Weekend Movie Picks: 6.15

What's good, what's fun, what's intriguing, what's a must... now playing in Manhattan theaters.


What I'd like to see:

Manufactured Landscapes
On Saturday evening the kids and I are seeing this amazing-looking documentary about Edward Burtynsky, a photographer who specializes in massive shots of industrial landscapes, here focusing on the devastation wrought in China and Bangladesh. At Lincoln Center, as part of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival.

Nancy Drew
Emma Roberts looks cute as the buttoned-up sleuth, a fish-out-of-water in contemporary LA. Think she'll win everyone over by solving a mystery?

Eagle vs. Shark
The trailer makes the quirkiness look a tad too forced, but it could be sweet and romantic enough to win me over.

Czech Dream
Documenting the somewhat mean-spirited prank in which two young Czechs convince their consumption-mad country that they're opening the greatest store in history, and when everyone shows up, it's an empty field.

Mr. Brooks
More to have a killer-thriller in the mix than any real high expectations, though the cast is good here, and it could surprise. UPDATE: my friend Tom said it did NOT surprise.


What I've seen, and liked:

Ocean's 13
Funny, clever, stylish and exceptionally likable, starring the cutest guys on the planet. My favorite "summer blockbuster" thus far.

La Vie En Rose
Both Tom and I loved this Edith Piaf biopic: the music, the bravura performance by Marion Cotillard, the movie's structure and script.

Crazy Love
Crazy is right. As Burt Pugach and Linda Riss tell their improbable, seriously twisted tale of love and lye, you just have to sit there and shake your head in amazement. Excellent editing keeps the pacing brisk.

Golden Door
A beautifully-shot, richly-detailed drama of Sicilian immigrants coming to America in the early 20th-century, filled with surprising, Michael Gondry-esque touches of whimsy.

Let's Get Lost
Although hopelessly repetitive, as all junkie stories are, this documentary about Chet Baker is both sad and lovely.

Knocked Up
The reviews are right: this is rowdy, sweet, crude, smart, well-acted, hilarious.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Shockingly incoherent but definitely fun to look at. Think of it as a $200 million art film and you'll be all right.

Brooklyn Rules
Joins the long list of movies that I've liked about tough-neighborhood boyhood best friends coming of age... and coming apart? Set in the mid-'80s, in Bay Ridge, featuring an excellent Scott Caan.

Gracie
We all enjoyed this to varying degrees, family athlete Co being the biggest partisan; Bo and I frustrated by the repetitious father/daughter conflicts during the long middle part.

Once
The sweetest movie playing today: affecting, romantic and filled with great music.

Shrek the Third
Keep your expectations low, and you should be pleasantly entertained, occasionally amused. Your kids will definitely laugh.

Spiderman 3
Bloated and corny, sure, but Bo, Co and I had a blast.

Waitress
Clever, cute, funny, with terrific performances all around. Looks great, feels great. My favorite movie I saw this Spring.

Away From Her
An almost great love story—husband and wife, married 44 years, she gets Alzheimer's—undermined by a somewhat dishonest script.

28 Weeks Later
The coolest looking movie of the year. Plus: tremendously tense and frightening. Too bad the script's so stupid.

The Lives of Others
A smart, well-crafted tale of suspense and betrayal, set in dreary 1980s East Berlin.