The One Movie You Should See This Week
Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Eric Bana, and Michelle Williams square off for your ticket money.
By Scott Von Doviak
Director: David Gordon Green
Cast: James Franco, Danny McBride, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel
Does anyone remember when David Gordon Green was an acclaimed young director drawing comparisons to Terrence Malick for dreamy, haunting films like George Washington and All the Real Girls? Now he's a guy who makes stoner comedies (and, no doubt, a lot more money). Not that there's anything wrong with that, but Pineapple Express was largely forgettable, and Your Highness looks like some sort of unworkable melding of Cheech & Chong and Men in Tights. The cast features the two most overexposed humans of 2011, James Franco and Natalie Portman, along with Danny McBride doing his clueless egotist shtick in a shaky British accent. Not even the presence of my future ex-wife Zooey Deschanel is tempting enough to lure me into this forest of silly anachronisms, cheesy special effects, and armor-clanging slapstick.
Director: Joe Wright
Cast:Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Saoirse Ronan
Speaking of Natalie Portman, most of us got our first glimpse of her in The Professional, which is the first movie that comes to mind when I watch the trailer for Hanna. Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) stars as a teenage girl raised by her secret agent father (Eric Bana) to be a deadly assassin. When Dad disappears, she becomes a thorn in the side of a U.S. intelligence agent (Cate Blanchett, who apparently traded accents with Danny McBride). This kind of action movie seems somewhat outside the comfort zone of director Joe Wright, best known for tonier material like Pride & Prejudice and The Soloist, but I'd certainly give Hanna a shot before the other first-name-only wide release this week, Arthur. You'd have to strap me down Clockwork Orange-style to get me to watch Russell Brand recreating Dudley Moore's greatest hits.
Director:Kelly Reichardt
Cast:Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson
I caught this minimalist Western at the Austin Film Festival last fall, and I feel confident in saying it's not for everyone. Michelle Williams reteams with her Wendy and Lucy director Kelly Reichardt for this bleak, claustrophobic tale of survival and desperation on the Oregon Trail. Bruce Greenwood co-stars as a grizzled wilderness guide who may be leading the wagon train to the promised land or to oblivion. It's a study in ambiguity, which doesn't generally spell big business at the box office, but the sun-baked imagery is mesmerizing, the slow build pays off with a perfectly realized finale, and Williams cements her place as one of the best young actresses working today. It requires a bit more patience than something like Your Highness, but the rewards are much greater as well.
The One Movie You Should See This Week: Meek's Cutoff
Commentarium (15 Comments)
Thanks for choosing a movie that is not available to basically everybody...https://meekscutoff.com/theaters/
G, maybe you should live somewhere better.
That would imply that America is better than the UK then too....
yeah, it seems like they always choose the obscure movies they i will probably never see
yea true, but take it from a self-professed mainstreamer.... it is b/c the obscure films can afford to be interesting and non-formulaic
It kills me that you Americans call "Leon" "The Professional". So wrong.
We also tend to call it Ecks vs. Sever instead of Ballistic. What's after the colon tends to be what matters anyway.
C'mon ... you need to look past your own prejudice and give Pineapple Express its due. It was not only hilarious at parts, but it is a beautifully filmed movie.
I completely agree with this. Judging by the trailer of Your Highness, they're definitely two different animals.
Ahh.... I just watched the preview for this one. Yikes.
Did this guy even watch the first two movies? He doesn't give any perspective that we couldn't have gotten by watching the trailers. And if he didn't watch the movies, what's the point of this article?
No, he didn't watch the movies. He basically watches trailers and analyzes what he thinks would be good based on the premise of the movie and who's associated with the project.
To me, it's not the obscure movies that are chosen that bother me so much. It's the fact that 90% of the movies listed on this column ARE NOT ACTUALLY SEEN BY THE AUTHOR when the column is posted. I just wanted to vent because that's been bothering me since this column first started.
Blame Hooksexup for gutting its movie coverage (Screengrab), not Scott Von Doviak (a former contributor to Screengrab). Hooksexup obviously thought people could find more in-depth coverage elsewhere, so the substitution for a proper entertainment department is bullet point reviews of movie trailers. And really, who gives a fuck if the movie is obscure? Get off your ass and rent it, Netflix it, VOD it, DVR it, buy the DVD, download a bit torrent...it's easier to see obscure movies (albeit at home) in 2011 than at any point previously. Do you people even bother to walk to toilet to take a dump?
This is a radical new approach to movie reviews! Why bother even seeing the movie when you can just bash it ahead of time.? Rich.