> structure and <em>Marienbad</em> backbeat, not to mention a suave acting exercise that would have been pure hell in the hands of David Mamet, <em>Certified Copy</em> is a rumination on authenticity using William Shimell (an opera singer by trade) as a foil for festival diva Juliette Binoche.<p></p>"When watching <em>Certified Copy</em> for the first time, it seemed as if the actors were role-playing their way into a shared fiction; when I saw it again, I was far more aware of the highly ambiguous hints regarding the existence of a prior relationship that Kiarostami carefully introduces throughout, along with the notion that a reproduction might be better than an original. (This is a movie in which mirrors abound.) Is their 'marriage' a copy or the real thing? And whatâs a performance, anyway?"
<p>Much like <em>Jane Eyre</em>, which has been turned into a countless amount of movies (ahem), the story of Little Red Riding Hood has been done and redone since it was first orally told sometime before the 17th century. Because the story has its origins in European folklore, rather than having been written down, it has been freely changed and adapted however the teller sees fit (most memorably by Tex Avery in <em>Red Hot Riding Hood</em>). Today we get another retelling with the movie <em>Red Riding Hood</em> starring Amanda Seyfried and Gary Oldman. This version follows a beautiful young woman named Valerie (sporting the red hood) who is torn between two men, the brooding outsider Peter and the obviously wealthy and nerdy Henry, whom her parents arranged her to marry. </p><p></p>Anyway, Red and Peter decide to run off into the woods to do God knows what, when they hear news that the werewolf in those same woods has broken his truce with the town and eaten a young girl. So the two lovers decide to hang around the town to see the ensuing shit fest coming their way. A town meeting is called and someone points out that the werewolf is human by day and could be any one of them. So amidst this witch hunt and McCarthyism antics, Val realizes she has a special connection with the monster and might be able to help out. Oh yeah, and <em>Twilight</em>'s Catherine Hardwicke directs.<p></p>Reviews have been pretty bad, with Tasha Robinson from <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/red-riding-hood,52988/">The A.V. Club saying</a>, "Symbolically, itâs a story about sexual conquest and the lurid temptations of the unknown more than about wild animals in the woods. So itâs no great surprise that in the post-<em>Twilight</em> era, with bookstores devoting entire sections to 'supernatural romance' and film trying to catch up with the wave, someone did the math: Heavy symbolism plus equating sexually predatory wolf with sexy hot young people equals potential box-office gold.<p></p>"But mostly, the overheated script and the overheated romance just feels like <em>Twilight</em> redux. The main difference is that while the <em>Twilight</em> films strive for straight-faced grimness, <em>Red Riding Hood</em> often verges on outright florid hilarity. It isnât laughing at itself, but that neednât stop the audience."
<p>This weekend at the <a href="http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/">Anthology Film Archives</a> they're showing two exciting retrospectives: <em>Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore</em> and <em>The Films of Mark Rappaport</em>.</p><p></p><em>Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore</em> is a retrospective of films that blazed new trails in independent cinema and exploitation films and set the bar for horror films to come. Probably the most notable film of the retrospective is Lewis's classic <em>Blood Feast</em>. Nick Pinkerton from <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-03-09/film/gore-pioneer-herschell-gordon-lewis-gets-his-due-at-anthology/">The Voice</a> says: "Today, <em>Blood Feast</em>âs banquet is humbled by multiplex trash like <em>Drive Angry</em> and <em>Black Swan</em>, but the perversity in Lewisâs movies is a lost recipe. The documentary quality intrinsic to exploitation films is abundantâtime capsules of mid-â60s Florida strip malls and motel rooms; naïve, mismatched performances of the centerfold/dinner-theater/gym-rat/bank-teller school. Lewisâs gifts as a composer show in the timpani drums under harrowing trombone that give <em>Blood Feast</em> its austere, ceremonial tone, while the lurid delectation of Lewisâs films counter his own implication that his attraction to such material was strictly businessâan ambivalence unchallenged in <em>Godfather</em> and summarized by the <em>Moonshine Mountain</em> (1964) credit in which he billed himself: 'Herschell Gordon Lewis, who ought to know better, but donât.'"<p></p><em>The Films of Mark Rappaport</em> showcases one of American films best-kept secrets and the films that make him one of our most original and unique voices. Anthology summarizes it thus: "Rappaportâs career has unfolded in two distinct chapters, the first consisting of the radically stylized, intellectually playful, and absurdly comical fictional features he produced throughout the 1970s and into the '80s; while the '90s found him developing a genre largely of his own invention, with a series of video-essays that delved into various realms of film history and culture, two of them in the form of monologues-from-beyond-the-grave by once-famous movie stars." His movies aren't readily available and <em>rarely</em> shown in theaters so this is a great opportunity to catch up on one of America's best filmmakers.
<p>Also opening today is the festival favorite Long Island soap opera <em>3 Backyards</em>. The film follows three people from the same suburban town during the course of one curious autumn day. Hmm... interesting....</p><p></p>Reviews have been fairly positive, with Allison Willmore at <a href="http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/film/990109/3-backyards">Time Out New York</a> who says: "Never mind the actual backyard foliage shown in dreamy, dewey close-ups; itâs the private, unguarded spaces among a trio of unrelated characters in a Long Island town that take center stage in Eric Mendelsohnâs ensemble drama. The writer-directorâs follow-up to <em>Judy Berlin</em> (2000) tries to show how small breaks from suburban routines end up causing seismic changes in lives otherwise unexamined, juxtaposing brief encounters and semi-epiphanies with a delicacy thatâs alternately impressive and irritating; calling these back-and-forth koans stories may be too forceful.<p></p>"So whatâs up with the gratuitously showy visual style and aggressive, flute-heavy score that runs rampant over the modest narrative developments? Only Falco gets beyond being merely a symbol for suburban angst, thanks to her fiercely open, not terribly sympathetic turn as a woman taking liberties under the illusion of offering comfort."
<p>Every once in a while a work of art will come out that, for whatever reason, isn't really appreciated by its contemporaries. Whether it was ahead of its time or merely not as good as the artist's previous works, some of these pieces will go on to be rediscovered as classics of the form. Recently there has been a reassessment of Truffaut's <em>The Soft Skin</em>, which was originally seen as a disappointment but is now being called one of the director's best. The film follows lit-crit superstar Pierre running to catch a plane to Lisbon where he's supposed to make a lecture on Balzac. Along the way he meets a beautiful flight attendant, Nicole, who is also interested in French literature, and the two have a fling. What follows is an intense exploration of the pain and excitement of an extramarital affair and the repercussion on all the lives involved. There is a new 35 mm print and it's being shown this weekend at <a href="http://www.filmforum.org/films/softskin.html">Film Forum</a> so don't miss it. </p>
<p>If there's anything getting more cliche about Brownstone Brooklyn places like Park Slope than the amount of strollers on the sidewalk, it's the unhappy, torrid marriages of the owners of said strollers. There was talk about a <em>Sex and the City</em>-type show being developed around the area, and then Amy Sohn dropped <em>Prospect Park West</em> which further heated things up, and now we have the film <em>Monogamy</em>. The film follows Theo, who is increasingly anxious about his impending marriage to Nat and thoroughly bored with his shitty wedding photography gig, so he takes up a hobby: he's hired by clients to snap voyeuristic pictures of them as they walk around town. Things go smoothly until a sexy exhibitionist leads him to an all consuming obsession. After that he begins to question his sex life at home and must face some hard truths about himself. Scandalous!</p><p></p>Reviews have been all right with a positive one coming from Mark Halcomb at <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-03-09/film/monogamy-so-much-more-than-a-hipster-blow-up/">The Village Voice</a> who says: "The romanticized commitment-phobia that keeps Judd Apatow in gilt-fixtured man caves is brought down to earth (or Park Slope, anyway) in this inventive indie thriller from <em>Murderball</em> co-director Dana Adam Shapiro." <p></p>While its genre trappings and privileged urban milieu occasionally make <em>Monogamy</em> seem like a glib cocktail of <em>Blow-Up</em> and Look at This Fucking Hipster, they also allow Shapiro to float sly observations on the benignly predatory wedding industry and the subverted misogyny lurking behind affluent malesâ knee-jerk anti-matrimonialism."
<em>Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help! Help! I'm being repressed!</em><p></p>We usually like to pick a quote from the film that's being shown at midnight over the weekend at <a href="http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Market/NewYork/NewYork_frameset.htm">The Landmark Sunshine Theater</a> and it usually doesn't take long to pick one. This weekend, however, there were a plethora of contenders and you've heard them all uttered by every nerd in the world because the film this weekend is <em>Monty Python and The Holy Grail</em>, easily one of the funniest, and most quotable films ever made. If you're the type of person who would sit in the cafeteria in High School saying "Ni!, Ni!" with your friends, you need to go, and even if you didn't, you might want to have yourself a couple dozen laughs.