Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away…. There was a young screenwriter named Lawrence Kasdan. Co-writer on “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “The Empire Strikes Back,” screenwriter of  “The Bodyguard,” his directorial career began under George Lucas’ wing with neo-noir “Body Heat” in 1981, and then he made “The Big Chill,” his 1983 remix of John Sayles’ “Return of the Secaucus Seven.” Some thought he spoke for the entire generation of Baby Boomers. Now Kasdan is sixty-three, and he hasn’t directed a movie since the lamentable 2003 Stephen King adaptation, “Dreamcatcher,” and his time away shows in the movie’s daring inconsequence. “Darling Companion” is a generational statement as well, more AARP than “Arf!”, for a post-middle-age demographic the movie industry could possibly profit from addressing, of citizens tending to senior whose attention tends to wander and who like going to the movies because it’s warm in there and dark and it’s okay if you fall asleep. Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Ealy, Taraji P. Henson

By Ray Pride

What’s the secret to making a good, contemporary, satisfying, successful commercial romantic comedy? Not even a classic, not even an “Annie Hall” or a “Some Like It Hot,” just one that embraces the here-and-now?

Just to be good. Talky, funny, headlong, “Think Like A Man” succeeds in its modern multi-couple roundelay by being brisk, breezy and sometimes shameless while feeling as modern as can be, and capturing its milieu in and near Culver City, California, as well as any urban-set story out this year. So what possible problem could it have reaching a wide, eager audience, the kind that makes hits of earnest movies from filmmakers like Nancy Meyers, about urbane, optimistic neurotics battling their worst impulses and eventually embracing their best? Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

Robert Greene’s documentaries “Kati With An I” and “Fake It So Real” possess a vivid “presentness”: it’s a combination of observant cinematography and a keen editing sense honoring the tradition of cinema vérité. In the case of his latest, the terrific “Fake It So Real,” which he photographed along with Sean Price Williams, Greene makes vivid work of a single week in the lives of a ragged bunch of North Carolina independent wrestlers before a big Saturday night show. The gritty shooting style is an appropriate joy: seemingly casual but splendidly caught, the rehearsals and boasts and tale-telling and talk establish a straightforward slab of white working class Southern culture. Read the rest of this entry »

Luc Besson’s career as a director-producer has been supremely profitable yet eccentric as any in the world. While he began his career with stylized art-house action like “The Last Battle” and “Subway” and then juicy, visually shellacked pulp like “La Femme Nikita,” “Leon: The Professional,” and “The Fifth Element,” his greatest success has been as a producer, with his EuropaCorp studio making propulsive if ragtag thrillers like “Lock-out,” “Colombiana,” “Taken,” “Transporter” and “Taxi,” usually with a story credit for himself. As director, he’s dipped into the hybrid animation of the “Arthur and the Invisibles” series. Of the zigs and zags of his career, one of the oddest may be his drab, reverential treatment of the life of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi (Michelle Yeoh). What drew Besson to the goodness and perseverance of this woman? Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

Kevin Macdonald (“Touching The Void,” “One Day In September”) directs an intimate, detailed portrait of Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley (1945-1981). Made with his family’s cooperation, this polished documentary lists his musician son Ziggy Marley as an executive producer, along with Chris Blackwell, who signed Bob Marley to Island Records in 1971. Marley recorded “Judge Not” in 1962 at age sixteen. His early days included overnighting in a cemetery to overcome stagefright, and covering “Teenager in Love.” The account of his family life looks at his absent white father and his own distance from his offspring with different mates. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

By Ray Pride

There’s a weave of wicked play in “The Cabin in the Woods” that makes it tough to describe without giving away the game. Although the most recent commercials do indicate some of what’s afoot, they’re more tease than giveaway. The studio’s synopsis reads: “Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen.”

Let’s see… Drew Goddard’s directorial debut, co-written with longtime colleague Joss Whedon, is about what’s under what’s in the basement and what goes on under that? Talking to the extremely affable and extremely tall Goddard recently, I suggested this comedy-horror-puzzle could honorably earn a three-word review from someone who didn’t want to give away too many particulars. “What. Th’. Fuck.” Read the rest of this entry »

A lightly likeable effort at “Swingers”-meets-”Bridesmaids” (made, obviously, before that smash success), writer-director Kat Coiro’s “L!fe Happens” (note the minor explosion of cute punctuation) furrows into the about-to-burgeon genre movement of women writing women talking gaudily bawdy. (As a less naughty sample, “You’re having anony-sex with a guy we met in a Costco parking lot?” is a minor early gag as two of the roommates leave bedmates behind in search of condoms.) Three female roommates (Kate Bosworth, Rachel Bilson, co-writer Krysten Ritter) share sexual exploits until a one-night stand leads to single motherhood for one of the trio, who’s adamant about continuing to date even into single motherhood. Read the rest of this entry »