Elegy (2008) Director - Isabel Coixet; Starring - Ben Kingsley, Penélope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson, Dennis Hopper, Deborah Harry, Peter Saarsgard; Screenplay - Nicholas Meyer from the novel The Dying Animal by Philip Roth; Rated R for sexuality, nudity and language; view trailer here.

Given that so much of summer moviegoing for myself is about expectations both fulfilled and destroyed, I suppose I should not be surprised that a movie about which I had no expectations should hit me as hard as it did.  Elegy, an adaptation of the novel The Dying Animal by Philip Roth, managed to not only sneak up on me but to linger with me far longed than I had anticipated.

David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley) is a well-regarded college professor.  Along with his teaching, he has established himself as a published cultural critic and made a very comfortable life from those efforts.  He has also enjoyed a reputation as a lothario in his private life, having long since decided that marriage was one institution he was not interested in earning tenure with.

Typically an attractive graduate student will catch his eye during a semester, one whom David will not move to seduce until after their time as teacher and student are done.  This restraint is perhaps David's one concession to proper societal convention.  This semester proves no different, as his eye alights during the first day of class upon Consuela Castillo (Penélope Cruz).  Though David also has a standing "friends with benefits" arrangement with a traveling executive named Carolyn (Patricia Clarkson), he sets events in motion to add Consuela to his long list of sexual conquests.  His efforts are rewarded and David and Consuela become lovers when the semester is past.

As their relationship develops, David questions much of what he believes in about love and relationships.  Combined with David's personal anxieties about aging and his own mortality (which informs and drives much of his philandering), David finds himself experiencing what a spiritual person might describe as a crisis of faith in trying to reconcile Consuela's place in his world and his place in hers.  He spends time trying to reason it out with his close friend and fellow professor George O'Hearn (Dennis Hopper), but the answers do not come for David.  In the end, David and Consuela find much of what they know to be challenged, by each other and by forces beyond their control.

Tropic Thunder (2008) Director - Ben Stiller; Starring - Ben Stiller, Roberty Downey, Jr, Jack Black, Brandon T. Jackson, Jay Baruchel, Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan, Danny McBride, Brandon Soo Hoo, Tom Cruise; Screenplay - Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux & Etan Coen from a story by Stiller and Theroux; Rated R for violence, language, drug use references and sexual references; see trailer here.

The thing to remember at all times: it is just a movie.

My friends have to remind me of that from time to time.  Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was awful, yes.  But it was not the end of the world.  George Lucas did not destroy my childhood by going to the well after it was already dry with Indy and the Star Wars prequels.  He just made bad choices.  They were just movies.

In Tropic Thunder, action film superstar Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), comic actor Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) and Australian award winning thespian Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr.) find themselves working on a Vietnam War film.  The film itself is troubled from the beginning because each performer is working towards their own particular agenda.

Speedman desperately wants a role to establish himself as a serious actor.  Having already made a huge name for himself as an action-movie legend, Speedman's reputation is in need of a serious overhaul.  This is because his previous film Simple Jack, which was intended to get Speedman Oscar recognition, only succeeded in tearing down Speedman's drawing power with his horrifically offensive depiction of a character with developmental deficiencies.

Portnoy is also attempting to break out of stereotyping in his roles.  Having made a couple of hugely commercial comedies in which he plays multiple characters in the same film, Portnoy seems convinced he can do any genre.  He is not as driven as Speedman to change his image, and in fact relishes how he is perceived off camera as a clown.

Lazarus is the one "true" actor working on the project.  Having won five Oscars through his unconventional style of method acting, Lazarus has broached new and controversial ground for this new role, undergoing a "pigment augmentation" operation to be able to play an African-American soldier in the platoon.  Lazarus loses himself so deeply in the character, the portrayal does not end when the cameras stop rolling.

Man on Wire (2008) Director - James Marsh; Starring - Philippe Petit, Annie Allix, Jean-Louis Blondeau, Jim Moore, Paul McGill, Ardis Campell, Barry Greenhouse, Alan Welner, Jim Moore, Jean François Heckel; Rated PG-13 for some brief sexuality and nudity, and a few drug references; see the trailer here.

I cannot help but find myself thinking about David Blane.  And thinking that as good as Blane might be, he is a hack compared to Philippe Petit.

Blane has gained notoriety as a magician and performance artist stunts he has performed around New York City.  From encasing himself in a block of ice to submerging himself in a sphere filled with water and living in it for a week, Blane has made a name for himself by performing feats that push the boundaries of human endurance. 

What he does as a performer is with different objectives than Petit.  It is probably only the connection of New York City that put Blane in mind as I watched Petit in Man on Wire.  The subject of James Marsh's documentary is, like Blane, a magician and also a high-wire performer.  Petit has a passion for eye catching stunts that put him at risk of serious injury or death.  As the film focuses on the most amazing performance of Petit's career, it is important to keep in mind two elements that separate the two:

1) Petit's risks are greater because of the lack of control he has over the elements, and because of the potential for disaster at the slightest misstep.

2) Petit's stunt - walking a tightrope across the gap between the tops of the two World Trade Center Towers - was wholly illegal.

Is it better to challenge convention or embrace it?

This question was at the core of a spirited argument I had recently with a close friend. We were discussing a film we had both seen that encompassed a political issue at its core (Kimberly Peirce’s Stop-Loss). My friend and I were at odds with each other on whether a movie dealing with a sensitive issue was more effective when it challenged its audience and threatened to make them uncomfortable, or when it took a lighter approach and tried to be more balanced in its approach. In arguing against the film and the way Peirce approached it, I argued vehemently that the greatest films, the ones that truly inspire change and stand the test of time, are the ones that risk offense.

I found myself revisiting that consideration having recently picked up my own copy of Jean Renoir’s 1939 masterpiece The Rules of the Game (La Règle du jeu), a film that was buried on its release and is since regarded as one of the greatest films of all time.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) Director - Guillermo Del Toro; Starring - Ron Pearlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Seth McFarlane, Luke Goss, Anna Walton, Jeffrey Tambor; Screenplay - Guillermo Del Toro from a story by Guillermo Del Toro and Mike Mignola; Rated PG13 for language and some violence; see trailer here.

At the risk of dating myself, after seeing Hellboy II, I could not help but find myself thinking of a vintage Saturday Night Live sketch. Dan Ackroyd and Gilda Radner are arguing over whether a new product called Shimmer is a floor wax or a dessert topping, before Chevy Chase comes in and informs them Shimmer is both in one convenient package. That is what it felt like watching Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

"It's a love story! No, it's an environmental treatise! No, it's a commentary on outsider status and possibly even gay marriage!"

"Actually, it's all of these things and more!"

And in the same way I would never give Shimmer a chance if the product did exist, I really do not feel like I can give Hellboy any kind of enthusiastic recommendation.

Hellboy II starts with a trip back in time to Hellboy's youth. The young demon is being told a bedtime story by his adopted father Professor Bruttenholm (John Hurt briefly reprising his role from the first film). Bruttenholm's tale recounts an ancient war between humankind and the kingdom of Elves. Man had the upper hand until the ruler of the Elves, King Balor, commissioned the construction of the titular Golden Army.

WALL-E (2008) Director - Andrew Stanton; Starring - Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Sigourney Weaver, Kathy Najimy, Sigourney Weaver; Screenplay - Andrew Stanton; Rated G; see trailer here.

How strange is it that a movie can in the space of two hours elicit thoughts of both Stanley Kubrick and Michael Bay? Both for good and ill considerations? And that those impressions are spawned by a children's film from Disney?

Yes, WALL-E spawned that kind of confused assessment from me. Sometimes it really is that much a pain in the ass to be as much a film geek as I am.

I have been a big Pixar booster since the first Toy Story. I remember my skepticism and disdain for the notion of a computer generated animated film being replaced with absolute wonder when I first entered the world of Woody the Cowboy and Buzz Lightyear. I have to believe the feeling was akin to that people had when seeing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for the first time. I knew I was witnessing something truly revolutionary.

Since that time, Pixar has churned out both amazing family adventures (Finding Nemo, The Incredibles) and solid if unspectacular romps (A Bug's Life, Cars). The one thing they have never produced is a bad film, and WALL-E is no exception. But in digesting the mixed references provoked by this tale of the little robot that could, I found myself again experiencing something for the first time with Pixar.

Disappointment.

I could so very easily see the following discussion in a first term economics class at some college:

“That concludes today’s lecture. Are there any questions? Yes, you in the front.”

“I’m still having trouble understanding the concept of diminishing marginal returns.”

“Ah, ok. Well, let’s see if we can put it in terms you can relate to. Are you familiar with a movie director named M. Night Shyamalan?”

Sometimes I think that one of the greatest things a movie can do is make you feel like a kid again. A documentary that can do so scores doubly impressive in my book.

The last one that did that to me was probably Jeffrey Biltz's Spellbound in 2002. The documentary tracking eight schoolkids and their paths to the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee conveyed all of the kids' collective anxiety and hope as they worked their way through the competition. Mentally, I tried to spell every word with every child and my heart broke every time someone missed a word.