Catch-Up

Huh. I just realized that there are a few movies I've yet to review. Like, a lot. Without any further ado...

SON OF RAMBOW
Heartwarming, endearing, magnifico. 80s-era British schoolboys make a Rambo sequel for a young filmmakers' competition. One of them is a bad-ass with absent parents, while the other is a shy kid with a religious family (no music, no movies, etc.). They form a friendship, a bond over films and filmmaking that is akin to the one I share with my friend/roommate Ben. Not only is it funny, it takes one back to the first time one realized that this was their future, that film was going to be apart of your life forever. ***1/2

YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN
OK, I loved it. I put it up there with Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer as one of the best Adam Sandler comedies made yet. A Mossad agent fakes his death and becomes a hair dresser in New York. Simple enough. I know how this sounds, but to me it played like Munich with laughs. It nailed the Israeli-Palestinian in a way that few movies do. And again, it was hilarious. ***

THE FALL
Beautiful cinematography. Stunning visuals. Fine performances. And yet, I felt little. I don't know if it was the story (a depressed man makes up a fantasy tale for a little girl in a California hospital in the 1920s) or what, but I have to admit that I was not as engrossed as I thought I would be. Great things are being said about the little girl's performance. Meh. I'd probably be more impressed if it wasn't so obvious that most of her scenes were just filmed on-set conversations (apparently, she thought Lee Pace was actually hospitalized). I don't want to say I was disappointed, and yet, what else can I say? **1/2

ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED
Interesting documentary about the famous court case that sent Polanski fleeing to Europe. Makes no bones about the man's guilt, but rather offers the premise that even the guilty deserve justice, and this was a case where justice was mishandled. The subject is more interesting than the execution, which interrupts absorbing interviews with title cards explaining away information that could have easily been left to the subjects to tell. Fascinating stuff, though. ***