The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Third bite's a charm

Fans feuding over Team Edward and Team Jacob can put down their fangs. After Eclipse, both fans will convert to Team David Slade. The first-time-to-the-franchise director combines his experience with violent vampires (30 Days of Night) and impassioned teen girls (Hard Candy) to create the series' most balanced and fun vam-rom-drama. Twihards will embrace it as the first installment to live up to their imaginations (which, frankly, have always been better than either the movies or Stephenie Meyer's prose) and Summit can breathe easy that the saga of Bella Swan still has momentum going into the fourth and fifth (and final) flicks.

Slade's challenge is to navigate a novel that leaps from blood to tears, from a newly made bloodsucker (Xavier Samuel) slaughtering Seattle to Bella's (Kristen Stewart) literally eternal love triangle between Robert Pattinson's clenched-jawed sparkle-vamp and Taylor Lautner's huggable werewolf. Eclipse is about extremes: it opens with a vampire attack, then cuts to Stewart and Pattinson snuggling in a meadow reading Robert Frost's "Fire and Ice," a metaphor for the choice she has to make between warm-blooded wolves and the ice-cold undead. If tweens miss the symbolism, it's repeated in every other scene. (The best is when Lautner snipes, "Let's face it, I am hotter than you.")

Eclipse has its cheesecake and eats it, too. Like New Moon, it's heavy on topless shots of barely legal Taylor Lautner, but now Pattinson grumbles, "Doesn't he own a shirt?" It's winking melodrama that lets fans smile and critics snort with glee.

Not much happens in Eclipse. In their first scene, Pattinson and Stewart have this exchange: "Marry me." "Change me." 100 Minutes later, they're still having the same conversation, but Slade doesn't let the emo inertia drag. Since his leads are still more mannequins than actors, he physicalizes their emotions: Pattinson furiously peels out of parking lots, Lautner-in wolf form, as big as a horse-charms Stewart into petting his fur.

Though the first half hour struggles to shake off the dour New Moon vibes, this is likable fluff, junk food without regret. Reluctant boyfriends have a few minutes of the wolf pack's bros-before-emos tumbling. Reluctant chaperons will be happy that all of the adults note that Bella and Edward's romance is too obsessive. Reluctant history buffs will delight in the Civil War era reenactments. (Okay, that one's a stretch.) And conservative abstinence advocates will thrill at a teen flick where the guy wants to wait for marriage. As he tells his hot-and-bothered girlfriend, he comes from a different culture of front porches and lemonades with the family. Can he be a 109-year-old virgin? Teen abstinence group True Love Waits: have I got a poster boy for you. And trust me, he makes the ladies swoon.

by Amy Nicholson

Distributor: Summit Entertainment
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ashley Greene, Peter Facinelli, Jackson Rathbone and Kellan Lutz.
Director: David Slade
Screenwriter: Melissa Rosenberg
Producers: Wyck Godfrey, Greg Mooradian and Karen Rosenfelt
Genre: Drama/Romance/Fantasy
Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, and some sensuality.
Running time: 124 min
Release date: June 30, 2010

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Release Date: 2010-07-14 · Running time: 108 minutes

Genres

Fantasy

Action

Adventure

Director

Jon Turteltaub

Writers

Matt Lopez

Carlo Bernard

Doug Miro

Producers

Jerry Bruckheimer

Principal Cast

Ethan Peck

Nicolas Cage

Jay Baruchel

Monica Bellucci

Alfred Molina

Teresa Palmer

Theatrical Release Date

2010-07-14

Despicable Me

Despicable Me

Release Date: 2010-07-09 · Running time: 95 minutes

Genres

3D

Animated (CGI)

Family

Director

Chris Renaud

Pierre Coffin

Writers

Cinco Paul

Ken Dario

Producers

John Cohen

Janet Healy

Christopher Meledandri

Principal Cast

Mindy Kaling

Kristen Wiig

Miranda Cosgrove

Ken Jeong

Will Arnett

Danny McBride

Julie Andrews

Russell Brand

Steve Carell

Jason Segel

Theatrical Release Date

2010-07-09

Salt

Salt

Release Date: 2010-07-23 · Running time: 100 minutes

Genres

Spy

Director

Phillip Noyce

Writers

Brian Helgeland

Kurt Wimmer

Producers

Lorenzo di Bonaventura

Sunil Perkash

Principal Cast

Corey Stoll

Yara Shahidi

Gaius Charles

Victor Slezak

Daniel Olbrychski

Cassidy Hinkle

Angelina Jolie

Liev Schreiber

Chiwetel Ejiofor

Zoe Lister Jones

Theatrical Release Date

2010-07-23

Ramona and Beezus

Harnessing the power of pop for a more decent, warm-fuzzier world.

Ramona and Beezus is based on Beverly Cleary's Ramona series of children's books, and while it isn't the only adaptation to give flesh (or ink) to Cleary's indomitable misfit, it's the most accessible retelling to date. Set in Portland, Oregon and swimming in the post-prairie-meets-hipster regional aesthetic, Elizabeth Allen's vision of Ramona makes up for its flaws with a perfect cast and a timeless set of values. In this world, sincerity is decency. The Quimbys aren't the comically dysfunctional family of sitcoms or the tenuously held together family of divorce dramas. They're as ideal as imperfect, and struggling in an economic climate that has a bottomless reservoir for hardship. The Quimbys (four females, one male) may be a bit femme-power-y, which could dissuade the boy demographic, but it's safe viewing for all families and it doesn't degrade itself by leaning on the blandly uncontroversial. While the film can't possibly do poorly it will still deserve higher numbers than it'll get, even with past generation book fans dragging their kids to theaters. DVD afterlife should be tidy.

Ramona Quimby (a supremely charming Joey King) is a plucky and imaginative kid whose big ideas typically get her into a heap of mess. Her imagination is so oversized, in fact, that is seeps out of her and transforms fitted sheets into parachutes and her room into the night sky awash with stars and astronauts. Her older sister, Beatrice, a.k.a. Beezus (Selena Gomez), knows better how to work in the real-world systems that surround her and has both popularity and authority to show for it. While their mother (Bridget Moynahan) stays home caring for their baby sister, father Robert (John Corbett) sublimates his artistic tendencies to hold down a sturdy job as a paper-pusher-it's a sturdy job until he's let go right in the middle of their house renovation. Frightened that the bank will (literally) drive off with her family's home, Ramona embarks on a handful of earning schemes that demonstrate her impractical cleverness and unfortunately cost the family money. Meanwhile, her Aunt Bea (Ginnifer Goodwin) is softly lured by her high school sweetheart (Josh Duhamel), an adventurer of unclear distinction who's home for a few weeks. As the bank threatens to get between the Quimbys and their home, and Aunt Bea's budding romance threatens to get between Ramona and her aunt, Ramona's excursions into her imagination grow fewer and further between (which smartly designates them as healthy) and she's forced to lean on her sister, who has her own problems to contend with. In the end of the day, it's not Ramona's penchant for daydreaming or even her cheer, which she works to preserve through her many failures, it's the bonds of family that keep the Quimbys afloat, whatever inventions Ramona thinks the tide can send.

It's fascinating to consider Cleary's Ramona is nearly five decades old, particularly as this incarnation of her poses the 9 year old as a manic pixie dream girl in the making. Ramona's ingenious to a fault and her awkwardness is a mark of her authenticity; without making a case of it, the film pits polished girls against Ramona's lack of polish (implication being polish requires no imagination). A scene in which Ramona botches an audition to play a princess in a commercial puts this contrast before the audience even as Ramona herself is never particularly obsessed with the other girls...or their superior bling. What results, besides a sort of sustainable, down-home attitude towards family, is a view of girl identity that favors the innocent wonk to the worldly (and therefore wounded) prize child. The prize child is not the villain here; she's just a nag whose admissions defend a brand of order that Ramona and the Quimbys gently oppose. This opposition goes a long (if sweet) way toward defining the family as an affectionately flawed entity, one whose cracks prove its longevity and strength. In this vision of Ramona, sincerity is decency and no mores, politics or creeds define those bounds. Screw irony, it's a temp trend anyway.

by Sara Maria Vizcarrondo

Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Cast: Joey King, Selena Gomez, John Corbett, Bridgette Moynahan, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Duhamel and Sandra Oh.
Director: Elizabeth Allen
Screenwriters: Laurie Craig and Nick Pustay
Producers: Denise Di Novi and Brad Van Arragon
Genre: Family Comedy
Rating: G
Running time: 104 min.
Release date: July 23, 2010

Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3

Release Date: 2010-06-18 · Running time: 86 minutes

Genres

Animated (CGI)

Director

Lee Unkrich

Writers

Michael Arndt

Producers

Darla K. Anderson

Principal Cast

Timothy Dalton

Tom Hanks

Michael Keaton

Whoopi Goldberg

Joan Cusack

Tim Allen

Bonnie Hunt

Theatrical Release Date

2010-0

Farewell (L'affaire Farewell )

An elegant story about the slow crumbing of the Iron Curtain

French director Christian Carion's follow-up to 2005's well-received Joyeux Noel is a decided step up in genre and ambition that confirms his strong command of material, even if it's not quite as devastatingly relevant as it wants to be. Based on Serguei Kostine's true-life tale of a KGB operative turned-double-agent during the waning days of the Cold War, there's no question that Bonjour Farewell possesses strong crossover appeal for political thriller fans not usually lured by foreign-language fare; the problem for micro-distributor NeoClassics will be converting that appeal into theatrical release dollars with sparse marketing resources. Final box office tally will depend entirely on how many screens NeoClassics is able to wrangle, and for how long.

The story begins in the early 1980s when the aggressive anti-Communist posture of American President Ronald Reagan (Fred Ward) is beginning to open fissures in the once formidable Soviet empire. One such fissure is a KGB Colonel, Sergei Gregoriev (Bosnian director Emir Kusturica), an unlikely traitor who simply sees the writing on the Iron Curtain. Motivated not by money or power but by a desire to see his son enjoy a better life than his own, the cool and collected Gregoriev begins passing documents and information to French intelligence via another unlikely spy, converted functionary and chronic neurotic Pierre Froment (actor/director Guillaume Canet). How their relationship evolves amid higher and higher geopolitical stakes puts a powerfully personal face on events, which even at the time were almost ritualistically depersonalized by their rapidity and unprecedented historical magnitude.

It's hard to watch Farewell without thinking of such '70s classics as All the Presidents Men and Network, mature dramas that Hollywood has since all but abandoned (with intermittent exceptions like The Insider). Boasting top tier Hollywood-style production values and thoughtful, character-driven writing, it's a picture custom-built for older, more discriminating audiences for whom the picture will also likely resurrect memories of the era. At the same time, Carion stays true to his French sensibilities, spending welcome time on the evolution of Froment and Gregoriev's peculiar relationship as well as considering how the affair impacts each of them in their private lives. Opportunities for Hollywood-style pandering (chase scenes, shootouts, etc.) are intentionally missed without so much as compromising a single, suspenseful beat.

Unfortunately, the film's slavishness to history, which is normally a strength in pictures of this sort, too often handicaps the power of the drama, detouring an otherwise intimate story at crucial moments in order to make a broader point about the magnitude of the events in question. While Ward's impersonation of Reagan never quite rings true, the mere fact that Reagan and French President François Mitterrand (Philippe Magnan) even figure in the story feels a bit too overly ambitious. That's not to say that Carion's intentions aren't well-placed, he means for the story to have both an emotional and an intellectual impact, and tries mightily to have it both ways. Such misgivings, however, are a minor blot on an otherwise very impressive effort.

In addition to the sterling efforts of Canet and Kusturica, both exceptional filmmakers in their own rights, the film benefits from a variety of fine supporting turns from an excellent international cast: David Soul, Willem Dafoe, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Diane Kruger and Benno Fürmann, to name only a few. Superlative cinematography from Walther van den Ende and another memorable Clint Mansell score cap the effort off with impressive aplomb.

by Wade Major
Distributor: NeoClassics Films
Cast: Guillaume Canet, Emir Kusturica, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Diane Kruger, Willem Dafoe, Fred Ward and David Soul
Director: Christian Carion
Screenwriter: Christian Carion and Eric Raynaud
Producers: Philippe Boeffard, Bertrand Faivre and Christophe Rossignon
Genre: Drama
Rating: Not rated
Running time: 113 min.
Release date: July 23 NY/LA, July 30 DC/CHI/SF, August 6 Exp

Countdown to Zero

The most chilling film of the year has no vampires, zombies, or serial killers. It contains no thrills at all, just archival footage, news reports, graphics and a lot of policy wonks, politicians and scientists offering commentary. It's what they're talking about that'll turn your blood cold: nuclear annihilation and just how casually it could happen. Countdown to Zero is likely to score only minor returns at the box office, but it should strike a bull's-eye with its target audience of political junkies, some of whom may be in a position to help effect the change the documentary demands.
President John F. Kennedy gave a speech to the United Nations in 1961 in which he chillingly observed, "Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles." Countdown to Zero demonstrates exactly what he meant in a history lesson that begins with the splitting of the atom and expands to include the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the arms race, terrorism in a nuclear age and more. The doc covers near-misses and other almost catastrophes and offers scenarios over what could happen if a bomb were to fall into the wrong hands or a computer system fail. Security is another big issue in a world where a Pakistani physicist, Dr. A.Q. Khan, approached nuclear technology as a retail enterprise and where safeguards in the former Soviet republics are so lax that stealing the enriched uranium necessary to make a bomb is almost simpler than shoplifting from a 7-11.

Director Lucy Walker has amassed an impressive list of talking heads for her project including President Jimmy Carter, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, recent Brit Prime Minister Tony Blair, Pakistani ex-President Pervez Musharraf, Carter's National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and assorted CIA analysts (including Valerie Plame), scientists (including Robert Oppenheimer in archival footage) and other experts. There are charts and aerial maps showing what the blast patterns would be in the major cities of the world. Footage of terrorist attacks from around the world along with security tapes from the New York subway underline exactly how vulnerable the world is.

Some points are driven home over and over again and that repetition robs the doc of a bit of its power, but overall Countdown to Zero is effective and frightening. It is not a film without hope, as this is very much an advocacy film that suggests how the nuclear threat could be eliminated, but in making its argument, it emphasizes the worst case scenario, an almost lyrical imagining that has the force of a brutal punch to the gut.

by Pam Grady

Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Director: Lucy Walker
Producer: Lawrence Bender
Genre: Documentary
Rating: PG for thematic material, images of destruction and incidental smoking.
Running time: 90 min
Release Date: July 23 NY, July 30 LA

Spoken Word

It takes the Mexican-American melodrama Spoken Word a long time to express myriad sentiments that we've heard uttered many times before in many ethnic settings. Being centered on a Latino wordsmith-cum-performance artist doesn't really enliven the earnest effort. The performances of Kuno Becker as the aforementioned prodigal poet and Rubén Blades as his dying father ultimately help it avoid triteness and tedium. Not surprisingly, the Victor Nunez-helmed piece will elicit the warmest reactions in Hispanic markets, but it's proof that a knack for spinning verse is no guarantee of street cred in any culture.

Cruz Montoya (Becker) shoulders a number of burdens. He's a bi-polar recovering drug addict and alcohol abuser. He lost his mother at a young age and, more recently, a close friend shot himself in Cruz's living room. The latter incident apparently launched Cruz on his career as an urban poet. We meet the handsome twentysomething, now clean and sober, living with his painter girlfriend (Persia White) in the Bay Area. When not slamming down verbiage in West Coast cafes, he and a poet friend teach kids from Oakland's inner-city how to express themselves.

One November day Cruz gets word that his father has pancreatic cancer. After a three-year absence, he returns home to Santa Fe, New Mexico where neither Cruz Senior (Blades) nor his yuppified younger brother (Antonio Elias) is very happy to see him. The only two people that are genuinely excited are his childhood pal-turned-junky, George (Maurice Compte), and his former boss, nightclub owner and shady businessman, Emilio (Miguel Sandoval in oily, villainous mode).

Emilio wants Cruzito to once again manage a downtown hip-hop club, the scene of his former drugging and drinking. Since he's decided to stick around for the holidays to care for and mend fences with his father, he agrees--against his better judgment. Things get worse before they get better, but all's well eventually, in spite and because of the Grim Reaper's inevitable yuletide appearance. The enmity between father and son, and brother and brother, evaporates thanks in part to the bonding properties of a Chevy Impala that Senior, a retired teacher and amateur painter, has always prized.

Based on the experiences of Sante Fe poet and performance artist Joe Ray Sandoval, Spoken Word's primary flaw is that it takes its own sweet time. (Hence the snoring of the fellow seated next to me in one of Gotham's smaller screening rooms.) It plays ponderous, although Nunez (Ulee's Gold) is able to squeeze quite a bit of feeling out of the emotional climax, with Blades delivering understated authenticity and Becker wisely taking his cue from his elder castmate.

These quiet moments of touching family interaction are set up by a vision of machismo that exists despite the artistic tendencies of the males involved. It should be noted that the two female characters are strictly Madonna figures, nurturing and gently nudging their wounded men no matter how much guff or neglect they get in return. Having its Latino bona fides in tact and including a sprinkling of Spanish-language expressions doesn't prevent Spoken Word from feeling bland. Canned lines such as "Don't shut me out," uttered before Cruz even has a chance to absorb news of his father's illness, don't help.

The movie's defenders can point to lensing that nicely juxtaposes Georgia O'Keefe reminiscent backdrops with images of a lower-middle class Hispanic community tattered by drugs and crime. Less convincingly, they may cite the novelty of Cruz's literary vocation and the passages in which he recites his poetry in voice over, accompanied by relatively abstract visuals. It's difficult to form a strong opinion, pro or con, about the words themselves or the spoken-poetry movement they channel. Nunez visualizes these protagonist-P.O.V. bridges with tasteful restraint, but they don't impress one way or the other.

Communication may be essential to healthy relationships, and a few choice words amongst family members may promote fast healing. Yet just as ethnic dramas can be as tame and soporific as the whitest, white-bread scenario, linguistic dexterity does not ensure a vital motion picture. Advice Cruz gives to one of his writing students gets at what's missing: he exhorts him to "go deeper; move from the general to the specific." While in many respects Spoken Word is adequately specific, it's still not very deep.

by John P. McCarthy

Distributor: Variance Films
Cast: Kuno Becker, Ruben Blades, Miguel Sandoval, Persia White, Antonio Elias and Monique Curnen
Director: Victor Nunez
Screenwriters: William T. Conway and Joe Ray Sandoval
Producers: Karen Koch and William T. Conway
Genre: Drama
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 116 min.
Release date: July 23 NY, July 30 LA

Salt

After Salt, Angelina Jolie could be crowned the number one action star in the world. Period.

With Russian spy swaps suddenly in the headlines after all these years you would swear Columbia Pictures had a direct line into the White House for their marketing plan on the new action thriller Salt, but the timeliness of current events only makes this sizzling hot, explosive and nail-biting ride all the more pertinent. With Angelina Jolie on the run as a CIA agent accused of being a "sleeper spy" for the Russians we have the ingredients for a summer potboiler that Bond and Bourne together can't match for non-stop thrills. Massive financial rewards around the globe should be in store for Sony along with a no-brainer launch for a new franchise.

In a crackerjack and very lean 100 minutes (including credits), the lithe and physically dynamic Jolie burns up the screen and shows the boys how it's done. She plays Evelyn Salt, a top level CIA officer who has unexpectedly been "outed" by a defector (Daniel Olbrychski) as a sleeper spy. According to intel, sleeper spies were planted in the U.S. by the Soviets years ago as part of an elaborate plan to be executed on "Day X," the appointed time when a cell of spies is set to wake up and begin an attack on the United States. Freaked by the accusations, Salt goes on the lamb taking actions that make her look guilty. The officials are incensed and her actions cue an elaborate cat and mouse game between Salt and her once-close CIA colleague Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber); all of this occurs just as the Russian President is due to arrive in New York for a speech.

Initially concerned for the safety of her newly missing husband, Salt has a strong emotional reason for getting to the truth of the matter and stopping unknown evil forces before meeting with tragic consequences for herself, her family and her country. But of course there are twists galore and plenty of diversions set up by director Philip Noyce (Patriot Games, The Quiet American), to keep us guessing throughout about the real identity and motives of this woman.

Although the movie doesn't slow down for even a nanosecond, there is time for character and story development to make this incredible situation credible enough to keep us engaged.

Jolie is just dynamite here, reportedly performing most of her own numerous stunts (from an elaborate freeway chase on top of semis to a freewheeling swing through the White House), and she still manages to give dimension to this intriguing character; intriguing also is the fact the character was originally written for a man and converted when Jolie became interested in the project. Schreiber is perfectly cast as her devoted colleague who's slowly convinced he's been duped, while Chiwetel Ejiofor is also a welcome presence as a straight-laced CIA officer looking to bring Salt in at all costs. Olbrychski is excellent as the defector whose initial interrogation kicks off the mayhem.

Noyce, whose varied body of work ranges from the Tom Clancy thriller Patriot Games to the searing Michael Caine drama The Quiet American, is a strong director who knows how to do it all. Here, he's crafted the perfect summer blockbuster; it's exciting and full of smarts and style. Plus it's got Jolie. This thing rocks.

by Pete Hammond

Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Cast: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Obrychski, Andre Braugher and Olek Krupa
Director: Philip Noyce
Screenwriter: Kurt Wimmer
Producers: Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Sunil Perkash
Genre: Action Thriller
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action.
Running time: 100 min.
Release date: July 23, 2010

Boy A (2007)

just a few unusual movie stills - moviescreenshots - captures - photo gallery plus dvd covers and/or posters of:

Boy A
(2007)

Director:
John Crowley

Writers:
Jonathan Trigell (novel)
Mark O'Rowe (screenplay)

Cast:
Andrew Garfield ... Jack Burridge
Peter Mullan ... Terry
Siobhan Finneran ... Kelly
Alfie Owen ... Eric Wilson
Victoria Brazier ... Teacher
Skye Bennett ... Angela
Madeleine Rakic-Platt ... Schoolgirl
Josef Altin ... Bully
Dudley Brewis ... 2nd Bully
Leigh Symonds ... Eric's Dad
Maria Gough ... Eric's Mum
Taylor Doherty ... Philip Craig
Jeremy Swift ... Dave
Shaun Evans ... Chris
Carlene Hanson ... Waitress
Katie Lyons ... Michelle
James Young ... Zeb
Anthony Lewis ... Steve
John Catterall ... Man in Club
Tilly Vosburgh ... Shopkeeper
Philip Rowson ... Policeman (as Phil Rowson)
Luke Broughton ... Policeman
Paul-Michael Giblin ... Photographer
Helen Wilding ... Carol
Steven Pacey ... Prosecution Barrister
Jared Garfield ... Guy 1
Cyriack Stevenson ... Council Officer
Tom Cottle ... Reporter
Nathan Kershaw ... Reporter
Josh Moran ... Ticket Collector
Iris Sharple ... Woman in Train (as Iris Sharples)

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Reel Thoughts Interview: Julianne Moore is All Right with Playing Gay

“Why didn’t I see the script for High Art?”

Julianne Moore remembers asking director Lisa Cholodenko that question when they first met at a "Women in Film" luncheon. “It was a very 'actorly' thing to say,” she laughed. The part in question went to Ally Sheedy, but Cholodenko ended up creating the role of Jules in The Kids Are All Right specifically for Moore, who has been attached to the project for five years.

Moore is an icon in the LGBT community for a lot of reasons. She’s played gay or bisexual characters in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The Hours, Boogie Nights and this year’s Chloe, and also played the unsuspecting wife of a closeted Dennis Quaid in Todd Haynes’ gorgeous Far from Heaven. She’s committed to women’s reproductive rights and speaks out against policies like Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and Prop 8. Playing Annette Bening’s committed partner was a joy.

“You know, I just loved (Jules). I love how she’s someone who’s so present emotionally and so good at connecting with people and communicating but is incredibly lost. Her oldest child’s leaving for college, the next one’s going to go in a couple of years, and she’s at a point in her life where she’s going “What have I done with the last eighteen years and what am I going to do with the rest of it?” Like Nic (Bening’s character) says, she really puts the cart before the horse, she acts “as if”. The searching quality I really loved about her. Emotionally, I think she’s the one who’s got the antenna. I liked that she feels first and thinks later.”

“The thing that Annette and I have going for us is that we’ve both been married for a really long time and we’re both parents. So the degree of affection that we show to one another commented on how the characters felt for one another and how connected they were. Even though there’s different stuff going on with them, they still touch each other and sit on the couch together and kiss each other hello. We wanted them to be affectionate and married.”

On meeting donor dad Paul (played by Mark Ruffalo), Moore remarked, “Jules is much more open to it. The one thing she’s secure about is her family. She’s not secure about herself, but she feels really solid about this family.”

One of the best parts of Moore’s performance is the way Jules seems to blossom when Paul appreciates her talent as a landscape designer. “I think what you’re noticing is that I have a real attraction for characters in transition and human stories. In film, you want to see someone go through an emotional arc. The great thing about film acting is that you want to put yourself in a position where you’re having an experience on camera.”

Moore understands how Jules and Nic get to the place where they’ve been together twenty years and pick on each other’s habits. “I think any of us who’ve been married or partnered for a long time, you know that there are ups and downs. It’s like Jules says, “Marriage is hard.” You’re not the same person you were when you met somebody, you’ve changed. There’s a lot of time, a lot of history ... there are going to be a lot of things about each other that you don’t like because that’s just how life is, and there are going to be things about someone that you can’t live without.”

And when one partner strays? “Another journalist told me that the person behind them at the screening said, “I wouldn’t take her back.” And I said, “Yeah? And how old were they?” They said, “About thirty.” I said, “Well, give them another thirty years.” Once you’ve invested the time and have the children and the life ... a lot of things happen in life. At my age, I know a lot of people who are getting divorced; and the ones who stay together haven’t gone through anything less than the ones who are getting divorced. They’ve hit the wall at some moment or the other. Everyone has a different tolerance level.” She gets why people would split up, but hopes people understand Jules’ motivations.

Moore concedes that LGBT couples face the pressure to be these perfect family units. “For same sex couples, it’s that thing that people used to say about race. If you’re going to be the only African-American student in the school, then you had to be the best student. For gay families, then you have to be the best parents. In this case, with these women, I think Nic, being the perfectionist, particularly feels that, and you see that energy in Annette’s performance.”

She noted a twenty-four year AMA study of the children of gay parents that was reported in the New York Times, saying, “They found that collectively, they are more well-adjusted, they are better students, all of that. They have been cherished and parented and “polished to a high shine”. I think there’s an incredible amount of pressure whenever you feel you’re a minority and you’re being watched that you have to be better than everybody else. I also think it’s interesting, as same-sex parents, you don’t have a baby by accident. You’re going into parenting with a real desire.”

I kind of liked that (Nic and Jules) each had a child biologically and that there were some genetic resemblances as well. It was kind of cool,” she explained, adding that she and Josh Hutcherson (who plays son Laser) subconsciously started matching each other’s energy.

Moore would be flattered if The Kids Are All Right garners Oscar attention, but wants people to see it more than anything. Moore has a few intriguing roles coming up, including the thriller Shelter with Jonathan Rhys Meyers, as the Virgin Mary in the comedy Elektra Luxx and opposite Steve Carrell in an untitled romantic comedy.

Interview by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Movie Dearest: Year Three

Happy third anniversary to Movie Dearest!
Movie Dearest: Year Three

Special thanks to my contributors, the Men on Film — Chris Carpenter, Neil Cohen and James Jaeger — and to all our readers!

Here's to another great year,

- Kirby

Box Office: Iron Man 2 OutHeroes Robin Hood

They’re both righters of wrongs, fighters of evil, and basically do-gooders, but the debut of Russell Crowe’s period outlaw “Robin Hood” couldn’t take down Robert Downey Jr.’s costumed superhero “Iron Man 2″ at the box office, according to studio estimates. Actually, Robin Hood didn’t even come close, despite “Iron Man 2″ being in its second week. The Marvel superhero sequel easily outdistanced itself from Crowe and Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood”, which opened in second place over the weekend with $37 million, falling well short of “Iron Man 2′s” $53 million second-week take.

A re-teaming of Crowe and Scott, “Robin Hood” has been marketed as a return to “Gladiator” glory for the duo, but American moviegoers apparently weren’t convinced. Made for a mega Hollywood budget of $200 million, the film did much better overseas, taking in $74 million for a worldwide total of $111 million, which bodes well for the film’s overall box office returns in the long run. “Iron Man 2″, meanwhile, has grossed $428 million worldwide, well on its way to surpassing the original’s $585 total.

Besides “Robin Hood”, there were two new openings, both romantic dramas “Letters to Juliet” and “Just Wright”. The Amanda Seyfried movie came in third with $13 million, besting Queen Latifah’s basketball romance, which came in fourth place with $8.5 million.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) - Trailer

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The final instalment of the Harry Potter series is almost upon us! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will bring the much loved set of films to a close.

If you're familiar with J.K.Rowling's books you will know the story of Harry's battle with evil Lord Voldemort; for those who are not, the seventh part to the tale once again sees best friends Harry, Ron and Hermione reunite. The friends know that to save the wizarding and muggle worlds they must find a way to destroy Voldemort's immortality.

Finding themselves removed from the safety of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the three teenagers must rely on their friendship and skills they've developed at school more than ever. There's no where safe for Harry to turn, Voldemort has tasked the Death Eaters to hunt down his sworn enemy and return him alive.

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Robbie Coltrane, Tom Felton, Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Wright, Julie Walters, John Hurt, Brendan Gleeson, Richard Griffiths, Jason Isaacs, Helen McCrory, Bill Nighy, Miranda Richardson, Maggie Smith, Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton, David Thewlis, Evanna Lynch, Jamie Campbell Bower, Ciaran Hinds, Rhys Ifans, Clemence Poesy, Warwick Davis, Nick Moran, Dave Legeno, David O'Hara, Rade Serbedzija, Natalia Tena, Fiona Shaw, Toby Jones, Simon McBurney, Sophie Thompson, Mark Williams, David Bradley, Carolyn Pickles, David Ryall and Toby Regbo.

Directed by: David Yates

Produced by: David Heyman and David Barron, with Lionel Wigram executive producing. Screenplay by: Steve Kloves

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland review : I would only recommend my friends to watch it when it comes out on Blu-ray or if they can get tickets cheap (Orange Wednesday perhaps). I am not a huge fan of Tim Burton as I feel he churns out the same oddity in each of his films, crazy curly trees, same old music from Danny "hah hah" Elfman and predictably starring Johnny Depp and his wife, Helena Bonham Carter. Enough already.

So onto the film itself. Alice in Wonderland looks good, the 3D is pretty but not as stunning as Avatar and the characters have imaginative outfits, well all but the White Queen. On which point I cannot understand why Anne Hathaway was cast in the role, she pranced around the screen as if she only had just enough breath in her body to stay awake. Back to the film. The story started out well but then disappeared somewhere between tedium and going through the paces. If more time had been spent developing a nice coherent narrative and less on the floaty bits to make the 3D pop perhaps I would have enjoyed it more.

Some good turns from Stephen Fry and Alan Rickman but not enough to wow me.
My advice really is to stick to the original Disney cartoon.

How To Watch Dear John Online Right Now!

There are a million and one reasons to watch Dear John online and there are probably a lot of people online right now searching that very term. I actually just finished watching the movie and it much better than I expected, and normally I am not really into the classic "chick flick", but this one was a real treat. I am sure you will enjoy the movie.

The movie is definitely a love story. To give you a very short synopsis, it's about a guy who loves a girl, shocking, and goes away to the military. He comes back, but not long after he is back, the terrorism of 9/11 happens. He decides he must go back to the military and serve his country once again. His love can't handle this and writes him a dear john letter breaking up with him. They both go about there lives until sometime later they meet again. I won't tell you what happens, but trust me, it isn't what you think is going to happen. It is definitely worth watching though.

Dear John is doing very well in the theaters right now and it looks like that is just going to continue. This country is in a deep recession right now and a lot of people just can't afford to go to the movies right now. The prices that the theaters are charging right now is just ridiculous too and that doesn't add to the easiness of going out to the movies.

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Reverend's Reviews: Firth Time on DVD

One of the best gay-themed films in recent years (at least since Brokeback Mountain) is making its debut on home video today. Tom Ford's A Single Man, adapted from the novel by Christopher Isherwood, is a suitably dramatic but also enormously stylish and disarmingly funny account of a gay man preparing to commit suicide in the wake of his partner's tragic death.

Taking place over the course of one day in early-1960's Los Angeles, A Single Man's strongest attribute is a magnificent, Oscar-nominated lead performance by Colin Firth as Professor George Falconer. I believe Firth would have won the Academy Award for Best Actor if a certain Jeff Bridges hadn't snuck in under the wire with Crazy Heart. Firth will have to content himself with his Venice Film Festival and BAFTA awards. His performance is subtle and frequently amusing as well as heartbreaking.

Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode and Nicholas Hoult provide excellent support. In addition to a director's commentary by Ford, the DVD has a great, 12-minute making-of documentary that includes insightful interviews with Ford and all the principle cast members. Worth noting among Firth's and Hoult's recollections is how "well put-together" fashion designer Ford was while shooting his first movie. Firth remarks that Ford "consistently looked better behind the camera than any of us in front of it."

As Ford himself notes, "Fashion is fleeting; film lasts forever." A Single Man deserves a prominent place in GLBT and general cinema history. If you haven't seen it — or even if you have — buy or rent the Blu-Ray or DVD today!

Congratulations to Terry A. of Chicago, IL, the winner of our "I Want A Single Man" contest, sponsored by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment!  Thanks to all who entered!

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Reverend’s Previews: Outfest 2010 Celebrates LGBT Diversity

This year’s Outfest, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, will boast 60 LGBT-themed feature films and 87 shorts from 23 different countries. The 28th edition of the oldest film festival in LA and the leading LGBT festival in the US will run July 8th-18.

Having had the opportunity to preview a number of the movies to be shown, I can attest that this year’s Outfest selections are generally more thoughtful and of higher quality than those I saw the past two years. As Outfest’s Executive Director, Kirsten Schaffer, rightly proclaimed, “This year’s incredible line-up celebrates all of the forward-thinking artists that push the boundaries for LGBT rights and equality.”

One such artist was the poet Allen Ginsberg, who is the subject of the Outfest Opening Night Gala film, Howl (the movie also opened the prestigious Sundance Film Festival earlier this year). James Franco of the Spider-Man series plays Ginsberg. Howl is the first dramatic feature from veteran documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, who made The Times of Harvey Milk and The Celluloid Closet among several acclaimed prior films.

The opening night festivities will kick-off at 8:00 PM on July 8 with a special presentation of the annual Outfest Achievement Award to lesbian actress Jane Lynch. Currently enjoying huge success as the domineering cheerleading coach, Sue Sylvester, on the Fox TV series Glee, Lynch has also given memorable performances in such diverse films as The 40 Year Old Virgin, Best in Show and last year’s Julie & Julia.

Each year, Outfest features a foreign film as its International Dramatic Centerpiece. Contracorriente (or Undertow) will be this year’s selection on July 13. It is set in an exotic Peruvian fishing village where love between two men is forbidden. The film was a rare gay-themed winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Audience Award in January.

There are too many movies that I’d recommend to list here, but a few highlights are:

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, an insightful and thoroughly enjoyable documentary about New Zealand’s legendary yodeling lesbian twins. Jools and Lynda Topp have been performing together since the 1970’s, and were pivotal figures in the 1986 passage of their country’s pioneering gay rights bill. If you want to learn the hysterical punchline to the twins’ joke, “Why can’t lesbians wear make-up when they go to Weight Watchers?,” see the movie!

Grown Up Movie Star, written and directed by the talented Adriana Maggs, is a smart, observant study of a teenage girl in rural Canada’s coming of age. Living with her closeted gay father doesn’t make things any easier for her. The movie also benefits from an excellent cast (newcomer Tatiana Maslany is a revelation as the teen, Ruby) and great, naturalistic — if dysfunctional — family rapport.

Children of God utilizes overlapping storylines and characters in its expose of closeted homosexuality and religious hypocrisy in the Bahamas. An attractive, interracial gay couple run afoul of the local fundamentalist pastor, who at one point privately sums up the motivation behind his anti-gay campaign thusly: “You have to give people something to hate; it brings them together.” The film is also worth seeing for its beautiful photography of sun-bathed, seaside locales.

Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight, with its title taken from Bonnie Tyler’s hit song of the 80’s, “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” is an admirably unsentimental documentary that turns its lens on 75-year old, transgendered drag performer Vicki Marlane. Still performing today after 59 years as a drag artist at Aunt Charlie’s in San Francisco, Marlane speaks candidly of her upbringing, legal run-ins, ill-fated love affairs and addictions. Marlane and the film’s producer-director, Michelle Lawler, are scheduled to appear at the Outfest screening.

Role/Play, the latest from Rob Williams, director of past gay hits Back Soon and Make the Yuletide Gay. It is a smart and sexy account of what might happen if a closeted gay soap opera star (hunky Steve Callahan) and an outspoken gay activist with marriage troubles (Matthew Montgomery, Callahan’s real-life partner) were to meet at a Palm Springs resort.

A Marine Story is timely to say the least, what with the current debate over revoking the US military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Based on actual events, the film focuses on a recently-discharged lesbian (a dramatically and physically strong performance by Dreya Weber) who discovers her troubles are just beginning once she returns to her hometown. Written, directed and even edited — all very well — by Ned Farr.

Standouts among the numerous recommended short films to be shown during Outfest are the cute and funny Go Go Reject, which features the adorable Heath Daniels as a stripper hopeful who is labeled as too skinny but who isn’t going to take “No” for an answer; Last Address, an unusual, quietly devastating travelogue of the final residences inhabited by New York City-based artists who died of AIDS; and Public Relations, an upbeat romantic-comedy in which two female personal assistants meet and fall in love.

For me, Outfest wouldn’t be complete each year without its Sing-Along Musical night at the Ford Amphitheater. The 2010 winner of the annual online vote by Outfest fans is Grease 2, the campy 1982 sequel to Grease. Hardly as well-received as its predecessor, Grease 2 is still entertaining and somewhat underrated. It stars Michelle Pfeiffer in her first big-screen lead role, as well as then-pretty Maxwell Caulfield, a then-hot Adrian Zmed and Judy Garland’s daughter, Lorna Luft. What’s not to enjoy? It will screen at 8:30 PM on July 15. Feel free to dress as a T-Bird or Pink Lady!

The hilarious-sounding new comedy Spork will wrap up Outfest during the Closing Night Gala on July 18. For a complete listing of films or to purchase tickets for screenings and related events, please visit the Outfest website or call (213) 480-7065.

Preview by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.