Rick's Flicks Picks on AWN

Hayao Miyazaki's films capture goodness and kindness like no other filmmaker. He puts the magic of living and growing up into each hand drawn frame. Few animation directors actually animate on their films; Miyazaki draws thousands of frames himself. His personal touch washes over all his films and if there has ever been an animation director who could be called an auteur, he would be it. He's the perfect filmmaker to bring us tales of magic, because he's a real life magician.

And this is certainly a tale of magic. Kiki (Japanese voice: Minami Takayama, English voice: Kirsten Dunst) is a 13-year-old witch in training. It's her time to leave her mom and dad and find a witch-less city to serve. With her witty best friend, the black cat Jiji (Japanese voice: Rei Sakuma, English voice: Phil Hartman), accompanying her, they settle in a town by the sea. When she clumsily swoops into town, she certainly makes an impression, especially on the aeronautics-obsessed teen Tombo (Japanese voice: Kappei Yamaguchi, English voice: Matthew Lawrence). A chance encounter with the baker Osono (Japanese voice: Keiko Toda, English voice: Tress MacNeille) leads her to setting up a delivery service — a pretty good job when you can whisk away on a broom over the traffic.

One of the chief complaints of most of the DC universe superheroes is that they're hard to relate to because they are like gods. This direct-to-DVD animated feature finds a way to deal with that issue head on. When you are a god, what responsibilities does that give you?

Hal Jordan (Christopher Meloni, LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT) is a test pilot who is chosen by an intergalactic organization called the Green Lantern Corps for their effort to protect the universe. When one member of the Corps dies, their power ring goes to the next worthy wearer, giving the user the power of flight, force fields, and the ability to form any object out of energy. Jordan receives the ring of Abin Sur, a very respected member of the Corps, which makes the other members doubtful that the Earthling he can live up to his predecessor.

It's been two weeks since the last Getting Buzzed column, so there are a lot of trailers to see. There are many here this week that are sure to make my most anticipated films of the fall list for sure.

Getting Buzzed
14) Despicable Me (July 9, 2010)
Trailer
I'm on the fence with this one. The "fat" American stereotype is getting kind of old. But the idea of an evil mastermind stealing famous landmarks is a great idea for animation.

13) They Way We Get By (In Theaters)
Trailer
This story of a group of senior citizens who gather daily at the Bangor, Maine airport to thank American soldiers departing and returning from Iraq looks like a tear-jerker and something more than just a "We Support the Troops" doc.

To make A CLOCKWORK ORANGE or to not make A CLOCKWORK ORANGE that is the question. I once debated a close friend about this very question. He argued that too many people take it as a glorification of violence rather than the intended indictment, therefore making it a bad influence on society. I argued that an artist isn't responsible for people not understanding their work. Upon its release, Roger Ebert called it an “ideological mess” and Pauline Kael said it was pornographic. And yet it has endured.

Director Stanley Kubrick adapted Anthony Burgess's novel about a future where gangs of youth indulge in drug-laced milk then go on good "old ultra-violence" sprees where they beat and rape freely. Alex De Large (Malcolm McDowell, IF…) is the leader of one of these gangs. In one night, they beat up a drunk in the street, fight a rival gang and then con their way into the home of a writer named Mr. Alexander (Patrick Magee, CHARIOTS OF FIRE) where they savagely attack him and force him to watch them gang rape his wife (Adrienne Corri, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO). He's content with their penny ante thuggery, but his second-in-command, Georgie (James Marcus, TV's DOCTOR WHO), and the gang's goon, Dim (Warren Clarke, O LUCKY MAN!), have loftier marks like the rich cat lady (Miriam Karlin), who runs a fitness farm. Alex does not like to be challenged.

Did you know that you have an outstanding bill of $28,000 and its keeps going up every day? It's your share of the National Debt. Patrick Creadon's documentary tries to make an unsexy problem in the U.S. enticing. It may be an uphill battle, but he does a very commendable job. If the U.S. ever looses its leadership position on the world stage, it will be because of this issue. This isn't a Right or Left issue; it's an issue of America's survival.

Through the Bush administration years, the National Debt doubled. This was the first time this had happened in non-World War situation in the nation's history. How did this happen? It's simple. The federal government was spending more than it was making. Bill Clinton's administration had balanced the budget and people thought we were on the road to eliminating the debt. But what many didn’t realize was that we had borrowed so much from the coffers of Social Security that the program is near bankruptcy. In the Bush years, between the Iraq war, a costly new drug program and the rising imbalance in Social Security and Medicare, the problem is only getting worse. There will be a day when your taxes will only be going towards paying part of SS and Medicare and the interest on the National Debt.

With the HBO movie GREY GARDENS arriving on DVD, This Weekend's Film Festival celebrates cinematic eccentrics. Cheery oddballs have been a staple of film from the start and these films embrace eccentrics that inspire. There's the nicest man you'd ever meet with his giant rabbit. There's a worldly woman who take in an orphan. There's a real life eccentric who made innovations in film and aeronautics. Then there's a double dose of Jackie O's aunt and cousin.

What a better way to start off a lineup of cinematic eccentrics than with Jimmy Stewart's Elwood P. Dowd in HARVEY. This kind eccentric introduces everyone he meets to his best friend — a 6-foot rabbit named Harvey. Different people have different reactions to Harvey. Many of Elwood's sister Veta's snooty friends think he's crazy, but the average Joes he befriends at the bar think he's a humble soul. Bewildered, Veta tries to institutionalize Elwood, but the doctors, at first, find his calm ways far saner than her outbursts of emotion. As I said in my original review, "this fantasy comedy makes one question what society deems acceptable behavior." Elwood lives by the idea that a person can be oh so smart or oh so pleasant, and he recommends pleasant. Based on how he changes people's lives for the better, it's clear that it's great advice.

Based on Mary Chase's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, this fantasy comedy makes one question what society deems acceptable behavior. James Stewart performance as Elwood P. Dowd is just one of his iconic parts, bringing a joyous level of kindness. Josephine Hull (ARSENIC AND OLD LACE) won an Oscar for performance as Elwood's distraught sister Veta Louise Simmons. Would you be distraught if your brother introduced everyone he meets to an invisible, six-foot-tall rabbit named Harvey?

Elwood P. Dowd might be the nicest man who ever lived. He wants to invite every person he meets over for dinner or out for drinks. Veta's distinguished circle of friends looks at her brother oddly. Veta's daughter Myrtle Mae (Victoria Horne, THE GHOST AND MR. MUIR) has lost complete faith that, with her uncle around, she'll ever find a nice man. Others like Cracker the bartender (Dick Wessel, FATHER OF THE BRIDE) accept Elwood and Harvey as they are. But Veta doesn't want to befriend bartenders and ex-cons like her brother, so she decides to have him institutionalized. However, her frantic behavior and Elwood's calm demeanor make one wonder which one of them should be institutionalized.

Seems like a lot of horror and sci-fi films got buzzed this week on the Net. There's one from a certain Oscar-winning writer that I think has the potential to be a big hit. Speaking of Oscars, the trailer for Jim Sheridan's remake of BROTHERS, starring Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal, leaked on the web this week and has since disappeared. Don’t know why the studio would want to hold back on it, it looks great. If you saw it you know. Now onto trailers you can see.

Getting Buzzed
10) Bull (July 17)
Trailer
I see a lot of trailers for low budget, no-star indie films, but rarely do they impress me. This one piqued my interest because the trailer hints at a mysterious plot and, more importantly, the acting seems solid. You don't need stars to tell a good story, but you need good actors to make a great film. Looking forward to seeing where this one falls.

With Sacha Baron Cohen's latest outrageous comedy BRUNO about to hit theaters, This Weekend's Film Festival takes a look at other raunchy comedies that are better than one might expect. There's a dimwitted Kazahhstani. There's dimwitted fast food clerks. There's a hapless 40-year-old virgin. There are hapless teenage virgins. And there's something about a blond. Warning: avoid this lineup if you're being treated for prudishness.

The Fest kicks off with Cohen's first big screen excursion in commando comedy, BORAT. Cohen mixes scripted humor with Candid Camera-like pranks and strings them together on a loose plot surrounding naïve Kazakhstani reporter character Borat Sagdiyev and his mission to learn more about America, while secretly wooing Pamela Anderson. Within the outlandish scatological humor, Cohen satirizes American extremes and prejudices from their treatment of outsiders to their lack of understanding of countries around the globe. As I said in my original review, "The main key to the film’s success is Cohen. He is fearless and his skill to commit himself 100% to his character without breaking character is amazing." Sometimes you feel bad for his targets and other times you don't, his ability to make politicians and averages Joes look like fools is unparalleled. Like it or not, he knows how to provoke and make an audience laugh.

Every raunchy comedy following 1998 owes something to THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY. The Farrelly Brothers' comedy brought blue humor to the mainstream. They set the stage with DUMB & DUMBER and KINGPIN, but this was the major hit that showed Hollywood that people would pay money for potty humor. For better or for worse, it changed big screen comedies for the decade since its release. But its lasting appeal isn't the jokes, but the sweetness underneath.

Ted (Ben Stiller, TROPIC THUNDER) is a sweet nerdy guy who only wishes he could go out with the prettiest girl in school, Mary (Cameron Diaz, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH). But when Ted comes to the rescue of Mary's mentally handicapped brother Warren (W. Earl Brown, TV's DEADWOOD), she takes a liking to the awkward boy and asks him to prom. Well, things don't go the way they were planned and Ted ends up in an ambulance instead of the dance floor.

It's been a few weeks since I ran down some upcoming films that look intriguing. With the Academy expanding the Best Picture nominees to 10, there are going to be a lot more films this fall wanting to make the cut. Two films on this week's list smell like Oscar bait to me.

THE WTF File
Robo Geisha (TBA)
Trailer
Some really messed up movies have come out of Japanese. This one looks like the Queen Mother of them all.

Getting Buzzed
20) Deadgirl (July 24)
Trailer
This indie horror flick looked like a cliché haunted asylum tale until about half way through the trailer. What do you do when your best friend does something horrible? Could this be a character based horror film? Do they make those?

In 1972, Francis Ford Coppola perfected the gangster genre with THE GODFATHER. Martin Scorsese twisted that image in MEAN STREETS a year later. When Scorsese would return to the gangster genre in 1990 with GOODFELLAS, he showed us the wealth of stories that could be told in the genre. THE GODFATHER was epic, while GOODFELLAS was personal and dirty. It showed the glamour and the brutality of the lifestyle like it had never been seen before.

Based on Nicholas Pileggi's true crime novel WISEGUY, the story follows Henry Hill from when he was kid. He started parking cars for the neighborhood gangsters where he earned respect. He became drunk with their influence and power. Ray Liotta's performance as the young adult Hill is intense. He's a smart hustler who knows how the game is played. He makes a lot of money for the boss Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino, DICK TRACY). His close friends are the paranoid Jimmy Conway (Robert DeNiro, RAGING BULL) and the loose canon Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci, CASINO).