It’s Spring! Kind of. And evidently, the idea that the summer movie season should start earlier and earlier has not been discarded. A full slate of films is now running March to September. In March, we have:
1) A film I have long awaited: Paul from Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and this time the director of Superbad. Having tackled the zombie oeuvre in the famous Shaun of the Dead, and the buddy cop thriller in Hot Fuzz, Pegg and Frost have now gone after the alien contact SF tradition, with a somewhat bigger budget and a great cast. Two British fans of all things alien come to the U.S. for ComicCon and go on a driving tour that includes Area 51, which happens to intersect with the escape efforts of an actual alien, voiced by Seth Rogan. The film also stars Kristen Wigg, Sigourney Weaver, Jason Bateman, Jane Lynch, Jeffrey Tambor and many others. (Next up for the satiric crew, they’re going to do a disaster movie spoof, when Pegg finds the time off from Mission Impossible and Star Trek movies.)
2) In Win Win, Paul Giamatti plays a depressed, down on his luck attorney who moonlights as a high school wrestling team. A stroke of somewhat illicit luck places a star athlete in his keeping and a shot at redemptive profit, but the boy’s mother may derail everything. It’s a Paul Giamatti comedy and those are never bad:
3) Also in the quirky dysfunctional family comedy area is Peep World, about a fractious family whose star sibling writes an autobiographical novel about them and the subsequent fall-out. Stars Rainn Wilson, Sarah Silverman, Michael C. Hall, Ben Schwartz, Judy Greer, Lesley Anne Warren, Ron Rifkin, Kate Mara — a bunch of people who excel at chewing scenery in delightful ways.
4) Family oriented but more dramatic is The Music Never Stopped, about a father who tries to help his son’s memory problems from a serious brain injury. (Based on one of Oliver Saks’ case stories.) It stars the incomprable J.K. Simmons and a strong cast.
5) Last, but not least, a new trailer for Sucker Punch, which comes from Zack Snyder of 300 and Watchmen fame. A young woman is committed to an asylum by her wicked stepfather and creates an imaginary reality to free herself and other inmates. It stars Emily Browning, who was so wonderfully perfect as Violet in Lemony Snickett, and a great cast.
The Open Window 