by Phil Mann
How about a couple of crowd-pleasing, light
sci-fi-ish
comedies?
ROBOT AND FRANK features an aging Frank
Langella (Dracula,
Frost/Nixon) as an aging
cat-burglar whose kids have set him up with a robot-caregiver
rather than place
him in an elderly facility. He’s a cranky guy deprived of his old
thrills and
losing his memory. The robot is pretty amazing, capable of things
from making
dinner to giving enemas. A great buddy-movie setup… and it
delivers even more
than you expect. “Such a sly,
dry, modest-seeming picture – part science fiction, part social
satire, part
geriatric comedy – that you don't realize how well it works
until it's over.”
(Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com) “A rueful and funny
reflection on aging,
death, parenthood, and technology.” (Dana Stevens, Slate.com)
The hardware in SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED is
a time
machine, or let’s say a wannabe time machine, whose owner Kenneth
(Mark
Duplass) has advertised for companions to accompany him on a time
trip. There
really was such an ad, snuck in a newspaper as space filler by a
bored employee.
What if it were real? Three journalists investigate, and one of
them, Darius (Audrey
Plaza – Parks and
Recreation), wins
the trust of Kenneth. Turns out that time travel as envisioned by
Kenneth is
not a walk in the park. His ad said “Bring your own weapons,” and
he meant it.
The travelers have to be prepared. Since Darius isn’t, she must
first go
through Kenneth’s boot camp. The humor is inherent in every
interaction, as we
verge between buying into his dream and chuckling at his
absurdity. You’ll have
to see it to find out which is appropriate.
“Exactly
what independent films should be yet rarely are. It's brisk and
assured and
never begs the audience's indulgence. No time is wasted. The
movie is, at every
moment, either funny or pushing the story forward, or both.”
(Mick
LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle)
For a real trip to the past, see FAREWELL, MY QUEEN.
You’ll be a fly on the wall at the court of
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in Versailles, as the
Bastille falls and the revolution heads their way. Through
the eyes of Marie’s maid-in-waiting Sidonie Laborde (Léa Seydoux) we
see the frailties of the royals as well as their
extravagances. The movie is sympathetic to Louis and
Marie, who don’t seem at all as bad as history has
stereotyped them. And, no, she never says “Let them eat
cake,” neither in the movie, nor apparently in real
life. An interesting counterpoint to last month’s The Queen of
Versailles which depicted a contemporary American
version of wretched excess, where the wolves at the door
were creditors rather than assassins.
“Richly
photographed and featuring an attractive cast, Farewell, My Queen
is a layer cake of royal pleasures, rote protocols and
revolutionary politics. For skeptics who thought this
story had grown stale, let them eat their words.” (Joe
Willams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
MARINA ABRAMOVIC:
THE ARTIST IS PRESENT explores the life and
work of the woman who describes herself as the
“grandmother of performance art.” She has cut herself,
whipped herself, and almost died in a piece where she
leapt into a flaming circle, only to find that the fire
had cut off all oxygen in its center. Her most famous event was
staged at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in the
Spring of 2010, where she sat immobile for eight hours a
day for three months, while visitors sat looking back at
her. “The whole film—fleet, lively, and, for the
performance-art novice, duly informative—is shaped like a
thriller of sorts, with a first hour that painstakingly
sets up the various personal and historical threads that
eventually pay off during the extended climactic set
piece…” (Kenji Fujishima, Slant Magazine)
Compared to this, the escapades in THE BOURNE LEGACY may
seem tame. This sequel to the Matt Damon led trilogy about
the mysterious CIA operative Jason Bourne, takes a new
tack with Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)
as Aaron Cross. He's an erstwhile colleague of Bourne in
the strange club of former superagents who the
powers-that-be want to eliminate. The movie is co-written
and directed by Tony Gilroy, who also wrote the previous
episodes, so he knows the drill. This is an action series
making a bid to join the Bond franchise in the endless
episodes derby, and with good reason. “An absolute
crackerjack entertainment: smart, taut, sleek, tense and
unrelenting -- an ideal action movie and a truly exemplary
sequel.” (Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian)
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