ABDUCTION (PG-13) (9/30/2011)

ABDUCTION

BY JAKE MATHISON

September 30th, 2011

Starring: Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Sigourney Weaver, Michael Nyqvist, Maria Bello and Jason Isaacs

Directed by: John Singleton

Written by: Shawn Christensen

With a little craftmanship, less cheese and more conviction, Abduction might have been a solid thriller. As is, it's a fun, juvenile joyride that is cut and done before you're allowed to groan too loudly. Taylor Lautner (Twilight) stars as Nathan Harper, a teenager whose world unravels when he discovers his entire life has been a lie, and he's thrust into a plot usually reserved for cheap spy fiction.

Lautner struts his stuff, flexing his ab muscles and brooding throughout like an emo Steven Seagal at senior prom. Luckily for him, his date is the entrancing British up-and-comer Lily Collins (Priest). Together, they spend an hour and a half evading bad guys and looking sexy while breaking light sweats. Along for the ride are a mishmash of shady characters with questionable allegiances, highlighted by veteran scene-sniper Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2) as a dopey CIA agent. Sigourney Weaver (Ghostbusters), Michael Nyqvist (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Maria Bello (Coyote Ugly), Jason Isaacs (The Patriot), and even an uncredited Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend's Wedding) also turn up briefly.

Director John Singleton (Shaft) refrains from stretching himself or exploring riskier stylistic choices, and as a result Abduction is an average, straight-forward teen thriller that does just enough to keep you interested without, at least initially, questioning its internal logic. Think North by Northwest for the Twilight crowd.

2/5

Abduction is Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, brief language, some sexual content and teen partying

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DRIVE (R) (9/26/2011)

DRIVE

BY JAKE MATHISON

September 26th, 2011

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks and Ron Perlman

Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn

Written by: Hossein Amini (screenplay) and James Sallis (book)

Although it may be impossible, Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive will leave you desperately struggling to define it. It will simultaneously captivate and repulse you. It's a gritty, other-worldly dream loaded with purposeful contradiction and sloppiness. Here, Refn (Bronson) masterfully crafts a quietly chaotic, Kubrickian universe wherein silence is dialogue and dialogue is silence.

The brilliant Ryan Gosling (The Notebook) plays the titular unnamed driver, a mysterious Los Angeles transplant and sometimes Hollywood stunt driver who gets his kicks by moonlighting as a wheelman for the city's seedy underbelly. Gosling's ability to emote without saying anything is uncanny, and you can almost feel his legend growing in Brando like fashion. As such, Driver is a tough, multi-layered character to crack, and his walls often seem nearly impenetrable.

When Driver meets a young mother, played by the beguiling Carey Mulligan (Never Let Me Go), he finally begins to let his guard down. But her ex-con husband returns from prison to reclaim his family and Driver is reluctantly pulled into a heist gone wrong, finding himself in fast trouble with the wrong people (Albert Brooks, Ron Perlman).

This film is timeless. In fact, I'm not even sure it exists in any set time. Refn hasn't thrown us many breadcrumbs either-- save for the occasional sprinkling of some panko. The cast, from top to bottom, is fantastic. Albert Brooks (Modern Romance) shines as a disinterested mafioso. Mulligan digs deep into her character's loneliness and loathing, juxtaposing them with an enviable tenderness that inevitably drives our Driver to his epic conclusions. Drive is a tortuous ride that asks an endless amount of questions and gives almost no answers, but they're fascinating questions and there is great beauty in just how little this film actually reveals. It'll keep you in its stranglehold.

4/5

Drive is Rated R for strong brutal bloody violence, language and some nudity

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CONTAGION (PG-13) (9/20/2011)

CONTAGION

BY JAKE MATHISON

September 20th, 2011

Starring: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, John Hawkes, Jennifer Ehle and Elliot Gould

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

Written by: Scott Z. Burns

When the unpredictable outbreak of a deadly virus occurs rapidly across the globe, an all-star cast (headlined by Matt Damon and Kate Winslet) is forced to frantically chew up dialogue and take their best shot at saving what's left of our world. Steven Soderbergh's Contagion is a slick, realistic nightmare about a near-miss with a natural apocalypse. Of course, we've seen this film before, but the "new" is in the nuances. Rarely does a director of Soderbergh's (Erin Brokovich, Traffic) ilk undertake a project that in all honesty should have been earmarked for someone like Michael Bay (Armageddon, Transformers), and as such we should be thankful for the added weightiness he immediately brings to the table.

Contagion knows how to pack a punch, and there are a lot of them to keep track of here. From Marion Cotillard to Laurence Fishburne, this film was judiciously cast to allow maximum exposure, impact, and resonance. Unfortunately, flexing this strength also becomes Contagion's one true weakness as there are simply too many happenings and too many characters for us to care about any one of them individually. The exception, however, might be Matt Damon's (The Bourne Identity, Good Will Hunting) portrayal of the film's true civilian, a Minneapolis father coming to terms with the sudden death of his wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) and the devolving world around him. Damon gives an intently focused performance here, being inadvertently linked to a seed of the outbreak, yet unable to do anything but survive until the next day.

There is a purposeful, frustratingly dull ache to this film, and it's really as much about cold, hard acceptance as it is about survival. Primarily set in Minneapolis (although filmed in Chicago), the bitterness of winter in Minnesota dutifully serves the enveloping struggle. Contagion is designed to hit close to home and succeeds, becoming worthy of hitting your wallets for-- at the very least-- a matinee.

3.5/5

Contagion is Rated PG-13 for disturbing content and some language

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COMMUNITY SNUBS ARE AN EPIC FAIL FOR EMMYS (9/18/2011)

COMMUNITY SNUBS ARE AN EPIC FAIL FOR EMMYS

BY JAKE MATHISON

September 18th, 2011

Like many of you, I'll be parked in front of the tube tonight for this year's Emmys, aka the Egregious Errors. And per usual, I'll take extreme pleasure in booing and guffawing the night away as the bigwigs of bad television take home the gold. Because like any award show, the Emmys get more wrong than right. They're not about content or ingenuity, they're antiquated popularity contests. And the more talented, but less known, often go overlooked.

This year, there is no more flagrant an oversight than the general absence of nods for the fantabulous NBC comedy Community. To not win is one thing, to not even be nominated is a gross violation and discrediting of the awards process in general.

Quite frankly, Community is the sharpest, most acerbic, most meta half hour currently in production. Creator Dan Harmon and his brilliant cast are not only boundary-breakers, but format visionaries. This is a show that painstakingly stop-motion animated their second season's Christmas special and dared to devote not one, but two episodes to cast-wide no-rules paintball games. In the process, Harmon has managed to revitalize Chevy Chase's stagnant career and introduce the world to budding stars Donald Glover and Danny Pudi. It's a show that breaks down every stereotype we have about the world around us, pulls no punches, and is actually funny. Not just ha-ha funny. This show is bust-a-gut funny.

Worst of all, however, might just be the epic snubbing of Alison Brie for "Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series." Brie's multi-layered portrayal of precociously perky Greendale goddess Annie Edison is not only spot-on, it's above and beyond. Though she's done some very solid work on AMC's Mad Men, Brie is truly in her element here, showcasing impeccable comedic timing while still providing her character with rare warmth, sensitivity and intelligence.

While it's hard to take anything away from Community and its seemingly endless list of talent, Alison Brie is really the heart of this amazing series and as such deserved (at the very least) a nod. Failing to do so is a laughable, if not criminal, offense. But I digress to the usual cliches... there's always next year, right?

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COLOMBIANA (PG-13) (9/14/2011)

COLOMBIANA

BY JAKE MATHISON

September 14th, 2011

Starring: Zoe Saldana, Michael Vartan and Cliff Curtis

Directed by: Olivier Megaton

Written by: Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen

At one point during Colombiana, our heroine-- the fearless Cataleya (Zoe Saldana)-- is forced to fend off an attacker with a couple of toothbrushes. Yes, toothbrushes. And while the absurdity of this alone should tell you all you need to know, it unfortunately comes much too late in the film to make an informed decision on whether or not to walk out of hack writer Luc Besson's (The Fifth Element) latest, um... masterpiece.

Directed by Olivier Megaton (the poor soul responsible for Transporter 3), Colombiana follows the story of Cataleya, who as a child growing up in Colombia bears witness to the murder of her parents by-- surprise, surprise-- a drug cartel. Although her family is killed, young Cataleya escapes a similar fate by stabbing a man clean through his hand, sliding down drainage pipes, and showing off some serious Parkour moves before making her way into the sewer, to the American Embassy and finally to Chicago. And that's just the first ten minutes. She then somehow grows up into the super-sultry Zoe Saldana and becomes a hybrid between Le Femme Nikita and Batman, swearing revenge on those who murdered her family. Quite frankly, there's nothing but revenge here, and it's nothing we haven't seen before.

To her credit, Zoe Saldana is perhaps the most seductive actress working in Hollywood, which allows for Cataleya's tremendous sensuousness, appropriately masking the overarching loneliness that drives the character. But by the time we get to the meat of Cataleya, we've already long checked out of this hot mess and its wholly unbelievable contrivances. However, if you hate logic and love adrenaline, this sort of NASCAR film-making might be right up your raceway.

2/5

Colombiana is Rated PG-13 for violence, disturbing images, intense sequences of action, sexuality and brief strong language

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FESTIVAL SCENE PREVIEW (9/10/2011)

FESTIVAL SCENE PREVIEW

BY JAKE MATHISON

September 10th, 2011

With this year's Toronto International Film Festival underway, here's a look at 10 indie films oozing with potential that should undoubtedly be on every cinephile's radar.

Another Earth

Another Earth Trailer

Mike Cahill and Brit Marling have painstakingly sculpted a film that has the potential to change the way we view and approach modern Science Fiction. This is a beautiful film about how the tiniest of moments can become the deepest of cracks, set against the most important discovery in the history of mankind.

Another Earth is rated PG-13

Take Shelter

Take Shelter Trailer

Director Jeff Nichols' wrote and directed this buzzing film about a young family man suffering from apocalyptic visions. It also happens to star two of the best American actors of this new generation in Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain.

Take Shelter is rated R

Tree of Life

Tree of Life Trailer

Intoxicating visual beauty, maddeningly uneven story, the legendary Terrence Malick takes on no less than the history of life on Earth itself, juxtaposing it against one insignificant family's struggle for equilibrium. Again, Jessica Chastain is the meal-ticket here, her big year continuing.

Tree of Life is rated PG-13

Melancholia

Melancholia Trailer

The always-controversial Lars Von Trier's doomsday film. Melancholia is a peek at the sudden end of our world in all its glory and horror. Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg star as sisters trying to make sense of it all in a film that could be a Revelation, not to mention Von Trier's best to date.

Melancholia is rated R

Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty Trailer

Jane Campion presents a film by Julia Leigh that explores the life of a young student who enters a perverse Kubrickian world of high-end prostitution and sexual fantasy. Sleeping Beauty has the potential to be Emily Browning's breakout role.

Sleeping Beauty is currently unrated

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Martha Marcy May Marlene Trailer

Non-pariah sister to the Olsen twins, Elizabeth Olsen, stars as a psychologically scarred and tormented young woman who has recently fled life in a cult. Co-starring Sarah Paulson and the underrated John Hawkes.

Martha Marcy May Marlene is Rated R

Submarine

Submarine Trailer

From the brilliant mind of Richard Ayoade, Submarine is a coming-of-age story about a 15-year old boy's quest to lose his virginity in the UK. With Craig Roberts, Sally Hawkins and Paddy Considine.

Submarine is Rated R

Perfect Sense

Perfect Sense Trailer

Ewan McGregor and Eva Green star in a love story set against the outbreak of an epidemic that robs humans of their sensory perceptions. Pseudo Sci-Fi is certainly a popular, if not fresh topic this year among Indie films.

Perfect Sense is currently unrated

Take This Waltz

Take This Waltz Trailer

Sarah Polley's latest is a film about a Toronto woman struggling to find and understand herself in different types of love. Starring the always-fabulous Michelle Williams, with Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman.

Take This Waltz is currently unrated

A Dangerous Method

A Dangerous Method Trailer

Michael Fassbender is quickly becoming one of the best and most sought-after young actors of his generation. Here, he stars as Carl Jung in a biopic that explores Jung's relationship with Sigmund Freud. Also starring Keira Knightley and Viggo Mortensen.

A Dangerous Method is Rated R

DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK (R) (9/7/2011)

DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK

BY JAKE MATHISON

September 7th, 2011

Starring: Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce and Bailee Madison

Directed by: Troy Nixey

Written by: Guillermo del Toro, Matthew Robbins and Nigel McKeand

Some have called Troy Nixey's Don't Be Afraid of the Dark a return to form for "haunted house" flicks. It isn't. But that's okay, because at its core it's not really a "haunted house" flick. It is, however, a quality remake, one of the best horror entries of the year, and a hell of a lot of fun. Like the original, this isn't your classic tale of the spooky old house on the hill. There are no ghosts or beady-eyed portraits. This is something very different wherein our protagonists are pitted against a very tangible threat living within the confines of their Gothic New England mansion. In the world of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, the nightmare doesn't just become real, it always was.

When a depressed young girl (Bailee Madison) is sent to Rhode Island to live with her father (Guy Pearce) and his girlfriend (Katie Holmes), she finds herself "befriended" by a gaggle of grotesque creatures that live in the darkness of a hidden basement and wickedly desire her for their own purposes. Yes, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is a simple creature feature, and we are introduced to these "creatures" quite early in the film. This is a bold and risky move by the inexperienced Nixey, one that luckily pays huge dividends and allows us to immerse ourselves in the nail-biting flurry that is the film's conclusion, focusing on the creatures' goals rather than their appearance.

I'd be hard pressed to label this an ambitious film. Realistically it's more like a well-executed textbook exercise. And though this is Nixey's film, writer/adapter Guillermo del Toro's (Pan's Labyrinth) fingerprints are seemingly everywhere, tricks and trademarks to boot. It's a visceral, visual assault, and to his credit Nixey seems to know the ins and outs of mired moors and rising fog as well as his pseudo-mentor.

Katie Holmes, receiving top billing here, is at her serviceable best and Guy Pearce is solid for what little he is given to work with. Also adequate is burgeoning starlet Bailee Madison, who has seemingly become the go-to actress when a script calls for a moody and dour pre-teen. But Don't Be Afraid of the Dark isn't about acting; it's about stylistic genre film-making, and as such competently succeeds. It might not blow your mind, but it's handled with the utmost sincerity and is fresh enough to leave a lasting and creepy impression, whether you've seen the original or not.

3/5

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is rated R for violence and terror

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THE DEBT (R) (9/5/2011)

THE DEBT

BY JAKE MATHISON

September 5, 2011

Starring: Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Chastain, and Sam Worthington

Directed by: John Madden

Written by: Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan

The Debt is a stab at a decent film; it just doesn't quite pierce the heart. There's enough to digest though, as we relive the botched events of an Israeli undercover unit's mission to smuggle a particularly nasty Nazi war criminal out of divided 1960s Berlin. Yes, it's a whole lot of heavy-handedness-- how could it not be with a title like The Debt? After all, this is a film about revenge, devotion to one's ideals, the perception of truth, and the things we're ultimately willing to live with. Unfortunately, while these are certainly weighty topics to discuss, the film's general unevenness leaves you wondering whether you'll ever get the chance to do so. It's really a tale of two films, one I liked very much and another possessed of an infectious dullness threatening to sabotage the other half like a suicidal Siamese twin. Worse yet, director John Madden's (Shakespeare in Love, Proof) pedestrian attempt at something akin to a non-linear time-frame mostly serves to barricade the fractured story-lines from each other rather than allowing them to gel cohesively.

Quite frankly, I expected more from a cast that bills Academy aces Helen Mirren (The Queen) and Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton). But for their ilk, they are also surprisingly uneven. Accents are inconsistent, intentions are overplayed, and Aussie Sam Worthington (Avatar) is simply overwhelmed. The true notable exception is rising star Jessica Chastain (Tree of Life, The Help), who throughout the film hides her character behind a fascinating wall of sadness and intensity that at times hypnotically mirrors her mission, her colleagues, and even her captive like a reflecting pool. This is a depth that even the seasoned Mirren fails to find in playing the same character. Ultimately though, the greatest tragedy of The Debt is its slumbering, snail-paced, and uber-convenient ending that forces the audience to suffer through a seemingly endless build-up that culminates with wildly unnecessary ambiguity-- as if the projectionist mistakenly clipped off a few reels too many. In the end, The Debt was always going to be a straight-forward film, maybe even a good one; somebody just forgot to tell The Debt that.

2.5/5

The Debt is rated R for some violence and language

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