I’m Not There
Directed by Todd Haynes
Starring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw
Rated R
The Weinstein Company
Release date: May 6, 2008

Just this week I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about music. His and my personal tastes differ a great deal but we were able to have a very intelligent and passionate conversation. One thing he said really stuck with me. We were discussing the transition in rock music during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He said, “Listen, I can’t stand Nirvana but I can appreciate how their music changed the face of music during that time. Same with The Beatles, I don’t like their music but I respect how they changed rock and roll.” It was a refreshing statement because a lot of people are very one-track minded when it comes to music and have a lot of negative things to say about anyone that doesn’t agree with them. I suppose the same can be said about movies.

I can’t say I am terribly familiar with the story of Bob Dylan. I would call myself a casual fan of his music at best and don’t claim to know much about him aside from the fact that he never stayed locked on one style for very long, so the story itself intrigued me.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Directed by Nicholas Stoller
Starring Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand, Bill Hader
Rated R
Release date: April 18, 2008

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is the latest apple to fall from the Judd Apatow family tree of comedy films. For anyone having spent the last few years underground preparing for Y3K, this tree is comprised of a group of friends who take turns writing, directing, and/or starring in each other’s movies, all packaged and shipped with the Apatow seal of approval. I guess that makes this movie Knocked Up‘s baby brother. Or first cousin. I don’t know which. It’s sort of like the mafia, only instead of getting whacked, we get penis jokes. There’s a joke in there somewhere but I’m too tired to write it.

Either way this movie stays true to the golden formula perfected by the Apatow Family over the past few years — focus on a group of men far more immature than their age should allow, force them to deal with some level of reality in their respective circumstance, and see how they react. It is the textbook definition of, well, textbook, but it is also real life in the sense that every man struggles with his own evolution into adulthood at some point. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is no different.

The Ruins
Directed by Carter Smith
Starring Jonathan Tucker, Laura Ramsey, Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore, Sergio Calderon
Paramount Pictures
Rated R
Release date: April 4, 2008

To the horror genre, the idea of young Americans being terrorized on vacation isn’t breaking any new ground. The setting has been around almost since the inception of the genre, explored as early on as Friday the 13th. What is it about the concept that makes for such a good, if not slightly overused setting? The idea of any good horror movie is to play against people’s common fears. Being on vacation automatically puts people on the defensive because they are out of their element. Ranging from flying to get there in the first place to simply being around people they don’t know, vacations can be a breeding ground for good horror.

As with any successfully used screenwriting device, young Americans encountering danger on vacation is becoming clichéd. We’ve seen it used very well (Open Water, Deliverance, and, most recently, The Descent — my vote for the best horror movie of the decade) as much as we’ve seen it used poorly (Hostel, Wolf Creek, and Turistas). As much as they all have the commonalities of playing against basic human fears, the Hostel‘s of the world have opted to ride the latest flavor of the moment and splatter gallons of blood across the screen in lieu of telling a compelling story. Don’t get me wrong; the idea of getting chopped to bits in a foreign country is probably pretty scary if it is happening to you, but for sheer watchability, call me crazy but I need something more.

Ask and you shall receive”¦

21
Directed by Robert Luketic
Starring Kevin Spacey, Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne
Rated PG-13
Release date: March 28, 2008

It is movies like this that test the film critic in me. I have two sides battling for supreme domination. On one hand there is my generally critical nature of movies themselves as films, and on the other, there is my love for the subject matter. They are two sides that I knew walking in to the theater would go at it like a Seinfeld black and white cookie.

The movie 21 tells a story I am familiar with. It is the Hollywood version of the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich, the story of six MIT students who perfected a card-counting system and took Las Vegas casinos for millions of dollars playing blackjack in the early 1990s. I use the term “˜playing’ so loosely because these kids didn’t get involved in the game to gamble. It was business and they were there to make money. And that they did. I became familiar with the story after my first trip to Las Vegas, many moons ago. The story spoke to the kid in me. The same way The Goonies made me think I was going to find treasure in the small Iowa town of my upbringing. I don’t think it was so much that I thought it was really going to happen but that it would be way cool if it did.

Drillbit Taylor
Directed by Steven Brill
Starring Owen Wilson, Alex Frost, Matt Gallini, Troy Gentile, Nate Hartley
Paramount Pictures
Rated PG-13
Release date: March 21, 2008

This movie is a classic example of two ideas playing against the middle.

The story was based on an original idea from John Hughes.

Hmmm”¦

The synopsis? Three freshmen get singled out the first day of high school by a bully. They place an Internet ad and end up hiring a bodyguard, Drillbit Taylor, to protect them.

Meh.

The movie is rated PG-13 (ugh)”¦

“¦ for crude sexual references throughout, strong bullying, language, drug references, and partial nudity.

Based on that description, if I was a teenager watching HBO late at night and that flashed up on the screen, I would have thought I had died and gone to ‘Movies I Shouldn’t Be Watching’ heaven.