Past the Popcorn film roundup—The First Solid Slate of the Year
Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.
When the worst movie released on a given week is merely an uninspired romantic comedy starring Patrick Dempsey, you’re not doing too bad.
Leading the pack, of course, is the much-anticipated Iron Man, a comic book superhero PG-13 adaptation starring Robert Downey, Jr. Michael Brunk was wholly won over. “If Iron Man is any indication of what we can expect this summer,” he says, “I think we’re in for a great time.”
Jennie Spohr, meanwhile, is enthusiastic about two indie films, Son of Rambow and The Flight of the Red Balloon. The former is a British film about a group of children who set out to remake Rambo in their own image; Jennie finds the PG-13 film “a wonderfully different film that families can watch and enjoy together.” Red Balloon, on the other hand, is an unrated foreign film that “softly and lyrically” explores the relationship between childhood and adulthood; kids would probably be bored by it, Jennie thinks, but not wouldn’t be the least bit offended.
Greg Wright is also pretty pleased with Graduation, a teen heist film that tries “to capture something of the high-school loser experience in an offbeat way.” The performances in this unrated (but PG-13ish) indie film, he says, are almost worth the price of admission alone. It also finds it nice to see a teen film “without all the drugs, booze, and four-letter words”… or nudity.
Greg is also pretty high on the latest Errol Morris documentary, Standard Operating Procedure, even though it’s not Morris’ best work. “Kudos to Errol Morris,” Greg writes, “for taking the opportunity to educate us not only about Abu Ghraib but about documentary filmmaking as well.” He goes on to advise: “If you want to learn a thing or two about what makes films (and human psychology) tick, read Morris’ two-part column in the New York Times (and all of the attached comments)… and then go see SOP.” Be advised: it’s a serious R, as you might expect.
Also in the indie vein is Helen Hunt’s directorial debut. Jeff Walls was very impressed with the R-rated effort: “Then She Found Me is sweet, funny, moving, and genuinely an overall pleasure to watch, blending and balancing serious drama with screwball comedy, all while maintaining the hip, indie vibe that Hunt is striving for as a director.”
And then we’re back to that weak entry from Patrick Dempsey, the PG-13 romantic comedy Made of Honor. Jeff Walls doubts it’s the worst thing you’ve seen this year… but it’s the weakest thing this week!
