Past the Popcorn film roundup—Enchanting Family Fare, Plus Some Hit and Mist
Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.
Past the Popcorn managing editor has been dying to talk about Enchanted for months, since seeing the first promotional screening in L.A. And now he’s not saying a lot about the movie for fear of spoiling it for others. But he does tell us that it achieves “something that’s a mix of Sound of Music mountaintop exhilaration, Cinderella wonder, and Aladdin fun. At the real-world level, it battles against cynical anti-romanticism, and at the fantasy level, it winkingly acknowledges that fairy tale solutions don’t function all that well in contemporary settings.” He gives it a rare, solid recommendation.
Greg also likes the PG-13 This Christmas, though for very different reasons. “What might make This Christmas enjoyable, if you’re in the mood,” he says, “is the time that director Preston A. Whitmore II takes in letting us visit with the Whitfield family. … I particularly enjoyed spending time with this earthy family, and being around their dinner table.”
Also on the family-friendly front, Mike Smith says you might like the PG real-world music-oriented fantasy August Rush—but mostly for its score. “Familiar as the story may seem,” says Mike “there are some fun surprises—and I like the comfort of a familiar tale. And the fact that August feels and hears music in everything gives August Rush its underlying spirituality.” Good stuff to talk about with your kids, if not such a great film.
Then there’s the odd pre-Thanksgiving releases. Jeff Walls would just as soon have missed The Mist, while Mike Brunk doesn’t give Hitman much chance of being a hit. Greg also found that Margot at the Wedding made him sit up and take notice of director Noah Baumbach, though he didn’t enjoy the film’s dysfunction and angst; and he thought that I’m Not There was just way too much of a merely okay thing.
