Like a strange mix of Adaptation and Scarface comes The Devil's Double, the amazing true story of Latif Yahia, who had the misfortune of looking a little too much like Saddam Hussein's insane son, Uday. After charismatic supporting turns in numerous films of late(An Education, Captain America), Dominic Cooper gives twisted, fractured and ultimately brilliant performance playing both men. Unfortunately, Cooper proves to be the only good thing about the film, as director Lee Tamahori values glitz over any actual substance. Still, The Devil's Double is worth checking out merely to see how Cooper pulls off the dual role.
One of my favorite movies of all-time, Sidney Lumet's courtroom drama remains as thrilling and relevant as ever as it exposes the biases of our legal system. Henry Fonda plays the liberal hero, embroiled in fierce war of words with the other eleven members of a jury as they try to decide the fate of a boy charged with murder. Some may be put off by the one-set location, but for me it adds a "boxed in" claustrophobia that only ratchets up the tension.
I feel like there's been a backlash against Super 8 as we home in on the awards season. Certainly his ode to the imaginative films of the 1980s, the stuff that brought us gems like The Goonies and E.T., deserves to be mentioned as one of the year's best. The turn against it seems centered on the way he so idolizes the work of Steven Spielberg(also a producer), so much so that people claim he's outright stealing. To me that's a load of nonsense. Super 8 hits all the right nostalgia buttons, but feels like the work of a guy remembering the reasons why he loved movies so much as a kid, with child heroes on a grand, epic adventure. There's a palpable sense of awe and wonder flowing through every single scene that few other films this year have been able to match.
Other Notable Releases
Conan the Barbarian, starring Jason Momoa
A Madea Christmas: The Play
Sarah's Key, starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Niels Arestrup
Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas Special
Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World, starring Jessica Alba and Antonio Banderas
