The New Wave: 12/10/10

What the heck is the guy who brought us The Lives of Others doing making a deliberately airy, light hearted thriller starring two of America's finest actors? Good question. Don't be fooled by the directing pedigree, The Tourist isn't meant to be taken seriously one bit. In fact it's a lot like taking a richly deserved vacation to Venice, with Jolie and Depp as your tour guides. My review of The Tourist can be found here.

The third time may be the charm, but The Chronicles of Narnia has been through the wringer. It's never a good thing when you make nearly a billion dollars and that's still not good enough to keep the studio happy. So what does Disney do? They pawn it off to the highest bidder, with Voyage of the Dawn Treader landing in the willing arms of Fox and Walden Media. The biggest move they made is still the addition of Michael Apted as director, who adds a level of stability and credibility the first two movies sorely lacked. My review can be found here.

Andrew Jarecki sure does love his family secrets, doesn't he? After bringing us the remarkable documentary Capturing the Friedmans just a few years ago, now he's back with his first narrative feature surrounding one of the country's most infamous missing person cases. Ryan Gosling's busy Oscar season continues as he plays the son of a wealthy real estate magnate, who finds himself a suspect in the sudden disappearance of his wife. Those who've been waiting for Kirsten Dunst to make a real transition to more mature flicks may be surprised at just how good she is here. I'd say if the Academy was considering anybody they might want to look her way. My review of All Good Things can be found here, and be sure to tune in to Punch Drunk Critics Live this Sunday for our interview with Andrew Jarecki!

You'd think that the presence of Jim Carrey and Ewen McGregor could help overcome some of I Love You Phillip Morris' less easily marketable traits, but apparently studios balked at that idea. The film struggled for months to find US distribution despite success in France earlier this year. Only the combined courage of Liddell Entertainment and Roadside Attractions were willing to bring this highly regarded true story of a con man who repeatedly breaks out of prison to be with the guy he loves....who he also met while behind bars. No time for a write-up on this one, but you'll be able to hear me and Tim Gordon banter about it this weekend on the show.

Photographer Marc Hogancamp was left with virtually no memory of his life after being attacked and beaten by five men outside of a bar back in 2000. When he woke up after nine days in a coma, he was left with nothing. Unable to afford therapy, he decided to heal himself by focusing his energy on building a WWII-era scale model town in his yard, and populating it with figures representing himself and his loved ones. When his work is discovered and splashed across Esopus magazine as "art", Marc has to decide if that's really the path he wants his fictional little town to take.