Something tells us that most people who end up in the audience for Space Chimps this weekend will be people who either lost a bet or bought tickets in a failed attempt to sneak into The Dark Knight. And to hear the Times’s Neil Genzlinger tell it, there are worse fates: “Journalism is all about having the courage to write the truth even if it will get you mocked by your relatives and co-workers, so here goes: Space Chimps is hilarious.” The Village Voice dissents: “The animation, incidentally, is half-assed, like they ran out of the $292.96 budget halfway through.”
The Dark Knight is currently clocking in with a 94% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. There are some mixed reviews, like David Denby’s in The New Yorker, but Manohla Dargis at the Times got it right: “No matter how cynical you feel about Hollywood, it is hard not to fall for a film that makes room for a shot of the Joker leaning out the window of a stolen police car and laughing into the wind, the city’s colored lights gleaming behind him like jewels. He’s just a clown in black velvet, but he’s also some kind of masterpiece.” (Gothamist review here.)
Oh, who could forget about Mamma Mia!, a film adaptation of the hit jukebox musical scored with the tunes of ABBA. Starring Meryl Streep, the story concerns a mother trying to determine the identity of her daughter’s biological father on the eve of her wedding. Wesley Morris at the Boston Globe writes, “As much as my dignity tried to flee the premises, my heart wouldn't let me go… Even the banalities and dead slang of that [Dancing Queen] chorus seemed like a feminist exhortation: ‘You can dance! You can jive!’ I'll probably never be as happy in a movie theater this year.” Now that’s courage, Genzlinger.
Lou Reed Berlin, Julian Schnabel’s concert documentary, opens today for a limited run at Film Forum. We saw a screening at Tribeca Film Festival and loved it; the sound is impeccable and the even if you’re not familiar with Reed’s critically panned album, it’s not hard to get swept away by this sumptuous full-band rendition. And a good companion to the provocative documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired screening at Cinema Village is this weekend's midnight movie at the Sunshine, Roman Polanski’s The Tenant. IFC’s midnight movie, if you're interested in making some fabulous friends, is a sing-a-long screening of the Olivia Newton-John cult classic Xanadu.
