Pic of the Week
Each week we pick a recommended "Pic" from our archives. Below are our most recent picks.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
***
The more it’s thought about, the better it settles in the mind.
The humans are more fantastic than the titular beasts in this mostly satisfying, multi-layered fantasy.
Best in Show
***2000, Christopher Guest
Enjoyable and funny, light and quick look at eccentric dog breeders
Christopher Guest has created another “mockumentary.” He did it before as an actor in Rob Reiner’s “rockumentary” This Is Spinal Tap and as a writer/director/co-star in Waiting for Guffman. This time, he takes on the world of dog breeders in Best in Show.
Best in Show follows the lives of a half-dozen dogs and their breeders and trainers. Guest’s cameras shadow their subjects as they prepare for, arrive at, and compete in the Westminster dog show. Each story is cross-cut in authentic “dogumentary” style. The end of the film even shows the obligatory “where are they now” summary from each character.
Eugene Levy (who wrote the screenplay with Guest) and Catherine O’Hara are a middle-aged couple who adore their terrier so much that they write and sing songs about their dog. O’Hara’s poverty-chic look is so convincing she’s hardly recognizable as a movie star
Michael McKean & John Michael Higgins are a flagrantly gay couple who are very proud of their little shih tzus. They seem to have the healthiest relationship of all the couples profiled. With their dogs, they make a perfect family.
Guest himself plays Harlan Pepper, the Virginia breeder of bloodhounds. He’s a country boy and he’s in no hurry, which is reflected in his Gump-like speech. His friends back at the bait shop (where they wouldn’t know a shih tzu if it bit them) wish him the best as he sets out for New England in his RV.
Fred Willard gives a show-stealing appearance as the celebrity announcer who doesn’t know the first thing about show dogs. Willard has a monopoly on clueless, talkative affability (he was brilliant as a Missouri Travel Agent in Guffman), and he brings that special talent to this latest of Guest’s films. He wanders off on tangents about the Chinese eating dogs and other inappropriate topics.
The movie is enjoyable and funny, light and quick. Contrast this to Guffman, which tended to bog down in its own forced weirdness. A few of the jokes are blunt and tasteless, like the couple who attribute their dog’s perceived depression to their own sexual hijinks. But most are more stimulating, tasteful, and wry (did you notice the wall clocks behind the clerk at the hotel?).
Best of Show is some of Guest’s best work, and it’s great light entertainment for just about everyone.
Freaky Friday
***2003, Mark S. Waters
Good comedic performances and an above-average script make this an entertaining movie
Despite a predictable plot, Freaky Friday rises above the usual teen fare. Good comedic performances by Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan and an above-average script make this an entertaining movie. The bonus features on the DVD are not very substantial, but the disc is worth viewing for the movie alone.
The Singing Detective
***2003, Keith Gordon
The Singing Detective is a movie to talk about with friends afterwards
Poor Daniel Myrick, he’ll be known as “the guy that did Blair Witch” for years to come (we should all be so unlucky). But after seeing his new film The ob
If you’re not sure who Guy Maddin is, you may wonder how The Saddest Music in the World ever got produced. It’s a grainy, black-and-white movie that wishes it were a 1940’s melodrama in some surreal alternate universe. But I think all but the most literal-minded will eventually warm to the wit and style of Maddin. For those who are receptive, The Saddest Music in the World is one of the funniest movies you’ll see this summer.
Oblivion
***1/22013, Joseph Kosinski
Oblivion finds its own soul and creates its own nourishing atmosphere.
Director Joseph Kosinski has avoided the sophomore slump with a remarkably ambitious tale of man versus machine.
The title tells you what’s important: It’s not “The Tillman Incident” or “The Tillman Facts,” it’s “The Tillman Story.”
The Rhythm Section
***2020, Reed Morano
Blake Lively, one of the world’s most beautiful women, goes all-in as a down-and-out girl.
The Rhythm Section maintains a steady beat in this deftly told thriller.
Guardians of the Galaxy
***1/22014, James Gunn
It seems destined to be a legendary movie of quotability and huge replay value.
Guardians of the Galaxy is a geek-magnet with enough fire power to destroy an entire bucket of popcorn (jumbo-sized).
Absolut
***2004, Romed Wyder
If Eternal Sunshine didn’t have Charlie Kaufman and a big budget, it might have looked like Absolut