I've got reviews of four new releases on RogerEbert.com this week, and all the movies are actually pretty good (or even better) for a change!
"The Descent" -- the scariest and most cinematically adept horror-thriller in years. (Don't look it up, don't watch the TV spots or the trailer -- just go. Now. Read reviews later.)
"Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" -- Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as NASCAR drivers. Did you laugh at that title? Then you'll probably laugh at the movie.
"Little Miss Sunshine" -- Steve Carrell, Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin. What more do you need to know? (Except, maybe, why they'd open a comedy with Carrell and Kinnear opposite a Will Ferrell comedy, in which Carrell was also offered a role but had to pass for scheduling reasons.)
"The Night Listener" -- a Hitchockian thriller, based on a novel by Armistead Maupin, also starring Toni Collette, and a performance by Robin Williams that is not only watchable but relatively nuanced. Who'da thunk it?
Great "Night Listener" review, Jim. I've been really worried about this movie for a long time as I thought the material would be very difficult to adapt to screen, but it sounds as if they succeeded.
If die-hard VERTIGO fanatic such as yourself was pleased, I'll undoubtedly feel the same.
JE: Thanks, Ross. It's gotten mixed reviews, but the ones I've read don't seem to understand the intentional ambiguity and ambivalence of the Williams character's motivations. I'm a Maupin fan, and I think they did well by him.
I have to say I'm a little perplexed with how well received Ricky Bobby is. I saw it, it's funny, I laughed -- but I could predict about half the jokes before they happened, and the most interesting character (the villain) was the most underutilized.
I've had an interesting arc with Ferrell. I couldn't stand him in SNL, warmed to him somewhere around Old School, and now I'm quickly leaving the guy behind again. It's like we're all peeking in at some vast inside joke.
Maybe, at the ripe old age of 25, I've become a curmudgeon.
JE: As I said in my review, I think it does a fine job of sending up biopics. I think Will Farrell can be brilliant, but one of the things I liked about this movie was how generous he was with his co-stars, too. Sacha Baron Cohen is allowed to steal the movie whenever he's on screen...