Sarah Sluis' Top Ten Movies of 2012

2012 has been a great year for big Hollywood films. In 2009, 2010 and 2011, my top ten lists were stocked with underdogs and the kind of specialty fare that only sometimes made it big at the box office. This year, most of the "specialty" releases I selected are destined for expansion and great play in theatres, so I'm a little light on the underdogs. The list reflects only the movies I saw in theatres this year: 70, a number many critics could easily double. In no particular order, here are my top ten:

1. Zero Dark Thirty. The biggest surprise for me was that the film's protagonist, Maya, was female, "a woman clothed, like Athena, in willful strength and intellectual armor," as described by The New Yorker's David Denby. She's the kind of female protagonist you don't realize is rare until you see her up on the screen. Beyond Maya (played expertly by Jessica Chastain), director Kathryn Bigelow lays out an incredibly detailed account of the years leading up to Bin Laden's death that feels real, immediate, and important. It's a cinematic (and partly fictional) version of reading The 9/11 Comission Report.

2. Next to Maya, Gina Carano was the second most awesome female protagonist of the year in Haywire. The lean spy actioner had some of the most riveting, realistic fighting I've ever seen. Like Zero Dark Thirty, there's a lot that director Steven Soderbergh didn't bother to explain. I like a story where a filmmaker or actor has the courage or confidence not to show something, and this movie was one of them.

3. Flight showed little restraint. The final minutes added a moralizing touch that felt old-fashioned and uncomfortable. Like the car crash scene in Adaptation, Flight has one of the best action sequences ever appearing in a drama. It stays with you for the rest of the film. Another great movie about alcoholism that didn't quite make the list, Smashed, is an interesting companion piece: substitute a plane crash for a faked pregnancy and you end up with a quite similar character arc.

4. Argo was so much fun to watch. Even though I had read the magazine article that was the source material and knew the end plane sequence didn't really happen, it managed to combine real drama with comedy in a way that so few others have. I think this is why audiences finally returned to the "box-office poison" of Middle East-set features. This one had you clapping and gasping in suspense, but it also had great laughs and didn't take itself too seriously.

5. The documentary Searching for Sugar Man centered on folk musician Rodriguez, a man so befuddling and enigmatic it was hard to wrap your mind around him. But that's why I like documentaries: They can offer character portraits that would never work in fiction films, because audiences would find them too frustrating. Some key would need to be provided to the audience to unlock his or her motivations. But we never get one for Rodriguez, whose life as both a star and an aesthete becomes a koan on character and fame for the audience to meditate on. In one forest, Rodriguez's music fell on deaf ears. In another (South Africa), it became a symbol of cultural revolution.

6. Les Misérables promises to shake up the way musicals are filmed for the screen. The live recordings of the actors strip away the distance that always seems to crop up in musicals. Sure, Les Misérables is one of my favorite musicals, but that only raises expectations. Mine were met, and then some.

7. Beasts of the Southern Wild may also change the world of indie film. I'd rather have a crop of indie imitators try to tackle a project like this than sit through another Mumblecore, but given the immense resolve required of those who soldiered through the bayou-set production, I doubt there will be too many. Beasts opened up dialogue about New Orleans and Katrina and made the experience of seeing a movie feel new again. For that, it gets a spot in the top ten.

8. I'm still not quite sure what to think about Django Unchained. I admire director Quentin Tarantino for traversing into the quicksand territory that is race relations and America's history of slavery. So far, people have only taken issue with small things, like the use of the N-word. Surely more thoughtful cultural critiques are to come. What I remember most about Django is its use of guided awe. Django (Jamie Foxx) rides into town on a horse, prompting head-turning stares from every person in town. A black person on a horse? Tarantino draws attentions to anachronisms, but the emotions of hatred and revenge never feel far removed from the present.

9. I don't ever want to see The Impossible again, but its account of a family torn apart by the tsunami in Thailand was harrowing and intimate. It was essentially a two-hour ordeal of getting choked up and holding back tears. Those in search of an emotional ravaging need to look no further.

10. Everyone seems to be hating The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey but I thought it was a nice solid Hobbit meal. Suddenly, Lord of the Rings made sense to me. With fewer deaths and a lighter tone, this is the kind of fantasy adventure that would have been a great kickoff to the film series. The Harry Potter books started off light and got darker and darker, and the same holds true for The Hobbit. This one was actually still close to the Prisoners of Azkaban-level in terms of darkness, but the movie makes my list just because it's such a relief to finally get a series I never really latched onto.

 

Tribeca 2012 recap: 'Struck By Lightning,' 'Polisse,' and 'The Playroom'

As is often the case with film festivals, my favorites at the Tribeca Film Festival this year were documentaries. Side by Side, which explains how the industry has shifted from film to digital, played like a super-entertaining film lecture. I felt like I needed a pen and paper to jot down notes. High Tech, Low Life provided a window into life in China, so different than what I see on the nightly news. The narrative films often fell into niches. I didn't see any real crowd-pleasers, but rather films that should appeal primarily to certain demographic segments.

Struck by Lightning is one such film. Starring Chris Colfer from "Glee," the dark comedy centers on a high school newspaper editor who is struck by lightning in the movie's opening moments. The film then retraces his final weeks, when he was finally able to exercise some power in his isolated existence. The movie should offer real appeal to high schoolers, especially those who feel they don't belong. It has bits of Saved! (also directed by Brian Dannelly) and But I'm a Cheerleader in it, and convincingly maintains its darkly comedic tone throughout. But it didn't have that extra oomph of something--originality, audacity, or empathy--to bring it over the top.

The French film Polisse attracted a crowd topped with white hair at the screening I attended, older Francophiles who love anything French. The long, ensemble film follows a group of co-workers in France's child protection unit, which handles child molestation, abuse, and vice cases involving children. Their cases play out quite differently than, say, "Law & Order," so there are some interesting cultural differences to tease out. Sometimes that backfires. During an interview with a teen who was manipulated into sex in order to retrieve a stolen smartphone, the officers get a case of the giggles that felt extremely inappropriate. My guess is that the girl was speaking in a Valley girl-type manner with tons of likes, that made her case seem funny, but it didn't translate with subtitles, and the audience wasn't laughing either. Some of the cases the officers covered were stomach-churning, infuriating, or sad--I saw people wiping away tears. The bleak ending, which isn't fully explained, is also typically, infuriatingly French, yet another sign this movie, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, will be a hit among stateside Francophiles.

Adults also behave badly in The Playroom, a 1970s-set story that unfolds over one evening. Three children, aged from high school to elementary school, entertain themselves upstairs while their parents (John Hawkes and Molly Parker) drink and smoke with a neighbor couple. The drama has a surprising level of suspense. The family is quiet, but their habits are revealing: the kids come home from school first, clearing away unfinished drinks and emptying ashtrays without comment. The mother pulls eggs and bacon from an empty refrigerator in order to cook dinner. Director Julia Dyer makes finding out the nature and motivations of these characters the driving force in the narrative. Alternately uncomfortable and depressing, The Playroom can be difficult to watch but tackles a familiar subject--unloving and distant parents--in a novel way.

Of these three films, Polisse has already been picked up by Sundance Selects and will open on May 18. The other two should undoubtedly be picked up for distribution, and I think Struck by Lightning in particular could become a favorite among young, indie-seeking audiences.

'John Carter' faces uphill battle against 'The Lorax'

Disney may have a flop on its hands. John Carter (3,749 theatres, including 3D and IMAX screens), is a "big-budget adaptation [that] delivers epic scale and effects" but has some major flaws, according to FJI critic Daniel Eagan. "Too reminiscent of previous films to impress older viewers, and too lightweight to dazzle fantasy fans," the CG/live-action mix is on par to deliver $30 million this weekend, when $50 million would be more likely to help Disney recoup its reported $250 million budget. Many have faulted Disney's marketing campaign. One, the title originally was more revealing, John Carter of Mars, but was reportedly shortened after Mars Needs Moms bombed. I was confused by a giant billboard that only showed the CG alien. Was this a CG movie? The coolest part for me is that the movie centers on a Civil War soldier who's transported to Mars, yet I've seen no antiquated military garb or battles in the trailer. There's a strong possibility that The Lorax may beat John Carter this weekend. John Carter is exactly the kind of movie that does well overseas, but audiences at home may give this film a pass.

If you're interested in time travel, check out A Thousand Words (1,890 theatres). The Eddie Murphy movie has been shelved for the past four years. Murphy plays a man who finds out he only has a thousand words left to speak. High concept, and most likely low on anything else. This would-be family comedy should earn somewhere slightly north of $5 million.

Indie darling Elizabeth Olsen stars in Silent House (2,124 theatres), a haunted house movie with the "gimmick" of being filmed in one continuous take. Our critic Maitland McDonagh panned the "derivative thriller." In particular, the "big twist" will be evident to horror fans "long before it arrives."

Friends with Kids (374 theatres) is rather "studied and forced" compared to Bridesmaids. The two comedies share a number of cast numbers, but unfortunately the "funny lines" are accompanied by an "awful lot of unoriginal, would-be side-splitters," according to critic David Noh. Many are expecting the comedy, which centers on two friends who decide to raise a child together, to be popular among the date-night crowd.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (18 theatres) starts out as an "appealing" romantic comedy before changing "midstream."  According to critic Kevin Lally, it's a "promising replica of the golden era of screen comedy that becomes mired in increasingly unwelcome narrative muck," a real "missed opportunity." Still, CBS Films hopes positive word-of-mouth will give momentum to their planned platform release.

Anyone who identifies as a "foodie" should check out Jiro Dreams of Sushi. The documentary about a famous Japanese sushi chef is the "Planet Earth" of sushi, and it will also make you feel more thoughtful about what you consume, though the chef's philosophy far predates the local, slow-food movement.

On Monday, we'll see if John Carter will be sunk by its high budget or if overseas returns keep it afloat.

Oscar talking points: What you need to know about all the big categories

The Oscars are on Sunday. After months of lead-up awards ceremonies and over two months after the end of 2011, the Academy will finally crown its winners. Here's what you need to know in order to make your Oscar predictions and slip in a knowing comment or two.

If The Artist doesn't win Best Picture, it will be a huge upset.
Silent, black & white The Artist has wooed nearly everyone who's been convinced to see it. Critics have embraced the movie, and it has already won several major awards, including Best Picture at the Golden Globes and BAFTA. It also won Best Director for Michel Hazanavicius at the Directors Guild of America awards, a category that strongly correlates with Oscar wins. Besides Best Picture, The Artist could also pull out a win for Best Director (and by extension, Best Editing, which often goes along with Best Director). If it wins those categories, which occur earlier in the ceremony, a Best Picture win is a lock. My dark horse pick is The Descendants, which won Best Drama at the Globes.

Streep will get a "career" Oscar
Giving Meryl Streep an Oscar is a bit of a sentimental pick that rewards her for all her previous work rather than her current film. The first four times she was nominated at the Oscars, she won twice (for Kramer vs. Kramer and Sophie's Choice). Since then, she's been nominated another thirteen times without winning once. Streep may have embodied Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, but the movie itself was so-so. This time, that shouldn't stop her from winning an Oscar.

Best Actor is a toss-up
Jean Dujardin is an unknown in the United States but he performed in the most lauded movie of the year. George Clooney did what he does best under the estimable direction of Alexander Payne in The Descendants. Both won in their respective comedy/drama categories for the Globes. Will star power win, or will Dujardin's silent acting in the most-lauded movie of the year win out? This category is one of the closest.

Most likely to make a teary speech: Octavia Spencer
When Spencer won for her performance in The Help in the Golden Globes, her speech was the best of the night. If she wins Best Supporting Actress on Sunday, I'm sure she'll bring the house down. She's one of the few people who has only just tasted fame and will be in awe and oh-so grateful for the honor. I'll have my fingers crossed for her.

Could Woody Allen show up?
When Allen won Best Screenplay for Midnight in Paris at the Golden Globes, he didn't show. He's only attended the Oscars once, when he pleaded for producers to continue shooting movies in NYC after 9/11. It's unlikely he'll don a tux and put in an appearance, but if he does it'll be legendary. Seeing how the presenters handle his absence will also be an evaluation of their gracefulness. In the Adapted Screenplay category, I'm picking The Descendants.

Make sure you set your DVRs for the ceremony this Sunday. In case you need to print out an Oscar ballot, check out this pdf.

And to hear a podcast about the Academy Awards featuring FJI contributor Jon Frosch, click here.

Fox Searchlight picks up 'Beasts,' 'Surrogate' at Sundance

For film buffs not attending the Sundance Film Festival, the hardest part is hearing the great raves for a film you might not be able to see for months, if not a year. This year's Sundance market has been hot for pickups. Fox Searchlight has picked up two high-profile films so far at the festival. Fortunately, both are set to release theatrically later this year.

Beasts of the Southern Wild. The director of this movie, Benh Zeitlin, actually graduated from my college a couple years before me. His talent was evident. His thesis film, "Egg," a stop-motion, silent, animated recreation of Moby Dick taking place inside an egg that itself was about to be destroyed, was a sight to behold. It later won the Grand Jury Prize at Slamdance. 

Beasts reportedly has a similar fantastical bent, with Variety calling it a "stunning debut" and THR naming it "one of the most striking films ever to debut at the Sundance Film Festival." Set in New Orleans and starring a poor black girl, the movie likely offers oblique commentary on the post-Katrina landscape. Fox Searchlight paid $6 million for the pickup, a high but not record figure.

The Surrogate. John Hawkes stars as a man confined to an iron lung who wants to lose his virginity. The plot sounds sad, but THR reassures that the movie is more similar to The King's Speech than The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. In his review, Todd McCarthy characterizes the 1980s-set movie as a "feel-good fairytale," a "cheerful" story that "argues in favor of living a full life, whatever one’s personal constraints." Still, an iron lung sounds tougher to market than a king with a lisp, but the message could have a nice awards resonance. Searchlight is also planning a 2012 release.

I'll continue to report on the Sundance films that have been picked up to open in a theatre near you.

Nine Best Picture nominees and a few surprises in Oscar nominations

This year's Oscar nominations are out. Along with the expected films, performers, and crew nominations, there are a decent amount of snubs and a few surprise inclusions.

The most nominated film was the box-office disappointment Hugo. Director Martin Scorsese's feature received great critical reviews, but it's earned just $55 million compared to competing family pick Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked's $124 million. I wonder if the nominations will convince adults, with our without children, to catch it while it's still in theatres.

Even with nine films nominated for Best Picture, there was still one snub: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The David Fincher-directed picture landed four technical nods (including well-deserved ones for cinematography and editing), but only one in a "major" category. Rooney Mara received a nomination for Best Actress, no doubt in part because of the extreme changes she underwent to her physical appearance. I think Fincher is like Hitchcock--one of those directors whose genius always goes unrecognized by the Academy because of his chosen genre and subject matter.

A surprise inclusion in the Best Actor category was Demián Bichir in the little-seen A Better Life. Oscar voters love socially conscious films, and I'm sure this Los Angeles-set tale of underclass hardship hit close to home. Undoubtedly, many of the well-heeled Academy voters have probably employed a landscaper like him at one time, so the story has special resonance.

I'm also enthused that Melissa McCarthy was recognized in the Best Supporting Actress category for Bridesmaids. She was so much fun and also underwent quite a physical transformation. In fact, most of the female acting nominees looked quite unlike themselves in their performances. Glenn Close played a man in Albert Nobbs, and Meryl Streep and Michelle Williams both had to convincingly play a famous person (Margaret Thatcher and Marilyn Monroe, respectively).

In the foreign language category, I was at least a little disappointed that Mexico's Miss Bala didn't make the cut. The fast-paced, suspenseful tale of a beauty queen who gets caught up in the drug wars brought a human face to the destruction the drug lords have wrought in the area. Maybe it just had too many machine guns?

I'm surprisingly unfamiliar with the Best Documentary contenders. Pina, a 3D dance doc, has been a critical darling and has drawn plenty of audiences since it opened in late December. It's also earned three-quarters of a million dollars, along with over $11 million abroad. The rest of the nominees aren't so lucky--yet. I caught If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front when it played on PBS this year (pretty good). When the environmental activism doc played for nine weeks this summer, it earned just $61,000. Soldier doc Hell and Back Again has played for fifteen weeks while only grossing $37,000. Undefeated won't even open properly until February 10th. Neither has Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, which will probably be seen by the most people when it plays on HBO, not in theatres.

Overall, Hugo leads with eleven nominations. Two-thirds of the time the most-nominated movie also wins Best Picture. There's a chance this might be the one-third of the time. The second-most nominated movie, The Artist, didn't have as much of a chance to pick up the technical nominations as Hugo. After all, who would nominate The Artist for sound editing or sound mixing? Like The Artist, The Descendants, which had just five nominations, still scored in all the major categories: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Editing (which almost always goes along with Best Director). Despite its win for Best Drama at the Golden Globes, it now seems like more of a dark horse. Most people have been predicting The Artist for Best Picture, but Hugo's multiple nominations now make me think perhaps the Scorsese picture could win for Best Picture. With its mix of snubs and surprise nominations, this year's ceremony should have plenty of suspense, and pose at least a few challenges for those looking to win their Oscar pool.

Promising indie films in Sundance 2012 lineup

By Sarah Sluis

Let's skip past awards season for a minute. The lineup for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival has been released. Surprisingly, none of the fifteen movies in the premiere section have distribution yet. Included in the lineup are plenty of romances, comedies, and offbeat premises that will be sure to connect with Sundance's youthful core demographic. Let's take a look at some of the projects that have me the most excited.

Bachelorette. This year's Bridesmaids showed just how much fun female-centered wedding comedies can be. Bachelorette is a bit more Mean Girls, centering on a group of friends who are miffed when their least popular member becomes engaged to an extremely eligible bachelor and then recruits them to be bridesmaids. Kirsten Dunst, Lizzie Caplan, and Isla Fisher star as the friends, in what looks like a cross of Bridesmaids and the upcoming Young Adult.

Celeste and Jesse Forever. Another entry in the unconventional, weird-timelined love story (think: (500) Days of Summer), this centers on a couple that's been together since high school. As they approach thirty, they decide to divorce while remaining best friends. Rashida Jones, who's been a rising star, plays one member of the couple in a screenplay she co-wrote.

Red Hook Summer. Spike Lee directs and co-writes this story of a boy who goes to live with his grandfather who he's never met. I love this premise, and I think it's a chance for Lee to return to the kind of astutely observed social drama he showed the world in Do the Right Thing.

Liberal Arts. This romance centers on a 30-something guy (Josh Radnor, who also writes and directs) who returns to his college only to hook up with a 19-year-old student (Elizabeth Olsen). Olsen's portrayal as a cult member in the 2011 Sundance entry Martha Marcy May Marlene was powerful but also largely mute. It will be interesting to see the "third Olsen" in what has to be a more dialogue-driven performance. With the focus on Radnor, could this movie be a kind of reverse The Graduate?

The Sundance Film Festival will take place from Jan. 19-29, 2012.

The full rundown on the 'Hunger Games' trailer

By Sarah Sluis

Last month I was on an airplane, when I recognized the Hunger Games font in my seatmate's book. "She's reading The Hunger Games!" I thought. Conversation ensued. We were both in our mid-twenties. She was reading the second book on the recommendation of her sister. These are what Hunger Games fans look like. We're not as swoony and crazy as the Twi-hards, but we also don't include the younger fans of the Harry Potter series. Quite a lot of the readers have long aged out of the young adult category but still find themselves turning to the series, which has an immensely satisfying dystopian vision. Twelve districts, used only for their natural resources or manufacturing capabilities, must sacrifice a male and female teen to play in the Games as a Tribute. Armed with weapons and survivalist gear (if they're lucky), they fight to the death in the Arena, a natural environment that's been tweaked by the Gamemakers to make it more dangerous.

The trailer for the movie, which opens on March 23, 2012, released yesterday, unleashing a furor of comments and posts from the blogosphere. I list the trailer's biggest disappointments and successes.

1. District 12. The poor coal town looked exactly as I had envisioned it. The (un-)electric fence looked old and rusty, the citizens downbeat and drained of hope. The platform Effie (played by Elizabeth Banks in makeup that appears to channel Johnny Depp in Alice in Wonderland) uses to announce the Tributes is bigger and grander than I imagined, with lots of extra screens to amplify the action.

2. The city shot of the Capitol looked bland and boring, like a modern Star Wars ripoff. No budget was spent on this. The interiors were much more promising. Hollywood knows how to create futuristic, modern interiors without a problem. It's the special effects that are lacking here.

3. The makeover. For me, the biggest Jennifer Lawrence transformation was seeing her first as a poor Ozarks girl in Winter's Bone, then as a glamorous blonde at the Oscars. The Hunger Games can't replicate that kind of transformation. She does look prettier and more done up after receiving her makeover at the Capitol, but don't expect The Princess Diaries.

4. The Games. This is really the most important part of the story, and so far there's nothing to disappoint. The trailer stops after all the Tributes enter the arena, and Katniss (Lawrence) grabs the same, single bag that she does in the book. The initial bloodshed occurs just moments later.

Some of the book's biggest assets can't be intuited from a trailer. Suzanne Collins' novel reads like a screenplay at times. There aren't a lot of superfluous details to edit out, and the action is brisk, satisfying, and extremely page-turning. If the actors and director can transfer that energy to the screen, The Hunger Games will have no trouble being a huge success.

'2012' destroys the box-office competition

By Sarah Sluis

Disasters, it seems, are always in style. 2012 earned an astonishing $65 million over the weekend, exceeding expectations. All the CG carnage came at a steep price, $200 million in production costs, but the first-week international gross of $225 million, plus a cable deal with FX, has already steered the movie toward the black.

Coming in second place, A Christmas Carol dropped a merry 25% to $22.3 million. It also has $200 million in production costs to make back, so the movie is counting on steady audiences through the Christmas season to recoup its investment. IMAX screens alone brought in $3.1 million, continuing the trend of 3D/IMAX films being buoyed up beyond opening weekend due to the strength of the higher-priced screens.

Pirate Radio debuted right out of the top ten at $2.8 million. Because it released on just 882 screens, its per-screen average of $3,200 bested seven of the films in the top ten. The movie didn't flop, but it would have needed to at least double its per-screen average to be considered a success.

The real second-week winner was Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire. The drama made the top ten while in release on under 200 screens. The only other film to do that in the past decade, according to Box Office Guru, was Paranormal Activity, which did so just weeks ago. Sometimes lightning does strike twice, but I suspect another explanation. The definition of "per-screen" may have changed--Precious was being played ten times a day, which requires more than one screen to achieve. Still, its $6 million gross and $35,000 per-screen average show the movie has a ways to go at the box office, giving it a promising forecast when it expands again this Friday.

Fantastic Mr. Fox debuted to a $65,000 per screen (though, again, playing ten times a day at each of its four "screen" locations). The stop-motion animated film will open wide over Thanksgiving. With its appeal to both kids and adults, it might be the crowd-pleasing choice, though it will have both Planet 51 and The Princess and the Frog to contend with.

This Friday, the next movie in the Twilight Saga, New Moon, will storm into over 4,000 theatres. Animated Planet 51 will provide some counter-programming for kids, and parents that don't qualify as "Twilight Moms" may want to catch feel-good The Blind Side after they drop off their rabid teenage girls at the theatre.

'2012' to blow up at the box office

By Sarah Sluis

Today, 2012 will bring disaster to 3,404 theatres nationwide. Filled with unbelievable near-death escapes, and a survival mechanism called the "atomic-age equivalent of Noah's ark," the movie's strong suit is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. With this framework, the implausibilities go down much easier. While crowds will turn out for the special effects, the disaster theme is getting old. Add in the recession, and the movie could play either way: "My world is already collapsing, so why bother to see civilization collapse?" or "Well, I should see it. It will remind me things could be worse." The doom-and-gloom spectacle is expected to open at $40 million.

A movie rescued and repackaged from its unsuccessful British release, Pirate Radio, will open in 882 theatres. Previously titled The Boat That Rocked, it bowed to a disappointing run in Britain at a considerably bloated running time. It was given to Focus Features, edited, and re-marketed, so its performance will be a reflection of the success of Focus' efforts.

Joining Where the Wild Things Are as a kiddie movie with a hipster, adult feel, Fantastic Mr. Fox opens in four theatres (NY/LA) before expanding in coming weeks. The stop-motion animated film employs a style less like Coraline and more like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: deliberately stilted. Our critic Ethan Alter called it "not necessarily...a great children's movie, but...a pretty fantastic Wes Anderson film." Having seen it myself, I can say it's fun to see Wes Anderson's signature style--his straight-on framing and penchant for stylized dialogue, to name two--melded with writer Roald Dahl's material and presented in stop-motion animation. By drawing in (perhaps confused) children, families, and adult Wes Anderson fans, the movie stands to make a buck without having to rob the three biggest chicken producers in town.

Opening in four theatres in New York and Washington D.C., The Messenger has already drawn warm reviews from critics, a promising sign given critic Justin Lowe's warning that the "delicate subject matter could be a tough sell in a marketplace still averse to accounts of the conflict; careful handling is required." By "gingerly [probing] wounds that are still healing with admirable empathy and insight," this war-themed film appeals both to soldiers and military families as well as those isolated from the impact of the U.S.'s wars.

Also opening today is William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe (New York/Boston), a documentary about the civil rights lawyer who alienated almost everyone--including his two young daughters--when he started defending those guilty in the eyes of the American public, including an accused terrorist.

The kind of movie I would have enjoyed in high school, Dare, debuts today in New York and L.A. Though critic James Greenberg predicted most people won't see the movie until it hits cable, the high school-set movie is "a smart and well-observed entry in the genre [and] a cut above the usual hijinks."

On Monday, we'll see what kind of damage 2012 did on the box office, if Pirate Radio's re-marketing paid off, and if last week's big winner, Precious: Based on the Story 'Push' by Sapphire, can sustain its performance as it expands to 174 theatres.