Heartbreaker (L'arnacoeur - 2010)

Joyce and Janice recommended this French movie about some con artists and we roared laughing throughout much of it today. If you see the trailer or read anything at all you'll learn what the con is, but we didn't and liked being surprised about 15 minutes in. Starring Romain Duris (dancing here as he did in Paris, funny as he was in Moliére (2007)) as Alex, Vanessa Paradis as Juliette, Julie Ferrier (she was in Paris and was the contortionist in Micmacs) as Alex's sister Mélanie, François Damiens as Mélanie's husband Marc, and Héléna Noguerra as Juliette's slutty friend Sophie (the latter two have some very funny bits). Paradis and Noguerra are better known as singers than actresses but Paradis is probably best known for being Johnny Depp's partner and baby mama. 

French TV director Pascal Chaumeil makes a confident feature debut with the scenario (French for screenplay) by Laurent Zeitoun, Jeremy Doner, and Yoann Gromb. 

The original score (listen here by clicking the > play button and don't worry about spoilers) by Klaus Badelt (Gladiator (2000), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), The In-Laws (2003), Catwoman, more) is supplemented by lots of source music and other songs, including Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and The Time of My Life from the movie Dirty Dancing (on this site you can hear another of the songs - I recommend you do not watch the trailer, which is in French without subtitles, because it gives away many of the best moments) (there's a partial list of the other songs).

The gorgeous scenery in Morocco, Paris, Cannes, and Monte Carlo is shot by Thierry Arbogast (La Femme Nikita (1990), The Professional (1994), the excellent and lush Ridicule (1996) and The Fifth Element (1997), and Catwoman (2004) with Halle Berry, among many). 

Yesterday's paper had a rave review of this movie reprinted from the Los Angeles Times, though on rottentomatoes it only scores in the 70s. We think most of you will love it, unless, like Bart Simpson (or is it Homer?), you hate subtitles. We like subtitles. Sometimes they help us learn swear words in other languages!

Congratulations to me. I began the blog on September 3, 2008 and have covered 300 movies since then (for the alphabetical list click the link at the right under "Index of babetteflix posts").

Hereafter (2010)

Despite critics' (except Roger Ebert) bashing of Clint Eastwood's movie about the afterlife from the points of view of people affected by death in three countries, we thought it was pretty good. Matt Damon is the American, Cécile De France the Frenchwoman, and Frankie and George McLaren the 12-year-old English identical twins. I must admit I have a certain fondness for this kind of movie. Before I started film school in 1982, I had a ready answer when I was asked my favorite movies (though, now, like Damon's character George says frequently, I don't do that any more): A Thousand Clowns (1965), Resurrection (1980), and The Dead Zone (1983). The latter two have in common with Hereafter that the main characters have supernatural powers enhanced by touching a person, and I will say that David Cronenberg's The Dead Zone was much more dramatic in the touch sequences than Eastwood's Hereafter. (A Thousand Clowns, a comedy set in what people tend to think of now as Mad Men New York, has no similarities to the others.)

I wrote about Eastwood in my post on Invictus, and Damon in The Informant, and they have a good thing going here. Damon, as in Good Will Hunting (1997) makes us believe that he works a blue-collar job and that he has great inner turmoil. The lovely De France has a fabulous tousled haircut in this, unlike her pixie cut in two movies in which she starred that I've seen and liked enormously: L'auberge espagnole (2002) and Avenue Montaigne (2007). Her character Marie is bilingual but most of her scenes are in French with subtitles. I don't think it's a spoiler to reveal that the opening sequence contains the 2004 Indonesian tsunami with convincing computer-generated special effects. The McLaren boys are adorable in their screen debut (I have reason to believe from the way the credits are written that they interchanged the roles of Jason and Marcus). Ron's daughter Bryce Dallas Howard (Spider-Man 3 (2007), others) has a good turn as Melanie, whom George meets in a cooking class where the teacher is played by Steven Schirripa (better known as Tony Soprano's brother-in-law Bobby Bacala) who provides some of the movie's only laughs. Funny man Jay Mohr (TV series Gary Unmarried on CBS now, Action (it's hilarious) on DVD) as George's brother Billy, plays it straight. George is obsessed with Charles Dickens, and my Jack, a retired high school English teacher, recognized the passages long before the author was identified verbally. Derek Jacobi, who starred in a documentary called Charles Dickens's England (2009), the movie Little Dorrit (1988), and The Old Curiosity Shop (2007) for TV, plays himself, reading Dickens at a book fair. A Dickens blogger (now there's a niche!) has listed the references in the movie as well as the "Hereafter Dickens connection."

One of my first professors at film school taught us the rule of coincidences: people will not believe a happy coincidence as much as an unhappy one. Writer Peter Morgan (I wrote about him in both Frost/Nixon and The Damned United) clearly had a different teacher and, for the record, Jack and I both thought the major coincidence at the book fair was necessary for the story. In this spoiler-free interview Morgan talks about writing the script on spec (for himself and not for a specific buyer) and how it came into Eastwood's hands.

As usual, Eastwood composes his own music and, as usual, it's nice (I can't find any clips for you but it's available on CD and download from the usual sources, but be warned! I found two spoilers in the NAMES of the tracks. It's so lonely being a spoiler hater). This is a very different take on paranormal activity than the comedy of You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. I can't make a blanket recommendation for all my readers because only about half of everyone who has seen it and written about it liked it. Basically humor-free, though, it still was worth our time.

The Town (2010)

Jack and I thought this story of longtime friends who rob banks was good: well paced with character development and lots of property damage (Ben Affleck got a high budget for his sophomore directing gig, albeit one that was supposed to be led by Adrian Lyne). Based on Chuck Hogan's novel Prince of Thieves (now available as The Town) which is itself based on a Boston Globe story (he talks about it briefly here), the movie follows the friends, led by Affleck's character Doug MacRay, as they plan jobs and answer to the Florist, played by Pete Postlethwaite (In the Name of the Father (1993), The Usual Suspects (1995), more) who strikes fear into the hearts of his men. Doug's closest friend is Jem, played by Jeremy Renner (I wrote about him in The Hurt Locker, after which he was Oscar-nominated for that role), who, like Blake Lively as Jem's sister, is a Californian who studied and honed a Boston accent so well that Affleck approved. Yes, I have been writing about accents a lot lately. They contribute much to the feel of the piece. Rebecca Hall (see my post on Please Give) does well, too, not only with a Boston accent overcoming her natural British, but with the full range of emotions necessary for her part of Claire, the woman held hostage in a bank robbery and all that ensues. Affleck himself may have been born in California, but was raised in Cambridge, and I think everybody knows that he won his Oscar for co-writing the screenplay for Good Will Hunting (1997) with his friend from Little League and beyond, Matt Damon, about a brilliant janitor working at Harvard (a job held by Affleck's father). Since I started blogging Affleck's been in He's Just Not That Into You, Extract, and State of Play, playing very different roles each time, and he's proved both here and in Gone Baby Gone (2007) that he can direct as well. Jon Hamm (best known for the hit series Mad Men, he's also very funny as the handsome but dumb klutz Drew Baird on 30 Rock) gives his FBI agent Frawley the Don Draper intensity that makes us want to watch him. Two actors playing gang members who did not need to learn a new accent are Slaine (one name only), a Boston-born rapper who lives in New York and was also in Gone Baby Gone, and Owen Burke, who is originally from Charlestown, the district from where the characters hail.

We saw this a few weeks ago but then went out of town and I'm just now catching up. I think The Florist spoke with an Irish accent but I don't really remember anymore (I assumed Postlethwaite to be Irish because In the Name of the Father is about the IRA, but he's actually from west-central England). The score is composed by David Buckley and Harry Gregson-Williams, who collaborated on Gone Baby Gone, among many other credits (here's one track from their score, and the rest are on the right side of the page), and there are also five songs, described in detail here, and available for listening here. Most of it the movie was shot in the greater Boston area, including Fenway Park (and Major League baseball was apparently allowed a vote in certain aspects of those scenes--to tell you now would be a spoiler but it's on imdb, so check at your own risk) so that's an added draw for fans of that city. The action sequences are great. We recommend this movie.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

On Fridays some Jews light candles, some go to temple, and some go to the new Woody Allen movie. Jack isn't Jewish, and I'm the secular sort, but we had plenty of belly laughs in Allen's London-set tale of two (gentile) unhappy couples and the awkward situations into which they put themselves. The couples are Helena and Alfie, played by Gemma Jones (mum of characters Bridget Jones (2001 and 04) and the Dashwood girls in Sense and Sensibility (1995), and Madam Pomfrey in a couple of Harry Potters (2002 and 09), among many credits) and Anthony Hopkins (my favorites are The Silence of the Lambs (1991), which won him his Oscar, The Remains of the Day (1993), which earned one of his three nominations, 84 Charing Cross Road (1987), and The World's Fastest Indian (2005)) and their daughter and son-in-law Sally and Roy, played by Naomi Watts (I wrote about her in Mother and Child) and Josh Brolin (was in Allen's Melinda and Melinda (2004) and great in the hilarious Flirting with Disaster (1996), the grim No Country for Old Men (2007), the wonderful Milk, and W.). There's usually a nervous Woody-type character in each of his movies, and some would say (Allen himself hinted this in a spoiler-filled interview that you should read after you've seen the movie) it is Alfie, who is close to Allen's age and wants to date younger women. But my take is that it's Roy: antsy, out of place (he's an American amongst all the Brits), out of shape, and frustrated. And, as his wife Sally, Watts has the Mia Farrow thing going: pretty and pissed off. And they both stammer a bit in the beginning: a hallmark of most of Allen's leads. Jones' Helena is sweet and naive and Pauline Collins (Oscar-nominated for playing Shirley Valentine (1989)) as Cristal the fortune teller is pretty funny. Lucy Punch's hysterical Charmaine reminds me of something I heard Roger Ebert say on TV about Cameron Diaz in her first movie, The Mask (1994). I couldn't find an exact quote so you'll have to trust me on this one. Ebert said that he wasn't sure if it was Diaz' comic timing or her Wonderbra that was great, but he tended to believe it was the former. Punch, who was priceless in Dinner for Schmucks, hits the bulls eye again here. Freida Pinto (this is her second movie after playing the babe in Slumdog Millionaire; before that she was a model) is gorgeous and thoughtful as the lady in red.

Speaking of which, each character's wardrobe has a specific palette which you will enjoy (wardrobe by Beatrix Aruna Pasztor (this is her first time with Allen; she styled, among others, The Fisher King (1991), To Die For (1995), Wonder Boys (2000), and The Brothers Bloom, which wardrobe impressed me so much I mentioned it in the post), and, as usual for Allen, the sets and locations are spectacular, as well as the cinematography of Vilmos Zsigmond (Oscar for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), nominated for The Deer Hunter (1987), The River (1984), and The Black Dahlia (2006), and he worked with Allen on Melinda and Melinda and Cassandra's Dream (2007)) and soundtrack of Dixieland, straight-ahead jazz, and classical music. A bit of casting trivia: Nicole Kidman was to have had Punch's part but dropped out for a scheduling conflict, and Ewen Bremner, who plays the writer Henry Strangler, was in Trainspotting (1996), directed by Danny Boyle 12 years before Slumdog, among other credits. You may see Antonio Banderas listed as the star of this movie. He isn't. His name just comes first when the major players are alphabetized. The lovely Anna Friel appears in a small part with a confusing accent (one minute English, then American, then Scottish), especially odd since her character Iris is supposed to be an old schoolmate of Sally's. Friel, originally from Manchester in northern England, can do a perfect American accent, as she did on TV's Pushing Daisies, so one would think she could match that of Watts (who was born in England, raised in Australia, and has played English-speaking parts from both of those places as well as here). Perhaps I'm nitpicking, but it was a wee bit jarring.

For some premiere photos and more thoughts from the director, see this link. Since I began the blog just over two years ago I've written about two Allen movies: Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Whatever Works. Let me say that, though I do not approve of his incestuous choice of mate, I'm still a huge fan of his work, and not just "the earlier, funnier ones."

Bran Nue Dae (2009)

This cute Australian musical (pronounced brand new day) was adapted from a popular stage show but director Rachel Perkins makes full use of beautiful vistas and outside locations. Set in 1965, it's the story of an aboriginal boy who attends a religious boarding school but yearns for a pretty girl at home. All of the actors were unknown to me except Geoffrey Rush (Oscar winner for Shine (1996), nominated for Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Quills (2000), he was also great in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), Munich (2005), Pirates of the Caribbean (2003, 06, 07), and, my personal favorite, the crazy guy in The Banger Sisters (2002)), whose participation no doubt insured funding and distribution outside of Rush's native Australia. Perhaps not award-winning performances, the rest of the cast gets the point across, especially Ernie Dingo as Father Tadpole, who has the second longest resumé in the cast ('Missy' Higgins, as the hippie chick, has a great voice and has a few musical credits). I like Dingo's voice, too.

Here's the trailer, which will give you a taste of the production numbers, and a spoiler-free interview with the director. There are plenty of nice touches, including some cartoonish-ness (watch for the snoring of Rush's character, Father Benedictus).

It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)

Everyone should see this great little movie by the creators of the fab Half Nelson (2006) and Sugar. Starring Keir Gilchrist as a New York 16-year-old who commits himself to a psych ward, it is remarkably uplifting. And who knew Zach Galifianakis could succeed in a dramatic role after all his slapstick work in The Hangover (and its upcoming sequel), Youth in Revolt, Up in the Air, Bored to Death, and Dinner for Schmucks? Jack commented that Galifianakis really looked medicated--good acting AND makeup. Gilchrist (Tara's gay son Marshall on United States of Tara) is touching as the straight teenager with two love interests played by Hollywood princesses Emma Roberts (daughter of Eric, niece of Julia, seen in Lymelife, Valentine's Day, others) and Zoë Kravitz (daughter of Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz, was in No Reservations, more). The ubiquitous Viola Davis (series arc on United States of Tara, plus Eat Pray Love, State of Play, and her breakout role in Doubt) plays the psychiatrist we would all want our kid to have. Lauren Graham (loved Evan Almighty, Flash of Genius, and the series Parenthood), Jim Gaffigan (Away We Go, lots more), Aasif Mandvi (The Daily Show, Spider-Man 2 (2004), Music and Lyrics (2007), The Proposal), Jeremy Davies (Secretary (2002), Solaris (2004), Lost), and many others play supporting roles, including  Matthew Maher (Dogma (1999), Gone Baby Gone (2007), more), who I'm pretty sure was uncredited in I'm Still Here.

The movie is based on a novel of the same name by Ned Vizzini, a New Yorker who was himself briefly hospitalized for depression at age 23. The borough of Brooklyn plays itself. There's also some excellent animation, as we expected from something with this subject matter. Co-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck wrote the adapted screenplay and did the same on Sugar.

The David Bowie fantasy sequence in the middle is in and of itself worth the price of admission. Then there's some great indie music (complete list here, CD track listing here, with a few clips) complementing the score by indie greats (and Feist's first band) Broken Social Scene. The pace may be a bit slow at first, but chill. You'll get used to it. Though everything I've read points to this being a teen movie (directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck even screened The Breakfast Club (1985) for the cast and crew before the start of photography), we highly recommend it for all but very young kids.

Kings of Pastry (2010)

This documentary about 16 patissiers (pastry-makers) auditioning for the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman in France) was great fun and, Jack said, more suspenseful than most of the scripted thrillers we've seen lately. Co-directed by 85-year-old D.A. Pennebaker (best known for the Bob Dylan doc Don't Look Back (1967) and numerous other "rockumentaries" and videos) and his wife since 1982, 58-year-old (since I told his I have to tell hers) Chris Hegedus (together they were Oscar-nominated for The War Room (1993), and Hegedus won the Directors Guild of America Award for Startup.com (2001)), it follows several of them before the competition, traveling between Chicago, Alsace, Lyon, and Paris, with Rule #2 exhibited immediately. Jack watches Top Chef and No Reservations, I watch no food TV shows, but we both liked the movie a lot. Going on my updated list of food movies, it's short (1:24) and, I have to say it, SWEET!

Life During Wartime (2009)

Fellow cringe-lovers, rejoice! Todd Solondz' sequel to his unhappy Happiness (1998) is finally here, albeit with not a single actor reprising a role. Jack and I were alone at Monday's matinee and laughed heartily at the characters' discomfort and the in-jokes (one we missed was the reason for the I'm Not There (2007) movie poster in a dorm room: cinematographer Ed Lachman shot it before this one, in which Puerto Rico passes for Florida). Where Happiness was about three sisters, their parents, and their neighbors, now one sister and the mother have supporting roles, and the father is out of the picture. 

This story revolves around Joy (Shirley Henderson - my faves were Trainspotting (1996), Topsy Turvy (1999), and Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002)) and Trish (Allison Janney - probably best known for The West Wing, she had some great performances in Big Night (1996), The Ice Storm (1997), American Beauty (1999), Juno (2007), and Away We Go), still in denial about their sordid lives, Trish's husband Bill (Ciarán Hinds - this year's winner of a Career Achievement Award at the Dublin International Film Festival, he was in the excellent The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Circle of Friends (1995), Oscar and Lucinda (1997), Road to Perdition (2002), Margot at the Wedding (2007), and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day), and Trish's kids, Timmy, Chloe, and Billy, now 8 or so years older. 

I don't want to give away the plot of the first one, and this one can stand alone anyway, but it is interesting what Solondz chose to emphasize and what he left out. Here's another reviewer's line that I wish I had written: "Solondz treats his characters with all the compassion of a child frying ants with a magnifying glass," Colin Covert in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, who did not like the movie. We like anti-heroes and awkward situations. That's what made it fun for us. We loved Trish's dreadful parenting (the scenes with young Chloe are priceless).

One in-joke that I did get was the late appearance of the character Mark Weiner, from Solondz' brilliant first fiction feature, Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995) (apparently he regrets an early documentary and would leave it off his resumé if imdb would let him). I had forgotten that Mark was also in Solondz' baffling Palindromes (2004), where the protagonist Aviva (her name is a palindrome) is played by ten different actors (of varying races, ages, and genders) in the same movie. I didn't know Solondz was setting us up for the casting changes in this one. His other movie, Storytelling (2001), has some serious ant-frying, especially a scene that apparently was blocked by a red box on the screen for some showings. I don't remember seeing a red box, but then, I saw it in L.A. before I moved. Maybe there was less censorship in Tinsel Town in those days.

Life During Wartime is the name of a seminal Talking Heads song. But, in this movie, as in Dollhouse and Happiness, there is an original title song sung by a character with a guitar. Another in-joke. Here's the title track as sung by Devendra Banhart and Beck over the credits (Henderson also sings it during wartime, er, the movie).

In case you're interested, here are the casting changes from Happiness to Life During Wartime:
Joy: now Shirley Henderson, was Jane Adams.
Allen: now Michael K. Williams, was Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Trish: now Allison Janney, was Cynthia Stevenson.
Bill: now Ciarán Hinds, was Dylan Baker.
Timmy: now Dylan Riley (with beautifully thick eyelashes), was Snyder Justin Elvin.
Chloe: now Emma Hinz, was Lila Glantzman-Leib.
Billy: now Chris Marquette, was Rufus Read.
Helen (the other sister): now Ally Sheedy, was Lara Flynn Boyle.
Andy: now Paul Reubens (AKA Pee-wee Herman), was Jon Lovitz.
Mona (the mom): now Renée Taylor, was Louise Lasser (the dad was played by Ben Gazzara).
Mark Weiner: now Rich Pecci, was Matthew Faber.

Former child actress Gaby Hoffman (Field of Dreams at age 7 in 1989, Everyone Says I Love You in 1996, and more) has a cameo as Billy's girlfriend Wanda.

Though we had a great time, this movie is not for everyone, and definitely not for children. On rottentomatoes 69% of critics liked it and only 50% of users. One needs not to run screaming from the room at the suggestion of what Trish calls "sicko-pervy" behavior. And we, who stay in our seats, are Solondz' core audience.

Mao's Last Dancer (2009)

Based on the autobiography of Li Cunxin, this is a beautifully formed story of an extraordinary ballet dancer from his youth in Communist China to his time in America in the 1980s. It stars Chi Cao, who took a leave of absence from the Birmingham Royal Ballet to make this, as Li (amusingly to anyone who knows Chinese names, the Americans in the movie, even his close friends, call him Li, which is his family's name (like Smith), perhaps because his personal name Cunxin, pronounced “schwin sing,” would be too hard to say). Chi (bafflingly fifth billed on the poster) is terrific as the adult Li, and we also liked the kids who portrayed him growing up, Wen Bin Huang as the little boy and Chengwu Guo as the teenager, all three making their screen debuts.

Australian Director Bruce Beresford (Oscar-nominated for Breaker Morant (1980) and Tender Mercies (1983), his work includes Crimes of the Heart (1986), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), and Evelyn (2002)) gives us just the right mix of foreign locations and customs, gorgeous ballet sequences choreographed by fellow Aussie Graeme Murphy (occasionally in slow-motion in, I would guess, a nod to the martial arts "flying" sequences that started with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)), 1980s hair and disco dancing, and the personal journey of the protagonist. Bruce Greenwood (I wrote about him in Dinner for Schmucks) is wonderful as Houston Ballet Company's director Ben Stevenson. Kyle MacLachlan (Blue Velvet (1986), Twin Peaks (TV 1990-91 and film 1992), Sex and the City (TV only 2000-02), Desperate Housewives (2006-10)) is good with his Texas accent, and gets second billing to Greenwood, though he doesn't appear until the second half of the movie. I also liked Joan Chen (The Last Emperor (1987), Twin Peaks (TV only 1990-91), What's Cooking, and Lust, Caution (2007)) as Li's mother, who has the body language of a Chinese peasant down pat. All the dancers here are really dancers: Amanda Schull, who plays Liz, danced and starred in Center Stage (2000) when she was in the San Francisco Ballet; Madeleine Eastoe, as Lori, has worked with Murphy in Australia: and Camilla Vergotis (Mary) is also Australian, currently a soloist with the Hong Kong Ballet; and many more.

The book was adapted by Jan Sardi (Oscar-nominated for adapting the screenplay for Shine (1996), and other work) and the cinematographer Peter James also shot Meet the Parents (2000), among others. Thanks to Kathleen for recommending this. We can see The Town anytime (and will), but this won't be around for much longer!

The Social Network (2010)

We liked this unauthorized version of the founding of Facebook and the legal battles thereafter. Jack said Jesse Eisenberg made us root for his unlikeable character and I say he is officially no longer interchangeable with Michael Cera. We saw this on opening day, before the crowds, and read the reviews after (why do these writers feel the need to tell us how it ends before we've seen the beginning???). We also waited (and I recommend that you wait, too, as there are spoilers) to read the long cover story in New York magazine (called "The movie Facebook doesn't want you to see"), wherein it was revealed that director David Fincher needed 99 takes for the fabulous first scene, in which Eisenberg's twitchy Mark Zuckerberg is revealed to be a dick. Speaking of Cera, Kate's little sister Rooney Mara, who had a part in the Cera-starring Youth in Revolt, plays Erica Albright in that first scene (as well as the rest), and has been cast as Lisbeth Salander in the American remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, now filming, also with Fincher (Oscar-nominated for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) at the helm.

The movie has screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's (best known for The West Wing, of which I watched only a few seasons, Sorkin has put his rapid-fire dialogue to Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006-07), Sports Night (1998-2000), The American President (1995), and the brilliant Malice (1993), among others) fingerprints all over it, despite its officially being called an adaptation of Ben Mezrich's book, The Accidental Billionaires (more on that in the New York article) (Mezrich also wrote the book from which 21 (2008) was adapted). Near the end of the New York article, Sorkin says, "This isn't a documentary." And the filmmakers don't let the truth, or the approval of the real people, get in the way of their story.

So this goes on the ever-growing list of Eisenberg's movies that I have loved (in order, with most favorite first: Zombieland, The Squid and the Whale (2005), this one, Roger Dodger (2002), Adventureland, A Solitary Man). Andrew Garfield (new to me in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) does a first rate job as Zuckerberg's best friend Eduardo Saverin, as does Justin Timberlake, better known as a musician in *NSYNC, etc. (his role as Sean Parker is a wink to that career) but is getting good as an actor (I particularly liked Alpha Dog (2006)). Supporting help is provided by the impassioned Max Minghella (Bee Season (2005), Art School Confidential (2006), and more) as Divya and Armie Hammer as the identical Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler. Appropriately, for someone playing an entitled Harvard man, or two, he is the handsome great-grandson of industrialist-art collector-philanthropist Armand Hammer (in a few scenes Josh Pence plays Tyler--you will notice here and there they are not identical and then suddenly they are). Douglas Urbanski, normally a producer (of nothing I have seen), has a funny scene playing Harvard President Larry Summers, and Sorkin has a cameo as the ad executive pitched by Zuckerberg and Saverin.

For the soundtrack you have the complete list on imdb, and the reelsoundtrack list with six songs' streaming music, but there's a spoiler in the latter in the description of when the songs occur. The movie is rated PG-13, which seems wrong to me. Here's the list if you're considering letting your youngsters see it--note the typo in the drug reference: should be "snort cocaine OFF a girl's stomach." Yikes! I kept quoting Silas Botwin from Weeds, who said, "I love college!"

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (2010)

I feel so much hipper after watching this documentary about Basquiat, the Haitian-Puerto Rican-American graffiti painter turned international art star. Directed by Basquiat's friend Tamra Davis, this is a loving portrait of the artist as a young man. I had liked the 1996 movie directed by another of Basquiat's friends, artist Julian Schnabel (who is in the documentary), in which Jeffrey Wright gave a fictionalized portrayal of the mercurial painter. This one has a good deal of footage of Basquiat himself, painting, dancing (occasionally at the same time), and speaking with Davis (who has directed episodes of various TV series as well as other documentaries and the movie Billy Madison (1995), among others), mixed in with interviews with people close to him and other vintage photography of the 1970s and 80s. The interview with Basquiat was originally a documentary short in 2006, and Davis met backers who asked her to flesh it out into a feature length doc. The poor radiant child (the term is from the title of an article about Basquiat by René Ricard, also in the doc) died of a heroin overdose in 1988 (six months after the death of his good friend and mentor Andy Warhol) at age 27, the same age as Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix were in 1970 and Jim Morrison in 1971. This is not Ray (2004) or Walk the Line (2005), in which we saw the artists' druggy decline, however. This is a mostly upbeat hour and a half about the mostly upbeat guy who mostly loved what he did. Langston Hughes' poem Genius Child is featured at both beginning and end.

The trailer and the movie start with Dizzy Gillespie's jazz classic Salt Peanuts, and there is a prodigious number of wonderful music clips (listed on this page) from a wide variety of musical genres. The movie will be released on DVD October 26. Jack and I recommend you watch it.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)

The good news: the aerial photography, sets, and locations are magnificent: Susan Sarandon is endearing; the songs are good; and Michael Douglas steals the show. The bad news: the script is weak, the pacing is off, Shia LaBeouf is a bit annoying, and Carey Mulligan's talents are wasted. I would say to skip it, except the richness of the cinematography needs a big screen. So you'll have to determine your own priorities when you decide whether to pay an ever-inflating ticket price (how appropriate) to see this, set in the 2008 economic crisis, about a young trader (LaBeouf) who is dating the daughter (Mulligan) of disgraced financier Gordon Gekko (Douglas) in the sequel to Wall Street (1987).

Director of Photography Rodrigo Prieto (my favorites are listed in Broken Embraces, after which he shot State of Play) should get a nomination for his luscious work here, as should Production Designer Kristi Zea (Oscar nominations for As Good As It Gets (1997) and Revolutionary Road, also designed, among others, Goodfellas (1990), Philadelphia (1993), the remake of The Manchurian Candidate (2004), The Departed (2006), and The Joneses, the last an opulent display of wretched excess just like this one) and Set Decorator Diane Lederman (Summer of Sam (1999) and others). The views of New York City, from the air, on the ground, and out the windows of multi-million dollar apartments and offices, are spectacular, as are the furnishings in those apartments, and all the non-NYC places.

We expected more from director Oliver Stone. Though W. was a little disappointing, Stone did, after all, win Oscars for directing Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and for adapting Midnight Express (1978), and I thought Natural Born Killers (1994) was good and The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) and Talk Radio (1988) were brilliant. Stone has a cameo in this one, in an art gallery, when I laughed out loud at the art and therefore didn't hear the piece's name, which I hoped was funny, too.

The music, some by David Byrne and Brian Eno, is listed in its entirety on imdb, and you can listen to eight songs on reelsoundtrack blog. Imdb also lists a prodigious amount of trivia, if you care. Jack and I, who have consumed Cracker Jack lately, knew the prize gag was anachronistic, which is mentioned on the goofs page, but the Prius model is right for 2008, though imdb says it isn't. No matter what they say about the giant mobile phone, it's a good gag and it was in the trailer. We're glad Stone got Douglas (see my faves in A Solitary Man) to reprise his Oscar winning role of Gekko. If you, too, love Michael Douglas, you will like this article about him from the UK.