Weekend Movie Picks: 7.6

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


What I'd like to see:

Transformers
Looks like there's some cool scenes, the reviews all say it's not TOO dumb, and, you know... what the heck?, it's summer!

Colma: The Musical
A no-budget, small-town, coming-of-age musical that's received praise both for its staging and its heart. I can't decide whether Bo and Co would like it...

Joshua
This trailer for this looked super-creepy (I saw The Omen in theaters when I was probably 11 or 12 and it seriously FREAKED me out), and the reviews have been ok. Could be fun.

In Between Days
From Taiwan, a small, well-reviewed portrait of a lonely girl trying to navigate adolescence in a strange, wintry American city.

Ghosts of City Soleil
The supposedly violent, disturbing documentary about Haitian thugs whose lives are informed by American hip-hop.


What I've seen, and liked:

Ratatouille
I wanted it to be funnier, but there's no question that Pixar's latest is a near-brilliant portrait of creativity in the kitchen.

Rescue Dawn
Forgive the Top Gun ending (and hide your eyes during certain torture/maggot-eating scenes if you need to) and you'll appreciate this tense, relentless Vietnam POW thriller featuring an excellent Christian Bale.

Sicko
Michael Moore is the master of the faux-naive question, which he uses to devastating (though often quite funny) effect in this scathing indictment of American health care, especially as compared to the government-run systems of France, Great Britain, Canada, and Cuba.

A Mighty Heart
Angelina Jolie is great as the film's emotional core, but the real star is director Michael Winterbottom, who has made a complicated, smart, heartbreaking, visually—and politically—striking thriller.

Live Free or Die Harder
The perfect summer actioner: millions of bullets, thousands of car wrecks, amazing stunts, crazy deaths, the country in peril, wisecracks from our smirking hero. But the shrewdest move of all is casting Justin Long as Willis's sidekick, instantly updating the franchise.

Broken English
Less cute and romantic than sad and bitter, this portrait of a single woman in NYC making poor choices in love is nonetheless a fairly engaging take on modern relationships.

Manufactured Landscapes
A visually amazing documentary about Edward Burtynsky, a photographer who specializes in massive shots of industrial landscapes, here focusing on environmental devastation in China and Bangladesh, wrought by our addiction to consumerism. Bo, Co and I all liked this a lot, and it provoked a great conversation on our way home, but we also all wished there had been more background and context given to imagery.

Nancy Drew
Emma Roberts is adorable as the extremely capable, buttoned-up sleuth, a fish-out-of-water in contemporary LA. Bo really liked this and Co absolutely LOVED it... totally on the edge of her seat the entire time, when she wasn't cracking up.

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.

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.

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.

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.