The Screening Room

Musician biopics are nothing new. But Across the Universe and I'm Not There are taking new spins on reality. Which music icon's story would you like to see grace the silver screen?

Where's the love this weekend? Too too too many options to chose from this week. What's getting your 8 bucks? Click the "comment" link and talk amongst yourselves.

Personally, I'm all about Feast of Love, and have been since I watched the trailer about a month ago. Read more about it in Chris Vognar's interview with director Robert Benton.

• The Kingdom (B-) | Trailer
• Feast of Love (B) | Trailer
• The Jane Austen Book Club (B) | Trailer
• The Game Plan (D+) | Trailer
• Across the Universe (C+) | Trailer
• Into the Wild (A-) | Trailer
• Trade (D+) | Trailer
• Ira and Abby (C-) | Trailer
• Summer '04 (B-) | Trailer
• Manda Bala (B) | Trailer

Good things come in threes
Resident Evil: Extinction kept 2007’s threequel train rolling by topping the box office with $23.7 million. That makes it the sixth threequel to top the charts this year, following in the footsteps of Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, The Bourne Ultimatum and Rush Hour 3. Sony Screen Gems had said that this Resident would be the last of the series, but now there’s talk that another may be on the horizon. So we have that to look forward to.

The Plano Angelika has declared October "Hitchcocktober." I strongly caution against following suit, unless you want to sound like an idiot, but the theater is using its declaration as an excuse to show some pretty good Hitchcock movies every Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. 10/2: Vertigo. 10/9: Rear Window. 10/16: Psycho. 10/23: The Birds. 10/30: Dial M For Murder.

But here's the really scary part. You can also submit a short film, song, photo essay, poetry, paintings or collage inspired by Alfred Hitchcock and win fabulous prizes. Just think, your own Frenzy rap: "I'm the necktie murderer, get of my way/One look at me and you know I don't play/I get straight Psycho with my smokin' AK." Submit your entries to angelikasubmissions@gmail.com by Oct. 29. For more info visit www.angelikafilmcenter.com. and click on "Plano."

Studio Movie Grill will open its first Dallas location at Royal Lane and Central Expressway in the first quarter of 2008, the company announced today. That will mark the fifth North Texas location (the others are in Arlington, Lewisville, Addison and Plano.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, it's like watching a movie in a restaurant, which has its ups (no getting up to grab a snack or drink!) and downs (could that guy sitting next to me chew any louder?). But overall it's a pretty great place to see a movie, especially one that gets a big crowd reaction. I saw Borat for the first time at the Addison location at an advanced screening, and let's just say the fact that you can order a beer from your seat there may have enhanced the laughs.

Courtesy

With the absence of late fees and the convenience of home delivery, renting DVDs is easier - and harder - than ever. I've got some 60 discs in my queue right now, including a half-dozen seasons of TV shows I need to catch up on. Some get mainlined pretty quickly and sent right back (The Fountain, Match Point), some linger around for multiple viewings (Miracle, Primer) and some languish in unwatched ignominy.

Now I'm faced with two choices: send the films back, unwatched, after wasting nearly a month of new films. Or, hold on to them a little longer because I am omgtotally going to watch them now, for reals. Right.

So what's your queue drama? Is it ambitiously overflowing or pathetically empty? Are you constantly sending discs back to find out just how many "unlimited" is in a single month? Or does that copy of The Bourne Identity have a two-inch layer of dust on it? Vent - it's good for the soul.

Don Cheadle in Hotel Rwanda (United Artists)

"I'm a conduit," says Cheadle, an Oscar nominee for 2004's Hotel Rwanda (which raised his awareness and concern for the current plight of African nations). "I'm not an expert on the area. I just want to do things to help. In my position, I can do things publicly that other people can't get to. Me working on this stuff doesn't in any way, shape or form help me in the business."

Read more on Cheadle and the film closer to the Dallas opening Nov. 9.

Normandy, June 6, 1944 (PBS)

By pure coincidence, Elah comes out the same weekend as Ken Burns' The War, the epic World War II documentary that begins Sunday night on PBS (KERA-Channel 13 in these parts). I'm a big Burns fan, and his mix of populist accessibility and intelligence is again on display here. This is also a personal war tale, told largely by folks from Luverne, Minnesota; Mobile, Alabama; Waterbury, Connecticut; and Sacramento, California. It's a little jarring to watch The War side by side with Elah. One is a portrait of the Just War in which the justness comes through along with the inevitable horrors. The other, set mostly on the contemporary home front, asks if the current horrors can be justified. The two films weren't meant to be companion pieces, but somehow they are.

Apparently *everybody* wanted to cash in on the first day of fall, cause we got 12, count 'em, TWELVE new movies opening this week. And that's not counting the three – Across the Universe, Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) and Trade – that were pushed back one week to Sept. 28.

With this much selection, there's got to be something for everybody, right? I gotta admit, for my part, nothing here screams out "Spend your $9.50! Don't wait for Netflix!"

So what are you seeing this weekend?

• In the Valley of Elah (B+) | Trailer

• Good Luck Chuck (D+) | Trailer

• Sydney White (C) | Trailer

• December Boys (B) | Trailer

• The Hottest State (C-) | Trailer

• In the Shadow of the Moon (B) | Trailer

• Fierce People (D+) | Trailer

• The Hunting Party (B) | Trailer

• Live-In Maid (A-) | Trailer

• ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway (B+) | Trailer

• Resident Evil: Extinction (C-) | Trailer

• Sea of Dreams | Trailer

Count Oscar-winning Crash writer/director Paul Haggis among those who see a Hollywood work stoppage as inevitable. The Writers Guild of America is considering a strike once its current agreement with the studios expires Oct. 31. (The Screen Actors Guild agreement expires June 30, 2008). The main issue: Residual payments from DVD and TV showings. The studios want to scrap the current residual agreement, claiming widespread budget crisis. This idea doesn't sit well with the writers.

"I assume there’s going to be a strike because the studios are really forcing the issue right now," Haggis told me at the Toronto International Film Festival. "They’re playing brinksmanship instead of dealing with the artists in a fair way. They keep forcing it because they want to keep taking a bigger and bigger piece of the pie in order to serve their corporate interests. If we just had honest accounting in Hollywood and we just gave the artists a fair piece we wouldn't see all this. But they hide so much that we have to fight back to get just a small amount of what they make."

Haggis says the rush is already on to complete projects before the potential doomsday arrives. Haggis' new film, In the Valley of Elah, opens this Friday. He's also writing the script for the next James Bond movie.

If you were looking forward to seeing Across the Universe this weekend, you can go ahead and make other plans. The Beatles-inspired musical has been pushed back a week and will now (supposedly) open Sept. 28.

Get out of her way
The Brave One out-muscled the competition, earning $13.5 million in its opening weekend. That’s nearly $5 million more than No. 2 3:10 to Yuma earned, but about a mil. short of Gridiron Gang, which won the same weekend last year.

Not entirely movie-related, but bear with me: The last couple of days have seen a massive influx of candy on our humble fourth floor. (Promotion of some sort. Don't ask). Anyway, until this week, I had forgotten the flavorful intoxicating quality of the Lemon-Head. Tangy on the outside. Crunchy on the inside. Sublime in every way.

I also remembered that as a kid I used to buy them and sneak them into the movies. Yes, I'm having a Proust-like sugar rush of memory. And so I ask: What is the greatest movie theater candy ever? You know where I stand.

Now in its ninth year, The Vistas Film Festival has shown itself to be an increasingly well-orgainzed and creatively programmed showcase for Latino film. This year's installment runs Wednesday through at the Angelika, kicking off tomorrow night with El Benny (based on the life of Cuban singer Benny Moré. Look for more coverage in Wednesday's Guide Live.

Down in the Valley: Tommy Lee Jones searches for clues this Friday (Warner Independent Pictures)

The timing of said addiction works out well, since the rush of post-Toronto releases requires some research. For instance, one of my favorite Toronto films, the Iraq-at-home drama In the Valley of Elah, opens this Friday. Many of the themes remind of the Vietnam war-at-home film Coming Home, which I hadn't seen in ages - until last night. (Verdict: still powerful, but thinner than it was in the context of its times).

The best is when one film can help shed light on two others. Both I'm Not There, the much-discussed Bob Dylan exploration, and The Assassination of Jesse James, a most revisionist of Westerns, got me thinking about Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (which, I must admit, I had never seen - until last night). Verdict: Dylan isn't much of an actor - no surprise there - but James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson more than make up for it, the "end of the frontier" theme is powerfully expressed, and the Dylan songs on the soundtrack work well. (Richard Gere plays a Billy-like character in I'm Not There).

So: Will I kick my addiction any time soon? I hope not. Seems to be good for business.

My fave from Toronto: Persepolis (Sony Pictures Classics)

But you don't want to know about my drool (seek help if you do). You want to know what I saw and what I liked. So here's my Fave Five (out of about 30 films viewed), including dates (if available) when you might be able to see this stuff in Dallas.

1. Persepolis - Sharp humor and wistful remembrance make a profoundly moving combination in this animated film about a girl growing up in Tehran during scary times. Adapted by Marjane Satrapi from her own graphic novels, it strikes the perfect tone in exploring the meaning of home. It should open here by the end of the year or the beginning of 2008.

2. My Kid Could Paint That - Amir Bar-Lev's doc does a remarkable thing in exploring the media sensation and controversy surrounding a four-year-old modern art prodigy. It also explores the documentary filmmaker's culpability in abetting said sensation and controversy. Beguiling and troubling. Scheduled to open Oct. 19.

3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Not a revisionist Western so much as an interrogation of the very genre, Assassination is a long, lyrical and proudly eccentric story of looming doom, bruised ego and the process of legend on the frontier. Wash it down with a couple of Deadwood episodes. Scheduled to open Oct. 5.

4. (Tie) Margot at the Wedding and The Savages - Two scathingly dark comedies about families mired in resentment. Margot rides the ruthless wit of writer/director Noah Baumbach; Savages features Laura Linney's best work to date. Both will make you feel better about you own screwed-up families. Margot is scheduled to open Nov. 16; The Savages Dec. 26.

5. I'm Not There - Todd Haynes does a fiendishly logical thing with the shape-shifting Bob Dylan: He splits the mercurial one into multiple characters, including a folkie played by Christian Bale, a frontiersman played by Richard Gere, and, most spectacularly, a tired superstar played by Cate Blanchett. It's consistently weird and it gets better with each passing day. Scheduled to open Nov. 21.

And some other favorites: In the Valley of Elah (Sept. 21), Control (Nov. 2), Into the Wild (Sept. 28), Lust, Caution (Oct. 5), Rendition (Oct. 19) and Alexandra (TBA).

And if you have any questions about these or other Toronto fare, don't be shy.

AP

And yet... Even I am scared off of a movie whose male lead can only boast "of TV's Dawson's Creek" -- unless it has the words "mighty" or "ducks" in the title. So we can safely assume that I will not be seeing Silk this weekend. Deep Water stands a pretty solid chance, even though I cheated and read the Wikipedia article about Donald Crowhurst, the focal point of the documentary.

Who's getting my $8 this weekend? Defintely David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, with Viggo Mortensen (read Chris Vognar's interview with both men). Because, seriously, David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen. And not just because Viggo's wearing a Montreal Canadiens t-shirt in that photo. Okay, not entirely.

Here's this weekend's new offerings - what are you seeing?

• Eastern Promises (B+) | Trailer
• The Brave One (C+) | Trailer
• Deep Water (A-) | Trailer
• Mr. Woodcock (C)| Trailer
• The Devil Came on Horseback (B) | Trailer
• Silk (C-) | Trailer
• Dragon Wars | Trailer

Make sure to save some pennies though -- there are FIFTEEN flicks scheduled to open next weekend.

In the cab to the airport in Toronto, and I must say I'll miss it (Toronto, not the airport). Then again, as travellers are wont to say, I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed. I'll fire off some final posts on Friday. And check out our look at the festival's finest performances in Sunday's Guide Live section. Yes, that's a tease. Over and out.