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Cold Souls – sp – This is one of most unusual movies that we have seen in a long time. We are not sure if it is science fiction, new age, deeply metaphorical or just a ridiculous comedy.

A tortured actor by the name of Paul Giamatti (sic) played by Paul Giamatti can’t stand himself anymore so he goes to a place on Roosevelt Island in New York City that he read about in the New Yorker magazine in order to have his soul removed and put in cold storage. Will he like the one that he chooses to replace it with? How does this affect his acting or his relationship with his wife? What will happen when shady people from Russia are trafficking souls on the black market? Giamatti is on the screen at least 90% if the time and he almost makes everything in this fanciful movie quite believable. It was written and directed by Sophie Barthes in her first feature film produced by Liz Giamatti, Paul’s wife, along with a few other people. While the movie did not hold Susan’s attention and interest as well as it did Michael’s, we both agreed that it ultimately had some flaws in the script and fell short of a great movie. Paul Giamatti should get special recognition for his performance in this difficult role. To be released in August. (2009)

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Middle of Nowhere – sp – This is a story about teenagers living in a small town who feel rejected by their parents for various reasons but are trying to figure out how to do something with their lives. This leads the two main characters to take up selling pot to make money in order to break free and become their own persons. The script was written by Michelle Morgan who grew up in Thousand Oaks in the San Fernando Valley in California but we suspect after meeting both of them at our film course, that many of the fine touches of this movie were added by Director John Stockwell. In any case, the result is a sensitive reading of young people which captures very well some of the struggles of this time of life. Susan Sarandon is, as usual, quite outstanding as the mother of the main character who is portrayed very well by her real life daughter Eva Amurri. Anton Yelchin portrays the 17 year old main male character and has a very moving scene in which he has tracked down his mother who abandoned him when she was 15 years old and tells him now that she feels no connection to him. (2009)

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Julie and Julia – rm – Two women on separate continents also separated in time by more than a half of a century are both trying to find themselves. Once they see their goal they pursue it with dedication and determination. One of them is Julia Child (Meryl Shreep), wife of an American diplomat in Paris who becomes passionate about French cooking and becomes involved in trying to write book in English about it. The other is Julie Powell (Amy Adams), a young wife and government worker who becomes passionate about the now famous Julia Child and decides to try out all 524 recipes from her cookbook in 365 days while reporting regularly in a new blog that she has started. The film was directed and produced by Nora Ephrom who also wrote the film script based on a book recently written by Ms. Powell .It moves back and forth in time following the struggles of both of these women. The support and love of both their husbands, played by Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina are an important part of this story. We don’t usually hear the out loud laughter that we heard in the movie theatre several times during the humorous moments. We felt the tug of heart strings in the difficult trials and tribulations along the way of their journeys. The movie also conveyed the jubilation of their ultimate successes. Julia Child’s cookbook is now in its 49th printing and it has found a way on to the bookshelves of a few generations of young households. Many people have had a glimpse into Ms. Child’s personality by her pioneer TV cooking show where she showed everyone that it isn’t so terrible to pick your prize cooking off the floor when it accidentally lands there. This film will further humanize this American icon and give insight into her inspiring story. (2009)

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World’s Greatest Dad – sp – When comedian /screenwriter/director Bobcat Goldwait showed his script to Robin Williams, he thought that his friend might do a cameo part. Instead Mr. Williams obviously saw the potential of this project. He became the lead in this comedic satire which holds up a mirror to so many people today who are often not listening to each other. An unpleasant, unlikeable teenage son of a high school teacher ends up causing his own demise. The response of the grief stricken father is to put words in the mouth of his departed son through writings that his son never really wrote This triggers responses in everyone from his principal to the kids in school most of whom never cared for the teenager when he was alive. Their exaggerated love and identification with the now deceased young man becomes the vehicle for this movie to make it’s point about the lack of empathy and understanding which young people and grown ups often show to each other. So often film scenarios, which are dealing with these complex notions, have difficulty in coming up with a good ending. Not so in this movie, as the main character who was previously an unsuccessful writer in addition to being a barely passable school teacher has now cleansed himself of bearing false witness and we imagine would now write for the sake of telling what is true. Mr. Goldwait seems to have found a way of doing this with this movie, which may just resonate with enough people to be successful. It will be released in September. (2009)

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The Informant! – nf – This is another one of those stories where it turns out the truth is stranger than any fiction which a writer might dream up. The story is actually based on a non fiction book by Kurt Eichenwald which Steven Soderbergh has masterfully brought to the screen. Matt Damon plays Mark Whitacre, a scientist turned business executive who holds a high position at the Decatur Illinois Fortune 500 food company Archer Midland Daniels ( ADM) as well as being a dedicated husband and father of two children . The story revolves around how he presents himself to the FBI as an informant and has decided to tell the story of how his company is fixing world wide prices which effect just about every meal that we eat. Damon’s voice narrates most of the film so you get the impression that you really know what is going on in his head. He does a believable acting job in creating the strangely patriotic, naïve guy who also doesn’t really know how to tell the truth and seems to believe his own deceptions. A certain amount of tension and suspense is achieved as he does his undercover work with clandestine audio and video recordings. As the story evolves and the details fall in place, it is hard to believe that this all really happened or perhaps we should say, “only in America.”. This is a fast moving 108 minute movie which will be just right for those who like this genre. (2009)

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Greenberg – rm – Screenwriter and Director Noah Baumbach (who gave us The Squid and the Whale) presents us with Roger Greenberg who is comfortably inhabited by Ben Stiller. This single guy in his forties, now a New Yorker, working as a carpenter, recently in a mental hospital, returns to Los Angeles to housesit for his brother who is taking his family on vacation in Viet Nam. He looks up some old friends who were members of his band back then and are at various places now in their lives. His reminiscence with them and his encounters with some younger generation guys and gals seem to be trying to tell a story of the difficulties that one goes through in trying to negotiate to a successful stable life and relationship. The problem is that there is very little back-story with Roger and it is near impossible to understand or get much of a feel why he is having so much trouble. We are left with a self centered, obsessive guy whom you imagine is suffering on some level. The story doesn’t really go any place and we are really not very enlightened about the characters. Greta Gerwig plays the personal assistant of his brother who also ran the household where Roger is staying and with whom he makes some tentative attempts to have a relationship. Her performance stands out as she creates a very sensitive, likable but sad young woman who desperately wants to be loved and have a relationship but doesn’t quite know how to do it. It is unclear if the title of the movie implies something Jewish, perhaps some stereotype of Jewish angst? The Stiller character mentions that that his father was Jewish but not his mother but we are not sure what that was supposed to mean. Perhaps in the future when Baumbach gives us characters who have figured out their lives, we will look back and realize this was an earlier phase of his work when things were more confused. (2010)

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I Love You Phillip Morris – sp – One of the most remarkable things about this movie is that the outlandish events that are depicted really happened. Jim Carrey plays Steven Russell who realized at a young age that he is gay. He grows up and marries a women dedicated to him and to Jesus and he leads a life as a devoted husband and father up until a certain point. He then has a revelation which causes him to leave his family becomes a con artist and fully involved in a free wheeling partying gay life style. Ultimately his grandiose con games end him up in jail where he meets Phillip Morris played by Ewan McGregor. They fall madly and tenderly in love with each other. Russell’s ability to deceive allows them to be together in jail and amazingly (but true) he escapes from and reenters a Texas jail multiple times. The screenplay crafted and directed by Glen Ficarra and John Requa based on a true story is a combination of a romantic comedy with a little bit of the keystone cops thrown in. It has it’s serious side as the Carrey character has to sadly acknowledge that he doesn’t feel like a real person. There is a well described psychodynamic explanation for this state of mind in the psychoanalytic literature which is quite compatible with the sorrowful circumstances of Russell’s early childhood which was depicted in the movie.. The story provides no insight into Phillip Morris. We are left with the marvel over the cons and the deception, a few smiles from the comedy and at best, a little sadness for a mostly unfulfilled life. Movie scheduled for release in the Fall of 2010 in the U.S. (2010)

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The Joneses – sp – Very close to the beginning of the film, you realize that the Jones family who are moving into an affluent suburban area are actually a business team who pretend to be a family of a loving couple and two teenagers. Their purpose is to infiltrate the neighborhood, win the friendship and hearts of each of their peers and influence them to buy and consume all the expensive and glitzy things which they are being paid to promote. This is a clever premise which allows the film to attempt to explore some of the things that are wrong with our society where materialism often predominates over meaningful relationships. David Duchovny does a sensitive portrayal of the so-called Dad of the family. His pretend wife is Demi Moore who is the leader of the “team” who mostly is strictly business but for unexplained reasons shows some ambivalence. Amber Heard and Ben Hollingsworth do good acting jobs in their roles as pretend teens who take on the youth of the community with more than just parties. There seems to be a lot of driving around in Audis and hitting golf balls as well as promoting cosmetics. While the characters evolved and changed, we in the audience were not very moved. It was part comedic and part a grim movie. Perhaps they couldn’t decide which way to go. The ending was drawn out and didn’t seem right or satisfying. (2010)

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Music Within – nf – Richard Pimentel is a real Viet Nam veteran who was injured in the war and returned home with severely impaired hearing. That experience inspired him to become an activist, author and spokesperson for the disabled. He became one of the major forces behind the American with Disabilities Act of the 1990s. This movie is the story of his journey from a kid with a mentally ill mother, which led him to have a troubled childhood, to the success, which he ultimately had. When he was unable to realize his gift for public speaking, he put things on hold and entered the military. The pathway he took upon his return to civilian life and his skill in convincing employers to hire disabled vets was quite impressive. Thanks to some excellent writing, director Steven Sawalich and his very talented team were able to bring this unforgettable story to the screen. Ron Livingston carries off a very fine portrayal of Pimentel with Melissa George as his girl friend and an excellent job by veteran actor Hector Elizondo as a Speech Professor. However, the most amazing performance of the movie is that of Michael Sheen who plays Art Honeyman a brilliant college student with cerebral palsy who befriends Pimentel and is a key part of the movie. Sheen’s wheel chair performance with a severe speech defect is one of the highlights of the film and should have earned him an Academy Award nomination. This is a period piece and seamlessly with the aid of appropriate music moves through the decades of the 50s through the 90s. This is certainly a tribute to all those who battle with disabilities and find themselves misunderstood. It also is an inspiring story, which shows how one dedicated and passionate person can make a difference, and brings about meaningful change. (2007)

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City Island – sp – It would not surprise us, if a year from now, Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies are up for leading actor and supporting actress awards along with Raymond De Felitta for this screenplay which he directed and maybe even with the picture itself being nominated for one of those shin=ny trophies. We are presented with what seems to be a light- hearted story about a working class somewhat quirky family living on City Island which is actually part of the Bronx in New York City. Vince Rizzo ( Andy Garcia ) and his family live in the house his grandfather built and he works in a Westchester Prison as a corrections officer. Julianna Margulies plays his wife Joyce Rizzo, with a perfect Bronx accent and attitude in stark contrast to the radiant, cool and collected “Good Wife” whom you may have seen her in the television series of that name. They have two children, a daughter who is supposed to be away at college but ends up pole dancing in a club, played very well by Andy Garcia’s real life daughter actress Dominik Garcia-Lorido and a son (Ezra Miller ) who has an appetite for things on the large side. The biggest hidden secret comes from the Garcia character who has a side to him which gives this veteran actor an opportunity to show the full spectrum of emotion from anger to tenderness. His character as do the others show growth and change as well as revealing their inner feelings. Alan Arkin plays a character that he knows as well as anyone could and not surprisingly nails that role. There is a measured, exaggerated quality to all the people in the movie which allows some good comedic moments A climatic scene with the entire family including two additional characters played by Steven Strait and Emily Mortimer all interact for at least several minutes and is orchestrated extremely well with a palette of emotions from laughter to tears which sums up the experience we believe you will have with this outstanding movie. (2009)