DVD pick of the week: "Rabbit Hole"

On paper, John Cameron Mitchell's "Rabbit Hole" would seem to be the most dour of viewing experiences: A movie about a couple dealing with the death of their young son, and how to continue in its wake. What it has in common with Mitchell's debut movie, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," however, is that in spite of it subject matter its a little joy to watch and is spiked throughout with humorous touches that make it all the sweeter to take in.

And it certainly doesn't hurt that the couple at the center of this is played by Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart. Kidman, in particular, is at her very best here, and received a Best Actress Oscar nomination, though of course lost out (rightly) to Natalie Portman for "Black Swan" in a very talented field.

From the very beginning of "Rabbit Hole," it's impossible to keep your eyes off of Kidman's Becca. Even when she's clearly just going through the motions of her daily life (standing in front of the dryer, for example, the whole time that clothes are drying), you can see in her face everything that she craves and fears all at once, mostly re-engagement with the world around her. That starts with her husband, Howie (Eckhart), from whom she's been distant ever since their young son Danny was killed in a car crash several months earlier. Though the role as written is pretty much to react to Kidman's emotional ride, Eckhart nonetheless delivers a nuanced performance.

And as Becca's world slowly starts to re-expand, a wicked humor creeps into the script by David Lindsay-Abaire, based on his stage play. It comes first with her family, including misfit sister Izzy (who for unspecified reasons has just managed to somehow get fired from Applebee's), played by Tammy Blanchard, and her over-empathetic mother, played with natural ease by Dianne Wiest, mostly in the form of what you can and can't talk about in such situations.

The humor gets more wicked as Howie and Becca attend a support group for parents who have suffered the same tragedy with a child, an activity Becca just can't stand. It's an uncomfortable delight to watch the contempt unfurl on her face before she explodes on some poor sap who had the gumption to say "God needed another angel." It's here also that we meet Gaby (Sandra Oh), whose natural face for empathy belies the role she will play of temptress.

Mitchell and Abaire slowly add to their tale a mystery that keeps the story moving, cleverly introduced and framed by the drawing of what we eventually find out is a comic book. As Becca first stalks and then confronts a young man in the neighborhood (I won't spoil it by telling you who he is), their secret encounters are increasingly poignant without ever being too mawkish.

And Mitchell, who shows a deft directing hand throughout, is at his best in the final third. Without ever hitting us over the head with it, as Becca starts to slowly re-engage with the world, he equally slowly lightens the color palette, giving the movie a "Virgin Suicides"-kind of dream-like feel by the time she reaches the long night that will bring her back.

Be warned: This is a world of extremely raw emotions, and none of them are held back here. But what makes Mitchell's movie so entertaining is that it's ultimately about life rather than death, and just how to go about living it. In the end, that - and a sublime performance from Nicole Kidman - are what make "Rabbit Hole" well worth checking out on DVD.

Can women really have fun in movies?

Before we get into any of that, the two oddest things I came across this morning both involve Tyler Perry, who I almost always enjoy, but most of all when he's behind the scenes rather than in a fat suit and drag.

That certainly won't be the case for "Madea's Big Happy Family," coming to theaters April 22. It should be a return to broad comedy along with the big drama, which would be a welcome shift after "Colored Girls" (which I mostly enjoyed until I finally felt beaten down by it all.) This time out, he's got Bow Wow (no longer Lil, and don't knock it unless you've seen him in one of my favorite movies, "Roll Bounce"), and a bunch of regulars like David and Tamela Mann, plus even that Old Spice guy.

A truly nightmarish visual bit about that flick at the end, but in the meantime, in an odd case of trading down (in acting, at least), it seems that Tyler Perry has somehow replaced Stringer Bell (aka Idris Elba) in the coming reboot of the Alex Cross series on film.

In the past two Alex Cross movies, "Kiss the Girls" and "Along Came a Spider," the role of the detective and psychologist was played by Morgan Freeman, making this an even odder transition. In the new movie, "I, Alex Cross," with a script penned by James Patterson, who wrote the the Alex Cross novels, our hero tracks the rapist who may have murdered his pregnant wife years earlier.

This all begins shooting in June, and I suppose I shouldn't be so skeptical, since I've liked almost all of Perry's movies so far, but once he's donned that Madea suit, I just really can't see him being taken terribly seriously in this. Here's hoping I'm wrong.

But on to the main event. Kristen Wiig has a new movie coming out in May, "Bridesmaids," and as you can see from the first trailer below, it's squarely from the Judd Apatow (who's a producer) camp of comedy - except that it's all women in the main roles. I realize that shouldn't be much of a surprise, but unfortunately it is. When's the last time you can remember women getting to have this much fun in a big-studio, hopefully raunchy summer (well, almost) comedy?

And besides all that, except for a truly unfortunate joke at the end of the trailer (still worth sticking around to the end for to see just how bad it is), this all looks truly rather funny. Along with Wiig, who along with writing the script for this plays the maid of honor charged with putting it all together, it also stars fellow "Saturday Night Live" star Maya Rudolph as the bride, plus veryfunnywomen Melissa McCarthy (aka Sookie on "Gilmore Girls" and one half of CBS' Monday night show about fat people) and Ellie Kemper (Erin on "The Office"). It's also directed by "Freaks and Geeks" vet Paul Feig, so here's hoping this girl's club turns out to be as funny as it should be. Enjoy the trailer, then stick around for, as promised, a truly nightmarish vision of Madea.


Bridesmaids
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Say what you want about Tyler Perry's movies, but he always manages to at least grab people's attention with the posters, and this one for "Madea's Big Happy Family" is no exception. As if "Black Swan" weren't already scary enough ... enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

For Friday, a small cache of clips

Actually, there's some pretty big movie news out there, too, so let's get right to it: Judd Apatow is finally going to direct another movie, and even though it will have a familiar feel, it sounds like potentially a lot of fun.

Not a lot of details are available yet about the still-titled "Untitled Judd Apatow Project," but we do now know it will focus on the characters played by Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann (aka Mrs. Apatow) in "Knocked Up."

Despite the potential sequel/prequel feel to this, it could still be great, because they were easily the two most interest characters in that flick (and here's hoping that Katherine Heigl has NOTHING to do with this.) And besides, in a tidbit Apatow shared with HitFix, he promised it wouldn't be either of the dirty words at the beginning of this paragraph. Here's what he had to say:

"It is neither. It is just a story from Pete and Debbie's current life. People really responded to their characters and problems. I felt like there was a lot of ground I could explore with them, so we'll be shooting in July and will come out the following June."

June 1, 2012, to be exact, but given the increasing rarity of Apatow bothering to write and direct anything anymore, this is definitely something worth keeping an eye on.

OK, enough of that, on to the clips, and where better to start than with the seriously funny first full theatrical trailer for "Paul"? I didn't realize until this morning that, along with starring as the two geeks at the story's core, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost also wrote the script for this Greg Mottola flick due out March 18, but that just makes this all the more promising. And with "Your Highness" due shortly after this, it should be a better-than-usual Spring for good comedies. Enjoy the trailer.



If I knew what the next "Ice Age" movie - which if I'm not mistaken will be the fourth one - was about, I'd probably tell you, but since I haven't seen any one of them after No. 1, it just really doesn't interest me all that much. I can tell you, however, that it's called "Ice Age: Continental Drift", and it's set to come out July 13. And even better is this animated short film from Blue Sky Studios which explains exactly how Scrat, that crazy squirrel just trying to get a nut, was actually responsible for splitting the Earth into seven continents. Enjoy the clip.



Best of all today, however, is this short preview for season three of "Parks and Recreation," which is FINALLY coming back to NBC's Thursday night lineup at 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 20 (does that mean the end of "Outsourced"? One can only hope.) While not quite as funny as "Community," it still has a fun and funky spirit that nicely sets it apart from the sitcom pack, and with Adam Scott and Rob Lowe now regular players, this should just be even more fun. And with that, I'm out, for a movie weekend that will include a second viewing of "Black Swan" (because I just don't think I can bring myself to watch "Season of the Witch" or "Country Strong") and then most likely the Macon Film Guild's offering of the Cold War spy flick "Farewell" on Sunday. Peace out.

My top 10 movies of 2010

Before I depart for my annual year-ending week in NYC with my family, I figured it's as good a time as any to come up with my top 10 movies of 2010, both because I figure by now I've seen just about everything that might make this list except for maybe "The King's Speech" and "Rabbit Hole," and simply so this won't be completely empty while I'm gone.

And lest anyone wants to squawk about the fact that neither "Inception" nor "The Social Network" made the cut, rest assured they're among the 10 runners-up, along with "Shutter Island", "A Prophet", "Splice", "Despicable Me", "Easy A", "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1", "The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and "The Fighter".

So, without further delay, let's get to it, in order only of release date until the very end, where you will find my favorite movie of 2010. And as usual, please feel free to add your favorites and let me hear about any that I've unfairly snubbed.

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"/"The Girl Who Played With Fire": These should definitely be viewed together, and ideally all at once with the third chapter, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," but I haven't had the opportunity to see it yet. Given how sprawling and packed with details the novels by Stieg Larsson are, these are both nearly perfect models of how to adapt books for the big screen, and though David Fincher is doing an American remake of the first movie for next year, please do go see these first, because just trust me: Once you see her, I'm sure you'll agree that Noomi Rapace simply is Lisbeth Salander.

"Kick-Ass": Though many movies try to re-create the feel of comic books on the big screen, very few come as close to accomplishing it as this thoroughly fun flick from Matthew Vaughn (for the opposite kind of failure, view the almost completely lifeless "Iron Man 2".) Sure, there are moral questions about having a 13-year-old assassin spray bullets all around, but young Chloe Moretz is electric as Hit-Girl, and she and Vaughn create at least two of the year's best action sequences here.

"Toy Story 3": Being sometimes a fairly cynical fellow, I doubted that all the hype about this Pixar flick could be true, but it really does pack the emotional and entertaining punch to launch the "Toy Story" series into any discussion about the best movie trilogies. And "Toy Story" fans take note: The franchise will live on, sort of, as Barbie and Ken will star in the short movie that will precede "Cars 2" next summer (and will probably be better than the main attraction).

"The Other Guys": A Will Ferrell movie? Really? Yes, because Ferrell and Adam McKay bring all kinds of funny and just enough smarts to this comedy that skewers the buddy cop genre almost as well as Edgar Wright's "Hot Fuzz." And besides, this movie has both the best opening and closing credit sequences of the year, which may not sound like much, but they really are small wonders to behold.

"Animal Kingdom": This Australian gangster flick lacks all of the glamour of "The Godfather" or "Goodfellas," but packs even more of the grit. The story of the less-than-two-bit Cody clan, a crime family that never rose too high and is already on its way down as the movie opens, is hardly a sunny tale, but it's extremely compelling, thanks in large part to the chilling performance of Jacki Weaver as the menacing matriarch.

"The American": This is probably the flick on this list that most divided audiences, but I know that along with me, at least Roger Ebert and Reel Fanatic reader Jeremy Jirik also love it, so at least I'm not alone. "Control" director Anton Corbijn displays all of that titular quality here as he strips this tale of George Clooney as a hit man on what could be his last mission in Italy down to the barest bones of a thriller, making it instead a slow-moving but riveting character study and just a good story well told.

"127 Hours": Though the tale of what lengths trapped climber Aron Ralston had to go to remove himself from underneath a boulder in a valley was as hard to watch as I could have expected, it's also completely imbued with optimism thanks to director Danny Boyle and energy thanks to James Franco, even at its darkest moments. And even though Boyle used two different cinematographers, Enrique Chediak and Anthony Dod Mantle, you'd never know it as they merge their talents to drop us into every treacherous step of Ralston's journey, and should definitely share an Oscar for their efforts.

"True Grit": Even the ridiculous coda at the end, which is loyal to the source but just drains the energy right off the screen, can't ruin the fact that this remake is one of the Coen brothers' very best flicks. Restraining from most of their usual oddity, they instead just let the actors have a ball here, as The Dude, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper and, most of all, young Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross all do, elevating both the humor and heart of Charles Portis' great novel. I've seen it twice already, and just may again before it leaves theaters.

"Black Swan": There's not an ounce of subtlety in this Darren Aronofsky flick, but since at its most basic level he's essentially made a great B horror movie (albeit it one of the psychological variety set in the world of ballet), he didn't really need any to make it soar. I'd have to imagine Natalie Portman is the odds-on favorite for the Best Actress Oscar, but Vincent Cassel should hear his name called in the Best Supporting Actor category too as the ballet guru who leads Portman's Nina Sayers to the darkest reaches of her own mind.

"Winter's Bone": Definitely saving the very best for last, I first saw this movie this summer while on vacation with mi hermano in Philadelphia, and it's been burned on my brain ever since. I watched it again recently to make sure, and yes, Debra Granik's tale of a young woman (the fantastic Jennifer Lawrence, who would get my Oscar vote if I had one) forced to go on a hunt through the American underbelly that is the Ozarks to search for her deadbeat father - who has put the house she's raising her two younger siblings in as a guarantor for a court appearance he's almost guaranteed not to make - is every bit as good as I first thought. Bleak? Of course, but as Lawrence's Rhee Dolly searches for the truth in this mess, this flick combines all the best elements of film noir with a coming-of-age tale of sorts to cook up my best movie of 2010 by a pretty wide margin.

And there you have it. Please, as usual, feel free to share any of your favorites or any that I've just unfairly snubbed, and have a simply splendid new year. Peace out.

Men of the year: My favorite male movie performances of 2010

I waited to compile this list until seeing "Black Swan" and "The Fighter" as a truly odd double feature last Saturday, and that day yielded one entry here I expected and one that caught me by surprise.

It's still dangerous to do it before The Dude surely abides this week in "True Grit" and without having seen the performance of Oscar favorite (if I'm reading the cards right) Colin Firth in "The King's Speech," but I'm fairly confident that with those two exceptions I've seen most of the best movies of 2010, so here goes: My favorite male performances of 2010, in order only of release date until the very end, for which I've saved my vote for the best.

Leonardo DiCaprio, "Shutter Island": Sure, Leo played pretty much the same constantly stressed out character in both this and "Inception" this year, but he was better here as FBI agent Teddy Daniels in this flick based on the Dennis Lehane novel, which is so good that it will likely end up on my overall best movies of 2010 list, too.

Ricardo Darin, "The Secret in Their Eyes": In this Argentinian film noir, Darin's character undergoes a rather epic journey, returning to both the scene of a brutal crime from his career as a legal inspector and reuniting with an unrequited but still smoldering love, and his performance carries us every step along the way.

John Hawkes, "Winter's Bone": The key to this Debra Granik movie, another film noir of sorts and, like "The Secret in Their Eyes," also shown this year by the Macon Film Guild, is the mysterious motivations of all the characters Jennifer Lawrence's Rhee Dolly encounters while searching for her missing father - and the most important of those is Hawkes' Teardrop (yes, really), who plays his cards close until the end and makes this my vote for the best movie of 2010.

Steve Carell, "Despicable Me": Can a voice-only performance really be one of the best of the year? When it's as good as Carell's as the criminal mastermind with a heart Gru, absolutely, and besides, even though "Toy Story 3" will rightly get most of the animated kudos this year, this was just a thoroughly charming flick.

Kevin Kline, "The Extra Man": I was expecting the worst from Kline in this, and so was that much more pleasantly surprised by how restrained he was as the "gentleman" Henry Harrison, whose sole job is squiring wealthy widows around NYC. Both Kline's performance and the movie overall, out now on DVD, are winning portraits of the kind of eccentric New York that's now all too rare.

Kieran Culkin, "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World": Comedy rarely gets is just due in awards season, and for my money, no one was funnier this year than Culkin as Scott Pilgrim's gay roommate who constantly pops up to provide a snarky commentary of sorts in the best movie that virtually no one saw in 2010.

Kodi Smit-McPhee, "Let Me In": Matt Reeves' "Let Me in" would have been a completely soulless remake of the clearly superior vampire movie "Let the Right One In" if it weren't for the performances of the two kids at the story's core. McPhee and Chloe Moretz draw us deep into the doomed world of young Owen and Abby and, against steep odds, improve on the performances of the kids in the original movie.

Vincent Cassel, "Black Swan": The two things that surprised me about Darren Aronofsky's movie is just how much of a B-movie schlockfest it really is (albeit about the ballet, of course), and just how good Vincent Cassel is as the ballet director who expertly manipulates his young dancers, never with overt menace but an equally dangerous charm.

Christian Bale, "The Fighter": Bale's extreme measures - and weight fluctuation - to get into his roles would be easy to mock if there clearly weren't more than madness to his method. Here, he's on the very gaunt side as Dicky Eklund, the crack-addicted brother of Mark Wahlberg's titular "Fighter" and the main thing that helps David O. Russell's movie rise above the pack of standard sports underdog flicks.

James Franco, "127 Hours": As I said, the best for last, and this year it's by a pretty wide margin. As Sam Rockwell did last year in the seriously smart sci-fi flick "Moon," Franco dominated almost every frame of Danny Boyle's movie, and never once lets the viewer get bored of watching him. From the exuberance of the beginning of Aron Ralston's perfect day to the extreme desperation of being trapped under a rock for the titular "127 Hours," Franco takes us along every inch of this often very hard to watch journey, making the payoff all the more rewarding at the finish. Just an all-around excellent performance.

And there you have it. Please feel free to let me know of any I may have snubbed (in the honorable mention, I've already got Christopher Plummer in "The Last Station", Michael Nyqvist in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"/"The Girl Who Played With Fire" and George Clooney in "The American"), and have a perfectly endurable Monday. Peace out.

Want the best job in the world? Sorry, it's taken

Actually, for me, that would probably be librarian at the American Film Institute, but this would have to be a close second.

In one of the already funny developments for the new Muppets movie being cooked up by Jason Segel, it seems that Animal will have to check in to anger management and will be replaced on the skins by none other than Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl (yes, he'll always be the drummer for Nirvana to me).

Think for a second about just how fun that would be. And with that disgustingly brief thought, I'm off, because with a double feature of "The Fighter" and "Black Swan" on the movie menu for me today, with perhaps some Chinese food stuffed in between, it's the very best movie day of the entire year, so I have to get to it. Peace out.

Could this be the funniest movie of 2011?

Actually, a better question this morning is why in the world is it so hard for Alfonso Cuaron to make a potentially smart and winning sci-fi flick?

I'm not sure I have this all right, because the saga of his attempt to make the movie "Gravity" is a story with many twists before the camera even starts rolling.

First, if I have this right, Angelina Jolie signed on for and then bailed on this tale of a female astronaut trying to get home after an accident in orbit, and then Natalie Portman did pretty much the same thing.

Well, Cuaron eventually settled on Sandra Bullock (a step back in my book, and an odd fit for this, but oh well), but seemingly just as soon as that was settled, Robert Downey Jr. backed out of playing the main supporting role (I'd assume some kind of NASA dude in touch with our heroine from Earth, but who knows for sure). Sheesh.

That move put this solidly in development limbo, but now in the latest twist, George Clooney has apparently stepped in to that role, so it's game on again ... for now.

Follow all that? If you've seen Cuaron's "Children of Men," you know why I'd certainly like to see him make another sci-fi flick, so here's hoping this really all does come together this time.

And what my world, at least, always needs is more real Westerns ("True Grit" next Wednesday, and I can't wait!), so it's certainly good news that director James Mangold is getting into that game.

He tried once with his remake of "3:10 to Yuma" with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, but while that was a technically proficient flick, I really just couldn't get past the rather thorough unnecessaryness of it (I'm not sure that's even a word, but you get the point).

Now he's signed on to direct something called "The Gunslinger" for New Regency, which is being described as a "revenge thriller" about an ex-Texas Ranger who sets out to punish the men who killed his brother. Bully.

But the main course here today is the second - and much longer - trailer for "Paul," coming just in time for Valentine's Day, for some reason.

If I had to list my 10 or so favorite directors, Greg Mottola would make the list every time. "Superbad" is a comedy classic in my book, and though it goes down a lot drier, "Adventureland" is a heck of a lot of fun too.

Now, for "Paul," he's reunited the "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" comedy duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as two geeks on a road trip to Comic-Con who just happen to encounter the titular extraterrestrial along the way. You'll be able to tell from the trailer that Seth Rogen voices the alien, and the alwaysveryfunny Kristen Wiig and Jason Batemen appear in this too. It's rare that we get something potentially this good so early in the year, so enjoy this new trailer (which could disappear any minute now, since I swiped it from some kind of Russian video site), and have a perfectly great weekend, which for me will include both "Black Swan" and "The Fighter" on Saturday, so bring it on! Peace out.

For Wednesday, a cache of fun clips

First off, and to segue right into the videos, a hearty huzzah to the Golden Globes for recognizing that "The Walking Dead" was easily one of the best TV dramas of 2010.

The word unique is thrown around way too loosely, and I'm probably as guilty of that as anyone, but it certainly fits here. If you watched the series, you know there's nothing like it on TV: Genuine horror as the inevitable zombie apocalypse (yes, we're certainly headed there) strikes (and in Atlanta no less, kudos), but also plenty of humanity since this comes from the mind of Frank Darabont.

Things don't bear terribly well for season two with the word that all the writers were let go and replaced by freelancers (except for Darabont, of course), but I suppose that's the way of the world. In case you missed the show and doubt just how gruesome it could get, enjoy the video below, but be warned: The title tells you exactly what you get, "every zombie killing in 'The Walking Dead'."



You know, with "Black Swan" finally opening in Macon and "The Fighter" here too - and then hopefully the Coen brothers' "True Grit" (which mi hermano and his Minneapolis-St. Paul homies have apparently already seen - jealous) opening here Wednesday, when I have the day off, this is indeed the best movie week of the entire year for me. There's also apparently a "Yogi Bear" movie opening this weekend too, but as close as you'll see me coming to that is this fantastic clip of what you'd have to call "The Assassination of Yogi Bear By the Coward Boo Boo." Again, the title really says it all, and this is plain brilliant. Enjoy.



OK, enough with the bloodshed, cartoon or otherwise. Nothing but good holiday cheer from here on out, I promise. Though I'm rarely up late enough to see his show live, I often DVR it, and I'm definitely a member of Team CoCo. And it's videos like the backstage clip below that show exactly why Conan O'Brien is so good. If you've never heard what Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward are doing as She & Him, definitely check it out. The closest thing I'd compare it to is Dusty Springfield, but they really just make dreamy sweet pop songs. Enjoy this clip of them getting in the holiday spirit with Conan.



And finally, after watching the clip below, I think Funny or Die needs to add a third option, because this clip featuring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as, respectively, David Bowie and Bing Crosby, is - at least until the very funny ending - simply sweet. And with that, I'm off, because I had to get up at 6 a.m. and make a shrimp and grits casserole (office holiday feast day, huzzah!), so I'm already running behind. Enjoy this clip, and have a perfectly passable - if not downright festive - Wednesday. Peace out.

Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy with Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly from Will Ferrell

A behind-the-scenes look at "True Grit," plus four new clips

Actually, the very best thing I could find this morning was this rather awesome photo of Seth Rogen, Elijah Wood and Danny McBride as the Beastie Boys. Although it's pretty much a trip by itself, what's even better is that it's from a short that Beastie Adam Yauch has cooked up for next year's Sundance Film Festival titled "Fight For Your Right Revisited."

Best as I can tell, the short film will be about the making of the Beasties' video for "Party for Your Right to Fight," and will somehow also star Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly and Jack Black too. There will surely be better movies at Sundance next year, but I'm betting there will be a very few that are more fun.

And after that today, the second best thing is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Coen brothers' "True Grit," plus four great clips from the film, set to open, I believe, on Christmas day. It's not terribly surprising, but I was still struck by how real it all is in this world of CGI-3D crap, and it's certainly the movie I'm most looking forward to seeing for the rest of this year, most likely when I hit NYC for the end of the year with my family. Enjoy the clips, and stick around for the the end for some truly inspired hilarity.