Film

Ah Richard Kelly, he would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those pesky portals to another dimension. The writer-director was handed a big box of his own when his debut, Donnie Darko, drew in enthusiastic crowds. It's a box filled with plenty of responsibility and a whole lot of money. And at 25 years-old, Kelly had been so convinced the movie would sink that he entered Harvard Law School.
Initially critics didn't get Donnie Darko and Sundance didn't care. Success came from word-of-mouth excitement and since then, it seems like Kelly's been holed up, pondering exactly why Donnie Darko made it big. Somehow, he figured it was all down to those shimmery, stretchy portals – rather than the characters, atmosphere or writing. Kelly's second film, Southland Tales, was plain nuts. But The Box has many elements of what made Donnie Darko genius.

OK, let me say this right off the bat: The Fourth Kind is the biggest hoax of the year. Immediately raising the bar for believability sky high, Milla Jovovich saunters towards us in the film's opening to convey that she will be playing the “real” Dr. Abigail Tyler and that some of the “real” archival footage may prove disturbing. The movie then slams down to Earth, falling flat on its face.
Shot in Bulgaria, The Fourth Kind is basically another Paranormal Activity or Blair Witch, but with a bigger budget. Both director (Olatunde Osunsanmi) and Jovovich tell us on camera, “Here are the facts; it is now yours to decide.” The real facts are that in Nome, Alaska between 1960 and 2004 more than 20 people mysteriously died, or vanished. The FBI concluded that “excessive alcohol consumption and a harsh winter climate” were to blame for the disappearances, though a serial killer hadn't been ruled out. This still left many unanswered questions and nine unrecovered bodies. From that, The Fourth Kind postulates that Nome is the epicenter for alien abduction, and not the ET-friendly kind, but rather the murderous-evil-white-light probing kind. Phoniness, however, overrides any hope for realism.

“More of this story is true than you would believe,” reads the caption at the beginning of The Men Who Stare at Goats, but let's be real: No one involved in this movie goes out of their way to give it the sting of veracity. If a movie can be said to have an attitude, this one would involve a shake of the head, accompanied by a hearty, “Ain't this some crazy shit?”
Director Grand Heslov and screenwriter Peter Straughan are adapting a non-fiction book by journalist Jon Ronson, it's true, and in that book Ronson explores several stranger-than-fiction characters and government operations. For the screen, Ronson has been turned into Michigan reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor), who finds himself emotionally distraught after his wife leaves him in 2003 for his editor, who happens to have a prosthetic arm. You'd be forgiven if you wondered whether this is the part of the story that isn't true (which it happens to be). And then you'd be wondering how you're supposed to know the difference.

When I see that a movie even looks remotely sugar coated, I hightail it – I can't stand phony sentimental feel-good or feel-sad movies that seem hell bent on eliciting sappy emotions from its audiences. But then again I've been duped by the Kramer vs. Kramers, Terms of Endearments and the I am Sams of the world. It's not that bad if handled in a way that expands the horizons of realism, usually accompanied by some decent acting by its main stars. Let's face it – there really are touching moments in real life. In terms of realism, superb acting and believable emotions, The Boys are Back delivers all three.

Paranormal Activity is terrifying and not just jump-out-of-your-seat-screaming scary – this one will have you seriously considering rearranging your life so that you can sleep only during daylight hours.
A couple of young yuppies, Micah and Katie, are experiencing some strange goings-on in their suburban San Diego home. Micah buys a camera and sets it up in their bedroom each night. He becomes such a camera nut (the latest in clichés, for this new wave of faux reality movies) that he also documents much of the rest of their lives within the house. In the style of The Blair Witch Project, we are presented with the found footage, provided by the local police department for our entertainment.

Saw VI's gory beginning features a pair of contestants with contraptions on their heads, hacking away at their flesh to save their own lives. From that moment, this installment of the episodic franchise takes off where the previous chapters left off, and doesn't let up. It's an impressive entry for a series that constructs its own chronology as it goes, even if the gig may be running thin after half a decade of ongoing horror.
The interwoven subplots in VI that connect the dots to Saws I-V are done in exceptional form. Please note these aren't sequels: these are episodes. You seriously cannot see any of them without seeing all of them and therein lays the genius of Saw. Though Saw IV and V seemed like missteps for the series, they clearly laid the groundwork for Saw VI, which feels more back on track with the intricate mind games that began with Saw III.

There are bad movies and then there are bad movies. Some movies are merely not entertaining and some movies are morally reprehensible. Law Abiding Citizen manages to pull off both kinds of bad so well that it will undoubtedly become a classic of its kind.
Films often reflect social trends and political shifts. Michael Douglas, for example, has built his career on roles that chart the post-1960s crisis points of the white American male. The men he played in the films Basic Instinct, Falling Down, Disclosure, Fatal Attraction, War Of The Roses and The Game are victims of women's liberation, affirmative action and liberalism. Between this film, 300 and the Gamer, Gerard Butler looks set to take his mantle.

Cold Souls is a quirky dark comedy, a thought-provoking mystery, as well as a metaphor-ridden quiz. It's edgy enough to pass as weird but formulaic enough for the audience to follow. With interwoven doses of art-house film stamped throughout, it's guaranteed to keep your attention.
The notion behind Cold Souls' story is funnier than it's actually depicted on screen. Paul Giamatti plays an actor named (oddly enough) Paul Giamatti, although he's not the guy from Sideways or Duets; he's a stage actor rehearsing Chekov's Uncle Vanya and struggling to get into the character.

You could argue without fear of contradiction that Where the Wild Things Are is the most ambitious film ever conceived that was inspired by a 10-sentence-long picture-book – but I don't think even that sentiment does justice to this prickly, hilarious, devastatingly emotional work of art.
Maurice Sendak's classic book hinted at the complex psychology of childhood, with its rambunctious wolf-costumed protagonist. Co-writer/director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich), however, has found the feature concept lurking beneath Sendak's minimalist text – and burrowed straight into the heart of a troubled young psyche trying to understand itself.

note: Our film critic, Morgan P. Salvo, spent the weekend taking in the movies of the BendFilm Festival, where he's long been a volunteer. Here's a list of the flicks that caught his eye and also may have caught your eye, too, if you made it out to BendFilm.
NARRATIVES:
Cold Storage (Directed by Tony Ellwood) This was by far my favorite, although in a semi-packed house I was one of only four people who applauded. A very warped and disturbing movie, it features the same hillbilly perspective of Norman Bates' Psycho world. This gory, graphic and darkly comic flick will make you think twice about taking that trip through the mountains.