'Whip It' breathes life into the coming-of-age genre

By Sarah Sluis

Yesterday's advance screening of Whip It! included some unusual invitees: members of New York's roller derby team, who came clad in outfits of sweatbands and striped stockings. The audience was

raucous and frequently laughed out loud, which always makes a movie that much more fun.

What's surprising is that Whip It! uses a stock plot and situation to make a fast-paced, original-feeling movie. Here's the coming-of-age tale 101:

1. A girl in a small town dutifully, but grudgingly, follows her parents' idea of her life.
2. Until she's pulled into a new activity in which she discovers herself.
3. She must hide this new life from her parents, who would disapprove.
4. This leads to a crisis point where she can't lead both lives at once (and/or gets found out)
5. At which point she must reconcile her two worlds.

In Whip It!, this activity is roller derby (cue training montages). The movie does a great job initiating newbies into the ins and outs of the game, and by the end you'll be just as appreciative of the double-leg whip as I was. But how can a movie that follows so closely to a set genre seem so original and fresh? I've come up with a few answers.

The acting: Ellen Page does a superb job as Bliss Cavendar .a.k.a. Babe Ruthless. You're with her the whole time.
The soundtrack: Like all Fox Searchlight movies, the movie has a killer soundtrack, featuring catchy songs from indie bands. You'd want to listen to it at the gym or before going out with friends.
The feminism: The roller derby girls are sexy but tough. In one scene, they're showing off the bruises on their bottoms to each other, to the delight of some nearby boys. It's funny and revealing: the girls

admiring their bodies for their power and toughness, and the boys because it's a female body. Takeaway: girls don't need to be dainty to be admired. Ellen Page also dumps a boy without a second thought because it appeared he was cheating on her, without a second chance.
The dialogue: The movie may use a stock plot, but the dialogue feels genuine.
The details: Good comedies get jokes from authentic, not gaggy, costuming and props. There's the pink furry phone in Legally Blonde and Jason Segel wearing Ugg boots in I Love You, Man. In Whip It!, it's the pig aprons the girls wear at the diner they work at. You really believe that they have to wear them, Ellen Page meets the boy she has a crush on while wearing this ridiculous, stuffed pig apron. They are laughably hideous, and just the kind of thing you'd be forced to wear in Bodeen, Texas.

Whip It! opens this Friday, and hopefully its originality will be rewarded at the box office.

Just how big will Michael Jackson's 'This Is It' be?

By Sarah Sluis

In a month, the King of Pop will give a last performance in This Is It. Sony paid a reported $60 million for worldwide rights to Michael Jackson's concert rehearsal footage, in a deal brokered just after the musician's death. Kenny Ortega, who was the director of the concert (and has also directed and

choreographed the High School Musical series), is also directing This Is It, which will also include interviews.

I've checked out the trailer for This Is It, and despite the fact that Michael Jackson was a little after my time, to be discovered in my teens along with the Stones and the Beatles, the trailer really communicates the excitement and energy of his music: it's timeless. The stages are huge, the dances are frenetic, and the few clips of Jackson speaking depict him as a reserved, grateful performer who was passionate about his music and a perfectionist. There's nothing negative, and there's certainly no hint of his drug use or the way I often thought of him: captioned in a newspaper article, his body and face shielded by his hand, a handkerchief, coat or umbrella. Will the movie continue in this vein, or will it give hint to the struggles that Jackson faced?

Yesterday, Movietickets.com reported that over 160 shows had sold out, and advance ticket sales for the film were about 82% of the site's business. It's definitely on track to recoup its $60 million. While the movie is only set to be released for two weeks, I'm sure Sony has a third week in reserve if the movie dramatically exceeds expectations, just as the release of the Hannah Montana concert movie

was extended due to demand. Over 30 million people watched television footage of his memorial service, and a good percentage of that audience will be willing to pay to see the movie.

With more studios pursuing special event, limited releases, the success of this movie could provide another positive case study for this type of release, which is currently used much less frequently than more common wide or small-to-big releases. Moviegoing is a "special" event for many, and releasing a picture for just two weeks is one way to add value. For example, this Friday, Disney will re-release Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3D as a double feature. Originally, Disney had scheduled these two movies at different times leading up to the release of Toy Story 3, but apparently changed its tune. My guess is that in a recession, a double feature offers a greater value proposition and is more likely to draw in families. While This Is It will appeal to a largely different audience, including regular concertgoers, films using limited release strategies are ones we'll be watching in our Monday feature "Weekend Roundup."

Audiences return for second helpings of 'Meatballs'

By Sarah Sluis

With only a small decrease in demand, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs came in at #1 for the second week in a row. It dropped just 18.8%, an unheard-of amount, to bring in another $24.6 million. Because it's the only family film in the marketplace right now, and comes with the added boost of 3D

and IMAX locations, this movie's release benefited from a perfectly clear forecast.

Bruce Willis futuristic film Surrogates opened at #2 with $15 million in ticket sales. It's half the amount of last year's fantasy-action movie Eagle Eye, which opened on the same weekend last year. Given Surrogates' $80 million budget, this opening is a disappointment.

Scrubbed for tweens, Fame brought in $10 million and the second-runner-up spot. The double digit opening is about half the movie's production costs, which should satisfy MGM's expectations.

Sci-fi/horror movie Pandorum, "endlessly derivative of films such as Alien, Event Horizon, Pitch Black and countless others," opened at $4.4 million. Apparently, space mutants don't sell themselves the way they used to.

Among the rest of the returning films, The Informant! fared best, dropping a light 33% to bring in $6.9 million. Strong second-week returns were expected given the film's older audience.

On the specialty circuit, Coco Before Chanel and Capitalism: A Love Story both made big waves at the box office.

Coco Before Chanel, which stars charming Audrey Tautou, has already earned $24.8 million at the foreign box office, and brought in $35,400 at each of its five locations, a per-location average that speaks well to the film's future.

Michael Moore's Capitalim: A Love Story brought in $60,000 per location at each of its four locations,

giving it the highest per-screen average of the year--though it appears it was running on more than one screen at those theatres, at least in New York City. While the opening seems stellar, it's difficult to compare the debut to other Michael Moore films, all of which had different specialty-to-wide release patterns: Fahrenheit 9/11 opened wide on a Friday after a two-location debut on Wednesday. Though its per-screen averages were lower, Capitalism could still fall short of Fahrenheit's $119 million total gross. Moore's more recent film, Sicko, opened on one screen on a Friday its first weekend, giving it a $68,000 per-screen average by limiting supply--showing how easily per-screen averages can be deceiving.

Along with Capitalism: A Love Story, Ricky Gervais/Jennifer Garner comedy Invention of Lying will open wide this Friday, keeping company with teen roller derby movie Whip It!, and a double feature re-release of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3D.

Box-office leaders: 'Surrogates,' 'Fame,' and 'Cloudy'

By Sarah Sluis

The trio of wide releases this weekend has one thing in common: so-so reviews. Surrogates (2,951 theatres), a dystopian future film starring Bruce Willis, is one pick for the top spot. Critic Kirk Honeycutt

quipped that Surrogates is "a movie about human robots that appears to have actually been made by human robots." The premise, as laid out in the trailer, is a twist on The Matrix: everyone willingly hooks up to a machine and lives their life through an avatar. The problem is, turns out killing your avatar kills your real-life self. The best thing about futuristic films is their detailed, well-laid-out worlds, but unfortunately it seems Surrogates lacks the logic that would make the movie a satisfying diversion.

Teen musical remake Fame (3,096 theatres) is another contender for the top spot, along with last week's release Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. According to critic Stephen Farber, it "apes High School Musical rather than Mean Streets. Rated PG, it's almost laughably bland and

watered-down in its desire to appeal to the widest possible audience." Sadly, the best song of the production, "Fame (I'm Going to Live Forever)," is ghettoized to the closing credits.

Pandorum (2,400 theatres) also borrows from a well-known sci-fi movie, this time Aliens. Dennis Quaid plays an astronaut who wakes up in a spaceship that looks creepily old--and missing many of its 60,000 passengers. With a group of survivors, he must try to evade the aliens that have the ability to both kill and infect. It's expected to open below Surrogates and Fame.

This week also brings some high-profile small releases. Sony Pictures Classics Coco Before Chanel (6 theatres, NY/LA) is a must-see for any fashion fans, though the movie concentrates more on

biography and ambition than the fashion icon's actual designs. Chanel's very masculine, unfrivolous garments are a shock to the eye, and the manor scenes play much differently than the usual costume film stereotypes.

Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story opened on Wednesday on 4 screens, and earned $9,000 per screen on its opening day (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen did $14,600 per screen in its Wednesday debut). It doesn't open wide until next Friday, so this week's returns will help portend its box-office fate. I can't wait until all the pundits start digging in, if Moore's promotional appearance on Good Morning America is any hint.

The much-reviled I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, from the book by Tucker Max, opens on 120 screens, hopefully all located, and contained to, epicenters of fratty bad behavior.

Slamdance horror movie Paranormal Activity will open in 13 campus locations, in an attempt to build word-of-mouth for the Blair Witch-type horror movie. Our critic Kevin Lally found the movie to be either stupefying or horrifying, with the wait for its "[e]ffective jolts" requiring "extraordinary patience."

Monday we'll see if audiences picked Fame, Surrogates, or the comfort choice, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. We'll also get a sneak peek of whether Michael Moore's film will be more Sicko or Fahrenheit 9/11.

Hollywood makes another trip to the toy store

By Sarah Sluis

Toy-inspired movies have been the latest symbiotic relationship in Hollywood. Monopoly, Transformers, Clue, Candyland, and a plethora of action figures have all been picked up by various

studios, often with eye-raising by those covering them. Sure, there have been successes--who would have thought a movie based on a theme park ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, could have been so compelling? Or that the truly awful Transformers 2 could make so much money? While Hasbro has been the main seller for these toy-based adaptations, Mattel has just joined the scene, and one of the most iconic--and culturally contested--American icons will have her own movie: Barbie. No stranger to direct-to-video movies, the blonde, 39-23-33 doll will be played by a real person, since Universal has decided to make the movie live-action. No word on whether Barbie will be a doctor, cowhand, superstar singer, or any of her other chosen occupations. Since Columbia is also pursuing a deal to make a movie out of He-Man with Mattel, I decided to pick my top ten toy adaptations that haven't been made yet. In some cases, it's scraping the bottom of the barrel, while others might just show up in a new deal--I was about to put Hot Wheels on the list, but turns out back in 2003 McG put his directing dibs on the project.

10 Toy Adaptations just waiting for a buyer

1. Nerf
2. Easy Bake Oven: a modern adaptation of Hansel and Gretel

3. Tonka trucks
4. Chutes and Ladders: an adventure game, with kids trapped in a maze and required to use their smarts to break free.
5. Mr. Potato Head (a Toy Story spinoff?)
6. My Little Pony (this property may be firmly entrenched in direct-to-video)
7. Trivial Pursuit: like Inception, a thriller that takes place "in the architecture of the mind."
8. Operation: If botched surgery works on network television, why not in movies?
9. Play-Doh. Like the upcoming Lego adaptation, but with Play-Doh instead of Legos.
10. Strawberry Shortcake: this one could actually get made

When it comes to toy adaptations, you never know...

'Sweet Valley High' will get the Diablo Cody treatment

By Sarah Sluis

Today's film news brings a project that is almost too good to be true for nostalgic twenty and thirty-something women. Diablo Cody has announced that her next project will be an adaptation of the

"Sweet Valley High" novels. In response to a skeptical Twitter, Cody responded, "You have no idea how many bitches I took down to do this project. I went 'full Jessica.' Believe it."

Indeed, Diablo Cody and the "Sweet Valley High" books could be a match made in heaven--a female version of a comic book film. Read by late elementary and middle schoolers, an audience now in their twenties and thirties, these novels were The Babysitter's Club older, cooler cousin, with characters that were less sheltered and more independent, and focused on romance and getting out of trouble. The series, which spawned over a hundred titles, centers on two "size six, blonde, 5'6'', tan, dimpled" twins who live in a "split-level" home--attributes repeated, in detail, at the opening of every book. Elizabeth is the practical, brainy twin who works at the school newspaper, whereas Jessica is more concerned with makeup, boys, and emulating the lifestyle of her wealthy friend Enid, whose clothes and car she covets. The novels are genuine, but I think many of the people who read them acknowledged their cheesiness, yet liked them anyway. Cody's take, according to her Twitter, will be "Sharp comedy/satire, plenty of 'sincere' SVH moments too. No werewolves. Plenty of Todd." Todd is the basketball player Elizabeth pines for, who I assume will be the major love interest in the book.

I think adapting this book will be tonally tricky. Jennifer's Body took the horror film genre and made it original and a feminist statement, but in the process alienated horror fans as well as those who would have seen it had critics agreed that it was "something more." Could the Sweet Valley High movie alienate fans of teen comedies, while failing to be something more for twenty and thirty-something fans of the book, who have now outgrown them and need satire?

Jennifer's Body, however, might not be the best comparison. It could be considered more of a marketing failure, since the movie, arguably, should have been handled by Fox Searchlight after Fox

Atomic shuttered, but instead was passed to 20th Century Fox to fill a hole in their schedule. Also, the "Women in Hollywood" blog noted that female critics gave the movie higher ratings than male critics, which she suspects hurt its overall critical reception.

Diablo Cody's choice to make an adaptation, as opposed to an original screenplay, reminds me of director Wes Anderson's choice to make an adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox. Many felt Anderson needed to break away from his overly familiar style, and applying it to stop-motion animation did just the trick. In fact, his next project, a screenplay (which he could direct), is also an adaptation of the French movie My Best Friend. Sure, Cody's only two films in, but her screenplays are so distinctive that their best use as this point may be punching up an existing, tired but beloved, series.

"Mad Men" goes to the movies; Watch out for 'Sherlock Holmes 2' and 'Lebanon'

By Sarah Sluis

Over at Film Journal, we're big fans of the AMC show "Mad Men." So it was a pleasure to discover that the Film Experience Blog has been keeping track of all of the movie allusions in "Mad Men," and taking

the time to explain them. Today, the blogger points out "Mad Men" references to The Apartment and Psycho. Office manager Joan mentions the film to ad agency partner Sterling, with whom she's having an affair, in a pointed reference to the pain that a workplace affair can cause to the woman. He doesn't seem to get the hint, and says the movie is extreme like Psycho. Also of interest is how pop culture references are used to make in-jokes about art director Salvartore being in the closet, as when series leading man Don Draper tells his wife, "All men like Joan Crawford. Salvatore couldn't stop talking about her." Show creator Matthew Weiner's knowledge of movies is encyclopedic. The show, which picked up several Emmys last Sunday, is one to watch for its insights into to how people related to the movies of the day.

In Today's Film News, Warner Bros. is already moving forward with plans for a Sherlock Holmes sequel. The film isn't set to release until Christmas. The last time the studio started working on a sequel before the film came out, it was The Hangover. If we're to trust their judgment, Sherlock

Holmes could be a holiday success on par with that major summer hit.

Another film to watch is Lebanon, which was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics in a market filled with many potential buyers. The Israeli war film could be this year's Waltz with Bashir, the animated film about the Israeli-Lebanon war that SPC rolled out last year, which earned $2.2 million in the U.S. and $8.8 million abroad. With an Israeli film about the Lebanon war already under its marketing and distribution belt, SPC seems like the perfect distributor for this movie. Taking place during the first Lebanon war in 1982, it follows a tank and a group of paratroopers who are trapped in a hostile town (read the THR review here). Its characters are anti-heroes and their mission is not one of glory but terror. The movie is expected to appeal especially to those with ties or interests in Israel and the Middle East.