July 3, 2009 - The Austin Chronicle

C ALE N D AR ( COMMUNITY SPORTS ARTS FILM MUSIC) L I S TINGSWere the World MineWere the World Mine (2008) D: TomGustafson; with Tanner Cohen, Wendy Robie, JudyMcLane, Zelda Williams. (NR, 95 min.) aGLIFF: Best ofthe Fest. Rebecca Havemeyer hosts this new serieshighlighting former aGLIFF films. In Were the WorldMine, a wish-fulfillment fantasy, a high school studentfinds a love potion with which he turns his narrowmindedtown gay. @Alamo Ritz, Sunday, 1pm.17 AGAIN D: Burr Steers; with Zac Efron,Matthew Perry, Leslie Mann, Thomas Lennon, MichelleTrachtenberg, Sterling Knight, Melora Hardin, HunterParrish, Brian Doyle-Murray. (PG-13, 105 min.)Efron, in his first nonsinging and dancing featurefilm (if we don’t count the yet-to-be-releasedMe and Orson Welles by Richard Linklater), proveshe has an agreeable and kinetic screen presence,although he’s not completely convincingas a 37-year-old encased in a 17-year-old’s body.Not that any of this matters much: The moviemanages to glide along engagingly and swiftlyenough to not make this failing terribly conspicuous.Director Steers (Igby Goes Down) keeps themovie’s foregone progression moving apace and,fortunately, doesn’t dwell on the magical vortexthat sucks present-day Mike (Perry) into his formerhigh school-senior self (played by Efron). While theensemble, as a whole, is able, a problem arisesfrom the casting of Perry as the near-middle-ageincarnation of Mike. It’s not so much a matter ofmannerisms but, rather, the disbelief that the twoshare a face that’s only separated by 20 years.Superficial, maybe, but that’s in keeping with themovie’s general tone. (04/17/2009)– Marjorie Baumgarten★★★■Movies 8wSTAR TREK D: J.J. Abrams; with Chris Pine,Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban,Simon Pegg, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Winona Ryder,Leonard Nimoy, Anton Yelchin, Ben Cross. (PG-13, 126 min.)Star Trek is an immensely satisfying originstory that introduces the characters we know –before we knew them. For all its epically chaoticspace battles and Bana’s scheming, time-trippingRomulan, Nero, Star Trek is most audacious insuch scenes as when the not-yet-Captain Kirk(Pine, getting the Tiberius just right but wiselyforsaking the Shatner) beds a green-skinned Orionsex bomb while simultaneously making a play forSaldana’s Uhura. In quick succession, the iconiccharacters enter in ways delightfully unexpectedyet cleverly apropos. It’s not necessary to be alongtime fan of the Star Trek universe to appreciatethe sheer emotional punch and swagger of thisrough and randy Enterprise crew. They’re unlikelycompanions – antagonists, even – not yet boldlygoing wherever it is they’re going but discoveringthat trial by fire and photon torpedoes is the best,if not the easiest, way to forge both friendshipsand franchises. (05/08/2009)★★★★ Gateway, Metropolitan, Tinseltown North,Westgatew– Marc SavlovSUMMER HOURS D: Olivier Assayas; withJuliette Binoche, Jérémie Renier, Charles Berling, EdithScob, Isabelle Sadoyan. (NR, 103 min., subtitled)With Summer Hours, French writer-directorAssayas, who is best-known internationally forsuch transgressive genre-benders as Irma Vep andDemonlover, has shifted gears to make a work ofuncommonly lyrical humanism. The whole moviebasks in the dappled light of life experienced inthe present and memories rebelling against theerasures of time. Much of this family drama takesplace at the country home of matriarch Hélène(Scob), where she lived as a widow and raised herthree children. After her passing, the siblings mustdispose of their mother’s things, and the moviebecomes a lovely example of the ways in which weall work through our passages from the past intothe present. Assayas’ camera glides dexterouslyamong the family members, uniting them even asthe objects they share begin to scatter. SummerHours is a lovely rumination on the meaning ofthings, but one that remains rooted in its humansubjects rather than the inanimate objects that aremore easily graspable. (06/12/2009)– Marjorie Baumgarten★★★★ DobieLoud, abrasive, and featuring performancesseemingly calibrated to be heard over the cacopho-THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3D: Tony Scott; with Denzel Washington, John Travolta,Luis Guzmán, John Turturro, James Gandolfini, MichaelRispoli, Victor Gojcaj, John Benjamin Hickey. (R, 106 min.)nous roar of Travolta’s mad, bad overacting, thisremake of Joseph Sargent’s 1974 crime movie isunnecessary and ill-advised. The original, in whicha group of ex-cons stage an elaborate cash-basedcaper in the subway tunnels beneath Manhattan,is economical in its direction, thrilling in its use ofthe casual urban violence, and almost indescribablyentertaining. Scott’s update is none of thesethings. It is edited with a disastrously distractingeye toward irritating and overwhelming stylisticflourishes (the film seems to have been choppedand cut by someone on an Adderall binge), andScott fails to locate the pulse of a city once moreon the brink of economic ruin. There’s precious littlethat’s memorable or even exciting about this new,annoying Pelham, which goes off the rails early onand never recovers. Take a cab next time, and whileyou’re at it, go rent the original. You won’t be disappointed.(06/12/2009)★ Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, Barton CreekSquare, Hill Country Galleria, CM Round Rock,Southpark Meadows, Gateway, Tinseltown North,Tinseltown South, Westgate– Marc SavlovTERMINATOR SALVATION D: McG;with Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Moon Bloodgood,Helena Bonham Carter, Anton Yelchin, Bryce Dallas Howard,Common, Jadagrace, Jane Alexander. (PG-13, 116 min.)The wiry, wily John Connor (Bale), who is on a missionto locate and protect the life of his future father(Yelchin), is a model of post-nuclear industriousness,commanding a truly ragtag global resistance (viashortwave radio) against the self-aware machinesof Skynet and their killer cyborgs, the Terminators.(At this point in the apocalyptic, time-traveling, manvs. machine mythos of the franchise, the year is2018, and the parent is roughly half his son’s age.)There’s one great action sequence, but apart fromthis, Terminator Salvation is terrifically dull, full ofear-searing sound design and much yakkity-yakkingabout the fate of humanity but entirely lacking anysort of soul or sense of fun. The film is just like itsmachines, which, by the end of McG’s McBlockbusterdeserve to win their war against humanity, if only tocurtail, once and for all, uninspired and inhumanlymechanistic filmmaking such as this. (05/22/2009)– Marc Savlov★★■Tinseltown SouthTRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OFTHE FALLEN D: Michael Bay; with Shia LaBeouf,Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro,Rainn Wilson, Ramon Rodriguez; with the voices of HugoWeaving, Peter Cullen, Tom Kenny. (PG-13, 149 min.)Bay’s follow-up to his international smash hit YEAR ONE D: Harold Ramis; with Jack Black,of 2007 ups the ante on big and dumb. His newTransformers movie, whose extraterrestrials arebased on the Hasbro toys which can morph fromcars and other metal objects into awesome fightingmachines, aims for impact over sense, clobberingviewers with its sensory overload and bludgeoningus into weary submission. The film is a clanging,full-metal racket from start to finish, with only therare narrative pause devoted to exclusively humaninteractions. But, honestly, that’s not what we andgazillions of non-English-speaking viewers aroundthe globe want from this franchise. It’s the action.On that score, this film is a poster child for the ideathat more does not always equal more. With a typicallygrandiose running time, Revenge of the Fallenoverstays its welcome by at least a half-hour, andtwo new Autobots – the illiterate, ghetto-speakingSkids and Mudflap (voiced by Kenny) – are the mostretrograde blockbuster embarrassment since Jar JarBinks. (06/26/2009) – Marjorie Baumgarten★ Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, Alamo DrafthouseSouth, Alamo Drafthouse Village, Barton Creek Square,CM Cedar Park, Hill Country Galleria, CM Round Rock,Southpark Meadows, Highland, Gateway, IMAX Theatre,Lakeline, Tinseltown North, Tinseltown South, WestgatewUP D: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson; with the voices of EdAsner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson,Delroy Lindo, Jerome Ranft, Elie Docter. (PG, 96 min.)Pixar tops itself with its new animated offeringUp, a movie so visually and emotionally skillful thatit makes Monsters, Inc. look positively antic, ToyStory seem like mere child’s play, and WALL-E appearas sentimental fluff. Up’s promotional campaign,which suggests little more than a fantastical movieabout a house that flies on balloon power, doesn’thelp spread the sense of the film’s rich emotionalcurrents and taut action sequences. The movie’spreamble is such a penetrating thing of beauty that itcould exist on its own as a lovely short film. AlthoughUp’s action sequences are well constructed andsuspenseful, there is really nothing that makes thefilm necessary to see in 3-D. However, in terms of itsnarrative structure and lessons learned, I suspect wewill be comparing Up with classics like The Wizard ofOz for years to come. (05/29/2009)– Marjorie Baumgarten★★★★ Alamo Drafthouse South, Alamo DrafthouseVillage, Barton Creek Square, CM Cedar Park, HillCountry Galleria, CM Round Rock, Southpark Meadows,Highland, Gateway, Lakeline, Metropolitan, Millennium,Tinseltown North, WestgateJawsJaws (1975) D: Steven Spielberg; with RoyScheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss. (PG, 124 min.)Central Market and 101X FM: Summer MovieSeries. It’s the movie that ushered in the concept ofthe “summer blockbuster.” Spielberg’s interpretationof Peter Benchley’s ultimate beach story is a nearperfectblend of popcorn thriller and well-crafted narrative.Outdoor movie begins at dusk. (*) @CentralMarket North, Wednesday, 8:30pm.Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, Christopher Mintz-Plasse,David Cross, Olivia Wilde, Hank Azaria, Juno Temple, VinnieJones. (PG-13, 97 min.)Slayer was right: God hates us all. How else toexplain this blasphemously asinine and crudely scatologicalbuddy pic so obsessed with bodily dischargethat it makes Pasolini’s Salò look like an episode ofFull House? Year One reimagines the Book of Genesisas a warped Hope and Crosby comic travelogue – TheRoad to Sodom – minus the class, and with Black andCera playing pre-Darwinian variations of their respectiveobnoxious oaf and wide-eyed naif roles. Zed (Black)and Oh (Cera), predictably inept hunter-gatherers, arebanished from their tribe and trudge through prehistoryfrom one biblical high point to another. Readliterally, the Old Testament is awash in bestiality, rape,pedophilia, murder, and overall seaminess. But YearOne somehow manages to leech all the inherentlysubversive fun out of the whole thing. The only peoplewho should be peeved enough to raise hell about YearOne are the viewers who had to pay to sit through it.(06/26/2009) – Marc Savlov★ Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, Alamo DrafthouseSouth, Barton Creek Square, Hill Country Galleria, CMRound Rock, Southpark Meadows, Gateway, Lakeline,Metropolitan, Tinseltown NorthTrue StoriesTrue Stories (1986) D: David Byrne; withJohn Goodman, Swoosie Kurtz, Spalding Gray, AnnieMcEnroe, Jo Harvey Allen, Pops Staples; narrated byByrne. (PG, 90 min.) Austin Film Festival: Made inTexas. Talking Head Byrne made his directing debutwith this idiosyncratic look at a fictional Texas town.@Texas Spirit Theater at the Bob Bullock Texas StateHistory Museum, Wednesday, 7:30pm74 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E JULY 3, 2009 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m