Late March Round-Up

The Ringer
I was excited enough about The Ringer I made half-assed plans to see it in the theatre. It got away from me and I forgot about it. Here, more than a year later I stumbled across it on HBO and found it was a little like reading an old journal and wondering “who was I when I thought Joey Lauren Adams was hot?”

The Baxter
Written and directed by Michael Showalter, featuring The State’s alumni and friends, and Elizabeth Banks (damn you Journal, she’ll always be hot), I was pulling for another Wet Hot American Summer. A “Baxter” here is the faceless Joe who’s left at the altar when, say, Julia Roberts runs off with Richard Gere instead. The idea is great, the execution is sweet and occasionally funny, but it just doesn’t sustain. There’s a funny bit at the end with Showalter running off a few last minute interlopers, but it’s too little too late. There's only enough here for a good SNL sketch.

Nacho Libre
Another comedy I was really looking forward to, but it’s just no good. (Great alternate poster, though, right?) The winning quirkiness of Napoleon Dynamite is formulaic here and Jack Black’s over the top buffoon needs to take a couple pictures off. Maybe a Holiday or two.

Babel
Beautiful and heartbreaking, but it doesn’t live up to the promise of the title. I follow the bouncing ball and understand how Japanese big game hunter’s gift leads to Mexican nanny’s deportation, but how does God’s punishment of Man inform this chain of events? And while the story of hunter’s emotionally stunted daughter is moving and sad, it’s a narrative cul-de-sac. And confusing, is it just me or is there incest in the air at the end?

The Queen
An Oscar-winning impersonation in a dull movie about a fusty woman at an inconsequential moment in history. See Mrs. Brown instead.

Jesus Camp
The culture wars continue. I was surprised to find the filmmakers didn’t explore the obvious connection between 9/11 and (what they depict as) the ensuing surge in Evangelical fundamentalism.

Everything Is Illuminated
I was going to title a post about this movie “Little Miss Sunflower,” but got hung up on my own cleverness and couldn’t write my way off the hook. Similarities: 1) road trip 2) with crazy Grandpa 3) who dies. Differences: the other 99 minutes. I enjoyed it, particularly Eugene Hutz’ Alex. (Just bear in mind that Hutz is actually Ukrainian and Borat’s up to something completely different.) I’m looking forward to more movies from Liev Schreiber, who makes his directorial debut here. But I wasn’t as moved as I would be if I hadn’t been desensitized recently by Richard Rhodes’ brutal book Masters of Death.

The Holiday
I liked it. A lot. Snicker to yourselves. Jack Black: phew, thanks for taking your boot off my neck buddy. Kate Winslet: like Emma Thompson, I’ve missed you. Jude Law: winning, and very cute with his very cute daughters. Cameron Diaz: as in In Her Shoes (which I also loved, shut it), she can’t quite keep up with the big kids, but she’s a gamer. Eli Wallach: to paraphrase my friend Chris, why wasn’t I told he had such a big role Mr. Trailer-maker, which by the way, is what Cameron Diaz's character does for a living? The Ugly’s in my Saturday evening rom-com? Bring it.

Stranger Than Fiction
Shamefully underrated when it was released. Probably ignored because it's not a bowling movie entitled "Lanes of Thunder, The Jimmyjohnjoe Story," and possibly because there's a whiff of Woody Allen here. I guess we're all still getting over Melinda and Melinda.

Catch it on DVD, though. My favorite movie of the month. Hooray for the return of Tom Hulce. And make sure to watch the featurette about developing the GUI that follows Will Ferrell’s character around.

Finally, an open question for Will, (not Ferrell, or Meekin), or anyone interested: what do you make of my interpretation that the Harold Crick (Ferrell) and Ana Pascal (Gyllenhaal) world of the movie isn’t real, but is the dramatization of a literary correspondence between the blocked Karen Eiffel (Thompson) and the Eiffel-scholar, Professor Hilbert (Hoffman)?