Disturbia held on to confirm that, indeed, every weekend in April was led by a DreamWorks flick. By the way, Fracture, not bad.

5/4

Wide

SPIDER-MAN 3

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Spider-Man vs. Venom, Sandman and the hipper, younger Green Goblin.

WILL IT SUCK?
No. I mean, there are few guarantees in movie life, but the quality of a Sam Raimi film is almost always one of them. Will it be as good as Spidey 2? Maybe not. You only have one of the superstar writers returning (Alvin Sargent), but you still have Sam writing with his brother Ivan, who had input on the first two. You also have an all-star cast with Topher Grace, Thomas Hayden Church and James Cromwell being added to the bunch. You also have one of the best villains in the Spideyverse, Venom, but will that be overshadowed by two other villains being thrown into the mix? I saw about ten minutes or so at CES (pretty much the same stuff released on the web a little while back) and it looks fantastic. Also, Sam Raimi mentioned Gymkata in an interview about the film, and you gotta love that.

Early buzz is phat.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Has an entire blockbuster-free weekend between itself and the weekend-upon-weekend punch of Shrek and Pirates. $346mil.

LUCKY YOU

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Drama centering on the World Series of Poker in Vegas.

WILL IT SUCK?
In spite of a cheesy-ass trailer and multiple delays, I have high hopes for this one. Curtis Hanson can spin just about anything into gold, and screenwriter Eric Roth (Munich) has more hits than misses.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
A little bit of competition from Georgia Rule next week and there’s some movie about a spider this week that might get more attention. $23mil.

Limited

WAITRESS

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Kerri Russell plays the waitress in question, trying to escape an unfulfilling life with the help of her doctor (Nathan Fillion).

WILL IT SUCK?
Not at all. Great comedy. More here.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
More buzz couldn’t hurt. $4mil.

AWAY FROM HER

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Guy puts his wife in a home cos’ she’s getting Alzheimer’s. She proceeds to forget him and fall for someone else. How much does that suck?

WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is even better than Waitress. The feature-length writing/directing debut of indie darling Sarah Polley.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
About as well as Waitress, I imagine. $4mil.

PARIS JE T’AIME

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
20 filmmakers make movies about Paris.

WILL IT SUCK?
Even the people who like it say it’s uneven, but the general buzz is still good. Directors include Olivier Assayas, Gurinder Chadha, the Coen brothers, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuaron, Gerard Depardieu, Christopher Doyle, Richard LaGravenese, Alexander Payne, Walter Salles, Tom Twyker and Gus Van Sant. Actors include Steve Buscemi, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Miranda Richardson, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Nick Nolte, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Bob Hoskins, Elijah Wood, Emily Mortimer, Rufus Sewell, Natalie Portman, Gerard Depardieu, Alexander Payne, Ben Gazzara and Wes Craven.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
The individual directors will draw on their core followings, but it won’t be enough to overcome an extraordinarily crowded weekend. $1mil.

CIVIC DUTY

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
A post-9/11 Arlington Road.

WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is good, and with Peter Krause and Richard Schiff on board, why not?

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Hugely crowded field. $500,000.

THE FLYING SCOTSMAN

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
The World’s Fastest Schwinn

WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is mixed. Decent cast, tho: Johnny Lee Miller, Billy Boyd and Brian Cox.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Indie sports flicks are a hard enough sell when they’re not surrounded by fifty other art house releases. $2mil.

THE TREATMENT

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Guy from those Whit Stillman films gets therapy.

WILL IT SUCK?
Hard to say. Though Chris Eigeman as a neurotic New Yorker shouldn’t be a hard sell. Ian Holm, Roger Rees and Harris Yulin are also up in here.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Nobody knows about this. $750,000.

Next Week: Jane Fonda. Felicity Huffman. Lindsay Lohan. One of these actresses is not like the others.

My review here.

Finally got this to work…

Region 1 DVD Releases for April 24, 2007

I can’t believe I’m going to have to watch American Idol tonight. Anyway…

The Queen

Stephen Frears’ witty, insightful dissection of the Royal Family’s reaction to the death of Princess Diana earned Helen Mirren the most predictable Oscar since Philip Seymour Hoffman won for Capote the year before. Which is not to say she doesn’t earn every ounce of it. Michael Sheen also gives an Oscar-worthy performance (not that he was nominated) as a young, beloved Tony Blair (remember that?) trying to mediate between the public, the press and a seemingly oblivous monarchy.

Extras include commentary with Frears and writer Peter Morgan and a separate commentary track by Majesty author Robert Lacey

Night at the Museum (2-Disc Special Edition)

Ben Stiller struck Christmas gold again with this adaptation of the children’s book by Milan Trenc. Almost $250 million. For all that, critics never really took a shine but, then again, they weren’t too hot on Meet the Fockers, either (about $280 million). Disc 1 has two commentary tracks (director/writers) while Disc 2 offers loads of featurettes.

Deja Vu

Critics were more or less on board with this sci-fi time travel thriller which reunites Denzel Washington with director Tony Scott for the third time (Crimson Tide, Man on Fire). Also one of the first films to shoot in New Orleans after Katrina. Basically a bunch of featurettes for extras.

WKRP in Cincinnatti: The Complete First Season

I’m guessing a tangle of music licensing disputes kept this hilarious series off DVD for so long, but now it’s finally arrived and yes, this is the season with the Thanksgiving episode and yes, that’s reason enough to get the whole set. Extras include cast and creator commentary as well as brand new interviews with the cast.

The Drew Carey Show: The Complete First Season

One of the more underrated sitcoms, never achieving the high profile of a Seinfeld, Cheers or Friends while often being just as funny and creative. No surprise half the leads went on to Whose Line. Also had a kick-ass theme song by The Presidents of the United States, but that didn’t kick in until season three. I think there’s maybe like, one featurette and a spoof in the extras.

More here.

With four movies opening wide last weekend, you’d figure at least one would be able to dethrone Disturbia. Not so much. Between Blades of Glory and that, DreamWorks dominates four of April’s freakish five weekends (April 1st was a Sunday). Will any of these flicks end the streak?

Oh, and had an old man moment during Hot Fuzz when one of the characters said, “Forget it, Nick, it’s Sandford,” and I was the only one who laughed.

4/27

Wide

THE INVISIBLE

(Delayed from January)

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Teen Ghost

WILL IT SUCK?
David S. Goyer, hot off co-writing Batman Begins, has decided to direct…this, which he didn’t write. That honor actually goes to the writing team who put together the original, a Danish film itself based on a Danish book. And we know how well adaptations of foreign horror usually go. Justin “I Can’t Believe That’s Not the Kid Who Played Connor on Angel” Chatwin stars.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
The tweens who don’t go to Next will go to this, then they’ll all go to Spider-Man next week. $24mil.

NEXT

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Nic Cage can see the future - and it involves lots of dodging.

WILL IT SUCK?
Let’s face facts, Lee Tamahori has directed some crap (and this is coming from a guy who liked Die Another Day). The writers are responsible for such atrocities as The Punisher and Navy Seals, and basing your story on a Philip K. Dick novel is no guarantee (see Paycheck). On the other hand, the writers have also brought us Hollywoodland, Big Trouble in Little China and the better-than-it-usually-gets-credit-for Total Recall, so there’s an outside chance it won’t suck, but don’t count on it.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
I get the sense that Revolution is just running out the clock, tossing out the films it’s contractually obligated to release before it shutters for good. If you compare the ad campaign for this to the one for Ghost Rider, it’s clear they’re not pulling out all the stops. $34mil.

THE CONDEMNED

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Like Battle Royale, but with convicted killers instead of high school kids.

WILL IT SUCK?
The WWE movie machine just keeps on churning. I personally can’t wait to watch Stone Cold Steve Austin take on Vinnie Jones. And from the writers of Clockstoppers! Early buzz is mixed but even the good reviews call it a B-movie at best.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Might do better than you think. $30mil.

KICKIN’ IT OLD SKOOL

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Breakdancing prodigy, um, breaks and wakes up twenty years later to be socially awkward for our amusement.

WILL IT SUCK?
Here’s your first hint, it’s called Kickin’ It Old Skool. Also, the last time Jaime Kennedy made this movie it was called Malibu’s Most Wanted. I will cop to giggling a couple of times during the trailer, however. Oh, and Smallville saving grace Michael Rosenbaum has got to get a new agent (Cursed, Sorority Boys).

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Well, at least this was probably less expensive than Son of the Mask. $18mil.

Limited

WIND CHILL

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Thirteen Really Cold Ghosts

WILL IT SUCK?
This has a slightly better pedigree than it probably needs. Shadow of the Vampire writer Steven Katz is up in here with Criminal director (and longtime Soderbergh protege) Gregory Jacobs. And Emily “Devil Wears Prada” Blunt takes the lead. Still looks kind of boring.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Why would you release this would-be When a Stranger Calls in indie-land? It’s not exactly Wolf Creek. $5mil.

JINDABYNE

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Scandal in an Australian town involving a fishing trip and a dead body.

WILL IT SUCK?
Lots of international kudos, but critics here are going 50/50. I have to admit, I found helmer Ray Lawrence’s last film, Lantana, to be well-acted but kind of dull. With Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney on board here, I expect the first part to hold true, at least.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Needs more buzz, but Byrne and Linney make for good art house catnip. $4mil.

SNOW CAKE

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Alan Rickman, after indirectly causing the death of a woman, goes to visit her autistic mom (Sigourney Weaver) and rediscovers himself because, really, it’s all about him.

WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is good, unless you’re Slant’s Ed Gonzalez. Autism is rarely handled well on film, but at least you’ve got Rickman up in here.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Not even on the radar. $500,000.

DIGGERS

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Coming of age tale about clam diggers on Long Island.

WILL IT SUCK?
No one really seems psyched about it, but early buzz is good. Written by State alum Ken Marino with Paul Rudd in the ensemble.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Gonna get lost in the wash. $500,000.

Next week: Let the highest-grossing month on record begin.

The Philadelphia Film Festival came to a close with awards and a screening of Adrienne Shelly’s Waitress. As far as the awards went, the only thing I really noted was Severance winning Danger After Dark. The Danger After Dark program (which I tend to gravitate towards) includes all the horror and, up until recently, Asian gangster films (which were given their own spin-off program this year). The most fun I had at any Danger After Dark screening this year was Severance, so it was nice to see it get some love.

Waitress is a funny, sweet, endearing tale about a waitress (Keri Russell) in a small town who makes pies and suffers under the petty dictatorship of her husband (Jeremy Sisto) who just got her pregnant, complicating her plan to run away. Her new doctor (Nathan Fillion) offers a ray of hope as the two fall in love, but ultimately she has to deal with her husband, her baby and her life. A straighforward romcom premise excecuted effortlessly by all invovled.

Since I never really watched much Felicity, I had no opinion one way or another on Russell’s acting chops, but she shines here, pulling off good-natured hopelessness with aplomb. Nathan Fillion shows another side of the dopey smartass he honed on Firefly with a lot more aw-shucks thrown in. He’s evolving into a formidable comic talent.

Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Shelly portray Russell’s fellow waitstaff, playing off each other with crackerjack timing. Hines in particular gives a performance that skirts Best Supporting Actress territory. Jeremy Sisto, Eddie Jemison, Andy Griffith and Lew Temple all give top notch support.

At the end of the credits, we see the words “In Loving Memory of Adrienne Shelley.” In light of its sad backstory, Waitress ends up being a bittersweet tribute Shelly as triple threat - writer, director and actress.

I was not expecting much from David Sington’s documentary In the Shadow of the Moon. This is nothing against Signton, of whom I’d yet to hear, but more the subject matter: the moon landing. There’s a very been there, done that feel to space travel now, and to think that there was some new insight to be had seemed unlikely.

Fortunately, I was completely wrong.

The inspiration for the film, as described by Sington in a Q&A after the screening, informs the premise. Of the six-and-a-half billion people on the planet, only nine have ever been to the moon, so it seemed like a good idea to him to, you know, talk to them. The result is the story of the Apollo missions as told by the astronauts who flew them.

The film does nothing more complicated than mixing old footage with new interviews, yet I was impressed by how potent (and beautiful) some of those old images still are. Yes, I did think of the early MTV spots when seeing the stages break away, but that only made me realize why MTV picked those images. Tying themselves to a revolutionary idea for a generation that didn’t have one.

And that is part of the goal of this movie; one of the younger audience members said she had no reference point for the events depicted in the film but once she saw them, she realized they had a power she never appreciated.

The film elucidates certain aspects of the “tired” story that I hadn’t appreciated. There’s the fact that while today - with a few tragic exceptions - space flight is considered to be routine, at the time rockets were about the most dangerous thing you could be around. A montage of spectacular exposions drives this point home in the film. There’s the fact that Kennedy (and his brother, for that matter) did not live to see the seed he planted grow to fruition under the administration of his nemesis, Nixon.

Then there are the three astronauts who died before the project even got off the ground. And the fact that in the final moments before the lunar module actually touched down, it seemed pretty certain that the whole mission would fail because they couldn’t find a suitable place to land in the narrow window of time they had to do it. And there’s the speech Nixon was to give if the first mission didn’t make it back. In one of the film’s more eeire moments, one of the astronauts reads it.

But Sington finds a global spin to the story that’s even more compelling. The context of the flight has America at war in Vietnam while at home the country eats itself from within. One of the astronauts even talks about his guilt at being in the space program while his air force buddies were being shot down abroad. However, even though a large part of the program was a race against the Russians and it was an American flag planted upon arrival, upon their return, astronauts saw in country after country they visited people saying “WE did it.” It was a global victory.

Now, watching this I’m thinking, “What a contrast with the way the world feels about America right now.” And I’m thinking, “What great achievement could America get behind today that would show the world the ways in which we don’t suck?” My answer was solving the global AIDS crisis.

Hold that thought.

In the Q&A, someone asked Sington if he deliberately pointed out the world reaction (he shows footage in many different countries of people reacting to the news of the landing and then greeting the astronauts on tour) as a contraast to the worldview now. His answer was that, in a sense, he did. His motivation to make the film had to with his fascination with America (he’s British) and to him, “This is America.”

The optimism and confidence that motivated the space program showed what America could be and served as a juxtaposition to the cynicism and fear that he felt motivated Vietnam. Today he sees the Iraq War born of decisions motivated by fear and uncertainty, but sees no juxtaposing mission motivated by optimism and confidence. His suggestion, however, was not AIDS. Wanna take a guess?

Climate change.

Sure enough, there are little bits and pieces of the movie in which the astronauts talk about the impact of seeing the Earth from an alien world and one of them points out how surprisingly fragile it seemed while another upon returning gained a new apprecation for how crappily we treat the planet and even pointed out that now, if you look at the planet from afar, cities have their own atmospheres.

That’s not to say that In the Shadow of the Moon is trying to be the next An Inconvenient Truth. It’s really not. But what it does try to do is to give the viewer a vision of an America that believes it can achieve anything both from the collaboration of the many and the individual strengths of nine brave citizens who are wiling to risk everything. And it succeeds.

There are very few movies worth seeing just for one scene, but Fair Play is one of them. In the second scene, corporate newbie Alexandre plays squash with his boss, Charles. Simple enough. But the way writer/director Lionel Bailliu ratchets up the tension throughout, you’d think it was a lost scene from Glengarry Glen Ross. It’s twenty solid minutes of “oh, no you di’n't!”

To say that one scene makes the movie kind of implies that the rest of the movie is no great shakes, but I wouldn’t go that far. It does, however, get a little repetitive with scene after scene of corporate intrigue played out against some sort of sport or competition (golf, running, canyoneering). It’s a rich metaphor, but a little on-the-nose in execution. On the other hand, Bailliu does a good job of gradually upping the stakes so the whole opera builds to a pretty satisfying conclusion.

It’s interesting to see how corporate culture keeps coming back in this fest. In addition to this, Severance and The Boss of It All, you’ve also got Claude Chabrol’s latest, A Comedy of Power, with Isabelle Huppert investigating corrupt CEOs. Call it The Age of The Office.

Region 1 DVD Releases for April 17, 2007

This week, three Oscar-nominated performances in two films.

The Last King of Scotland

Forest Whitaker earned a well-deserved Oscar for his portrayal of Idi Amin in this powerful indie. James McAvoy’s none too shabby either as the young doctor who gets drawn into Amin’s world of tyranny and paranoia. Touching the Void director Kevin Macdonald kicks things into high gear in the final act, taking a typical African-conflict-through-Western-eyes tale and turning it on its head. Extras include director’s commentary and deleted scenes.

Notes on a Scandal

Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench both earned Oscar nods for their portrayals of a schoolteacher with a secret and her colleague with an obsession, respectively. If that’s not enough, Bill Nighy’s up in here, too, in an Oscar-nominated script by Closer scribe Patrick Marber. A conversation with Blanchett and Nighy is among the “webisodes” that round out the extras.

The Venture Bros. - Season Two

As much fun, and maybe even funnier, than season one, season two of Adult Swim’s hilarious take on Johnny Quest blasts out of the gate with one of their best eps. The season’s funniest arc follows archvillain The Monarch’s attempt to reunite with his love Dr. Girlfriend and rebuild his empire culminating in a fabulous season finale. Extras include commentaries by cast and creators.

Smokin’ Aces

I was so looking forward to Joe Carnahan’s follow up to the you-must-go-watch-it-now-if-you-haven’t-yet masterpiece Narc and so disappointed to see it get lousy reviews, espeically with a cast that includes Jason Bateman, Andy Garcia, Alex Rocco, Ray Liotta, Jeremy Piven and Peter Berg. General buzz had it as a Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels rip. I’ll still, of course, rent it. Extras include an alternate ending and deleted scenes.

Freedom Writers

Before you write this off as another Dangerous Minds, know it got more than twice as many good reviews. Based on several students’ post-L.A. riots diaries, the film follows the efforts of a teacher (Hilary Swank) to increase the peace in her Long Beach school. Extras include commentary by Swank and director Richard LaGravenese.

More here.

If there was a theme to today’s films, it was that you really don’t choose who you love. Or you do, and it’s just kind of inexplicable. Okay, maybe there was no theme.

Eagle vs Shark has been touted as New Zealand’s answer to Napoleon Dynamite, and I can kind of see where they’re coming from. You have the quirky characters, the curiously flat affect, but this has something else going on. In chronicling how wallflower Lily falls into and out of and back into love with perennial jerk Jarrod (imagine if Napoleon was just as geeky, but much more of a dick about it), writer/director Taika Waititi explores just how far love will go to find what’s salvagable about a guy you’d dismiss at first, second and fiftieth glance. Sweet, funny and, if the comparison must be made, a little bit deeper than Dynamite.

In a much more real-world application of love conquers all (or at least tries really, really hard to) we have the doc The Killer Within, in which a renowned environmental psychologist reveals to his family, friends and co-workers that he killed his college dorm mate in 1955. That January at Swathmore, with no warning, student Bob Bechtel took a rifle and killed fellow student Holmes Strozier as Strozier slept in what was meant to be the beginning of a killing spree that was to take out the entire dorm.

Instead, Bechtel fired two more shots at random, dropped the rifle and ran to his friend before confessing everything to the cops. Why he didn’t carry out his plan is only one of a dozen mysteries at the heart of this film. Why come forward now? He’d served his time (after being found mentally unfit for trial he was shipped off to a mental institution for five years before being set free). Why did the victim’s family forgive him? A note they sent to the judge was critical to his early release. If, as he claims, the killing was a Columbine-like response to being bullied, why does no one remember any such behaviour, in particular on the part of Strozier?

Your feelings about Bechtel will likely shift more than once during the course of the film, as his family grapples with the revelation. Though his wife knew after their third date, Amanda, her daughter from a previous marriage and Carrah, a daughter they had after they were married found out much, much later. It’s particularly sticky for Carrah, who wouldn’t exist if her father had been convicted and likely executed for his crime. To put it mildly, the film is a discussion starter.

Which is exactly what filmmaker Macky Alston intended, as he said at the Q&A after the film. Three Swarthmore alums, two of whom were actually there on the night of the shootings, stood up to attest to their version of events, stressing that they had no memory of bullying. Alston explained how he became involved in the film, as Carrah was a student where he was teaching and informed him of her father’s intention to out himself, inviting him to chronicle it. Carrah, by the way, was pro-death penalty until she heard about her father’s past.

Like I said, a discussion starter.