A lot of movies in limited release this weekend. It's no hemorrhage, but it does seem that the artery of good movies has been pierced in several places.
1) PS
2) Eulogy
3) Being Julia
Stupid Laughs (and small hope that another Stone/Parker movie will get an Oscar nomination for best song): Team America: World Police
Team America: World Police
Puppets and celebrity caricatures take on terrorism and seek to destroy any gigantic egos that stand in their way!
Shall We Dance
I saw the original Japanese version (don't I sound like a film expert), and found it sweet. Not terribly compelling, but sweet. Go rent the Japanese version. JLo isn't in it.
PS (Limited Release)
A professor meets a graduate student who shares the same name and likeness of her long dead high school sweetheart. Questions of reincarnation, second chances, and strange delusions come into play as she develops a romantic relationship with the doppelganger.
Writer/Director Dylan Kidd also directed Rodger Dodger, one of my favorite movies from last year (or was it two years ago?).
The Final Cut (Limited Release)
In this story, the rich and powerful can have chips implanted into their heads, which record their entire lives. Robin Williams plays the master editor who turns the 3 hour Pearl Harbor of an individual's memories into a 30 second Gap commercial. He is comfortably detached in his profession, until he finds a memory that links to a mystery in his own life. Life in danger, a lot of running, more running than you can safely believe Robin Williams is capable of, truth is discovered, bad people get punished, justice is served.
Moving on.
Eulogy (Limited Release)
A dysfunctional family comes together to burry their asshole of a patriarch.
Humor just the way I like it. Close to home and pitch black.
Stage Beauty
An actor, during the 17th century, who specializes in playing women's roles, is suddenly out of a job when King Charles allows girls to act on stage instead of just for husbands and boyfriends.
Hair Show (Limited Release)
Pray that it stays limited.
Riding The Bullet (Limited Release)
Steven King novel adaptation about a guy who hitches a ride to see his dying mother. Coming soon to DVD.
Spin (Limited Release)
After his parents die in a plane crash a young boy is taken in by his uncle and raised by ranch hands. After years of social exclusion by the locals, he reunites with an old friend who brings him out of his isolation.
I can't tell you much more than that. I haven't seen any trailers or reviews. My best guess is that it could be good, but that there's better out there.
Being Julia (LA/NY only)
An actress on the 1930's British stage takes personal melodrama to a new level.
These types of personalities make for fantastic entertainment, provided that they are kept at arm's length or safely on screen.
The Dust Factory (Limited Release)
A young boy has a near fatal accident and wakes up in a fantasy world. Go if you're 7.
Therese: The Story of Saint Therese of Lisieux (Limited Release)
A young woman goes to the Vatican to become a nun then proceeds to pray to God to grant her Sainthood. I wonder if she'll become one of those cool Saints that has her finger bones and eye balls stored away in some remote abbey in Sicily. That would be awesome!