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Director: Drew Barrymore

Starring: Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Eve, Kristen Wigg, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis, Jimmy Fallon, Landon Pigg, Daniel Stern,

Drew Barrymore’s feature directorial debut is a success! Well, sort of. Working with novel author Shauna Cross’ screenplay, Barrymore does manage to keep the energy level up an does a fantastic job of casting a talented cast of actors who both look and play the roles they are in. The story is unique (at least unique within the cookie cutter confines of Hollywood) and interesting. Ellen Page is as great to watch as ever and Jimmy Fallon steps in from time to time with some comic relief. Where Whip It loses its roll a little is with a story that dulls its edge too much and with the roller skating scenes that could have been punched up with bit more action.

Ellen Page is Bliss Cavender, a high school girl competing in beauty pageants to please her frustrated mother played by Marcia Gay Harden. Bliss needs something of her own, however, and finds it, with her friend’s Pash’s (Alia Shawkat) I-dare-you encouragement in the resurging world of roller derby, but her challenges are many. Can she evade her mother (and league rules) to play? Can she fit in with the raucous crew of boisterous women and, most of all, can she hold her own on the track where bigger, meaner opponents with names like Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis) are playing rough and hard? Let the credits roll. They are dotted with fun outtakes.

Whip it is a good film about women stepping out and doing things by themselves and for themselves. It’s flavour and feel are rather like “A League of Their Own”, but lacks the polish of the latter. It is still an enjoyable film. It’s a fun, upbeat film with a charismatic cast and an interesting subject.

Director: Alan Jacobs

Starring: Jessica Romero, Danny Glover, Kate Del Castillo, Emily Rios

I rolled into TO for the last weekend of the 2009 TIFF (Toronto Int’l Film Festival) and went on a whirlwind movie spree, seeing nine movies in two days. Some, like My Son, My Son What Ye Done, were god awful, pretentious art-house junk and others, like Jennifer’s Body, were pretty good, but head and shoulders above the other eight was Down For life. This gritty inner city drama, which is apparently a true story inspired by a New Times article, crackles with realism and the performers don’t seem to be acting at all, but simply living. The action scenes are jarring and seem a lot closer to Youtube than Hollywood, thanks to the skilled direction of little-known director, Alan Jacobs.

Jessica Romero, was cast right off the streets of East Central to play the lead role of Rascal, the streetwise leader of a small women’s wing of a Latino gang. The whole story takes place in a single chaotic day in her violence-filled life. Conflict both inside and outside the gang as well as in the home, on top of a looming deadline for entry to a summer writing program that might be an escape hatch to a better life. The crisp story moves along quickly and eventually takes us a scene so sudden and shocking that viewers seemed to jump back in their seats as one.

Down For Life is a current and raw film made in the vein of such inner city classics as Boyz n The Hood. It is an independent film and may be hard to find, but as the best film of 2009, thus far, it is well worth the effort.

Director: Jonas Pate

Starring: Kevin Spacey, Mark Webber, Robin Williams, Keke Palmer, Saffron Burrows, Jack Huston, Pell James, Robert Loggia, Dallas Roberts, Jesse Plemons

Jonas Pate steps out of TV land, where he has spent the last decade in various behind the camera positions to try his hand at the big screen and despite the help from a talented cast that includes the award-laden duo of Kevin Spacey and Robin Williams, as well as the promising young actress Keke Palmer (Akeelah and The Bee), Pate is unable to lift the film above the ponderous overfilled script. There are way too many characters here, and the result is a lack of real character interaction and depth that would allow the stars to work their magic.

Kevin Spacey is Henry Carter, a prominent psychiatrist to the stars with a best selling self help book. Life should be great, but the recent suicide of his wife has led him to a drug problem and serious self-doubt. This ties in with the stories of an aging star fighting philandering tendencies (Williams), a Hollywood power agent along with his pathological germ fear and his sweet pregnant assistant. There is also a teen struggling with loss (Keke Palmer), an aspiring screenwriter, a beautiful aging actress. Robert Loggia plays Carter’s father, and Jesse Plemons plays his drug dealer who also serves as a shoulder to lean on. I guess writer Thomas Moffett didn’t think he had quite enough characters yet. I would like to tell you more about the seemingly endless sub-plots here, but I have used all my space just giving most of the characters. I might have missed a couple, but you get the idea.

If you imagine taking Ordinary People and mashing it up with American Beauty and Crash you will have some idea of what to expect here. The offspring here though, is not a best picture winner but rather a muddled mass of wasted potential and missed opportunity. In the end, there is a mediocre drama that will suffice for Friday night viewing for genre fans, but no more than that.

The Wrestler Trailer
Director: Darren Aronofsky

Starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood

The Wrestler is a product of the creative mind behind such dark dramas as The Fountain and Requiem for a Dream, and Darren Aronofsky still isn’t going to win any laugh fests with this bleak character drama about a broken down professional wrestler. Mickey Rourke, who showed such talent and promise twenty years ago, in such projects as Barfly and Angel Heart before falling into a decade or two of obscurity, powers this film with an Oscar worthy performance. He is helped out by a noteworthy effort by Marisa Tomei, and by the grim, but engrossing story. The direction is dark and overuses the hand held camera to achieve an authentic look. The end result is an excellent art house film that deserved more attention than it got.

The flagging career of Mickey Rourke may just be revived with his role as Randy “The Ram” Robinson, an aging, good-hearted performer in the hard knock wrestling world of heels (bad guys) and baby faces (good guys). Randy was once a big name, but any money he made is gone and only a glimmer of fame remains along with a lifetime of injuries and regret, as he tries to rebuild a relationship with his daughter and find a place in the world outside wrestling. Marisa Tomei joins him in this journey as an aging stripper and would-be girlfriend just trying to find her own way out of an even grimier world than his.

Imagine the movie Rocky, where Rocky doesn’t get a million to one shot to change his life, but instead the film follows him through his sombre, empty life at the beginning of the film. This is best way to describe The Wrestler. Still, for fans of powerful dramas, the great acting and genuine story of a man stripped bare is worth seeing.

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Director: Clint Eastwood

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Christopher Carley, Bee Vang, Abney Her,

I guess once you become a Hollywood icon of the titan stature of Clint Eastwood, all kinds of opportunities open up. You no longer have to surround yourself with experienced well-known performers or established writers and you can make any move you feel like. That explains Gran Torino, an uneven drama that would surely have even Hollywood’s boldest producers running for cover with its wall to wall spread of racial slurs laced into a formula tale of an angry grizzled hero coming to grips with his racist views (well, he sorta comes to grips with them, anyway). Clint is mesmerizing in this cantankerous role, but is really getting a bit old for the punch em up stuff, and is way too old for showing his stuff in a bathtub scene. Okay, its not like they show the drill and its bits, but 80 yr old actors don’t need to be showing anything anymore. His supporting cast ranges from acceptable to regrettable, and the story needed more work, but the overall project is better than you may expect, albeit only a little better.

Steely-eyed Clint is a recently widowed Korean war vet named Walt Kowalski, whose dated and racist attitudes and uncontrollable razor tongue has estranged his family, but endeared his friends. Walt’s neighbourhood is acquiring a real multi-color flavour and he’s not happy about it, Goddamnit! He’s even less happy when the quiet Hmong teen next door, Thao, played by Bee Vang, who struggles with the poorly written role, tries to steal Walt’s treasured, mint condition, 1972 Gran Torino. I understand how he feels. I can only imagine what I would do if someone tried to mess with my mint 1981 Chevy Citation, but I digress. Anyways, Thao is actually under pressure to join a local Hmong gang, and when Clint inadvertently saves his neighbours from trouble during a slightly over-zealous lawn defence, he becomes something of a Hmong hero. They cheerfully dismiss his constant barrage of racially motivated foul insults for some reason and are soon having him over for dinner. Come on! Are you kidding me??? Abney Her has a juicy role as Thao’s older sister, Sue, whose no-nonsense and unflappable character is a joy to watch, but really the whole thing is as easy to swallow as a big chunk of beef gristle. You can guess where this going, and soon Clint is the family’s foul-mouthed guardian angel. Hmmm, but what these Hmong gang bangers? What can an irascible old war vet do about a few environmentally challenged youths expressing their frustration in an anti-social manner?

Gran Torino is an uneven mix of interesting and stereotypical characters mixed up in an unsuccessful attempt to update the Walking Tall story line of one man who’s had enough of local criminals. Once you throw all this into the tinsel town blender, you get a mediocre film that has an Archie Bunker character trying to be both Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson in the endless Death Wish series) and Mr. Miyagi. Clint is really a lot better at the tough guy role and was hard to buy as the warm fuzzy father figure. Clint fans may consider it money well-spent and, since I consider myself one, I did want to see this and I don’t regret it. I do regret that Clint didn’t use all his power and influence to make a slightly better movie. Oh, well maybe next time

Director: Thomas McCarthy

Starring: Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Jekesai Gurira, Hiam Abbass

Hollywood likes to make films that I call issue pieces from time to time. An issue piece has a story and characters and they can be quite a good film, but there is always a central social issue that the filmmakers seem to want to sway your opinion on. The Visitor is an issue piece, with the issue here being the plight of illegal aliens in the United States. The story is grim and slow-paced, but the message is clear and poignant without being overpowering. The performances are very good and both relative newcomers Haaz Sleiman and Danai Jekesai Gurira, show both ability and charisma

Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is a widower and university professor who is living life through the motions, finding some relief in music, though he is frustrated in his attempts to learn an instrument himself. When an unavoidable NYC conference leads him to return to his long-kept but rarely used apartment, he finds a young couple, Tarek and Zainab (Sleiman and Gurira) are living there. Things are tense at first but soon Vail’s loneliness and a mutual interest in music gives rise to a friendship between Vail and Tarek, which leads to complications.

The Visitor is a semi-satisfying, but unremarkable drama, designed to tug at our heartstrings, but is not wholly successful. Still, with a decent story and a fresh cast of talented and mostly unknown faces, it does mange to draw out a couple hours worth of entertainment.

Director: James C. Strouse

Starring: John Cusack, Shelan O’Keefe, Gracie Bednarczyk, Alessandro Nivola

Someone answer me this. Is there a shortage of misery in the world? Do things not occur in our own lives often enough to make us sad? Do we really have to entertain ourselves by watching the saddest possible stories? Writer/director James C. Strouse must think not. Otherwise he wouldn’t sit down to write and make a film this bloody sad. The dialog is very natural and the story is too simple, seems full of dead subplots and will probably have you at least sniffling a little by the end (no surprise there, if you have seen the trailer). The performances are magnificently authentic with the young performers shining as brightly as the veteran, Cusack.

John Cusack is Stanley Philipps, whose career army wife is sent to Iraq, while he is left home to care for their daughters. Heidi (Shelan O’Keefe) is 12 and her sister, Dawn (Gracie Bednarczyk) is 8, and caring for them promises to get alot tougher when Stanley receives word that his wife has died in combat. Unable to deal with telling the girls, Stanley instead takes them on an impromptu road trip to an amusement park called Enchanted Garden, while he figures out how to break it to them.

Cusack is great, and he showcases his talent in a role that is very rare for him, here, but the story is too depressing and not interesting enough to offer much more than a dull, empty, heavy feeling by the end. Melodrama lovers might find it suitable for a nice Wednesday night cry, but I’d rather have more jokes, or more story if a movie is going to make me sad in the end.

Director: Jieho Lee

Starring: Kevin Bacon, Julie Delpy, Brendan Fraser, Andy Garcia, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Emile Hirsch, Forest Whitaker

Little known writer/director Jieho Lee managed to put together a powerhouse cast to make this heavily symbolic drama based on a Chinese proverb about happiness, pleasure, sorrow and love. The direction is ponderously stylish with an excess of slow motion and the story steps back from the traditional western movie structure with the help of some heavy duty acting talent, but the strange story won’t appeal to all viewers.

The Air That I Breathe is split into four interconnected stories with a successful, but lonely office worker played by Forest Whitaker, an introspective thug with limited psychic powers played by Brendan Fraser, a pop star played by Sarah Michelle Gellar and a doctor played by Kevin Bacon. For most of these stories, a gangster named Fingers, played by Andy Garcia is driving the action.

The Air That I Breathe is a passable drama that some people have really enjoyed, while others make a face usually associated with bad smelling food and movie on. For fans of gangster-inspired philosophy, it might be work a look.

The Air That I Breathe – movie quotes:

“Every man has his destiny. You can’t escape it, even if you can see it coming.”

Movie lines from The Air That I Breathe

Director: Susanne Bier

Starring: Halle Berry, Benecio Del Toro, David Duchovny, Alexis Llewellyn, Micah Berry, John Carroll Lynch, Alison Lohman, Omar Benson Miller

Things We Lost In The Fire is the first English language feature by Danish director Susanne Bier and is a powerful, but dreary drama about dealing with loss of a loved one and the pain of addiction. There are potent performances, but not a lot of chuckles with this honest Allan Loeb (21) screenplay. The mood, look and subject matter are all dark, but if you are in the mood for an emotional drama, you could do a lot worse, but the whole thing still feels too familiar.

Halle Berry is Audrey Burke, a suburban housewife with a happy marriage and two kids until her husband, Brian (David Duchovny) dies suddenly and tragically. In her efforts to cope, she finds herself leaning on Brian’s best friend, Jerry (Benecio Del Toro) for support, though she hated him previously for his disturbing presence in her husband’s life. Jerry is a recovering addict who is shocked and changed by the death of the one person who never gave up on him. With his honest and soft-spoken manner, Jerry manages to help those dealing with the loss of a special man, while attempting to find himself again, as well.

Things We Lost In The Fire is a cliched drama, but a well-written one, marked by fantastic acting by Oscar winners, Barry and Del Torro, who haven’t seen much of for too long. For whatever the reason, the film was largely ignored by critics and award presentations, though a couple of acting nominations would have been well-deserved.

Director: Julian Schnabel

Starring: Matthieu Amalric, Marie-Josee Coze, Marina Hands, Max Von Sydow, Emanuelle Seigner

This moving and absorbing feature tells the true story of Elle editor, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered a stroke and found himself stricken with near complete paralysis. The story is relentlessly grim and effective at giving the viewer a glimpse at the horrific “locked-in syndrome”, forcing us forced to imagine ourselves in this unimaginable situation. The flawless performances enhance Schnabel’s inspired vision that brought this one-of-a-kind first-person novel to the screen.

Matthieu Amalric plays a successful and self-absorbed editor, who begins the film seeing his hospital room-sized world through only his left eye after awakening from a short coma. Viewers hear his internal thoughts and see his flashbacks as the horrible story of condition unfolds. Over time, Bauby, who can only blink his left eye, learns to communicate, deals with personal issues and writes a book, upon which the film is based upon.

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is another film dealing with the true tale of a person dealing with incredible adversity. Like previous features such as My Left Foot, our ability to deal with challenges is the real story here. Wonderful cinema, I suppose, but pretty depressing for an evening’s entertainment.