JULY 3
“The Girl from Monaco”
This is the first of writer-director Anne Fontaine’s two films to hit the U.S. this year (the other is “Coco Before Chanel,” starring Audrey Tatou), the movie will likely appeal to anyone excited by the phrase “French sex comedy.” It appears to have a relatively standard romcom love triangle: a lawyer, a bodyguard, and a bimbo of a girl with a history. The film was nominated for two Cesars, including Best Newcomer for Louise Bourgoin, making her feature film debut.
“Public Enemies”
The odd thing about this film is that while everyone is anticipating it, no one knows exactly what to expect. Back in February we raved about the script, saying: ” it reads and breathes like a straightforward bit of bigscreen entertainment.” Early reviews from screenings, and the one that was yanked seem to be mixed, but there are too few of them to suggest any sort of consensus. We’d like to believe that a Michael Mann film about John Dillinger, headlined by Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, and Marion Cotillard (not to mention the strong supporting cast) will be fun, but the lack of preceding buzz has us a bit worried.[ed. saw it, fascinating, but frustrating. It takes forever to come alive and is emotionally aloof].
JULY 10
“Brüno”
We saw footage at SXSW, and, well, let’s just have our esteemed editor take it from here: “The “Brüno” was seriously uncontrollably funny, and with a dangerous subversive and transgressive bent that will smash the limits of UNPC-ness and will surely outrage people. We died laughing and everyone in the theater did as well. “Borat” the film doesn’t have a lot of staying power, but it was riotously hilarious on the first viewing and “Brüno” looks like it will do the same only with an even more aggressive bent of social satire.” To briefly recap, Bruno, one of Sacha Baron Cohen’s characters, is a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashionista, and Cohen uses him like Borat, to mine humor from unsuspecting saps. But now that we’ve seen the whole thing, read our review, we didn’t totally love it.
“Humpday”
We were left somewhat unimpressed by this indie mumblecore take on “bromance,” saying it is the “typical case of a scrappy, not-bad film festival picture being vastly overrated.” The crux of director Lynn Shelton’s film centers on best friends (Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard), both straight males, deciding to have sex with each other for the sake of an art film. While there’s certainly room in this setup for a innovatively nuanced look at gender relations and sexuality, we felt the film rarely scratched out anything more than a superficial take on things. Still, it wouldn’t be terrible for this film to cross over a little and open people up to other movies in its oeuvre.
“I Love You, Beth Cooper”
OK, yes, in all likelihood this teen flick about a nerdy valedictorian making a bold declaration of love in his graduation speech for the school hottie and spending the subsequent evening getting into various hi jinks with her will not rise above the adolescent crowd to which it has been marketed. Still, Chris Columbus has helmed such classics as “Home Alone” and “Mrs. Doubtfire,” unlikely male lead Paul Rust is poised for a breakout as he’s also in “Inglourious Basterds” (though for just a brief second) and Hayden Panettiere seems like a great fit for the role. We revealed the film’s soundtrack a few weeks ago.
“Soul Power”
This is a documentary about the music festival which accompanied Ali/Foreman’s Rumble in the Jungle in Kinshasa, Zaire in 1974. Directed by Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, the film consists of archival footage of the concert, featuring such greats as James Brown, B.B. King, and Celia Cruz. Some have said it feels like a companion piece to “We Were Kings.” We’re not sure if we have time for a review, but this one is rock solid and features some thrilling performances and camera work by cinéma vérité greats like Albert Maysles that is right up in the action. If you’re a fan of music docs, this is one we fully endorse, and frankly, it’s much more engaging than something a little bit more sterile like, “It Might Get Loud.” This picture is intimate and vibrant and up there with “Wattstax,” and “Gimme Shelter.” There’s some wonderful social context too and amazing scenes with Ali from extra footage from ‘Kings.’
JULY 17
“(500) Days of Summer”
We’d say the marketing team behind this offbeat romcom of sorts has done a stellar job of building blog buzz. Of course, we’re partially responsible for that, posting director Marc Webb’s exclusive track by track commentary of the songs on the movie’s soundtrack. Plus a review of the film, in which we said: “At its best and when it has found its groove…[the film] begins to breathe and is largely fetching and winsome, and at its worst, it’s imperfect, gooey, and marginally irritating…but overall it’s mostly well-crafted and when the film decides to get honest with itself…it delivers tons of affecting dividends.” Those of us yet to see film, which stars Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, can’t wait to do so.
“In the Loop”
“The Office” meets the highest levels of government? This British flick played Sundance, but was bought by IFC Films even before it showed and early reviews suggest this film might be the rare political satire that’s actually funny. Director Armando Iannucci returns with his crew from “The Thick of It” which was hit TV show in Britain, like the show, the film takes a mocking look at the highest levels of the British and American governments. Oscar-winner (OK, OK, it was for Live Short Film) Peter Capaldi reprises his role of the acerbic Director of Communications Malcolm Tucker from the show, and if there is a breakout performance in the film, it seems likely to him. James Gandolfini also stars as an Army general, along with Tom Hollander, other notables include Steve Coogan and Anna Chlumsky [ed. another film we’ve seen, a review coming soon. It has wild laughs, but a little too episodic].
JULY 24
“The Answer Man”
Formerly known as “Arlen Faber,” this romcom (or maybe romdram?) starring Jeff Daniels as the formerly title character, a reclusive author of a pop spirituality book beloved the world over and Lauren Graham as a single mom with a chiropractor practice, received generally positive reviews at Sundance. We were enchanted with it at IFFBoston saying: “[it is] an entertaining romantic comedy in the vein of Frank Capra films, there were many moments where we felt the film could have easily fallen apart due to cheesy Hollywood conventions, but [first time writer-director John] Hindman succeeds in tempering the story contrivances with touching realism, mainly credited to the superb witty writing and the actors’ portrayal.” Lou Taylor Pucci also stars as the owner of a self-help bookstore who longs to be a disciple of Faber, Olivia Thirlby and Kat Dennings round out the cast.
JULY 31
“Adam”
Another weekend, another charmingly quirky romantic comedy. We’ve been anticipating this one, helmed (and written) by Max Mayer, for a few months now, and recently broke details of its pleasantly indie pop/folk soundtrack. Hugh Dancy stars as a lonely, geeky sort, Rose Byrne is his attractive new neighbor, and sparks eventually fly. The catch (why must there always be a catch?!) is that he has Asperger’s syndrome, which presents all sorts of little hurdles to the relationship. Peter Gallagher and Amy Irving headline the supporting cast.
“Funny People”
The marketing team behind this film have been dropping viral videos like crazy of late, most of which are pretty humorous (not that it should be too difficult to come up with a ridiculous Adam Sandler movie). We found the script to be pretty much what you’d expect from Judd Apatow at this point, a funny comedy with heart that isn’t afraid of sadness, heart, and a long run time. The film stars Adam Sandler as a famous comedian facing a dire diagnosis, Seth Rogen as his new confidante, Leslie Mann as the girl who got away, and Eric Bana as the other man, and boasts a supporting cast including Jonah Hill, Ken Jeong, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Schwartzmann, Aziz Anzari, and cameos from like everyone.
“The Cove”
Directed by Louis Psihoyos, this documentary looks to be absolutely riveting. It may seem odd to rave about a trailer, but look for yourself. The film was the darling of Sundance, and so far has received sparkling reviews. Not your daddy’s doc, this one reveals the terrible treatment of dolphins in a cove off the coast of Japan, the covert operation to film it, and apparently some truly horrifying images.
Other films hitting in July include, “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” (strictly for kids, we’re sure), “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” (strictly for man-childs and nerds), “The Ugly Truth,” a rom com starring Katherine Heigl that we’re midly interested in for guilty pleasure reasons only [ed. ok, she’s the worst, but I’m kinda attracted to her, I know, I deserve to burn], and “Lorna’s Silence” the new film from the Dardenne Brothers (2005 Palme d’Or winner “L’Enfant”) that we wish we had more time to write about, but you can watch the trailer here. It hits July 31, and the film won best screenplay award at the 2008 Cannes film festival. The Dardenne Brothers have won the coveted Cannes Palme d’Or twice in six years which is no easy feat.
looking forward to adam (hope it will be a bit better than mozart and the whale) and funny people