Crazy Love

He wooed her. Obsessively. She ditched him. He blinded her. He went to prison. Got out. And then she agreed to marry him. And then he cheated on her and was accused (but acquitted) of threatening another woman. This is the stuff that tabloids are made of. And it's true. All of it.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

The 12-14 year old girls in the theater all squealed with delight, but the rest of us were bored. This is as vapid and plotless as movies get. Adults, kids, and teenagers who can handle/laugh at movies about teen sexuality will hate this. Gloomy girl has to choose between two monster Romeos. She pouts for two hours and chooses the pale, sickly one over the buff, hot-blooded one. Which means he'll have to "change" her to a vampire, but not until after they're married. (She's such a downer. I'm not sure he's wise about forgoing a test drive before buying the car for life, but he's pretty gloomy himself. They deserve each other.) We liked the first movie in the series well enough. Number two sucked. It seemed to us that everyone in the film knew it, too.

A Serious Man

The Coen brothers realize that for Jews, even "serious" men, life is often a comedy, even when things are falling apart. Forty-ish physics professor, who is perhaps too passive but unquestionably decent, finds his marriage and his life slipping away. His wife wants a religious divorce so she can marry her lover, his brother (who lives with the family) is jobless and suffering from some form of mental illness, his teenage kids see him as a disappointment, and a student of his attempts to bribe him into giving him a passing grade -- all this while the tenure committee reviews his dossier. He looks for some explanation of all this misfortune. From rabbis, from his lawyer, from his sexy new neighbor and her marijuana, from God. And it ends as a storm approaches. Brilliant, thoughtful filmmaking, excellent acting. A treat for those who like their films and humor a bit more cerebral.

Me and Orson Welles

Costume drama about a giant of American stage and cinema, Orson Welles, and his 1937 Broadway production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Welles cronies John Housman and Joseph Cotten appear here as well, though they barely figure in the film. Teen heartthrob Zach Efron plays a high school kid who happens his way into a minor part in the now legendary production and is awed/disgusted by Welles the genius/megalomaniac. Efron is winning as an optimistic youth who is of course in for some serious disillusionment (and some nookie, too). Newcomer (to America) Christian McKay conveys the passion, brilliance and narcissism of Welles; he is appropriately larger than life. Personal fave Claire Danes gives one of her least impressive performances as an assistant theater administrator who uses sex to get ahead in her profession, much to Efron's dismay. Danes is a strange combination of mannered actress and fresh-faced girl next door. What she doesn't seem to have is the sexy cunning needed to make her slutty character convincing or interesting. Overall, the film lacked authenticity, in my view. There was a lot of "drama" and an incredibly interesting subject, but the script was sometimes overdone and sometimes dull, especially in the clumsy Act I exposition. Disappointing dress-up flick, with a likeable Efron and a commanding McKay.

Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind: American Experience

Fine documentary on Marcus Garvey, the man whose exceptional talents mobilized African nationalism in the Americas in the early twentieth century. Focuses on Garvey's ability to motivate people, start black-owned enterprises, and raise consciousness. Also goes into J. Edgar Hoover's career-making turn as the Justice Department attorney committed to bringing Garvey down. And, finally, does not shy away from Garvey's deep flaws, which are described as an inability to take advice when he needed it. Had Garvey been less authoritarian and more open to acknowledging his own limitations (as a businessman, his foolish decision to defend himself at his criminal trial despite a lack of legal training, his absolute insistence on loyalty), the institutions he built might well be thriving today. Instead, he is a curiosity of history, a failed man whose ideas had to be taken up (and modified) by later generations in the struggle for civil rights in America and abroad.