AWN Blogs

Diane English's 21st century update of the 1930s dramedy THE WOMEN never frees itself from its source material. In so doing the contemporary material seems at odds with the 1930s-style humor. For the most part the film moves along not working, then you get a scene that does work and you wish that the rest of the movie were like that. Then you get more of those scenes and the movie starts developing some weight. But then it tanks it all right at the end with an ending that reminds us of everything that hadn't been working before.

Mary Haines (Meg Ryan, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY…) is married to Stephen Haines, a rich New York businessman. She works designing uninspiring clothes for her father's company. Her best friend Sylvia Fowler (Annette Bening, AMERICAN BEAUTY) hears from a nail technician that Stephen is having an affair with the Saks perfume counter girl Crystal Allen (Eva Mendes, HITCH). Sylvia doesn't want to break her friend's heart so she tells the secret to her perpetually pregnant friend Edie Cohen (Debra Messing, TV's WILL & GRACE). But soon enough Mary discovers her husband's affair from the same source and begins to question her entire life.

Former SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE writer Michael McCullers gets his first chance to direct from his own script and presents us with a bit of a warmed over sitcom. While the surrogate mother twist hasn't been done before (that I know of), the film still presents many pregnancy movie clichés. Added to the mix is the odd couple relationship between the smart businesswoman who can't conceive and her white trash surrogate. Lucky for McCullers he was able to convince former SNL alum Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to star.

Fey plays Kate Holbrook, a veep at a health food chain, who has put career before relationships. Now she's 37 and wants to have a baby. After she is unable to conceive, she decides to go to a surrogate agency, run by the perpetually pregnant 50-something Chaffee Bicknell (Sigourney Weaver, GALAXY QUEST). Kate gets paired up with Angie Ostrowiski (Poehler), who smokes, eats nothing but junk and finds video game karaoke the height of entertainment. Angie's common-law husband Carl (Dax Shepard, IDIOCRACY) is all about discovering that one get-rich-quick scheme that will get him rich. When Angie has a falling out with Carl, she ends up on Kate's couch. In the midst of her personal chaos, Kate is trying to head up the construction of her company's new flagship store, which is the dream of her boss, the New Age obsessed Barry (Steve Martin, SHOPGIRL). If this weren't enough, she meets the nice juice storeowner Rob Ackerman (Greg Kinnear, AS GOOD AS IT GETS).

When I was in college, I once got in a conversation about COOL HAND LUKE that ended in the consensus that it was among all of my friend's father's favorite films. We joked that maybe we had to become fathers to understand the grand appeal. Looking back now, it's kind of funny how we didn't see the film the exact same way our fathers did, considering we were around the age at which our fathers had been when the film came out. The late 1960s cinema was filled with anti-heroes and Luke is one of the shining icons of that movement. The film is about more than a convict standing up to his oppressive jailers; it's about a youth culture standing up to a world that wanted to box them in.

Luke (Paul Newman, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID) was imprisoned for knocking the tops off parking meters. He came home from the war a hero. Now in his small town, he had nothing better to do. At first, Luke buts heads with some of the veteran prisoners like Dragline (George Kennedy, TV's DALLAS), but he soon wins the respect of his fellow inmates through his undying will to never give up. The Captain (Strother Martin, THE WILD BUNCH) runs the prison with an iron fist, laying down dozens and dozens of rules on the prisoners. The bosses want to break the men's wills and when they push Luke too far, he does everything he can to break free.

Many have ranked Vittorio De Sica's LADRI DI BICICLETTE (THE BICYCLE THIEF in the U.S., BICYCLE THIEVES in the U.K.) as one of the premiere films of all time. When the British magazine Sight & Sound first conducted its definitive survey of the top critics around the world in 1952, the film had already made such an impression that it was voted the greatest film in history. When the survey was done ten years later, it had fallen to sixth and by 1972 it was no longer on the list. However, the most recent polling year in 2002, directors were polled and the film made their top ten.

I begin my review this way, because it shows over time styles have fallen out of style and how critics have changed with the times. But when directors are asked, they choose the simplicity of De Sica's style. Often collaborating with writer Cesare Zavattini, whom was nominated for his work on this film, De Sica often chose non-professional actors to play characters close to themselves. The plot is simple; a man named Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani, UMBERTO D.) desperately needs a job. When he gets one, the only stipulation is that he needs a bike; unfortunately Antonio has pawned his bike. His wife Maria (Lianella Carell, ZITELLONI, I) pawns their linens to get the bike back. Brimming with pride, Antonio heads out on his first day of work, but then a young man steals his bike. The next day, Antonio, along with his plucky son Bruno (Enzo Staiola, THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA), goes out to look for the bike. The family's survival depends on it.

I've gotten a good response from people regarding this new experiment, so I'm going to keep it going. If you have not read the original list, check it out.

So instead of redoing the list every other week, I'm going to give a list of updates when they are appropriate. New trailers, buzz from festivals, etc. This could include new films to consider and which ones are losing steam. It's a top whatever of what films have the top buzz right now. So here ya go.

Losing Steam

Charlie Kaufman's SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK is being called an epic mess. CITY OF EMBER and HOUNDDOG are just losing steam because there is better stuff coming.

Getting' Buzzed

6) Burn After Reading (Sept. 12)

Middle of the road reviews aren’t deterring my excitement for this one. Entertainment Weekly polled readers and it was their top choice for September as well.

5) Crossing Over (Dec. 3)

This film was been moving deeper and deeper into Oscar season, which is promising. It recently jumped from October to December.

4) Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Oct. 31)

The red-band trailer is out and it's everything that I thought it would be.

3) Sukiyaki Western Django (Sept. 12)

This one missed the original list because it's technically a summer movie, because it debuted in NYC on Aug. 29th. It's Japanese horror master Takashi Miike's first English-language feature. It's a Western. Comes out Sept. 12th in my town, so it's now a fall flick to me. The trailer is badass.

2) Rachel Getting Married (Oct. 3)

The trailer hadn't excited me before, but the word out of the Venice Film Festival is excellent. Jonathan Demme is a good director. Anne Hathaway plays a drug-addict, which is against type. Also stars Bill Irwin and Debra Winger.

1) Milk (Nov. 26)

The trailer has hit and if I'd have seen it before I made the original list it would have been in the top ten for sure. Performances look good. Trailer is cut wonderfully. Penn looks like he's worthy of an Oscar nod just from the trailer. Looks like a powerful story.

Last week, SON OF RAMBOW hit DVD (for some unknown reason you can't purchase it on Amazon yet, but it's available to rent at Netflix). Inspired by this delightful film, This Weekend's Film Festival is looking at films that deal with the movie making process. We have kids making movies. We have professionals making indie movies. We have a movie about a newsreel cameraman. We have a doc about a clueless horror film maker. And we have a fictional account of an infamously bad horror film maker.

SON OF RAMBOW kicks off the lineup. Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) is a young bou being raised in an ultra-religious family. So when notorious troublemaker Lee Carter (Will Poulter) introduced him to the first Rambo film, he is changed forever. Will teams up with Lee to create their own sequel to FIRST BLOOD. Director Garth Jennings captures the joy that fills a young kid when a certain film ignites their imagination. The larger-than-life tale injects whimsy into the story, giving the production a hint of fantasy. Jennings isn't interested in accurately capturing the process of little kids making a film, but capturing the euphoria of little kids making a film. Milner and Pouter are charming young actors who make us believe in their film, as well as their growing friendship. As I said in my original review, "It’s the kind of inspiring film that might make some of the teens who watch want to go out and make GRANDSON OF RAMBOW."

This contest is closed. Congrats to Lorie Ann for winning a copy of BALLET SHOES on DVD.

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Rick's Flicks Picks is holding its first DVD giveaway. The wonderful new adaptation of Noel Streatfeild's BALLET SHOES is now on DVD and we have three copies to give away. Each day for the next three days, I will be presenting a question to readers, which can be answered by visiting the literary site AmoxCalli. Once you have the answer come back to this post and place it in the comments. The first person each day to do so will receive a copy of the DVD.

Here is the two part question - what movie references Streatfeild's SHOES series and what two titles does the main character reference?

Along with SHOTGUN STORIES, FROZEN RIVER makes 2008 a good year for independent film debuts. An expansion of her short film, Courtney Hunt won the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival for this original story set in the world of the working poor. Hunt crafts a thriller that surprises because it never loses sight of its central purpose — telling the stories of two desperate mothers. Melissa Leo and Misty Upham play these characters in remarkably subtle and touching performances.

Ray Eddy (Leo, THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA) is the mother of a 15-year-old and a 5-year-old and her gambling-addicted husband has just run off with the down payment for the doublewide trailer. In the small New York town along the Canadian border where she lives, she can only get a part-time job at the Yankee One Dollar store. Out looking for her husband at the bingo parlor, she catches Mohawk Indian Lila (Upham, SKINS) driving off in her husband's car. While Ray is trying to take back her car, Lila says she knows a human smuggler who will buy the car for more than it's worth. Desperate, Ray bites and ends up involved in smuggling Chinese over the border via the frozen river that separates the Mohawk reservation on the U.S. and Canadian sides.

If this film is supposed to represent Generation X then we're a pretty shallow lot. The central characters pretend to be about something more than the establishment, but in reality they're slacker rich kids who feel they have some kind of entitlement. The film pretends to be rebellious, but in the end the Man wins because the righteous cool kids are really a bunch of posers.

Lelaina Pierce (Winona Ryder, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS) is supposed to be the valedictorian, but can't even remember her graduation speech when she misplaces a page. She is filming a documentary about her friends who are all kids of divorced parents. It's supposed to be a deep look at her generation's identity. Troy Dyer (Ethan Hawke, DEAD POETS SOCIETY) is a pretentious fledgling rocker who dropped out of school just shy of a Philosophy degree. He's such a rebel. Vickie Miner (Janeane Garofalo, MYSTERY MEN) is promiscuous and fears getting AIDS. She currently works at the GAP until who knows, because we never find out much more about her. Sammy Gray (Steve Zahn, HAPPY, TEXAS) is their obligatory gay friend. One day Lelaina throws her cigarette into the convertible of Michael Grates (Ben Stiller, ZOOLANDER), who happens to be a producer at the MTV-on-steroids TV network, In Your Face. When he starts dating Lelaina, Troy becomes jealous and a jerk.