2008 Woodie Awards
QUICK FLIX
William Goss
Issue date: 7/24/08 Section: Variety
Brothers and fathers and penguins, oh my!
Encounters at the End of the World / 4 stars / DIRECTOR: Werner Herzog
Opens at the Enzian Theater tomorrow
Eccentric multi-hyphenate Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man) became the first feature film director to have made a film on every continent with this documentary on the eccentric population of creatures, human and otherwise, that call Antarctica home. Between Herzog's alternately wry and weary narration and some truly stunning vistas on display, it's a trip worth taking with him.
Step Brothers / 4 stars / DIRECTOR: Adam McKay
STARS: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Richard Jenkins
Opens in theaters everywhere tomorrow
In last winter's sublimely silly Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, the middle-aged John C. Reilly played Dewey from the age of 14 on, and here, he might as well be, as his Dale goes toe-to-toe with Brennan, a fellow man-child his own age (Will Ferrell, natch), after their parents meet and marry in short order.
To be sure, crude and immature shenanigans ensure, but while the end result is every bit as scattershot as Ferrell and Reilly's previous collaborations with producer Judd Apatow and director Adam McKay (Anchorman and Talladega Nights), the see-what-sticks approach ends up being a more consistently funny one than it has any right to be. Plus, after giving the year's most quietly powerful performance to date in The Visitor, seeing character actor Richard Jenkins get every bit as goofy as Dale's dad is almost itself worth the price of admission.
When Did You Last See Your Father? / 4 stars / DIRECTOR: Anand Tucker
STARS: Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent, Juliet Stevenson, Matthew Beard
Opens at the Regal Winter Park Village 20 tomorrow
This adaptation of Blake Morrison's memoir certainly runs the risk of becoming a maudlin and cloying melodrama at any given moment, what with its full load of regret, resentment, and respect over father Arthur (Jim Broadbent)'s eventful and ending life. Thankfully, the performances of Broadbent, Colin Firth, and Matthew Beard (as now and then Blake, respectively) tap into the greater emotional frustration and yet considerable poignancy of the relationship between fathers and sons.
Director Anand Tucker manages to keep the tone of scenes as warm as the memories are fond, and cooler when less so, and although he just about exhausts a motif of mirrors (reflection, we get it, move along), it's difficult to deny the cathartic impact of it all in the end. There are few male tearjerkers out there, and this is one of even fewer that manages to earn its sentiment.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe / no stars given / DIRECTOR: Chris Carter
STARS: Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly
Opens in theaters everywhere tomorrow
Fox (the studio, not Mulder) and the most devout X-Philes want you to believe that the second big-screen go in a decade is being screened past deadline in an attempt to keep the super-secret plot just that, but while that may be true, it doesn't stop the fact that better films haven't been as concerned with supposed spoilsports such as myself. The truth will be out there soon enough, folks.?
Encounters at the End of the World / 4 stars / DIRECTOR: Werner Herzog
Opens at the Enzian Theater tomorrow
Eccentric multi-hyphenate Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man) became the first feature film director to have made a film on every continent with this documentary on the eccentric population of creatures, human and otherwise, that call Antarctica home. Between Herzog's alternately wry and weary narration and some truly stunning vistas on display, it's a trip worth taking with him.
Step Brothers / 4 stars / DIRECTOR: Adam McKay
STARS: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Richard Jenkins
Opens in theaters everywhere tomorrow
In last winter's sublimely silly Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, the middle-aged John C. Reilly played Dewey from the age of 14 on, and here, he might as well be, as his Dale goes toe-to-toe with Brennan, a fellow man-child his own age (Will Ferrell, natch), after their parents meet and marry in short order.
To be sure, crude and immature shenanigans ensure, but while the end result is every bit as scattershot as Ferrell and Reilly's previous collaborations with producer Judd Apatow and director Adam McKay (Anchorman and Talladega Nights), the see-what-sticks approach ends up being a more consistently funny one than it has any right to be. Plus, after giving the year's most quietly powerful performance to date in The Visitor, seeing character actor Richard Jenkins get every bit as goofy as Dale's dad is almost itself worth the price of admission.
When Did You Last See Your Father? / 4 stars / DIRECTOR: Anand Tucker
STARS: Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent, Juliet Stevenson, Matthew Beard
Opens at the Regal Winter Park Village 20 tomorrow
This adaptation of Blake Morrison's memoir certainly runs the risk of becoming a maudlin and cloying melodrama at any given moment, what with its full load of regret, resentment, and respect over father Arthur (Jim Broadbent)'s eventful and ending life. Thankfully, the performances of Broadbent, Colin Firth, and Matthew Beard (as now and then Blake, respectively) tap into the greater emotional frustration and yet considerable poignancy of the relationship between fathers and sons.
Director Anand Tucker manages to keep the tone of scenes as warm as the memories are fond, and cooler when less so, and although he just about exhausts a motif of mirrors (reflection, we get it, move along), it's difficult to deny the cathartic impact of it all in the end. There are few male tearjerkers out there, and this is one of even fewer that manages to earn its sentiment.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe / no stars given / DIRECTOR: Chris Carter
STARS: Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly
Opens in theaters everywhere tomorrow
Fox (the studio, not Mulder) and the most devout X-Philes want you to believe that the second big-screen go in a decade is being screened past deadline in an attempt to keep the super-secret plot just that, but while that may be true, it doesn't stop the fact that better films haven't been as concerned with supposed spoilsports such as myself. The truth will be out there soon enough, folks.?