The Princess and the Frog

I'm so glad that John Lasseter reopened the hand drawn animation department when he took over as the head of Disney animation. It's hard to believe that it's been five and a half years since the last hand drawn Disney animated film (and even longer than that since the last good one, I'm not a fan of Home on the Range). It just feels right to have Disney doing this classic style of animation, and even better that they're doing it with such a charming, fun, and sweet film as The Princess and the Frog.

Tiana (Anika Noni-Rose) is a nineteen year old waitress working two jobs in jazz-era New Orleans, saving and dreaming of opening her own restaurant. The city is all aflutter over the visit of Prince Naveen (Brunos Campos), a charming, if arrogant and kind of lazy, noble on the lookout for good times, and just maybe a wealthy wife to help him with some minor financial difficulties. He falls in with voodoo magician Dr. Facilier (Keith David) with the ultimate result of his being transformed into a frog. His hope is that a kiss from Tiana will reverse the spell. Instead it does the opposite as she's transformed into a frog too. They have to work together in a journey across to the bayou in the hope that they can reverse the spell.

Brothers

We can't seem to go more than a few months without some sort of drama about either the war in Afghanistan, or the war in Iraq. Which I suppose would be all well and good if they were all The Hurt Locker but most of them are more on the level of Stop-Loss, which isn't a terrible film, but isn't exactly great, or particularly necessary. Sadly, Jim Sheridan's new film, Brothers, is much closer to the latter category.  It takes some good performances, and interesting concepts and wraps them in so much histrionics filled melodrama that it becomes difficult to take seriously.

Captain Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) is about to return to Afghanistan for his fourth tour leaving his wife Grace (Natalie Portman) and two young daughters behind. When something happens to Sam in Afghanistan his newly out of prison brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) steps in to help comfort and take care of Sam's family. Tommy and Grace become closer and closer during Sam's absence, developing a close friendship, and maybe a little something more.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wes Anderson has long been one of my favorite directors. Rushmore is one of my favorite films, and I honestly can't think of a single one of his films that I didn't at least moderately enjoy (yes, evenDarjeeling Limited). That being said, I think that Fantastic Mr. Fox is his most accessible film, and may even be his best.

Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) put his days of poultry theft behind him when he settled down with his beloved wife (Meryl Streep) to raise a family. But familial bliss, and a career as a writer for the local newspaper isn't enough for him. Feeling unfulfilled, he packs up his wife and his strange, not particularly cool son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) and moves them out of their hole and into a bigger, and better, tree. The only problem is that this tree is in full view of the farms of Boggis, Bunce and Bean, the three meanest, most vicious farmers in the area. The temptation is too great for Mr. Fox and he soon goes back to his thieving ways, enlisting the help of his friend Kylie (Wally Wolodarsky) and his nephew Kristofferson (Eric Anderson) in a series of ever more difficult capers.

The Men Who Stare at Goats

I really wanted to like The Men Who Stare at Goats. It has a couple of my favorite actors in it (GeorgeClooney and Jeff Bridges) and I love a good story about secret government research, especially when they're researching turning soldiers into "Jedi warriors." It all sounds promising, and turns out to be disappointing.

Land of the Lost

Have you ever wondered what it'd be like to be lost in another dimension? One that was full of dinosaurs, and ape men and lizard men and all kinds of other weird stuff? You have? Really? Now the real question is, have you ever wondered what it'd be like to do it if you were completely high? Or are you high right now? Do you like to get high? Wanna get high? Because that's pretty much what Land of the Lost wants to know. Right now.

Disgraced paleontologist Rick Marshall (Will Ferrell) has a theory about time warping and has a problem with Matt Lauer. Which has left him teaching children at a museum with his research assistant Holly (Anna Friel). She encourages him to continue his research into building a tachyon amplifier by showing him a fossil that somehow has the imprint of his lighter in it. Upon completion of the amplifier they journey to the place where she found the fossil, and join up with guide Will Stanton (Danny McBride) on a mission into a parallel dimension filled with dinosaurs, the lizard like Sleestaks, and ape like Pakuni, along with a host of historical anachronisms that are explained by the "time warp" effects. They have to work together with Chaka, a Pakuni to survive the horrors of this "land of the lost" and return home to their own dimension.

Way back at the end of September I made the trip south to Austin, Texas and the world famous Alamo Drafthouse for Fantastic Fest. Fantastic Fest is the "largest genre film festival in the United States." Basically it's eight days of movie geek insanity with frequent trips into horror, science fiction, action, and fantasy. If you love movies it's pretty much an overdose of your favorites. Combine the movies with the location (only the best theater in the country in my opinion) and all the other events (like parties, the Fantastic Debates, Fantastic Feud and others) and it's just plain awesome.

I managed to see 30 movies during the festival, with a huge range in both style and quality, ranging everywhere from the super low budget, will never get a release, (Yesterday) to stuff that's since then come out to be great hits in wide release (Zombieland) and everything in between. I still plan on writing about at least a few of the films here so keep an eye out for that. On the whole I quite enjoyed the festival programming, and would highly enjoy going again. Or if you know, someone wanted to open a Drafthouse in Utah I wouldn't exactly be upset.

Post Grad

I might complain about a film like Transformers 2 being stupid, incoherent or a failure on almost every level, but at least I can respect that it took a few chances, and had some personality (dumb personality, but personality nonetheless). What I can’t respect is when a film is so bland, safe and lifeless that it’s a complete waste of time. Post Grad is just such a waste of time.

Ryden Malby (Alexis Bledel) is the sort of bright overachiever that’s had her entire life laid out since she was in elementary school. Her plan of getting great grades in high school, coasting through college near the top of her class and landing an interview for a job with a top publishing house has gone off without a hitch. The only problem is that she has no clue how to set herself apart from all the other bright, shiny, bland applicants, and can’t get the job. Over-educated and under-employed Ryden is forced to move back in with her family, who appear to be straight out of quirky indie movie central casting, while she tries to figure out where she’s going with her life.

The central premise of the film, a recent college graduate can’t find a job and is forced to move in with mom and dad, is what sucked me into the film. As someone with a semi-useless degree (film studies with minors in history and asian studies) going out into the worst job market in decades it’s definitely a situation I can empathize with. It’s a pity that very little of the film is actually about that. Instead it ends up getting bogged down in a love story, and a series of subplots that have almost nothing to do with the premise.

Sure, there are moments where we get to see Ryden’s struggles with searching for a job, but more often we’re seeing her best friend Adam (Zach Gilford) mooning over her, in what has to be one of the least realistic love stories I’ve ever seen. Here’s this guy, attractive, musician, accepted to Columbia law school, and we’re honestly supposed to believe that he’s just been pining away for years over this girl, who doesn’t seem to be all that special? I’m just not buying it. Hell, I’d be more willing to accept it the other way around. He’s the one in the relationship that actually seems to have his act together.

But even ignoring that, there doesn’t seem to be any point to having the love story in the first place. Why do we need a love story stuck right dab in the middle of a film about a new college graduate entering the job market. It feels like a studio note gone terribly wrong, like someone is checking off the elements needed to market the film. Which is a completely asinine reason to include it.

The worst thing about this completely unnecessary romantic plot is that in the third act it undercuts any positive message the film might have had about finding yourself, having satisfaction in your work, or other such nonsense, and throws it away for a cliched romantic comedy ending, where Ryden gives it all up for the love of her life. Seriously, people? What was the point of all the trappings of a this coming of age story if you’re really just making a damn rom-com? Might as well have just cast Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey so that everyone would know up front what a waste of time it is.

Grade: D+

Trick 'r Treat

One of the things I was most looking forward to at Fantastic Fest was getting the chance to see the much talked about, often delayed, Trick 'r Treat on the big screen. It was originally scheduled for release in the fall of 2007, but was pushed back again and again until its eventual DVD and Blu-ray release this October. It was a long time coming, but it was definitely worth the wait.

Trick 'r Treat is a series of four Halloween tales told in the style of a Creepshow or Twilight Zone style, interweaving the four stories to create one complex story of one Halloween night. The common thread tying all these stories together is a little pumpkin-head, sack-masked creature named Sam. He visits a couple (Leslie Bibb and Tahmoh Penikett) returning home from a party as they take down their Halloween decorations. He looks on at a confrontation between a principal (Dylan Baker) and one of his troublesome students. He joins in with a group of teenagers as they go to an old quarry looking for a night of spooky fun. He can't help following a young woman (Anna Paquin) and her friends as they get into all sorts of naughty trouble. And finally he puts a cranky old man (Bryan Cox) in his place when he refuses to respect or celebrate the holiday. Sam is the unpredictable, and often vengeful protector of the holiday, making sure that everyone respects and follows the rules.

This is the genius short film that District 9 is based on.