Weekend Movie Forecast: <em>Cowboys & Aliens</em> Vs. <em>Crazy, Stupid, Love</em> - Photo Gallery

<p>What can be said about <em>Cowboys &amp; Aliens</em>? It could be an amazing exploration of American genre pictures, the clash of two of our mythological frontiers, or a dark perversion of a John Ford movie. That, or it could be the next <em>Wild, Wild, West</em>. The film stars two of our best action stars, Harrison Ford (the fading veteran) and Daniel Craig (arguably our most dignified leading man) and is directed by <em>Iron Man</em>'s Jon Favreau. Most of the movie's success will ride on Favreau, the script, and the overall tone. Chances are it's just going to be okay, but how great would it be if it turned out to be brilliant, and they had to start putting <em>Cowboys &amp; Aliens</em> on college syllabi? Just a thought.<br/><br/>Reviews have been alright, with Nick Pinkerton from <a href="">The Voice</a> saying: "Director Jon Favreau's experiment in genre crossbreeding—a Western-sci-fi mashup pumped full of inspirational all-in-this-together spirit—is a cute, crowd-pleasing idea, though more decadent than a revitalization of either genre. The sci-fi element is such standard-issue space-invader stuff as to be hardly worth consideration as anything other than a gimmick. The Western tropes are more lovingly dealt with, but here the genre, which has long striven toward maturity, is made “fun” again through dislocation from historical fact.<br/><br/>"It should be noted that Favreau is a capable storyteller among blockbuster blowhards. As in his handling of the first <em>Iron Man</em>, he displays here the rare ability to patiently lay down the track along which his narrative will move, and he gets some good work from his performers." </p>

<p>Romcoms used to usually only involve four main characters: the couple who would end up together and their respective bestie who acts as friend and confidante (a la <em>When Harry Met Sally</em>). Somewhere between <em>Diner</em> and <em>Love, Actually</em>, that model fell out of rotation and was replaced by what we'll call the RomComEnsemb. This allowed producers to shove as many stars into a single movie as possible in the hopes that at least one would draw in viewers. The most recent of these is the film <em>Crazy, Stupid, Love</em>, starring Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei, Kevin Bacon and—oddly enough—Josh Groban. All you really need to know about the plot is that it follows a recently divorced 40-something who is taken under the wing of a flashy, manly 30-something who is trying to help him get tail. It looks like it could be clever or just an exercise in Mystery method bullshit and dick jokes, but we'll have to see.<br/><br/>Reviews have actually been pretty positive, with A.O. Scott from <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/movies/crazy-stupid-love-with-steve-carell-review.html?ref=movies">The Times</a> saying: "<em>Crazy, Stupid, Love</em> is, on balance, remarkably sane and reasonably smart. Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, this movie, packed with appealing stars, is a smooth blend of modern comic genres with a surprising undercurrent of dark, difficult emotion. Essentially a study in the varieties of masculine sexual confusion, it travels the circuit from bromance to a kind of Y-chromosome weepie that might be called male-odrama, with a detour into the briar patch of adolescent awkwardness.<br/><br/>"'I know the PG-13 version of this night,' Hannah says during her second encounter with Jacob, insisting that what she wants is R all the way. The movie, true to its own PG-13 rating, opts for mildness, modesty and chastened optimism. At the same time, though, it seems to know that a crueler, more cynical rendering of its story — a 'Bitter, Hopeless, Love' — lurks between the lines. What makes it worth watching, and worth liking, is the sense that it arrives at its warm and comforting view of things not by default but by choice." </p>

<p>We should all be proud of ourselves. We've lived through grunge, terrorist attacks, a couple of wars, Bush presidencies, lots of downtime, <em>Jersey Shore</em>, ennui, etc...but we all can say we lived long enough to see those thinly veiled commies, <em>The Smurfs</em>, come back. We guess it was inevitable that if they were to ever show their blue asses around here again, it would be in the very modern, and very shitty, form of CG animation. This is actually fitting, considering the awful quality of animation in the original cartoon. This time around, Papa and crew find themselves in our very own NYC (that's right folks, <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/07/29/for_better_or_worse_the_smurfs_movi.php">It's an NYC movie</a>, get a spot next to <em>The Warriors</em> ready and deal with it) as they try to escape the fascist Gargamel and get back to their village. In their defense, plenty of people talk about returning to their village upon arriving here.<br/><br/>Reviews have been pretty bad, with Tasha Robinson from <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-smurfs,59608/">The A.V. Club</a> saying: "That explains the frantic behavior of the title characters in <em>The Smurfs</em>: As they dash around displaying no impulse control, little sense of self-preservation, and a tendency to yammer out whatever’s on their minds, they’re just acting like ultra-exaggerated children. Actual kids may find this fun, but for adults, watching <em>The Smurfs</em> may feel a little too much like trying to wrangle an overcrowded kiddie birthday party.<br/><br/>"’80s nostalgists who always wanted to see Gargamel get Tasered—or watch rapping Smurfs improvising a version of 'Walk This Way' with lyrics about Smurfette’s hotness—need look no further than this update, but there’s little reason for childless adults to see <em>The Smurfs</em>, unless they’re just curious to know how far filmmakers can go in using feigned sincerity to sell a thoroughly calculated, cynical product." </p>

<p>Renaissance woman Miranda July releases her newest film today <em>The Future</em>, and it seems like it's her first exploration into the world of science fiction (between this and von Trier's <em>Melancholia</em>, sci-fi is getting prettay high-brow this year). The film follows Sophie and Jason, who adopt a cat together and literally alter the course of time and space, "testing their faith in each other and themselves." The part in quotes is from the summary, and we're not quite sure what it entails, but July is a great writer, and thus a leap of faith is well-deserved.<br/><br/>Reviews have been fairly positive, with the most criticism (still two stars) coming from J. Hoberman at <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-07-27/film/in-the-future-miranda-july-grows-up/">The Village Voice</a> who says: "A fabricator of her own screen image, July—the high priestess of quirk—has a lineage that can be traced back to art-world pop star Laurie Anderson to muscular mind-tripper Yvonne Rainer to the original psychodramatist, Maya Deren. Even more than Anderson, July is an unabashed cutie-pie, seemingly determined to play the eternal permanently precocious ingénue. At the same time, The Future hints at a degree of ironic self-awareness on the part of the 37-year-old artist unimaginable in Deren, Rainer, and even Anderson.<br/><br/>"July is something of a magician, and somewhere amid the inability to stop time, the finality of unborn children, the failure to protect posterity, the end of romantic love, the limitations of memory, the routine of carelessness, and the futility of expectations, Sophie's (or is it July's?) coy narcissism becomes a criticism of itself, and her 'sadness' turns into something truly sad. In short, I have seen The Future and it's heartbreaking." </p>

<p>Steve James, director of the phenomenal <em>Hoop Dreams</em> and the great <em>Stevie</em>, releases his newest documentary <em>The Interrupters</em> and it sounds like another winner. The doc follows three "Violence Interrupters" who intervene whenever they come across a violent situation that might escalate into gunshots in their Chicago community. The three Interrupters have a violent past themselves and are trying to prevent other people from going through the same things they have. This film is one of the highlights of the weekend and must see for any doc fans.<br/><br/>Reviews have been great, with Manohla Dargis from <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/movies/the-interrupters-a-documentary-by-steve-james-review.html?ref=movies">The Times</a> saying: "The stories in <em>The Interrupters</em>, a hard wallop of a documentary, may weigh heavily on your heart and head, but they will also probably infuriate you. When a frail-looking child with startled eyes breaks down crying, her tiny hands covering her tiny face as she talks about a neighborhood shooting, it’s hard not to want to gather her up in your arms. It’s also difficult not to feel outrage along with a sense of confused, familiar helplessness because this child lives in that war-torn part of the world called Chicago.<br/><br/>"There is a long tradition of what has been described as victim documentaries, nonfiction movies in which filmmakers train their cameras at people enduring crushing hardships. At their worst these documentaries exploit the suffering of others, turning their pain into consumable spectacles. <em>The Interrupters</em> evades that trap partly because it doesn’t try to sell a happy, easily digestible story and partly because it digs in. It took 14 or so months to shoot and clocks in at two absorbing hours (down from its original 162 minutes). Mostly, though, it rises above the usual do-gooder cant by giving the interrupters — and the people they work among and periodically come close to dying for — the time to share their stories about life in the trenches. Mr. James has put a face to a raging epidemic and an unforgivable American tragedy." </p>

<p>Also coming out today is the documentary <em>El Bulli: Cooking in Progress</em>, which documents the goings on of the previous "Best Restaurant in the World" for a few years running and its insane head chef Ferran Adrià, who is quite possibly also the best chef in the world. The restaurant is only open half the year because the other half has Adrià and his fellow cooks experimenting at his Barcelona cooking laboratory coming up with the menu for the following season. The documentary follows the famous cook and his restaurant over the course of a year. For all you epicures who haven't been able to nail a reservation, this might be the next best thing.<br/><br/>Reviews have been very mixed, with the most MOR review coming from Karina Longworth at <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-07-27/film/inside-a-real-top-chef-s-kitchen-in-el-bulli-cooking-in-progress/">The Voice</a> who says: "<em>Cooking in Progress</em> documents the 2008–2009 season, one of the last in El Bulli's life as a restaurant, from the start of the six-month workshopping process Adrià oversaw each year in a Barcelona kitchen lab, to the debut of his new creations in the seaside dining room.<br/><br/>"The creative stakes are high: 'What matters is that it's magical, that it opens up a new path,' Adrià reminds. <em>Cooking in Progress</em> is, in fact, all magic and no path: This is extreme fly-on-the-wall vérité, with only the barest context provided (no helpful TV-style titles here—when it comes to identifying ingredients and techniques, viewers are usually left to their own devices) as the culinary impossible is realized one painstaking step at a time." </p>

<p>This could be the funnest movie this side of <em>Monster Squad</em>: the British film <em>Attack the Block</em> pits a gang of teenagers against an invasion of savage alien monsters in a London housing estate. Trailers and posters look unbelievable. This could be a blast to see.<br/><br/>Reviews have been great, with Joshua Rothkopf from <a href="http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/film/1740063/attack-the-block">Time Out New York</a> saying: "Starring a tough-minded band of scrappy teens who actually do some solving, it’s the movie <em>Super 8</em> wanted to be—or should have been.<br/><br/>"You can enjoy this movie as the meat-and-potatoes sci-fi flick it is, or, as with <em>District 9</em>, probe it for the elements of class consciousness and political rage that its makers smuggle in, like the best of subverters. And Basement Jaxx’s pounding original score will own your iPod."</p>

<p>Seeing its NYC release today, <em>Sleep Furiously</em> is a documentary about a small farming town in Wales that is in the midst of a major technological change that will permanently effect the future of the town. There have been a lot of films like this recently, but that doesn't mean that people should stop making them or watching them. This type of film anthropology will be immensely helpful for future generations to see how people used to live.<br/><br/>Reviews have been mixed, with praise coming from David Fear at <a href="http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/film/1718803/sleep-furiously">Time Out New York</a>, who says: "Finally granted a U.S. theatrical run, Gideon Koppel’s free-form portrait of a Welsh farming community may be the most subtly poetic piece of cine-anthropology to come down the pike in eons. Rural denizens like a choir teacher and a mobile librarian quietly go about their business, and country living is presented as both hardscrabble and oddly heartening.<br/><br/>"But he isn’t above underlining his vérité with, say, a long shot that turns herded sheep into tiny white ants, all the better to awaken you to the beauty that lurks in the mundane." </p>

<p>At <a href="http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/calendar?view=list&amp;month=07&amp;year=2011#showing-37625">Anthology Film Archives</a>, continuing the <em>Hollywood Musicals of the 1970s and 1980s</em> retrospective is one of Francis Ford Coppola's strangest films <em>One From the Heart</em>. The film follows Teri Garr and Frederic Forrest, domestic partners who break up and take foreign lovers. That's not so strange, except that the film is Coppola's attempt to make a movie in the vein of the old Hollywood system, so the film ends up being structured like a musical, except the leads don't sing. Instead, the feelings of the characters are articulated through the soundtrack, composed by the brilliant Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle. Oh, and it stars the always amazing Harry Dean Stanton. If you haven't seen this queer little film, you should do yourself a favor and check it out; it'll end up reappearing in your subconscious for years to come. </p>

<p>For those of you who are gluttons for punishment and/or enjoy watching YouTube videos non-stop, then the film <em>Life in a Day</em> might be for you. Director Kevin MacDonald asked people to post videos filmed on the day July 24, 2010 and submit them to him. He ended up receiving 80,000 submissions, took the best of them, and edited them into a movie. Eek. You know whether you'll pay to see this or not by this point.<br/><br/>Reviews have been very mixed, with Noel Murray from <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/life-in-a-day,59598/">The A.V. Club</a> saying: "Frankly, <em>Life In A Day</em> could’ve used more of those vignettes. The broader the movie gets, the more banal it becomes—like <em>YouTube: The Movie</em>, or like one of those “everything’s connected” indies, but in doc form.<br/><br/>"If nothing else, <em>Life In A Day</em> serves as a fine time capsule, recording some of what life was like on Earth in 2010. In fact, it’d be great if someone would repeat the experiment every 10 years ago, to track what changes. Most likely, the particulars would be different, but the basics very much the same." </p>

<em>Apparently your generation doesn't want to see vampire killers anymore, nor vampires either. All they want to see slashers running around in ski masks, hacking up young virgins. </em><br/><br/>As out-of-date as that quote seems now, during the height of the slasher films in the '80s, vampires had fallen out of favor. Now that they're en vogue again, why not head to <a href="http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Market/NewYork/NewYork_frameset.htm">The Sunshine</a>, where <em>Fright Night</em> will screen every night this weekend at midnight. The film follows 17-year-old Charlie, who discovers that his charming neighbor is actually a vampire. No one in town listens to him except a has-been horror-film actor who hosts a B-movie television program called "Fright Night." The two team up to take down the neighbor when his family from Transylvania shows up and throw a wrench in the works. The film is a lot of fun and seems kind of strange compared to the recent sting of vampire movies. Definitely worth watching a film about vampires that was made when no one really cared about them anymore.