The New Wave: 10/22/10

Say what you want about Paranormal Activity hoping lightning strikes twice, the fact remains last year the low budget upstart put Jigsaw out to pasture. Now Oren Peli brings his horror hit back, this time under the inexperienced hand of Tod Williams, to watch the world's most passive aggressive demon terrorize another family. Prepare yourself for more sleepless nights. My review of Paranormal Activity can be found here.

Hard to believe this is the same Cecile De France from 2002's High Tension. She's turned into a beautiful, likable actress that adds much needed life to Clint Eastwood's somber supernatural tale of the afterlife. Hereafter has been pretty soundly pummeled by critics long before now, but the performances have been praised. I've got some serious issues with it myself, but I recognize Eastwood's steadying hand keeps it from being a total disaster. You can check out my review here.

Can they just give the Best Actress award to Hilary Swank now? Let's face it, she's a shoe-in to get nominated(and likely win) for her amazing portrayal of Betty Anne Waters, who spent nearly 20 years of her life fighting to get her brother(played by a chaotic Sam Rockwell) out of prison. You can check out my review here.

If there's anything I want more of it's movies about how disastrous the economic situation in America is today. My head is still spinning from all the hedge fund talk in Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story. Expect the financial crisis to be dissected with the same razor precision as Iraq War documentary, No End in Sight, also directed by Charles Ferguson. The one reason I might risk my sanity and see this? It features the analysis of former Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, who has quickly become one of my favorite political pundits.

Stephen Frears(The Queen) is looking to bounce back after the disappointing  performance of Cheri last year. Based on Posy Simmonds' comic strip, which was in itself a modern take of Thomas Hardy's 19th century novel, Far from the Madding Crowd, Tamara Drewe features the rapidly rising star Gemma Arterton flashing her legs in the title role. Here's hoping she goes from this into Ridley Scott's Alien prequel as rumors suggest.