It's a quiet week for new studio releases. "Cadillac Records" is reasonably entertaining, given a high-profile cast that includes Jeffrey Wright (above right) as Muddy Waters, Eamonn Walker as Howlin' Wolf, and Mos Def as Chuck Berry, and it's great that the film lets the actors sing (and well) without resort to lipsyncery. But Beyonce Knowles ain't no Etta James (for that, see the bottom of this entry), and the fact that there's only one Chess brother here (Adrien Brody as Leonard, above left; Phil Chess apparently refused to be involved in the production) seriously queers the deal. Chess Records was and still is a major and underacknowledged force in American pop music of the last half century, but "Cadillac Records" gets the music right and no more. Still, decent fun for a night out.
At the MFA, the overview of Russian director Karen Shakhnazarov continues until Saturday. Experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky turns up at the Harvard Film Archive tonight (Friday) and Saturday, after which the HFA's more-than-necessary Nagisa Oshima retrospective kicks in. Oshima's a great, ballsy, groundbreaking filmmaker who never got the attention that Japan's Big Three (Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, Ozu) did. The series starts off with 1983's "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence," arguably the second-best movie David Bowie ever made (after "The Man Who Fell to Earth"). Oshima's most notorious film, the proto-porno-art "In the Realm of the Senses" (1976), screens on December 19, but make time next Saturday for the absolutely stunning "Boy" (1969), based on the true story of a couple who involved their young son in traffic accidents for the money. Actually, scan the series and make time for as many of these films as you can; they're impossible to find on video and they're almost all excellent.
Chandni Chowk To China - Trailer Chandni Chowk to China, the first ever Bollywood Kungfu comedy takes you on a madcap journey from the by-lanes of Chandni Chowk in Delhi, to Shanghai, the Great Wall and rural China, marrying in its wake hilarious gags, breathtaking action, spectacular locations and heart stirring emotions. Our protagonist Sidhu (Akshay Kumar) is the lowest on the totem pole, cutting vegetables at a road side food stall in Chandni Chowk in Delhi. He longs to escape his dreary existence and looks for shortcuts- with astrologers, tarot readers, & fake fakirs- basically believing anything except himself, despite his father figure Dada’s (Mithun Chakravorty) best efforts. His redeeming moment arrives when two strangers from China claim him as a reincarnation of a war hero in the past and take him to China. Sidhu now dreams of wine, women and a princely existence in foreign lands. Thanks to the devious translator, a conman by the name Chopstick (Ranvir Shorey), little does he know that he is being taken to the promised land to rid the Chinese village of the vicious smuggler Hojo (Gordon Liu)! So Sidhu blissfully sets forth to China with Chopstick who instigates dreams of a delicious future and forgets to reveal the perils which await him. Along the way he meets Sakhi (Deepika Padukone), Ms. Tele Shoppers Media (Ms TSM) who has embarked on a journey to pay homage to the land of her birth and her dead father and twin. Initially Sidhu through a series of lucky coincidences manages to sidestep being beaten by Hojo’s men but finally Hojo catches up with him and exposes him as the country buffoon that he really is. Sidhu has the fire of revenge in his belly and finds the one man who will make him a Kungfu expert and set the village free. Armed with his Sifu(master), faith in himself and the love of the fair Sakhi Sidhu sets forth to conquer all! Directed by: Nikhil Advani Starring: Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Mithun Chakravorty, Ranvir Shorey, Gordon Liu
Why Marc Shaiman isn't cranking out a movie musical a year is beyond me. He wrote this very funny argument against California's Proposition 8, which seeks to make gay marriage illegal in that state, and wrangled a shiny gaggle of actors to perform it (John C. Reilly, Allison Janney, Margaret Cho, Maya Rudolph, Neil Patrick Harris, Kathy Najimy, Craig Robinson, Andy Richter, and Jack Black as Jesus). It presents a school play, with a bunch of youthful beach-movie types squaring off against a gang of people who appear to have fled a Nathaniel Hawthorne novel ("Obamination?" asks the great Jenifer Lewis.)
Like Shaiman's music for "South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut," which, believe it or not, turns 10 next year, "Prop 8 - the Musical" grazes different song styles (pop, do-wop, basic show tune, and, for a hilarious couple of bars, church gospel), while transposing earnestness and cynicism until one becomes indistinguishable from the other (the show is pro-gay marriage: it'll save the economy!). The "South Park" movie had 80-odd minutes to make the same manipulation, often through Shaiman and Trey Parker's songs . Here Shaiman entertainingly manages that feat in under five minutes.
Shaiman also did the music for the "Hairspray" musical, which at its best exercised a surprising social and political irreverence. I wonder whether he and the right collaborator (Dave Chappelle? Paul Rudnick? David Sedaris? Tina Fey? Chris Rock? Heaven help us: All of the above?) could concoct a real, large-scale movie musical with characters that spring from the political moment of right now.
Bypassing the entire theatrical distribution complex and the inane eternity that is movie production might be wise: In two days, "Prop 8" had been viewed more than 1,660,000 times. It'd be exciting nonetheless to see it on a giant screen, however little is spent to get it there. They could call it "Change Done Come" or "Obamalama Ding Dong!" Entertainment Weekly recently wondered how or whether popular culture will change in the next four years. A clip like this -- relevantly witty, fast, cheap, and moderately out-of-control -- suggests things already have.
(For what it's worth, I wrote this whole entry with the restraint not to mention the ads randomly all over the Funny Or Die "Prop 8" page. They're for Tom Cruise's "official site." It's a tired insinuation that actually never gets that tired.)
Well, how about that -- the National Board of Review just named "Slumdog Millionaire" the best film of 2008. Maybe this will, in fact, be the little movie that could -- the L.A. Times awards website notes that the NBR was the first major awards group to go for "Chariots of Fire" back in 1981, and that film went all the way to a best picture Oscar.
As, usual, though, many of the choices by the somewhat mysterious organization -- who are these people? what do they do? -- run the gamut from the random to the bizarre to the inspired. The NBR's practice is to name one film "best of the year" -- that would be "Slumdog" -- followed by the "Top Ten Films". This year, those are: "Burn After Reading," "Changeling," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Defiance," "Frost/Nixon," "Gran Torino," "Milk," "WALL-E," and "The Wrestler."
"Burn After Reading"? Are they serious? Both Clint Eastwoods, "Changeling" and "Gran Torino"? Nice to see "WALL-E" and "Wrestler" and "Milk" and even "Dark Knight" there, and surprising to not see such obvious awards-bait as "Revolutionary Road" and "The Reader." And how come "Doubt" and "Frozen River" are so well-represented in other categories but not in the Top Ten? Oh, wait, "Frozen River" is on a separate list of the Top Independent Films, one that also includes such no-star obscurities as "Rachel Getting Married" and "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". Like I said: Weird.
Here are the other awards the NBR handed out. Note that Anne Hathaway, Viola Davis, Penelope Cruz, and Josh Brolin just got a leg up in the Oscar race.
Finally, someone at the Punisher: War Zone premiere asked Lexi Alexander the big question -- what the hell was all that "taking your name off the film" talk? Give a hand to SciFi Wire for doing so.
Alexander's answer managed to confirm and deny the post-ComicCon drama that surrounded Punisher: War Zone. "No, no, I never was going to take my name off the film. Let me say this. Harry Knowles [of Ain't It Cool News] is one of the greatest people I know. He's a great supporter of mine. I'm his biggest fan, not because he supports filmmakers, [but] because I think he fights for film ... I think in this case, what happened is when the first trailers came out, I think he knew and he's been told there was kind of trouble. So he wrote, "F--k, they should have just let her do it, and she was pushed aside." [That is] true. He did write the right thing, and he stood up for me and for this film. I think that each Internet site that took it on brought it to a new level ... [What Knowles wrote] really is the correct thing. I was never fired, and I never wanted to take my name off. "
What Knowles wrote (if I have the right piece) was this: "Lexi Alexander has been kicked to the curb -- part of that treatment was her "honeymoon" from Comic Con. However, there's more totally awesome wedding gifts that Lionsgate has given the blushing bride. She's off the movie and wrapped up in a non-disclosure clause - so we won't be hearing from her anytime soon, UNLESS THINGS CHANGE RADICALLY." That explains the deafening silence -- though I'm curious how one can be "pushed aside," yet remain unfired. However that works, it's clear Alexander kicked ass, made the Punisher she wanted, and is getting rave reviews from the film geeks for her trouble. There's nothing like a happy ending.
Non-fiction themes include the woeful state of the environment, specifically our sick oceans ("The Cove"), the abused Amazon rainforest ("Crude," from "Brother's Keeper" director Joe Berlinger), the soil ("Dirt! The Movie"), and global overfishing ("The End of the Line," from the UK), as well as heroic individual activists ("The Reckoning," about ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo; "Sergio," about UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello; "Shouting Fire," about First Amendment lawyer Martin Garbus; and "William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe," about, er, William Kunstler.)
Lighter documentary fare (relatively speaking) includes "When You're Strange," Tom DiCillo's version of The Doors story, and "Good Hair," Chris Rock's examination of African-American hair, nappy or not. "The September Issue" hangs out with Anna Wintour for nine months, while "Afghan Star" follows the arrival of an "American Idol"-style show on Afghanistan TV.
On the dramatic front, films in the US competition include "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men," a fictional adaptation of the non-fiction book by the late David Foster Wallace (directed by actor John Krasinski of "The Office," no less); "Arlen Faber," featuring Kat Dennings, Olivia Thirlby, and Jeff Daniels; Paul Giamatti as an actor having an existential crisis in "Cold Souls"; a new mumblecore movie (Lynn Shelton's "Humpday," starring Mark Duplass); and "Paper Hearts," which stars Charlene Yi and her boyfriend Michael Cera as themselves. I think.
The international dramas sound interestingly wiggy: Japan's "The Clone Returns," about a dead astronaut brought back to life; France's "Louise-Michel," in which disgruntled factory-working women hire a hit man to killing off a downsizing executive; "An Education," written by Nick Hornby; and Mexico's "Heart of Time," about a woman falling in love with a Zapatista.
The great thing about Sundance is that almost all these films are unknown quantities, lending a genuine sense of discovery to the festival experience. Tomorrow they'll announce the out-of-competition slate, which will feature both more commercial endeavors and deeper obscurities.
Ciao - Trailer A man dies very unexpectedly and leaves behind two men: Jeff, his best friend and Andrea, an Italian he’s been corresponding with online. Jeff informs Andrea of Mark’s passing; Andrea writes back to express his shock and sympathies. On a whim, they continue their correspondence and a rapport grows between them. They eventually meet, where they extend their e-mail exchanges into more personal and intimate conversations. They talk about their respective countries, their jobs, their families, their lives. Mostly, they talk about Mark. What began as a tragedy that linked two strangers from different ends of the world becomes a deeply realized friendship that may change their lives forever. Directed by: Yen Tan Starring: Adam Neal Smith, Alessandro Calza, Charles W. Blaum, Ethel Lung, John S. Boles
Seven Pounds - This Is Not Easy Academy Award nominee Will Smith reunites with the directors and producers of The Pursuit of Happyness for the emotional drama Seven Pounds. In the film, Smith plays Ben Thomas, an IRS agent with a fateful secret who embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers. Directed by: Gabriele Muccino Starring: Will Smith
Seven Pounds - He Eats Tofu Academy Award nominee Will Smith reunites with the directors and producers of The Pursuit of Happyness for the emotional drama Seven Pounds. In the film, Smith plays Ben Thomas, an IRS agent with a fateful secret who embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers. Directed by: Gabriele Muccino Starring: Will Smith
Finally, someone at the 
